Hey everyone! Sooo, here it is! I'm finally done procrastinating. Thanks to my beta, bitemeplease235. Because without her, this would be much worse. :) And I suppose I should thank my sister for being such a pain about me getting this up so she could read it… Luv ya!

Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape or form own Twilight. I'm very sad about it too.

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BPOV

"Bye Ang!" I waved at Angela and walked away from the theater into the dark street.

"You sure you'll be ok, Bella?" Angela asked me, worried. "I can drive you if you want…" She was a little hesitant, I could tell, probably because she wanted to get home to Ben, her boyfriend.

"No, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. You can go home and call Ben." I winked at her, and she giggled.

"You know me too well. But if you're sure…"

"Go HOME, Ang. I'll be fine," As long as I don't trip over anything. "See you at work tomorrow."

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EmPOV

"Edward, no! Come on, man. We've got enough for today!" I protested strongly. The girl was obviously in college, and we all knew from experience that most college students didn't have a lot of money. I hated doing this in the first place, and robbing people who couldn't afford being robbed just made it worse. At least with the rich, all that might affect them is that they might have a deep fear of dark alleys.

"Emmett, we have to!" he protested almost as powerfully, though I knew that he had as much of a problem with it as I did. Or, at least, he normally did. He seemed somehow different today. Edgy, almost. Jasper was silent, but I knew he agreed with me.

"Emmett," Jasper was almost silent, but still forceful. "We have to leave now. She's coming! " He looked over towards Edward. "Are you sure you want to do this? You can still back out."

"NO. I'm doing this!"

Fine then, be that way. Edward will just have to do this on his own. Maybe then he'll give up with this crap. We would be fine on our own, and I've told him as much.

When we were out of earshot of Edward, Jasper spoke up. "We should stay nearby to see if we need to help if anything goes wrong."

"With his luck, some decrepit old lady will take him down." By then, we were both laughing. That would really bring him down to earth.

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BPOV

A breath of fresh air breezed past my face, scattering the debris in the gutters everywhere. My eyes followed one torn, beat-up, yellowed newspaper briefly, the headlines screaming of another assault. I have absolutely no idea why the city was so tense over this, or anything about the group besides that some of them were apparently extremely fast, and strong. But that was really about all. I made a point of not looking at the news much.

I looked up, and my eyes suddenly met a pair of gorgeous glowing green eyes behind trash piled high at a dead end of a street. They were too big to belong to a cat, unless it was a mountain lion, and I had never seen such a deep, vibrant, and absolutely stunning color in any human. Startled, I skidded to a stop, and stared into them, entranced. It felt like they were so deep, I could drown in them. Cliché, I know, but it was still true. They widened suddenly, looking surprised, and then narrowed, annoyed, and zoomed away from my line of vision, so quickly that I thought that their owner had only blinked. When they did not reappear, I shook myself out of my stupor, and continued walking, stunned.

Lost in thought, I walked straight past a ragged blonde-haired man, wearing what seemed too nice to be rags, but still very inconspicuous. Suddenly, about a block past him, I heard a small scuffle of boots on concrete, and a brief curse. I tried to turn around to face it, noticing the man was gone in mid-turn, but was abruptly held in a tight chokehold against a man's chest, with a knife pressed to my neck. I could feel the pressure, but it wasn't cutting me yet. I silently placed my feet in as good a stance as I could get, and mentally, I calculated my odds of getting out of here unscathed. They weren't good.

"Don't move and I won't hurt you. All I want is your money; you can give me that, can't you?" The man's voice whispered roughly in my ear. I flinched, and tried to think of what to do. Those stupid self defense classes Charlie made me take wouldn't be of any use unless I could actually fend someone off…

"What're you doing?" He demanded, pressing the knife tighter to my side. Flinching again, I took a chance and tried to speak.

"I think there's something stuck in my shoe. Could I get it out? It's really uncomfortable!" I put all my fear into it, and let my voice tremble a bit. The knife was shoved closer in response.

"You have a knife pressed to your neck and you're worried about your shoe?" he asked incredulously.

"Um, yes?" I squeaked, and hoped that it wasn't the wrong answer.

"Fine!" he snapped, "but hurry it up! I don't have all day!"

But, instead of bending over like expected, I 'tripped', and fell to the ground. My feet were maneuvered around his legs, so when I jerked sideways, he was startled and got knocked to the ground.

I scrambled up, not wanting to lose this advantage, knelt on his back, twisted his hands behind him, and grabbed the knife out of his hands, like in all those bad cop shows.

Thinking quickly, I tried to figure out what to do. If I got back up, he'd just take his knife back. And I didn't have any handcuffs…

Suddenly, I saw two more men in the background. One was big, and extremely muscular, like he was in the gym all the time. His hair was cropped close to his skull, and curly. The other was tall, and leonine, with tousled looking hair. Both of them were in very inconspicuous clothing, like they didn't want to be noticed. Actually, the second looked like the man I passed before. They looked intently toward us, and then started walking slowly and deliberately toward us.

I looked at them, and shook my head slightly. I could handle this by myself if they wanted to help me, and even if they did, they would probably only get in the way. And if they were going to help him… well, that would be even worse. I didn't think that I could handle all of them in these shoes, and I would have to make a rash decision. But they kept coming.

Sighing, I knew that I'd have to knock their partner out. Gripping the top of the hilt, I hit him on the side of his head, just enough to knock him out. I hope.

I checked his pulse, and breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't kill him. Charlie would have had a few words with me if I had.

His accomplices were running straight at me now, and I got up slowly, hoping they'd get the hint.

Sadly, they didn't, and I braced myself, waiting. I really hated fighting in stilettos…

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EMPOV

"Wait! This isn't like him! Stop!" I shouted at the girl, while Jasper and I ran towards her. She didn't look like the killer type, but Edward had definitely given her enough provocation. He had been getting on my nerves, and I wasn't the one he was trying to rob.

But it was too late. She had already tripped him, and he dropped like a stone. Then, she apparently noticed us, and turned to us, concentrating hard. And then, she started to turn, and her leg flew up and…

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"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" A voice apologized over and over – kind of annoyingly, actually.

I slowly gaining consciousness, and groaned. My shoulder hurt like hell. I coughed, and looked at my shoulder. No wonder it hurt, it was bleeding. Damn, that girl can kick.

She seemed to me talking to herself now, and I was only catching the occasional word or two.

"Shoes…Ang…car," the world looked really fuzzy around the edges, like a faded picture.

I think I lost consciousness for a bit, because the next thing I knew, someone- or a few someone's, I'm not really sure – had lifted me up, and dragged me to a car. I looked at the ground, and noticed that there was still a body on the ground. It was Edward. She was obviously going to leave him here. I know he was an ass, but I can't just leave him here. I'd be so screwed, plus he's theoretically my brother...

"Don't…leave…brother…" Oops. He's not my real brother. Oh, well. I'm losing consciousness again anyway.

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BPOV

Oh, crap. I forgot I was wearing the shoes Angela bought me when I was… busy. It looked like the heel had broken off when I kicked the big one, and I had kicked really hard…

How could I get them to my apartment? I'd feel really bad if I just left them here. Well, two of them anyway. And I didn't have a car…

I decided to call Angela, and ask her to bring Ben too. We'd need him to lift them into the car.

"Hey Angela. Did I interrupt anything?" I could hear Ben in the background. I think he was talking to Angela as well.

"No, not at all. Did you want something?" She sounded a little out of breath.

"Yeah. Sorry, I changed my mind. I do need you to pick me up after all. And could you bring Ben?"

After explaining as much of the situation as I could, she finally agreed to come along as well as Ben. They seemed a little intrigued with my predicament, and more than a little humored.

"Only you, Bella," was her parting statement before she hung up to come and get me. I mean us.

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BPOV

When Angela and Ben finally showed up, I was a little faint from the little bit of blood he had spilt. After getting the blonde guy in the car, Ben tried to pick up the big one, and ended up getting crushed. It would have been really funny if the situation wasn't so horrible. It ended up taking all three of us to drag him to the car. All of a sudden he woke up briefly, and mumbled something about not forgetting his brother. Apparently the man who tried to rob me was his brother. Actually, I was just planning on leaving him. He was the man who caused all this. But, if one of them insisted, I really couldn't resist. I wasn't that cold-hearted.

When all three of them were in the car, with Ben to watch them, and I slid in the passenger seat of Angela's Toyota, she started furiously whispering to me about being careful and walking in the dark. I cut her off abruptly.

"Yeah Angela, I'm sorry. It's just that you deserved some time with Ben, and I thought I'd be fine, and…"

She cut me off, wearing a sympathetic look. "Don't worry; I just wanted to make sure. I was really worried about you. You could've been hurt! And you haven't slept in a couple days, so that would have slowed your reflexes. But I understand. You work too hard anyway. You should take tomorrow off."

"No, that's ok. I need a reason to kick these thugs out of my house." I tried to smile to let her know that I was kidding, but I was about ready to fall over from exhaustion.

"Well…fine then. See you tomorrow then." She seemed reluctant to leave me alone.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Really." At that, she had to smile.

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This was not what I was planning to bring home tonight. I wanted a coffee, or some sleep, not three people, one of which tried to mug me, and the other two could be his accomplices and I would never know. Right now, they were all over my apartment, and I didn't have any place to sleep. This is definitely not my day.

I wandered through my house, checking in on my 'guests,' now that they were all situated. That was not a fun job for me. I hate the smell of blood, that rust and salt odor. I grimaced, and remembered…

I finally, after much hauling and sweating, got all three of them in my apartment. Obviously, that was loads of fun, since I'm on the third floor of the complex. I was really glad the floor in this particular room was wood; it was easier to drag them across. I wrinkled my nose, repulsed by the smell of blood and what I would have to do next.

I tried to figure out where each of them should go first. I had one bed and one couch, and I'm not sure where the third person should go, and also where I could sleep. I really need sleep.

Finally, after much thought, I figured out where the third person could go. I could put him on a bunch of blankets and cushions on the floor. There really was no place else, unless he would rather sleep on the ping-pong table.

"Ugh," I shuddered, and started dragging the two uninjured people to their respective sleeping places. I wanted to put off dealing with blood until the last possible moment.

Glad for once that I managed to be so unbearably clumsy that I needed a really good first aid kit; I got out the tweezers and some really big gauze pads and got to work.

I shook my head, shaking the memories out. I didn't really need to relive something that happened only a few hours ago, and got back to my 'rounds,' resigned to another night without sleep.

Once, around 3 am, the big brawny one was awake. He started talking to me.

"Why did… You take…. Us... Here?" His sentences were choppy; probably from the Advil we gave him as well as my kick.

"Huh?" I had been nodding off, just going through the motions of checking on them. "Oh. I did it because I felt really guilty for hurting you guys. You and that tall blonde guy didn't do anything to me. I just attacked you without any provocation. It's been a long day." Actually, a long couple of days. I felt really guilty for that.

"Well…" he seemed a little hesitant about something.

"Don't worry." I tried to console him with a tired smile. "I won't kick you out. I can even promise that I probably won't remember the conversation."

"You think that's a joke." he scoffed. "Just wait."

He started to explain to me that he and the other one – apparently his name was Emmett, and the tall one was Jasper – were the rest of Edward's – the man who tried to rob me – 'team' or 'family'. Their boss apparently wanted them to think of each other as brothers so they would work together better. I guessed that explained why Emmett called Edward his brother before.

Anyway, Emmett and Jasper didn't want anything to do with the last job (me) and left Edward on his own when he couldn't be dissuaded, but they both stayed close to make sure he wouldn't get into any trouble.

That had obviously done a whole lot of good. Edward and Jasper were knocked out, and Emmett had to have the heel of a stiletto removed from his shoulder.

Somewhere during this, I fell asleep. After all, I was exhausted, and hadn't slept for at least two days. The last thing I thought was that Emmett seemed like a decent person, and wondering what he was doing with a guy like Edward, in a situation like this.

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EPOV

I woke up groggy, really low to the floor in a house that I had no idea how I got into. I could have sworn that I wasn't on burglary today, and even if I was, I sure as hell wouldn't have fallen asleep, especially not in someone's house. Maybe I had managed to knock myself out?

I moved, and groaned. My head was killing me. Then the events of last night started to come back to me, the most important of which was that I got knocked out by a girl, hence the headache.

Emmett boomed through the doorway, and yelled at me, quietly, to 'get the hell out of bed so we can leave.' Needless to say, I bolted up pretty quickly, which, if you ever had Emmett yelling at you, even quietly, you would too. He's normally pretty fun to be around, and really laid back, but when he gets mad, well…let's just not go there. And he was mad now, so I figured I should listen to him. While I was bolting up, I finally figured out what I had been sleeping on. It was a sleeping bag on a bunch of cushions on the floor. Guess the girl didn't have a whole lot of sleeping room. I wonder where she slept…

"Why?" Now, I could also feel the aftereffect of the Striga (see authors note)the bosses had finally convinced me to try, and I just wanted to go back to sleep, even if it was on the floor. I felt like I had a massive hangover and everything ached.

"Because you're an idiot that wouldn't listen to your elders," he preened sarcastically, "and tried to rob a perfectly nice girl. I talked to her. She's great. So we're not gonna bug her anymore. Lets. Go!"

Apparently, even Jasper agreed with Emmett, and was practically radiating waves of disapproval all over at me. I supposed it was time to lose gracefully, and admit defeat. But first…

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I told them that I wanted to explore, and after much begging, they finally agreed, as long as I had a supervisor, so I wouldn't steal anything. Like I would. I'm not that heartless. I think. She did take us in for the night, albeit unwillingly on my part. That didn't make me feel less like a stalker, looking through her apartment while she slept. But I really wanted to know more about her, however odd that want may be.

As I wandered, I found that she had a beautiful upright piano, perfectly in tune, though not played for a while; there was dust on the keys. There were little wooden figures on the top, of eagles, alligators, dolphins, and other animals.

I was particularly drawn to an eagle that looked like it was flying away from everything; escaping from a prison. It was so peaceful, without a care in the world. I was there for a while, dying to try the little piano out. I hadn't played for a while, and I missed it a lot. But I drew myself away, wanting to explore the rest of the apartment.

My most important discovery, however, was a shoe box. They had a note in them for the girl – apparently her name was Bella.

Bella,

These are the shoes I told you about.

Don't worry; they're perfectly safe.

They're made especially for people like us.

See you tomorrow at the shop, and you better have worn these before you get here!

Love ya,

Angela

Apparently, there's more to this girl than meets the eye. What was with the shoes? And what was this Angela person talking about when she said 'people like us'? I was getting more and more pulled into this girl and her life, no matter how hard I tried to be indifferent.

I also found her, the girl, Bella, nearly falling off a chair she had fallen asleep on. Emmett was with me, and apparently hadn't noticed her until I pointed her out. He carefully lifted her up, and placed her on the bed. It was odd to see so much gentleness in big old Emmett, as well as seeing him write some kind of note to the girl. He normally isn't this tender. Emmett's more of the big, booming brusque type.

Turning from her, he dragged me from the room. "Edward, we are going now!"

"Why? I'm not done!" I pleaded. Something drew me to stay here, as peculiar as it sounds.

"'Cause we've done enough. We're going!"

And that was that. No one argues with Emmett when he's in one of those moods.

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Thanks for reading! It makes my day. :)

Anyway, Striga is basically my fictional drug that makes 'em all cool and vampire-ish. and thats all I'm gonna say on it because it will be further explained later. I just didnt want any flames about that...

The next chapter should be up next week, if I'm lucky.