Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to katmom, and Angelinia who beta this story.

Chapter Three

What Am I Going to do Now?

Bella drove up to her house with Jacob, having somehow lured him there after telling him what she was planning on making for dinner. She wasn't quite sure how she came to be inviting him over, but figured it didn't really matter. Again, she didn't want to be alone for too long, because then all she would have to do was think about Edward and how anxious she was about seeing him again.

It was now about four thirty and Charlie had promised to be home around five thirty. Bella felt it would be kind of nice if she had dinner ready then. So she got to work as soon as they got into the house, Jacob chatting to her from the kitchen table. She was able to finish her preparations and placed the meal in the oven when there was a knock at the door.

"I wonder who that could be." Bella asked frowning. She didn't really know anyone yet, except for Jacob, but since he was in the kitchen it couldn't have been him. Her heart started beating fast as she walked to the door, she didn't think it could be him, but she really, really was hoping it would be Edward standing outside the door. So, with this in mind, she was completely shocked when she saw him, standing there with his bronze hair damp from the rain and his golden eyes meeting hers. This time there was no confusion, just a shared look of awareness. He was watching her with awe, she could feel her heart race even faster than before and she wasn't sure if she was breathing anymore.

"Bella!" Alice said, having waited a whole minute with as much patience she could manage, but she couldn't wait a second more. "It's so good to see you," she added and then hugged the stunned girl.

"Alice," Bella gasped looking at her with shock, but soon she was smiling. "It's nice to see you too …." but she couldn't keep her eyes off of Edward, not with him standing right there. "Edward."

Edward's lips curled upwards at the sound of his name on her lips, he liked the way it sounded. "Bella," he said, his eyes boring into her and it took her breath away. It was so different from the last time, when she was talking to him in class. Then she had been confused and he seemed to be trying to mask his feelings for her, but he wasn't doing that now. He was looking at her and she could read the intensity of the feeling he had for her clearly on his face.

"Remember to breathe, Bella," Alice said, she had a flickering vision of Bella passing out, and Edward chuckled at that.

"Right," Bella smiled at her sheepishly, "do you want to come in?"

"Ah, not worried about inviting vampires into your house I see," Alice chuckled.

"Nope, I know that wouldn't stop you," Bella said, "at least I know that Edward can climb into my window without any invitation."

"Huh?" Edward stammered a little shocked as he thought about earlier today, but he realized a little too late that she was probably talking about something she had read in the book … or was it books? How much did she know? He could see Bella raise an eyebrow at him, probably questioning his reaction to this, but he couldn't say anything because something else caught his attention.

I should probably just leave, I doubt Bella will mind at all, Jacob thought. He was sitting at the kitchen table and it was clear that he was nervous. Edward couldn't stop the scowl that came to his face, even though he was trying to keep calm. He tried to remember what Alice had just told him twenty minutes ago, but it was difficult at the moment.

"What do you mean she's not going to be alone?" Edward asked, he was looking at his sister with suspicious eyes, he wasn't going to like this at all. "Who's with her?"

"Um …." Alice was trying to think of the best way to say Jacob. Oh, the problems talking to a mind reader, they can hear what you think when you try to come up with the best explanation.

"SHE'S WITH THE MUTT!" Edward growled.

"Edward!" Alice grabbed his arm before he ran off and did something incredibly stupid. "Relax."

"Relax!" Edward hissed. "You want me to relax after you said she was with him!"

"They're just friends, Edward," Alice said.

"I've heard that one before!" Edward growled again.

"Edward, if you go in there acting like a jealous jerk you're just going to push her away before you even get to know her," Alice said coldly.

Edward didn't say anything to that as he took a deep breath to control himself, but it wasn't easy. The anger he was feeling now was almost uncontrollable, and he could feel the monster that was woken up earlier today was now trying to break free. It was mad that he wasn't going for the prey it so desperately wanted and now it was using his anger as fuel. It wanted to tear his enemy up, make sure that he would never have to deal with any of the crap that happened in the books … just like he had gotten rid of the nomad threat.

No, this was different, Edward's rational side said, though it, too, was enjoying the thought of getting rid of the wolf once and for all. He was still trying to take deep, calming breaths; they weren't working much, when he said, "How did this happen, Alice? How does she even know him?"

"They read the book together," Alice said simply.

Edward was glaring at her again. "And you just let that happen!"

"I wasn't sure what to do, which wouldn't have terrified Bella," Alice sighed. "I mean if I went there … Edward it wouldn't have been better."

Edward was shaking his head, his eyes closed. "How could this be better?"

"Trust me, Edward, everything is going to work out okay," Alice said pleadingly.

"You don't know that … you couldn't have seen something like that," Edward grimaced at her.

"No," Alice said. "But I did see that they would be friends."

Edward growled at that.

"And I didn't think it was right to take away her friendship without considering her feelings," Alice said. She had given some thought to going to the post office and redirecting this package so it would show up on Bella's doorstep once she got to Forks, but she couldn't do that. For one thing, she had a vision of Bella being crept out by the book at first if she had read it alone, and she couldn't see what would happen after that.

"Why would she react differently with the mutt there?" Edward huffed, but he didn't really like the expression the Bella in Alice's vision had.

"I think it would have been harder for her to accept that the book was real," Alice shrugged. "I mean think about it. Getting a book that tells you that vampires, along with mind readers and psychics, are real … it's a lot to take in. And then she finds out that it's about her …."

Edward's growl this time was more out of annoyance than anger. "Why did it have to be him?"

"I suppose it was a non-threatening way for her to read the book and know it was true," Alice sighed. "I don't know, Edward, I just knew that I had to let this happen."

Again, Edward was shaking his head, as he imagined taking the wolf apart piece by piece.

"But, Edward you really don't have to worry about that, they are just friends," Alice said. "And everything she is planning has you in it."

Edward grimaced. Alice always knew just what to say to get him to come around, but he wasn't going to let that calm him down this time. "I just didn't want to deal with him now!"

"I know," Alice sighed.

"I thought I would be able to at least talk to her before this issue came up," Edward hissed bitterly and then he was thoughtful. "How could he stand reading about this though? He hates us! He would have told Bella that we where dangerous monsters … how could she want to meet us?"

"I was worried about that too," Alice said, "but this is the pup before he transformed … he's not angry at us for all that we have supposedly done to him. I suppose he won't blame us like he did in the book. In truth this might end up helping us … we might have a better relationship with the wolves."

Edward glared at her; like he cared about that.

"And this way Carlisle can tell Jacob about Harry Clearwater's heart attack and he will believe him," Alice continued on, knowing full well that Edward didn't really want to hear about this now, all he cared about was the relationship Bella would have with Jacob. "Don't you see how things might be better this way?"

Edward didn't answer; he was still mad. All he wanted to do now was go and see Bella.

"I can't let you go now, Edward," Alice sighed; she could see that if she did Edward was not going to react well at all.

Edward sighed and leaned against one of the trees he was standing next to. "I'm going to have to act nice to that mutt, aren't I?"

"Yes," Alice sighed, the vision seemed to becoming more applicable at that statement. That's better but she's really not going to like all the anger you have towards her friend … How do I fix that … hm … oh. "Edward … does it help if I tell you that he doesn't have any plans on making a move on her … that he's decided to just be her friend?"

"Which means that he would want to be more," Edward growled and Alice rolled her eyes.

"There's just no winning with you," Alice said. "Come on, I guess we can go now … just don't say anything stupid, Edward, because if you ruin this, so help me …."

"I promise," Edward said, "and you don't have to threaten me … if I ruin this, nothing you could do would be as bad as that."

"True," Alice said, and a second later they were knocking on Bella's door, Edward bracing himself for seeing her again by taking in a deep breath, tasting her scent on his tongue and feeling the burn that came with it.

Bella was looking at Edward; the hostility in his eyes shocked her, especially since he was looking off into space. However, when she followed his line of vision she could see that he was looking at the kitchen. She realized that Edward must be listening to Jacob's thoughts, and she was a little worried about what was going on there.

Edward, stop glaring, Alice said, you're creeping Bella out.

Edward eyes flickered and he noticed that Alice was quite right, and he sighed.

"I guess you've noticed that Jacob is here," Bella said and as if on cue he came out of the kitchen, looking a little scared, but trying to hide it.

"Hi," Jacob said almost shyly. What the hell should I do? This is really awkward, and that guy Edward seems to be looking at me like I'm his enemy … oh crap, he can hear what I'm thinking … damn, damn, damn, why couldn't I be mentally mute like Bella is ….

"Sorry," Edward said, crossing his arms and scowling at the floor. Jacob's mind wasn't exactly how he had imaged it would be. He wasn't hearing any of the hostility he thought was sure to be there. I suppose Alice was right, he doesn't have the anger he would have gotten after the transformation.

"Um …. Am I missing something?" Bella questioned looking between Edward and Jacob with a raised eyebrow.

"Probably not, knowing you," Edward smiled at her, he was now out of the breath he had taken before entering the house and he took a shallow one. The burn was still rather painful and he could feel the monster stirring in him.

Bella blushed at his comment and bit her lip. Why did she have to be so nervous right now? She knew exactly how he felt about her, but she couldn't seem to make herself relax.

"I just wasn't expecting Jacob to be here," Edward said. "Of course that wasn't the only thing that caught me off guard today … you had me really confused the whole day," he added trying to make her feel at ease. He could see she was anxious, her palms were sweating, her heart was beating awkwardly and she was having trouble breathing. He was worried about her, of course, but he couldn't help but smile at how much he seemed to be affecting her.

"You weren't the only one," Bella forced herself to say and then she looked into his eyes, his golden eyes that were wide and kind and seemed to be looking at her in awe again. It was amazing what looking into those eyes did to her. She forgot her nerves and all her worries seemed ridiculous now, because he was looking at her and she knew that everything was going to be okay.

Edward was caught off guard by looking into her eyes. He could see the anxiousness melt from her as their eyes met and he knew that he could spend hours just looking into eyes like these. Everything in the world was right when he was looking in her eyes. However, he could hear Alice's impatience and Jacob's continuing thoughts that he should leave and he looked away from Bella a little annoyed. He heard Bella sigh when he looked away and he smiled. He wondered if he had just dazzled her … well if he had, then he was certainly dazzled as well.

"Your psychic doesn't seem very good if she can't even see that Bella would know this," Jacob snorted.

"Oh, our psychic works just fine," Edward said shooting a glare at Alice. "She just decided it was best not to tell me any of this."

Alice stuck her tongue out at him. "What would have been the fun if you knew what was going to happen?"

"You knew I got a manuscript?" Bella said incredulously. "And you let me worry about the first meeting this whole time."

"Um … I was going along with your plan," Alice shrugged.

"I only made that plan because I didn't know he knew about me," Bella groaned.

"Why did you decide to do this anyway, Bella?" Edward asked, not looking at her but at the floor; he was ashamed of voicing this out loud. "When you knew that I wanted … what I wanted to do."

"Well … um … I don't know," Bella said softly and then added even quieter, so Jacob couldn't hear her (not that that was her intention she just couldn't seemed to make herself speak any louder), "I thought it was something that you had to handle on your own …."

"Oh, Bella," Edward shook his head, "didn't you realize that you were risking your life …."

"I didn't think so," Bella said, "I don't think you could hurt me …."

Edward rolled his eyes, and then, still looking at the floor, he started to chuckle. She was going to be just as ridiculous about that as she was in the book.

"I don't see what's so funny about that," Bella pouted.

"No, you wouldn't," Edward said still chuckling. "Well, sorry to disappoint you but I familiarized myself with your scent before I met you … I wasn't about to leave things up to chance … not with something this important."

"I wasn't leaving anything up to chance," Bella huffed, and then she narrowed her eyes. "And just how did you familiarize yourself with my scent?"

Edward just smiled at her.

"You've already let yourself into my house, haven't you?" Bella said she was really glad that she had taken down those pictures of herself from the mantle already.

"I might have," Edward chuckled. "I'm guessing Jacob was the extra scent that Emmett found in your room …."

"Emmett was here too!" Bella started to blush, somehow that made her more embarrassed than it did with just Edward.

"Well, Edward needed a bodyguard in case your scent was too much for him," Alice explained. "Edward spent more than four hours trying to desensitize himself to you."

Well, at least one of them was being sensible, I can't believe Bella really thought it would be okay to just go there. How could I have let her do that? Oh well, it worked out okay, Jacob was thinking. Oh crap. I'm really going to have to work on trying to hide my thoughts.

"Um … Bella, I think your dinner is going to burn soon," Alice said, breaking everyone's thoughts, "and your dad is going to be here in five minutes."

"Are you leaving?" Bella questioned.

"Well, it would probably look odd if we were here," Alice sighed, "especially since we don't even have a car here."

"Oh," Bella sighed. She didn't want Edward to leave yet, she hadn't even had time to talk to him. She had so many questions to ask him, and though she knew that she would have forever to do that, she still wanted to get started as soon as possible.

"Don't worry, we'll see each other again soon," Edward smiled at her, as soon as you're alone and I can really talk to you, he added in his head but he didn't want to say it out loud. He saw Alice's vision then, about he and Bella talking in her room in a few hours time and he smiled; so it wasn't going to take that long.

"Okay," Bella sighed and she wasn't sure what she should do now.

Edward just kept looking at Bella until he could hear the cruiser pulling up into the driveway. The next few hours being away from her was going to be difficult, but he was going to give her some privacy, besides, he had to talk to his family. He gave Bella one last smile as the front door was about to open and then he was gone.

Bella looked at the spot that Edward had just been in with wide eyes. It was one thing hearing about how fast he was, it was another to see him just disappear like that.

"Wow," Jacob said, "they really are fast!"

"Yeah," Bella said, still a little shocked.

"Bella," Charlie said when he saw his daughter, and then he noticed the other person in the room, "Oh hey Jake, didn't expect you to be here."

"Sorry, Charlie, but Bells told me what she was planning on making for dinner and I couldn't resist," Jacob shrugged.

"That's understandable," Charlie chuckled and soon the three of them were eating.

So that went better than I thought, Alice smiled as she and Edward ran towards their home. You didn't attack Jacob at least.

"He wasn't as bad as I expected," Edward was forced to admit, "but I'm going to keep an eye on him."

"Of course you are," Alice shrugged. "And I suppose that means I'm going to have to keep an eye on him, too."

"That would be nice," Edward said a little crossly, "and if you do a better job than …."

"I'm going to get yelled at enough about this, I don't need more from you at the moment," Alice moaned at him.

Edward smirked. "I knew I wasn't going to be the only one annoyed about this."

"Shut up, Edward!" Alice hissed as they ran into the house. Edward could hear the rest of his family in the kitchen and their thoughts were very nervous. They hadn't missed how Alice had run out of the house when she had seen him panicking over Bella's unknown location. "It seems that you have everyone in a panic."

"Hm …. I should have let them know that it was okay," Alice sighed, knowing that was just going to make them worry more than they should have been. It was going to make things worse when they all found out that she had had a vision about Bella coming here early and reading a book with Jacob.

"Yes, you should have thought about that before," Edward smirked, having no sympathy for her at the moment.

"Alice … Edward … is everything okay?" Esme fretted.

"Everything's fine," Edward smiled at her. "Just things happened differently than I thought they would."

"Okay," Esme sighed and then give Alice one of her stern glares. "You know you had us all worried … we weren't sure what we should do!"

"I'm sorry," Alice sighed, meaning it. "I just didn't have time to tell you what I saw, and then … well, I was too busy dealing with Edward to think about how you all might have reacted to this."

"It's okay, Alice, we understand," Carlisle said in his soothing voice and it seemed that everyone was relaxing, though she knew that had more to do with Jasper.

"Okay, so Shorty had us all worried for a moment there, but now that's all past, can you tell us what happened?" Emmett asked anxiously.

"Hm … well I got a vision of Edward panicking when he found that Bella wasn't home and he couldn't find her anywhere in town," Alice said and Emmett and Jasper both started to chuckle at that.

Man, Eddy, you really like to worry don't you? Emmett thought.

"You would, too, if you kept on thinking about all the trouble Bella had gotten into," Edward snapped at him and then he looked at Alice and hissed, "why don't you tell them what you've been keeping from us."

Everyone looked at her with curious eyes, oh thanks for that, Edward!

"Alice," Carlisle said, softly.

"Um … I sort of had a vision of Bella a few weeks ago," Alice said warily as everyone narrowed their eyes at her, seeming to be waiting for her to finish. "About her … um … about her reading a …."

"Wait, are you saying that she knows about us?" Emmett asked excitedly, and not waiting for her to finish. Alice nodded her head, happy for this kind of diversion while it lasted. "That's brilliant! That means we can talk to her … like now!"

"Oh, that is good," Esme said. I didn't know if I could have waited to meet her for however long it took Edward to bring her over. I'm still going to have to wait though, aren't I? It's not like he could bring her over tomorrow, could he? Oh, I hope it's soon ….

"I'll see what I can do about that," Edward smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Why didn't you tell this sooner, Alice?" Rosalie asked, glaring at her suspiciously. Why would she keep something like that from us and why does she seem like she's nervous about our reaction to this? And, Edward, why are you smug and annoyed … what's going on?

"I wanted to make sure she had privacy while she read," Alice said.

Jasper frowned at that. That wasn't the reason, if it was she would have told him at the very least, but when he caught her eye, he could tell that she needed him to make sure everyone was relaxed … and with a glance at Rosalie he knew that he should mostly concentrate on her. He sighed, and then did what she wanted.

"Alice," Edward warned in a tense voice and Alice sighed.

"Um … and she kind of … er … didn't read the manuscript alone," Alice said evasively as Edward glared at her impatiently. "She sort of read it with … Jacob."

Dead silence filled the room for a full second before Rosalie growled, "WHAT?"

Emmett started chuckling, ah, this should make things interesting.

"This is not funny!" Rosalie snapped at him before turning back to Alice. "How could you allow her to become close to that mutt?"

"I …." Alice started.

"How the hell are we supposed to keep him away now?" Rosalie continued to yell, now the idiot's probably going to imprint on Renesmee as soon as she's born again and we're going to have to put up with the freaking mutt for the rest of time … argh!

Edward frowned, he hadn't thought about that earlier, concentrating on the more pressing matter of how this would affect his relationship with Bella. He couldn't help but get angrier by what Rosalie had just reminded him of. This was going to be difficult to deal with to say the least.

"And why the hell didn't you bring this up to us?" Rosalie continued to rage. "Something as big as this, should have been discussed! Our family isn't supposed to have secrets like this!"

"I'm sorry," Alice said. "But I went over all the options and this one seemed to be the best … if I had told the family it would only have made things more chaotic."

Rosalie growled at her and Edward glared, and Alice just knew that she was lucky that she a) had already talked to Edward about this on her own so he wasn't as angry as he would have been and b) told Jasper to send a relaxing wave towards Rosalie because even with that help, Rosalie looked ready to kill.

"You might have a point," Carlisle said in his calming voice, a voice that was almost as soothing as Jasper's affect on people. "It would have been nice to have been warned, but things might end up better this way."

Rosalie groaned, and shifted her glare to Carlisle.

"I know you don't like this," Carlisle sighed, "but considering the fact that you and Edward would probably have forcefully put a stop to a meeting like this between Bella and Jacob, I can see why Alice wouldn't come and tell us about this …."

"You say that like that's a bad thing," Rosalie grumbled. "The mutt caused us nothing but trouble."

"Rosalie, how could you say that?" Esme reprimanded to her. "Jacob did a lot for our family and Bella."

"Yeah, whatever," Rosalie rolled her eyes. "But most of that crap was because Edward was acting like an idiot and we all know he's not going to do that now."

"Rose, I know that you're not going to like this, but I honestly think this might be good," Carlisle said. "If we could establish a relationship with the Quileutes it would make living here easier."

"You just want to hear all the Quileutes legends in person and find out more about the wolves, don't you?" Emmett teased, he was chuckling again.

Carlisle had a smile that clearly said the thought had crossed his mind, but it wasn't the only thing he was thinking about.

"I don't like this any better than you, Rose, but there's nothing we can do about it now," Edward groaned. "And …." he added reluctantly, "he's not as bad as I would have thought … I think we're just going to have to learn to deal with him."

Rosalie groaned at that and left the room.

"Well, this part isn't going to be as much fun," Emmett sighed and then followed after her.

"Aw," Alice sighed as she saw her computer and dresser getting wrecked and knew she didn't have time to stop it. Edward chuckled at that and she glared at him, that's not funny!

"So what's going to happen now?" Jasper asked as they could all hear the crash from Alice's room.

"What was that?" Esme said, glaring in that direction.

"Nothing that I can't replace," Alice sighed, "anyway, I believe the next step is for Edward to go see Bella again … at least that was what you were planning on doing, right, Edward?"

"Yes," Edward said and smiled just at the thought about seeing her again. He looked at the clock, and groaned when he saw it had only been fifteen minutes since he left the house. How long was he going to have to wait before she was going to be alone? He wanted to have a real conversation with her, without having anyone else's thoughts interrupting him.

"Don't you think she would find it odd if you suddenly appear there?" Jasper asked furrowing his brow and distinctly feeling as if he was missing something important. "I mean, just because she has read the book doesn't mean that she wouldn't be scared if you just suddenly appeared."

"Honestly, Jasper, who knows what Bella would do if I just suddenly appear in her room?" Edward chuckled. "But I'm sure she would have done something that neither one of us would have expected."

Jasper chuckled at that too, "you're probably right … but you haven't told us everything yet, have you?"

"No," Edward said, "Alice and I went to see her after Alice told me about Bella knowing about us." He smiled, thinking about talking to Bella this afternoon, it was so different than he was expecting. He never thought that he could be this open with her so fast and he couldn't wait to talk to her again … argh … only another minute had passed. How was he supposed to stay away any longer?

"Of course you did," Jasper said, "and I can feel that things went well during that meeting. Though I could do without the panic attack you're having right now."

"Shut up," Edward growled at him as Jasper chuckled. "And to be honest, I don't know if she knows that I'll be there or not."

"I'm sure she's just waiting for you," Alice smiled at him. "She's planning on dropping Jacob off at his home after dinner … if you give her an hour I'm sure she'll be waiting for you."

"An hour," Edward groaned.

"I don't think I can take this," Jasper echoed his feeling.

You could always tell me everything that happened today between you two, Esme was unable to keep herself from thinking. Or you can play her lullaby on the piano ….

"I think I'll do that," Edward said, moving over to the piano. He hadn't played it much during the time he was waiting for her because it made him think of her too much, but right now it should be okay, because he knew that he would be with her in an hour … argh … he was going to have to wait an hour!

As soon as his fingers hit the keys, the lullaby that he thought of while reading the book came back to him, though he only played it that one time. However, that wasn't the only time that it had gone through his head, he could hear it whenever he was thinking about her. Playing that song relaxed him just enough that he was able to think about all the things he wanted to talk to her about.

A/N: I'm sorry about last week's cliffhanger, it was just when I got to that line it screamed to me, that's the end of the chapter. I'm not sure if this is a cliffhanger or not, all I know is that I had a conversation in my head with Bella and Edward talking about everything and it just won't come to me as I wrote this. I'm hoping that it will come next week, this is an important conversation and I know it's in my head somewhere. Anyway, I added the talk with the family at the end because the chapter was short and I thought everyone would like to know what they were thinking.