I had to chuckle to myself when she leapt off my bed to the floor. Over-eager, she landed on the floor with a thump, and her eyes flew wide in surprise.

"Control, Bella." I said, laughing at the bewildered look on her beautiful face. "You're a lot stronger than any object in this house. Go easy on our poor things!"

Heeding the hidden warning in my voice, she stepped again lightly, walking slowly forward, skimming the ground as if almost floating. I felt her surprise, dull in the back of my mind now. I'd quickly learned to tell the difference between what I was feeling at what she was. And being me, of course I was eager to learn if I could manipulate this connection to help keep her calm and safe. Lord only knows what trouble she could get herself into now that she was changed.

"I bet you can still find ways to trip yourself up." I teased, voicing my thoughts. I smiled at her, enjoying the sappy, gooey look that came into her eyes, glad that she still saw me the same way, even if she was no longer attracted to me in the way she had been when she was human, now that she was immune to my charm, specially designed to lure in the unsuspecting.

"Hush you!" she snapped, but she was laughing.

I heard hurried footsteps in the hall. Just as Bella reached for the door handle, the door flew open.

"Bella!"

I suppressed a laugh at the brief look of surprise on Bella's face before she was hurled backwards through the air.

Well, Alice was known to get over excited sometimes.

Bella snarled in reflex to being attacked. A loud, tearing sound from deep in her throat.

Alice jumped off her, eyes wide.

"Impressive!" She whistled.

"Thanks Alice." Bella said, sitting back up.

Alive bent forward, inspecting Bella with eager eyes that betrayed the smooth unreadable expression on her face.

"That will fade of course." She said, rubbing Bella's arm and nodding at her unnerving eyes. "It'll start to go away as you use up your remaining human blood."

"I know, thank god." Bella replied. "It's scary. Makes me feel like some horrible monster."

I couldn't hold back the chuckle this time. "Well, technically we are monsters, Bella." We. I shuddered, that would take some getting used to.

"You know what I mean." she retorted.

Alice pulled Bella to her feet, with difficult as Bella was reluctant to move now. Bella's smugness was not lost on me, and I smiled again.

Then a sudden thrill of fear ran through me, I saw what Alice was thinking before she even stepped backwards.

"Race you downstairs!" Alice called, and was off like a bullet from a gun.

"Bella, no!" I snapped, watching her face as she gave in to her instincts to chase. With a snarl she took off after my sister.

"NO! You can't control your speed yet!" I yelled after her.

It was a long shot and I knew it, but I was still taken aback when she didn't listen to me.

I rolled my eyes angrily and growled before going after her. I followed closely and silently behind her. She was so focused on her goal that I could've been leading a marching band behind her and she wouldn't have noticed.

I winced when she almost took herself out on the rail of the upmost case of stairs, but she didn't even notice. I was right, I noticed with a twinge of unease. Graceful or not she was still as clumsy as ever, as well as being newborn and uncontrolled. Not a fantastic combination, I thought bitterly, my jaw set firm in a stern expression of disgust.

Alice leaped over the rail of the staircase to the ground below, and I felt Bella hesitate and took the chance while I had it.

"Bella!" I grabbed her arm. "Don't even—"

She pulled away from me almost easily, cutting me off. She was stronger than I was, and I hoped for my own sake as well as hers that her sudden strength would wane fast, or I'd never be able to control her and stop her hurting others.

She jumped up onto the rail and prepared to leap, and I was cheered slightly that there seemed to be some sort of human instinct of apprehension trying to overcome her other, not so desirable instincts. I wondered for a moment if she realised that technically she was hunting Alice.

She half leapt, half stumbled, and just as I predicted she fell. Silly, typical Bella.

I rushed to the rail, willing Alice to catch her. I looked down, and what I saw made me catch my breath in surprise. Had my heart been beating, I was sure it would've just stopped.

Bella was floating, facing upwards, her hair brushing against Alice's, her face an almost comical expression of surprise. She gasped, and suddenly dropped, Alice catching her deftly under her arms.

"Bella!' I heard Alice gasp as she let her go.

Bella barely paused to take a breath, before she took off back up the stairs. I scowled, knowing from her excitement that she was going to do it again.

I caught her around the waist as she made for the rail again.

"Are you ok?" I asked, spinning her around by the shoulders, quickly checking her for injuries.

"I'm fine Edward." she said, planting a quick kiss on my cheek. Sucking up I guessed, for almost giving me a heart attack. It wasn't an easy thing to do. "I have to try this again."

"I knew you'd say that," I sighed, resigned. God knows she would just do it anyway, whether I agreed to let her or not. "Wait, I'm going downstairs to catch you."

"You can try." She taunted, a teasing look on her beautiful face.

Ignoring her confidence, I glared at her. I wasn't eager to admit I was scared, but I knew she felt it anyways, and her face softened for a moment. I kissed her forehead quickly and ran downstairs, reaching the ground below in record time, even for me. I stood by Alice, she took a step back. I looked at her questioningly, not sure whether to be offended or not at her lack of feeling for what Bella was about to do.

Nothing's going to happen to her. I heard her think. She looked at me, and I knew she was trying to calm me down.

"Have a bit of faith Edward." She said for Bella's benefit, and chuckled, punching me lightly on the shoulder and moving backward again. "She has no plans to hit the ground."

She said it as if I hadn't already seen how this would turn out in her thoughts, but I barely had a moment to be puzzled before Bella leapt from the ledge again.

I held my breath as she started to fall for a moment, tensed, ready to catch her. But then she stopped. She was suspended upright in mid-air, as surely as if something was holding her there. She turned around, gazing down at me. I looked up at her, amazed.

"You…You can…" I was lost for words –for once.

"FLY!" she finished for me, excitement evident in her voice.

I looked over at Alice, checking that she hadn't seen Bella doing anything dangerous while she was up in the air. Comforted by what I saw, I turned back to Bella. I got an odd sense of déjà vu, seeing her sit on the rail, legs crossed, just as I'd seen in Alice's thoughts.

She looked down, surprised, and I turned, following her gaze. I hadn't noticed Emmett and Rosalie's entrance; I was too focused on Bella.

I felt Bella's sudden apprehension as she came down the stairs, her vivid red eyes focused on Rosalie's expressionless face.

Rosalie's thoughts were almost incoherent, she was a combination of angry and confused. I was surprised to find a sense of kinship to Bella buried deep in her confused thoughts. This was an amazing development, considering the scene Rosalie had made trying one last time to change Bella's mind about letting me change her.

I heard Emmett and Alice's apprehensive thoughts beside me, but I spared them no glance, ready to defend Bella if need be.

I tried to calm Bella down, seeing she was scared. I felt a returning thrill of indignation and she sent me a murderous glance, and I suppressed a chuckle again.

Taking us all by surprise (even me, her thoughts had unscrambled so fast I almost missed it. Damn Bella) Rosalie smiled suddenly and warmly at Bella, pulling her quickly into a hug.

Emmett's thoughts changed, smug now. I elbowed him in the ribs, satisfied to hear the internal hiss of pain in his thoughts.

"Wow, Bella!" Rosalie said, pulling back, surveying Bella with obvious interest, careful to ignore the color of her eyes, and I remembered how much she'd hated her own when she was changed. "You look great."

And then it all fell into place when I heard the obvious effort behind what my sister said. Rosalie was almost jealous still. But in an entirely different way than she had been a few days before. Jealous that Bella was definitely some competition to her looks wise. I suppressed yet another chuckle, with a quick humorous thought over whether I'd choke on them eventually.

Typical Rosalie.

"Not as great as you Rosalie, we both know that!" Bella replied, and I was pleased that she was doing her best to appease Rosalie with the compliment.

It worked perfectly. Rosalie ducked her head to hide her smile, completely satisfied.

"Thank you Bella." She said.

Then she grabbed Bella by the arms. "Now, care to explain what the hell that was?"

"I think we'd like to hear that explanation ourselves!" a familiar voice called from the top of the staircase.

I cursed to myself; I hadn't noticed them enter the room. I was missing so much today, it made me uneasy.

Esme and Carlisle came down the stairs, both pairs of eyes intently focused on Bella.

"Bella can fly!" Alice exploded happily. "I've never seen anything like it before, it was amazing!"

I glared at her for a moment, seeing her thoughts and knowing her plans for Bella. I'd have to discourage that, very quickly …

Esme beamed at my wife, putting an arm around her and kissing the top of her head. "It's nice to see you up and about again." She said warmly to her.

Bella's eyes flickered nervously over to Carlisle, who grinned suddenly.

"That's … interesting." He said. "I must admit, Bella. I really was curious to see what gifts you'd have after you'd been changed."

I knew that was true, I'd heard it in his thoughts days ago. For a while before I changed her, actually. Since the idea had first come to us.

I cursed under my breath this time as yet another voice came into the room. I really didn't like missing so much.

"Gifts? Who's got gifts?" Jasper said, closing the door behind him.

I sighed, grinning at Bella as I turned to explain again, and her answering smile gave away that she felt what I felt, a pride so strong it was surely going to burst out of me.