I'm complete fail and I apologize for how long this took. Sincere apology and notes about chp 7 will be at the bottom.

Thanks goes to my best beta in the whole wide world, elfinchakie.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, I just like to play with S. Meyer's characters a bit.

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I couldn't help the stupid smile as I made my way up the drive to my family's country estate. I was finally going to get to see my little sister. I just got my discharge from the royal militaryand was looking forward to this Christmas. The first one with any member of my family since before my parents passed away.

I felt truly horrible at having to leave Bella on her own after our parents death in the plane crash. If I didn't think her personal guard had her well protected I probably never would have left. In the end it came down to my father. He was so proud to see me following his footsteps, in joining the royal military, that after he passed away I couldn't let him down by not serving.

That's all behind us now, I know Bella has moved on from their deaths and so have I, and no matter what, we will always have each other. She was going to be home for her first Christmas since going to university at Cambridge.

Which brings me to the stupid smile plastered on my face. I finally pulled up to the front door not even waiting for the footman to come and open my door for me. Bounding up the stairs I threw the door open. "Isabella Marie Swan! Get your little butt down here and come say 'Hi' to your favorite brother." I shouted out.

I waited for a minute or two for her to come walking out of where ever she was hiding, probably the library. When there was no response I opened my mouth to yell for her again making my way towards the staircase, but before I could say anything I noticed the faces of the staff around me. My steps faltered and I stopped walking.

Something was wrong.

Every face was in varying states of shock and horror.

Instantly I felt my gut tighten. The last time anyone had that look ok their face my parents bodies were never recovered from the English channel. Where was Bella? Why hadn't she answered me yet?

No, no, no. NO!

I started running through the house, moving from room to room looking for her. Throwing open doors and calling out her name. I searched the library high and low for her and no signs. I then proceeded to tear apart each suite of rooms looking for her, I even tore apart my own room looking for her. I'm sure I looked like a man possessed but I couldn't help myself. My little sister wasn't here and she was supposed to be.

It wasn't fair that I'd finally get to spend time with her and she was gone. Why was she gone? Why would she leave? She knew I was coming home, I knew she had to be just as excited to see me. I felt my chest heaving from exertion. It was uncomfortable when combined with the gut wrenching feeling already taking up residence in my body.

I turned to the closest maid, "Where is Isabella?" When she didn't answer me I turned to the next and the next. I could hear my voice rising in volume. My breathing was picking up again and I know the look on my face must be one of murder.

Why was this happening all over again. I hadn't seen my little sister in almost three years and I finally get my discharge and can spend unlimited amounts of time with her and no one will tell me where she is.

"Someone get me her personal guard." When no one moved or did anything I bellowed out, "NOW!"

I watched satisfied as people started to scatter in all manner of directions. I moved with purpose towards my fathers study. I needed to be someplace that brought me peace before I cracked and wreaked havoc on the entire household. Pacing back and forth in front of the massive mahogany desk my mind went through a million scenario's but none of them would entertain the thought that Bella was dead.

I sunk down into the massive leather chair behind the desk while I waited for someone to bring me her guard. He had to have some explanation as to what happened to her. She never went anywhere without him.

Bella had to be ok, she's all I have left in this world. As I sat waiting I couldn't help but think back to the last Christmas our entire family had spent together, it was about five years ago.

It was some grand lavish affair like it was every year. The theme that year was red and gold. Every where you turned there were twelve foot tall evergreen's with ribbons of ruby red and glittering gold, holly and mistletoe hung from every entry way. Garlands of boughs were hung from the banister leading up to the ballroom and then continued into the room and all around. The entire room smelled pleasantly of outdoors and spice. Hundreds were in attendance. Most people I couldn't tell you their name if they wore nametags.

Bella was a smash, of course. She looked stunning in her first ball gown, she was one of the exceptions to the red and gold theme and was wearing a floor length navy blue silk and chiffon dress, looking very much like a china doll with her porcelain skin. She had looked nothing like her 14 years of age and could have easily passed for my age of 18. That was the first year that Aro Volturi designed for her and definitely not the last. After that he became a staple in our household, like an uncle to myself and a second father to Bella for when our father was away on official business.

The party was finally starting to wind down around one in the morning. It was well past the normal time our parents allowed Bella to stay up but this being her first ball they made an exception. Also it was Christmas, mother and father never let the holiday pass without making it special for us no matter how busy it was or what was planned for the holiday season.

We all gathered around the Christmas tree that was put up in our private salon, it was on the opposite end of the palace from the ballroom and away from all the traffic of our guests, most of whom were already gone for the night. Bella and I had changed into our pajama's for the night, but mother and father stayed in their dress attire, both of us sat down around the tree and we were given our gifts. Every year our presents were limited to one each. We never had need or want for anything, but mother and father made sure to never spoil us despite having everything available at our fingertips. Most years the gift's we received were simple things, books, family heirlooms, maybe if we were lucky a rare item - a collectable of some sorts. This year mother and father decided to surprise us both. Our parents had decided to give us a family vacation. It wasn't often that we, all four of us, got to take a vacation together.

Bella and I were both shocked. We had never received anything like this before. Sure if we wanted to do something like this we could, but it meant so much more coming from our parents. What was even better then the vacation, was the fact that we were going to do it as a family. Between father trying to run a country and all the charity work our mother did it was rare that we spent any length of time together as a family, so to find out that they had managed to get two and half weeks away from responsibility to spend with Bella and I was a miracle.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of heels against the marble floors. Looking up I saw my fiancé Victoria rushing into the room. She threw her arms around me and started making these little weepy noises, almost like she was trying to cry but couldn't quite produce the tears.

"Oh honey I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. It's just such a shame that you're the only one left of your family."

I looked up at her confused. "Victoria what do you mean I'm the only one? Your making it sound like Bella is already dead. She's not! She wouldn't just leave me like that. Something else has happened but she's not dead."

"Oh of course she's not dead honey," she looked a little nervous, almost like a cornered animal, I watched her further as she started to stumble over her words. "What I mean to say is… it's a shame that you're all alone and you just got out of the military. I'm sure you would have liked to come home to family. But it's ok because I'm here for you and I'll never leave you."

"What the hell Victoria, now my sister has abandoned me?" Looking at her I tried to comprehend the words that were coming out of her mouth. She was making it out to sound like my sister had abandoned me. Was she crazy?

I watched in satisfaction as she took a step back from me shaking her head. "Of course not honey it's just I don't know what your thinking and I just want to be here for you. I don't know what your thinking and I can't read your mind. Just please tell me what your thinking and I'll be there for you no matter what."

"I wish I knew what was going on," I said shaking my head sadly. "But I refuse to think my sister is dead. I'm waiting for her personal guard to come so I can get a full report from him."

"Well that's good right? I mean, I'm sure he can tell you what's happened. Jasper honey you know that I love you right?" I nodded my head at her because of course I knew that. She still wanted to be with me even after finding out I could never take the crown legally because I was adopted as long as there was a heir connected by birth.

"I know Victoria, I know. I guess I'm just stressed out over this whole situation and it's taking longer then normal to get in touch with her guard." I stood up and opened my arms and she came to me willingly. I hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry if I snapped at you. Why don't you go do something with one of your friends while I wait here. It doesn't pay for both of us to sit here and worry needlessly."

Lifting her hand up to my lips I placed a gentle kiss on it before turning her away and giving her a little push towards the door. I know she was only trying to help, but I don't need her around making assumptions. Plus, with her around I'd be torn between worrying about her and worrying about my sister and I didn't want to be put in that position right now. Bella is always number one.

I sat back down behind the desk sinking into the chair. What was taking so long to get in touch with Emmett? He was supposed to be with her no matter where she went, maybe he was with her and when he called I'd find out she was just fine. Emmett was American, an ex navy seal, but was hired because he was top of his class at everything. If there was a fighting style he knew it. I think he loved her about as much as I did. I know he looked at her like one of his little sisters, and boy did he have a lot of them. I think he said he was the oldest of seven children and he was the only boy. I remember the day he told me that and then he cracked some joke about having to wear a tampon just to fit in. I felt myself smiling despite the grave situation I seemed to be in. If Emmett was good for one thing it was lightening up a tense situation.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I was just reaching for the phone to call my head of security when it rang. My hand hovered over the receiver, suddenly I was nervous and not so sure I wanted to know what was going on.

Swallowing hard I picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Jasper? This is Emmett."

"Emmett please tell me you have some answers for me." I implored of him.

"I do but I'm not sure your going to like it."

My breath caught in my throat. "Look just tell me I need to know anything you know. I refuse to even entertain the worse case scenario so just tell me. Please."

"This is all I know. I accompanied Bells home from Cambridge. The flight went fine, no problems no suspicious characters. We were back for maybe about a week when I noticed she was starting to act weird. She'd jump at loud noises and was all around skitterish. I tried asking her what was going on and she'd just laugh at off as nerves. Said she was excited to see you. Then about a month ago I was taking the night shift and as I walked down the hall towards her suite of rooms I noticed the men I had stationed outside of her room were slumped against the wall."

He paused and I could tell he was starting to get a bit emotional. I didn't want him to continue but I needed to know everything. "Tell me everything please I need all the details."

He sighed heavily before continuing. "I ran over to them immediately and called for back up then rushed into her room. Only she wasn't there. Her bed looked like she had slept in it for part of the night but it was empty. Also one of her bags was missing along with her passport… Jasper?"

I could feel my eyes pricking with tears, did she runaway? "Yes Emmett what is it?"

"It didn't look good man, there were signs of a struggle. Where ever she went I don't think she went by choice."

I cleared my throat which was thick with unshed tears. "How long… how long ago did this happen."

"It was just over a month ago. We tried to reach you but Victoria had assured us she had already told you."

I stopped myself from yelling at Emmett, but could barely contain myself from flying into a bloody rage. A month! My little sister had been missing for a month and no one told me? And worse yet my loving caring fiancé was supposed to have told me but I haven't heard anything from her in almost six months. What game was she trying to play with me?

"Emmett we need to get this out. If she's out there and anyone's seen her we need to know. I know you've been trying to work behind the scenes but seeing as we haven't heard anything yet I think it's time we alert the media. I need the whole world to know she's missing. The more the better, someone was bound to have seen her. And I want you to post a reward for any information that leads to her being found." I stated matter of factly. There was nothing worth more then my baby sister and I'd be willing to pay anything to get her back home and safe with me.

"Jasper," Emmett started, "I know you want her back but I'm not sure posting a reward…"

"NO Emmett I don't care what it takes or what I have to pay I will do anything to get her back. Don't question me just do what I tell you." I know I sounded like an asshole but I couldn't help it.

I heard him sigh heavily over the phone. "Alright you're the boss. We'll do what you want, but I want it on record that offering a reward for her return is going to create more of a problem then it's worth. You'll get every money hungry human on the planet calling with bogus information just to try and get a piece of the pie."

I knew on a level he was probably right but I wanted her home, and home she would be. "Duly noted. IF, and it's a big if, there are any problems I will admit you're right and we'll try whatever approach you suggest."

"Okay Jasper, I'll get in touch with PR and we'll come up with a press release for you to read over and approve. We should have something ready for you in no more than an hour." And with that he was gone, leaving me once again to my thoughts.

I had to believe that Bella was alright. There was mention of a struggle, which I'll admit made me more nervous than I liked to admit. He also said her passport and a bag were missing, so maybe she took off before anything happened.

True to his word Emmett had a press release ready in less then an hour for me to approve. It was the normal flashing headline: Princess missing, Signs of struggle, Reward for return offered. It pained me to even have to put something like that out there about my sister but I needed her back. She is all that I have left and I refuse to go on without her.

The next couple of days went by agonizingly slow. Every hour she was gone was another hour that something could be happening to her. Everything was a blur. People came and went. Statements were taken by the police. I issued a formal statement to the press. Life was still moving on but I felt stuck in place.

The reports of Bella being spotted poured in. The detectives assigned to her case set up a tip hot line where they could take down all the information and then check to see just how much it would help us. It was a bit overwhelming, we had received just under one hundred tips on the first day and from there they grew in number.

They started out pretty normal and believable. There were many reports of people having seen her all around Europe. The most believable were the ones stating she was seen around London, it made the most sense. When all of those leads turned up dry we started to branch out a bit. We were checking almost every report of a short brunette that came into the tip line. It started to get a bit out of control. I wanted to admit to Emmett that he may have been right about offering a reward but if any one of these were responsible for her recovery I couldn't regret the decision.

When days three and four rolled around the reports started to get ridiculous. By then reports of her disappearance had reached America. We got anything and everything from seeing her shopping in L.A. to jumping on the back of a motorcycle with some hairy cyclist in Chicago. Someone even said they saw her hit by a car in New York.

On the fifth day there was a break.

Aro called. Naturally he was devastated by the news to hear Bella was missing. He expressed his sympathy for me but unlike most knew she was still alive. Apparently someone went to his NYC store and used the phrase only Bella is supposed to use when going to his stores. He let me know as soon as word got back to him. The request to get the video surveillance from the store was already put in and he was bringing it to me personally to make sure nothing happened to it.

When he finally showed up a day later we both sat down in the study to review the tapes. Aro hadn't seen the tapes yet because as soon as he received them he rushed over to me. We both sat down together and started the tape, we had to fast forward through most of the tape to get to where the person in question was in the store.

"All my NYC manager could tell me about the person who came in was that she was small, dainty and moved like she was gliding on air. Oh and apparently she was a tornado of energy, because she left the store a disaster area." He stated as we both leaned forward to see what was happening on screen.

We both watched the flurry of activity the girl on TV created. She flitted around the store pulling clothes from racks and piling them up on the counter as the sales reps tried to keep up with her. She was literally in and out of the store in under thirty minutes with six bags.

"Jesus," I breathed out. "You weren't kidding were you?"

"Jasper she walked out with close to fifteen grand in clothing." He said astounded.

Well it looks like I'll have a place to start looking for Isabella. I contacted Emmett and instructed him meet me at my personal jet. We were headed to New York City, and hopefully Isabella was still there.

******

"He's on his way."

"We still haven't caught up to Isabella."

"What do you mean you haven't found her yet. You lost track of her over two weeks ago."

"We've been looking but this is large city, it's not like we can go door to door asking have you seen this girl"

"I understand that, but I thought you said you got the license plate number!"

"Settle down, we only were able to get the last two digits."

"Well just find her before he gets there and get rid of her, I don't care what you have to do."

"Well do you have his flight info, we can try and follow him?"

"He left before I even had a chance to say goodbye all I know is he's headed your way. This would be a lot easier if you had just done the job right the first time."

A/N: For those of you still with me. Thank you so much for being patient. I never meant to take this long with this chapter, but as I was writing it I realized that the time line is so tight with this chapter and the way it sync's up with chp 7 I had to kind of write them side by side for a bit until I was able to nail down the time line. So with that being said, good news is I have quite a bit done on chapter 7. It's going to probably turn into my longest chapter yet. Lots of info and quite a bit of fluff for our favorite couple.

If anyone is interested in what Bella's first ballgown, designed by the fabulous Aro Volturi, here's the link. Just remove the (dot) and spaces.

http : / / www (dot) net-a-porter (dot) com/product/61901

Thoughts and conspiracies are welcome. Just click the button below.