Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, just the characters.

Special thanks to TwirlGrrl, who has agreed to go on this journey with me and came up with the name. She whipped through the first three chapters in a day, preparing them for your beautiful eyes. After 80+ pages of outlines and rough ideas, it was still being called 'unknown story'. Reconstruction is perfect, as we will thoroughly reconstruct the 10 year saga of Edward and Bella's love affair. TwirlGrrl, your insight has been invaluable and thanks for all your great ideas and feedback.

Reconstruction is an architectural term meaning returning a damaged building to a known earlier state by the introduction of new materials.

Chapter One - Four Years Later

Alice POV

April 1, 2006

I hit the speed dial button and listened to the phone ring. Once, twice, three times. Answer baby, answer. I'm freaking out here.

"Hey babe."

Aaaahhhh, two words and my nerves already felt better. My southern gentleman. I'd been waiting for him for about 14 years, but we'd only been together a few months. It still surprised me how his presence, or just his voice would affect me. Like now, those two words just made me better. He brought a certain calm to me that I'd always been missing. I'd always been a little bit different. My crazy energy level was minor, comparatively. The teachers didn't know how to deal with it, but my parents decided to embrace it. They enrolled me in a Montessori school when we moved to Chicago. I was allowed to work at my own pace, which turned out to be very very fast.

"Thank God. Jazzy, tell me again why we are doing this."

"Because you thought it was a good idea."

"And you think this is the right thing to do."

"Nope, not sure at all."

I growled at him. "Jasper, you are not helping me here. I'm freaking out."

"Alice, this was totally your idea. Do you want to cancel?"

Yes. No. I don't fucking know!

"You really think he's changed Jasper?"

"Alice, he's my cousin. I've known him my whole life; he's changed. But he's not happy. And I don't know if he'll ever be happy until he sees this through."

"Do you think he's just trying to get her back? Are you're sure he won't hurt her?"

"Alice, we've been through this. I don't know what he really wants. I'm not a mind reader. Besides I'm not sure he even knows what he really wants. But I think he carries a lot of guilt. And he genuinely wants her to be happy."

"Jasper, she'll never forgive me if this ends badly."

"Alice, it's just dinner, how badly could it go?"

"Badly would be him making a meal of her heart - again. He's chewed it up and spit it out too many times already. Now she's had peace and quiet for the last four years. She's getting on with her life; she's been dating, albeit not well, but she's trying. She's got a career, and a good reputation."

"Look Alice, we can cancel this right now. You don't have to put yourself in the line of fire if you aren't comfortable with it. But you said yourself she's been dating, but she compares every guy she goes out with to him. And her career is the whole reason he talked you into this. But, if you aren't comfortable, just say the word and I'll cancel. She meets with Tia on Friday; let Tia and Benjamin tell her. Then just wait and see how it goes."

I thought about it for a minute and came to the same conclusion I always came to, "No, I know how it will go. She is so excited about this project, but her knee-jerk reaction will be to walk away as soon as she hears his name. She walked away from her entire career four years ago to get away from him. She won't think twice about doing it again."

"Alice, I honestly believe that's why he wants to do it this way. He doesn't want to hurt her personally or professionally. He really hopes that if she's going to freak out she can do that with you, and not in front of a client. But if Bella decided to try and forgive him, I think it would be good for both of them."

Fuck if that was going to happen – tonight anyway.

"Well, I hope he's not holding his breath for forgiveness." I sighed. "Alright, let's give it a shot. She's gonna be pissed at me, but I'm pretty sure she'll forgive me eventually." I saw Rose walking up from the parking lot. She waved at me and waited. "Okay, baby, I'm here and there's Rose."

"Okay, I'll let you go, but Alice?"

"Yeah, baby?"

"No matter what happens Bella will forgive you. Even if she's super pissed tonight, your heart is in the right place and she'll see that."

"Thank you baby. We'll see you guys in about 45 minutes, right?"

"Or a bit longer – Emmett just sent me a text that he's running late at the office."

"Okay, but not sooner. I need to get a couple of drinks in Bella first." The phone beeps. I glanced at the caller ID "Oh, hey, Bella is calling. See you soon."

"Love you – bye baby." I heard Jasper hang up. I flashed Rose a single finger telling her to wait a second and clicked over to answer Bella.

"Hey Bells, you on your way?"

"Alice you are not going to fucking BELIEVE what happened today!! Holy shit! What the hell am I going to fucking DO?"

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Rosalie and I may swear like sailors but Bella rarely does. If she is cursing like that already, she has had a very bad day and that is not the way to start this out. "I don't know, you haven't told me what happened yet, but seriously, are you on your way?"

"Yeah – I'm on my way. I just left the house. I'll tell you about it when I get there. I need a drink before I can even start. But seriously Alice, why did you lay out such a super sexy-mama dress? You promised this was not a date. If this is a date you might as well cancel it now because I am so not in the mood tonight. You have no idea."

Oh we should totally cancel this.

"Bella, I can cancel if you want. I mean it's not a date – just Jasper's two cousins and they are – fun."

"No don't cancel; it would be rude this late. I'll be okay. Besides I really need the distraction. When will they get there? If I can have a drink or two first I'll be in a better mood."

"They won't be here for at least forty-five minutes."

"Okay, I'm still 15 minutes out, so order me something and I'll see you soon. And get ready, because I've got some shit to tell you."

"Okay, but Rosalie's been waiting for me and she's about to crack the concrete the way her toe's tapping." Rose was standing on the sidewalk with her arms crossed tapping her stiletto impatiently.

"Okay – I'll let you go…. Uh-oh, hang on, I think there's a problem up ahead. I see nothing but break lights. Yup, we just came to a stand-still. I might be a bit. Order me an apple martini okay?"

Shit shit shit.

I sighed. This is a bad time for a traffic jam. "Ok. It'll be waiting for you. We'll see you whenver you get here."

I snapped the phone shut and climbed out of the car. "Sorry Rose – that was Bella. She just got stuck in a traffic jam. I think there's trouble brewing and she has no fucking clue what's in store for the evening. This might be bad – really bad. But she won't cancel now because 'that would be rude.'"

Rosalie smirked. "Far be it from Bella to be rude. Well, let's get a table and wait for the fireworks."

As we walked into the restaurant I sent a text to Jasper.

Bella stuck in traffic. Stall.

We put our name on the list for six in non-smoking and grabbed a table in the bar to wait. We ordered drinks. A few minutes later Jasper sent me a text back.

Problem. Can't stall. E is going to meet us there now. He could be there soon.

FUCK!

_______________________________________________________

BPOV

I had been looking forward to tonight. This morning that is. We were meeting with Alice and her boyfriend Jasper, Rosalie and two of Jasper's cousins/best friends/ business partners. I don't know if it was a triple date, or just a friendly get-together. I didn't really care. It had been so damned long since I'd been out on a decent date, non-date, or just plain old gotten laid, I was almost desperate.

For the last four years I'd been putting an insane amount of effort into trying to get over him. For the first two years I allowed myself to dwell in the memory of him, before I decided that it wasn't healthy anymore. So I stopped talking about him and started dating.

In the last two years I'd dated more men than I cared to count. But no one clicked for me. I thought I wasn't making enough effort to connect, so I'd taken it further; and by further, I mean sex. The sex had presented a nice distraction, but also more frustrating. As hard as I tried, I wasn't able to bring myself to climax without letting my mind wander to him. This wasn't a problem if it was a solo effort, but I couldn't let myself do that when I was actually with someone else. That was just so wrong.

So I'd fallen into a pattern; the pattern was simple. First we'd meet for coffee or drinks so I could determine if he was attractive and able to string together a few intelligible sentences. Next we'd do to dinner or dancing. If he was able to hold my attention through the second date, which many didn't, then we'd set up a third date. The third date was when I would usually put him through a more thorough test drive and we'd end up back at his place.

Unfortunately, even the best sex with the most skilled and determined men would inevitably end with me faking my orgasm so that he would finally give up and I could go home. Once I was home I could freely conjure up my best memories of he-who-shall-remain-nameless, bring myself to orgasm, and drift off to sleep. A few exceptionally attractive men had seemed promising enough that they were given a few more chances to try and make it happen, but no one was given more than a small handful of romps in the sack before I grew tired of faking my orgasms and would move on.

I wasn't indiscriminant, but I was searching, searching for anyone who could help lessen the ache that I felt for him. And so far, I hadn't found anyone who came close. This brought me back to tonight, where I was fighting through traffic in my short little black cocktail dress while wondering if anything more promising would be waiting for me at the restaurant.

Alice almost seemed nervous about this evening and had called me three times today. Once to make sure I was still coming, again to move the time up so that we could chat for a bit and have cocktails before the guys arrived, and finally to make sure I was going to have time to go home and change.

Like I said, I had been looking forward to it. That was until my last meeting before going home to change.

An hour earlier:

I was wrapping up a meeting with with Tia Montgomery and her fiancée Benjamin Massri. Tia is a repeat client and she had just gotten engaged to Ben. They wanted to make some changes to a plan that Tia and an old architect boyfriend had drawn up a few years ago. They'd broken up before it was ever finished, but Tia still liked the design. Fortunately, Ben liked it too and had no qualms about the history of the design. They wanted my help to tweak the design to reflect more of their tastes as a couple.

"Well, I don't think it will be difficult to incorporate more natural elements. The traditional styling and gable roof lines lend themselves well to some log-home accents. If we use a large exposed log-beam here, here, here, and through here,"

I made some notes on the plans, "and you could do an open log staircase here. The rest could just be done with surface treatments and decorative elements. Let's change the exterior to cedar or recycled fiber-cement if you prefer less maintenance. It will still be natural looking and eco friendly."

I paused for a few minutes to make some notes of my own. Benjamin had really good taste. The house was spectacular to begin with. Tia had a set of plans delivered last week so that I could review them first. I was positively drooling over this one. I'd been worried what kind of changes Ben wanted to make. But, I was pleased. He was going the same direction I would have gone. If fact, it would be the first time. I'd be able to design using log-home styling WITH a green-built home..

Green building was all the rage right now with. The lines of the home were amazing. I saw magazine-cover-quality craftsmanship here. And being involved from this point was awesome. Plus, Tia was always great at gushing over my work and giving tons of credit. She had great taste but let me take the lead creatively.

I continued, "I do think we should bring in an architect to make structural adjustments. Log beams are very heavy and we'll want to make sure it is properly supported. I can make a few recommendations for an architect, unless you want to use the same person that did the drawings originally." This is my tactful way of saying "Benjamin do you still want Tia's ex drawing up the plans for your house?"

Ben knew where I was going and smiled and shook his head. "Oh, no, if it's all the same to you, we'd like to use our guy. We are actually friends. He introduced me and Tia."

Whew. Well that's good, not everyone can manage that kind of friendliness. And I really didn't want to bring in someone new. They always end up taking too many creative liberties to redirect the project more to their liking."Okay, good. If you can give me contact information, I'll call his office and set up a time. When will you be back in town and available?"

Tia started rifling through her purse. "Here I've got his card here somewhere. We leave this evening and will be back in town next week Tuesday. If it's possible I'd like to get going soon. We set the date for the wedding... July 15 of next year. We know it's tight, but if there is any way we can come home from the honeymoon and move in, we would be ecstatic. Where is that card? Ben, do you have one with you?"

A year! They want to do designs and build this bad boy in a year! Yikes!

"A year is pretty fast. Have you selected a builder yet? If we can get a builder on board asap, we might have a chance."

Ben nods, "Oh yeah, same guys. They do large-scale residential and commercial contracting too. They've already agreed to take this on. They know our timeline. I talked with Emmett today about another project. He said things are slowing down enough that if we can get started on design changes quickly, they should be able to finish it. But again, they understand that you might have particular ideas about finishing materials and wanted to get your thoughts on those things before they commit to a timeline."

Okay, now I'm ready to pass out. The builder is letting the interior designer dictate timeline based on finish material lead-times. That rarely if ever happens without a serious pissing match, something I'd gotten quite good at. Who were these guys? Wait did he just say Emmett? Oh no. Tell me it's not…

"Here we go. This is his card. Edward's the architect and Emmett is head of construction. They have both said that they would enjoy working with you and are expecting your call."

And that's when I felt it; the heat that flashed through my body every time I thought of him. It flashed across my skin leaving me slightly flushed and then inevitably settled into my core where it would start another slow ache that would throb in me until I could resolve it in the privacy of my own bedroom. Depending on the day, I might resolve it by crying myself to sleep, other days with my own hand between my legs.

My worst fucking nightmare; it was him...Edward Fucking Masen, or Cullen now. I forgot he changed his name, interesting. Whatever. I didn't care. My perfect project just went to shit in a millisecond.

A/N: For those of you who have been waiting for updates on Hope to Overcome and Man Behind the Mask, my apologies. I haven't abandoned them, but this story has consumed me from inception to completion. I've got the entire thing outlined and should be able to post updates rather quickly with the wonderful help of my beta, TwirlGrrl. She's been whipping through it for me.

This has been a labor of love - so please, please, review. I am desperate to hear your thoughts on this baby that I have poured hours and hours into. (Not to mention neglected my husband and kids, and grown totally sleep deprived.)