Chapter 1

It was Friday, the end of the week, which was always a busy time. Pretty much every man in Forks would come in – to talk, to meet, to celebrate to relax… Fridays were always a nice day at the bar. No one ever got too drunk, no one ever started any fights, and no one ever got too bitchy. Everyone was usually in a good mood, coming in to drink a beer or two – nothing too heavy – and patting each other on the back, repeating over and over like a prayer, like an anthem, like an answer to all of life's questions, "Thank God it's Friday!" No matter the age, the work place, or status, Friday was like a little national holiday that brought together hearts and smiles and the clinking of beer bottles and glasses. I felt myself relaxing in this place as it buzzed with alcohol and men.

Except today it wasn't all men.

"Hello, Edward." Her voice, once cheerful but now always dull and quiet, drew my attention like a sad nightingale's song in an eagle's nest. I turned to her and smiled gently.

"Hey, Al, what's up?" I took Mr. Newton's empty beer glass off the counter and wiped the wooden surface with a cloth.

She shrugged and looked up at the ceiling with a sigh. "Nothing much. Can I have a glass of wine?" She seemed distracted as she climbed onto the barstool.

"Of course. Red or white?"

"Red. Dry, please."

"Coming right up. So, where's Jasper?" I asked while busying myself with her simple order.

She shrugged again and looked down at the counter. "Working."

"Wow." It was almost 9pm. "He sure works hard," I said as I handed her the glass.

"He likes it," she whispered before taking a sip of her wine.

"Ed!" Emmett boomed from the other end of the bar.

"You good?" I asked Alice, and she nodded, not looking away from her wine.

"Okay, call me if you need me, Acile." She chuckled softly at her old nickname and shook her head at me.

I grabbed two beers and walked over to Emmett and the chief, who were sitting together.

"Gentlemen," I greeted them, opening the beers for them.

"Hello, Edward," Charlie greeted me while Em chugged down his beer. Once he was finished with the bottle, which only ever took him about 30 seconds to do, he smacked his lips together and made a satisfied sound, gesturing at me for a repeat.

"Man, what a week!" he proclaimed, clinking his new bottle to the chief's this time.

Charlie snorted and shook his head.

"What?" I asked, chuckling.

"I'm telling you," Emmett pointed his finger at me and leaned over the bar with his other hand, "This town does NOT need a police station. I feel like a cheater! Seriously! I get paid for sitting around and playing games on my computer!"

"And eating doughnuts," offered Charlie.

"Hey, hey!" Emmett turned to him, his eyes wide in astonishment. "I'm not complaining about that one! That's like a fucking silver lining in my job!"

Charlie continued to chuckle in between sips.

Em turned to me again. "I swear, one more call from Ms. Catty Kitty Cat about her damn kitten in a tree…"

I couldn't help letting out a loud snort.

"The woman is crazy! She needs a canary, not a cat! Oh, wait… No, screw that, she needs a fish or a hamster. Hell, a man, for fuck's sake!"

"Emmett!" Charlie admonished him.

"What?" He turned to the chief with a look of wonder on his face once again. "She's not even that old! What is she, like, sixty-five?"

Charlie coughed loudly, sputtering beer all over the counter.

"Jeez, Chief, what the hell?" Emmett patted him on the back, and I quickly cleaned the mess.

"Sorry, son," croaked a now red-faced Charlie.

"It's okay," I waved him off.

He turned back to Emmett and gave him alook. "She's not even fifty!"

Emmett just stared back at him indifferently for a few seconds, and then his lips slowly formed the biggest, smuggest smile I had ever seen and his eyes filled with mischief.

"Oh, okay, Chief…" he drawled out, winking at him.

Charlie huffed and took a sip of his beer. "So, how's it going, Edward?" he asked me calmly, changing the subject and ignoring the way Emmett continued to stare at him with the same ridiculous smile plastered all over his face.

"Eh, busy, loud good… It's all good."

"No funny business this week?"

"Nah, it's pretty calm during the week. And Jake helps out on the night shift during weekends, so it's all good. But thanks for asking."

He looked me in the eye, as if trying to read if I was doing well on my own, but I wasn't lying, so he sighed and put his empty bottle on the counter with a thud.

"Okay, boy. Thanks for the beer." He waved a five dollar bill in the air and lowered it into the tip jar. I rolled my eyes at him, as I always did. The man would never learn to appreciate that his beer was on the house.

"You're welcome, Chief."

"You have any problems, you call me." He waited for my nod and then patted Emmett on the back. "Goodnight, boys. Be good!" He directed his warning to Em with a raised eyebrow.

"What? I'm always good!" He rolled his eyes when Charlie's eyebrow traveled higher. "Look, it was, like, a month ago, so quit bringing this shit up." He turned away from Charlie and mumbled stubbornly in his bottle, "Still, it was funny as fuck."

"Quit being a punk and be a father!" said the chief sternly, but I could see the way his eyes sparkled and how his mustache twitched in humour.

"Yes, sir," said Emmett solemnly.

Charlie's amused glance fell in my direction as a farewell, and he strolled unhurriedly toward the exit, giving back pats and hand shakes left and right as he went.

"Man…" sighed Emmett, shaking his head. "You gotta admit that shit was hilarious!" He quickly looked for a companion in me. "I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard! And my kid was so happy, he almost peed his pants! That freaking old bat, God bless her humorless heart…" He continued to curse Mrs. Cope, his neighbor and a well-known tattle-tale, who had been quick to call the police a month ago to inform them that her neighbor had finally lost it, climbed into a trash can, and had his 5 year old son push him down a hill. That was the day that Em became a hero, with a capital H, in the eyes of his son, and Rosalie officially became a mother of two.

Emmett left not long after that, but his walk to the doors, unlike Charlie's, was accompanied by half-hearted waves and grumbles of various greetings to the patrons.

I chuckled at him and looked at my watch. Jake had to be here already. As if on cue, a frazzled looking Jake ran through the door behind the bar and hurriedly threw a black apron on.

"Hey, Ed," he began with a gasp, "sorry I'm late. Dad thought it was a good idea to have a walk when it was just about to rain." He rolled his eyes and fixed his ponytail.

"Everything's okay, though?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said distractedly, already gathering the empty glasses from the counter. "But his wheelchair got stuck in the mud." He tried hard to sound annoyed, but by the tone of his voice, I could tell he was amused. "The man was soaking by the time I got to him and pulled him out." He chuckled and shook his head. Not waiting for a reaction from me, he got to business and started to fly around the room, picking up bottles, plates, and glasses while good-naturedly interacting with the customers.

Jake was a good worker, and he would be missed when he finally went to college. He hadn't made a decision yet, but I knew he would go eventually He was too smart not to go. Billy was getting better, and there was no point in Jake staying in this rainy puddle of a town, bartending his life away.

One by one, people started to flow out the doors, leaving behind the weight of the work week and taking the lightness of the now weekend, caused by beer, with them.

Jake and I chatted effortlessly and worked as a team to put the place back together. He told me things I already knew, like how Billy was getting better since his car accident from a year ago, and that he thinks about college and wants to enroll somewhere by the end of the winter. Jake loved Forks, but like he said, "Forks can't give me everything I want." He was excited at the prospect of living in a big city, meeting new people, and learning new things. He wanted to study engineering.

I was proud of him and happy for him. I hoped he would love it in Seattle – or wherever it was he planned to go – and wouldn't be disappointed as I had been. I had been as giddy as he was right now about the same stuff, but it had turned out that I didn't much care for big cities.. They were too fucking loud, too fucking fast, and too fucking crowded. I had felt suffocated there. So it was no wonder that I had packed my shit the day I got my degree in Civil Engineering and moved back here. I was well aware that that wasn't something most people would have done, but I liked it here. It was quiet, still, calm, and the landscape was unrivaled. Even the constant rain brought some sense of comfort to me.

When we were finally done for the day, Jake left through the front door and I locked it behind him. With a sigh, I looked around the vast room. This was my pride and joy, my creation and sanctuary. It was the only thing left of my heart that would never be betrayed.

I caressed the bar counter in a goodnight gesture on my way out the back door.

Once outside, I locked the door and then lit a cigarette, savoring the first drag..

It was cold, and the rain penetrated the air with tiny little drops, making it humid and heavy. I loved it.

There was a path right behind the bar that went through the forest and led right to my house. It was secluded and hardly visible to the naked eye, but I knew it by heart.

I walked silently and slowly between the trees; the sounds of the forest and the thick smoke from my cigarette were my only company. I allowed myself to relax finally and not think about anything, enjoying the quiet.

Suddenly I heard something different. Something – or someone – was running through the forest. Whatever it was, it was moving rapidly, stumbling through the trees and tripping loudly over fallen branches. It seemed anxious – something that I was not familiar with within this forest.

It wasn't big enough to be a bear, and it was too loud to be a deer.

I stopped and listened carefully to see if I could gauge where the noise was coming from. It was ahead of me and to the left, farther from the town's main road. I tried to peer into the woods, but it was already too dark to see any more than about 10 feet in any direction.

The noise got closer, and I quickly moved behind a tree, just in case it was some lunatic with a hatchet.

But it wasn't a killer. It was a… girl? I could now see her small frame and long dark hair. She was gasping and limping, and her hands were folded under her chin in an attempt to keep warm. It looked like she had been in the forest for hours. Her jeans were all muddy and wet from the knees down, and her long-sleeved shirt was torn in some places.

I stepped out slowly from behind the tree, not knowing how to make myself heard and not scaring her too badly.

"Um…hello?" In the almost empty forest, even my soft voice sounded loud.

She screeched and collapsed to the ground, shielding her head. I had anticipated some surprised reaction, but this…?

I took a step in her direction and could now make out the heavy bracelets on her wrists. Were those handcuffs? "Hey, it's all right." I kept my voice calm and quiet, so as not to scare her even more. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Slowly she raised her head, and I could see that she was a young woman, around 23 years of age, and she was as pale as a ghost. Her dark eyes looked huge, framed within her heart-shaped face. Her nose was red and runny, and her entire body was shaking. She looked up at me, and her eyes grounded me, holding me in place. Chills ran down my spine when I saw the desperation, fear, fatigue, and the tears in her eyes, and she whimpered out a tiny little word, like it was her last hope, her last chance to escape the darkness she was running from.

"Help."

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Thanks A LOT to Tina, who beta'd this mess. Thanks for reading. Next update - next weekend.