DISCLAIMER: I own nothing...

EDWARD'S POV

Feeling a slightly vibration in the pocket of my trousers, I pulled out my mobile phone and sighed. 'Alice' read the name flashing across the screen. I contemplated momentarily ignoring the call, but I knew that if Alice really wanted to speak to me she would be relentless.

"Alice," I greeted warily as I pressed the call accept button on my phone.

"Edward," answered my sister in a voice that I deemed slightly too jovial. "You sound tired," she added. I could almost see her frown through the phone.

"I'm fine," I told her, hoping she would pick up on the finality in my tone and drop the subject. In typical Alice fashion she did not.

"You know, what's her face should really be taking better care of you," replied Alice in a lofty voice. I growled into the phone.

"Her name is Tanya, and it would do you well to learn it Alice, because whether you like it or not, whether you like her or not, she IS my fiancée."

"Hmph," replied Alice. I glance to my right. Sitting on the bench I saw I lowered my head into my hands.

"Alice, did you actually want something, or did you just call to insult the woman I love?" I heard Alice scoff on the other end of the phone.

"You don't love her Edward," started Alice. I narrowed my eyes slightly. I knew where she was heading with this line of thought. It was well covered ground between the two of us. "You love…"

"Alice," I interrupted in a harsh tone. "Don't even think about say what you are about to say."

"Even if it's the truth?" She asked in reply. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. Opening my eyes I glanced at my wristwatch. 12:13pm. It was only just after midday and already I had had an extremely long day.

"Alice," I begged, not wanting to have this conversation again, not now. "Not all of us want to hold onto the past."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. I knew referring to the letters Alice had been sending to Bella was a low blow.

"Fine," replied Alice quietly. I hung my head, a wave of shame washing over me. I knew it hadn't been fair to throw that in Alice's face. "Mum wants you to come home this week, for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Jasper and I are heading to Forks and she wants you to be there as well."

"I'll think about it, okay?" I said, trying to placate my sister. "I'll have to check with Tanya as to whether she has plans or not."

"You know you could come without her if she did have plans. You haven't even met Jasper yet."

"Alice, don't push it," I replied in a warning tone. She sighed in response.

"Fine, whatever. Talk to what's her face and then call Mom, okay?"

"I will. Bye Alice."

"Bye Edward."

I scowled. Alice had a way of being able to put me in a foul mood when she wanted too. And she could do it with only the shortest of conversations. I glanced at my watch again. 12:24pm. I was meeting a college of mine outside the main entrance of the hospital for lunch at 12:15pm. Something must have held him up, but I leant back onto the bench I had sat on while speaking to Alice and waited.

I watched the doorway out of the corner of my eye and a couple of minutes later, Steve Michaels, a good friend of mine, walked out. Steve was the one responsible for my being in LA. He was a haematologist at the LA Children's Hospital, and had convinced me to come and see the hospital, work as a visiting doctor for a while. Steve had never understood my preference for general practice medicine, himself preferring the hustle and bustle of large hospitals.

So I had agreed to shadow Steve for a week at the hospital, before deciding whether or not I wanted to go back into general practice work, or accept a permanent position in the hospital.

"Edward," he greeted as he neared the bench I was perched on. "Sorry about the wait, I just had to go and check on the results of a bone marrow aspiration that was done on this young girl."

I nodded, brushing off his apology. I knew as well as any other doctor that while at work, patients had to come first.

"Little girl?" I asked with trepidation. I was finding it harder to deal with than I thought I would, all the sick children. The level of respect I held for Steve had increased exponentially over the past week.

"Yeah," replied Steve. "We're heading up to the oncology clinic after lunch to see her and her mother."

I nodded again. I didn't know how Steve did it ever day. I was positive I wouldn't be able to deal with all the sick children for weeks on end. The more time I spent at the hospital, the better general practice medicine was looking to me. The oncology clinic was especially one of my least favourite places. These were children whose lives were pretty much over before they had even had the chance to begin.

Noting my prolonged silence, Steve suggested a nearby café for a quick bite to eat before we headed back to the hospital.


After we had both paid for our respective meals, Steve and I headed out the door of the café in the direction of the hospital.

"So," started Steve casually. "How are things going with Tanya? She taking the move alright?"

I sighed and thought of the answer I was going to give Steve. He was one of my best friends, and knew all about Tanya, Alice and the rest of my family. I had even told him about Bella. Well, I had sort of told him about Bella. It had been more of a terse explanation of who she was (my high school girlfriend) and the fact that I no longer wished to talk about it. He had never pushed it since, and that I was grateful for.

"I think so," I answered honestly. "Alice still isn't accepting that fact that we are indeed getting married."

Steve placed his hand on my shoulder in a sign of camaraderie. "Alice will come around man, you just have to give her time."

I nodded at Steve, though in my mind I was still extremely sceptical. I wasn't convinced that Alice would come around to anyone except Bella. I shook my head, trying to expel that thought from my mind. Bella was the last person I wanted to spend my time thinking about right now. She was ancient history – and I had worked hard to move on with my life.

I was suddenly glad we were back in front of the hospital, I wanted to get as far away from that conversation as I could. As far away from the little voices in my head, niggling at past memories.

I shook my head again. Damn. It had been so long since I had thought about Bella, I had successfully managed to keep my mind on Tanya recently. Now, thanks to Alice, old memories had started to resurface. I did my best to quash them and quickly followed Steve into the hospital.


"Oncology," said Steve as we rode the elevator to our next destination, sensing that I had forgotten where we were next headed. He was right. Lunch had completely pressed from my mind where we were about to spend the afternoon. I felt a dark cloud settle over me as I was reminded.

The last thing I felt like doing now was facing sick young kids who had very little hope of survival. The thing that made it even harder than it already was, was that most of the kids in the oncology wing were so brave.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I thought back to when Steve and I first met. We had met at university in England. I had decided after graduation that Oxford would be a better choice for me as oppose to Dartmouth. While Dartmouth was still an excellent school, which I would have been more than willing to attend, it was also the school that Bella and I had chosen to attend together. And because of that tiny little fact, there were too many painful connotations to which I held against Dartmouth.

Steve had been my first friend at Oxford, and my best friend ever since. I thought back to when I met Tanya. It was a year and a half ago now. We had met when I was in London one day. Tanya was originally from America, had grown-up in New York, and at the time we met, was on a holiday in London.

I knew that Alice was right, I didn't have the same feelings for Tanya that I had once had for Bella. But I didn't want to spend the rest of my life holding onto the past, wishing that things had been different. I had no idea why Bella had left the way she did, but she obviously didn't want anything to do with Alice or I, so I let her have that. After that fateful graduation day I hadn't again spoken or seen Bella Swan, and I didn't particularly want to either.

I closed my eyes, trying to school my face and mind back to a blank slate. It wouldn't do me any good to think of her now. The only thing thinking of her accomplished was making me furious, and I couldn't afford to let that happen at the moment, not with where I was headed.

The ding of the elevator bell pulled me out of my thoughts, letting me know that Steve and I had reached our destination. Steve glanced at me, no doubt making sure I was okay (my dislike of the oncology wing was not a hidden one), before stepping out of the elevator into a foyer. Turning towards the oncology wing he started to walk, with me following him.

Instead of following Steve straight to meet his afternoon patient, I wandered to his office on the floor instead. The young girl he was seeing this afternoon was apparently in the middle of being diagnosed, and I knew from shadowing Steve all week that if there were too many people in the room when a child was being diagnosed then the parent's had a tendency to start hyperventilating. I eventually came to the door labelled Dr Steve Michaels, and walked in, determined to start on some paper work I was meant to be doing.

After a while I glanced up towards the clock. 20 minutes had passed since I had sat down at the desk and started filling out paper work. I decided to walk over to reception to find out where Steve was at the moment.

As I neared the reception area a slight frown crossed my face. I could here the quiet tones of an argument coming from the front desk. I suppressed a laugh as I turned the corner. Pausing, I was able to see what was happening from quite a vantage point. A tall blonde lady was standing at the reception desk, talking quickly in a low voice to Joanne, the daytime receptionist on this floor.

I could see Joanne becoming more and more frustrated at the lady in front of her, a situation I found overtly amusing due to the frustration Joanne herself regularly imposed upon others.

"Fine," I heard the voice of the blonde woman state, in a tone that obviously did not mean she was conceding to Joanne's suggestion that she wait patiently in the waiting room for who ever it was she was searching for. I looked back towards the two women, curious as to what the blonde would do next.

All of a sudden she took off towards the waiting room, straight towards where I was standing. She glanced in my direction, and seeing the rows of office like doors behind me, started to run in my direction. I side stepped out of her way, assuming, correctly, that nothing was going to stop her.

She didn't seem to see me as she bolted past me, Joanne following immediately behind her. I chuckled to myself. Well, at least my amusement quota had been filled for the day.

Feeling exponentially better, I walked over to behind the reception desk and opened Steve's file on the computer.

Content that I knew where to find him, I set off in the direction of the treatment rooms.


"Steve," I called out along the corridor as I saw my best friend walking from a room. He waved one hand up in response, and stopped walking, though his eyes never drifted from the paper he was reading.

I quickly caught up to him and waited for him to finish reading whatever he was holding.

"Edward," he finally replied once he looked up. "I'm just off to get the results of this bone marrow aspiration. Did you want to wait for me in recovery room two? Donna is in there with the young girl whose test results I am going to retrieve."

"Sure," I replied, nodding. I much preferred the contact with patients as oppose to running between labs and collecting results. Steve was one of the only fully accredited doctors I knew who still ran his own labs, most preferring interns to do the work for them, but, as Steve always said, he much preferred when dealing with such fragile issues as his line of work did, to do the work himself and know that it was right.

I walked in the direction of the recovery rooms, stopping once I reached the door to the second room.

I let myself into the room, smiling as Donna and a young girl with light brown hair both turned simultaneously to look in my direction.

"Hello ladies," I said in one of the most charming voices I could manage. The little girl sitting on the examination table giggled. I flashed her another smile.

"Hi Edward," replied Donna. I smiled again. Donna was one of my favourite nurses here, she always had time for everyone, be it a patient, doctor or another nurse, and there was never a problem too big or small for her to attempt to help with.

"And who do we have here?" I asked as I walked towards the table, picking up the young girl's chart on my way. Flicking it open I quickly skimmed over the contents. I paused at the name of the young girl. Surely not. I shook my head slightly, trying to get the ridiculous thought from my head. Swan had to be a common name, there was no way this young girl was related to Bella. I tried to push all thoughts of Bella from my head, and turned instead to focus on the young girl in front of me, whose name I had read was Emma.

"I'm Emma," she said in a proud voice, puffing her chest slightly as she spoke.

"Well Emma, my name is Dr. Cullen, but you can call me Edward if you like," I replied in a friendly voice. I held my hand out for her, assuming correctly that Emma would get a kick out of such a grown up gesture. She giggled as she took my hand and then shook it with a very solemn look on her face.

"It is very nice to meet you Edward," she replied, in an attempt to talk in a serious grown-up voice. To say it was amusing would be an understatement. I pulled a face at her, causing her to lose her serious façade and collapse into a fit of giggles.

Donna's pager started to go off at that moment.

"Shoot," she muttered to herself. Donna glanced somewhat helplessly from Emma to myself, and I made the assumption that she had promised to stay with Emma.

"Emma," she started, speaking to the young girl, "do you mind if I leave you here with Edward for a little while sweetie? I have to go and see someone really quickly, but I promise that I will be back as soon as possible."

Emma looked as though she was considering this for a moment, and then spoke again.

"Is he a stranger?" she asked in an extremely serious voice. It took all my will power not to laugh at the sound of the little girl's statement.

"No sweetie," replied Donna in an amused voice, "he's a doctor, and he promises to look after you until your mommy comes back with the other doctor, okay?"

Emma nodded in response, and with a look of gratitude toward me, Donna flew from the room.

"So Emma," I started. "What are we going to do while we wait for your mommy?"

"Hmmm," replied Emma, looking around the room. "Balloon!" She stated suddenly, clapped her hands together at the same time then pointing to a box of rubber glove with had a warning sign above them, warning parent's from doing exactly what Emma wanted me to do. I ignored the sign and pulled out one of the glove, blowing into it until it was inflated and then tying it off. Emma laughed in response.

I tapped it gently against Emma's nose, causing her to collapse into another fit of giggles. A sudden wave of sadness washed over me as I though of how ill this little girl would most probably become, but I pushed that from my thoughts, as I had been doing with so many things lately, and held up one finger.

Emma stopped giggling and looked at me with curiosity.

"Something is missing," I said mysteriously. I pretended to examine the glove balloon for a moment, and then let out an exaggerated 'ah ha', as I pretended to realise what it was that was missing from the recently constructed balloon.

I took a permanent marker from a collection of stationary by the door and drew a huge smiling mouth, a nose and two eyes on the balloon, and then passed it to Emma.

"That's much better," I said approvingly.

As Emma was giggling again the door to the recovering room opened and the same blonde woman I had seen arguing with Joanne just earlier walked in. She looked as though her mind was somewhere far away. Was this Emma's mother? She didn't look overly alike to the young girl.

"Aunty Steph," shrieked Emma from in front of me in an elated voice. The blonde woman suddenly lifted her head, attempting to put a cheerful look on her face, though I could tell it was hard for her. Not the mother then, but an aunt, and obviously a close one by the way Emma greeted her.

"Em," started the woman at the door, only to pause once seeing me. Emma, who must have decided her aunt was taking to long to talk was the next to speak.

"Aunty Steph," she said again. I could hear the impatient starting to creep into her voice. I smile at the thought, while also trying to figure out why this most recently entry to the room was looking at me as though I was the walking dead. "Come and meet my new friend," continued Emma.

The lady, Steph, didn't move from where she was, and continued to stare at me. I started to feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"This is my new friend Edward," said Emma, speaking again. "He's a doctor," she added at the end.

Steph has started to walk slowly towards us both, so I turned and extended my hand to her, schooling my face to a blank, but cheerful look, so as not to let on that I had noticed her odd stare.

"Hi," I said, greeting her. "I'm Dr. Edward Cullen. It's very nice to meet you."

The woman paused again, and I started to wonder about her mental competency.

"Holy Shit," she croaked in a voice that made me assume that she had only just regain control of her voice.

I frowned slightly. 'Holy Shit?' What on earth did that mean?


A/N: Once again, I am very very sorry about how long everyone had to wait for this update, and explanations and what not are in my live journal (link in my profile) plus when you can expect the next update and what is happening in it!

As per usual, those who review will receive a sneak peek into the next chapter (where Bella and Edward come face to face!!) and I promise to be quicker with my review replies this time around as well, I do realise some people had to wait a little while and for that I apologise.

So, PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!

Avery xoxo