Disclaimer: I didn't write and don't own the 'Twilight' series. I didn't write and don't own the 'West Wing' series, for that matter, but I try not to boast about these things.

Alice was right, of course, Charlie was in bed, so he didn't notice my strange outfit. I left my riding crop on the passenger seat, hoping that anyone who passed by and happened to look through the window would assume that I rode horses. Of course I was eighteen, I was of legal age and it wasn't shocking if I chose to play games with my boyfriend. But that didn't stop me from feeling embarrassed

I climbed out of my ridiculous outfit and put it safely away in my wardrobe. I snuggled into comfy sweatpants and a T-shirt and got into bed. Just before I settled down to sleep, I received a text message on my phone: 'I'm hoping that text messages don't count as speaking out of turn. I wanted to wish you good night and sweet dreams. I love you, Bella. Thank you for coming to see me tonight. x x x'

I wondered if he was kidding about the 'speaking out of turn' bit. I picked up my phone and called him. He answered instantly, of course, but he didn't speak.

"Good night, Edward" I said, "I love you too."

He remained silent, it was a bit scary.

"You can speak," I said.

"Sleep well, beautiful Bella."

I hung up and settled down to sleep.

The next day, Billy and Charlie were going out fishing, so Charlie left the house before I got up. That was something. I had a shower, washed my hair and shaved my legs.

I didn't eat breakfast, I was planning on being with Edward early enough to eat breakfast there. So I put on my cat suit, to save time when I reached the Cullens' house, got into my truck and drove over.

There was no need to warn them that I was coming, Alice would have seen that I was on my way. I pulled up outside the silent house. The front door was already open, so I walked in. Edward was knelt in the hallway, waiting for me.

I laughed, "I take it that your family have gone out," I said "unless this is for Jasper's benefit."

Edward didn't answer me. I grinned. "Alright, get up and come here," he trotted over and stood in front of me, with his head still slightly bowed, I hadn't actually told him to look at me. "I haven't had my breakfast yet," I said, "so you can make it for me. Won't that be nice?"

"Possibly not," Edward said, and I could hear from his voice that he was smirking again, "I don't actually know how to cook."

"Silly Edward," I scolded him, "I know that. I'm going to teach you. This is a very important part of your training. Today you're going to learn how to cook, starting with a decent breakfast." I wondered what he thought of my plan, "look at me," I said, so that I could see his eyes.

He was smiling his crooked smile, that I loved.

"Come on, then," I said, "follow me. We're going to start with you learning how to make coffee." He followed me, still smiling, I think that he thought it was amusing that I would try and teach him anything at all. Alice had said that he would try to show off, but she was convinced that he would be forced to acknowledge that this was an area in which I had him well and truly beat.

"You seem pretty confident," I commented, noting his relaxed stance and slightly teasing smile.

He shrugged and leant casually against the counter, "I don't imagine that making a cup of coffee is all that taxing. I'm sure that I'll manage."

"Alright then, get everything we need together."

He stood there and stared at me. He had probably thought that I was going to make coffee and he was going to watch and be unimpressed. He hadn't expected me to test him straight away.

He hesitated for so long, that I said, "Fourth rule, Edward, when I tell you to do something, you do it."

Edward frowned, he wasn't absolutely sure what I needed to make coffee, but he was going to make a pretty good guess. He darted about the kitchen at vampire speed, so that I couldn't see what he was doing.

When he stopped, there was an interesting array of items laid out on the kitchen table.

He'd found milk and sugar and mugs. He had put out a jar of coffee beans. But he didn't seem entirely sure which of the many kitchen appliances I was going to need. He provided a kettle, various saucepans and an espresso maker, as well as the coffee peculator, and, strangely an electronic mixer. All the equipment was high-spec, new and looked as though it had never been used.

I looked at his suggested items and then back at him. "Alright," I said, "most of this makes some kind of sense. I do need the coffee beans and I do take milk in my coffee. But I don't take sugar, so we won't need that at all. We're only going to heat the water once, so it's over-kill to offer me a kettle and an espresso machine, various saucepans and a coffee peculator, but, we'll get back to that. I have to ask, what do you want to do with an electronic mixer?"

He glared at the machine in question, as though it had deliberately climbed onto the table in order to make him look foolish. "I thought it might be useful," he said, "the box said that it could be used to produce coffee cake."

I giggled, "um . . . coffee cake isn't a stage in the production of coffee," I told him, "it's a cake that is flavoured with coffee. You know what a cake is, don't you?"

He narrowed his eyes at me, "yes, Bella," he said, "I know what cake is. But, why would anyone want to eat coffee in cake form? That sounds doubly disgusting."

I laughed at him, "Edward, as long as I'm human I will be eating. Perhaps you should try and get over your hatred of human food. I don't hate mountain lions. Now, we're going to use the coffee peculator, so put away all the things that we're not going to need."

He did so. "Good job," I said, and he smiled at me again. "Now I can teach you how to make coffee. Basically, the idea is to boil water and slowly let it seep through the coffee grounds, then you wind up with water that's flavoured with coffee. Ok?"

"We had coffee when I was alive," Edward said sulkily, "I do know how to make coffee."

I grinned, "in that case you can make the coffee," I said, "but, just in case, you're not quite right, I think that you should tell me your plans before you try anything. I don't want you to break the machine. So, what do you do first?"

"We um . . . heat up the water," he said, "you told me that you didn't need the kettle or the saucepans, so I guess there's a heating element in this thing. We could put the water in this jug at the bottom and turn it on."

"We could," I agreed, "but we wouldn't be making coffee, we'd be making a jug of cold water. Guess again."

He scowled at me, "well, there aren't many places to put the water," he said, "do we heat it up, before putting it in the jug?"

"Nope." I smiled at him, I wasn't going to help until he admitted that he had no idea what he was doing. "Try again."

He picked up the peculator and turned it over in his hands a couple of times. Then he grinned, "we'll put water in here," he said, indicating the water chamber, "then it will heat up."

I nodded, "you got there in the end," I told him, "now, what do we do next?"

"Turn it on, surely."

"We'd end up with hot water, Edward, and I was hoping to have coffee. Try again."

He frowned at the peculator again, as if he was hoping that it was going to tell him. "There should be instructions on these things," he said, "I could use it, if you'd let me read the manual."

"I'm here," I reminded him, "and I already know how to use it. If you're ready to admit that you can't do this, then I'll help you."

Edward was frustrated, he couldn't understand how I was so clear on something that confused him. How come I knew something that he didn't know?

"Well," I pushed him, "choose: do you want my help, or can you do this yourself?"

He scowled at the coffee peculator, he looked angrily at the milk and the jar of beans. He glared at the mug, as if he thought that it ought to be full of coffee by now. He stared at everything and finally, he sighed and gave in.

"I can't do it," he said, "please will you help me?"

"Sure," I came over and gave him a quick hug, "your peculator needs filter papers, you've probably got some." I reached into the cupboard where the teabags had been, and located an unopened box of coffee filter papers. "You're also going to need something to grind the beans, I wonder . . ." I leaned down and found an electronic grinder under the counter. "Ok, now, first you need to put cold water in the water tank."

He did so, looking at me for approval. I smiled at him and watched his scowl disappear. He might not like being confused, but Edward was very happy being told what to do.

"Now we need to grind the beans into powder, put a couple of tablespoons of beans in here," I showed him how to use the electronic grinder. He looked at it suspiciously. "What's wrong?" I asked him.

"I don't like your hands being so near spinning blades," he said, "your hands could get cut."

"How do you suggest I grind coffee beans?" I asked him.

He grinned at me and took a handful of coffee beans and closed his hand on them. When he opened his hand, it was full of finely ground coffee.

I laughed, "that's very neat," I said, "we could get you a job at Starbucks. Now you've got a handful of coffee, I'll have to put the filter paper in for you. There, you need to put the coffee in there. I hope that your hands are clean."

He shook the coffee into the machine and frowned at his coffee-stained hands. "Turn the machine on," I said, then I let him wash the coffee from his hands. The machine began to gurgle and hiss as the water heated. Edward glared at it again. "Now what?" I asked him.

"It sounds dangerous and I think that it's going to get very hot. You could get burned or scalded."

"It's perfectly safe, Edward. Honestly, just wait until I show you how to make a meal. There's knives and ovens and all sorts of dangerous things."

He narrowed his eyes, I don't think that he thought the idea of me being anywhere near knives was funny.

"Come on," I said, "while the coffee's brewing, we can make me something to eat. I've already waited quite a while for my breakfast this morning."

He scowled one last time at the peculator, convinced that it had been at fault all along. I giggled at him and said, "right, are you still trying to prove something, or are you going to pay attention and let me teach you?"

He looked a little bit sheepish now, "I'm going to pay attention, Bella," he said.

"Good, you can make me scrambled eggs on toast, that's nice and easy. Find some bread and put two slices in the toaster. Now find a saucepan and put a little bit of butter in the bottom. Now get some eggs, because you'll need them very soon. Alright, put the saucepan on the hob and turn the heat up to melt the butter." He moved very fast, it was strange seeing him do things almost the instant that I said them. He hesitated slightly over the gas hob, so I came over and showed him how to light it.

That turned out to be a lot more dramatic than I'd expected. When the gas flared up, Edward leapt back and pulled me away from the oven, manoeuvring us so that his body was between me and the fire.

Not being terrified of oven hobs, I tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he was holding me too tightly. He was capitalising on his superior strength. I hated it when he did that. I was imprisoned in his arms. This was exactly what was wrong with our relationship. I was trying to make scrambled eggs, of all things, and now Edward was panicking and holding me so tightly that I couldn't move. Here I was trying to cook breakfast and he was leaping about like a parody of a body-guard.

"Edward," I said, in my stern voice again, "what were the rules?"

Edward realised that he'd annoyed me, he loosened his grip on me, hung his head and recited: "First rule: I don't speak unless I'm spoken to. Second rule: I don't move without permission. Third rule: when you ask me a question I answer straight away. Fourth rule: when you tell me to do something, I do it."

"That's right. So, how come you're pushing me around?"

He sighed, "I was afraid that the oven would hurt you because fire is dangerous to humans. But, I broke the second rule, I'm sorry. Do I have to write more lines?"

"You have to learn not to push me around," I said, "remind me to punish you later, first you're going to make my scrambled eggs. Put the saucepan over the heat and let the butter melt. Once it's melted, you need to crack the eggs into the saucepan. I don't want shell in my scrambled eggs, are you going to be able to crack the eggs without dropping shell into the pan?"

"Yes, Bella," he sounded a bit sorry for himself, he was probably wondering what I was going to do to him. That was a coincidence, because I was wondering just the same thing. Rose and Alice had given me a long list of potential punishments, and Alice had said that I would have to be strict today. But I felt a bit bad about scolding him when he had only wanted to protect me. On the other hand, half the point of this exercise was to teach Edward that I didn't need to be protected from things like ovens.

"Isn't fire equally dangerous for vampires?" I asked, leading him by the hand back to the perfectly-controlled gas hob.

"Yes, Bella" he said meekly.

I put the pan on the hob, and this time Edward stood next to me like a good student. The butter melted and Edward glanced my way to check that it was alright to add the eggs, I nodded at him and watched (secretly impressed) as he neatly cracked the eggs between his fingers and let them fall into the pan.

"You have to stir the eggs with a fork constantly while they're cooking," I told him, "that's what makes them scrambled eggs. And you need to season them now too. You need to add a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper, just enough to bring out the flavour of the eggs."

He raised one eyebrow, wondering how I was going to suggest he checked the seasoning level. I smiled and said, "move over, I'll do the seasoning myself, but you can pay attention so that you can make me eggs all by yourself next time." Edward nodded seriously and watched me taste the eggs and add a touch more pepper. "Alright?" I asked.

"Do I have to taste it?" he said, grimacing.

"Silly," I said, "I thought that you had a super vampire sense of smell. This is what I like my scrambled eggs to smell like."

He looked as though he thought I had very strange taste, but he nodded again.

While we'd been having fun with scrambled eggs, the toast had finished and the coffee had brewed. I supervised the pouring of coffee and the addition of a small amount of milk (Edward seemed to think that an equal ratio of coffee to milk would make more sense). I got Edward to put the toast on a plate and spread a thin layer of butter on top, then I poured the eggs over the toast. He looked at the eggs regretfully.

"You told me to remind you to punish me, once you'd finished making the eggs," he said, "so, I guess that I have to ask for my punishment now. I disobeyed you and moved without permission," he said, "what are you going to do to me?"

He hung his head and looked up at me thorough his eyelashes, probably looking deliberately cute in hope of being let off.

"It's very inconvenient having to punish you," I said, "I wish that you would just behave yourself. Alright, since you were being over-protective and invading my personal space, you'll have to stay here, while I go and eat my breakfast in the lounge. You can wash-up while I'm gone, and then you can wait for me, right here. I suppose we'll have to have another rule, no touching me without express permission. Understood?"

"Yes, Bella. Thank you for taking the trouble to think of a punishment for me." I was surprised that he said that, and I thought back and tried to remember exactly what I'd said to him yesterday. I must have made him thank me for setting him lines, and, being a perfect vampire with a flawless memory, he'd remembered and thanked me again.

I walked into the lounge with my coffee and my eggs on toast. I turned on the TV so that I wouldn't feel strange, sitting in the Cullens' living room by myself. It's an impressive TV: huge and HD, of course. The first show that came on had me spell-bound; I could see every leaf on every tree, so clearly I could imagine reaching out and touching them. I caught a detective show that was only about a third of the way in and, while I was eating, the show captured my attention. By the time I'd finished my eggs, I was curious enough to stay just to find out who'd done it. I have to admit, I had actually forgotten that Edward was waiting for me in the kitchen, convinced that I was leaving him alone because he'd displeased me. The TV show was trashy, but it was that kind of trashy that you can't tear your eyes away from. It turned out that the ex-girlfriend had committed the murder and tried to make it look like a suicide. I was quite pleased because I'd hated that character from the moment I saw her over-painted face with it's bright red lips. It's nice when a television character you dislike turns out to be a murderer. I was pretty cheerful as I returned my dirty dishes to the Cullen's kitchen.

I'd forgotten about Edward, so I was surprised that, when the show ended and I returned to the kitchen, he was knelt on the floor, with his head hung down and his shoulders shaking. It was a heart-breaking sight. He looked so unhappy. The game was only supposed to make a simple point: that I wasn't a weak and useless human. I had never intended to make Edward cry.

I put my dirty plate and mug in the sink and knelt down opposite him.

"Are you alright?" I asked, feeling horrendously guilty for leaving him for twenty minutes. I ought to have been more careful with him. I knew that he was rather sensitive at the moment. How could I have been so thoughtless?

"I'm sorry that I made you cross," he said, like a little boy, his voice catching as he struggled to steady his breathing, "please, don't leave me here alone again. Being left by you, it just hurts too much."

"Edward, I only went into the living room, you know that. What on earth went through your mind?"

"I was thinking about what it felt like to be left by you. You walked away from me, as if you didn't care. You walking away physically hurt me." He was trying hard to convert his breathing pattern from staggered sobbing to normal speech. It made him sound very young. "Then I realised what I'd done to you that day in the woods. I just walked away. You hadn't even done anything wrong. I'm so sorry, Bella." He swallowed at the end, a strangely human action, there being no tears for him to choke back.

"Sssh, it's ok, Edward. I forgive you for leaving me. I know why you did it, and I forgive you. It's alright now, you're not going to do it again. Nobody is leaving anybody. Is the training game upsetting you? Are the rules too hard?"

He shook his head, and when he spoke again his voice was level, "I know that the rules ought to be easy to follow and I didn't mean to break them. I didn't like being left on my own. I have learnt my lesson and I will try harder now."

"Come here," I said, wrapping my arms around him, "everything is ok. You're having a hard day. It's not easy changing the way that you act. But, I really appreciate you making an effort to please me. Tomorrow, the game will be all over and you won't have to worry about the rules anymore. I'll wash up these last couple of things and then we'll go play something new before I teach you how to make lunch."

I made Edward sit at the kitchen table whilst I did the washing-up. I didn't want him back on his knees again. He was being extra-careful not to break any rules now.