I wanted to apologize for the late update and not replying to some reviews. I had a small wire hanger malfunction that had left me typing with one hand since Friday. So, my computer time was minimized. But, I'm good to go and no longer look like I'm giving everyone the Vulcan Salute.

Thanks to my beta, Birdee, I owe you a number 4 Combo with a Kool-Aid.

Chapter songs: S.O.S-The Police, Watching The Ships Roll In-The Kooks, and Creep-Radiohead.

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Chapter 8- Mistakes

"You didn't?" Alice shrieked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"On his desk?"

"Uh huh." I was trying to stretch across Alice's bed so that I could put on her freshly cleaned fitted sheet, but it was hard with her and Rose sitting in the middle.

"Ewwww. Just, ewwww," Rose said, covering her mouth and making vomiting noises.

I could see Alice shiver out of the corner of my eye.

This was my first booyah moment, and they weren't going to ruin it for me. Rose and Alice liked to play a demented version of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?", only Carmen Sandiego was slang for "craziest place to do the humpty hump" and the Grand Prize, an ACME Travel Kit, was in fact, an assortment of pleasurable delights you could use on your next mission.

Alice hopped off the bed and retrieved a small bag. "Good job, recruit." She tapped my chin with her fist before handing me my prize. I recognized a few things, but the stuff with feathers and straps would have to be examined later.

"I still can't believe you did it on his desk." Rose was shaking her head back and forth. "I go visit him at work. Edward and I eat lunch at that desk."

"Well, he definitely ate something…" I trailed off.

"EWWWWWW!" they yelled together. Rose grabbed the pillow from the floor and tossed it at my head.

"You and Edward are never allowed alone in my office, ever. I don't think I want you alone in my house. When I have kids, you two are only to have supervised visits. Got it?" Alice was rambling while Rose continued to look like a cat coughing up a hairball.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. You and Jasper did it in the pool at the Holiday Inn and as for Rose and Emmett, where haven't they done it?"

"Edward's desk in his office, for one," Rose scoffed.

"Well that's refreshing, but until Alice and I christen a house of mirrors, a trailer during a hay ride, a church confessional, one of those cornfield mazes, the weight room at the Y, your little cousin's tree house, and a golf cart on the 9th hole, I think you have us beat."

She squinted her eyes and looked at the corner of the room like she was thinking really hard before shrugging her shoulders. "Meh."

"Soooo?" Alice put her hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged. "I don't know. He's Dr. Cullen, psychologist to the fucked up extraordinaire, and I am extraordinarily fucked up"

"Ok, then scratch what you think. What does Edward think?"

I shrugged again.

"Well, you want to know what I think?" Rose chimed in. "You're both fucked up in those pretty little heads of yours. You're perfect for one another. How come neither one of you can see it?"

"I think one of them can," Alice mumbled.

"What did you just say?" I walked around the bed so I was standing in front of her.

"Oh come on, Edward looks at you like you're Jim Jones. He's two steps away from drinking the Kool-Aid."

"Whatever." I pushed her shoulder, making her fall back on the bed.

Alice sat up and smirked. "Mature." She kicked her leg out from the side of the bed and dead-legged me.

"Hey!" Rose yelled. "Don't make me turn this car around." She looked between Alice and me. "Can you two play nice in public cause I want some lunch? Lets try that Greek restaurant so we can get some hummus and a feta salad."

I looked over at her and furrowed my eyebrows. "What do we look like, the Rescue Rangers? That's hamster food. We need something that was once cute and fuzzy and is now deep fried to a golden brown."

I heard Alice gasp. "That's incredibly morbid, yet oddly appetizing."

I nodded my head.

"How about that rotisserie on third," Alice added.

"I look like crap. Can we go to a restaurant that's a little less Banana Republic-y?" I asked, looking at my torn t-shirt.

"McDonalds is not a restaurant, it's a feeding trough." Alice was rummaging through her closet as she yelled over her shoulder. She pulled out a green shirt. "Your jeans are fine and you can wear this top."

I caught the shirt right before it hit me in the face and held it up for examination. "I think you grabbed this shirt out of a pile of clothes you keep for those creepy porcelain dolls your mom sends you."

"No, it's mine. It's supposed to stretch."

I laughed. "See, you say that like it's a good thing. Stretchy is great when it's Saran wrap, but I really don't need a shirt that will vacuum seal my fat like a Twinkie. Do you have anything that doesn't come in anorexic?"

She snatched the shirt out of my hands and hung it back in the closet. "Here." She tossed me another shirt. ". Silk. Empire-waist. Put it on."

"Well, if J. Crew approves-" I began to mumble before Rose interrupted me by pulling my shirt over my head.

"Shut up and put the fucking shirt on. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

"I guess that covers the cute and fuzzy part," Alice laughed.

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Lunch was nothing short of a disaster.

All Rose could talk about the whole car ride there was lemon pepper chicken, so when we reached the restaurant and was told there would be a fifty minute wait, Rose was not willing to turn her back on her fowl friend.

Around an hour later we were finally seated in an overcrowded, under lit dining room. The back of my chair faced a table that sat a family with three kids. Of course, I was near the one who needed to go the restroom every 15 seconds and was reminded of that when he rammed his chair into mine. It took everything I had not to fasten my napkin around him like a diaper, or tell his parents that if they didn't control their kid's peeper, I was going to whack it off, but then I thought that could be really misconstrued.

Things only got better when it was time to place our order, and Rosalie asked for a Caesar salad with light dressing on the side.

Alice glared at her. "What about your lemon pepper chicken?"

"I don't know. It's like I thought about it so much, it didn't sound appealing anymore."

I looked at her and shook my head. "So we waited for an hour so that you could order something that comes on the 99 cent menu at Wendy's?"

"No, we waited for an hour because you said you wanted deep fried Big Bird."

I turned to the waiter and gave my order. Someone needed to eat the damn lemon pepper chicken.

Of course, it was dry, and the chef had used about ten more lemons then needed. I felt like I was eating a chicken-flavored Warhead.

I spilt dressing on Alice's shirt that was dry clean only and a birthday gift from Jasper that she had never worn. She insisted it was no big deal, I insisted I would get her a new one, and Rose insisted that I couldn't afford it.

Sigh.

So, I bought her lunch instead.

I put my old shirt back on when I got to Alice's, but I kept her blouse wrapped around my neck as a reminder to bring it by the dry cleaners to see if they could work their magic. Naturally, I was too busy playing the drums on my steering wheel to remember to drop it off.

As I was unlocking the door to my house, my phone began to ring. I slipped my purse off of my shoulder and tried to balance it on my knee that was propped up on the door. I hit the answer button and placed it between my ear and shoulder without looking at the screen.

"Hello."

"BELLE!"

Only one person in this world called me Belle, and that's because nothing is cooler to a five year old then having the same name as a Disney princess, or in my case, a similar name to a Disney princess.

"Hey, Maggie Moo. What's up?" I tossed my keys on the small table by the door and walked to the kitchen to put away my leftovers.

"Guess what I'm doing today?"

"Going to outer space?"

She giggled. "No."

"Uh, driving a race car?"

Her laughter was getting louder. "No, silly."

"Getting your first kiss? What did I tell you about those boys who hang out by the monkey bars?" I couldn't stop the huge grin from forming. Her spirit was contagious, even over the phone.

"Nooooo. Cory Evans asked me to be his girlfriend last week, but he spent all recess Monday on the swings with Melanie. Jonathan did tell Caroline that he wanted to sit by me during snack, though."

"Well, don't forget to make them work for it."

The phone went silent for a second. "What does that mean?"

I shook my head and smiled. "Nothing. Never mind. I'll explain it to you in ten years."

"You sound just like Daddy. I heard him tell Mommy that I'm not allowed to play with Cory until I'm thirty. Are you thirty, Belle?"

"Almost, love bug."

"You're old."

"Yep." I never realized how much I missed Maggie until she had me laughing. Things were so simple with her. Black and white. Wrong and right.

"How is Dad?"

"He's at work, but he said he would meet mommy and me at the park later. We're going to the one with big red slide."

I plopped down on the couch. "That one's my favorite."

"I know, that's why I wanted to tell you. Mommy said we could call you. She promised me last weekend we could go, but it rained, so we are going today. Daddy couldn't take off work all day, but he said if we waited until three he would come." I could hear her sigh into the phone. "I wish you could come."

I let my head fall back and closed my eyes. "I know. Me too."

"Mommy said it's hard for Daddy when you visit."

I squeezed my eyes closed even tighter. Shit.

"She's right. It's hard for him to take off work to spend time with me when I come in town."

"But, he's taking off work today?"

"Yeah, but you know how much he loves the twisty slide."

She giggled. "He got stuck last time, and Annie's dad had to help pull him out."

"Well, it sounds like he needs to stick to the see-saw today then."

We talked for a little while longer. She told me more about her recess boyfriend, her after school care boyfriend, and her neighborhood boyfriend. She also gave me an in-depth color detail of every fish she saw at the aquarium on their fieldtrip. In the middle of her reading "Where the Wild Things Are" to me for the second time, my phone started to beep. I looked at the unrecognized number on the screen before putting it back to my ear.

"Ms. Maggie, I have to run, ok. Someone is on the other line, and you need to get ready for the park. Have fun and go down the slide head first for me. Oh, and if Dad gets stuck on the slide again, ask your Mom if she can take a picture with her phone and send it to me."

"Ok. I love you, Belle." Her voice was light and full of excitement.

"Love you, rugrat."

I couldn't remember how to switch calls so I pressed a hundred buttons and probably made a satellite in space go haywire, but I got reconnected.

If it's the Domino's guy telling me the special of the week, I'm going to shove my free liter of Pepsi down his throat.

"Hello?"

"Hey." The voice was soft but raspy and sounded like choir of a million orgasms.

"Hey," I squeaked. My voice, on the other hand, sounded like a prepubescent boy during health class learning about orgasms. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

Facepalm. Is that a cricket chirping?

"Where are you calling from? You programmed your cell, office, and home phone number into my phone. Do you have some special shoe phone or pen phone?"

"Or, Emmett's phone," he replied.

"Well, that's no fun, unless his phone is shaped like something other than a phone."

"Damn. No." He chuckled. "It is red, though."

"Ooh, spiffy!"

Seriously Bella, phone colors. What are you, an AT&T representative? Why don't you ask him if he wants to upgrade to unlimited text messaging?

"Uh, so, um, did you, uh, need something?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to tell you that I sent my recommendation to your boss. I told him about all the progress you had made, but that I thought you could use some more time."

I dropped the strand of hair I was twirling around my finger and sat at the edge of the couch. "Oh."

"Um, I also told him about Dr. Benson. He specializes in helping people cope with the loss of loved ones. I scheduled a meeting for you with him. I think he would be, uh, I think he would really be good for you, Bella."

I sat my phone on the arm rest of the couch, while my fingers rubbed both sides of my forehead.

Edward and I had talked some since what happened in his office a few days ago, but at the same time we didn't talk about what happened in his office a few days ago.

He had put all his numbers in my phone while I got dressed and told me to call him if I wanted to go grab a bite to eat or just needed to talk. Like I didn't do enough of that with him.

But, surprisingly, I called him that night, even though I didn't really have anything to say. We talked about the weather, the economy, all the boring things I had no interest in, yet, that night, I stayed up way past my bed time.

"Bella? Hello, Bella, are you there?" The quiet whispers of his frantic voice made me remember I put the phone down. I hit speaker phone and leaned back.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry. That sounds…great, just email me the address, time, and date. I'll make sure to be there."

It was quiet for a long moment before he sighed.

"I'm not trying to push you away. I'm trying to be your friend."

What! What? Danger, Will Robinson. Confusion ahead.

"I, I know that. Er, thanks?"

"No," he sighed again into the phone, heavier this time. "I don't think you do. I can't be your friend and your psychologist at the same time."

"No, I don't think you get it. I'm pretty sure it's you who can't be my guy friend and not want to sleep with me at the same time. You have your When Harry Meet Sally logic all out of whack."

"Bella, it's not about sleeping together. I wish we had never slept together."

My head jerked up as I stared at the phone teetering on the edge of the armrest.

"Wait, no. That's not what I meant. It was great, the best actually. It was just a mis-ta-ke." His voice faded out at the end.

I gave the phone the middle finger, wishing we were having this conversation in person so I could throw my drink on him and do a dramatic exit.

"Shit, this isn't coming out right. Can I try again?"

"Yes, please," I yelled towards the phone. "And might I suggest that you don't open with 'Sleeping with you was a mistake'."

He exhaled. "What I meant was that I think sleeping together gave you the wrong idea. I don't want to be your friend with benefits; I want to be your friend. As your psychologist, I'm supposed to be neutral, help you explore every side of a situation, but I just don't think I can do that anymore. You need to see another doctor because the way I'm acting, the way I'm feeling, isn't fair to you. " His breathing got shallow before he whispered, "I care too much."

"Edward, I-"

"I know. Really, I care as a friend, that's all. I want to be your Alice and Rose without the make-up and boobs." I could hear him smile.

I laughed. "You just took away the best parts. Now all that's left is their anger and bitchiness."

Edward laughed with me for a minute before clearing his throat. "This is better, I promise. It will be good for you. Now it's like you get two for the price of one, because you know if you ever need anything, you can call me."

"Thanks," I whispered.

"Don't mention it." The awkward quiet had returned for a moment before he spoke again. "So, how was your day?"

"Same old thing. Lunch with the girls then back home. I was actually on the phone with my sister when you called."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude."

"You didn't. She was just showing me the new reading level she's at in school. She's moved up two since the last time I talked to her. She's a really smart kid."

"When was the last time you saw her?"

"A year ago, I guess. I met them at the beach for a long weekend."

I could hear him shuffling around, switching the phone to his other ear. Now, not only did he have to listen to my problems in the office, but I was talking his ear off in his free hours too.

"You should go see her. I bet it would do you some good to get out of town for a few days," he said firmly.

"Eh," I thought for a moment. "I don't know."

"Why?"

"It's complicated."

"Bella. Complicated. Shocking." He laughed a little. "You know, uh, if you want some company or something, like, someone to help with the drive, I can come with you."

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to go."

"I think it would…never mind. Forget it. Just, if you decide to go and want a driving partner, let me know."

"I sure will."

"Well, Emmett's making his way to the car so I better let you go. It was good talking to you. Hopefully, I will hear from you soon. Maybe after you get back from visiting your family." He made sure to say the last part really fast.

"Yeah, maybe. Bye Edward."

"Bye."

I reached over, turned off the speakerphone, and hit the disconnect button.

I sat in silence for a long time, thinking about the day that was only a little over half over. Thinking about the people we come in contact with in our life, whether it's your family you haven't seen in years or your best friends that you view as sisters.

I grabbed the phone and dialed the number quickly before I chickened out and erased it. It rang four times before he answered.

"Hello, Chief Swan."

"Hey, it's Bella"

I could hear the volume of his radio decrease slightly before he grunted my acknowledgment.

"So, I talked to Maggie today, and I was thinking about coming in next weekend to see you guys."

"Huh. Well, that will make Mags happy. She misses you. I can tell Susanna to set a place for you at the table on Friday."

"I was thinking that-"

He cut me off. "Bella, I have to go. I'm workin'."

"Ok, well-"

Dial tone.

I listened to the phone beep for a moment before I moved it to look at the empty screen, "Yeah Dad, I love you too."

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I started the next chapter, so it should be up next week.

Spock, signing out!