Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga and its universe are owned by Stephenie Meyer. No profit is made here and no offense intended.

BPOV

I flipped through the clothes in my closet, humming. I had woken this morning to find Forks awash in sunshine, and I couldn't wait to get outside. I chose a red tank top and white shorts, and in a few minutes I was heading down the stairs, careful to hold onto the rail. I had just gotten my cast off yesterday, and while I was thrilled to see my leg again, it was a bit weak. My knee was shaky on the stairs.

"Mornin', Bells," Charlie said from behind the paper as I entered the kitchen. "How's that leg holding up today?"

"Great. What's the paper say about the weather this week?"

He flipped back to the weather page. "90s and sunny, all week."

"A heat wave? In Forks?"

He got up to clear his breakfast dishes. "We do have sunshine here occasionally, you know. Well, I'm off to work. What are you up to today?"

"I'm going to soak up as much of that sunshine as I can. This leg needs some serious tanning." We both chuckled as I pointed out the color difference between my good leg and the one that had been hiding in a cast for six weeks. "Oh, and later I might have Edward over for a while, if that's okay?"

He scowled. "Isn't he supposed to be on a hunting trip or something?"

"Yeah, but he said they'd get back sometime today. What's wrong?"

Charlie's cheeks flushed a bit and he scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, the way he always did in these awkward dad moments. "It's just… you've seen a awful lot of him lately. A few weeks ago you wanted to break up with him, but now it's like you two are glued together all the time. Why can't you spend some time with some of your other friends?"

I blushed, too. I still felt guilty about how I had treated Charlie when James had been after me. "Well, I am going to the movies with Angela on Friday night. Anyway, I haven't seen Edward in three days. We'll probably just hang out in the backyard, or walk in the woods or something."

He grunted, opening the front door. "Fine. Take it easy on that leg, though." He waved and shut the door behind him. Two seconds later, the phone rang. My heart did a somersault as I ran to get it. Maybe Edward was already home! Unfortunately, in my excitement I forgot about my weak leg. I had almost made it to the phone when my knee buckled and my left shoulder crashed into the counter as I fell. I sighed as I stood, picking up the phone. "Hello?"

Alice's voice squealed out of the receiver. "Good grief, Bella! Did you have to run to get the phone?"

I held up my arm, frowning at the welt that was already raising two inches below my shoulder. "Just another event in the klutz Olympics. Where are you guys?"

"We're just outside of – stop it, Edward! You can talk to her in a minute!"

There was a rustling sound and my heart skipped a beat as the most wonderful voice in the world spoke this time. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. I miss you... are you almost home?"

"I miss you too," he said softly. "We're on the 5, just North of Portland. I'll be there in two hours, and I have a surprise for you."

I rolled my eyes. His last "surprise" had been a five-course dinner at a fancy hotel in Seattle, complete with a fashion attack from Alice. "This surprise had better not be anything expensive," I muttered into the phone.

"Well… I may need to spend a few dollars on the lunch part. But no, it's not that kind of surprise, and I promise Alice has nothing to do with it."

"Good. I'll see you in a couple of hours, then. I love you…"

"And I love-" Emmett's booming laugh interrupted him and right before the phone cut off, I heard the crashing sound of vampires wrestling inside a twelve-passenger van.

.

.

.

I decided to tackle some housework while I waited for Edward. I knew that if I sat around in the back yard waiting for him it would feel even longer. This had been the longest we had ever been apart, not counting the first week we had met, and I had missed him terribly. The Cullens had taken a weekend hunting trip over to Idaho, and at first, Edward had refused to go along. But I pointed out that he really hadn't been out on a good hunt with his family in a while, and since I had my appointment yesterday to get my cast off, I would be able to get in some Dad-daughter time with Charlie while he was away. Edward had reluctantly agreed, much to his family's delight.

I was just finishing up the dusting, and was lifting a heavy vase back up onto its shelf when I felt a light touch on my shoulder. I screamed, dropping the vase. There was a flash of white beside me and I looked down to see Edward kneeling on the floor, holding the vase an inch above my foot. "Careful, love," he grinned. "I don't think you'd enjoy wearing a new cast in the heat wave." He stood up and replaced the vase. He looked amazing in his white dress shirt, open over a white tee. His eyes were golden, lighter than I had seen them in weeks.

"Edward!" I threw my arms around him and felt his cold kiss on my forehead.

"I missed you so much," he murmured. He moved his kiss down to my lips, but all too soon pulled away to give me a chance to breathe. Then he sighed, turning me slightly and inspecting the welt on my upper arm. "Have you put ice on it?"

"This? I've gotten worse than this sitting still. Now, about that surprise…"

He smiled. "You'll see."

.

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We were driving on the 101 for a while before I figured it out. I was watching the trees fly by when it finally dawned on me that we had gone this way before. "The meadow?" I guessed.

Edward smiled and picked up my hand, which was already entwined in his, and kissed it. "You got it. I thought we'd celebrate your leg's new freedom by doing a little hiking today."

"Um, I'm not sure I'm ready for hiking, actually." I wasn't even ready to run across the living room, as I had already proved.

"Silly girl, you're not going to be doing the hiking, I am. Well… hiking quickly."

We hadn't been to the meadow since before the James incident. The path was too long and too rough for my wheelchair or crutches, and Edward wouldn't carry me, afraid of my leg getting jarred or smacked with branches.

Fifteen minutes later, I was flying through the forest on Edward's back, alternating between feelings of roller-coaster thrill and nausea. As I felt him slowing down, I opened my eyes and saw the clearing just ahead. He set me down gently, and I looked around in wonder. The meadow was wild in the height of its summer beauty with tall grasses, butterflies darting around, and several species of lilies dotting the edges. I was just about to ask how lilies managed to end up in the middle of the forest, when I noticed that a small portion in the middle of the clearing had been freshly mown. It was spread with a huge red-and-white checkered picnic blanket, complete with straw basket and… guitar case?

"You play guitar, too? Since when?"

"I play a lot of instruments. Come on, it's lunch time for the human." As he stepped out of the trees, his face and arms began sparkling in the sun. The dark edges of the forest were dotted with diamonds, their constellations spinning as he moved. I sighed.

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing…" Just feeling insignificant again. "What's for lunch?"

He had packed me one of those pre-made sandwiches from a fancy grocery store, along with a hard-boiled egg, some fresh fruit, and two cookies. As I began to eat, he pulled his guitar out of the case and began tuning it.

"Um, isn't your guitar a little… small?"

"It's a classical guitar. I also play regular acoustic, electric and electrical bass," he answered breezily.

"Okay, now you're just trying to impress your girlfriend."

He laughed. "Guilty as charged. Is it working?"

"That depends. Banjo?"

He laid back on the blanket and propped the guitar against his knees. I thought he was holding it wrong, but I was tired of sounding foolish. He closed his eyes and began plucking the strings gently. "No, that's Jasper's territory," he said.

"You're kidding. And Rosalie's on saxophone, I suppose?"

He snorted, shaking his head. The music grew louder and a beautiful song arose, filling the meadow. The birdsong that had been all around us hushed as Edward serenaded me, and I lost myself in the song, watching his fingers dance over the strings. As the last notes faded away, I sighed. "That was so beautiful," I whispered. "What is it?"

His brow furrowed and he opened his mouth to answer, and shut it again. He looked up at me for a moment, then gave me a crooked grin. "You'll find out someday," he teased. "But I think you'll recognize the next one." He closed his eyes again, and soon I recognized my lullaby – but this time, with a complex descant dancing eerily around the melody. For the next hour or so, I was floating in a musical dream world, complete with glittering musician. After I had finished eating I laid down on the blanket, snuggling my face up to Edward's right shoulder. As my face touched the bare skin of his neck, I drew back in surprise.

Edward's song hit a sour note as he stopped suddenly. "What?"

"You! You're warm."

He picked up his song again. "Our bodies are much like stone or marble in that way. We just pick up the temperature of our environment, and after some time in the summer sun, I suppose we can actually grow warm to the touch."

"Oh, I suppose that makes sense. Does it feel nice?"

"The warmth? I've never thought about it… yes, I suppose it does."

I laid back down, and after a while, my eyelids started to droop. Edward's music faded away to silence, and he wrapped his arms around me, humming as I drifted off to sleep.

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I awoke to a prickling pain on the left side of my face, and as soon as my eyes popped open, the sun blinded me. "Ow," I muttered, squinting my eyes shut again.

"Hmm?" Edward murmured beside me. I unwillingly opened my eyes again. It looked like neither of us had moved since I fell asleep, and judging by the blinding sun just past it zenith above us, I had been asleep for at least two hours. I frowned as I noticed again the pain in my face. Now that I was fully awake, I noticed an identical pain just above my right elbow. I looked down at my arm, seeing nothing but Edward's hand resting gently over my elbow, where he had laid it earlier. That was odd… the pain felt like a bad sunburn, but it was coming from the one part of my arm that wasn't in the sun. I pulled the arm up toward me, wincing in pain as Edward's hand fell away. On the spot he had been touching, there was an huge, angry red mark… and next to it, a strange pattern of five long, thin marks, also red.

Edward had obviously seen it too, and sat up abruptly. I hissed in pain as his collar brushed away from my face.

"What is- Bella, look at your face!" His voice was frantic. My hand shot up to touch the sore area. My own fingers felt unusually cool when they touched it. Edward reached up to touch it as well, but his hand froze in the air just before it reached me. He looked down again at the oddly-shaped mark on my elbow, and his face took on a rather sick look, his eyes darkening slightly.

"What? What's wrong?"

His jaw was clenched now, and he slowly lowered his hand without touching my face. "What's wrong? What's wrong is that I did this to you. Look." He picked up his hand again, this time holding it directly over the painful spot on my elbow. He turned his hand around to match the way he had been touching my elbow earlier, hovering an inch above the skin. I drew my breath in sharply; the red marks were exactly the size and shape of his hand, complete with five fingers.

"I don't understand…" I began. I reached out to take his hand with my other, and as soon as I touched his skin, I understood. It was like touching a hot oven. I yanked my hand back away. Did vampires get fevers? "Oh. But, are you okay? You can't get sick, can you?"

He laughed bitterly. "Am I okay? You're the one covered in burns, just from me touching you, and you want to know if I'm okay?" He shook his head, and then looked back at me miserably. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just… I'm so sorry, I had no idea this could happen, I've never been in the sun with a-"

I held a finger up to his lips to quiet him, but as soon as I touched them, I had to pull away again from the heat. "A human? Don't worry, I'm fine. It just feels like a sunburn, really."

He eyed me suspiciously, and I looked away so he wouldn't see the lie in my eyes. It hurt way more than a sunburn, but I wasn't about to tell him that. He would probably torture himself for weeks about this. Suddenly, I realized that I had another problem.

How was I going to explain this to Charlie?