Chapter 10: "We all have some crap in our past, Ed. She's not gonna go spilling her life story to you after a few fucks."

A/N: I don't own Twilight or its characters; they belong to Stephanie Meyer. This is just what they got up to in my mind.

The song for this chapter is Fight For This Love by Cheryl Cole

Coffee. I couldn't do anything without coffee, and this morning I needed the good stuff. I called in to the coffee shop on the ground floor of our office building and ordered a large take-out coffee. None of this fancy-schmancy coffee shop stuff, just good, old-fashioned coffee was all that could help me now.

Next stop was Emmett's office. I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything until I'd spoken to him. His door was open, unfortunately for me, because it meant I got an eyeful of him groping Rosalie's ass as he whispered in her ear.

"Bro, do you need me to resend you that email on office PDA?" I interrupted as he looked up and grinned at me. I strolled into his office, unperturbed by his visitor. Rosalie was dressed in her gym gear, indicating she wouldn't be here long. I assumed she had driven in with Emmett and was now going to use the building's employee gym.

"Good trip?" I asked Rosalie.

"Yeah. Seems like there was more happening back here though." She grinned at me as I collapsed down on Emmett's sofa. "I hear you're now available to collect Seth any time we need." Rosalie was enjoying riling me up, no wonder she and Emmett made such a good pair.

"I've always helped." I defended myself.

"I know," she relented as she turned back to Emmett and I tried not to watch as they said a mushy goodbye to each other, which involved more groping than I wanted to see, before Rosalie waved goodbye and left.

Emmett sat behind his desk and started up his computer, turning his attention to me once it was booting up.

"So what's happened to you that's worth interrupting my fine morning? That's a big old coffee, even for you."

"Well this morning pretty much sucks ass. But as much as I love to relive my heartache and failures with you, I was just wondering if you dropped Seth at school this morning?" I was trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, but judging by Emmett's now-grinning face, I failed.

"Hmm, little bro, that's so considerate of you to worry about my son's education. Why, pray tell, are you showing such an interest all of a sudden?" He grinned. A big, satisfied grin which filled half his face. He was loving this too much for my liking.

"Fine. Yeah, so…I wondered if Bella was there this morning," I mumbled.

"Why would you be so interested in that?" he asked, spinning back to his computer, logging in and then turning back to me.

"Em," I warned him. His humour about this situation was annoying me now.

"Okay, okay," he answered, taking pity on me as he finally set about answering my question. "Luckily for you my darling son spilt half a carton of OJ down his shirt this morning, Bro, that stuff is sticky. We practically had to get him in the shower to get him clean, so we were running all kinds of late and he missed the bus. Rose and I drove him to school, but I had to run him into class 'cause he was worried he'd get in trouble for being late. Apparently your little Miss Swan can be quite the authoritarian when needed, but maybe you know that already?" he asked me with an eyebrow wiggle.

I kept a straight face as he continued.

"Too soon for sex jokes? Okay, so anyway, I walked, well ran, Seth to class and yes, she was there. Happy now?" he finished.

"Yeah, I guess." I moved to stand but Emmett walked over to me, pushed me back down and sat next to me on the sofa.

"She looked a bit nervous to see me," he added more seriously. "Would that have anything to do with my little brother?"

I groaned. How did he always get me to talk to him like this?

"What happened?" he asked more seriously.

"She fucking bailed again, that's what happened." I ran my hand through my hair, my longed-for-coffee feeling useless in my other hand.

"She didn't show?" Emmett queried, making me shake my head.

"Oh no. She was there alright. And then in my house. And then in my bed."

"You slept with her again?" He sounded more surprised than was good for my ego.

"Yes," I confirmed. "And she left. Again. It's like that bloody runaway bride film. Seriously, what's her problem?" I grumbled, angry at Bella for her actions and angry at myself. I hadn't planned on talking to Emmett about this and now I was telling him everything. However, given Emmett was my twin brother and my best friend, we had always been close. If I couldn't be honest with him then I had no one, and maybe I actually did need his help and opinion because I was pretty damn confused.

"Err, I guess she had work?" he suggested as I shrugged.

"She could have woken me though. Damn it!" I exclaimed as I stood up, throwing what was left of my coffee into Emmett's trash can with way more force than necessary. The loud, metallic clanging noise that it made actually caused Emmett to jump slightly as I turned to him. "I thought we'd had a good night, I thought we had fun and got past this shit, but no. Apparently not. I was going to make her a quick breakfast..." I shrugged, letting my sentence trail off.

"Cullen omelet special?" Emmett teased.

Mom loved cooking for our family, so much so that she hadn't been great at teaching us to cook for ourselves. I'd actually learnt a lot living on my own, but Emmett went from living with mom and dad to living with Rosalie, so we both knew he would still survive on nothing but omelets whenever she was away.

"No, I already cooked that for her actually." I knew I was looking smug, but instead of looking impressed Emmett scoffed at me.

"Dude, if you had a date with her and cooked an omelet, no wonder she left!" He laughed as I scowled at him.

"No, we ate out. The omelet was a snack after...just after," I stumbled over my words, his face splitting into a grin as he waggled his eyebrows at me. "Oh God, I'm shutting up now," I mumbled, my hands running through my hair.

"No, no, you've started now. So you had a date?"

"Yeah, no. I don't know what she'd call it but it sure felt like a date to me."

"And ended like one! At least that explains why you were doing a great impression of a breathing zombie in the Harrison meeting yesterday. I knew your mind was elsewhere."

"Whatever. We got the deal, didn't we?" I snapped, making him realize I was taking this seriously and his joking wasn't helping. "There's more to this and I'm going to find out what," I told him, a new resolve settling in my mind.

"She did another fuck and duck. Is there anything else to know?"

"This time was different. We talked all evening. We got on really well, and she was ready to open up to me—"

Emmett scoffed loudly and waggled his eyebrows at me. "Oh! She opened up to you alright."

I threw my hands in the air and glared at him. "Seriously, Emmett, can you get your brain out of the gutter long enough to have an adult conversation?"

"Apparently not! I'm sorry, carry on." I remained silent as he sighed. "Honestly, I'm sorry, Ed."

He looked suitably apologetic as I took a deep breath and continued. "She was ready to talk to me, but then she woke in the night and had this weird nightmare or something."

I hadn't mentioned this until now as I didn't want to break Bella's confidence, but I realized Emmett wouldn't understand how I felt without the full story. Besides, I trusted him implicitly. I knew the details of this conversation would stay between us. This was a good thing, because I needed to talk to someone about this and Emmett, under all his goofy and crass exterior, was surprisingly relationship-savvy. He had been married nine years and counting; he must be doing something right.

"About what?" He looked confused and slightly concerned as I continued.

"I don't know. She was shouting and screaming about being left, being alone, she was shaking and shit."

"Did you ask her about it?"

"Em, it was 3am. She was pretty distressed and wasn't exactly in a chatty mood," I snapped. I knew I was being grumpy, but I was out of my depth here.

"We all have some crap in our past, Ed. She's not gonna go spilling her life story to you after a few fucks."

Huh. Well, despite Emmett's rather blunt delivery, I had to admit he had a point.

We remained silent as I thought about his words.

"It's not like all we've done is sleep together. We have talked…a bit."

"You told her about our past?" he asked quietly as my head whipped round to look him dead in the eyes.

He never mentioned that.

Never.

He just stared me down.

"No." I whispered my reply.

He waited for me to elaborate.

"I really like her. It scares me how much I like her, but I'm still getting to know her." I didn't have to justify this to Emmett. He understood implicitly and felt the same as me. I didn't know why he'd brought this up.

"Precisely. She probably feels the same about revealing her past to you," he pointed out as I stood and started pacing the width of the room.

"Yeah, I guess," I conceded as a short silence followed.

"Bro, you seem to have a kind of 'friends with benefits' situation going on. Are you sure you wanna knock that?"

"Friends!" I scoffed. "Right now I'm not too sure how much she even likes me!"

"Well there's one part of you she certainly likes!" Emmett teased.

I knew full well what part of me Emmett was referring to, but instead I couldn't help remembering the way Bella wanted my shirt off, the way she admired my chest, the way she'd spent ages tracing the lines of my muscles and my tattoo. I'd never felt that wanted or that needed before. She was frantic about my body, more so this last night than the first time.

Still, the end result was the same. Both times she'd left and both times I had wanted more.

I didn't want to want her. I wanted to chalk this up to a two night stand, if that was even a thing, or a 'friends with benefits' arrangement as Emmett was suggesting, but I knew I couldn't.

Maybe years ago I would have, or maybe with a different woman I could have, but with Bella I knew I wanted more.

"Bro, I like Bella," Emmett started. "I mean, she's damn hot...plus, from what I know of her as Seth's teacher, she's great. She's made him understand fractions which is something I could never achieve but...I might be out of line here, but is she worth it? Is she worth all this hassle? She seems pretty hostile toward you—"

"She's not hostile."

"Well, this relationship seems like hard work. I know you're picky as fuck and want the whole romance and white picket fence but, dude, you shouldn't have to persuade someone to be with you. You deserve better than that." Emmett slapped my back as I contemplated his words.

"I know that's how it looks, but sometimes, at Tanya's wedding and last night, when she relaxes and lets her guard down—"

"—and sleeps with you," he interrupted.

"No! Trust me that part is awesome, but that's not what I meant. I meant before all that. We have this...connection. I can't just ignore that. I know there's something there, I just need to find out what her issues are."

"Fair enough. It sounds like you think she's worth fighting for." Emmett answered with a shrug. "So how do you plan on doing that?"

"I need to talk to her. She left me her phone number but I want to do this face-to-face. At least this time I know where to find her."

"Ed, all you know is that she's at work, teaching my kid, and twenty or so other equally demanding kids. I'm pretty sure her email about PDA in the workplace would be a lot more stringent than ours!" he joked as I rolled my eyes.

I did contemplate calling her or texting now that I had her number but I guessed it was unlikely she'd have her phone with her in the classroom.

"What time does school finish again?" Sure I'd picked Seth up before but I needed a reminder. Good thing I wasn't in contention for any uncle of the year award. I'd probably already lost that when I slept with my nephew's teacher. Twice. No kid would like that!

"School's out at three, but you have that Anderson meeting at eleven remember?" my brother helpfully reminded me.

"No problem," I replied, unfazed. Emmett however looked rather concerned. "It's fine. I'll prep now. I know he's a big client. I'll be there," I assured him as I turned to leave his office.

"I need your brain in the game, bro, it's no good just turning up—"

"I know Em, trust me. I got this," I snapped at my brother who looked at me with skepticism but nodded.

"Well then, good luck." He threw the comment out, not clarifying which part of today he was referring to, as I left his office to try and concentrate enough to prepare for my meeting.

Back at my desk I pulled my phone out of my pocket while my computer booted up. I'd added Bella's number to my contacts this morning and now I just stared at her name and number, remembering our night together.

The concern I had for her after her nightmare was dulling my anger at her leaving again. At least she'd left me a note. She'd said she wanted to talk to me properly and she'd left me her number so she must want to see me again, which was a good thing because I was more eager than ever to talk to her now.

Judging by that nightmare and the state she was in last night, I'd clearly underestimated her past or what she wanted to talk to me about. All this realization did was make me even more fed up with tip-toeing around her. It was time to rip the band-aid off, however painful that may be.

The trouble was, I didn't know who it would be most painful for, me or her.

ooooooOOOOOOoooooo

After my meeting wrapped up I was ready for lunch. The client's building was down the block from my dad's medical practice. I knew he'd be there today so I thought I'd be a good son and see if he was available for a quick bite to eat. I didn't want to eat lunch alone and dwell on Bella, either what had already happened, or what might happen if I managed to talk to her this afternoon.

I texted my dad, not wanting to call in case he was busy. I got a prompt reply that he was just about to see his last patient before lunch, but he should be done by the time I reached him.

I dropped my work files in my car before I navigated my way to my dad's building. Once inside, I took the familiar route to his office where I heard the friendly voice of his secretary, Heidi. She had worked there almost as long as my dad, so she knew me on sight. She greeted me with her usual perky smile as I walked past, going straight to my dad's office after I replied with a friendly greeting of my own. As I turned the corner to his room, the door was open and he was showing a patient out. I hung back, not wanting to interrupt, but as I looked again I realized who exactly it was that my father was talking to.

Bella.

She looked down the corridor and I could see the moment she recognized me. Her eyes widened in shock, but also worry and what looked to me like fear, but from this distance I was struggling to read what it was that she was feeling.

I remembered how I'd seen her last night. All of her. In my bed, which was so much more personal than the first time in a hotel room.

I remembered her look of distress and embarrassment when she woke in the early hours of this morning and I'd worried like hell about what on earth had happened to her to prompt that nightmare.

I remembered waking up alone and being fucking angry that she'd left.

I remembered finding her note on the pillow and not knowing whether to be happy she'd left a note and wanted to see me again, angry that she'd left, or concerned because whatever she wanted to talk about was clearly a bigger issue than I'd previously believed.

And I remembered my resolve to get some answers to this whole damn situation.

I gathered my thoughts and walked closer to her as my father continued to talk, his voice professional and courteous. However, when he noticed Bella was no longer paying attention he followed her gaze down the hallway…to me.

"Oh, this is my son. He's here to meet me for lunch," he informed Bella before turning to me. "Edward, I'll be with you in a minute."

"Okay, Dad," I answered robotically. I was about to turn and wait back in the reception area for Bella so we could have a conversation away from my dad's earshot, but before I got that far I saw a sight that I'd remember for the rest of my life.

A small boy, older than a toddler but younger than Seth, walked from the room and stood next to Bella. She reached her hand out and ruffled his hair in a move that looked subconscious, more for her benefit and reassurance than the child's.

"So, yeah, Tyler, you'll be just fine," my dad told the boy as Bella thanked him yet again before her eyes and my dad's drifted over to me. I could see the state of confusion on my dad's features, no doubt he was wondering why my presence was unsettling Bella. She however, looked at me in silence, waiting for questions that I couldn't seem to voice.

"Mama, you saided I could have a sticker after seeing the doctor," the little boy said, seemingly oblivious to the tension building around him.

"Okay, baby, sure. I'll get you a sticker later after daycare," Bella spoke calmly to the small boy by her side. She then closed her eyes, her face wearing a slight grimace as she took a deep breath before opening them again. She met my wide, startled eyes with a look of worry before she peeled away the two tiny hands that were now gripping her pant leg. She crouched down and returned to full height a second later, this time with the small child on her hip.

Did he just say Mama?

A/N:

Thanks to anyone who has read this. Please let me know what you think. Also, thank you to those who have taken the time to write a review, your words are very much appreciated.

Thank you to my beta Lellabeth. I'm truly honored that she would give up her time to beta this little story. Any mistakes are mine because I tinker with this story all the time. Thanks to SarcasticBimbo for giving me her time and opinions when she pre-reads this.

Thank you to whoever nominated me in the TwiFic Fandom Awards in the 'Newbie Author' category. I'm flattered and amazed!