Tossing Stones 2 by Princess Alexandria

Chapter 5 – I'm Still Standing

Bella POV

Two weeks later the summer routine was firmly in place. Bella liked her summer days much better than she'd expected too.

"Okay, you need to put your whole body behind the hit. You aren't just trying to tap his nose, you want to shove that fist through his face and out the back." Charlie told her as they stood in the backyard.

The punching bag had a face drawn on it and Charlie had it hanging from a solid branch of the tree. The bag was oddly shaped to vaguely resemble a human, complete with two stems coming down as if they were legs, so that a V of the crotch existed as well. Bella nodded at the instructions and took another step forward and hit at the picture of a face. The shock of contact travelled down her arm and jarred her shoulder.

"That's a bit better. Remember, you don't want to be too gentle with an attacker. You want to hurt him so that you can turn and run and he can't follow." He paused, his voice deeper and slower, "Knee him in the crotch Bella. You need to lift that bag up a few inches as you do it. That would cause enough damage."

This was the new morning routine, and Bella woke up for it without complaint. She lifted her knee up and the awkwardness of the posed had her lose her balance and tip left as she made contact. "Plant your feet better before you lift your leg." Charlie told her and Bella tried that move again. The bag was heavy and it didn't move all that much, but she did hit her target.

When Charlie said he'd work with her, he meant it. He didn't only want to show her how and where to hit; he wanted her to build up enough power to hit hard. Bella found herself enjoying this, her mind occasionally gave her dark thoughts about if she ever needed to actually use these skills, but she enjoyed feeling a bit safer every day. She hadn't realized how unsafe she had been feeling, and it probably went back years. Long before this life she'd lost the feeling of being safe or protected.

She was sleeping sounder now, and didn't need the sleeping pills nearly as often as she did in the beginning. Bella worked up another knee move and this time got that punching bag up a few inches.

"Good job Bells." Charlie smiled and then glanced at his watch. "Oh shoot, I better get moving."

"Okay, I'll be a bit late for dinner. I'm helping Esme with her rec room." She let out a long breath and checked the time herself. She needed to get moving if she wanted to be ready for Alice when the little vampire came to pick her up for class.

"Actually, we were hoping Bella could have dinner with us." A new voice spoke up and Bella and Charlie turned to see Alice standing by the corner of the house looking at them. The grey skies and cool morning air didn't require as thick a coat as Alice wore, but it wasn't painfully obvious overdressing.

"Oh, well, sure." Charlie smiled at Alice, "You girls go out and have a good time." Bella wondered if the man was capable of saying no to the little vampire.

"I am so sorry, I'm not ready but it won't take long." Bella started for the back door.

"It's okay silly, I'm early." Alice waved at Charlie as he headed for his car and followed Bella into the house. "Can I pick out your clothes?"

"I get veto rights." Bella said as she took large strides up the stairs for the bathroom. She couldn't help but smile at Alice's happy little squeal. It was such a small thing, and Bella didn't have anything in her room she wasn't willing to wear. It took so little to make Alice happy.

It took a half hour before Bella came back down the stairs wearing the pants, shirt and vest that Alice left lying out. It wasn't going to be a warm day. "Hola chica," Alice said and Bella smiled as she stepped into the kitchen to see Alice frying two eggs for her.

"I speak better Spanish than you do, let's just pretend you tutored me," Bella smiled and slid onto the chair facing the stove and her impromptu cook.

"Well, I'm sorry I preferred French. There are much better stores in France." Alice gave her a fake looking pout.

Esme Pov

"But I bought the ingredients already." Esme protested softly as she watched Rosalie almost fidget in front of her.

"I want to take her out, just the two of us." Rosalie's slightly pleading eyes made Esme pause. Esme had planned to try and new recipe for Bella tonight. They had half of the things they'd ordered for the rec room and were getting things ready for the Denali visit. It was Esme's day with Bella. She had a full day planned, because it was hard to get a day with the human. She had to time it for when Edward was away hunting. As Esme considered this, Rosalie's voice became a whisper, "You invited the Denalis here. I want at least one date with her, if I lose her to one of them," her daughter's voice caught and Esme's heart ached to hear it.

"We should be done in here by four," Esme said. She hadn't expected her simple invitation would cause such turmoil in the house, but she felt guilty for not asking the others before doing it now. She wanted to see the Denalis but perhaps the timing wasn't the best.

"I'm sorry," Rosalie said, "but Emmett is with Edward and I won't need an excuse to tell her why it will just be the two of us this time. Thank you."

"This is really hard on you," Esme said as she reached out and caressed Rosalie's arm, her eyes searching out those of the younger vampire. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. I'm a Hale and we're a strong people." Rosalie gave a short quick nod as she said that.

"I know you're strong Rosalie, you're one of the strongest people I know," Esme reached out and caressed a piece of blonde hair that was falling out of place. "That doesn't mean having someone to talk to is a sign of weakness."

"I love Emmett, but he talks about this all the time. He doesn't understand that it might still not happen. He's planning so much and I like his view of the future, but he isn't Alice and I don't have any guarantees that Bella will be able to deal with the strange relationship we want to form."

"It might surprise her," Esme admitted. In all honesty she had no idea how Bella would respond. She had no idea how traditional she was, other than her willingness to be with a woman they knew very little about her beliefs about relationships.

"I know," Rosalie said and let out a heavy sigh.

"If she'd do this for anyone, it would be for you Rosalie," Esme did her best to reassure her daughter. She got a brief nod of thanks, before Rose slipped out the door to head for the garage. Esme stared at the door after Rosalie left and sighed. Esme had to remind herself to stay out of this as much as possible, but she was starting to want Rosalie to get the girl. Things around the house would get rather dark and sad if she didn't.

Tanya POV

"This is a bit different than your typical," Tanya said as she studied the brief outline for a new novel. Her words were carefully filtered as she realized what the inspiration for this idea was. "So she falls in love with a voice?"

"No, she falls in love with the person on the other side of the phone, sight unseen." Irina grumbled and took the planning sheet from Tanya's hand. "This is a long distance romance,"

"With no hope for action of any kind," Tanya pointed out. "A voice in the night isn't going to hold her close or save her from danger. This isn't what readers are really looking for Irina. It will be all dialogue. Where will you build in action?" Tanya asked, and it was odd to remind Irina of this because Irina was the writer in the house. Anything Tanya knew, she learned from Irina.

Kate's singing voice called for someone to "talk dirty to me" downstairs and Tanya grimaced at the teasing.

"Shut up!" Irina yelled to Kate, stopping the playful song.

Tanya stared into her sister's black eyes and took a breath before speaking softly, "In real life people are meeting online, so a phone call isn't ridiculous, but a novel is different. In a book, would it work? Will your publisher take the story or pass it up?"

Irina paused, and Tanya felt some relief as she watched her sister consider that. If Irina started to write this story, it would help her romanticize things that shouldn't be. That call was brief and Bella barely talked to Irina. It wasn't the start of something beautiful. It wasn't something Irina could build up in her mind right now. Maybe someday there might be something, but Irina was jumping in with her heart before her mind even caught up. She was doing it again.

"No, I suppose it wouldn't really sell," Irina admitted and moved to sit at her desk again. "Thanks."

"Why not just go for it and write that body snatching idea that you've got to also be playing with." Kate teased while moving to stand in the doorway, "Or the time travel. What else about Bella do you want to immortalize on paper before you start fantasizing about just plan immortalizing her."

"Kate," Tanya said under her breath in warning.

"You always do this Irina, she said this sort of thing was what was going to get you killed," Kate's playfulness faded and Tanya tensed at the words being flung around the office. "Don't do this again, don't start up with your little crush and convince yourself she's your 'true love' and then ignore everyone who tells you differently. I bet I told you Laurent wasn't your one and only in that other future, I bet I told you that he was bad news, and you didn't listen. Bella might be better, she might be kind and good, and all the things you want her to be, but don't forget YOU DON'T KNOW HER!"

"Kate," Tanya tried to interrupt as she saw Irina flinch from the anger in Kate's voice.

"You died for a rat of a man Irina, you died, and now you want to pretend you learned nothing from that?" Kate's voice took on a pleading quality. "Don't do this to us; pretend you learned something even if it's just for a little while. Pretend you learned not to jump in without a thought to us or the fact you don't know the person you're after. Pretend that our opinion matters to you for once Irina."

"I didn't, I'm not," Irina stammered and Tanya saw the shiny of her eyes growing with tears that wouldn't fall. "I'm not doing it again, but even if I were, Bella is different."

"Like Laurent was different, I'd bet." Kate added.

"Kate, don't." Tanya spoke sharply. She understood her frustration, she felt it too, but it was different this time. This was far more complicated and confusing. They all liked what they knew of Bella, and the woman was unique and different. It wasn't hard to see why Bella captured Irina's imagination.

"I won't do that again. If I meet someone and you all don't think it's a good match, we could invite Edward or Jasper over to check. I won't get so caught up I forget," Irina's voice cracked. "Nothing like that future with Laurent will ever happen, I won't let it."

Tanya watched her sisters hug, and relief washed over her. This was a long time in coming, and they needed to show Irina how her writing was connected to her romantic disasters, but this time things were more complicated. Kate picked the wrong battle here, but hopefully it was over now.

Bella POV

Bella studied the small square of paint they'd put on the wall, and nodded as she decided she was happy with the color. She then turned to the second can and added a different color square next to it to verify they went. She didn't want to get the paint up and realize she didn't like it. Esme insisted that Bella do this room up her own way. It was odd, but a lot of fun.

"You look like you're sleeping better. Are you sleeping better?" Esme asked as Bella set the paint brush down.

Esme had coveralls on and looked like an incredibly clean professional painter. Beyond her the walls were all adorned with the blue painters tape, proving that Esme did that first step in the time that Bella watched small squares of paint dry.

"Actually, I am." Bella smiled, happy that the current run of nightmares was easing up. "It's nice not to feel exhausted all the time." She added and pointed out the paint, "You like?"

"It looks lovely dear." Esme said. "How are things going with Charlie?"

Bella had to grin as Esme brought him up, "He might hate that I need self-defense training, but he is sure eager to help me out with it. He brought home the punching bag they use in the classes."

"Are you doing alright with that?"

"I'm doing okay. I'm not going to win any fights, but if I can run fast enough I should be okay for the most part." Bella carefully leaned back on a part of the wall without any paint on it. "He teaches pretty well, but all I'm going to get is a few dirty tricks so that I can run away while the 'bad guy' isn't looking."

"Isn't that enough?" Esme spoke softer and Bella looked up at the ceiling. It was already painted white. "Bella?"

"I'm not sure," Bella sighed. Part of her wanted to be able to beat an attacker bloody. She didn't feel she could talk to Esme, of all people, about that though. "So, when is the couch getting here?" Bella knew her changing of the topic was artless and obvious, but Esme let her get away with it.

"Four to six more days," Esme told her and then leaned down. "Let's get this painted. Rosalie has plans for you tonight and I want to finish this up so you can see it before you go."

"But it's your night," Bella looked down at the overalls that Esme insisted she wear, thinking it might not protect her outfit.

"I asked if I could borrow you," another voice spoke up and Bella looked to the doorway. Rosalie was in greasy overalls of her own. Clearly she'd been working on one of the cars. "That is okay, isn't it?" The blonde asked and Bella nodded. "Good," Rose smiled. "I'm going to finish my oil change and clean up. I'll still finish before you two."

"Not fair, Esme is handicapped with the human. I only slow her down," Bella protested even as Rosalie disappeared out the door again.