A/N: Y'all can thank jfka06 for begging me to update this sooner rather than later. Sigh. This is a short chapter, though.


A phone ringing at 2:42 in the morning was never a good thing.

Edward stared at his cell phone, his stomach clenching at the sight of his lit up screen. It was a blocked number. Quickly, he snatched the thing up, his heart pounding so hard he was sure it was audible to the person on the other end.

"Hello?"

He thought he heard a whimper, but he couldn't be sure.

"Hello? Who is this?" His mind spun with possibilities. Was someone playing a joke on him? It was a horrible joke if they were. The person on the other end was making frightened sounding noises.

But then again, those noises made his training kick in. It was heartbreaking how many times he'd received calls just like this while working on the hotline, some poor young woman or, on occasion, a young man in the worst pain and confusion of their lives. "It's okay," he soothed automatically. "I can help you. Just tell me your name. Can you tell me your name?" Simple questions worked best, easy questions. If that didn't work, he would have to resort to yes or no questions.

The person on the other end exhaled in a gust. He heard swallowing before a shaking voice asked, "Are you Edward Cullen?"

"Yes. Who is this?" he tried again, his voice gentle.

"I, um. Look. My name is Bella Swan."

Edward bit his lip hard to keep from gasping. Though it should have been obvious given the time if night and the apparent distress she was in, Bella was the absolute last person he would have suspected was on his phone line.

"I think you're paying for my apartment? Or maybe just the deposit. Look, I just really need to know why you, why you..."

He could hear the edge of panic in her voice as she babbled and his heart broke. He thought quickly, trying to understand why she'd choose him to call when she was very close to freaking out. Her tone was vaguely accusatory. She wasn't reaching out to him for comfort, he realized. She was lashing out.

He'd thought Rosalie explained the deal with the apartment to her, but that was a moot point. Rosalie had also made it clear Bella was in a daze most of the time.

"Bella. I mean, Miss Swan. I don't know how much you know about me, but By the Numbers is my company."

"I know who you are," she snapped. "Do you have a key to this apartment?"

"What? No. No, of course not. I never did." It took some effort to keep his voice steady. "Your friends were there when I signed that paperwork. I gave the key straight to them."

"But the landlord would give you a key if you asked for one. Because you pay the bills," she persisted.

"Well, I suppose that's true," he said calmly. "Look, why don't we party call her. You can call. The number should be on the paperwork."

Another loud exhale. "It's the middle of the night."

"Well, this is important. You can tell her you don't want me to have the key. I won't argue."

There was silence on the other end of the line save for her staccato breaths. Edward was desperate to say something, desperate to apologize among other things, but he knew better. He had to follow her lead.

When it came to someone you personally cared about, it was the hardest thing in the world to do.

"S-s-she's asleep. I don't want to bother her," Bella finally said, her voice small. She sounded confused.

"Okay," Edward agreed.

"You're not asleep."

"Um. No, no I'm not."

"Why?" The word came out rough like a bark.

Edward took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, away from the phone so she couldn't hear. It was a weighty question. He didn't want to lie, but at the same time, he couldn't admit thoughts of her was what kept him up at night. "I'm a computer nerd," he decided finally. "We're just prone to being night owls."

"Yeah," she said on a breath, sounding distracted now, far away. "Coding always goes faster at night."

"Exactly," Edward answered, his tone thankfully not betraying his surprise.

He heard sniffling. Never in his life did he wish he could take someone into his arms more than he did right that very moment. The distance between them was physically painful. It was ridiculous because she was a perfect stranger and even if she was right in front of him, if he tried to hug her he would make things a million times worse for her.

"It's late." Her voice was shaking. "I shouldn't have called. I'm sorry."

"No, Bell - Miss Swan, I-" but it was too late. He heard the click of the phone disconnecting. "Fuck."

He was up out of his seat before he realized what he was doing, his body tensed to spring into action, but how? What?

He was so terrified for the woman who was relatively few miles away from him and yet so ridiculously far it was unreal. She was alone and terribly frightened. He wanted, he needed to see her, see with his own eyes she was safe. He wanted to comfort her so badly and slay what demons tormented her.

Even though he knew what it would say, he scrolled through his received calls. Private number. Of course.

But Rose or Emmett would give him the number. Better yet, they would go to her.

He paused with his finger already hovering over the send button, Rosalie's number on the screen.

Cursing again under his breath, he forced himself to put the phone down.

There was no way he could violate her choice like that. Obviously she was scared half out of her mind, but she knew she could reach out to her friends if she needed. He wasn't going to take that choice away from her - couldn't take that choice away from her if he had any hope of helping her.

He had no choice but to wait.

There was no way he would be able to sleep again, not while he was picturing her panicking alone. He settled in front of his computer, clicking randomly.

When the phone rang again at 3:21, Edward jumped.

Private number.

"Hello?" he asked, breathless.

"I, um. I... I..." Bella's voice quaked and again, Edward's heart twisted painfully in his chest. She was crying, he could tell, but she was trying to calm down. "Listen, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to call you. But you're up and... and..."

"It's fine," Edward said quickly. "Of course it's fine. I wasn't trying to sleep."

"I don't want to bother you."

"You're no bother." He paused, worrying his lip between his teeth, not wanting to push her. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"I don't..."

She tapered off. When she hadn't completed her sentence, Edward took a chance, remembering what Rosalie had said about Emmett. "Do you just want me to talk?"

Another pause, but then she whispered, "Please."

Edward thought quickly, casting his eyes around, searching for a safe topic. Topics that weren't how sorry he was this was happening to her, how glad he was she'd survived, how much he wanted to tear Mike Newton to pieces.

He babbled some whiny nonsense about Game of Thrones not restarting until April. He talked about a cruise his mother and father had taken to Alaska recently. He talked about asinine things - anything and everything, talking just to hear himself speak.

Because through the whole thing, she didn't say a word. He knew she was still there. He could hear the gasps of her panicked breaths for quite a while as he spoke. Then, bit by little bit, they slowed and finally returned to normal. It was even longer after that she kept sniffling as if she were crying quietly, but not so disconsolately.

Finally, there was no other sound but her breath - slow, steady, and even.

"Bella?" he asked quietly.

There was no answer, no shift of movement.

She was asleep.

Edward felt a sense of relief and hoped fervently that she could find some peace. He glanced at the clock. It was after five in the morning.

In that time, he'd migrated to his couch and was laying down, staring blindly up at the ceiling, wondering what he should do. He supposed he could hang up, but that felt wrong somehow - like he was abandoning her. What if she woke up to nightmares again?

So he kept the phone - plugged in now to keep it from running out of batteries - tucked up against his ear, listening to the steady rhythm of her breaths until he fell asleep.

~0~

Bella woke with a start, blinking and confused. Her eyes rolled, and she winced when she accidentally rammed her arm into the side of the sofa. There was something heavy weighing her down, weighing her down.

Where the fuck was she?

Home, she remembered. She couldn't move her arm because it was in a cast - and it had freaky Frankenstein's monster pins sticking out of it. She was home. Alone. And she was sleeping on the couch.

And there was a noise in her ear - an unfamiliar noise.

For a second, she froze, her body seized with fear as she remembered Mike's grunts and pants, his breath hot against her ear. She started to whimper but quickly pressed her hand against her mouth, muffling it.

No. It wasn't Mike. Mike couldn't call her. Mike couldn't hurt her.

She struggled to remember what had happened the night before.

And who was on the other end of the phone she had pressed against her ear? The phone was uncomfortably hot because it was plugged into the wall and she'd been laying on it all night.

She remembered doing that, remembered thinking she didn't want to lose the connection. His voice was soothing, and as he chatted in her ear, she didn't feel so lonely.

His voice was soothing.

Bella gasped, hitting the disconnect button.

Had she been a complete and total lunatic to a complete stranger?

There were only bits and pieces of the previous night that stuck out. When she'd picked up the phone and dialed, she was angry, intent on getting him to but out of her life. But when she heard his voice - a strange, male voice - fear had overcome fury. She remembered rambling. And hanging up. And how she was entirely too alone until she called him back and he had talked to her until the vicious grip of panic that had seized her heart, her chest loosened enough that she could breathe again.

Enough, apparently, that she'd fallen asleep.

For a solid five hours. She hadn't slept more than a couple hours at a time since...

It was 9:30 in the morning. Angela would be here any-

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door followed by a key turning in the lock. "Bella?" Angela called.

"Here, Ange," Bella called. Her voice was raspy with sleep.

She froze, shocked.

She'd gotten through her first night alone, relatively intact. It had been hell, but it was behind her. Accomplished. Done.

She'd gotten through it with no small amount of help from a man who she'd never seen or heard before in her life.


A/N: All my girls held my hand through this one. Thank you to GinnyW, Shug, barburella, and jfka06.

And thank you to all of you for your response to this story. The stories that are the hardest to write (and read) are almost always the most rewarding to get feedback from. This fic has been nominated for fic of the week at the lemonade stand (That's tehlemonadestand dot net) in case you're interested in voting. Either way, there are some great fics up there.