Disclaimer concerning every chapter: I own nothing, I just can't turn my imagination off. Well, what do I know. I've never tried.

It's raw, all mistakes are my own and I apologize if they bother you.

Unexpected, rare and frightening. It was how they described it. They didn't see it coming, hell, if they had, she would have run and he would have hesitated long enough for her to get away with it. She wanted to move with the shadows, he was one of the most public faces on earth.

Nonetheless, they didn't see it coming and therefore, it hit them out of nowhere. Hard. They both fell hard and they both fell fast.

And neither of them would ever be the same.

- TEoN -

Chapter 1

He had been driving for almost a day, barely stopping and hardly thinking. His life was a constant buzz of voices, screaming and demands. He wasn't a person, he was a brand. Ironically enough, it was because he had gotten everything he had ever dreamed of. By public standards, he had it all. The looks, the talent and, logically following, the money.

At twenty-seven, he had already reached the top.

Now, all he dreamed of was leaping the hell off it. Although, with his luck, he would probably sprout wings and find a cloud with servants and strawberry-tasting women.

Edward's fingers were gripping the steering wheel tightly, his eyes tired and bloodshot, but he was feeling better. He had literally left the sunshine behind him and was now driving in pouring rain and listening to the crying wind, not the screaming fans who probably knew what size of underwear he wore at this point.

For a moment, he fanned his fingers out, stretching the stiff joints and cracking his neck. According to the GPS of his brother's car, he should be reaching his destination at any moment now. How that was possible, he couldn't figure out. If he neared the bar - the only one for about an hour by car - shouldn't there be houses and civilization around him? Not trees the size of skyscrapers. However, according to the little, glowing square, he was almost on top of "Jake's Place".

Another turn and there it was, yellow-lit windows and a small lightbulb over the door. Three or four cars were haphazardly parked outside… Edward stopped on the road, not even bothering to check if someone had come up behind him - it would be a first, considering that he hadn't seen another moving vehicle since Port Angeles. It really couldn't be it. It was as if someone had dropped a small, one storey building by the road and poured some gravel in front of it, right in the forest.

After a little more fidgeting with the GPS, he found that Forks, the small town where his old, childhood friend lived, was another ten minutes away. "Un-fucking-believable…" Edward didn't know what else to do but to park his car next to a beat up truck and get out.

He secured the cap low over his eyes, not to shield himself from the rain but from recognition, and eyed the sunglasses he had discarded in the passenger seat. No, he thought. It was almost five o'clock and already dark outside. How many people could be in there anyway?

As Edward pushed the door shut and hit the button to lock it, he eyes caught a bumper sticker on the truck - "Don't mind the cop, beware of the woman who cuts his steak". He couldn't make his feet move. What the hell was this place? And did he really dare to stay?

His brown leather jacket was an ocean by the time he walked through the door and into the dim bar. It wasn't big by any means, a bar across the room, various tables scattered around it and a few steps to his right, leading up to a slightly higher platform with two tables. That must be what Jake proudly called the "VIP section" when he described the place.

It was nice, though. Warm, inviting and… comfortable. Edward couldn't remember the last time he felt comfortable in public.

Men and women were spread out around the room, nobody seemed to take notice at first, nevertheless, one by one, they looked up and frowned at him. "Fuck." It was merely a whisper, but the word was already screaming inside of his head. He knew that soon, they would start, too. They were whispering, too. Glancing at one another and shaking their heads.

Edward was just about to turn and get the hell out of there when a tall, bulky shape walked through a door behind the bar, carrying a box of bottles.

It only took a few seconds for Jake to see him, for a wide grin to spread and for his big frame come barrelling towards him, pulling him into a hug and serving him a "How the hell are you?". Jake then put his big paws on Edward's shoulders and stepped back. "Look at you man! Nothing like the scrawny kid I knew, Bella was right, you filled out nicely. I mean, you're still gangly as shit, but we can't call you Scare Crow anymore."

Edward momentarily forgot about his discomfort and pushed Jake away, grinning. "Me? Hell, you were even skinnier than me! Shorter, too, if I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah, I shot up when I turned seventeen. Better late than never I guess, Forks did me good. Two weeks here and bam. I swear it's something in the water. How's my cus by the way? Your brother treating her nice?" Edward was lead deeper into the room, oddly, people seemed to be staring less and returning to their conversations. He realized that it wasn't the fact that he was Edward Cullen that had gotten to them, just simply that he was new. However, knowing Jake made him familiar, gave him a label, and he wasn't as interesting anymore.

Jake walked around the bar as Edward answered, "Yeah, Emmett bought them a car with the license "Embellio", his version of 'Emmett', 'Bella' and 'embryo' to celebrate the pregnancy. Safe to say that she had him sleeping on the couch until he took it back." Edward smiled, the two of them had always had a strange relationship. Somehow, they balanced each other out perfectly. Emmett was loud, exuberant and humongous. He loved excitement. Bella was quiet, shy and petite, loving the calm. They hadn't gotten along at all while growing up, Emmett called her every insult in the book during their teenage years and she drove him crazy by giving him the silent treatment. He made up stupid rhymes with her name and she used adjectives he couldn't even pronounce to insult him.

Jake was laughing loudly. "Oh, I'll never forget your mother's face when they got together - I've never seen a woman look that smug in my entire life!" He made his voice higher as he imitated her, "'I knew it!' She totally called it."

Edward chuckled. He could still remember Emmett's face when the two year younger Bella came back after college. They hadn't seen each other in two years, Emmett had been travelling with friends when she came back between semesters, and she had gone from the skinny girl to a beautiful woman.

"What are you drinking?"

Edward just shrugged, his mind finally relaxing enough to give away how tired he truly was. "Anything but coffee."

"Beer it is." He started moving around behind the bar, collecting a glass and filling it up. "So, you gonna keep that shit on?" he nodded toward Edward's head.

Automatically, Edward pulled the cap down a bit further. "Yeah, I think so."

Jake just bobbed his head once, thoughtfully studying him. "Honestly, you look like shit, man. What the hell has that place been doing to you? I watched you on TV the other day, you and that fine brunette - Angel. Fuck, that girl's smoking."

With a roll of his eyes, Edward snorted. "Like a chimney."

"Ha! Don't you know that smoking takes," again, Jake's voice turned high pitched, "like five pounds off?!"

Angel - formerly Angela Webber - was an actress he had been working with a few times, she was great, except that he was fairly certain that smoke came out of her mouth even when she wasn't lighting up.

Jake placed the beer down with a napkin, sliding towards Edward while waggling his eyebrows. "She good in bed?"

"I don't kiss and tell." Edward grinned, somewhat smugly.

"I knew it! Damn, you lucky bastard! What I wouldn't give to hit that just-"

"I swear, Jake, if you finish that sentence I will call your grandmother and tell her about the time we did it on her kitchen table!" Leah, Jake's girlfriend of three years, fires as she comes up to the bar, an apron tied around her waist and carrying a tray with empty glasses.

"No shit! You did it on gran's table?" A younger, male version of Leah trails after her, his face scrunched up. "I ate breakfast there yesterday! Damn it, I even put my sandwich down on the table." He wound his arm around his midsection. "I'm gonna hurl," he chokes out.

"Har, har." Leah wacks the back of his head and rolls her eyes. "Idiots. All of you."

"Nah, babe. Don't be jealous - you know I would never take Angela Webber on gran's table, I save that for my favorite girl." He winks at her, making a small smile involuntarily tug on her lips. "Maybe the hallway floor, but definitely not the table."

Edward tunes out their squabble for a moment, it's not until the younger man's voice excitedly begins, "Holy shit! You're Edw-"

His heart starts beating. Sweat breaks out over his forehead. His body tenses up and his breath catches in his throat.

Screaming echoes in Edward's head and his ears start ringing.

Lately, he's gotten the same feeling every time he hears it, as if metal bands constrict around his chest, making it impossible to inhale. His heartbeat is everywhere, in his head, fingertips - he can even feel it in the soles of his feet.

"Seth," Leah hisses, clasping a hand over his mouth. "Calm down." She's spoken to Edward on the phone several times over the years, and now proceeds to squeeze his shoulder. "Welcome to anonymity." She smiles kindly for a moment before she goes back to glaring at her boyfriend.

- TEoN -

Two hours later, and Seth is excitedly chatting Edward's ears off, not bothering to wait for answers to his questions - the boy manages to answer them himself so why bother trying. Apparently he had a crush on Victoria Spicer and is convinced that their children would be "perfection". He's sure that Hollywood is actually the place aliens touched down and has slowly started taking over the world by cultural imperialism. Edward Cullen, emphasis on the latter name, is his action hero. Edward actually cracked a smile at that, Seth used his full name, lowering his voice further when saying it, sounding slightly strained, as if he was holding back his excitement.

"So, you need a couch to sleep on?" Leah was the one asking, her eyes worriedly tracing the tired lines of Edward's face. He shakes his head, reassuring her about the room in the motel that Alice had booked him just as Jake calls out, "See ya, Charlie! I'll put this on your tab!"

"Charlie?" Edward looks over his shoulder, catching the back of a stocky man who just left the bar.

"Yeah, shit! You've actually never met Bella's father, have you?"

No, he had heard stories. Edward couldn't say that he necessarily thought highly of the man.

"No, can't say that I have."

"Well, you're not missing much," Leah ground out between her teeth. "Fucking chauvinistic bastard."

"Leah…" it was half hearted. Jake was frowning as he touched her shoulder.

"Don't 'Leah' me Jacob William Black!" She angrily threw the dishrag in her hand down onto the bar. "You know he'll go home, drunk like the ass he his, and beat up his wife. Sue will dutifully deny anything, like the fifties fucking wife she is. The neighbors will call the cops and they won't do shit because he's the chief of the fucking cocksucking police." Her chest was heaving and Edward's mouth dropped open. He could remember an eight year old Bella arriving in Beverly Hills with her mother, but he had never thought much of it. She had become one of his best friends, always been, too. She had, however, never mentioned her father. At all. Why? He never really asked.

It did explain a few of Emmett's less than gentlemanly strings of curses on certain occasions.

"Fuck me."

If someone had told him what other kind of secrets hid in Forks, he would probably have turned back home that instant, murder in his veins and a single, one syllable name drumming in his temples.