A/N: Ok, I made some quick changes and pulled the Prologue for now. I will be reposting it sometime tomorrow. For now, please enjoy and give feedback, as this is my first fanfic!

A special thanks to Just4Ale - thank you, for letting us all read your stories and for helping me figure out my own. If you haven't read her stories - go now - she is the best out there. I want to be her Bella. And let's just say, her Edward? He can rhyme to me anytime he wants!! (Please?)

J

Dr. Cullen

EPOV

"A-yu-yu-yooo"

"Bark, bark, bark"

"A-yu-yu-yoooo"

"Bark, bark, bark"

"You have got to be kidding me!" I grumbled as I rolled over in my fantastically large, down mattress-covered, king-sized bed. I tried to drown the baling noise out by placing a soft, but firm, "for the side-sleeper" pillow over my head. Apparently drowning out the most annoying animal noise in existence was not part of the benefits of the $80.00 pillow.

Can't really blame the pillow – it had already proven to be beneficial for more than sleeping. The tall blonde saleswomen who highly recommended it was one of my better distractions after all.

As I rolled, the crisp 800-count Egyptian cotton sheet barely moved with me, from its constraints in the hospital corners I religiously made every morning. Lying here, with a pillow shoved over my face, making breathing uncomfortable, the top portion of my body exposed to the cooler morning air, and the damn baling continuing, I finally resigned myself to waking up.

And I was pissed.

Succumbing to consciousness due to the rather insistent barking and bailing of the new neighbor's dog – a hound from the sounds of it - was not the way I traditionally started my mornings.

And very little mattered more to me than tradition.

Rolling back over, I shot a glance at my alarm clock and noted it was only 5:46 a.m. Chancing a glimpse at the skylight directly over my bed, I noted the sun had barely begun to make its appearance in the expansive Alaskan sky.

Fucking perfect. I wonder how upset my new neighbor would be if his dog went missing?

Not very mature for a doctor and a professor, Cullen.

Yes, well. Ours is a race of infallibility; should I not also benefit from occasionally succumbing to human nature?

This was the third time this week I had been awaken too early because of that damn dog and I had enough of it. I didn't care if its owner had just moved in, nor if my future shouting was considered un-neighborly. This break in my routine was affecting my everyday schedule and everything from my mood to my concentration was on a short fuse. I would pull myself together and go over there before I left for work. Satisfied that I had a plan to resolve this most recent and obnoxious interference in my life, I sighed rather dramatically, rolled out of bed and stomped my way to the shower.

In not such a small part of my mind, I knew I was acting uncharacteristically emotional over the situation, but I comforted myself that breaking out of one's relaxation and sleep patterns had been clinically shown to affect subjects in a wide variety of ways, including emotion. Though I didn't often associate myself with the everyday masses, I did find a small measure of comfort in this simple fact.

It's not that I am conceited or overly-arrogant; I honestly don't consider myself better than everyone else. The simple fact is I am a licensed physiatrist, and professor of behavioral studies. Being so intimate with the workings of human behavior has caused me to observe others more subjectively than most people and to in turn, judge them for their behaviors; unfortunately this occurs as much in my professional career as it does in my everyday life. As a consequence, it is far too easy for me to see "through" people, and once I get a look I am often disappointed at the fickleness I find there; very few people in this world have real charisma or depth.

To be sure, I have my own vices, hang-ups and "issues," but I recognize them and chose to embrace the impact they have on my life. I don't put forth a façade, unless necessary in my work, and I allow people to chose to be in my life based upon who I truly am, and not whatever projection of me I believe they would be more comfortable with.

Begrudingly I make my way into my master bathroom, taking note of my appearance in the mirror. My auburn hair is as disheveled as per the norm, taming it is something I had long since given up on. I run my hand over my face and decide I can go one more day before needing to shave. Upon noting the tint of shadow under my eyes, my resolve to confront "annoying neighbor" strengthens and I hop into the shower going over my anticipated confrontation, until all trace of "woken up too damn early" irritation is gone, leaving with it the calm, professional Dr. Cullen.

And no woman, or man, could resist the calm, professional and extremely charming Dr. Cullen.

**********************************************

2 hours later……

"Dr. Cullen!" A crass and high pitched voice was shouting to me, from somewhere across the campus square. I knew that voice and as I continued to walk towards my destination, I was fervently hoping it would just go away.

As if my morning weren't already bad enough. "Annoying neighbor" failed to make an appearance even after my repeated knocks. And waiting around for no response only made me later than I wanted to be to the office. Now this…

"Edward wait, it's me, Jessica!"

As I stopped and waited for her to catch up with me, not turning around to see her, I let a long sigh escape my mouth. These were the consequences of my world, a world that I knew was the safest and best place for me, a world that I consciously chose, and yet sometimes the consequences were enough to make me wish I was celibate.

Jessica was one of those consequences. It wasn't that she was mean or stupid, or god forbid, ugly, she was just so typical and uninteresting. She had very little original thought, typically agreeing with whatever I said my opinion was on a matter. Sighing again, I reminded myself those qualities were exactly what I looked for in my little distractions.

And yet I couldn't help but wish that they didn't always have to be the same in the end. Not wanting to let go when it was so clear our time was over. Even though I was very clear from the beginning of each of these encounters, as I have come to call them, that I wanted nothing serious and that nothing serious would ever come out of our coupling, it was a rarity when the distraction actually accepted this when the time came - and this distraction was especially persistent. I told her several weeks ago that it was time to move forward without each other, and yet her persistent had required me to participate in a game of hide and seek to simply get to my office each day. It seemed the girl knew my every move and it was becoming apparent that I would have to speak with her again about boundaries.

Oh well, no time like the present, I thought to myself. Running my hand through my tousled hair, I looked up trying to find inspiration in the unadulterated Alaskan sky.

So different from Chicago.

I shook my head. Those kinds of thoughts weren't going to get me anywhere. So I turned around and faced my consequences, as I felt Jessica's hand on my shoulder.

"Jessica, how are you? I trust you are eagerly anticipating the semester's end?" I asked, trying to find that perfect cadence of professional courtesy and polite interest, without a hint of personal innuendo. I didn't look her in the eyes – apparently that is one of my more irresistible traits. Instead, I looked over her shoulder, appearing to be searching for someone.

"Oh, Edward it's so good to see you! It's been too long," she said, as she moved her hand to tightly grip my forearm.

It had only been a few weeks….and the phone calls and text messages had continued even up to last night.

Maybe I should refer her to someone – dependency issues perhaps?

"Good to see you as well," I said, as I gently unhinged myself from her grip, faked a look of recognition over her shoulder and slightly to the left, "but I really must be going. I have an appointment, and I would hate to keep you from your next class."

As a look of disappointed crossed her face, she turned to look over her shoulder, searching for whomever I deemed more worthy of my time than her. When she found no one, she simply nodded and said, "Okay, but let's catch up soon. Maybe we could meet for coffee at our place tonight," she almost pleaded, placing her hand on my chest this time, and stepping towards me, almost pushing her body flush against me.

Taking a casual step back and to the left I replied, "I don't think that's such a good idea Jessica. Why don't we just leave it as we discussed the last time we talked?"

She looked like she was ready to argue again, and actually attempted to fist my shirt in her hand. I did the only thing I could think of on limited caffeine and an interrupted sleep cycle – I faked a new girlfriend.

"Look, Jessica, I didn't want to tell you in such a rushed manner, but I am seeing someone else now and I just wouldn't feel comfortable with you and I spending time alone together until my new relationship is a bit more established. Okay?" And I, again, removed her hand from my shirt and took several large steps back and again, to the left.

"I really must go. Take care of yourself," I murmured over my shoulder as I walked away, leaving her standing in the middle of the powder covered square, as the snow began to fall in earnest.

I didn't need to look behind me to know that she was or would be soon, crying.

Silly encounters. Silly and overly dramatic.

Maybe I needed to dip back into the more mature pool? I heard there is a few new faculty members this year. And then there is always Lauren. There were many advantages to sharing a sexual relationship with a women who taught a college level sex class. Many benefits indeed.