A/N: You guys are awesome. Some people have asked if this is going to end in the same heartfail as the song its based off of, all I can say is that I couldn't bring myself to end it that way, but thats all I am saying... Thanks again to HopelessRomantic79 for her beta skills.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight works nor do I own any songs from Tim McGraw whose music inspired this...just sayin...

Don't Take the Girl

Chapter 2 – 10 years down the road

Bella POV

I'll never regret the day that I decided to move to Forks to live with my dad. I said it was to give my mother space to start her life with her new husband. And for the most part, that was true. But quite honestly, it was to be closer to him.

I could say it all started years ago when we were forced by our dads to go on fishing and camping trips together, but we were young, and we hated each other back then. That much was obvious. But when I came up in the summer of our sixteenth birthdays, that's when it all changed. I hadn't come up for a couple years before then; Charlie came and visited me wherever my mother and I lived at the time. I was acting out and started rebelling against them, so Charlie did whatever I wanted to make me happy. I mellowed and for that summer, I decided to go back to Forks.

I hadn't see Edward since I was twelve. We still loathed each other back then. But then he walked out of his house that first morning of that summer to go camping all together again, and that was it. I fancied myself in love. He grew up, he matured, and he… became my everything. We spent the rest of the trip in our own little personal bubble. Staying up late talking around the camp fire, he helped me tie my hooks on my fishing pole; he even made sure that I would have the most comfortable bed in my tent by giving up his bed roll, making it where he slept on the hard ground.

The rest of the summer we were attached at the hip. We spent our time together getting to know each other, regardless of what our fathers wanted. They spent years trying to get us to get along on our summer trips; now they attempted everything to keep us apart. It didn't work, and by the time the summer ended, we had had our fair share of kisses and numbers exchanged with hopes of staying in contact.

That lasted for all of four months. Over Christmas break I moved in with Charlie. That was two years ago, and now Edward was taking me out on our last official date of high school. Next week we would be graduating and moving together to Seattle for school. We would be sharing an apartment together and neither set of parents were entirely thrilled with that idea.

Somehow, Edward found an old school drive-in movie theater for us to go to and in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. Of the three screens there, we were furthest from the entrance and concession stand, all the way at the back of the lot. Pulling up in a spot in the back, he tuned the radio to the correct station for our movie as we settled into the front seat of my big old red truck. We laid out on the front seat, one of the reasons we brought my truck instead of his - more room- and pulled the blanket over us. I was glad we brought it for this unseasonably cool night.

We didn't even make it through all of the previews before our wandering hands started getting us in trouble. But that ended as soon as the door to my truck was quietly opened and a threating scary voice said, "Don't say a single word or I will shoot."

I bolted up in the seat. I scrambled behind Edward as he moved in front of me, putting himself between me and the madman with the gun. I quickly did up the buttons on my pants and righted my shirt the best I could.

"Please just…" Edward started to say but immediately shut up when the guy lifted his arm and settled the gun towards me.

"If you do what I say and give me what I ask, no harm, no foul." He nodded his head as if to say 'good boy' and looked over at me. "Now… give me anything of value that you have."

I started ripping off my necklace and other jewelry, even the promise ring Edward gave me for Christmas. Edward started doing the same, pulling his watch off and grabbing his wallet as well. "Please sir… you can have my wallet, my grandfather's watch…" He reached behind him to grab what I was trying to pass him, "You can have all our jewelry, the purse is on the ground. I'll even give you the keys to this truck… just… please…don't take my girl."

The thief had the nerve to laugh at what Edward had said to him. It made me shudder as I wound my arms around Edward and held on as tight as I could, praying that this would all end as soon as possible.

"I don't fancy jail bait so you can keep your precious girl," he intoned in an arrogant way. "But, yeah, you can give me the keys to this here piece of shit. Might be able to get… well… something for it. Now get out."

I scrambled for the handle on the door, jumping out of it and running for the nearest thing to hide behind. Seconds later Edward joined me behind the tree, draping the blanket over my shoulders.

He snorted, "Apparently that ass had some decency left in him since he threw the blanket out the window to me." I shivered in his arms. I was crying and the situation was finally starting to hit me. My whole body started to shake with the force of my sobs. "Shh, shh Bella, It's okay." He wrapped his arms tighter around me. "It's okay. We're okay. He's gone now."

I hiccuped and tried to respond. It took me several tries. "Oh my god Edward. What if…what if… he… he…"

"No. Don't even think like that. We. Are. Fine." He shuffled a bit and pulled something out his pocket.

"You still have your phone? Why didn't you give it to him?"

"I honestly forgot it was in my pocket…. and well, he didn't ask. Good thing too, I need to call your dad." He dialed the station number and stood patiently for the call to connect. I was still shaking in his arms, but he was holding firm, my protector, my rock. "Chief? Hey, its Edward… no… no we are not home…Bella is okay but we were mugged and the truck got stolen from us as well…."