New Moon is NOT the End (ECLIPSE)

I walked to the front door and took a deep breath.

"Aren't you coming?" I tried to hide the utter horror in my expression. I'd just realized that Edward was no longer behind me; he was already getting into the driver's side of his silver Volvo.

"I don't think that I would be much of a help, what with…" He glanced at the red motorcycle, glistening in the drive next to me. "Well, Charlie isn't exactly my biggest fan, and it is my fault that you- well-"Why was it so hard for him to say? Was it just the guilt, or was it something else? I loved it when Edward struggled for words; it was so…human, next to his many inhuman qualities.

"Well then, don't you feel responsible for fixing this?" I gave a half-hearted smile, and, predicting his answer, turned my back to his distant figure, and honey-velvet laughter.

"ISABELLA MARIE SWAN, I CAN SEE YOU! GET IN HERE NOW!" Charlie-my father- was on the hunt, and headed for the door.

Oh, CRAP. I braced myself for the attack… that still didn't help. He threw the door open and thrust himself out at me.

To my intense disbelief, he threw his arms around me, and held me there.

"DAD-CAN'T-BREATHE!" I gasped for the air which did not come.

He let me go. "A MOTERCYCLE?" His voice was furious as he bellowed the words to my face. But his eyes were loving and protective, like he had seceded to become a father while I was at school. Both of the features held a frighteningly scared look. I didn't like that look. Charlie never really was great shakes at expressing himself, but he was getting better…unfortunately. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? WHY, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? TO YOURSELF… DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW TO RIDE THIS THING? YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED BELLA! Why would you put this on me or Renee…?"

He broke off at the mention of my mother-his ex-wife. But he had stopped yelling.

Yet, I would rather have had him yell at me, then finish in this disappointed, hurt tone. He had been betrayed, and there was no way to take that back.

"I'm sorry." Tears welled up in my eyes, making my speech almost entirely inaudible.

I tried in vein attempts to wipe them away. What would I tell him? I decided on the truth, it was the only way to fix the broken man in front of me.

"Um, dad, maybe we should go sit down inside." I looked up at him. After his red cheeks paled, he looked almost sheepish at his outburst, but I felt that he had good reason to be mad.

When I was seven, he had made me take an oath that I would never ride, or drive, a motorcycle. Charlie was the chief of police in Forks, and in Forks, nothing remotely exciting ever happened. For a cop anyway. But what with Fork's non-stop rain reputation, more then enough motorcycles had skidded around the twisting roads, on the wet greenery. In most car accidents, people walked away, unscathed, but in motorcycle accidents, the victims were usually less fortunate teens.

Charlie had plenty of reasons to keep yelling at me, and only one to stop. But the thought of getting some answers stopped his rage… for at least the moment.

We walked inside to the living room. For once, we sat there without the ESPN background music to back up our swallowed conversations.

He looked across at me from his normal chair. I closed my eyes, and began the explanation.

"It started a couple of months ago, January, I think. The day you, um, woke me up." I stumbled over each word. By waking up, I meant the day that he had brought me out of my five month zombie-phase; a five month period when I talked to no one who did not ask me a question, and offered nothing. I thought nothing as well; it was like all I did for those few months was waste a chunk of my life.

"The day after that, I decided to kind of get revenge on Edward, for making a promise that he had broken the moment he made it. He told me it would be as though he never existed." As the memory was brought back, a burning hole ripped my chest open, as it had done every night of not being a zombie-that was, the days before Edward had come back into my life. "Obviously, that didn't happen, and I didn't want to be the holder of a broken contract.

"My side of the deal was to not be reckless, and if I wanted to be reckless, why not break two promises at one? I did something stupid, and I broke my promise to you. There was a house with some free motorbikes in front, and even though I knew that they didn't work, I figured that maybe Jacob could fix them up for me." I twisted my fingers through each other, not looking at Charlie.

"That's what you did at Jacob's house all that time." He hissed. I nodded.

"Then Jake taught me how to ride them."

"And once you broke both promises, why didn't you stop, Jacob said it continued through almost all the time that you were with him." He accused.

"Well-I-"what should I tell him? Would confessing about hearing Edward's voice every time I used the formula: Stupidity-adrenalin-and danger, do anything helpful?

"I'm waiting." Charlie was never a very patient person.

I sighed, "Well, and don't get mad, but every time I did something dangerous, I had hallucinations of Edward's voice, yelling at me."

"Ed-ward…he was the cause of…" He spoke in a forcibly placid voice.

My mouth and eyes both widened in horror. "No, dad, it's not like that! Edward took no part in this; it was my way of dealing with…" Even the memory of it was unbearable. I clutched at my chest, where the hole had not been for so long.

"IF HE HADN'T EVER LEFT YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEN YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE DONE THIS!" His voice got louder with every word. He was no longer trying to restrain his indignity.

"NO DAD, YOU'RE NOT BLAMING THIS ON HIM! IT'S NOT HIS FAULT! NOTHING IS EVER HIS FAULT!" I tried to match his tone, and it worked, except for the prominent tears at the end which developed into sobs.

He didn't loosen his fist, but he didn't retaliate either, which was somewhat reassuring.

"Why can't you see that? He had nothing to do with this, okay? It was my idea, and it was stupid, but it worked! And I know this isn't what you want to hear, but it's true. And thanks to Jacob, and everything, it did! He's back, and I am unjustifiably happy!" I said the last word rather awkwardly through my enraged sobs.

Charlie did loosen his fists now, but rather than do the sensible thing and comfort me, he took a step back. "He should never have come back. You were doing great with Jacob. And you didn't see yourself those couple of months. It was like you were-I don't know, like you were a-"

"A zombie?" I predicted his last word.

"Exactly, maybe, if he'd never left, things would be different." He was more defined, and dignified now.

"But, if Dr. Cullen and Mrs. Cullen really wanted to move, they couldn't just leave him here." I invented an excuse quickly.

"He is eighteen now, and he was eighteen then." Charlie pointed out.

"Dad, you can't ask him to throw away his entire family to make me happy! Dad," I sighed, "Edward is the best thing that has ever happened to me. There aren't words for the way I feel. It's like I used to be fine with the cards I was dealt, right? Then, I got the 'Edward card,' and now I don't want, or need, any of the other ones. Why can't you be supportive, instead of shunning one of the only solaces that Forks has brought me?" The tears came back…fast.

Any other father, again, would comfort their child when she was in this much pain, but Charlie backed still further away. He looked scared, no, not scarred, horrified.

"You and Edward-" He looked faint. Was he really that obliviously in denial? Edward and I were no longer trying to hide our love.

There was a pause, and then he broke it. "He's not just your boyfriend, is he?" He sat back down.

"Define boyfriend?" My words came out as a question. Ws it just my imagination, or did I really see a fleeting look of triumph in his eyes before he spoke again?

He chuckled darkly, but then, his features changed as realization caught up with his reason.

"Bella, you haven't…" He broke off, blushing heavily. What was the punch-line? I had defiantly missed something.

He moaned something that sounded a lot like where's your mother when you need her? But I couldn't be sure. He took several deep breaths before continuing. "Bella-you and Edward, never… I mean your still a… You've never been with Edward. H-have you?" He braced himself as though dreading the answer.

When realization finally caught up with me, I too, blushed a fairly considerable shade of scarlet. "NO, DAD. It's not like that, we just-I mean we never-NO." I really didn't want to be having this conversation with Charlie. Wasn't this a mom-daughter conversation? Much less, one that I'd already had with my mother as soon as I'd turned sixteen.

But my words were true. All thanks to Edward and his stupid rules. Edward had several boundaries set agenst our…physical relationship. Needless to say, however, that my father had many, many more. But at least it made Charlie sigh in relief.

"I know you love him. I know more than you think I do." I froze with shock as he actually said the 'L' word. But as to the part about him knowing more than I think he does… Well, yeah right! I was the only mortal keeper of a three-hundred year old secret, entrusted in me by all seven of the Cullens. My second family. But Charlie interrupted my disbelief. "You would do anything for him, I know. You would sell your soul, and I can't stop that relationship so easily, can I?" What was with Charlie today? When did he become the expert on relationships? His had only lasted a few years into marriage, before Renee had left him, bringing me right along with her. "Tell me the truth, how far does this go? And, Bella, the TRUTH." He emphasized the last word with heavy burden. "Tell me, does he feel the same? Does he even know the intensity of what you feel?" Okay, this was too much. Charlie doesn't get expressive. Why all of a sudden was he so interested in my life?

"What does it matter to you? You never seemed to care before… Why the sudden rush to intrude on my social life?" Oops, I didn't mean to get as nasty as I felt. But the plus side to my reaction was it did the trick. He was momentarily distracted from his interrogation.

"Because, I am your father, and I might want some sort of warning before you decide to do something juristic, and… I don't know, get pregnant, or married, or something." He said this all very fast…for Charlie's speech anyway.

I gaped, openmouthed at him. When did he get protective, or parental in any way? And why did he have to start with something like this?

I was so preoccupied with hating the conversation, that his words only hit me a minute later. But when they did, they hit hard… Really hard. In fact, once I interpreted his words, the blood pressure in my brain built up so high, that I started to lose consciousness. This isn't anything to fear, really. I was in the hospital day in and day out. I tended to be in danger of breaking something every time I stood up-and even sometimes while sitting. Fainting is just what I do.

But this particular moment, it was not at the sight of blood-which I tended to pass out at too-or any pain, or unnatural excitement. It was because of what Charlie had just said-Get married. This one hit a little too close to home, because Edward had proposed to me once before. I was actually starting to wonder why I declined. It would give me a more than reasonable excuse for spending even more time with him… Not that that was possible, we had almost all our classes together, and he came to my house every night until nine o'clock sharp, when he was shoved out the door by a grimly satisfied Charlie, only to come back through my window after returning his Volvo to his house-moving almost literally at the speed of light to run back to my house and climb lithely through my window.

There was one huge reason to not get married. The truth was that I was only eighteen. My mother had stringent rules about marrying before you're thirty. Her and my father got married when she was eighteen, and well, that didn't go as planned.

By the time I had thought this, I was no longer breathing.

"BELLA?" Finally he came to my side.

"Wha? Oh, oops." I revived.

"Are you feeling okay?" Now, he looked utterly alarmed.

"Um, yeah, I think I'm fine." I sat up, shaking my head to dispel the blackness that was still trying to conquer my conscious mind.

As I thought about the reason behind my fainting spell further, my heart leaped, but my stomach sank. I'd really blown it this time. But I wasn't ready to get married yet. I had a whole life in front of me, right? Wrong. I was not going to live the life of just another human, after graduation, Carlisle-Dr. Cullen and Edwards "adopted" father, who was more of a father to me than Charlie ever was, even though he was only 27 and would be forever (and had been for nearly three-hundred years) - promised to give me the thing I most desired in the entire universe. Edward. Well, of course I already had that, but to be with him forever, until time itself ran out. Carlisle had promised to bite me, which was the only way to become… One of them. A Cullen… A vampire.

I never liked calling them that. Not only was it an insult about the whole: bats; capes; burning in sunlight-clichés. But the Cullens were far too extraordinary to sum up in a seven letter word. The title God didn't even come close, though.

"What exactly made you pass out?" He wasn't giving up that easy.

He had his hand supporting my back, and the other hand was rubbing my knee in an awkward, comforting gesture that only made me feel more self-conscious.

I shrugged that question off. "What made you say the thing about marriage?" I tried to be inconspicuous, using my best off-hand voice, but I don't think it worked to that particular effect.

To add to my confusion, Charlie blushed again. "Oh, well, that… It's nothing, just that well; you're the same age as your mother was when we had our wedding, and I…" The memory was too painful for him to reminisce on, but he took a few very deep breaths, and continued. "I had proposed to her a year after we met. A year after you met Edward was a while ago, and I still didn't know you were in-well, you know. I just want to be prepared if… And um, I really can't contradict you on your decision without being hypocritical."

My mouth was open wide by the time he was completely finished, gaping with incredulity at the man who despised the very existence of my Edward, and was now almost hoping that I would get married to.

"Not everyone's relationships turn out like yours and moms, dad." I only realized the double meaning of my words a second after they had left my stupid mouth.

I meant that not everybody gets married after a single year of dating, but Charlie probably misinterpreted the meaning for not every body's relationships last for less then five years. Both of the statements were true, and if Charlie decided on the ladder, he would defiantly be sulky. Charlie had never gotten over my mother. Renee had found Phil about three years ago, so she was okay-actually, she was far more than okay-with her love-life. But Charlie was unmistakably still in love with my mother. The evidence was everywhere. He had even still had their wedding photographs hanging everywhere, before I had explicitly removed them from the primacies, which was secretly the attic, but I had told Charlie that they had been taken away with the garbage to be set ablaze, and buried deep within the ground for as long as time would allow its decomposition to take place. A clean break was best for someone like Charlie or me.

This aroused something in my mind. Something very unwelcome that was supposed to be hidden beneath layers of psychosis for all of eternity. A clean break, I remembered that fateful day in the forest, clear as glass. The day that Edward had decided to give me the messiest clean break in the history of the universe. The day that he left me for what seemed like forever. Then, that triggered another unwanted memory from that very day. It will be as if I never existed. What a lie that was. Edward existed so very fully every day, even when he had left me.

"I know," Charlie interrupted my hyperventilation episode before it got bad enough for him to notice. "Its just that, you're a legal adult now, so I can't really control you with any more than the house rules like I've been." He bowed his head in shame.

So all this time, I could have been out and about, while I had been under a false house-arrest?

"Are you saying you want me to move out?" I asked, still incredulous. How dare he? I had cooked, cleaned, and cared for him ever since I came to live with him two Januarys ago, and he was repaying me by trying to chuck me out on the streets before I was even half ready. I jumped to this conclusion rather fast, but what else could that mean?

He read my face well enough to realize that he had stepped -or pole-vaulted- over some invisible line or other. "No! I just… want you to be happy, and if that means you being with Edward forever, then, so be it. I'm not stopping you anymore. I'm tired of being mad at you, and having you never speaking to me."

I jumped up, shaking my head slowly, as if to say; "that is still not enough, dad," and stormed out of the room.

"I-I'm going out, dad." I yelled. I decided that I could not stay in my room forever, and as long as being grounded was only in my head, why not escape him entirely? In fact, why not escape Forks on the whole?

I was intent on going to Jacob's house on the Quileute Indian reservation in La Push. He was going to pay for this highly 'interesting' conversation with Charlie. If Jacob hadn't told him about the bikes-intent on purposely grounding me-, he would not have had this little sit-down, would we? Jake had it coming, and it would come!

I got outside, and the first thing I saw was that damn silver Volvo. Edward, I knew, would without a doubt, try to prevent my going to the reservation.

Edward, being…what he was, was condemned to be the single mortal enemy of werewolves. My friend Jacob happened to be one, and the hate was mutual.

But I had been friends with Jacob since before his metamorphosis into a wolf. Actually, I had known Jacob ever since he was born, our fathers were friends. But a few months ago, we really started hanging out. I mean really hung out. On a daily basis, I would go to Jacob's place, and watch him fix two destroyed motor-bikes. I watched them transform into working machines in no time. Then he taught me how to ride them, thus: taking the intended revenge on Edward's broken promise.

Edward got out of his car and ran to close the door to my truck before I had finished opening it. He was quicker then lightning, just one of his many perfect attributes that came from being a-as Jacob called them-Cold One. Actually, Jacob had many nic-names for my second family. Leach was one, and blood-sucker. But cold one was the official name given to them by none other then the Quileutes themselves.

Edward grabbed my shoulders and spun me around to face him. His eyes were smoldering, making me forget all about stupid Jacob.

I was pinned to the truck by Edward's entire body when he spoke. "Why are you upset?" His breath took mine entirely away, and all I could do was stare into his gorgeous eyes. Why was I upset in the first place again? Edward's endless eyes made me forget about that as well. Everything was messed up in a surreal kind of way, but at the same time, nothing was wrong.

I shrugged, he chuckled.

"Come with me." He whispered and kissed the very top of my forehead as I tried to remember exactly how one breathes. This was not unusual, Edward often rendered me breathless. Not only was it on a daily basis, but just every time our eves met, or he touched me. This happened to be a dangerous combination of the two. I nodded and got into the passenger's side of that silver car I could never get mad at.

As I looked up at the house one last time, I saw Charlie's face peeking through the blinds. I could have sworn he had given Edward a thumbs-up signal. Then he was gone.

"So, what did I miss?" Edward pulled me back to a surreal reality with difficulty.

"Huh?" Miss? What had he heard? Oh, God, what had he heard?

"Well, I heard the first part." He looked at me sideways to make sure that I hadn't died of mortification yet... Yet. "Then I saw his thoughts. The conclusions his mind went to made me run, but then-."

I cut him off. "You were listening? Tell me you're kidding. That you find it amusing to see me in this distress. Anything but listening to that!" I moaned audibly, burrowing my scarlet face into my hands. It took me several deep soothing breaths to calm down. "What did you hear, exactly?" My voice shook with indefinable rage. No particular reason I should get angry, I was simply angry in general at this moment. Why did he have to be eves-dropping? Oh, right, because he was Edward, and that is what he does. I wasn't mad at him; actually, I was slightly flattered that he cared enough to listen to the conversation, so that he could see if I was in trouble. What I was really angry about was the stupid situation. I didn't want to talk about any part of the argument between my father and me, and here I was, talking to Edward about it. The only person who could really distract me, and he was continuing the brutal conversation. Ugh.

"Bella," it was a warning. "That's not even funny." Then he sighed and continued in a resigned tone, "Well, I heard the first part, then, like I said, I heard the conclusions his mind jumped to, and I ran." He placed one of his perfect hands behind my head to stop it from banging itself on the head rest any more.

The fact that Edward had heard what my dad was thinking was not abnormal. Edward was a special vampire-a word which I try my best to avoid-one who could read minds. Just like Alice could have visions of the future and Jasper could change the emotions of the people around him. Though not all vampires had powers like this, some did, and my Edward happened to be one.

"I heard him ask if I was more then your boyfriend, and that's where I took off. I came back when you were talking about marriage about one second later, about how no one gets married after only one year." I felt a bit self-conscious as the talk turned to marriage, feeling guilty about turning him down. I wondered how his ego had healed. I also wondered if there was any way I could say yes now. I wanted to be with him forever, and if it meant making it legally official, I would live. Planning a wedding might even be fun, I had no clue. But he kept talking so I didn't have all that much time to contemplate just saying yes. "I realized it was immature of me to run away like that.

"Oh, so its immature not to listen in on private conversations now, is it?" I was no longer angry, just being playful and teasing. Edward was like a drug; once I had him, I couldn't help but be happy.

We bickered back and forth like that until we reached the turnoff onto the road leading to his house.

"Oh, we're going home?" The word 'home' felt right as it slipped off of my tongue.

Apparently, he had noticed that, but did not acknowledge it. "Yes." His perfect articulation of even a three letter word did not belong in this century. "Alice and I wanted to talk quickly, then, we're off again."

"Then why not wait until I'm asleep? I don't mind; don't get me wrong, I'm just curious." I gave him Emmett's favorite confused look.

Emmett was one of Edward's "adopted brothers," alongside Jasper, and his two "sisters," Alice and Rosalie. But Emmett was the one who found my many clumsy, very human characteristics highly amusing. My slightest blush could send him into a fit of hilarity until someone had enough sense to smack him out of it-which was usually Rosalie.

Rosalie was Emmett's wife, and together, they mad the happiest couple. Besides Edward and me of course, and they fought sometimes, which was not something anybody wants to get in the middle of.

Then, you have Alice and Jasper. They were a couple too, and you would be hard put to find a couple who understood each other more. Alice was my best friend in the world, and even though that sounds childish, it's true. But Jasper had issues with the diet of the Cullens who, on the whole, refused to kill humans. They fed on animal blood instead. Jasper just struggled with it a little more then the rest of them, and I didn't resent him for wanting to keep his distance from me.

The other two Cullens were the mother and father figure of the family. Carlisle and Esme. Esme was more then a mother, though she was extremely maternal, she was a good friend, a great person-or vampire, whichever.

HAng in there, it'll get interesting, I promise!! PLEASE Respond, I need feedback, none of my family has read TWILIGHT(what losers!) and my friendswho have regard this as a joke. Thanx.(sniff sniff TT)