The Small Print -- Chapters 2, 3, & 4
Summary: Charlie lands Edward in jail. Hilarity and community service ensue. However, while on a community service assignment in the lesser known areas around Forks, an encounter with an elderly citizen in need leaves Edward and Bella with a much bigger problem on their hands.
Time Period: Sometime between New Moon and Eclipse.
Previous Installments:
Chapter One
***
The Small Print
Written by Coquette
Part Two
Edward was sentenced to one hundred hours of community service to be completed in no less than two months. There were limited options in a small town like Forks. There was roadside cleanup, of course, because any town that sported a fast food restaurant or a gas station required trash removal now and again. The town library was small and flush with volunteers; no work to be done there. There was always the nursing home and the preschool, but Edward had looked at me like I’d grown a second head when I suggested those.
He chose the roadside cleanup. No surprise there.
I drove him to his first day, adamant that he obey Charlie and not drive until he was allowed to. Besides, it was a wonderful way to get out of my grounding sentence, if only for twenty minutes at a time. Even Charlie wasn’t hard-hearted enough to make Edward walk everywhere in the rain - at least not at first, anyway. It had taken some convincing to get Charlie to let me out of the house with Edward at all. A few little fibs about his siblings being unable to provide a ride. I wanted Edward all to myself, even if it was just for a little while. After so many months without him, I hated to be separated from him for even a second. Pathetic, I know, but there it was all the same.
I kept my truck’s speed at thirty-five miles per hour in a forty-five zone. Edward looked like he was going to come unglued, so of course, I slowed down a bit more. “You know, that color looks very nice on you,” I said with a bright smile.
Edward was sitting with his arms crossed over his chest, trying to cover up the neon-orange reflective service vest that cleanup workers were required to wear. “Bella? Don’t.”
“No, really. It does wonders for your complexion. Not to mention how well it brings out your eyes. Very avant-gard.”
“You’re loving every second of this, aren’t you?”
“Yes. But only because I love you.”
He glanced over at me, and I instantly recognized the look. I’d seen it quite a bit lately and never could really figure out what he was thinking. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
His eyes narrowed. “It’s ... nothing.”
Well, that certainly didn’t pique my interest at all. “Tell me.”
His arms tightened even more across his chest as he looked away. “You’re doing it again,” he muttered disapprovingly.
“Doing what?”
“Trying too hard.”
I laughed. At first. Then my smile faded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ever since I came back to Forks...” He trailed off and sighed, as if frustrated with himself - or perhaps with me. “...It’s like you’re constantly trying to capture my attention with something. Captivate me. Make me laugh. Your wit or your body language, always firing, zeroing in on me. Your looks and clothing, too. And you do look nice today, Bella. But you need to know that it’s just unnecessary. You already have my attention. How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not going to leave you again before you believe me?”
Frowning deeply at the road in front of me, I slowed my truck to a stop just outside of the place Edward was supposed to meet his community service officer at to get his assignment. There were no other cars there, which meant he was the first to arrive. Perhaps he was the only one scheduled to arrive at all. After all, Forks wasn’t exactly a den of criminals.
Though the ride was over, I didn’t want to look at Edward. I suddenly felt self-conscious in the skirt I was wearing. I never wore skirts, but he liked them. And Edward loved me in blue, which was the reason I’d chosen the shirt. I’d been wearing a lot of blue lately without even really registering why I was doing so. My cheeks burned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered, feeling very pathetic at that moment. “I dress nicely because I like to look nice. That’s it.”
“Bella...” He leaned over, putting his face very close to mine, though I still wouldn’t look at him. “I’m not. Going. Anywhere.”
I was too irritated to really accept what he was saying. “So wait ... I’ve been looking too good lately? What guy says that? I can stop showering if it would make you happy.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’ve been around a dog, Bella, you’ve always smelled quite nice. You know how your scent sings to me. And when you don’t shower, it’s only concentrated.” His fingertips brushed the spot on my neck just behind my ear at the hairline. I shivered. “Right here especially,” he murmured, his breath stirring my hair. “I’d prefer you never shower, in fact.”
I turned to stare at him, utterly transfixed. “That ... is possibly the most disgusting thing you’ve ever said to me.”
He kissed me, quick and hard, as if annoyed with me. Or perhaps just to prove something. “Bella,” he breathed, looking up at me from under thick lashes. “I want it to stop.”
“The showering? Because ew.”
“The worrying.”
“I’m trying. It’s hard sometimes. You always think you know what’s best for me, usually without even consulting me on the subject. I feel like any day you could change your mind and leave again.”
“If you could read my thoughts right now, you would trust me implicitly. And there’s the real problem, isn’t it? You don’t trust me anymore.”
“That’s not true!”
“I’ve broken you.”
“I’m not a toy, Edward. And you didn’t break me. I wouldn’t be here if I’d really broken.”
Edward didn’t like that at all, probably reminded of my interest in “extreme sports” while we had been separated ... or perhaps Victoria’s return, which he had been absent for. I really could have been broken when all that was happening. His gaze was haunted as he turned his face away from me. He sat there for a minute in silence, shaking his head back and forth pensively. I watched, wondering if I should make another joke about his orange vest to break the silence. I hated it when he started punishing himself, putting too much responsibility on his shoulders.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked instead, unable to read his expression.
His jaw tensed. “I was wishing that I could be a normal teenager for you, Bella. Human. Weak. Grounded. Ever perspiring.”
I made a face. “Ew.”
“I could hold you as tight as I wanted to if I were a human,” he continued, ignoring me. His eyes had gone wistful as he thought about it. “If I had been human in the first place, I never would have been driven to leave you out of fear. You would therefore trust me more, and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. And I certainly would trust myself with you more.”
“Well ... since that’s not going to happen, you could always just turn me into a vampire. All those problems would be solved. Instantly.”
He glowered at me, torn from his thoughts. “Not until you agree to marry me.”
I glowered right back. “Hmph. I think your community service officer is here.” I pointed to the car that had just rolled up behind us. “You should probably go.”
“Fine, Bella. I get your point. Not a subject you care for.” With a final sigh, Edward dropped a kiss on my forehead, his hand on the door handle. “I love you,” he whispered before he slipped out, his breath mingling with mine.
Another little shiver ran through me, despite my annoyance. I needed to hear him say that a lot lately. “I love you, too, Edward. Call me when you’re done, and I’ll pick you up. This is going to take all day, right? And the rest of the week? You’ll have your hours done in no time.”
***
Edward cleaned the entire Forks roadway system in just under two hours.
“Now what am I supposed to do?” he fumed to me later that night after Charlie had gone to sleep. We were lying on my bed together as I picked leaves out of his tangled hair. “Ninety-eight hours to go! Can you please make some calls and ask people to litter tomorrow? I am not going to work at the damn preschool.”
“Hmmm,” I said, thinking. “Charlie was telling me earlier that there are a lot of community service opportunities in the surrounding community. You know all those tiny little houses here and there? The people who live off all by themselves in the middle of the woods? Some of them are elderly or disabled. They can’t do things for themselves like mow their lawn or trim dead tree branches away from their houses. Does that sound like something that might interest you?”
Edward took a moment to consider it. “As long as I don’t have to commune with children, I don’t see why not.”
“What do you have against kids anyway?”
“Nothing,” he said, but his shoulders were tense. “They just ... smell funny.”
“Funny, as in ... grrr, I want to eat them? Or funny, as in ... wow, I didn’t know something that small could produce something so foul in their diaper? Talk about roadside cleanup.”
“Maybe a little of both.” He glanced at me sideways when my mouth fell open. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. You know I would never harm a child or anyone else for that matter. I resisted you, didn’t I? And you’re the most tempting thing I’ve ever encountered. But ... now you’ve got me curious, Bella. What about you? Do you like children?”
“Me?” I laughed. “Um. No. Big no.”
“No surprise there. Ever the anti-female, you are. Why not?”
“Well, I mean, they’re cute and all. I don’t have a problem with them, per say. I just don’t want to have children of my own. Not for a long, long time anyway. Maybe when I’m fifty and on the verge of menopause.” I bit my lip. If I ever reach fifty, that is, I said silently to myself. I hoped to be a vampire long before then.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Because I’m not ready for a huge step like that, I guess. If you think marriage is bad, try having some little kid attached to your hip at all times.”
“But I don’t think marriage is bad. That would be you.”
“It doesn’t matter, though, does it? We can’t ever have children because you’re not a human.”
“You say that like it’s a good thing.”
“That’s because it is a good thing.”
“You really wouldn’t prefer having a human boyfriend?”
I scoffed incredulously. “Someone like Mike Newton? No thanks.”
Edward stared at me, and I had trouble interpreting his expressionless face. “I can’t help but feel like I’m causing you to miss out on things normal people get to experience,” he murmured.
I reached up to touch his cheek, tracing my fingertips from his hairline down to his jaw. “Edward, can’t you see how happy I am?” I asked, running a finger over his bottom lip. I smiled for good measure, hoping to convince him.
His eyes narrowed at me, as if he could see something in my face that I was unaware of. “I wish you could see yourself, Bella. Or see yourself the way I see you. You’ve changed so very much since that day I left you in the forest. I can’t stand it.”
My smile faded. I hated it when he started talking about this.
“Did you eat dinner tonight?” he asked, making the question sound accusing somehow.
“Yes,” I answered defensively.
“All of it?”
I cringed. “Charlie cooked. And since he’s the antithesis of Bobby Flay, that would mean no - I didn’t finish it.”
Edward’s eyes were threatening to burn holes into my own. “Do you have any idea how thin you are, Bella?”
His question was again accusing, and I felt a surge of anger. “Just what are you implying? I’m not anorexic, Edward. I just don’t have the same appetite I used to have before...”
...we split up, I finished silently. The thought made me wince inside. I felt more pathetic than ever. Maybe Edward wasn’t full of it, after all. Maybe I didn’t realize how different I was from the Bella he’d left in that forest. He would know. He’d only seen the Before and After. He didn’t watch me plummet into darkness, then slowly but surely improve. I was downright radiant compared to what I had been. And here I thought I was doing great.
Edward sat up in the bed quickly, supporting himself with his arms on either side of my head. He stared down at me intensely, looking angry. “You have shadows under your eyes. All the time.”
“So do you.”
“Mine are there for a different reason. Yours are there because you have nightmares every night. I’m the one who gets to listen to them.”
“Look, Edward. I’m sorry that our breakup hit me hard. I’m sorry if that angers you. But I’m trying. Trying really hard to be normal again.”
It was his turn to wince. “I know you are. I just hate watching it is all. It’s not you I’m angry with, but rather myself. I just wish everything could have been different. I never meant to damage you so.”
“I’m not damaged, Edward,” I hissed, turning away from him in a huff. I pulled the covers tightly over my head.
He pulled the covers right back again, and I craned my head around to glare at him. He didn’t say anything else, which was a good thing. He could probably see how angry and embarrassed he was making me. Pushing my hair back from my face, he bent his head down to kiss me. It was light at first, measured and careful, but it soon turned possessive. Persuasive. As if he was trying to tell me, Do you feel how much I want you, Bella? Stop being so absurd. I could almost hear his voice in my head as I kissed him back.
It went on like that for a while, and that suited me just fine. Much better than arguing. But when he groaned against my mouth, I recognized the signs. He was getting too into the kiss and was about to pull away from me. He always kept a firm boundary there, one of the many ways he tried to control himself around me.
Stupid vampire. Always spoiling my fun.
As I lay there in his arms, kissing him while I still had time, I couldn’t help but wonder at the words he’d said earlier. What if Edward were human?
It would be so very different that way. He wouldn’t hold me quite so carefully, I don’t think, with his hands always on my face or shoulders instead of on my body, always restraining the passion behind his kisses, afraid he might hurt me with the sheer magnitude of it. If Edward were human, his lips would be warm against mine instead of ice cold. He would smell different. Feel different under my fingers. His hands might move to unbutton my shirt instead of skimming along my face like I was a porcelain doll. If he were human, we might even have taken our relationship to the next level by now. I had already indicated I was open to that, but he didn’t even consider sex a remote possibility for us.
Did I want that? For Edward to be so utterly different? If I was honest with myself, I had to admit that our lives would be much simpler. But would he still be my Edward? Was it the vampire in him that I loved or just Edward himself? Or were the two already so jumbled together in my mind, so inseparable, that there was no distinction? Would he even feel the same way about me if he wasn’t a vampire and instinctually attracted to my scent? I had no idea.
Painfully predictable, Edward broke off the kiss before it became too passionate. Still nose to nose, he looked rather smugly at me, as if he’d just taught me a lesson.
I stared up at him, panting, a breathless mess. “Looks like I’m not the only one who’s trying too hard to make things right again.”
“Is that a bad thing?” he said, his lips a whisper against my own.
Instead of replying, I only slid my arms around his cool neck and pulled him down to my mouth again. Too many thoughts. Vampire or not, I only wanted Edward.
***
Part Three
“Bye, Charlie!” I called up the stairs. I snatched a piece of toast out of the toaster and reached for the jelly. I was running late, so breakfast was on the go today. “I’m taking Edward to his community service assignment. It’s a bit of a drive out there. I should be back in an hour. I’ll meet you at the station, okay?”
“Hmph,” was the grunt that came in reply. I heard the bathroom door shut, and the shower turn on.
Another precious hour, free from being grounded. Edward needed to get arrested more often.
Holding my toast between my teeth, I shrugged a jacket on and grabbed my keys. There beside the phone was a little piece of paper with names and addresses written on it. I had called our community outreach center earlier that morning and gotten the information of people outside of Forks that needed assistance. If Edward refrained from using his vampiric speed in providing that assistance, he might just be able to squeeze in the rest of his hours.
There were more tiny houses out in the middle of the woods than I thought - many of them decrepit, falling down in disrepair while their inhabitants slowly aged inside. How lonely they must be, I thought. Maybe helping those people out would help Edward feel a little better about himself, too. The self-flagellation was getting annoying, especially since he was involving me in it.
Edward was standing outside, waiting for me beside my truck. His eyes narrowed meaningfully at the piece of toast I held in my hand.
I glared at him - still irritated from our conversation about my weight the previous night - and crammed the entire piece of toast in my mouth. “Did you see that?” I mumbled through the mouthful. “I just shoved a who’ pief of toast in my mouf. Boy, I su’ do love to eat.”
“I’m comforted already,” he said dryly. “Did you get the addresses?”
I handed him the piece of paper, trying to swallow without choking. “There’s a lot of them. Take your pick.”
Edward scanned the list, and after a moment, he tapped his finger on one of the addresses. “Well, that’s interesting.”
“What?”
“This address here. It’s out in the middle of nowhere about thirty or forty miles east. A goat farm. They have a well and everything. No electricity.”
“How do you know? Have you been there?”
Edward shook his head. “No, but Emmett and Jasper have told me about it. They went hunting in that area once. Like I said, goat farm. They said something about the place was strange. The old man that lived there came out and chased them away, though they hadn’t made any noise that would have indicated they were there.” Edward sniggered, his face melting into a huge grin. “Emmett said the man tried to cast a spell on them, but they were too fast and managed to get away. I teased him about that for months.”
“A spell?” I asked, snickering right along with him. “Like a witch or wizard of something? Oh, come on, Edward.”
He glanced over at me, eyebrows raised. “You don’t believe in magic?”
“Pffft. No.”
“And yet you believe in vampires and werewolves.”
“Only because I’ve seen them with my own eyes. Just call me Agent Scully.”
Edward smiled and shrugged. “I don’t believe in it either, for much the same reason. I’ve never seen any evidence of it. But now I’m curious what frightened Emmett and Jasper away. Take me there, to that house first. I need to meet this character face to face. I’ve been teased relentlessly since my arrest. Having something to throw right back at them would be nice.”
I frowned up at him uncertainly. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
Edward grinned at me, mischief shining in his eyes. “You’re not afraid, are you?”
“Of an old man with goats? Yes. Trembling in my boots.” The sarcasm was thick.
“Then let’s go, Scully.”
***
We drove and drove, far outside the borders of Forks. I was a little peeved with Edward. There were houses much closer to us that we could have gone to. We took a winding dirt road along a river bank, up a steep hill, and eventually came to a lovely but overgrown spot in the woods.
There, behind two large pens of goats, stood the saddest little house I’ve ever seen. It had once been white, but mildew and the weather had gotten to it. The fence around the goat pen was in serious disrepair, but the goats inside just chewed and bleated at each other, seemingly unconcerned with the obvious escape routes all around them. Perhaps they were happy there.
Edward whistled under his breath. “This place really needs some help, doesn’t it? I should have brought some paint instead of just tools and lawn equipment. Tomorrow perhaps.”
“It’s pretty sad, all right,” I agreed. “I’ll come with you to the door. I was the one that called the outreach center, so it might be me he’s expecting. Not you. His name is Larry, by the way. Larry Waxman.”
Edward hung back, inspecting a hole in the fence while I trudged through thick weeds toward the front door. It wasn’t creepy at all the way Emmett and Jasper had claimed. Just heartbreaking. Stepping carefully over an overgrown herb garden, I reached the porch, wrinkling my nose at the dirt and weeds that had split through the broken concrete.
The door opened before I could knock, and there behind a tattered screen door stood the most curious person I’ve ever met.
“Hello, Isabella Swan,” he said before I could even open my mouth. The voice was nasal but polite. He smiled at me toothlessly.
I stared at Mr. Larry Waxman, dubious. The reason for the condition of the house was obvious. One of his legs had been amputated below the knee, and the hand that clutched a cane to support himself was missing several fingers. But that wasn’t what made him so peculiar to me. He looked like he’d been locked up for his entire life, probably around sixty years of life from the looks of it, with nothing but a collection of old Star Trek re-runs. The word nerd came to mind, but it was much, much worse than that. This was an eccentric nerd. Thick glasses, low on his nose, which was crowned with an overabundance of nose hair. Stringy, tangled white hair reached far past his scraggly salt-and-pepper beard. He wore dirty jeans and a flannel shirt with a Frodo Lives t-shirt underneath.
A warlock, indeed.
Emmett and Jasper were never going to hear the end of this - from Edward or me. I could see Edward out of the corner of my eye, his mouth curled into a tight smile. He was trying not to laugh, the wheels in his head spinning, probably working out the best insult possible to aim at his brothers.
“H-hi, Mr. Waxman. How do you know my name?” I asked him. “Oh, I guess the people at the community outreach center called you and said we were coming, huh? I’m not staying, though. Just my friend over there.”
Larry squinted in the direction I pointed with his hand over his eyes like a meerkat. I wasn’t convinced he could see past the edge of the porch. “Oh, my...” he murmured, seemingly awestruck when he caught sight of Edward. “That’s no moon.”
I turned and looked behind me. “Um. No. That’s Edward.”
“It’s ... a space station,” he finished breathlessly, wide-eyed as he stared at my boyfriend. “Here to help me? Really? Or here for something else?” He blinked down at me, his eyes huge behind his thick glasses. “He belongs to you, my dear? But you’re no Jedi.”
Ooo-kay. A George Lucas fan, then. Not Star Trek at all. My mistake.
“Yes, he uh ... belongs to me. Sure. He’s going to help you here today with your lawn and fence. Is there anything else he can do? Maybe inside the house? He needs a lot of hours, so don’t be afraid to ask him.”
The man’s face brightened. “I have a cat.”
“That’s ... really nice, Mr. Waxman. Do you, uh, need Edward’s help with the cat?”
He thought about it for a moment. “No. Thank you.”
I could only stare at him blankly. Just ... wow.
“Well, let Edward know if you think of something else for him to do. He’s really quite friendly.”
“Is that so? Yes, I can tell just by looking at him. The force is strong with him. Absolutely amazing!” He suddenly looked delighted. “Tell him he may have one of my goats. And if he does a good job with the fence, I’ll have something else to reward him with. I’ll just go inside and brew it up now. A trifle really. He’ll feel like a new man. You just wait and see how quickly!”
“Oh. Well, that’s very nice of you.” I really didn’t want to ask what Mr. Waxman was intending to make for Edward. Probably bantha fodder or something. “I should be going now. My dad - the police chief - is expecting me.” Couldn’t hurt to let him know I knew someone that owned a gun. Just in case.
“Goodbye, Isabella Swan! Thank you for bringing him by. I must say, I’m quite taken aback by the both of you.”
The feeling was mutual. I smiled and nodded, then turned to walk back toward Edward. He had already taken the lawn equipment and tools out of my truck and had started picking up broken fence boards from the ground, stacking them into a pile.
“This place is a mess,” he murmured. “I might be here a while.”
I nodded my chin back toward the house. “Ben Kenobi over there says you can have a goat. So if you’re feeling peckish after all the work, problem solved. Though I don’t think he meant to eat it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You’re going to give Emmett and Jasper hell over this, aren’t you?”
“Oh my, yes.”
“Can I join in?”
“I would think less of you if you didn’t.”
Grinning, I leaned up to accept his goodbye kiss. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Larry was still standing in the doorway, his mouth ajar as he watched us. When we parted, he smiled and broke out into astonished applause.
Edward knitted his brow, a cautious expression on his face. “Strange,” he murmured to me. “I get the feeling that he knows exactly what I am, though he hardly seems bothered by it. He’s blocking my thoughts, you know. I can’t read his mind.”
I glanced back, only to find that Larry had gone back inside. He was watching us now from the window through an enormous pair of binoculars.
“I think that might be because there’s not much going on in his head to begin with,” I whispered back.
“Hmmm. If you say so.”
I leaned up to kiss him again, unable to keep from smiling when his lips touched mine. “Be nice to him,” I said before I left. “He’s old and confused. I’ll pick you up in a few hours. Call me when you’re done, okay? If I’m not at home, I’ll be at the station with Charlie, helping him with his paperwork.”
***
It was a bumpy and lonely ride back to Forks. Not to mention a long one.
I took a wrong turn and got lost, driving around for over an hour before I found the right road again. It had started to rain, which slowed me down even more. I shook my head, angry at myself. Charlie was going to kill me. I was supposed to meet him an hour ago, and I was going to be even later than that.
My truck worried me. It was making a strange buzzing sound on the way. Again and again at random intervals, hard to pinpoint because of all the road noise. I was going to have to get Charlie or Edward to look at it. I doubted Jacob would even consider it. What was that sound anyway? It sounded almost like ... a cell phone on vibrate, but muted somehow. But I didn’t have one with me, and Edward had his. Unless...
I dug into the crease between the cushions of the seat. Sure enough, my hand closed over something wedged in there, forgotten. I recognized it instantly, all sleek, black, and intimidatingly complicated. Edward’s cell phone. It had probably slipped out of his jacket pocket on the bumpy road out of town. I recognized the picture that smiled back at me, lit up on the screen of the phone. Alice was calling.
I answered it. Edward wouldn’t mind, I was sure. “Hey, Alice. It’s Bella.”
“Bella...” she said, a strange tone in her voice. “Why are you answering Edward’s phone? I’ve been trying to call for over an hour.”
“He left his phone in my truck. It was on vibrate, and I didn’t know what the buzzing was.”
A long pause. “You’re not with him?”
“No.”
“Do you know where he went?” she asked quickly. “It’s important, Bella.”
I frowned. Why did she sound so panicked? That couldn’t be good. “He’s doing his community service, Alice. You know that. He ran out of things to do in town, so he’s been visiting the smaller communities in the area.”
“But you don’t know exactly where he went?”
“I just dropped him off. I have the address, if you want it.”
“Yes. I do. Though I think I’m too late to do anything about it. Oh, Edward, you idiot. You never have your cell phone on you when it really matters, do you? It’s like Italy all over again. At least this time, he didn’t purposely throw it in a trash can.”
That scared me. “Is he in some kind of danger? What do you see, Alice? Is he hurt?” My voice grew more alarmed with each word.
“No, nothing like that, Bella,” she assured me. “Edward will be ... fine.” She said the word like she couldn’t think of a better one. “I really should be going now. May I have that address? I’m going to pick him up right now.”
I gave it to her. “You’ll call me back?”
“If I can. Just relax, Bella. He’ll be fine.”
But there was doubt in her voice. I really hated being lied to by vampires who thought they knew what was best for me. It was starting to become a way of life.
***
Part Four
Once I finally managed to find my way back to Forks, I met Charlie at the police station to help him finish his paperwork. It was my punishment for being allowed out of the house to drive Edward around, and I was in even deeper now that I had run so late after getting lost.
I was uneasy, worried about the phone call with Alice, but there was nothing I could do about it. I could turn around and head right back up to that old house, but with the way Alice drove, they were likely to be gone already. Alice would know what was best. I had to trust in that. But I worked in Charlie’s office quickly, inattentively, fretting and wondering if I could maybe take the paperwork home to work on - just in case Alice or Edward showed up there while I was gone.
Charlie watched me carefully as I tried to sort through a stack of mangled, coffee-ringed papers. I’m sure it was quite evident that I was tense.
“That boyfriend of yours behaving himself?” asked Charlie.
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of his voice. Me, uptight? No, not at all. “Yes, Dad,” I replied after I calmed myself enough to speak. “He’s not driving.”
“Hmph. You know I could have had the book thrown at him, Bell. They wanted to try him as an adult. You ought to be thanking me he only got community service.”
I rolled my eyes. I could feel one of Charlie’s famous Edward-lectures coming on. Similar to the way a sore throat signaled the onset of a cold ... or something a lot worse, like the Spanish Influenza. “Thank you, Chief Swan.”
Edward-lecture in three, two...
“You really love that boy that much?” asked Charlie, true to form. “To take him back after everything he did to you?”
“Yes,” I sighed. “I do.”
“Cause that was a pretty rotten thing to do. To just leave you hanging like that for all those months.”
Kneeling on the ground, I dropped a stack of papers in a box with a little more force than necessary. Dust flew in my face. “If you knew how hard he was trying to make it up to me, you might think better of him. I wish you would give him a chance.”
“Jacob Black wouldn’t have done that to you.”
“Jacob Black is barely speaking to me,” I said, interrupting him before he could say more. “You want to talk about someone leaving me hanging? I did nothing to him to deserve that!”
But even as I said it, guilt gnawed at my insides. Nothing except break his heart and his trust in me, that is.
Charlie had his arms crossed over his chest. “Try looking at it from his perspective. I think he had a little crush on you, and here Edward comes back and chases him away. Jacob doesn’t think Edward is good for you either, you know.”
“Yes, I guess you and Jacob are hanging out a lot these days, huh?” I said, not bothering to hide my aggravation. “That’s just great, Dad. But just so you know, Edward didn’t chase Jacob away. He left on his own accord. And there’s no contest there between them. Jacob is my friend, or he used to be anyway. I just can’t think of him as more than that.”
“Jacob is a better match for you, Bella,” said Charlie, leaning forward in his chair. “He’s ... oh, what’s the word? Warmer than that Edward. Friendlier. Less reckless with you.”
“Less reckless?” I scoffed. “You do remember the motorcycle and the cliff-diving, don’t you? Edward treats me like I’m made of glass.”
The color of Charlie’s face shifted to something that resembled a ripe plum. The topic of motorcycles was a bit of a no-no around him. “Hmph,” he grunted, not wanting to admit that I had just made a darn good argument against Jacob. “So how serious are you two anyway?”
I shrugged. “Serious.”
“We talking marriage or what?”
“Ugh!” I cried, dropping another pile of papers into the box, this time without meaning to. I missed, and the pages scattered all over the place.
“I have a right to know, Bella. I’m your father.”
“No marriage!”
Charlie’s jaw tightened, but he looked slightly appeased. “Well, good. You’re too young.”
“That’s exactly what I told him.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Charlie’s eyes widened. “Edward ... proposed to you?”
“Um...” I stooped to the floor to avoid answering the question, keeping my eyes averted as I started scooping up the fallen papers.
My hesitance answered his question just as plainly as if I had voiced it. I thought the vein on his forehead might pop. “You said no, right?”
“Obviously,” was my heated answer.
Charlie’s eyes cleared, and he beamed at me, delighted. The vein on his forehead relaxed and turned a more nature shade. “That’s my girl.”
“Oh, Dad, just stop it,” I muttered, gathering the last of the fallen pages into a messy stack. It was difficult work because my hands were shaking. Even distracted by Charlie, my thoughts were still on Alice and Edward. I felt sick with nerves, deep in the pit of my stomach. Closing my eyes, I tried to rub some of the tension out of the back of my neck and just relax. It didn’t work.
“Well, I can’t help it if I want my little girl safe,” said Charlie begrudgingly. “Hey ... what’s wrong with you today anyway? You look like you’ve got ants in your pants.”
“I hate that saying,” I grumbled. “What does it even mean?”
“It means you won’t sit still. You look like you’re about to bolt for the door. You wanna tell your old man what’s going on?”
Yes. I did want to tell him. But that might not be the best idea. Hand still rubbing at the knot in my neck, I sat down on the floor next to the box of papers and weighed my options.
Option one: tell Charlie the truth about what was happening with Edward and Alice. And then, because he was Charlie, he would tell me to suck it up and finish my work and remind me exactly what it meant to be grounded. Option two: I could pretend to be sick and ask to go home. Whereupon Charlie wouldn’t believe me because he wasn’t stupid, and then there would be more grounding because I had lied. Option three: I could just make a run for the door. But call me crazy ... that might look a little suspicious. Again, cause for another grounding.
“Charlie,” I said, eyes on the floor as I pondered. He had to know I was being serious now. I was using his first name. “I think I need to go home. Now. I can take this paperwork with me to organize there if you want me to.”
Charlie’s face was devoid of expression. “I would have thought you would have liked to be out of the house. You’ve still got a ways to go with that grounding sentence of yours,” he reminded me, but there was no heat behind his words. I could tell he was concerned, but he wasn’t convinced yet.
I suddenly remembered something that might make him understand the urgency burning in my chest. “Dad, do you remember when I was little and had that high fever? When I was in Forks, visiting you that one summer?”
He nodded, chewing on the end of a pen cap. “You were six years old. Your temperature was one-hundred and five by the time I got you to the emergency room. They said I got you there right in time. Any later and it might have done some real damage to you.”
“But do you remember the rest? You said you woke up in the middle of the night and just knew somehow that something was wrong with me. That I was sick and needed you.”
“Well, sure, Bell. When you’re a parent, you’ll understand the feeling.”
“I already understand it.” I stared at him, trying to make him understand. “Dad, something’s wrong. I don’t know how I know. I just do. I need to go home right now.”
Charlie gazed right back at me for several long moments, chewing on that pen cap, weighing my words. Perhaps it was the story I’d chosen, or perhaps it was the look on my face, but he took his feet off of his desk and stood up. “I’ll get my keys,” he said, giving me a little nod.
“Why your keys and not mine?” I asked, already shrugging into my jacket to leave. “I have my truck here.”
“Because I’m driving you.”
***
Alice’s car was parked outside of our house when we pulled up in Charlie’s police cruiser.
“Now, Bella, just wait! Not until I stop the car completely!”
But I was free of my seatbelt and out of the car before it came to a complete stop. Behind me, Charlie growled and put the car in park while it was still inching up the driveway. It screeched to a halt. He cut the engine and got out in a rush, trying to catch up with me.
“You slow down, and wait for me,” I heard him call out behind me. “I’m serious, Bella!”
But I was already at the porch, trying the door handle. It was unlocked. Inside, I heard a crash upstairs, as if someone clumsy had tripped over something or had fallen. I froze. That certainly didn’t sound like Edward or Alice up there. No vampire made noises like that. They didn’t trip or stumble.
Maybe it was because I was the police chief’s daughter, or maybe it was because of my run-ins with characters like James or Victoria, but I instinctively reached for the closest weapon. Perhaps not the most effective one - it was a lamp - but if it wasn’t something supernatural up there, I might actually be able to do some damage with it.
Alice appeared before my vision so suddenly that I had to stifle a scream. “Bella! Where have you been?” she hissed.
“I was...”
“Never mind that!” she said, cutting me off before I could answer her question. “I need your help. Edward needs to stay here with you. I can’t bring him back to the house like this.” Her eyes shifted to the doorway, quick like a cat’s. “Oh. Hello, Chief Swan. Sorry to barge in like this. It’s sort of an emergency.”
Charlie had stumbled into the house behind me. “Alice,” he said in a clipped tone. He still liked Alice, but there was a bit of anger there. After all, she had been the one who had taken me away without warning for three days to find Edward, which had led to my grounding in the first place. “I’m sorry, but it’s not Bella’s visiting hours right now. She’s still grounded, you know. You and your brother need to go home.”
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked her pleadingly, ignoring my father.
“He’s sick, Bella!” said Alice, and the expression on her face terrified me. It reminded me of when she’d foreseen Edward make the decision to go to the Volturi. “I don’t know how, but he’s sick! I left him in your room. I need to go find Carlisle. He and Esme are out hunting and aren’t answering their phones. Can you watch over him until I get back? I’ll try to get word to Emmett and Rosalie so that they can come help you. Listen to me, Bella - don’t let Jasper anywhere near Edward, okay? That’s very important.”
“S-sure.”
“Now wait just a second...” started Charlie.
“I’m sorry, Chief Swan!” Alice turned urgent eyes on me and said, as if trying to tell me something, “I really can’t take him home like this. I’ll explain later.”
I didn’t catch her meaning, and the doubt left me trembling.
Alice left without another word, moving a little faster than she should have under Charlie’s watchful gaze. He and I stared at the front door as it slammed, stunned. My heart pounded in my throat. Upstairs, I distinctly heard the sound of Edward crying out in pain. It was a choked scream. Something hit the floor with a crash.
Charlie heard it, too. He pushed me back behind his body protectively. “What the hell? Is that Edward? Bella, stay here.”
“Like hell!” I gasped back at him. I thundered up the stairs right on Charlie’s heels, pushing at his back, urging him to move faster. I’m not sure how, but I already knew what I was going to find. And sure enough...
Edward was writhing on my bedroom floor, his face twisted in an expression of pure agony.
He wasn’t crying out anymore. I think the pain must have gone beyond that.
Charlie swore loudly and rushed to Edward’s side to help. And me? I could only just stand there in the doorway with that stupid lamp still in my hands, wide-eyed and horror stuck.
It reminded me so much of Italy - when Jane had taken hold of Edward with her cruel, torturous gaze - that I looked around to see if she was there in my bedroom somewhere, hidden with her crimson eyes shining with pitiless indifference. But we were alone.
“Edward?” asked Charlie, gripping him by the shoulders. “Edward! Look at me, boy! Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
There was no answer. Edward had stopped writhing and had become eerily still in Charlie’s arms. How strange he looked. Like a ragdoll, limp and lifeless. Lashes dark against his white cheek. His skin was paler than normal, yet flushed somehow, covered in beads of sweat. But that wasn’t right. I had to be seeing things.
Charlie pried one of Edward’s closed eyes apart, and swore again when he saw the dilated pupils. “Is he on drugs, Bella?” he asked me urgently. “I need to know!”
Unable to speak, I could only shake my head.
“Are you positive? I think he just had a seizure or a heart attack or something. Call 911, Bella. Now! He’s not breathing!”
Charlie started CPR. I wanted to tell him that was just silly ... Edward didn’t have a heartbeat. Edward didn’t need to breathe. But Edward wasn’t moving. I had never seen him unconscious or even asleep because that wasn’t possible.
Charlie reared on me. “Bella! 911, now!”
“Edward...?” I whispered, slowly feeling myself grow hysterical.
And then Edward gasped and opened his eyes.
He rolled over onto his side, gripping his stomach with a gut-wrenching moan, and started coughing violently. Gasping for air. Clutching at the carpet with pale, shaking hands.
Charlie knelt over him, slapping him on the back. “It’s okay, son. I’ve got you. Just breathe! ”
Edward’s coughs slowed but still he wheezed. His lungs sounded congested, incapable of giving him the oxygen he inexplicably seemed to need at that moment. Sweat dripped from his brow onto the floor. Charlie eased him over gently onto his back, holding the back of his head with one hand and checking his pulse at the neck with the other.
“He’s okay, Bella,” said Charlie, looking just as scared and shaken as I was. “But we need to get him to the hospital. His heart is about to beat out of his chest.”
I didn’t budge a millimeter. Standing. Staring. Ready to faint. Edward’s eyes slowly peeled apart, bloodshot and dazed, and he looked right at me.
They were a clear, piercing green.
He licked his lips, pale from pain. “Bella?” he whispered, still gasping. His voice sounded strange to me. Still soft and refined, but huskier somehow. Less musical.
The lamp slipped from my fingers and crashed to the floor at my feet. I didn’t notice.
Edward wasn’t Edward at all.
He was human.
***
To be continued.
Author’s Note: I find it very ironic that I have two stories going at the moment. One where Bella is a vampire, and now one where Edward is a human. It’s a bit of a mind-f*ck. :) I had an eccentric Brent Spiner in my head when I created the character of Larry Waxman. Just in case you’re interested.
Something that inspired other issues in this story ... I think that Bella got over the whole Edward-dumping-her thing far too quickly in the novels. I get that she was happy to have him back and completely buy everything that Stephenie Meyer wrote, but I think there was a lot we didn’t see that took place between New Moon and Eclipse. I plan on exploring that in this story.
Why? Well, read for yourself. This one passage inspired this entire story.
"I'll earn your trust back somehow," he murmured, mostly to himself. "If it's my final act."
"I trust you," I assured him. "It's me I don't trust. ... I don't trust myself to be… enough. To deserve you. There's nothing about me that could hold you."
"Your hold is permanent and unbreakable," he whispered. "Never doubt that."
But how could I not?
- From New Moon, written by Stephenie Meyer. (Not me!) After Edward and Bella have been reunited at the end of the book. Several lines omitted for brevity’s sake.
Time Period: Sometime between New Moon and Eclipse.
Previous Installments:
Chapter One
***
The Small Print
Written by Coquette
Part Two
Edward was sentenced to one hundred hours of community service to be completed in no less than two months. There were limited options in a small town like Forks. There was roadside cleanup, of course, because any town that sported a fast food restaurant or a gas station required trash removal now and again. The town library was small and flush with volunteers; no work to be done there. There was always the nursing home and the preschool, but Edward had looked at me like I’d grown a second head when I suggested those.
He chose the roadside cleanup. No surprise there.
I drove him to his first day, adamant that he obey Charlie and not drive until he was allowed to. Besides, it was a wonderful way to get out of my grounding sentence, if only for twenty minutes at a time. Even Charlie wasn’t hard-hearted enough to make Edward walk everywhere in the rain - at least not at first, anyway. It had taken some convincing to get Charlie to let me out of the house with Edward at all. A few little fibs about his siblings being unable to provide a ride. I wanted Edward all to myself, even if it was just for a little while. After so many months without him, I hated to be separated from him for even a second. Pathetic, I know, but there it was all the same.
I kept my truck’s speed at thirty-five miles per hour in a forty-five zone. Edward looked like he was going to come unglued, so of course, I slowed down a bit more. “You know, that color looks very nice on you,” I said with a bright smile.
Edward was sitting with his arms crossed over his chest, trying to cover up the neon-orange reflective service vest that cleanup workers were required to wear. “Bella? Don’t.”
“No, really. It does wonders for your complexion. Not to mention how well it brings out your eyes. Very avant-gard.”
“You’re loving every second of this, aren’t you?”
“Yes. But only because I love you.”
He glanced over at me, and I instantly recognized the look. I’d seen it quite a bit lately and never could really figure out what he was thinking. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
His eyes narrowed. “It’s ... nothing.”
Well, that certainly didn’t pique my interest at all. “Tell me.”
His arms tightened even more across his chest as he looked away. “You’re doing it again,” he muttered disapprovingly.
“Doing what?”
“Trying too hard.”
I laughed. At first. Then my smile faded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Ever since I came back to Forks...” He trailed off and sighed, as if frustrated with himself - or perhaps with me. “...It’s like you’re constantly trying to capture my attention with something. Captivate me. Make me laugh. Your wit or your body language, always firing, zeroing in on me. Your looks and clothing, too. And you do look nice today, Bella. But you need to know that it’s just unnecessary. You already have my attention. How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not going to leave you again before you believe me?”
Frowning deeply at the road in front of me, I slowed my truck to a stop just outside of the place Edward was supposed to meet his community service officer at to get his assignment. There were no other cars there, which meant he was the first to arrive. Perhaps he was the only one scheduled to arrive at all. After all, Forks wasn’t exactly a den of criminals.
Though the ride was over, I didn’t want to look at Edward. I suddenly felt self-conscious in the skirt I was wearing. I never wore skirts, but he liked them. And Edward loved me in blue, which was the reason I’d chosen the shirt. I’d been wearing a lot of blue lately without even really registering why I was doing so. My cheeks burned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered, feeling very pathetic at that moment. “I dress nicely because I like to look nice. That’s it.”
“Bella...” He leaned over, putting his face very close to mine, though I still wouldn’t look at him. “I’m not. Going. Anywhere.”
I was too irritated to really accept what he was saying. “So wait ... I’ve been looking too good lately? What guy says that? I can stop showering if it would make you happy.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’ve been around a dog, Bella, you’ve always smelled quite nice. You know how your scent sings to me. And when you don’t shower, it’s only concentrated.” His fingertips brushed the spot on my neck just behind my ear at the hairline. I shivered. “Right here especially,” he murmured, his breath stirring my hair. “I’d prefer you never shower, in fact.”
I turned to stare at him, utterly transfixed. “That ... is possibly the most disgusting thing you’ve ever said to me.”
He kissed me, quick and hard, as if annoyed with me. Or perhaps just to prove something. “Bella,” he breathed, looking up at me from under thick lashes. “I want it to stop.”
“The showering? Because ew.”
“The worrying.”
“I’m trying. It’s hard sometimes. You always think you know what’s best for me, usually without even consulting me on the subject. I feel like any day you could change your mind and leave again.”
“If you could read my thoughts right now, you would trust me implicitly. And there’s the real problem, isn’t it? You don’t trust me anymore.”
“That’s not true!”
“I’ve broken you.”
“I’m not a toy, Edward. And you didn’t break me. I wouldn’t be here if I’d really broken.”
Edward didn’t like that at all, probably reminded of my interest in “extreme sports” while we had been separated ... or perhaps Victoria’s return, which he had been absent for. I really could have been broken when all that was happening. His gaze was haunted as he turned his face away from me. He sat there for a minute in silence, shaking his head back and forth pensively. I watched, wondering if I should make another joke about his orange vest to break the silence. I hated it when he started punishing himself, putting too much responsibility on his shoulders.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked instead, unable to read his expression.
His jaw tensed. “I was wishing that I could be a normal teenager for you, Bella. Human. Weak. Grounded. Ever perspiring.”
I made a face. “Ew.”
“I could hold you as tight as I wanted to if I were a human,” he continued, ignoring me. His eyes had gone wistful as he thought about it. “If I had been human in the first place, I never would have been driven to leave you out of fear. You would therefore trust me more, and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. And I certainly would trust myself with you more.”
“Well ... since that’s not going to happen, you could always just turn me into a vampire. All those problems would be solved. Instantly.”
He glowered at me, torn from his thoughts. “Not until you agree to marry me.”
I glowered right back. “Hmph. I think your community service officer is here.” I pointed to the car that had just rolled up behind us. “You should probably go.”
“Fine, Bella. I get your point. Not a subject you care for.” With a final sigh, Edward dropped a kiss on my forehead, his hand on the door handle. “I love you,” he whispered before he slipped out, his breath mingling with mine.
Another little shiver ran through me, despite my annoyance. I needed to hear him say that a lot lately. “I love you, too, Edward. Call me when you’re done, and I’ll pick you up. This is going to take all day, right? And the rest of the week? You’ll have your hours done in no time.”
***
Edward cleaned the entire Forks roadway system in just under two hours.
“Now what am I supposed to do?” he fumed to me later that night after Charlie had gone to sleep. We were lying on my bed together as I picked leaves out of his tangled hair. “Ninety-eight hours to go! Can you please make some calls and ask people to litter tomorrow? I am not going to work at the damn preschool.”
“Hmmm,” I said, thinking. “Charlie was telling me earlier that there are a lot of community service opportunities in the surrounding community. You know all those tiny little houses here and there? The people who live off all by themselves in the middle of the woods? Some of them are elderly or disabled. They can’t do things for themselves like mow their lawn or trim dead tree branches away from their houses. Does that sound like something that might interest you?”
Edward took a moment to consider it. “As long as I don’t have to commune with children, I don’t see why not.”
“What do you have against kids anyway?”
“Nothing,” he said, but his shoulders were tense. “They just ... smell funny.”
“Funny, as in ... grrr, I want to eat them? Or funny, as in ... wow, I didn’t know something that small could produce something so foul in their diaper? Talk about roadside cleanup.”
“Maybe a little of both.” He glanced at me sideways when my mouth fell open. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. You know I would never harm a child or anyone else for that matter. I resisted you, didn’t I? And you’re the most tempting thing I’ve ever encountered. But ... now you’ve got me curious, Bella. What about you? Do you like children?”
“Me?” I laughed. “Um. No. Big no.”
“No surprise there. Ever the anti-female, you are. Why not?”
“Well, I mean, they’re cute and all. I don’t have a problem with them, per say. I just don’t want to have children of my own. Not for a long, long time anyway. Maybe when I’m fifty and on the verge of menopause.” I bit my lip. If I ever reach fifty, that is, I said silently to myself. I hoped to be a vampire long before then.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Because I’m not ready for a huge step like that, I guess. If you think marriage is bad, try having some little kid attached to your hip at all times.”
“But I don’t think marriage is bad. That would be you.”
“It doesn’t matter, though, does it? We can’t ever have children because you’re not a human.”
“You say that like it’s a good thing.”
“That’s because it is a good thing.”
“You really wouldn’t prefer having a human boyfriend?”
I scoffed incredulously. “Someone like Mike Newton? No thanks.”
Edward stared at me, and I had trouble interpreting his expressionless face. “I can’t help but feel like I’m causing you to miss out on things normal people get to experience,” he murmured.
I reached up to touch his cheek, tracing my fingertips from his hairline down to his jaw. “Edward, can’t you see how happy I am?” I asked, running a finger over his bottom lip. I smiled for good measure, hoping to convince him.
His eyes narrowed at me, as if he could see something in my face that I was unaware of. “I wish you could see yourself, Bella. Or see yourself the way I see you. You’ve changed so very much since that day I left you in the forest. I can’t stand it.”
My smile faded. I hated it when he started talking about this.
“Did you eat dinner tonight?” he asked, making the question sound accusing somehow.
“Yes,” I answered defensively.
“All of it?”
I cringed. “Charlie cooked. And since he’s the antithesis of Bobby Flay, that would mean no - I didn’t finish it.”
Edward’s eyes were threatening to burn holes into my own. “Do you have any idea how thin you are, Bella?”
His question was again accusing, and I felt a surge of anger. “Just what are you implying? I’m not anorexic, Edward. I just don’t have the same appetite I used to have before...”
...we split up, I finished silently. The thought made me wince inside. I felt more pathetic than ever. Maybe Edward wasn’t full of it, after all. Maybe I didn’t realize how different I was from the Bella he’d left in that forest. He would know. He’d only seen the Before and After. He didn’t watch me plummet into darkness, then slowly but surely improve. I was downright radiant compared to what I had been. And here I thought I was doing great.
Edward sat up in the bed quickly, supporting himself with his arms on either side of my head. He stared down at me intensely, looking angry. “You have shadows under your eyes. All the time.”
“So do you.”
“Mine are there for a different reason. Yours are there because you have nightmares every night. I’m the one who gets to listen to them.”
“Look, Edward. I’m sorry that our breakup hit me hard. I’m sorry if that angers you. But I’m trying. Trying really hard to be normal again.”
It was his turn to wince. “I know you are. I just hate watching it is all. It’s not you I’m angry with, but rather myself. I just wish everything could have been different. I never meant to damage you so.”
“I’m not damaged, Edward,” I hissed, turning away from him in a huff. I pulled the covers tightly over my head.
He pulled the covers right back again, and I craned my head around to glare at him. He didn’t say anything else, which was a good thing. He could probably see how angry and embarrassed he was making me. Pushing my hair back from my face, he bent his head down to kiss me. It was light at first, measured and careful, but it soon turned possessive. Persuasive. As if he was trying to tell me, Do you feel how much I want you, Bella? Stop being so absurd. I could almost hear his voice in my head as I kissed him back.
It went on like that for a while, and that suited me just fine. Much better than arguing. But when he groaned against my mouth, I recognized the signs. He was getting too into the kiss and was about to pull away from me. He always kept a firm boundary there, one of the many ways he tried to control himself around me.
Stupid vampire. Always spoiling my fun.
As I lay there in his arms, kissing him while I still had time, I couldn’t help but wonder at the words he’d said earlier. What if Edward were human?
It would be so very different that way. He wouldn’t hold me quite so carefully, I don’t think, with his hands always on my face or shoulders instead of on my body, always restraining the passion behind his kisses, afraid he might hurt me with the sheer magnitude of it. If Edward were human, his lips would be warm against mine instead of ice cold. He would smell different. Feel different under my fingers. His hands might move to unbutton my shirt instead of skimming along my face like I was a porcelain doll. If he were human, we might even have taken our relationship to the next level by now. I had already indicated I was open to that, but he didn’t even consider sex a remote possibility for us.
Did I want that? For Edward to be so utterly different? If I was honest with myself, I had to admit that our lives would be much simpler. But would he still be my Edward? Was it the vampire in him that I loved or just Edward himself? Or were the two already so jumbled together in my mind, so inseparable, that there was no distinction? Would he even feel the same way about me if he wasn’t a vampire and instinctually attracted to my scent? I had no idea.
Painfully predictable, Edward broke off the kiss before it became too passionate. Still nose to nose, he looked rather smugly at me, as if he’d just taught me a lesson.
I stared up at him, panting, a breathless mess. “Looks like I’m not the only one who’s trying too hard to make things right again.”
“Is that a bad thing?” he said, his lips a whisper against my own.
Instead of replying, I only slid my arms around his cool neck and pulled him down to my mouth again. Too many thoughts. Vampire or not, I only wanted Edward.
***
Part Three
“Bye, Charlie!” I called up the stairs. I snatched a piece of toast out of the toaster and reached for the jelly. I was running late, so breakfast was on the go today. “I’m taking Edward to his community service assignment. It’s a bit of a drive out there. I should be back in an hour. I’ll meet you at the station, okay?”
“Hmph,” was the grunt that came in reply. I heard the bathroom door shut, and the shower turn on.
Another precious hour, free from being grounded. Edward needed to get arrested more often.
Holding my toast between my teeth, I shrugged a jacket on and grabbed my keys. There beside the phone was a little piece of paper with names and addresses written on it. I had called our community outreach center earlier that morning and gotten the information of people outside of Forks that needed assistance. If Edward refrained from using his vampiric speed in providing that assistance, he might just be able to squeeze in the rest of his hours.
There were more tiny houses out in the middle of the woods than I thought - many of them decrepit, falling down in disrepair while their inhabitants slowly aged inside. How lonely they must be, I thought. Maybe helping those people out would help Edward feel a little better about himself, too. The self-flagellation was getting annoying, especially since he was involving me in it.
Edward was standing outside, waiting for me beside my truck. His eyes narrowed meaningfully at the piece of toast I held in my hand.
I glared at him - still irritated from our conversation about my weight the previous night - and crammed the entire piece of toast in my mouth. “Did you see that?” I mumbled through the mouthful. “I just shoved a who’ pief of toast in my mouf. Boy, I su’ do love to eat.”
“I’m comforted already,” he said dryly. “Did you get the addresses?”
I handed him the piece of paper, trying to swallow without choking. “There’s a lot of them. Take your pick.”
Edward scanned the list, and after a moment, he tapped his finger on one of the addresses. “Well, that’s interesting.”
“What?”
“This address here. It’s out in the middle of nowhere about thirty or forty miles east. A goat farm. They have a well and everything. No electricity.”
“How do you know? Have you been there?”
Edward shook his head. “No, but Emmett and Jasper have told me about it. They went hunting in that area once. Like I said, goat farm. They said something about the place was strange. The old man that lived there came out and chased them away, though they hadn’t made any noise that would have indicated they were there.” Edward sniggered, his face melting into a huge grin. “Emmett said the man tried to cast a spell on them, but they were too fast and managed to get away. I teased him about that for months.”
“A spell?” I asked, snickering right along with him. “Like a witch or wizard of something? Oh, come on, Edward.”
He glanced over at me, eyebrows raised. “You don’t believe in magic?”
“Pffft. No.”
“And yet you believe in vampires and werewolves.”
“Only because I’ve seen them with my own eyes. Just call me Agent Scully.”
Edward smiled and shrugged. “I don’t believe in it either, for much the same reason. I’ve never seen any evidence of it. But now I’m curious what frightened Emmett and Jasper away. Take me there, to that house first. I need to meet this character face to face. I’ve been teased relentlessly since my arrest. Having something to throw right back at them would be nice.”
I frowned up at him uncertainly. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
Edward grinned at me, mischief shining in his eyes. “You’re not afraid, are you?”
“Of an old man with goats? Yes. Trembling in my boots.” The sarcasm was thick.
“Then let’s go, Scully.”
***
We drove and drove, far outside the borders of Forks. I was a little peeved with Edward. There were houses much closer to us that we could have gone to. We took a winding dirt road along a river bank, up a steep hill, and eventually came to a lovely but overgrown spot in the woods.
There, behind two large pens of goats, stood the saddest little house I’ve ever seen. It had once been white, but mildew and the weather had gotten to it. The fence around the goat pen was in serious disrepair, but the goats inside just chewed and bleated at each other, seemingly unconcerned with the obvious escape routes all around them. Perhaps they were happy there.
Edward whistled under his breath. “This place really needs some help, doesn’t it? I should have brought some paint instead of just tools and lawn equipment. Tomorrow perhaps.”
“It’s pretty sad, all right,” I agreed. “I’ll come with you to the door. I was the one that called the outreach center, so it might be me he’s expecting. Not you. His name is Larry, by the way. Larry Waxman.”
Edward hung back, inspecting a hole in the fence while I trudged through thick weeds toward the front door. It wasn’t creepy at all the way Emmett and Jasper had claimed. Just heartbreaking. Stepping carefully over an overgrown herb garden, I reached the porch, wrinkling my nose at the dirt and weeds that had split through the broken concrete.
The door opened before I could knock, and there behind a tattered screen door stood the most curious person I’ve ever met.
“Hello, Isabella Swan,” he said before I could even open my mouth. The voice was nasal but polite. He smiled at me toothlessly.
I stared at Mr. Larry Waxman, dubious. The reason for the condition of the house was obvious. One of his legs had been amputated below the knee, and the hand that clutched a cane to support himself was missing several fingers. But that wasn’t what made him so peculiar to me. He looked like he’d been locked up for his entire life, probably around sixty years of life from the looks of it, with nothing but a collection of old Star Trek re-runs. The word nerd came to mind, but it was much, much worse than that. This was an eccentric nerd. Thick glasses, low on his nose, which was crowned with an overabundance of nose hair. Stringy, tangled white hair reached far past his scraggly salt-and-pepper beard. He wore dirty jeans and a flannel shirt with a Frodo Lives t-shirt underneath.
A warlock, indeed.
Emmett and Jasper were never going to hear the end of this - from Edward or me. I could see Edward out of the corner of my eye, his mouth curled into a tight smile. He was trying not to laugh, the wheels in his head spinning, probably working out the best insult possible to aim at his brothers.
“H-hi, Mr. Waxman. How do you know my name?” I asked him. “Oh, I guess the people at the community outreach center called you and said we were coming, huh? I’m not staying, though. Just my friend over there.”
Larry squinted in the direction I pointed with his hand over his eyes like a meerkat. I wasn’t convinced he could see past the edge of the porch. “Oh, my...” he murmured, seemingly awestruck when he caught sight of Edward. “That’s no moon.”
I turned and looked behind me. “Um. No. That’s Edward.”
“It’s ... a space station,” he finished breathlessly, wide-eyed as he stared at my boyfriend. “Here to help me? Really? Or here for something else?” He blinked down at me, his eyes huge behind his thick glasses. “He belongs to you, my dear? But you’re no Jedi.”
Ooo-kay. A George Lucas fan, then. Not Star Trek at all. My mistake.
“Yes, he uh ... belongs to me. Sure. He’s going to help you here today with your lawn and fence. Is there anything else he can do? Maybe inside the house? He needs a lot of hours, so don’t be afraid to ask him.”
The man’s face brightened. “I have a cat.”
“That’s ... really nice, Mr. Waxman. Do you, uh, need Edward’s help with the cat?”
He thought about it for a moment. “No. Thank you.”
I could only stare at him blankly. Just ... wow.
“Well, let Edward know if you think of something else for him to do. He’s really quite friendly.”
“Is that so? Yes, I can tell just by looking at him. The force is strong with him. Absolutely amazing!” He suddenly looked delighted. “Tell him he may have one of my goats. And if he does a good job with the fence, I’ll have something else to reward him with. I’ll just go inside and brew it up now. A trifle really. He’ll feel like a new man. You just wait and see how quickly!”
“Oh. Well, that’s very nice of you.” I really didn’t want to ask what Mr. Waxman was intending to make for Edward. Probably bantha fodder or something. “I should be going now. My dad - the police chief - is expecting me.” Couldn’t hurt to let him know I knew someone that owned a gun. Just in case.
“Goodbye, Isabella Swan! Thank you for bringing him by. I must say, I’m quite taken aback by the both of you.”
The feeling was mutual. I smiled and nodded, then turned to walk back toward Edward. He had already taken the lawn equipment and tools out of my truck and had started picking up broken fence boards from the ground, stacking them into a pile.
“This place is a mess,” he murmured. “I might be here a while.”
I nodded my chin back toward the house. “Ben Kenobi over there says you can have a goat. So if you’re feeling peckish after all the work, problem solved. Though I don’t think he meant to eat it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You’re going to give Emmett and Jasper hell over this, aren’t you?”
“Oh my, yes.”
“Can I join in?”
“I would think less of you if you didn’t.”
Grinning, I leaned up to accept his goodbye kiss. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Larry was still standing in the doorway, his mouth ajar as he watched us. When we parted, he smiled and broke out into astonished applause.
Edward knitted his brow, a cautious expression on his face. “Strange,” he murmured to me. “I get the feeling that he knows exactly what I am, though he hardly seems bothered by it. He’s blocking my thoughts, you know. I can’t read his mind.”
I glanced back, only to find that Larry had gone back inside. He was watching us now from the window through an enormous pair of binoculars.
“I think that might be because there’s not much going on in his head to begin with,” I whispered back.
“Hmmm. If you say so.”
I leaned up to kiss him again, unable to keep from smiling when his lips touched mine. “Be nice to him,” I said before I left. “He’s old and confused. I’ll pick you up in a few hours. Call me when you’re done, okay? If I’m not at home, I’ll be at the station with Charlie, helping him with his paperwork.”
***
It was a bumpy and lonely ride back to Forks. Not to mention a long one.
I took a wrong turn and got lost, driving around for over an hour before I found the right road again. It had started to rain, which slowed me down even more. I shook my head, angry at myself. Charlie was going to kill me. I was supposed to meet him an hour ago, and I was going to be even later than that.
My truck worried me. It was making a strange buzzing sound on the way. Again and again at random intervals, hard to pinpoint because of all the road noise. I was going to have to get Charlie or Edward to look at it. I doubted Jacob would even consider it. What was that sound anyway? It sounded almost like ... a cell phone on vibrate, but muted somehow. But I didn’t have one with me, and Edward had his. Unless...
I dug into the crease between the cushions of the seat. Sure enough, my hand closed over something wedged in there, forgotten. I recognized it instantly, all sleek, black, and intimidatingly complicated. Edward’s cell phone. It had probably slipped out of his jacket pocket on the bumpy road out of town. I recognized the picture that smiled back at me, lit up on the screen of the phone. Alice was calling.
I answered it. Edward wouldn’t mind, I was sure. “Hey, Alice. It’s Bella.”
“Bella...” she said, a strange tone in her voice. “Why are you answering Edward’s phone? I’ve been trying to call for over an hour.”
“He left his phone in my truck. It was on vibrate, and I didn’t know what the buzzing was.”
A long pause. “You’re not with him?”
“No.”
“Do you know where he went?” she asked quickly. “It’s important, Bella.”
I frowned. Why did she sound so panicked? That couldn’t be good. “He’s doing his community service, Alice. You know that. He ran out of things to do in town, so he’s been visiting the smaller communities in the area.”
“But you don’t know exactly where he went?”
“I just dropped him off. I have the address, if you want it.”
“Yes. I do. Though I think I’m too late to do anything about it. Oh, Edward, you idiot. You never have your cell phone on you when it really matters, do you? It’s like Italy all over again. At least this time, he didn’t purposely throw it in a trash can.”
That scared me. “Is he in some kind of danger? What do you see, Alice? Is he hurt?” My voice grew more alarmed with each word.
“No, nothing like that, Bella,” she assured me. “Edward will be ... fine.” She said the word like she couldn’t think of a better one. “I really should be going now. May I have that address? I’m going to pick him up right now.”
I gave it to her. “You’ll call me back?”
“If I can. Just relax, Bella. He’ll be fine.”
But there was doubt in her voice. I really hated being lied to by vampires who thought they knew what was best for me. It was starting to become a way of life.
***
Part Four
Once I finally managed to find my way back to Forks, I met Charlie at the police station to help him finish his paperwork. It was my punishment for being allowed out of the house to drive Edward around, and I was in even deeper now that I had run so late after getting lost.
I was uneasy, worried about the phone call with Alice, but there was nothing I could do about it. I could turn around and head right back up to that old house, but with the way Alice drove, they were likely to be gone already. Alice would know what was best. I had to trust in that. But I worked in Charlie’s office quickly, inattentively, fretting and wondering if I could maybe take the paperwork home to work on - just in case Alice or Edward showed up there while I was gone.
Charlie watched me carefully as I tried to sort through a stack of mangled, coffee-ringed papers. I’m sure it was quite evident that I was tense.
“That boyfriend of yours behaving himself?” asked Charlie.
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of his voice. Me, uptight? No, not at all. “Yes, Dad,” I replied after I calmed myself enough to speak. “He’s not driving.”
“Hmph. You know I could have had the book thrown at him, Bell. They wanted to try him as an adult. You ought to be thanking me he only got community service.”
I rolled my eyes. I could feel one of Charlie’s famous Edward-lectures coming on. Similar to the way a sore throat signaled the onset of a cold ... or something a lot worse, like the Spanish Influenza. “Thank you, Chief Swan.”
Edward-lecture in three, two...
“You really love that boy that much?” asked Charlie, true to form. “To take him back after everything he did to you?”
“Yes,” I sighed. “I do.”
“Cause that was a pretty rotten thing to do. To just leave you hanging like that for all those months.”
Kneeling on the ground, I dropped a stack of papers in a box with a little more force than necessary. Dust flew in my face. “If you knew how hard he was trying to make it up to me, you might think better of him. I wish you would give him a chance.”
“Jacob Black wouldn’t have done that to you.”
“Jacob Black is barely speaking to me,” I said, interrupting him before he could say more. “You want to talk about someone leaving me hanging? I did nothing to him to deserve that!”
But even as I said it, guilt gnawed at my insides. Nothing except break his heart and his trust in me, that is.
Charlie had his arms crossed over his chest. “Try looking at it from his perspective. I think he had a little crush on you, and here Edward comes back and chases him away. Jacob doesn’t think Edward is good for you either, you know.”
“Yes, I guess you and Jacob are hanging out a lot these days, huh?” I said, not bothering to hide my aggravation. “That’s just great, Dad. But just so you know, Edward didn’t chase Jacob away. He left on his own accord. And there’s no contest there between them. Jacob is my friend, or he used to be anyway. I just can’t think of him as more than that.”
“Jacob is a better match for you, Bella,” said Charlie, leaning forward in his chair. “He’s ... oh, what’s the word? Warmer than that Edward. Friendlier. Less reckless with you.”
“Less reckless?” I scoffed. “You do remember the motorcycle and the cliff-diving, don’t you? Edward treats me like I’m made of glass.”
The color of Charlie’s face shifted to something that resembled a ripe plum. The topic of motorcycles was a bit of a no-no around him. “Hmph,” he grunted, not wanting to admit that I had just made a darn good argument against Jacob. “So how serious are you two anyway?”
I shrugged. “Serious.”
“We talking marriage or what?”
“Ugh!” I cried, dropping another pile of papers into the box, this time without meaning to. I missed, and the pages scattered all over the place.
“I have a right to know, Bella. I’m your father.”
“No marriage!”
Charlie’s jaw tightened, but he looked slightly appeased. “Well, good. You’re too young.”
“That’s exactly what I told him.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Charlie’s eyes widened. “Edward ... proposed to you?”
“Um...” I stooped to the floor to avoid answering the question, keeping my eyes averted as I started scooping up the fallen papers.
My hesitance answered his question just as plainly as if I had voiced it. I thought the vein on his forehead might pop. “You said no, right?”
“Obviously,” was my heated answer.
Charlie’s eyes cleared, and he beamed at me, delighted. The vein on his forehead relaxed and turned a more nature shade. “That’s my girl.”
“Oh, Dad, just stop it,” I muttered, gathering the last of the fallen pages into a messy stack. It was difficult work because my hands were shaking. Even distracted by Charlie, my thoughts were still on Alice and Edward. I felt sick with nerves, deep in the pit of my stomach. Closing my eyes, I tried to rub some of the tension out of the back of my neck and just relax. It didn’t work.
“Well, I can’t help it if I want my little girl safe,” said Charlie begrudgingly. “Hey ... what’s wrong with you today anyway? You look like you’ve got ants in your pants.”
“I hate that saying,” I grumbled. “What does it even mean?”
“It means you won’t sit still. You look like you’re about to bolt for the door. You wanna tell your old man what’s going on?”
Yes. I did want to tell him. But that might not be the best idea. Hand still rubbing at the knot in my neck, I sat down on the floor next to the box of papers and weighed my options.
Option one: tell Charlie the truth about what was happening with Edward and Alice. And then, because he was Charlie, he would tell me to suck it up and finish my work and remind me exactly what it meant to be grounded. Option two: I could pretend to be sick and ask to go home. Whereupon Charlie wouldn’t believe me because he wasn’t stupid, and then there would be more grounding because I had lied. Option three: I could just make a run for the door. But call me crazy ... that might look a little suspicious. Again, cause for another grounding.
“Charlie,” I said, eyes on the floor as I pondered. He had to know I was being serious now. I was using his first name. “I think I need to go home. Now. I can take this paperwork with me to organize there if you want me to.”
Charlie’s face was devoid of expression. “I would have thought you would have liked to be out of the house. You’ve still got a ways to go with that grounding sentence of yours,” he reminded me, but there was no heat behind his words. I could tell he was concerned, but he wasn’t convinced yet.
I suddenly remembered something that might make him understand the urgency burning in my chest. “Dad, do you remember when I was little and had that high fever? When I was in Forks, visiting you that one summer?”
He nodded, chewing on the end of a pen cap. “You were six years old. Your temperature was one-hundred and five by the time I got you to the emergency room. They said I got you there right in time. Any later and it might have done some real damage to you.”
“But do you remember the rest? You said you woke up in the middle of the night and just knew somehow that something was wrong with me. That I was sick and needed you.”
“Well, sure, Bell. When you’re a parent, you’ll understand the feeling.”
“I already understand it.” I stared at him, trying to make him understand. “Dad, something’s wrong. I don’t know how I know. I just do. I need to go home right now.”
Charlie gazed right back at me for several long moments, chewing on that pen cap, weighing my words. Perhaps it was the story I’d chosen, or perhaps it was the look on my face, but he took his feet off of his desk and stood up. “I’ll get my keys,” he said, giving me a little nod.
“Why your keys and not mine?” I asked, already shrugging into my jacket to leave. “I have my truck here.”
“Because I’m driving you.”
***
Alice’s car was parked outside of our house when we pulled up in Charlie’s police cruiser.
“Now, Bella, just wait! Not until I stop the car completely!”
But I was free of my seatbelt and out of the car before it came to a complete stop. Behind me, Charlie growled and put the car in park while it was still inching up the driveway. It screeched to a halt. He cut the engine and got out in a rush, trying to catch up with me.
“You slow down, and wait for me,” I heard him call out behind me. “I’m serious, Bella!”
But I was already at the porch, trying the door handle. It was unlocked. Inside, I heard a crash upstairs, as if someone clumsy had tripped over something or had fallen. I froze. That certainly didn’t sound like Edward or Alice up there. No vampire made noises like that. They didn’t trip or stumble.
Maybe it was because I was the police chief’s daughter, or maybe it was because of my run-ins with characters like James or Victoria, but I instinctively reached for the closest weapon. Perhaps not the most effective one - it was a lamp - but if it wasn’t something supernatural up there, I might actually be able to do some damage with it.
Alice appeared before my vision so suddenly that I had to stifle a scream. “Bella! Where have you been?” she hissed.
“I was...”
“Never mind that!” she said, cutting me off before I could answer her question. “I need your help. Edward needs to stay here with you. I can’t bring him back to the house like this.” Her eyes shifted to the doorway, quick like a cat’s. “Oh. Hello, Chief Swan. Sorry to barge in like this. It’s sort of an emergency.”
Charlie had stumbled into the house behind me. “Alice,” he said in a clipped tone. He still liked Alice, but there was a bit of anger there. After all, she had been the one who had taken me away without warning for three days to find Edward, which had led to my grounding in the first place. “I’m sorry, but it’s not Bella’s visiting hours right now. She’s still grounded, you know. You and your brother need to go home.”
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked her pleadingly, ignoring my father.
“He’s sick, Bella!” said Alice, and the expression on her face terrified me. It reminded me of when she’d foreseen Edward make the decision to go to the Volturi. “I don’t know how, but he’s sick! I left him in your room. I need to go find Carlisle. He and Esme are out hunting and aren’t answering their phones. Can you watch over him until I get back? I’ll try to get word to Emmett and Rosalie so that they can come help you. Listen to me, Bella - don’t let Jasper anywhere near Edward, okay? That’s very important.”
“S-sure.”
“Now wait just a second...” started Charlie.
“I’m sorry, Chief Swan!” Alice turned urgent eyes on me and said, as if trying to tell me something, “I really can’t take him home like this. I’ll explain later.”
I didn’t catch her meaning, and the doubt left me trembling.
Alice left without another word, moving a little faster than she should have under Charlie’s watchful gaze. He and I stared at the front door as it slammed, stunned. My heart pounded in my throat. Upstairs, I distinctly heard the sound of Edward crying out in pain. It was a choked scream. Something hit the floor with a crash.
Charlie heard it, too. He pushed me back behind his body protectively. “What the hell? Is that Edward? Bella, stay here.”
“Like hell!” I gasped back at him. I thundered up the stairs right on Charlie’s heels, pushing at his back, urging him to move faster. I’m not sure how, but I already knew what I was going to find. And sure enough...
Edward was writhing on my bedroom floor, his face twisted in an expression of pure agony.
He wasn’t crying out anymore. I think the pain must have gone beyond that.
Charlie swore loudly and rushed to Edward’s side to help. And me? I could only just stand there in the doorway with that stupid lamp still in my hands, wide-eyed and horror stuck.
It reminded me so much of Italy - when Jane had taken hold of Edward with her cruel, torturous gaze - that I looked around to see if she was there in my bedroom somewhere, hidden with her crimson eyes shining with pitiless indifference. But we were alone.
“Edward?” asked Charlie, gripping him by the shoulders. “Edward! Look at me, boy! Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
There was no answer. Edward had stopped writhing and had become eerily still in Charlie’s arms. How strange he looked. Like a ragdoll, limp and lifeless. Lashes dark against his white cheek. His skin was paler than normal, yet flushed somehow, covered in beads of sweat. But that wasn’t right. I had to be seeing things.
Charlie pried one of Edward’s closed eyes apart, and swore again when he saw the dilated pupils. “Is he on drugs, Bella?” he asked me urgently. “I need to know!”
Unable to speak, I could only shake my head.
“Are you positive? I think he just had a seizure or a heart attack or something. Call 911, Bella. Now! He’s not breathing!”
Charlie started CPR. I wanted to tell him that was just silly ... Edward didn’t have a heartbeat. Edward didn’t need to breathe. But Edward wasn’t moving. I had never seen him unconscious or even asleep because that wasn’t possible.
Charlie reared on me. “Bella! 911, now!”
“Edward...?” I whispered, slowly feeling myself grow hysterical.
And then Edward gasped and opened his eyes.
He rolled over onto his side, gripping his stomach with a gut-wrenching moan, and started coughing violently. Gasping for air. Clutching at the carpet with pale, shaking hands.
Charlie knelt over him, slapping him on the back. “It’s okay, son. I’ve got you. Just breathe! ”
Edward’s coughs slowed but still he wheezed. His lungs sounded congested, incapable of giving him the oxygen he inexplicably seemed to need at that moment. Sweat dripped from his brow onto the floor. Charlie eased him over gently onto his back, holding the back of his head with one hand and checking his pulse at the neck with the other.
“He’s okay, Bella,” said Charlie, looking just as scared and shaken as I was. “But we need to get him to the hospital. His heart is about to beat out of his chest.”
I didn’t budge a millimeter. Standing. Staring. Ready to faint. Edward’s eyes slowly peeled apart, bloodshot and dazed, and he looked right at me.
They were a clear, piercing green.
He licked his lips, pale from pain. “Bella?” he whispered, still gasping. His voice sounded strange to me. Still soft and refined, but huskier somehow. Less musical.
The lamp slipped from my fingers and crashed to the floor at my feet. I didn’t notice.
Edward wasn’t Edward at all.
He was human.
***
To be continued.
Author’s Note: I find it very ironic that I have two stories going at the moment. One where Bella is a vampire, and now one where Edward is a human. It’s a bit of a mind-f*ck. :) I had an eccentric Brent Spiner in my head when I created the character of Larry Waxman. Just in case you’re interested.
Something that inspired other issues in this story ... I think that Bella got over the whole Edward-dumping-her thing far too quickly in the novels. I get that she was happy to have him back and completely buy everything that Stephenie Meyer wrote, but I think there was a lot we didn’t see that took place between New Moon and Eclipse. I plan on exploring that in this story.
Why? Well, read for yourself. This one passage inspired this entire story.
"I'll earn your trust back somehow," he murmured, mostly to himself. "If it's my final act."
"I trust you," I assured him. "It's me I don't trust. ... I don't trust myself to be… enough. To deserve you. There's nothing about me that could hold you."
"Your hold is permanent and unbreakable," he whispered. "Never doubt that."
But how could I not?
- From New Moon, written by Stephenie Meyer. (Not me!) After Edward and Bella have been reunited at the end of the book. Several lines omitted for brevity’s sake.