A/N: Okay, here we go… chapter 2

Thanks to my ladies, Sherry, Paige, Tiffany & Cristina.

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Chapter 2 - When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep.

It was about three o'clock in the morning, when the next drama in my life took place. I was lying in bed, wide awake, staring up at the ceiling. I was exhausted, but I couldn't sleep. My mind refused to shutdown and allow me to escape.

After Alice had left, with my insistence that I would be fine, I had finished the bottle of wine she had opened and gone to bed. I figured with the amount of alcohol I had drunk, sleeping would have been easy. But it wasn't. I had lain here for hours, tossing and turning. The image of Edward was burned too fresh on my mind. He looked good. Better than I remembered. His bronze hair was in need of a trim, but I liked it that way. I liked it when it was longer. I used to spend hours running my fingers through it. His face wasn't clean shaven either, he had a bit of scruff on it. Again, I liked that rougher look on him. He wore it well. I missed looking at him every day, knowing he was mine. I missed seeing him in his tight tees and cargo pants; the ones that hinted about the hot body that lay beneath. The body I was more than well acquainted with. But most of all, I missed him. I missed him so much it hurt.

Seeing him hadn't done anything to ease that pain, if anything, it only made it harder. Why did he have to save me? Why did he have to appear concerned? Why couldn't he have ignored me? Having him ignore me would have been less painful. It would have been easier to cope with. I didn't have any idea how I was going to get over this new bump in the road.

As I lay there, staring at the ceiling and thinking of Edward, there was a thundering bang at the door; followed by several more loud bangs, like someone was trying to kick the door down. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my cell, looking around the room for a weapon to use. That was when I heard my sister, Tia scream. "Bella, open up." She sounded troubled. I forgot all notions of finding a weapon and rushed to my front door, unlocking and throwing it open. Nothing would have prepared me for the sight in front of me. I mean, I was used to Tia, showing up at my door and needing to deal with her shit, but never had it been anything like this. She was covered in blood, but I didn't need to worry whose blood it was because the evidence was on her face. Her lip was burst, her nose was bloody and both her eyes were swollen.

"Oh my God, Tia. What happened?" I asked, staring at her in horror. I grabbed her arm and pulled her into my apartment. I never even gave two thoughts to the trail of blood she had left in the breezeway. I was too caught up in finding out what had happened to her.

"Nothing," she sniffed, as I closed and locked the door.

"Nothing?" I questioned as I looked over her. "It doesn't look like nothing. Tia, have you seen your face? Who did this to you?"

Tia shrugged as she walked over to my couch and sat down. She picked up my wine glass from earlier and drank the dregs from the bottom of the glass. "Do you have any more wine?" Ugh! I wanted to shake her. I probably would have if she wasn't in such a mess. How the hell could she care about wine when she had come to me looking like that?

"No," I snapped. "I don't have any more bloody wine." I left her sitting and marched into the kitchen. I grabbed a cloth and ran it under the tap. I had to get her cleaned up, see how bad the damage was. No, wait. I should probably take her to the hospital, but I couldn't drive. I had too much to drink. She should probably talk to the police as well.

I sighed, turning the tap off and dropping the cloth in the sink. I went back through to the living room and looked at her. Seeing my little sister sitting on my couch with her face busted up, made me want to cry. She was twenty-one, only five years younger than me, but she always acted much younger than her age. I guess that was my fault because I had always been there to take care of her. I had never forced her to stand on her own two feet. Our mother had died from cancer when we were young. So it had just been us and dad. At the time mom had died, he was still a cop, he worked long hours and although we had various babysitters, we never really had anyone stable in our lives. So I had been the one to step up to the plate for Tia, but it didn't really seem to matter what I did to try and provide stability for her. Somewhere along the line I had failed and Tia became this uncaring, selfish person, who only was interested in taking what she could get from others.

"We should go to the hospital," I stated. "I'll call an ambulance. I can't drive. I've had too much to drink. The staff at the hospital will probably call the cops. They'll find out whoever did this to you, Tia."

"No," Tia said, shaking her head. "No hospital. No cops." I opened my mouth to protest, but she shook her head again. "I only came here, Bella, because I needed somewhere to crash for the night. I'm not interested in having cops meddle in my business."

"What do you mean you're not interested in having cops meddle in your business? Tia! Someone beat you up. Whoever it was deserves to be locked up."

Tia shook her head again. "You don't understand, Bella. It was only a little disagreement with my boyfriend. Everything will be fine again in the morning."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was she insane? "A little disagreement? What the fuck, Tia? A little disagreement is you and me arguing over what movie to watch. Not someone taking their fists to your face. This is not okay. Hitting a woman is never okay, Tia, and I know, you weren't raised like that."

Tia laughed. She actually fucking laughed. "Bella, the world isn't always as black and white as you think it is. I know you like to live in your little bubble and like to pretend it is, but it's not. I'm gray, I live in gray. This," she said, pointing to her face. "Isn't a big deal. It will heal in a few weeks and all will be forgotten. Just go back to bed and sleep. I'll be fine."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Fine. She wouldn't go to the cops. I would bring them to her. She would have no choice, but tell them about this piece of shit that did this. I looked around, wondering where I had left my cell. I knew I had it in my hand when I answered the front door. I eventually found it in the kitchen, sitting next to the sink. As I picked up my cell to call the local police station there was another knock at the door. I set my cell down and walked through to the living room, staring at Tia. I hoped whoever had given her that face hadn't followed her here. Her thoughts must have reflected mine as she stared at the door looking as equally worried as me. "Don't answer it," she whispered.

I said nothing as I quietly walked over to the door to peek through the peephole. There was a man standing on the other side of the door. He was wearing a dark suit and had sandy colored hair. He was staring down the breezeway so I couldn't see his face, but I was pretty sure I didn't recognize him. "What did the man who hurt you look like?" I whispered to Tia.

"Don't answer it," she hissed.

While I was staring at her, the man banged on the door again, giving me a fright and causing me to scream. "Miss?" he shouted, alarmed. "My name is Detective Garrett Pace. Can you please come to the door?"

I looked at Tia again. She shook her head, signaling for me not to answer the door, which was silly because he clearly knew I was here now. He had heard me scream and if he was a detective then I could hardly ignore him. "Can you please put your badge to the peephole?" I asked, wanting to make sure he was who he said he was.

My question seemed to amuse him as his mouth turned up at the corners with a hint of a smile as he unclipped a badge from his belt and held it to the peephole. It looked legit to me. So I unlocked and opened the door. Tia shot straight out of her seat and stared at me. "What are you doing?" I ignored her protest and focused on the man in front of me.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, looking at me and then looking into the apartment to try and see Tia. "One of your neighbors reported a disturbance and a trail of blood leading to your door."

Of course, they had. I motioned for him to come in and closed the door behind him. "My sister was attacked. It's her blood that is all over the breezeway."

"Okay," he said, looking at Tia. "How about I call an ambulance and then you tell me what happened?"

Tia shook her head and folded her arms. "I'm fine." She certainly wasn't fine. Her nose was still bleeding. She was dripping blood all over my apartment and she had to be in a lot of pain. I don't know why she had to be so stubborn and allow us to help her.

Detective Pace didn't acknowledge her response. He merely pulled out his cell and told someone to send an ambulance. Tia wasn't pleased about this. I got the impression she wasn't going to go into the ambulance easily. "What about you?" Detective Pace asked when he had hung up his phone. "What happened to your face?"

I reached for my cheek. I had actually forgotten about it with all the commotion. "It was an accident. I got an elbow to the face in a bar fight." As soon as I said the words, I realized how badly it sounded. Detective Pace apparently found my answer amusing, but never commented on it. He instead turned all his attention to Tia, trying to get her to talk, but she wasn't having any of it.

Two uniformed officers showed up a few minutes after that. I answered the door and let them in. They looked surprised to see Detective Pace here, but they never commented on it. They just stood back and listened to him talking to Tia, who was still refusing to cooperate. She told Detective Pace that she had walked into a door. A door. Yeah, like the man was that stupid. I had no idea who this boyfriend was, since she went through so many. I also had no idea why she was protecting him.

It wasn't long after the arrival of the uniformed officers that Edward appeared. He just walked right into my apartment like he belonged here, past the two officers and Detective Pace and straight to me. None of them said one word to him. None of them even tried to stop him or even question who he was, which I found strange. I could only assume they knew who he was, which made sense considering what he did for a living.

"Are you okay?" he asked, walking up to me and cupping my face, tilting my head until my eyes stared directly into his.

"I'm, um, I'm fine," I said, for lack of a better response. I clutched onto the wrist of his hand that still held my face, staring up at him in disbelief. "What are you doing here?" I asked. I mean it was the middle of the night. How did he know about the call and when had my neighbor even called? They were all here pretty fast. Usually when you needed the police you couldn't find them.

"I heard about the callout to your address. I came as soon as I could."

"You heard about the call? You came as soon as you could?" I asked confused.

"Yeah," Edward replied. He stared at me for a bit and then asked me. "How's your head?"

"It's fine. I'm fine," I said, pushing his hand away. I needed some distance from him as he seemed to be blocking my ability to think.

"What happened to Tia?" he asked, looking over at her and the Detective.

"I don't know. She won't say. Apparently it was her boyfriend. They had a little disagreement. It looks anything but little to me. I just wish she would open her eyes for once and see what she is doing to her life."

Edward said nothing to this, he merely hooked his arm around the back of my neck, pulling me to his side and holding me close. For some strange reason I allowed him to do this. I needed his comfort even though when I found myself alone later it would destroy me.

Detective Pace got zero answers out of Tia and like I had guessed she didn't go quietly into the ambulance. It took a lot of shouting from me and few stern words from Edward before she eventually went in.

After she left, Edward, Detective Pace and the police officers all talked quietly out in the breezeway while I cleaned up the blood in my apartment. I had no idea what they were discussing, but I didn't bother to ask either. When the discussion was over, Edward came back into my apartment and locked the door behind him.

"What are you doing?" I asked, looking between him and the locked door.

"I'm staying the rest of the night with you, Bella."

"Uh, what? You don't need to do that. I'll be perfectly fine on my own." He couldn't stay. What was he thinking? Seeing him twice in one night was more than enough to mess with my mind. Having him stay here wasn't an option. "Plus, I have to go to the hospital to check on Tia."

"Tia will be fine until the morning. I've put a man on her. Now come to bed, Bella. I'm exhausted." He sat down on the couch and began taking his boots off. When he was finished with them, he unfastened his cargo pants and took them off, draping them over the side of the couch. I stood there staring him, too stunned to move. Edward Cullen was standing in my living room half naked. This had to be a dream, or possibly a nightmare.

Edward walked over and grabbed my hand, without another word. He walked me to my bedroom like he had done a million times before. He climbed into bed and lay down on his side, pulling me along with him so that my back was to his front. He then wrapped his arm around me and kissed the back of my head.

It was at that point I figured I must have hit the twilight zone or bumped my head much harder than I had realized. There was no way Edward was lying in my bed, spooning me. There was just no way that was happening.

"Relax, Bella," he whispered into my hair. "Go to sleep."

My mind thought he was crazy, how the hell could I relax when he was lying with me like this? But my body obeyed his command. How could it not when this was where it longed to be? So I melted into Edward's arms and slowly, very slowly, fell asleep.