AN: Thank you to pebbles606, Supernaturally Angelic, Rachel Sparrow, bethy23, dragonlady123, berryfrost, Twi Chick Angelicia, oneiros lykos, Kithic, moonfairie, edwardismyvampiresweetheart, HorsecrazyJr., 4vr17Vi, Carlalalita, Edwella4eva, dragonlady123, barefootduchess and LSinclair for the reviews, alerts and favorites. Now for the pivitol saving scene!

4. Phenomenon:

I woke up to find something disheartening. Snow. Yes, overnight, the air had become so cold that it had frozen all of the moisture. There were even tiny ice crystals hanging from the leaves of the tree outside of my window. I stared in horror at the frozen layer of ice that coated the driveway. I should go back to bed while the getting was good. No doubt there would be epic snowball battles at school and I so did not want to play.

I cursed my need to be a good student and trudged over to my closet to dress for school, making sure that I was prepared for the biting cold. I swallowed a bowl of cereal and some apple juice and then walked outside. I walked down the two stairs that connected the porch to the sidewalk and magically ended up flat on my butt. I groaned in pain as I tried to pick myself off the ground, slipping and sliding like a doofus.

"Edward," my mother appeared at my side from the garage, "Honey, are you okay?"

I was finally back on my feet, "Yeah, I'm okay. Ice doesn't help the uncoordinated."

"I can see that," she said, "I put snow chains on your car so you shouldn't have to worry about the drive."

"Thanks, Mom," I replied, noting the silver mesh on my back tires.

"Don't mention it, sweetie," she smiled, "Have a good day."

"Sure," I nodded, opening my door.

"And Edward," she called, "Try to be careful, okay?"

"I always try, Mom," I said, shutting my door and pulling out of the driveway.

Even with the snow chains, I still took my sweet time driving to school. With my luck, I'd end up carving a path of destruction through town if I drove faster than fifteen miles per hour. Needless to say that some of the other drivers on the road weren't all too happy with me, but I didn't care. I was doing them a service.

I pulled into the school lot and parked my car across the lot from the Cullens shiny vehicles. Bella was standing by her car, chatting with her sister as I got out. Of course, I had parked on a patch of ice and had to catch my balance using the side mirror. I edged my way carefully along the ground, keeping one hand on a solid object until I found a rougher, drier patch of pavement to walk on. Woo, today was going to suck. I could tell.

I continued to walk toward the school building, keeping my eyes on the ground, looking for any more troublesome ice slicks. A melodious laugh caught my attention and I looked up to see Bella shaking with laughter at something Emmett had said before her mirth cut off abruptly. Little Alice had gone very still save for her mouth which moved as if she were singing. Bella looked up in my direction, her eyes wide with horror when, at that exact moment, I heard an alarming sound. It was the high pitched squeal of brakes and locking tires.

I looked to my right in time to see a huge blue van careening toward me at an alarming rate. I was transfixed in terror as the van skidded toward me, unable to move to try to get away. It would have been a useless effort anyway. There was no time. I cringed as I tensed for the impact of the vehicle, hoping that it would be a quick death when something entirely different slammed into me from the left.

I was thrown to the ground, my head smacking against the pavement as something solid and freezing held me down. The thunderous crash of metal against metal assaulted my ears as the van smashed into the two cars that I had been thrown between. But it didn't end. The van was still coming bringing the other two vehicles with it. I was still going to be crushed, not by one car, but three.

A low snarl made me aware that someone else was with me, her velvet voice strangely clear against all of the crunching, shattering sounds of the continuing crash. A black shadow blocked my vision but I could make out the silhouette of my saviour throw their arms out wide as the two cars on either side of us crashed against lily white hands. The body above me shuddered as the van came to a tilting stop curving around her body like a glove.

Her body moved so quickly that it blurred as she threw herself on top of me just as glass and shards of shrapnel rained down from the vehicles. Finally, a silence fell over the world so loud that it made my ears buzz with it. It took me longer than it should have to realize that the sound I heard wasn't the rush of blood in my ears but the commotion the accident had caused. People were screaming and rushing toward us in a burst of running feet. I could make out my name being shouted but much more clearly, I could here Bella Cullen's frantic singing in my ear.

"Edward? Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

"I'm fine," I replied, my voice coming from a long way off.

I tried to get up but she was holding me against her body in a steal grip.

"Don't move," she warned, "I think you hit your head pretty hard."

As soon as she said it, I could feel the back of my head throb in protest.

"Ow," I said, shocked. I didn't remember hitting my head.

"I told you," she smiled softly, her caramel eyes inches away from me.

"How did you..." I began, gazing around me, taking in my bearings, "How did you get over to me so fast?"

"I was standing right next to you," she replied, her tone very serious.

"No," I replied, "You were standing by your car, across the lot."

"No, I wasn't," she replied, her voice held an edge to it.

I tried to sit up again and this time she allowed me to do it, moving as far away from me as the tiny pocket of space between the cars would allow. I gaped at her perfect, worried face and frowned. Her eyes blazed with some emotion I couldn't read and the force behind them made me slightly dizzy...or maybe it was the head injury. What had I just been saying?

The frantic mob found us then. They swarmed over the ruined cars and tried to assess the damage.

"Bella, Edward, we have 911 on the phone," called Mr. Banner, "Just stay there and don't move. We'll get you out."

People were jostling one another in their attempt to find us, to see if we were safe or streaks of blood on the pavement. Someone was getting Tyler Crowley out of the van. While people milled around us, Bella gazed at me with a fierce determination. I tried to move but she held me back with a hand on my shoulder. Man, but she was strong!

"Don't move," she demanded.

"But it's cold," I complained.

She chuckled but kept her hold on my body.

"You were over there," I said again, "I know you were."

"I think you're confused," she replied with a sigh, "You really did smack that head of yours."

"I saw you," I asserted.

I could hear the blare of sirens now. The ambulances had arrived. Fantastic. With the aid of six EMTs and three teachers, the van was removed from the scene, allowing a spill of medical professionals to ride in with their stretchers. Bella refused hers but told the EMTs that I probably had a concussion. I felt my face go red with humiliation as they loaded me onto the stretcher, neck brace and all. From my position, I could see that the entire school was outside to watch the show as they loaded me into the ambulance. Bella got to ride in front, the traitoress.

As they were closing the door on me, I considered the jumbled of recent events in my mind. When they had lifted me away from the scene, I had seen the deep dents in the side of the van and the other cars. The dent in the van had been a near perfect mold of Bella's upper body and the dents in the sides of the other two cars looked a whole lot like her delicate hands.

And then there was her family, watching from a distance with mingled expressions of disapproval all the way to fury on their attractive faces. None of them, however, seemed to be too concerned for their sister who had just as much of a chance at becoming a human pancake as I had.

I tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for what had just happened the entire way to the hospital and as they wheeled me into the emergency room, I admitted to myself that I had none. As I lay on the bed, I took off the stupid neck brace and sat up, ignoring the throbbing in my head as I sat on the edge of the bed. Bella wasn't anywhere to be found, but Tyler was wheeled in seconds later.

He was more worse for wear than I was. They had covered the bleeding wounds on his forehead and face with gauze but he was staring at me with wide eyes.

"Edward, man, I'm so sorry," he exploded, "I tried to stop!"

"I'm fine, Tyler," I shrugged, "You look like you got the worse end of it, though."

A nurse had begun to removed the bandages from his head exposing a myriad of shallow cuts and a nasty bruise that was forming in a semi-circle on his forehead where it must have connected with the steering wheel.

"I thought I was going to kill you," he continued, "I was going way too fast...and all of the ice! Dude, I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry," I tried again, "I'm fine, really."

At that moment, the double doors burst open and a tall, blond and young doctor strode toward me. He was pale and looked incredibly tired, with circles under his golden eyes. He took my chart and looked it over, peering at me over the top of the clip board. He had to be Bella's father. The double doors banged open again and this time my mother rushed toward me, tears streaming from her eyes as she collapsed onto my bed, pulling me into her arms.

"My God, Edward!" she cried, "Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine, Mom," I mumbled, trying to extricate myself from her arms, "Really. I'm okay."

"Will he be okay, Dr. Cullen?" my mother asked, turning toward the handsome doctor.

"Well, Edward, it looks like you took quite a spill," Dr. Cullen smiled at me, ignoring my mother as he held up his finger in front of my face, "Look here, please."

I looked at his finger and followed it as he moved it while he shined a flashlight in my eyes.

"You might experience some post-traumatic stress or disorientation," he explained, "But your vitals look good and there are no signs of any head trauma. I think you'll be just fine."

"Oh thank God," my mother sighed.

"You know, it would have been a whole lot worse if Bella wasn't there," I blurted out, "She knocked me out of the way."

"Bella?" My mother asked.

"Yeah, it was amazing," I continued, feeling the words flow out of my mouth of their own accord, like word vomit, "She got to me so fast. She was no where near me."

"It sounds like you were very lucky," Dr. Cullen replied, smiling at me again, but it was tight around the edges, "Go home, get some rest."

"Can't I just go back to school?" I asked.

"I wouldn't advice it," Dr. Cullen shook his head, "Besides, most of the school appears to be in the waiting room."

"Fantastic," I mumbled.

Dr. Cullen smirked again and nodded at my mother, "He'll be fine, Mrs. Masen. If you'll excuse me?"

And with that, he turned toward Tyler, examining his much more pressing wounds. I slid off the bed and followed my mother out of the wing. As we passed a corridor I caught sight of Bella and her blond sister arguing down the hall. I stopped in my tracks and my mother looked at me.

"Go on to the car," I said, "I'll meet you there in a sec."

She glanced down the hall, saw Bella and nodded with a smile. I watched her disappear out the door before I started toward the girls at the end of the corridor. I could just hear their words as I walked toward them. Both were too engaged in the conversation to notice me yet.

"...What was I supposed to do, Rosalie," Bella whispered, "Let him die?"

"This isn't just about you," Rosalie replied angrily, "Think about the rest of us."

Both of their heads snapped in my direction at the exact same time and I froze under the weight of their ocher eyes. Rosalie's were narrowed in extreme dislike while Bella's looked on with cool indifference. I cleared my throat before I looked at Bella.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked.

"Sure," she replied.

"We'll finish this at home," Rosalie hissed as she brushed past us and out the door.

Bella watched her go and sighed before she turned her attention back on me, "What?"

"I think you owe me an explanation," I said.

"I don't owe you anything," she replied, her voice stiff.

"Please," I replied, "I just need to know how you did it."

"I didn't do anything," she snapped.

"I saw it," I shot back, my own temper flaring.

"And what exactly do you think you saw," she asked, with a quirked eyebrow.

"You stopped the cars from crushing me," I replied, "You pushed them away with your hands...and your body."

"Well, nobody will believe you, so...."

"I wasn't going to tell anyone," I pressed, "I just need to know the truth...for myself."

"Can't you just thank me and get over it?" She hissed.

"Thank you," I said, staring down at her.

Her eyes narrowed a touch, "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No," I said firmly. There was no way that I could.

"Well, I hope you enjoy disappointment," she said, wheeling on her heels and stalking toward the exit.

"Why did you even bother," I snapped after her, "You should have just let the cars crush me...save yourself all of this regret."

She stopped in mid stride and turned back to face me, eyes blazing with fire, "You think that I regret saving you?"

"I can see that you do," I replied, slightly staggered by the look in her eyes.

"You don't know anything," she spat and continued her departure out of the hospital.

I stood in the hallway and stared at her retreating back through the glass doors and knew that I was in deep now. Whatever curiosity that I had harbored toward the strange and beautiful girl had now intensified ten fold. I was completely consumed by the mystery that was Isabella Cullen and more than a little obsessed if I was being honest with myself. As I walked to meet my mother, I found that Forks was turning out to be a more eventful place than I thought it would and that I was no longer all that eager to escape it now. How terribly stupid of me.

I decided to call it a night earlier than usual, a decision made even easier by my mother's constant vigil over me. She was concerned that I might have a concussion that Dr. Cullen missed. After assuring her that I was fine for the thousandth time, I gave up and told her I was tired. She had let me go, frowning. I dug out some Tylenol for my head, which still throbbed a little ever now and then and settled in for sleep.

That was the first night that I dreamed of Isabella Cullen.

AN: And there you have it. A nice blend of original text from the book and dialogue from the movie for you. And, just because dear human Edward is so adorkably clumsy and accident prone, he had three cars threatening his life instead of one. Hope you liked it.