Hey! One of my longest chapters for this story. I hope you guys like it. It probably helped that I didn't write this one hunched over my computer like a gremlin in the wee hours of the morning trying to beat my sleep.
"So, you know that Dean was totally staring at you the whole class today, right? I mean the guy practically burned a whole in my head to look at you." Bella was saying to Jeannie, whom she had formed a budding friendship with over the last few days of their school days.
The girl blushed softly, laughing and shoving Bella's shoulder. Shwobbleded over purposefully, making it seem as if the girl had actually been able to move her. Jeannie's hair was down and sleek, something Alice had recommended the second day she had come to retrieve Bella from art only to find the two of them talking.
"Yeah, right, he's probably staring at you Bella." The brunette shook her head vigorously, the ends of her hair slapping her face with the force. Her own hair had been styled to be pinned back from her face half up. She currently donned a pleated mid-length brown skirt, a soft cream sweater, and sneakers that matched the color of her sweater. Jeannie wore a pair of wide legged jeans that hung off her 'perfectly' she'd told Bella when Bella pointed out her pants were falling. For her top she wore a soft pink long sleeved top that fit her form. Another thing Alice had advised her of.
It bothered Bella slightly at first, feeling as though she couldn't even have a single friend to herself, but she realized that if she slowly put Jeannie further in Alice's view, Bella Barbie may get to take a break or, heaven forbid, pick her own clothes for once this century. Plus, as tall and as naturally blonde as Jeannie was, she was the perfect Barbie.
"Bellaa," Alice sing songed as she locked arms with her, her smile practically beaming. "I saved you a seat."
Bella smiled at her sister, knowing the extra level of cheer today was that Rosalie and Emmett had ditched. Despite the two knowing each other for longer, the comfort Rosalie had been offering to Bella since the incident with Paul seemed to draw them together in a way that was making Alice a little jealous.
Jeannie gave a twirl as they walked, Alice clapping happily at the sight of the advice she had given being used. "Yes! You look stunning. See Bella? How painless it is to take my advice of clothes?"
"Yes, I do see how it is much less painful for those you don't have regular and unfiltered access to." She teased with a sweet smile, despite the frown that Alice flashed her.
"I tell you Jeannie, she's so ungrateful." Alice pouted as they walked into the lunchroom, bodies automatically headed for the table where Jasper and Edward were seated.
Jeannie nodded solemnly, sighing dramatically. "Some of us would kill for the advice, Bella." She played into the playful banter before breaking off to go sit with the team as she usually did.
When they were finally seated with their food Edward slung an arm over the back of Bella's chair, leaning in to whisper against her ear in a way that always gave her chills, "You look stunning, Love. I do so enjoy hearing the thoughts of the boys here who envy me."
She simply smiled softly in response, reaching up to cup his jaw affectionately.
"IF you two are done," Alice started, the pair rolling their eyes as they sat up, still close together. "I wanted to try and make sense of my vision."
"Darlin', didn't you already say you sometimes see Jacob now that he's mated with Renesmee?" Jasper leaned into their group, a casual smile on his face. They found that as long as they kept a laid pack body language, the kids barely paid them any mind.
"It makes sense that you'll see pack members now that they're coming here to be with us." Bella added, nodding in agreement with Jasper.
"It's just so odd." Alice said, her brows knitted together in confusion.
"Well, nothing you've seen seems to be of any consequence. Plus, Jacob is in everything you've seen this far from what I see." Edward added, the hand of his arm slung across Bella's chair was rubbing small circles on her arm while carefully avoiding the thin, only visible to other supernatural, jagged scar that now decorated her arm.
He rarely ever touched it if he could help it, always saying that it just upset him to think of how he hadn't been there for her. Bella liked it, Emmet had commented how she finally had a battle wound and every time she caught sight of it or rubbed her arm and felt it, she felt a swell of pride in her chest.
"I just wish they made sense, it's all such mundane things. Jacob coming over to help Paul with the motorcycle, Jacob and Renesmee at the next pack party, I don't understand I don't typically see such mundane things unless I'm trying to see it." Alice was nervously bouncing her leg under the table and drumming her fingers almost too quickly against the table.
"Well, maybe its because you're subconsciously thinking about Renesmee, it had been a while since we've seen her." Bella's smile was at full wattage as she thought about how her daughter would soon be here. They text and talk all the time, but Edward and Bella missed their daughter.
"You're right, I did also just get a whole shipment of clothes I already know she's going to love!" Alice turned her hand over under Bella's, gripping it tightly and smiling.
The pair delved into excited chatter about the upcoming reunion, laughing and talking about all of the thing's they wanted to do to prepare.
"Don't go too overboard, please Alice, you know the next time we see them will also be another meeting with the pack." Edward gently reminded his sister, who made a sour face at him and shook her head.
"Actually, everyone will love it. I already saw it. A beautiful welcome home cocktail party mixer." She said defensively, sitting up straighter and still scowling at him. Bella and Jasper sighed in unison, Bella running her hand trough her hair to pull out a tangled section.
"Honestly, Edward, I don't know why you even argue with her, we both know the way she sees it is the way that it will happen." Bella chided gently, grinning at the pair of siblings currently in a stare off.
"Does it, Bella? Or do we just see it more fit to let 'er have her way?" Jasper commented conspiratorially, also smiling. They'd grown into a close friendship over the decades, now that she was a vampire, and her humanity was no longer an obstacle. So much so that even despite the shield she kept around herself most of the time, that she knew he couldn't get through due to their experimentation with her shield forever ago, he was able to get a decent read on how she was really feeling.
"Dear god, your right…" Bella mumbled, knowing it would irritate her sister to no end that Bella was mumbling.
The rest of the day came and went, Bella spent much of it exchanging excited texts with her daughter and also some with Rosalie.
Her last block of classes bored her to no end, though that was probably because of the fact that these were the classes she shared with either Rosalie or Emmett.
By the time they pulled up to the house after school, Bella was feeling quite happy. Renesmee was finishing packing the last of their things into the storage unit their family owned and had decided to make the trip home a vacation apparently. Renesmee had been telling Bella that afternoon through texts all about the various stops they'd planned to make on their way, and Bella couldn't have been happier for her daughter and best friend.
It had definitely taken some adjustments from both sides to come to the relationship they all currently had with one another, but she was thankful that they were on good terms.
They pulled into the garage and Bella groaned, rolling her eyes at the sight before her.
Emmett was soldering something across the garage from them, and behind him, Paul seemed to be tinkering with handlebars.
"This is why you ditched me in school today, Emmett?" Bella said as she climbed out of the car, a frown on her face.
Before Emmett could even answer, Paul was speaking.
"Why do you guys even do the high school shit? Couldn't you just say you homeschool or be adults? There's gotta be a better way than repeated torture."
"Finally, you get it. Rosalie and I hate it." Emmet laughed, the sound cutting short at Alice's sharp look as the walked past them all and into the house.
"Well, Edward said this is how we stay longer." Was all Bella said, flicking her hair behind her in annoyance. "I don't expect someone who doesn't have to think critically to understand basic thought logic." For some reason, just seeing him flared a deep rooted feeling of annoyance in her gut.
"Love," Edwards voice caused her to break the eye contact of her stare down with Paul, her head whipping to the side and her expression softening to one more tender as she met his gaze. "Perhaps we go to the house and get settled before you get into anymore altercations with the mutt." Though his words were spoken softly, there was a hard edge in his eyes as he flickered his gaze to Paul at the end of his sentence.
"You've both argued enough for any lifetime, you'd think?" He continued, reaching out to grab the top of her arm and purposefully brush his thumb in what would have been taken as a soothing gesture, had he not overextended his thumb to push up the short sleeve of the shirt she'd worn under her sweater; which she discarded as soon as they were in the car due to how hot the damn thing made her.
Paul said nothing at first and Bella looked over at him in time to see his expression darken and Emmett simultaneously put down what he had been working on to monitor the suddenly tense atmosphere. "I already said, I was sorry." Paul ground out between clenched teeth and Bella realized Edward had highlighted the scar on her arm. She shoved at her husbands chest, stepping back and fixing her sleeve with a huff.
"Honestly, Edward, I already told you I like the scar." Bella spoke with an air of indignation, ignoring the fact that it looked like Paul was enjoying Bella, in a roundabout way, take his side.
"That mongrel, disfigured you." Edward spoke low enough that only she heard, but Bella forwent any sort of volume control.
"Edward, Love, I am not disfigured. I'm scarred. I'm sure I'll regain full use of the arm." Bella started stalking away, ripping open the door so hard it came off the hinges.
"oh look!" she shouted as she continued into the house, not even stopping her stride as she dropped the door on the floor of the garage. "It's working just fine now. Hallelujah!"
Edward followed after her, his jaw tight and his posture stiff with irritation. "You shouldn't like a scar given to you bog a dog, Isabella." He told her as they threw their bags onto the couch. She was only supposed to be waiting for Rosalie, but it seemed if her dear husband wanted an argument right now, he could have one.
"I don't actually like it as in enjoy it, Edward." She wasn't yelling, but her expression showed her anger just fine. "I just, I finally feel like I'm not the protected and sheltered member of this family. I have my own scar that has it's own story."
It was true, she had always been self conscious of the fact that she was the only one of them to not have any scars. Granted, she'd been the most controlled of them all as far as newborn stages went which was the time that most of her family members got their first scars. Even when Emmett used to try and teach her to fight, Edward stepped in before she so much as fell over. It was enough that she knew the moves, he would tell the two whenever they tried to move out of the home gym and into a sparring match.
"Because you don't need to suffer, love the way any of us have." He murmured gently, gathering her into his arms and petting her hair. "The rest of us were changed in dire times, and have suffered in so many different ways as you know. Why is it so bad we want to keep the one of us who was brought into this family with nothing but love safe?"
"Because it never feels like you want to keep me safe," Bella spoke quietly, her head against his chest, gazing out of the large windows to the forest. "It just feels like I'm a doll you want to keep in the box."
"Well, I'm sorry if our love for you is stifling." He grumbled, his arms around her less comforting and stiffer at her admission.
"Edward, no, I didn't mean it in a bad way." She corrected, her arms going up to wrap around his torso.
It was too late it seemed, and his feelings were hurt. He let her go, stepping away and crossing his arms the way he always did when he was cross with her.
"it's fine, Bella, I get it." She had the sinking suspicion that he didn't, evident in the words he chose as he continued. "You'll have to forgive me if it suffocates you that I would like to protect my mate."
"That's not what I meant and you know it." She defended, bristling slightly at the condescension in his tone. "I'm just saying that I'm just as strong as the rest of you now, even more controlled, and yet we spent the last two decades sequestered in Ithica at one of your most remote properties because you and Alice didn't think I could handle being around humans."
"You know very well that we chose that house to give you time to enjoy your abilities without hinderance."
"Without hinderance?" Bella laughed mirthlessly, crossing her arms. "Edward, I drank from a blood bag 6 out of 10 times by the end of my hunt, because you came to find me or Alice 'ran into me'. Not to mention you stopped Emmett and mine's training because the sparring was 'unnecessary'."
She didn't wait for his answer before she continued, less irritated and more pleading for him to understand where she was coming from. "I was ill-prepared for an attack that ended up working out as the best-case scenario Edward. What if it hadn't been Paul?"
He said nothing for a moment, and she could see him weighing her words. "It's possible that ending training was not the best choice. And we are lucky the wolf who found you recognized you. But you are so precious to me, Bella, and I need you to understand that I come from a place of love and concern."
They simply stayed that way, standing an arm's length apart and staring at one another with the same trepid, vulnerable expression on each of their faces.
The moment was interrupted by Rosalie loudly stomping down the stairs, a habit when they all wanted to let the other know they were coming.
At that moment, Edward stepped back towards Bella, placing a soft kiss on her mouth that she barely had a chance to return before he pulled back, smiling softly.
"That's Rosalie, we can finish this conversation later."
She smiled back knowing full well when she tried to bring up the conversation later, he would call it water under the bridge, and they would never finish it. Sometimes she wanted to turn to whatever the interruption was and tell them or it to go away. They always made it to the cusp of some sort of understanding, only to be interrupted or the conversation somehow cut short. She'd like end up apologizing later at any rate.
It always made her feel just awful when they bickered and fought.
She turned and fixed her expression to one excited to see the blonde who came down the stairs as Edward was leaving out the kitchen door to the path that lead to their cottage.
"So, are we still on?" She asked Bella, one brow arched in question.
"Definitely." Bella nodded, grinning.
The pair wrapped arms around each other, Rosalie's arm over Bella's shoulder and Bella's around Rosalie's waist. The went out the doorway to the garage, Her sisters brows shooting up high as she looked to Bella.
"Don't even ask." Bella laughed, stepping over the threshold and passing the door one of the guys had picked up and leaned against the wall.
"Yeah, or she might rip through the garage door." Came Paul's dry response.
"Jesus, you're still here?" Bella asked him, not bothering to look at him as the two women walked over to Emmett.
"Are we ready to go?" Emmett asked the pair who nodded eagerly to him.
"Yes, yes the secret outing your newest friend Paul is not invited to. Typical bad manners." His tone was light and teasing, and Bella thought to herself as she looked over at him that she hadn't ever seen Paul actually nice to any of them. Let alone playful.
She must have been staring at him too long because he waved his hand in front of her unseeing face "Swan, I'm kidding, Jesus you don't have to make it so obvious I'm unwelcome." His tone and facial expression soured and for some reason she felt bad about it.
"I'm sorry," She answered almost immediately, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly at the genuineness of it. "I just don't think I've ever heard you be… I don't know, friendly?, with any of us."
He didn't seem to know what to say and something odd in Bella's stomach churned, barely there enough for her to be sure she felt it, at the slight tinge of pink that spread the back of his neck and face.
"Yeah, well, I'm out." Paul said as he disappeared, the sound of clothes ripping and paws sprinting away cut off anything the three of them might have said as goodbye to him.
"Well," Rosalie sighed in relief, the stench of dog finally dissipating. "Let's get going then, shall we?"
"Yes!" Bella exclaimed, the moment forgotten as she bounded after her brother and sister into the forest.