So this is a VERY rough draft. basically, me getting my ideas for a story down on "paper" before I lose them. This is how all my stories start truth be told - a discombobulated mess some would say :) I start with the basics and then go back and start expanding and adding all the fine details. So why am I posting this crap? I just want to see if it is a story idea others might read or like. I have seen a lot of stories out there about the mob so wondering if it is overdone and no one would be interested. I also don't read a lot of fan fiction so I am not sure if this exact idea may have already been thrown out there by another writer. Let me know if you dont mind. Now, off to work on The Things We Do For Love :)

Unbreakable

Elevator

I had ridden that elevator hundreds of times since moving into the Olive building located in downtown seattle 2 years ago.

Like most people I would enter the elevator ignoring the people inside. I would turn my back to them and stare at the floor or the red digital numbers that ticked up or down the levels.

Describe the loneliness in elevators. Strangers all around. The clausterphobia.

That was until that night. I had just arrived home and walked to the elevators in the lobby. It was late at night and the normal bustle was gone. Everyone safely tucked into their beds. I had been out celebrating my promotion until the wee hours of the morning. I was tired, my head was pounding from a mixture of copious amoutns alcohol and loud music that I had endured all evening.

The elevator doors were just sliding closed when a small hand reached into the space causing the doors to open.

I looked up and in stepped a woman. Her appearance is a bit disheveled, hair tangled as in a windy day.

She met my eyes for the briefest of seconds. Long enough for me to notice the swelling, the redness, and the tears. I was mesmorized in that second because even through the pain, they were the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen.

She turned her back towards me and reached her hand out towards the panel to press a button, paused, and dropped her hand. Never pressing a button. She was headed to the 31st floor as I was.

I started going through my mind if she was a neighbor perhaps. I surely had never noticed her before. Although I rarely took the time to notice anyone. I

I watched her from behind as we rode the elevator up to the 31st floor. Her arms were wrapped around her midsection. I could tell she was still crying as he body shook, and sniffles rang out every few seconds.

I became fascinated with her form, her vulnerability. The desire to hold this stranger in my arms and comfort her was overwelhmin me.

Eventually the ding rang out and she stepped through the doors with me following behind. I watched as she quickly made her way down the hall. She stopped in front of 3205. I passed her making my own way to 3208 as she funbled inside her purse. I reached my own door and glanced back seeing her attempting to place the keys in the lock. Her hand was visibly shaking. The keys clattered to the floor and I paused my own unlocking of my condo. I wanted to wait and make sure she got int.

I watched as she bent down to retrieve the keys. But apparently her will had faultered. She dropped to her knees in front of her door. The once quiet tears became loud sobs and she brought her hands to her face.

I quickly rushed over and knelt down on one knee beside her.

Are you alright? I asked her.

She continued crying and rocking.

I reached down and retrieved the keys and searched the key ring for the familiar key to our condos. I unlocked her door and pushed it open still remaining on one knee beside her.

She didn't seem to notice. As she continued sobbing uncontrollably.

A door located between mine and hers opened.

"What the hell is going on out here? A voice rang out.

Describer the neighbor and the perturbed look on his face. A couple of exchanges.

"I think you need to go in, maam," I said quietly to her.

Still no movement. She didn't even appear to register my words.

I sighed and slid one arm under her knees while bracing her back with my other arm and scooped her into my arms. I stood up and carried her into her apartment. Describes the feel of having her in his arms in that moment. Electricity shooting through his body. He had never experienced that before in his life.

Describe the apt. and compare to your own. Debate on taking her to her bedroom but decide that would be inappropriate considering she was a stranger – bedrooms are our sactuaries. At least mine was. No one has ever seen my bedroom and not bringing women there.

I opted instead to carry her into the living room and placed her on the couch.

He tries to get her to speak with no success. He asks if there is someone he can call for her? Anything he can do? No response.

He walks over to a desk and grabs a pad of paper and a pen and begins writing down his name and number telling her to call him if she needs anything.

He leaves the apt locking her door behind him and heads to his. He goes inside and lays there that night dreaming of the sad girl down the hall.

BPOV

Setting Hospital:

Options: His last words to her as he is dying in the hospital. He dies. Angst about losing her father. Good memories of her father. Hint to the mafia lifestyle and danger. Describe family members at hospital offering condolences. Uncle forcing her to meet with him tomorrow in re to the family business. Describe her making her way home in a daze. And then the elevator. Waking up next morning to find the note the stranger had left for her the night before after carriying her int her apartment.

Chapter 2

Edward wakes the next morning and flips on the TV. Sees the news report of mafia man that dies last night. The man he had been investigating for the last 10 years as a detective in the Seattle Police Department. Just assigned to a special task force to end organized crime in the city. A picture displays on the screen of the man and his daughter smiling and looking happy. He realizes that it was the sad girl from down the hall.

His phone rings.

Hi. This is Isabella swan. I just wanted to say thank you for last night.

He thinks about what it would mean to talk to this girl and find out about her mafia family. But he cant shake what he experienced last night looking into her sorrowful eyes the feel of her in his arms when he carried her thru the doorway of her apartment.

"would you like to get a a cup of coffee?" he asks her.

Chapter 3

Bella sits at an empty table sipping on a cup of coffee. She is thinking about how she ended up here in a restaurant waiting for a complete stranger to arrive. Well he wasn't a complete stranger. She knew who he was. She knew he was a cop. She recalls him testifying against he uncle in a trial a few years back. She remembers moving into the apartment building they share and catching site of him in the elevator several times. But she never felt the need to approach him, to make him aware of who she was and that she lived just a few doors down.

She recalls how she felt last night. She feels like fool. She wants someone to talk to that isn't in her family. She recalls the early morning phone conversation with her uncle. He wants control of the family. He is only interested in drugs and prostitution. Her father had shared with her once that he dabbled in human prostitution and pushed him for years to expant the family business to include this. He was disgusting. She is conflicted because her fathers last wishes were for her to get out of this family. To have a different life. But she doesn't want her uncle to take control of the family businesses and turn them into something seedy. She knows her father did things outside of the law but he was a good man. If someone coudnt pay a loan he gave them more time, if they owed a debt, he worked out payment arrangement. It didn't make him a respected man by other crime families but it made him loved in the community he protected and worked. He was respected by the citizens he served not because people feared him but because they loved him. Tears begin welling in her eyes.

And that is why she is now sitting here in the coffee house waiting on Edward Cullen. Hes a cop and he can help her put her uncle behind bars where he belongs. She is determined that she will get out of the family but not before she sees her uncle ruined. She knows her uncle owns half the cops in the city so she isn't sure if she can trust Edward Cullen. But she has a plan to get to know him without letting him know who she is. Maybe he is the one that can help her.

"Hi, Isabella. I'm Edward," he says and extends his hand to her.

Please, call me Bella, she tells him.

Chapter 4

Edward describes seeing Isabella in the coffee shop and the spark he feels again when shaking her hand. They talk, etc. he is mesmorized but he is conflicted because he is here on business. He cant afford to become emotionally attached. He needs information on the family and all its businesses. His plan is to get to know her and hope she drops some clues on her uncle. Etc.

They talk. He becomes more and more attracted to this mysterious woman.