So this was something that I had originally written for another fandom, but I don't write for that fandom anymore so I'm making it an ExB story. It's only going to be about 20 chapters long for now.

Summary: Bella's life changes after a mistaken phone call from Edward in the middle of the night. How will their new found interest work when they have never met and live miles apart?

Rating: M just in case and for adult language.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, Stephanie Meyers does, but the idea and telling of the tale below is a creature of my own making.

Big thanks to my Beta James and Pre-reader Karen. I wouldn't be able to do this without them.

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Chapter 1:

Bella's life was pretty uneventful. She was your normal twenty-seven year old female. She had a wonderful family, good friends and a job she loved. She lived in a modest cottage on the out skirts of the town she grew up in, only having left long enough to attend college in New York and London. After she finished medical school at Oxford, she returned to her hometown to spend a week before moving to Seattle and starting her residency at the only hospital she wanted to work at. Her parents were extremely happy to know that she would be working only two hours from her home town, and even helped her find the cute little cottage she was currently living in.

The only thing that was missing from Bella's life was love. She'd been so focused on school and her job that it had been pushed to the side. It wasn't that she wasn't looking for it, she just had always taken the path that if it was meant to happen it would. So unlike her mother and friends, she didn't dwell on her nonexistent love life. She'd been on dates, most set up by her mother or friends, but she'd never felt that connection to any of them. It had been the same in college and medical school. She'd date, but nothing long lasting. Her only true long lasting relationship had been in High School; but it didn't last past graduation when they both realized that a long distance relationship wasn't going to work. She'd remained friends with her first love and had even attended his wedding a few years back. He was happy and living in Denver practicing medicine while his wife taught elementary school.

Yawning she rolled over and looked at the clock, she couldn't believe it was only 12:30am. She'd been lying in bed recounting her life for the past 2 hours. Last night, after returning home from dinner with her best friend, she'd immediately gone to bed; but as tired as she'd been, sleep hadn't come. As tired as she was she couldn't fall asleep. This problem was happening more and more lately as she tried to put her life into perspective.

Her mother was reminding her daily about her desire to be a grandmother, and while her brother was happily married, he had yet to produce said grandchild, so now it was falling onto her. The problem was, Bella wasn't in a position to give her mother that grandchild. Her mother had even gone so far as to start setting her up more and more with the eligible sons of her friends. So far, like before, that spark that she was looking for wasn't there. A shrill ringing sound broke her out of her thoughts. Sighing loudly she reached for her ringing cell phone, the noise that woke her, and prayed it wasn't the hospital calling her back in.

"Lo?" She said sleepily

"Tanya?" She heard a deep voice ask from the other end.

"I'm sorry but you have the wrong number," she said with a yawn.

"Oh." The voice said sounding a bit distraught. "You have a very pretty voice," he said surprising her.

"Thanks?" She said shocked. "Well…since I'm not who you are looking for, have a good night," she told him.

"Wait!" He said pleadingly. "Look I know we don't know each other, but you have a really friendly voice and I've had a horrendous day and, well I just need someone to talk to," he told her.

"Um….." she said moving herself to sit up on the bed, knowing that it was a little crazy to even consider speaking with him.

"I know this is weird," he stated. "And I normally don't try and get strangers to talk to me, especially when I call them accidentally; it's just that…I have no one else to talk to."

"Is that why you were calling this Tonya person at 12:30 in the morning?" Bella asked him.

"Yeah." He said "I swear this was the number she left on my voicemail to call her. She's a friend from med school that I lost touch with after my residency. She had left me a message tonight telling me she needed to talk, and since I did too…I figured I'd give her a call."

"Ah," Bella said. "Sorry I'm not her, but I've had this number for a few years now."

"It's okay," he said softly. "You probably think I'm weird right? I mean trying to talk to some girl that I dial accidently. I'm not a serial killer or anything. And I don't normally try and converse with people that I've miss dialed...you just sound nice…and it's been a while since I've heard a nice voice."

"Yes, but how do I know that you're really not a serial killer or someone who is going to stalk me now?" She asked teasingly finding it easy to talk to him. Which, for her, was somewhat strange. She lived her life very guarded. It took a lot for her to open up to anyone, but there was something in this person's voice that drew her to want to talk to him…..even though part of her kept screaming for her to hang up, and go back to her safe life.

"You don't. I guess you'll have to take my word for it," he told her. "Plus I took an oath to save lives, not take them."

"You're a doctor?"

"Yes," He said. "I'm a neurosurgeon."

"Do you like it?" She asked him.

"Most days yes," he said. "But some days, like today, not so much."

"Why not today?" She inquired. "You said early your day was horrendous, did something happen?"

"Yes," he said quietly. "I lost a patient."

"Oh." Bella said knowing how it felt to lose someone you were trying to help.

"A five year old boy," he told her without her asking. "He fell off of the top bunk of his bunk beds and hit his head pretty hard. There was a bad bleeder and I couldn't stop it. I lost him five minutes into his surgery."

"I'm sorry," she told him wiping a tear that had fallen. "It sucks when you lose someone so young, but I'm sure you did all that you could."

"I don't feel like I did," he said. "I feel like I should have been able to stop it. I don't know how I missed it at first, I got the smaller bleeds stopped and was ready to close up, then his pressure dropped and there was all this blood."

"It sucks," Bella said, not knowing what else to say. "I know. It's even worse when it's a child. It makes you feel helpless."

"Exactly," he agreed. "And it's worse when you have to tell someone that their son will never grow up to be the things you wanted them to be, they'll never get to ride a bike without supervision, play ball, learn to drive, go on their first date."

"No child should ever die before their parent," Bella said sadly. "But sometimes, we can't save everyone. There are some things that, as a doctor, are out of your control."

"I know. But it still doesn't make it hurt less."

"I know," she said. "Was he your last case today?"

"No," he told her. "I had an 80 year old woman come in with lacerations to her head. She was in a car accident and hit her head on the windshield. She wasn't wearing a seatbelt." He said. "Her son told me that she wasn't supposed to be driving, she has Alzheimer's and doesn't remember that she has no license, or to put her seatbelt on. She just kept saying that she had to get to her Marty, her son."

"Is she ok?" Bella asked.

"She gave herself one hell of a concussion, but I think she'll make it," he said. "I'll know more after a few days of observation."

"I hope she's ok," she said.

"Me too," he said with a yawn. "Though we never know what tomorrow will bring."

"Tomorrow is your clean slate," Bella said after a few moments of silence between them. "Tomorrow you get to start over, and go back and make a difference in the lives of someone else. Tomorrow you get to save the next child, or grandmother that comes into your emergency room and needs your help. Today sucked, but tomorrow you get to try again, and you may not save everyone, but think about the families of the people that you will. They are the ones that make you going back in tomorrow worth it. They are your clean slate."

"You are very wise," he said. "Thank you for talking to me tonight, you didn't have to. You could have hung up on me."

"I thought about it, but it sounded like you really needed to talk," she told him.

"I did, and I enjoyed talking to you."

"I enjoyed talking to you as well," she said with a yawn.

"I should let you get to sleep," he told her. "I didn't realize how late it was."

"It's ok," she said noticing the clock now read 2 am. She was thankful she didn't have to work tomorrow at all. "I'm off tomorrow."

"Me too," he replied. "Well I'll let you go then, thanks again."

"You're welcome," she told him.

"I know this is strange, but can we talk again?" He asked quickly

"Yes," she said softly. "I would be ok with you mistakenly calling me again."

"Great," he told her. "It's nice to have a friendly voice to talk to. Well goodnight…."

"Bella," she told him. "My name is Bella."

"Well goodnight, Bella." he said.

"Goodnight….."

"Edward," he said

"Goodnight, Edward." she said as she hung up the phone. She placed it back on the bedside table and snuggled down into her covers. She couldn't believe she'd just spend an hour and a half on the phone with someone who'd called a wrong number. Smiling to herself she closed her eyes and wondered if he would actually call back, and she felt silly wanting him to.

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A/N: Would you talk to a stranger that woke you up in the middle of the night? What do you think of Bella and Edward's conversation?

Reviews will get a teaser for the next chapter.

A couple of fic recs:

Color of Loneliness by ExquisiteEdward: She's almost done with it, but it's definitely worth a read if you haven't read it yet.

To Destroy» by walkingwithgiants: It's a different relationship for Edward and Bella, not too far into it so they are still developing, but it's a good read.

Sideline Collision» by Nolebucgrl: Footballward and Bandbella, it's a cute love story and excellently written.