Bella's realised it's ok to feel happy and have real family and friends around her :)

Some lovely moments there between Rose, Alice and Bella :)

dun dun dunnnn!!!

sorry- just had to add that in there, and couldn't figure out how to type the sort of dramatic string music you'd get on a daytime drama with the same revelation before commercial break or end titles hehe :)

It was very interesting to see the separate realisations that Bella surely wasn't actually mated with Lucas - I wonder how hard Bella's going to fight the discussion with Esme though. She might see it as being biased since Esme "wants" Bella paired with Edward?

Or will being in the presence of three truly mated couples be enough "evidence" to show Bella the truth - to make all the little bits and pieces of information click into place?

I'd expect it's probably still going to take a while, Bella already finds it easier to SHOW her feelings if not discuss them/put them into words. So Edward and the family are going to have to be a little more patient

I think even without Bella's particular history, relationships are always something of a risk :P
From her progress so far I'm betting on Bella deciding Edward is worth the risk, though it would've been good seeing Edward confirm for Bella that he thought SHE was worth the risk to his inexperienced self :)

Author's Response:

You're very right. The next chapter is already written and submitted so it'll be up very soon and Bella's decision is included! Thanks for reviewing!

very interesting beginning; looking forward to where it goes :)

I'm stil uncomfortable with Bella being so accepting of her past now, but given what I've seen & read of human wars, her interpretation of what might've been needed to survive vampire wars sounds about right. It doesn't make it ok, but it was what Bella was able to do given the untennable position she was presented with.
the conversation with Jasper & Bella's reaction to hr newly golden eyes brought the mood back up to a high :)
Dare we hope she's about to be offered a Crest?

Author's Response:

We've still got a lot to learn about Bella in the upcoming chapters. Some of it my readers might not like, but it's what I wanted to do with this story. Unfortunately there will be no presenting of the crest. I was never a big fan of it. Thanks for reviewing!

awesome!

Great work on Bella and Jasper's parts! It's especially nice to see them have such a strong bonding moment over the challenge of the human too :)

Edward racing in all panicked was kind of funny in the end, Bella having to calm HIM down hehe I can see that being one of those "remember that time when" stories way down the track when Bella's far more comfortable on the animal diet etc.

As for the human hiker and his troubles... it sounds a bit odd that bears would take out his tyres, but perhaps I'm reading too much into it?

Seems awfully conincidental that it should happen when Bella's effectively the strongest in the house and normally Jasper and Esme wouldn't have been enough to stop her... wonder if I'm just being paranoid? :)

it appears that Bella managed to do all of that from her feelings for Edward rather than really feeling she "had to, in order to keep him" but maybe I misread? ;P

I can see the both of them having a lot of fun with the whole "don't make a sound" thing... but I do wonder how much the rest of the house was really aware of hehe

hmm interesting development there... did the negative emotions overload and backfire from somewhere? Bella's "gift" interacted in a surprise way with all the others in the house?

I wonder more if Edward will go after her though?

aww Bella's kind of cute right now - though she'd likely zap me for that comment hehe :)

filler perhaps, I'd say it's more a foundation for the next level of the story :) Bella & Edward now know a fair bit about each other, as well as their respective feelings. Now we just have to hope they can cross a few more barriers.
It was cute how Bella lost the whole day "day dreamin" about Edward hehe

Author's Response:

Thanks so much for reviewing!

hmm ok not so frustrated with Alice after she pointed that out hehe

I wonder how long before Bella realises/accepts that Lucas didn't love her the way a partner should :S

wow that was intense - I'm glad that Edward's not left Bella alone for too long before he decided to go check on her... it'll be interesting to see her responses once she "wakes" up a bit, after the initial anger and violence I'm guessing she's going to feel. I hope it doesn't take them another 30 odd years, though I'd be curious how that would happen given their current location in the B&B :)

Finally, Edward! I know that he's had to be careful of voicing his feelings because Bella's never really been a good enough place to handle hearing them, but it's still a great relief to see it come out. Hopefully the timing is as good as it'll ever be and Bella won't run... she seems to have accepted (begrudgingly?) that both Edward and herself have strong feelings for each other.

Wonder how this "last" week away from the family is going to go?