Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight

Author's Note: Sorry for the long hiatus, very busy at work and have had writer's block! I'm going to use the book description of Garrett.

Chapter 11

"Baseball? Really?"

Bella lay on her front, supported by the branch she leaned on, her hair trailing down to one side. She traced the pads of her fingers along the rough bark, marvelling in the feel of it, feeling the thrumming life beneath. In her human body she'd never realised how alive everything was, now that she technically wasn't, the lifeforce of every other creature seemed to scream at her. She gazed down at Edward, who lay on his back on the branch 4 feet below, arms nonchalantly tucked beneath his copper head. Bella found she liked the way his hair stuck up, wild and untamed.

"It is the American pastime" said Edward, smiling, moving one of his arms from behind his head to pluck at a sprig of pine needles from the branch. He held it up in front of him, and Bella impulsively reached down to take it, fiddling with it between her fingers, crushing the greenery to release the potent smell that reminded her of Christmas's with Charlie. It had been so hard to think of life without him, but he would live on in her memory forever. She'd had long talks with Edward about his parents and slowly she was coming to terms with her Dad's death.

Edward always did sweet little things to make her smile. Bella's lip quirked unbidden.

"I was never really a fan of sports, they're sort of deadly for the uncoordinated."

"I'm sure you weren't that bad."

Bella shifted on her branch, to look more directly at Edward, her eyebrow quirking in incredulity.

"On my first day of Middle School I broke Mike Newton's nose by spiking a ball into his face in Gym. My medical record includes 15 concussions, 35 sprains, 10 broken bones and more bruises than you can shake a stick at."

"Sounds like you were very unlucky."

"Nope, just very clumsy. I couldn't walk across a room without dropping something or falling over."

Edwards face turned pensive and he asked:

"Were you always like that?"

Bella looked taken aback and saw that his topaz eyes were calculating something, like she was a puzzle.

"I was always dropping things, bumping into them and tripping on nothing. It was like my body had a mind of its own, it never did what it was supposed to. Doesn't matter now, with the change and all, it seems to have clicked something into place."

Bella found herself giggling, she'd made vampirism sound like the menopause. She demonstrated her new agility by rolling off the branch gracefully. Edward moved to give her a place to sit on his patch of bark. They were now sitting facing one another, Bella with one knee drawn to her chest and the other dangling dangerously close to Edwards. Any closer and Bella thought they'd be playing footsie.

"Were you ever tested for a condition called Dyspraxia?"

"Huh?"

"Dyspraxia, it's a neurological condition where the signals between the brain and the body don't connect properly. It causes poor timing of bodily actions, lack of balance, clumsiness and many other movement related problems. It's more common in males, 4 men to every woman have it. Because of this it often goes undiagnosed in women, or in general just gets brushed off as clumsiness."

"Really? I've never heard of it before."

"I'm not surprised, it can be a very under publicised condition. Many people go their whole lives undiagnosed."

"But why would becoming a vampire fix something I was born with?"

"The venom that makes us optimises all our systems. I was dying of Spanish Influenza, and Carlisle's venom cured the disease that had ravaged my body. Perhaps it properly connected the neural pathways between your brain and your body to increase efficiency. That's only supposition of course."

Bella tilted her head in thought and Edward noted the sensuous way her hair slid to the side, the curls bouncing silkily. He mentally pinched himself and gripped his hand tightly on the branch, causing the bark to crumble. He needed to get a grip, these were not "pure" thoughts and Eleazar was trusting him with his adopted daughter.

"You know a lot about medical things" Bella said, interrupting his internal self chastisement.

"I've been to medical school."

Bella blinked.

"Really?"

"Yes, although I've never practised. I don't have the centuries of control Carlisle does. But every few decades or so, if Carlisle needs to renew his medical degree but can't attend, I go for him and update him on the latest techniques. Sometimes I get tired of repeating high school over and over."

Bella pondered this, an eternity trapped in a teenage body, doomed to move and repeat high school over and over like some kind of purgatory, watching everyone else grow up and move on. That was her future.

Edward saw the pensive look on Bella's face and hastily added:

"But then, there's also the ability to constantly learn, to see wonders humans can never imagine, to do things like this!" he said, looking down. Bella did too and looked the 100 ft down to the base of the gargantuan pine tree they sat in.

"I guess high school won't be so bad as a vampire. No acne, no raging hormones, no worrying about the future. I guess after a decade or so I'll let you show me the ropes."

"Definitely! Carlisle and Esme would love to have you to stay. It's be nice, having you around, a lot of the time I'm the odd man out, you know, in a house full of couples."

Edward smiled encouragingly and the wind blew a lock of Bella's hair into her face, which he brushed away on instinct behind her ear. His finger tip traced the lobe before slowly retracting; it was getting harder and harder to be around her and not to touch her. Bella took this as her cue to scoot closer casually as she shifted unnecessarily from sitting face on to sideways, her side now brushed his.

"So, you didn't finish telling me. How do you know Forks?"

Edward felt the tension ease and he smiled.

"Yes, your hometown. We lived there in the 1930's, that was before Jasper, Alice and Emmett joined the family. Back then it was just Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and I. I'm sure it was very different to how you remember it. It was mainly a hunting and logging community-"

"No change there then - Sorry, I interrupted, go on."

"Thank you" he said, lip quirking again, he liked when she got sarcastic, it gave him an idea of what lay inside her befuddling head.

"What we didn't realise was that there was something apart from us living there. Something Supernatural..."

Edward told her the tale of the Quileute tribe and their curious habit of changing into wolves.

"Black, Ephraim Black?"

Bella was very still when she said this, her face impassive.

"Yes" said Edward.

"My Dad's best friend is...was... Billy Black. He and his son Jacob were descended from the last Chief. They were really proud of their heritage. But Billy was in a wheelchair. Can he be a werewolf?"

Bella felt cold, had her father's best friend been lying to him for years?

"It's not likely. They seemed to be triggered by our presence. Vampires" he clarified "but after we left there were no more reports of wolf sightings. I believe the gene stands dormant until it is needed."

A cold wind blew and dislodged some pine needles, which seemed to aim themselves for Edwards mop of copper hair, leaving it looking like a briar patch. Bella took one look at it and started laughing while Edward looked at her bemused.

"You...ha ha ha...you...ha ha ha...you look like a hedgehog!"

Edward placed a graceful hand in his hair and pulled away with the green offenders looking at them thoughtfully. He reached out with the full hand with intent.

"Oh no you don't!" said Bella, flipping backwards out of the tree and falling 100 ft to the ground. She looked up at Edward and grinned before racing off, hearing the thud of his feet hitting the forest floor as he pursued. They weaved through trees, climbing and diving, Bella one step ahead of Edward, her shield preventing him from predicting her movements. Finally, Bella decided she'd let him catch her, and turned, only for Edward to pounce, and cause them to fall in a heap of limbs. One of her legs wrapped around his, and his full weight pinned her down to the snow. Their faces were barely an inch apart, their useless breath feeding each other's lungs.

"I win" said Edward grinning, and he move one of his hands, Bella felt pine needles fall into her hair. Then suddenly Edward froze and a frown came over his face.

"What's wrong?" asked Bella, as Edward climbed off of her, offering a hand to help her rise.

"There's a stranger at the house. Eleazar wants us to come home."

Bella took the hand and rose gracefully, shaking the pine needles out of her hair.

"A human?"

"A Vampire, he claims Carlisle sent him."

Bella brushed down her clothes nodded, and together they began to run through the snow covered wilderness, weaving in between trees until they saw the house. Edward opened the front door for Bella and slid her jacket from her arms automatically, before deliberately walking in front of her as they headed to the living room. The stranger might be a threat.

Before them the entire family sat on couches, with the 3 blonde sisters sitting around a stranger. He was tall, with sandy blonde hair and a rangy appearance that made clear he was an adventurer. Bella froze when she saw his hair colour, but then relaxed on closer inspection. The vampire who had attacked had had a lighter shade of blonde. Garrett appeared to have all the sisters in fits of laughter and it quieted down when Edward and Bella entered. Eleazar, who sat with Carmen on another sofa, stood to greet them.

"Ah Edward, my niña, I'm glad you've returned. Let me introduce Garrett, Carlisle has sent him to us to learn about vegetarianism, but he also has other useful qualifications that might help us."

Garrett stood gracefully and came forward and Bella saw he had the telltale crimson eyes of man eater. She realised she'd never met a non-vegetarian vampire before (aside from her maker) and found herself unduly curious. Edward glanced at Bella, who was looking at Garrett with interest and found he didn't like it, not at all. He held out his hand to Garrett nonetheless, but made sure to squeeze it just a little too hard, but was surprised when Garrett looked at him knowingly and thought -

"Don't start a battle you can't win kid, I'm used to fighting wars."

Edward frowned and Garrett grinned. So Garrett knew about his ability, Edward withdrew his hand.

"So Garrett, what qualifications do you have?"

"Oh, I've been in pretty much every major war for the last 200 years. I know a thing or two about handling newborns and training them."

Garrett deliberately sidestepped Edward, who glared at the back of his head as he took Bella's hand and kissed it. Bella thought if she could still blush she'd be redder than apples.

"So you must be the Bella I've heard so much about. Eleazar tells me you're finishing up High School. Well, I'll be taking over your physical education from now on. We'll have you ready to fight off werewolves by the time I'm through with you."

Garrett was so confident and rakishly charismatic, Bella couldn't help but be charmed by him. She didn't notice Edward clench his fist so hard his diamond-strong palm cracked like porcelain.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading, please read and review!