** We all know that I don't own Twilight or Edward. That privilege belongs solely to Ms. Meyers. I did, however, enlist Edward in the Army.

Thanks again to herinfiniteeyes for her excellent beta skillz. **

Chapter 1

Six months earlier

Bella was having a bad night.

She had clocked in late and endured a scolding from her usually very amiable boss, Cindy. There was the lady at table six who had left without paying her bill. Then the kid at table three had vomited on her shoes. She was very grateful that she had opted for the closed-toe sandals while getting dressed that afternoon. On top of all of that, a coworker had called in sick, so she was stuck pulling a double the night before the final exam in her Shakespeare class.

She was only an hour away from closing time. By her best estimate, if she went straight home and studied for an hour, she could still get a few hours of sleep before she had to be up for class. At the moment, there weren't even any customers in the place, so maybe Cindy would let her leave a little early.

The bell jingled above the door, signaling the arrival of customers. Trying not to roll her eyes, Bella turned with her "work" smile plastered on her face to greet the newcomers. Boisterous laughter rolled in with the slight scent of alcohol and cigarette smoke. Several men stumbled through the door and Bella felt like banging her head on the counter.

Figures. Soldiers. She groaned internally. God help them if they think they're going to stiff me on the bill or tip like usual.

"Hello gentlemen," she greeted them cordially. "As you can see, you have your choice of seating."

The soldier in front dipped his head to her and grinned as the others followed him to the back corner booth. Bella followed slightly behind, slapping menus down on the table as they jockeyed for seats around the booth.

"My name is Bella. I'll be your server tonight. Our special was the salmon lemonata, but we're out of salmon. And, of course, we serve breakfast for the next hour until closing." She ran through her spiel automatically, mentally shifting her study and sleep schedule around in order to accommodate for not being able to leave early.

"Bella, Bella, Bella…beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…" The guy closest to the edge of the booth grinned goofily up at her. He was good-looking in a wholesome, All-American way with buzz cut blond hair and clear blue eyes. Unfortunately he also thought he was good-looking and was attempting to wink at her, but the alcohol in his system was making him close both eyes at the same time, essentially just making him look sleepy. Bella mentally nicknamed him Comet, after the golden retriever on the show "Full House." That had been her favorite television show as a kid and she thought he kind of had a retriever look about him.

A tall, burly, dark haired guy sitting across the table, who also appeared quite intoxicated, began to poke fun at Comet. Bella had to bite the inside of her cheek to prevent a giggle from escaping. If they had to interrupt her plans to go home early, it looked like this table would at least be entertaining. The man who had nodded to her at the door, the one she thought of as the polite one, looked like the least drunk of them all as he grinned up at Bella.

"We have one more person joining us," he informed her quietly. She nodded at him.

"I'll just let you all look over the menu while you're waiting for your friend. I'll be right back for your drink orders." Smiling again, she turned away from the table, back toward the counter at the entrance.

The café she worked in was a second home for her. She was as comfortable walking through the L-shaped building as she was walking through her own apartment. She didn't think anything about the bell on the door jingling to announce another customer. Nor did she have an explanation for her sudden bout of clumsiness when she turned the corner and tripped over her own feet. Her order pad and pen flew across the counter and her arms windmilled as she tried desperately to regain her balance before plowing into the new customer. Giving in, she closed her eyes and waited for the hard impact on the tile floor.

It never came. Instead, strong arms wrapped around her and she was pulled into a firm, warm body. Cheeks blazing, she opened her eyes to find herself facing a well-defined bicep, encased in short sleeves with just a hint of tattoo ink peeking out from under the sleeve. She attempted to pull her dignity up around her and straightened up, finally looking up to face her rescuer. She gaped at him, taken aback by the gorgeous man staring down at her.

"Thanks," she mumbled and hurried away, leaving him to join his friends in the back of the building. Cindy came rushing out from the kitchen.

"Bella! Are you okay? I thought you were going to bite it there until Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome caught you!" Cindy joked. Bella rolled her eyes again, beginning to think that by the time she went home, she would be permanently looking up at the sky. She turned to her boss and gave her a pleading smile.

"Cindy, please, please, please take these customers? I really do need to study for my Shakespeare exam." Bella held her breath, hoping that this would go her way for once.

"Sorry, Bella, I can't do that. Saul just got a call to say that his kid was sick, so I've got no one to cook. I also have to get the deposit ready to go to the bank in the morning." Cindy stopped, considering. "Tell you what, go ahead and sit in the dining room where they can get your attention if they need you. That way you can still help them, but you can also study."

Sighing and trying to look grateful, Bella thanked her, gathered up her order pad from the far side of the counter, her pen from the floor, and headed back to the dining room to face her embarrassment.

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

Edward watched her from across the room while his friends laughed and talked around him. She had come back and taken their drink and food orders earlier. It frustrated him when she had done so without meeting his eyes. He knew she was embarrassed. You didn't have to be a mind-reader to figure that out when her cheeks were flushed. Even now she sat at a table across the room, engrossed in what looked like a textbook, but her cheeks were flaming red.

Great, she's a student. Probably 18 or 19 and away from home from the first time. I wonder if she's still a virgin.

Nothing about this night had been what he had expected when he left his room earlier. He had not expected to be the designated driver. He had not expected to be sitting at a café at 2 a.m. when he had PT at 7 a.m., and he had definitely not expected to walk through the door of the café and find his arms full of soft, sweet-smelling woman. He wasn't sure how she had ended up catapulting into him, but he liked it. Her hair had tickled his chin and he had to stop himself from burying his nose and just breathing it in.

God, what am I, a girl? Who thinks things like that anyway?!

Disgusted with himself, he forced his focus back to his friends, catching on to the end of the conversation.

"I can't wait until my Rosie gets home," Emmett was saying, referring to his wife of three years, Rosalie. It was a well-known fact that he was crazy about her and hated being separated longer than what he thought necessary. She had spent the last week and a half on a business trip to Chicago and Emmett was driving them all insane as his anticipation of her return increased.

"You know wha', McCarty? D' you know wha' you are? You're whipped, dat's wha'," Newton slurred around a mouthful of pancakes. Emmett snorted.

"I don't know, Newton. I think Emmett's onto something," Jasper interjected, playing the peacekeeper as usual. "It's still fairly new, but I miss Alice when I haven't seen her. There's nothing wrong with appreciating one girl instead of playing the field." He winked at Edward.

Edward groaned. He did not need the visual of Jasper "appreciating" his sister Alice. He tossed a French fry across the table. "Just because I let you date her doesn't mean I need to hear about it, Hale," he growled. Jasper only grinned.

Emmett leaned across the table, unwilling to let Newton's comment go unchallenged. "Well, at least that means I don't need to go out sniffing around all the 18-year old college tail around here." They all, except for Newton, burst into loud laughter.

Reflexively, Edward glanced back over at the table where Bella sat, wondering if the laughter at his table disturbed her. He watched as she slammed her textbook closed and slid out of her booth. She reached up and twisted her long, dark hair into a knot on top of her head in a move that Edward recognized as inherently feminine. His heart slammed into his ribs as his eyes traced the graceful curve of her neck and landed on the tattoo just below her hairline. He couldn't make out the lettering from where he sat, but his fingers itched to trace the dark script. Shaking his head to rid himself of the thought, he elbowed Newton to get his attention.

"Let's get the fuck out of here."

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

Bella couldn't figure it out. She was fairly certain that the group was made up of soldiers, mainly because of the buzz cuts and "high & tight" hair, all except for the last one, the one who had caught her when she had almost fallen. His hair was short, barely touching the collar of his shirt in the back, but that was long considering how many soldiers wore it. She had noticed that he ran his hands through it constantly, causing the top to stick up in what should have been stupid ways, but she found it immensely attractive.

Physically there was little about him that she didn't find attractive. He was tall and thin, but not skinny. His messy hair was a beautiful bronze color and a strong jaw. She couldn't see his eyes, but she had felt them on her all night as he watched her. This had disrupted her ability to concentrate so much that it had taken her 20 minutes to finish one page of "The Merchant of Venice." She thought he seemed quieter than the rest of his friends and wondered once again if he was a student, not a soldier.

She sat down on the stool behind the counter and dropped her chin into her hand, grateful that Cindy had already done the majority of closing duties. She just needed to wait until the people in the back left, clean up their table and dishes and then she would be free. She thought longingly of her quiet little studio apartment and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn.

Eight o'clock is going to come so early tomorrow morning. She sighed and debated to herself how much more studying she needed to do versus how much sleeping she wanted to be doing. Loud laughter from the back brought her back to the present and she straightened when she realized that the group had left their table and were making their way to the counter to pay.

Comet paid first. His debit card read Michael Newton. He grinned comically at her. "Bye-bye Beautiful Bella!" he slurred. She couldn't help but smile back at him.

The dark haired man was next. The name on his card read Emmett McCarty. Bella printed his receipt and handed it to him to sign. He did with a flourish and winked at her when he handed it back.

The polite one was third. He paid in cash and only smiled slightly when she handed him his receipt and change.

Finally Bella looked up into a pair of beautiful green eyes and her breath caught in her throat. She tried to keep her hand from shaking as she took his credit card. She could feel herself starting to blush under his intense gaze. She jolted at the light touch of his fingers as she handed him his receipt to sign.

"Thank you, Bella." His words were quiet and he smiled softly at her. She could only nod in return, her throat suddenly too dry to speak. He and his friends turned and filed out into the early morning air.

Bella followed and locked the door behind them. She picked up the receipt he had signed and traced her fingertips over his name. "Edward Cullen," she whispered to herself.

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

Later, after she had closed the café, ridden her bike the two blocks home, and got in another hour of studying, she laid in bed curled around a pillow. She pictured his face again in her mind.

"Edward Cullen," she said again, out loud, listening to the words bounce around her room. "Edward Cullen." She liked his name. It was strong, masculine. It seemed to fit him. She wondered if he would come back in to the café again.

Bella knew it was silly. Rationally she knew that she didn't know Edward and that more than likely she would never see him again. However it was a game that she had played since she was 9 years old on vacation with her dad and had watched a bride walk down an aisle to a waiting groom. She decided for just this once, she would give in to that little girl again. So she closed her eyes, pictured Edward again in her mind and whispered, "Bella Cullen."

A/N Well, I hope you all like it. I think it's mostly self-explanatory.

PT = Physical Training, usually every weekday from 7 am - 8 am.

As for Bella's prejudice against soldiers in general, all will be revealed in time. ;-)