A/N: Hi All… welcome back! Well, well, well. Chapter 10 … WOW. I can honestly say, I didn't really think it would get this far…

Those of you who have Pm'd me or have joined me on Facebook to ask me some Qs about this story, know that I don't really have a plan here … I'm just kind of winging it, letting these crazy kids go where they feel like … and for the most part I am totally enjoying it…

I decided last chapter that these people are way too happy and we needed a bit of drama … so you will find it in this chapter … this gave me some trouble and I am not sure if any of you saw this coming but I hope I don't get tons of hate mail after you read it … in any case I hope you enjoy and leave me some reviews and let me know what you think after it's over…

A quick warning … my fab Beta DT was busy treking to lord knows where with her hubz this weekend and was unable to help out with this chappie… so don't mind the mess, we all know I'm a total fail at proofing my own shit, so bear with me my lovelies...

Things I own: A totally pervy, smut filled mind that is constantly thinking of dirty things I'd like to see Edward do … (don't lie … you do it too…)

Things I don't: All things Twilight and any song lyrics you will find printed here.

Chapter 10

EPOV

The last two days had been excruciating. I had done nothing but obsessively think of Bella. When she left Saturday afternoon, I was on such a high. We had spent the most amazing night and day together. She knew that I had some pretty heavy duty shifts at the hospital so we probably wouldn't have the opportunity to get together again until Tuesday, and she seemed OK with that so we didn't try to plan otherwise.

She was going to spend a few days practicing on the keyboard I gave her and pick two songs for her next open mic gig this Wednesday night, and we would spend Tuesday tweaking them, putting her own little touches on them, to make them hers and getting them ready to perform. We had sent some texts back and forth over the past few days, but not hearing her voice or being able to see her, was wearing on me.

I missed her.

I missed the way she smelled, like strawberries and sweet freesia. I missed her smile, bright like sunshine. I missed her wit and smart mouth. I missed all of her. It wasn't just the physical, although I missed that too, it was all of her, the essence of Bella. Her brain, her humor, the fact that I felt whole and calm in her presence. I missed all of that.

It was only Monday afternoon, a whole day before we were due to meet to go over her two song selections for her next open mic night, and I was ready to go out f my mind with wanting to hear her voice, see her smiling face. I wanted to draw her close to me, run my fingers through her thick lustrous curls, gaze into her deep chocolate brown eyes, and tell her that I needed her in my life, that I couldn't function without her close to me, that I loved her, and that scared me.

I had never told a woman that I was in love with her before. I thought I had been in love once, wanted to say it back, but she had pretty much torn my heart out when I walked in on her fucking her TA in her dorm room.

Tanya had tried to explain that she was drunk, that she needed to pass the class to graduate, but I saw what I saw, and that was the end of it. Six years, on and off, wasted, trying to be with someone who was so selfish that she saw no one but herself, cared about nothing but her own needs. Even after all that time, even though I thought that I loved her, I was able to turn around that day and walk away. That should have told me that it wasn't real, it wasn't right.

What I was feeling for Bella was different. Yes, my body ached for her. Even though our physical relationship was only days old, I craved her like a heroin addict craved their drug of choice, right down to the sleepless need and twitchy behavior. My whole being was shaking with the need for my next hit, and only she would do.

Bella, all 5 feet 4 inches of her, was my very own specially crafted, personal brand of heroin.

I knew that it was too soon to be this attached to her. I knew that she would probably bolt like a skittish horse if she knew the depth of my feelings for her so soon after we started spending time with each other. Hell, I half wanted to bolt myself. While I had no idea how to handle this type of emotion, I knew that I wanted to spend as much time as I could with her.

Only 26 hours, 32 minutes, and 12, 11, 10 (you catch my drift, right?) … seconds left to go until I was able to get my hands, lips, tongue, and various other parts of my body on her again.

Good lord I was such an obsessive pervert when it came to this woman.

I needed to focus on something else, like what songs I thought she would choose for Wednesday. It was true that she had surprised me with her last song selection. The image of Bella sitting at the piano singing Killing Me Softly was one that was going to stay with me for a long time, I was sure. What really shocked me, more than her song selection, was her demeanor that night. Gone was the overly self conscious, shy, dark haired girl, and in her place was a confident, self assured, chocolate tressed songstress, who knew how to showcase her God given vocal talents to the best of her ability. It was sexy and strangely gratifying to see, but part of me wondered if she really needed my help any longer.

Selfishly, I wanted to keep her coming to me for advice and piano pointers for as long as possible, but I was smart enough to see that she didn't really need any help with her performances any longer, and never really did.

I wondered if Bella was aware of just how rare her talent was. A lot of people could claim to have decent singing voices, and most of those people probably had the bills from their vocal coaches to prove it, but Bella's talent was completely untutored. I knew that her father had wanted to send her to a fancy vocal coach my parents had recommended and couldn't afford it. I had overheard Charlie arguing with my father when he offered to cover it. My parents always did have a soft spot for Bella, my father especially.

I only had 2 hours until my night shift at the hospital began and I needed to get the laundry done, I didn't have time to stand here all day and obsess about Bella. In 16 hours it would all be over and I could get some sleep before she came over. I could do 16 hours, right?

Wrong.

Twelve hours later, I was stitching up the hand of some jerk that got pissed at his wife because he thought she was flirting with their neighbor and punched his way through the guys driver side window after smacking his wife around. The cops were waiting in the hall to take him in and if I hand't sworn an oath when I got my license to practice medicine, I would have "forgotten" to use the pain killers before I started with the needle. Men like this made me sick. I couldn't ever imagine being that jealous, at least not enough to hit the woman I loved, or any woman for that matter.

This shift was going to be the death of me. I thought that work would take my mind off of Bella, but it actually did the opposite. Everything I saw, everything I did tonight, reminded me of her and our burgeoning relationship.

The wife that brought her husband in with a kidney stone and stood by him rubbing his back while he writhed in agony on my table, made me think of how I was finally with someone who was wonderful enough to stand by me when I wasn't feeling well. The teenage girl who was brought in by her parents with a broken ankle reminded me of Bella, and her self proclaimed klutziness, and the little boy whose mother brought him in with a spiked fever and difficulty breathing, made me wonder how Bella would be, if we had children of our own someday.

The last thought was a sobering one. Until now, I wasn't even sure I wanted children, but when I thought about children with Bella, it didn't sound so bad.

I had one more patient to see and then I could head home for the day and try to get a few hours of sleep. I was looking forward to the next 3 days off, but most of all I was looking forward to Wednesday night. I had chosen a really great pub for Bella's next performance. I didn't know the owners of this place, but it was a pub where most of the doctors went after their shifts to grab a few beers and a bite to eat before heading home. Needless to say, I had spent many a night, eating burgers with my coworkers and complaining about the chief of medicine's shitty attitude, and even crappier habit for playing favorites when approving time off for the small group of doctors at our clinic. I wasn't sure what I had done to earn his wrath, but it was obvious he didn't like me, and I had never once gotten my first choice for time off. True I could go and work for another clinic or Seattle General, but I liked the work I did and didn't want to go to work for a large hospital where I would be accused of getting by on my father's reputation.

I finished up with my last patient, a middle aged man complaining of stomach cramping and constipation, after telling him to go and pick up a fleet's enema to take care of his problem in the privacy of his own home since he felt too awkward to let the nurses here help him, and went to scrub my hands and change. I was dead on my feet at this point and looking forward to several hours between my soft, cool sheets, staring at the back of my eyelids.

The ride home, which I could normally make in about 15 minutes, was made slightly longer due to my quick stop at the nearest fast food drive thru for a burger, fries, and my guilty pleasure, a large Dr. Pepper. I waited until I got home to dig in as I could not abide by anyone, myself included, eating in my pristine silver Volvo. Nothing irked me more than a messy car, well that and maybe a messy kitchen. Nothing more disgusting than a nasty, dirty kitchen, I mean you eat food that is prepared there, it should be clean and sanitary. I had seen way too many cases of food poisoning brought on by food prepared in subpar kitchens, and the thought never ceased to make me ill.

I sat in the immaculately clean kitchen and pulled my burger and fries out of the paper sack and took a long pull from my Dr. Pepper before unwrapping my food and digging in. In just minutes I was looking down upon the vestiges of empty wrappings and french fry crumbs, wondering what happened to my food.

I guess I was hungrier, and more tired than I thought, if I couldn't remember eating a meal I just finished.

I tossed out my trash, drank the last of my soda and turned off the light in the kitchen before heading up to my bed.

Once inside my room I stripped quickly, down to my blue boxer briefs, taking the time to throw my dirty clothes into the hamper, and climbed full, and exhausted, under the comforter and snuggled into my pillow, fast asleep in seconds.

I was awakened, what I hoped to be hours later, by the sound of a large thud and some muffled cursing. I turned over and folded the pillow over my head in the attempt to make it like ear muffs, but it was bright outside and light was spilling into the room and onto my face making it next to impossible to fall back asleep. Yes, the light, and the cursing. I had no clue what Emmett was up to but if he didn't cut the shit I was going to castrate him, yes, castrate him with a rusty spoon. Working 50 hours in 3 days does crazy shit to your brain. After looking at the clock and realizing I had gotten home only 5 hours ago, I came to the conclusion that if I were to snap, no court in the land would convict me for it.

"Son of a mother fucker!" I sat up with a huff, and threw the covers back before getting out of bed and stalking down the hall toward Emmett's room and the source of the noise.

I threw the door open without knocking, and was met by a sight I swear was going to be imbedded into my brain until the day I died, and I was none too pleased by the prospect.

Emmett's bent over, bare ass naked, lifting a large set of bar bells off the ground, swearing under the weight.

"What the fuck, dude? I'm trying to fucking sleep! And where the hell is your clothing?"

"Shit! Edward! Don't you fucking knock?"

"Who cares about knocking? I got home few hours ago from working a 14 hour shift, and was rudely awakened by your extremely noisy and very naked weightlifting session. Seriously, what the fuck man?"

"Dude, if I had known you were going to go all emo on me, I would have taken it down to the basement. I didn't realize I was that loud and I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to be in the buff in my own bedroom, last time I checked."

"What the hell ever, douche! Just keep it the fuck down, I need to get some sleep!"

"Geez Fuckward, I thought that banging Bella would have settled you the fuck down, but I guess not, huh?"

OK, now he had gone too far. Wake me up from a dead sleep, call me names while standing to close to me with his twig and berries all exposed, fine, but he didn't need to bring Bella into this. She had nothing to do with our fight and bringing her name into it was a low blow and he knew it. I shoved him, hard. He stumbled back, catching himself before he fell on his ass.

"Shut your mouth, you have no idea what your talking about!" I shouted angrily, my hands balled up tight into fists, my knuckles white.

Emmett looked shocked, shocked that I would shove him, and shocked that I would speak so harshly toward him, whether it was over a girl or not. We have had tons of arguments over the years but I never raised my hand toward him, and we never argued over a woman.

Emmett grabbed a pair of basketball shorts off the end of his bed and put them on.

"Chill out Edward, I didn't mean anything by it, damn!"

"Leave Bella out of this Emmett, she has done nothing to earn your disrespect."

"Damn Asshat, I know that. I love me some Belly bean. I wasn't talking smack about her. It was more a comment on your nasty mood than anything."

"Whatever Em. Just don't bring her up like that again. She is not a plaything, and I am not "banging" her."

Yes, I used air quotes. Don't laugh, the situation called for it.

"You are totally in love with her, aren't you?"

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer. Just keep your fucking pants on, and keep the noise to a minimum, OK?"

With that, I stalked out and slammed the door shut behind me. I didn't need to answer to Emmett. I didn't need to answer to anyone. I was a grown freaking man. I had several degrees and owned my own home. I was, as of yet, unmarried and needed to answer to no one, save myself.

So, why did I feel so bad? Why did I feel like I was dodging his questions? Better yet, why was everyone on my back about it? First Alice, and now Emmett?

My family usually never asked questions about my personal life like this. They didn't ask questions about my other girlfriends, for the most part. They never asked why Tanya and I broke up. Alice never even asked questions when she walked into "The Incident" 6 months ago, during what I would like to think of as a drunken moment of weakness. Hell, she didn't even ask that many questions about my seeing Jessica a few weeks ago. But everyone was all over my shit about Bella, go figure.

I stalked to my shower and turned on the water, stepping under the lukewarm spray, waiting for it to heat up. I stood under the shower head, letting the water run down my head, face and chest, before I grabbed the bar of spicy scented soap and lathered up my hands and began washing.

I finished my shower, brushed my teeth, and shaved, in quick succession, a towel wrapped around my waist, I walked to my dresser and grabbed a pair of jeans and an old worn concert tee and laid them on the bed.

Suddenly I heard banging and the doorbell go off. Someone was at the door and they were less than patient.

I opened the door and called out to Emmett.

"Emmett, can you get the door?"

Nothing.

The knocking started again, and the ringing of the doorbell followed.

Shit, I was going to have to get it myself.

I knew it was just a bit too early for it to be Bella, and Alice was at work, so it wasn't her either. Not sure what to think I made sure the towel was tight on my waist before I made my way down the stairs to the front door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Keep your pants on."

I unlatched the lock and opened the door, jaw dropping to the floor, to the last thing I expected in my life to find.

Tanya.

She was distraught, red faced, and crying, and by the looks of it she was a little more that slightly pregnant.

A/N: OK… let me have it. Yes, I know I'm a total bitch for leaving it there, but I needed to … you see it would have been a 29 page chapter if I didn't cut it there…

But honestly … hit that little button and let me know what you think of the monkey wrench I just threw in there…

Love me or hate me … Please let me know in the form of a review… even if it is just to say Boo!