A/N: Thank you for the response so far :) Agent Cullen is very grateful for your interest in his life. A special note of thanks to Tarbecca for sending a bunch of you my way through ADF Fic Dive.

Big thanks to Pamela and Ninkita for making sure my characters and I stay on track.

DISCLAIMER – You already know I don't own Twilight.
My research is heavily dependent on Google and TV shows. I'll try to make everything as realistic as possible, but I might exercise creative license at some point. Cope, okay?

CHAPTER 2 : FITTING TOGETHER

I was frozen, horrified, mesmerized as we stood there, setting eyes on each other for the first time after six long, tortuous years.

At least, they'd been so for me.

Judging by her attire, I had no choice but to believe that Bella had done a better job at finding some semblance of peace and contentment in her life.

Hell, she had obviously done a much better job of moving on than I had.

The sight of hair of a shade similar to hers, the mention of her favorite flavor of ice-cream, the sound of laughter that resembled hers, and countless other things had been enough to send me on a tailspin, drowning in the memories of the six months we'd spent with each other.

And she had not only forgotten me, but also found someone else worthy of spending the rest of her life with.

As I looked at her now, she didn't seem like my Bella anymore. A small part of my mind couldn't help wondering if I'd been holding on to a false memory all these years.

Her eyes didn't sparkle with mirth; they were flat and devoid of any emotion but surprise. I knew her well enough to tell that the blush on her cheeks wasn't natural, but only a result of the make-up caked onto her skin. Her shoulders, exposed completely in her strapless dress, were taut with tension, and yet appeared hunched, as though preparing for a slighting.

No, this wasn't my Bella.

The literal meaning of the words hit me just as hard as the first sight of her, and I had to work to stop myself from staggering.

While the silent turmoil brewed in my mind, Bella carefully meandered through the surprise and composed her face back into a neutral expression. Somehow, the dispassion in her eyes as she looked at me hurt me more than the tears she'd shed the last time I'd seen her and held her in my arms.

"Edward," she murmured, returning my greeting as though we were nothing but passing acquaintances.

I opened my mouth, but my mind scrambled and failed to come up with anything that could make sense in this moment.

I knew what I wanted to ask.

I just wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answer.

Bella seemed to be having difficulty finding words, too, and so a moment passed in the most uncomfortable silence I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

Finally, I watched her shoulders rise with a deep breath, and I braced myself for whatever she was about to say.

"What are yo—"

"Edward!"

Both of us turned to the door with alarming synchrony as Tanya burst into the room.

"I've been looking for you," she continued, looking at Bella curiously. She turned back to me and said, "The crime scene is upstairs."

I cleared my throat, and reluctantly pulled my gaze away to nod at Tanya. My eyes flickered back to Bella, though. Seeing her so suddenly and under these circumstances made it hard to believe that this wasn't some dream and that she wouldn't disappear the moment she was out of my sight.

"I figured," I told Tanya. "I just stopped to check on something here and came across . . ." I trailed off, uncertain as to how I should address Bella.

Tanya solved the problem for me. "Miss Swan," she greeted, holding out her hand, which Bella shook hesitantly. "I've heard about you."

Bella grimaced, but managed to play it off by following it with a small smile. "I'm afraid the media have had a field day with this shindig."

My eyes narrowed, the subtle inflection in her words puzzling me. It was certainly an interesting choice of words for a woman to use for her own wedding.

"I'm Agent Tanya Denali and this is my partner, Agent Edward Cullen," Tanya continued. "We're with the Bureau of Investigation."

Bella's gaze flashed over to me for just a moment, but I caught it because I was expecting it. She would have been expecting a different introduction for me.

"Please, call me Bella. You should . . ." She paused, letting out a slow, haggard sigh before continuing softly. "Like you said, they found Billy upstairs in his study. If you'd excuse me, I'd like to change out of this dress. I can meet you in a few minutes. I suppose you must have some questions for me." She looked between Tanya and me, the neutral mask firmly in place over her features.

I managed to find my tongue again. "Yes, of course," I told her. "Take your time, but please contact us. We do need to speak with you."

Bella nodded once, and I moved toward the door.

"Where is your fiancé, Miss Swan?" Tanya inquired. "I've been up to the study, but I didn't see him there. We'll need to speak to him, too."

My hand clenched around the door-frame as Tanya's words clicked in my mind.

Fiancé

She wasn't married yet.

I huffed, cursing myself for the irrefutable flicker of relief I'd felt at the news. The fact that she was yet to be married didn't mean anything. It wasn't her unwillingness that'd thwarted the wedding.

One by one, I focused on relaxing my fingers and loosening my grip on the wood.

"I don't know, but I'll find him for you," Bella was saying, while I gathered my composure.

Tanya thanked her before walking past me and out into the hall. Swallowing once, I couldn't help but angle my head slightly to glance once more at the woman who'd once held my heart.

Her brown eyes were already trained on me. When I met them with my own, something flicked across their depths. I yearned to recognize the emotion, and it drove a whole new brand of stake through my heart to realize that I couldn't.

Because I didn't know her anymore.

Turning away from her then was one of the hardest things I'd ever done, but I did it, knowing that the sooner I'd done my job, the sooner I could get to talk to her about the scattered, silent questions that lingered between us.

If that was what she wanted, of course.

I hurried my pace and caught up with Tanya on the landing of the third floor. The layout of the hallway was similar to what I'd observed below. The single door to my right was shut tight, probably locked.

Out of the two doors on the left side, Tanya indicated that the first one was Jacob Black's bedroom, while the distant one was Billy Black's study. It was where his body had been found.

We ignored the bedroom, heading straight into the study. The first thing that struck me about the room was the huge collection of books lined neatly, stack after stack, on intricately designed antique wooden bookcases. As my eyes scanned the expanse of the impressive collection, I couldn't help the thought that danced in my mind.

Bella would've loved this.

I winced immediately, my hand rising to rub at the tightness in my chest that always accompanied the memories of her. In the past, I'd indulge myself for a minute or two, letting the happier moments cloud my mind before I had no choice but to push them away.

This time, though, I had no hopes of suppressing them.

This time, my past was no more than a few feet away from me on the story below, changing out of her wedding dress.

I shook my head in an attempt to clear my mind and focus on the sight before me. Knowing my preference for solitude during this part of the investigation, Tanya stepped away to speak to the officer-in-charge from the local department, while I walked further into the room.

Nestled between the bookshelves was an ornate desk made of mahogany and possessing multiple drawers with decorative handles. Behind the desk, in a leather cushioned chair, sat Billy Black's dead body. His head was pushed back, resting against the top of the chair, and his eyes were closed. His face was peaceful, leading me to conclude that this wasn't a violent death.

Billy's lips were tinged a light shade of blue, indicating cyanosis. I took in the classic black tuxedo he was wearing, looking for any signs of a scuffle, but there were none. Leaning in, I focused on his hands, both of them lying palm up on the arm rests with fingers loosely flexed. The cuff of his left sleeve was open, leaving his wrist exposed. On the floor beneath his right hand lay a syringe.

The Medical Examiner was making notes on his clipboard as he walked toward me. I almost groaned at the sight of him, cursing my luck that, of all people, he was the one who had been assigned to the case.

"Agent Cullen," he greeted me, rubbing his left thumb over the grey whiskers of his moustache.

"Dr. Banner," I replied, mimicking his bland tone. "What do you think?"

"Cocaine overdose." As usual, he somehow managed to inject an exorbitant amount of certainty into his voice. It was the one thing about him that never failed to tick me off – his inability to keep an open mind. "I'm sure you've noticed the syringe. With the cuff rolled and the lack of signs of struggle, I'd say Mr. Black did this to himself."

I pursed my lips. "How did you zero down on cocaine without an autopsy?"

Banner lifted an eyebrow as he turned to face me fully. "Jane—" he said and pointed to a forensic tech working on the other side of the room. "—found a stash of it in the top drawer. Looks like Mr. Black might've been a user for a while, though I can't verify that until I've performed some tests. I'll let you have the confirmation once I get him to the lab."

Suppressing a sigh, I simply nodded. He informed me that, judging by the extent of development of rigor mortis, the death appeared to have occurred no more than three hours ago. He then moved on to complete the rest of his job.

"Hey," Tanya said as she joined me, followed by a tall, balding man in the local PD uniform. "This is Chief Jenks."

"Good to meet you, Chief." I held out a hand, and he shook it firmly. "I wish it could've been under better circumstances."

"Agent Cullen."

"What do you make of the scene?" I asked him.

Jenks' mouth twisted to one side as he considered my question, his eyes trained on the corpse.

"Hard to say," he addressed Tanya and me. "The good doctor seems to be convinced it's accidental, but you never really know."

I nodded, my gaze wandering across the room.

"That window," I said, pointing toward the corner. "Was it locked when you came in?"

"Yes, we checked. It's locked from the inside with no signs of tampering and has been so since we arrived at the scene."

"Who found the body?" Tanya asked.

"Jacob Black," Jenks replied, shaking his head wistfully. "Poor guy. Losing your father is always difficult, but on your wedding day . . ."

A flash of resentment lanced through me at the sound of his name, and I changed the subject.

"Did you know anything about Billy's drug habit?" I inquired. "I mean, were there any rumors of the sort?"

"No, there was nothing," he answered. "In fact, Mr. Black was a very . . . well-ordered man, one could say. He served in the army for over a decade, and people who know . . . knew him would say that those years left a deep mark on him that never faded. There were a lot of things he didn't condone— tardiness and substance abuse were definitely high up on that list. He was quite vocal about it in the community, too."

My eyes roamed over the desk where everything was arranged in what seemed to be their rightful places, with not one corner of a sheet of paper sneaking out of the piles on both ends. Perpendicular angles dominated the arrangement. There was an array of pens tucked away on the right side of the table— again, lined up systematically.

Just the sight of the desk screamed of Billy's need for structure and control. Despite the circumstances, I couldn't help but think that this wasn't a man who'd shoot up drugs on the day of his son's wedding, if at all.

Unless he wasn't happy with the union.

"That doesn't sound like a person who would shoot up cocaine in the first place," Tanya stated, echoing my thoughts.

"Well," Dr. Banner interrupted suddenly, forcing his way into our discussion. I hadn't even realized he'd been eavesdropping. "Did any of you bother to inquire about the state of his health? Billy Black had been diagnosed with cirrhosis a few months ago. He had a rare blood type, that unfortunately, none of his children shared, and even if they could find a match, at his age, it was likely that he wouldn't have survived a transplant surgery. He only had a few more months left to his life. One can never figure out the mysterious workings of a mind struggling to come to terms with that situation. He also struggled with arthritic pain from time to time, which added to his misery. Maybe he saw cocaine as the only way to cope with his prognosis. He just made an error in estimating the dose."

"Dr. Banner . . ." Tanya started brusquely, but I stopped her. Tanya hated Banner's quick assumptions and obstinate approach as much as I did. From the tone of her voice, I knew she was about to snap at him, and that was not something we needed at the moment.

"Who told you that he was sick?" I asked instead.

"The daughter, Rachel," Banner replied. "She should be back soon. She went off to feed her child. Looked like a handful, that kid."

Jenks cleared his throat. "Well, if that's all you need from me, Agents, I'll get back to work."

"Of course, Chief. Thank you for your help." I shook his hand again. "Your officers are working on interviewing the guests, I suppose?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "Though we haven't had any success so far. The aisle and everything had been set up outside in the garden, you see. They said that around the estimated time of death, no-one but the catering staff and the family members were coming or going through the house. The rest were all mingling outside."

"Anyone would've needed an invitation to step foot on the estate, so if this is indeed a murder, it had to have been someone from the family, the staff or one of the guests. We'll look into everyone, but I doubt it would've been too hard for one of the guests to slip in unnoticed," Tanya surmised.

"It could've been as simple as a request to use the facilities," I suggested.

Jenks nodded. "It's possible. Well, let's hope that the interviews shed some light on that. I'll let you know what we find," he said before leaving us to go speak to one of his subordinates.

My gaze roved around the room again, taking in every detail that could possibly give us some clue as to what really happened here.

Tanya rattled off some instructions to a forensic tech before coming to stand next to me, her eyes also travelling across every surface in the room.

"So what do you thi—" she started, only to be interrupted.

"Agents," a deep, husky voice called out. Tanya and I turned toward the door.

Standing at the threshold, holding Bella's hand in his was a tall man dressed in a white dress shirt and pants, with the jacket of his tuxedo handing from his free arm. Tanya started to walk toward them immediately, but I stood frozen, swallowing down the bitterness brewing inside my chest at the sight of Jacob Black.

Bella hadn't been mine for a long, long time.

But the idea of her being with him was still like a sharp punch to my gut.

Because as Tanya had accurately deduced, I had never truly let her go.

When I didn't move, Tanya turned to glance at me. She touched my arm to catch my itinerant attention. "You okay? We should go outside," she whispered, obviously puzzled by my behavior. "No need to make them see this again."

"Yeah," I muttered. Shaking off the stupor, I followed her out where Jacob and Bella waited.

My eyes fell on Bella's face, and I found hers locked on my arm, right where Tanya had placed her hand a moment ago. I cleared my throat as we stood before them, and her head snapped up.

Introductions were made quickly, and I took a moment to observe the man before me.

His skin was a russet shade, and straight jet-black hair hung down just past his ears. His red-rimmed eyes were deeply set, dark, intense, yet a little distant as they flickered between Tanya and me. I looked down to find his hand wrapped around Bella's.

Literally wrapped around hers.

Bella's thumb was wound around his, but the rest of her fingers were completely encased in Jacob's. The sight of her porcelain skin against his darker one unsettled me.

And their meshed palms triggered a memory I hadn't allowed myself to recall in the past six years.

We were sitting on the couch in the living room of her small apartment, her legs splayed across my lap and her head resting on my shoulder. She wept as the movie on the television drew to a close, the leading pair of long lost lovers reuniting after ten years of trials and tribulations.

Or something equally sentimental and cheesy.

I couldn't exactly describe what we'd just watched, because I'd barely seen it at all.

I only watched her.

When the final credits rolled in, Bella sniffed back her tears and snuggled closer to me. I reached out to take her hand, entwining our fingers. I'd always held her hand this way, ever since she'd slipped her palm in mine in the same manner at the end of our first date.

Never before had I met a girl who'd done that with such simplicity – no games, no twirling hair, no plunging neckline, or seemingly accidental brushing of fingers.

Just the warmth of her slender fingers tangling with mine.

It might've been crazy, but I'd known at that moment, that she was . . . special.

And, now, two months after that first evening, I knew - together, we were special, too.

Shaking my head at the mushy turn of my thoughts, I kissed Bella's forehead. No doubt, it was the damn movie playing in the background that'd filled my head with fucking cotton candy. But, if my girl's company was what I got in return for a couple of hours of corniness, I would gladly take the deal.

Well, maybe not gladly, but I'd still take it.

I turned to Bella and found her gazing at our joined hands with a pensive look on her face.

"Hey," I murmured, and she looked up with a smile, her eyes still glistening with the remnants of her tears. One slipped out from the corner and rolled down the apple of her cheek. I brushed it away with my lips. "What are you thinking?"

"Something my dad always talks about," she replied quietly. "For as long as I remember, he loves to tell the story of how the first time he took Mom's hand in his, that was when he knew she was the one for him. He felt something shift inside him at the way their fingers locked together perfectly."

"I know exactly what he means. We fit together pretty damn good, too." I winked, squeezing her palm gently, and her lips quirked up.

"I was thinking the same thing," she whispered, leaning in to close the gap between us and place her mouth against mine.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, before opening them again and dragging myself back to the present. It took all of my willpower to restrain my desire to separate her hand from his.

I realized that Tanya had asked Jacob about how he discovered his father's body.

Grounding my concentration to the present, I reminded myself that no matter what the circumstances, I had a job to do here. I focused my thoughts on Jacob's words as he answered the question.

"Once I'd gotten dressed, I went down to the garden, and someone told me that Dad hadn't come downstairs at all," he told us, his voice shaking slightly as he struggled to maintain his composure. "I called his phone first, because he always hated it when anyone intruded on his time in the study. When he didn't answer, I came inside and climbed up to the third story. I knocked and yelled for a whole minute, but there was no response." He closed his eyes, his mouth twisting in an anguished grimace. "Finally, I twisted the handle to find the door unlocked, and when I walked in . . ."

I kept my eyes on his face, absorbing his words, but at the same time, observing the shift in his body language and the tone of his voice. I'd been on the force long enough to know that tears of family members could often be as fake as a three-dollar bill. At the moment, though, try as I might, I couldn't find anything phony in Jacob Black's expression.

Bella let go of Jacob's hand, and the knot in my chest relaxed a little, until he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leaning on her as though to seek comfort.

Bella's gaze flashed to meet mine for just a second before she dropped her head.

I wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of here until I could get my thoughts in order. The completely unprecedented turn of events that had occurred since I'd set foot in this house had thrown me for a tailspin, and it was a struggle to keep my mind focused on work.

Especially when I had to watch as another man embraced the only woman I'd ever loved, right before my eyes.

Not only was there nothing I could do about it, but I was also expected to hone my faculties into catching a killer.

I swallowed thickly, shuffling my feet.

I noticed Tanya looking at me from the corner of her eye, undoubtedly puzzled by my silence. Usually, I jumped at the chance of speaking to the people present at the crime scene, eager and watchful for any insight that could shed light on the occurrence. I didn't know if I had it in me to do the same at present.

"We'll have more questions for you, Mr. Black," I said as calmly as I could manage. "But first, I think we should get the lay of the land, so to speak. Once we have all we need from here, the forensic techs can clear up the premises. Obviously, the room will be sealed, but your family can have some modicum of privacy once we get out of your hair."

"I appreciate that," he responded with a nod. "Actually, I have a few things to take care of, so I can see you again in half an hour, if that's alright."

I looked at Tanya, and she nodded. "That should be fine," I told him, and we shook hands.

I started to turn, but once again, my eyes locked with Bella's. The deep brown pools that had once been so familiar to me were shrouded by a veil of dispassion. I'd seen them sparkle with whatever emotion coursed through her mind, a mirror for her very soul, but seeing them now, devoid of anything I could identify twisted my insides.

I shook my head and pushed the thoughts aside. Summoning all my determination, I forced myself to angle my body away, telling myself that I would have time to get my answers.

With a deep breath and a final glance at the breathtakingly beautiful face that had haunted my dreams for years, I walked away with Tanya by my side.

A/N: Yes, I know – questions, questions. There will be more before we get to the answers. All in due time.

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See you in ten days!

~ForeverRobsessed

FIC REC - Lacunar by perpetually - He can't remember what she's done. She can't forgive herself for what's happened. When a slate has been erased, some chalk will always remain.