AN: Wow, all these death threats to Tanya?

And they were all hilarious. Thank you, everyone!

Also, thank you all for your condolences.

Listening to: Eminem – Taking My Ball (this song makes me laugh for some reason)
& Breaking Benjamin – Give Me A Sign (I'm in love with this song)

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended. xVampiree does not, in any way, own Twilight. All characters, besides those not mentioned in the Twilight Series, belong to Stephenie Meyer. Any other recognizable publications and/or characters do not belong to xVampiree. They belong to their respective owners. The plot line belongs to xVampiree. None of this work may be reproduced in any form without permission from xVampiree. Copyright 2010.


Chapter 11 – Capturing
Bella Swan

I woke up disorientated to a bright light streaming in through my still-open bedroom curtains. I sat up and wiped at my eyes.

How long had I been asleep for?

I stretched and glanced at the clock on my bedside table. Holy shit, it was six in the morning. How had I managed to sleep through the whole night in a pair of jeans? I winced and carefully pulled them off, replacing them with a pair of comfortable pants.

I tip-toed to Kate's bedroom to check on how she was doing and noticed a glass of water and a box of painkillers next to her bed. I placed my hand on her forehead and was met with sleepy green eyes and flushed cheeks.

"Good morning," I smiled at her. "How are you feeling?"

"It still hurts," she grumbled and snuggled deeper into the sheets. "Can I stay home today, Bella?"

"Sure, I will go and check on your brother now, and then make you a cup of milk." I said and left her room.

This was the first morning in a long time that I had woken up alone in my bed, I realized as I made my way to Masen's bedroom. I missed the warmth that used to surround me as I woke up. Two small hands wrapped tightly around my neck and a sweet warm breath being exhaled into the crook of my neck. I had grown to love these two angels over the past four years I had been working for the Cullen family. I couldn't bear to watch them cry over the bitch they had for a mother…

Stop it, Bella, before you lose it again. I chided myself.

I slowly opened Masen's bedroom door and what I saw inside both startled and awed me. Edward was seated in the rocking chair in the corner of Masen's room with a book in his hands.

He looked up at me and smiled tiredly. "Good morning."

"Hi," I flushed and noticed the blanket at his feet. "Did you sleep in here?"

He nodded and patted the armrests of the chair. "It's pretty comfy and I wanted to let you sleep," he said sincerely.

"Thank you… How has he been?" I walked over to Masen's bed and checked his temperature with the back of my hand. He seemed a little warm still.

"He threw up again at about midnight. I gave him a cold shower to bring his temperature down and made sure he drank some more water."

I sat on the edge of the bed and faced Edward. "Well, Kate's staying home today, so he can too… err, unless you have a problem?" Maybe he was one of those fathers who wanted their kids to have a perfect attendance record? I didn't know.

"No, it's fine by me." He sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose briefly before he looked at me again. "When I was a kid, I was running around the house and I accidentally broke Esme's favorite vase. She was so angry because it was a present from my father for their first anniversary. She grabbed me by the hand and smacked me on the butt. I ran to my room crying and stayed there for a while. Later that afternoon she came in my room, her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she apologized for hitting me," he continued. "Even now, after twenty six years she still apologizes for traumatizing my six year old soul," he finished and sighed looking at Masen with glassy eyes. "It took every ounce of self-control I had not to confront Tanya when she walked in last night. How could she do that to him? What kind of person does that?" he finished in a hoarse voice.

I got up from the bed and went to him feeling a strong need to comfort him. I placed my hand gently on his shoulder and looked into his forest green eyes. "The kind of person that has a death wish, and let me tell you that you're lucky I was sleeping, because you would have been forced to find a way to restrain me. I swear to God if she touches him again I am gonna bury her in the deepest pit of Hell."

He tugged at his hair for a moment. "I just wish we had some sort of proof that she hit him. The mark had already faded by the time Masen told us."

"I'm more worried about the mark that's left on the inside. I've never hit him before so…" I glanced at the little boy sleeping peacefully and let out a sigh. Did he understand that his mother was a complete bitch for doing that to him? Or did he think that it was his entire fault and that he was a bad boy?

"We'll just have to see how he acts around Tanya and if she ever does something like that again, we need to take a photograph to document it," Edward said.

I nodded in agreement and then rose to my feet. "I'll just go call the school then, to let them know the kids aren't going to be attending today."

Edward Cullen
A week later: Saturday

It had been a week since Bella and I discussed Tanya hitting Masen and the kids were both back to their normal selves.

Bella, however, still looked like she was about to climb over the dinner table every night and throttle Tanya's neck. I suspected she was also master-mind behind Tanya's hysterics when she ran out the shower screaming that she had been burned.

There was no way I could blame her for her actions. I just wished I had been the one to think of that one. Bella had been reasonably calmer since that night and I often saw her snickering to herself whenever Tanya took a shower.

My mind drifted back to the week before when I had held her in my arms while she sobbed. There had been no thought behind my actions; it just came naturally, just like breathing.

I remembered the way it felt when her small frame was pressed up against mine and how her hair smelled like apples and freesia. Even with red-rimmed eyes and a trembling bottom lip – she was still beautiful and I felt myself feeling more and more attracted to her as I spent more time with her. She was funny, caring – my god, was she caring – and as I recently discovered, she also had incredible wit.

When I entered the kitchen this morning I found her cooking eggs and bacon for everyone. Kate and Masen were already seated at the island and had tucked into their food.

"What's this?" I wondered.

"A dead one of these," she deadpanned and then smirked at me.

She's watched The Love Guru?

The Love Guru was a movie starring Mike Myers that happened to be on television one night that I got home, early from work. I decided to just leave it on as background noise for my apartment and ended up watching and enjoying every minute of it.

I found myself grinning like an idiot throughout my entire breakfast, up until Tanya walked into the room and began making a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, family and Tanya," I heard my mother call as she entered the house through the front door.

"Nana!" both kids exulted and abandoned their breakfasts to tackle her in a hug.

Esme giggled delightfully and squeezed her 'grandbabies' as she liked to call them.

"Good morning, Esme," Bella greeted her cheerfully. "Would you like some breakfast?"

"Ooh, yes, thank you, sweetie." My mother kissed my cheek, wiped off the lipstick mark she'd left and then took her seat between my kids.

"I just came by to check on my grandbabies since I heard you were both sick last week."

Masen nodded while chewing a piece of bacon. "I threw up three times!" he said as held up four fingers proudly. I didn't have the heart to correct him.

"Masen," Kate chided him. "We're eating."

He stuck his tongue out at her. "You're just jealous."

Kate snorted and continued cutting her slice of toast.

"And how are you feeling, Kate? Alice told me you were quite sick." Her green eyes watched my daughter intently as if she was sending her some sort of telepathic message.

Kate blushed and looked down at her food. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Tanya spluttered and coughed into her coffee mug. "Fuck, this tastes like shit!"

My mother choked on her toast and Kate quickly patted her back.

"Well, no wonder. The sugar has been replaced with salt!" Tanya growled.

"Oh!" Bella cried, rushing over to where Tanya was standing. "I'm so sorry. I must have slipped up this morning. I was just so tired," She finished and gave her a sickly sweet smile, completely devoid of apology.

Tanya glared at Bella for a moment and Bella just glared right back. Neither was willing to back down.

"Don't let it happen again," she snapped and left the room.

Bella walked back to her seat silently and winked at me when she caught my eye. I rewarded her with a low smirk and laughed lowly. This was obviously another one of her plans for revenge.

"You two are never to repeat that word, you hear me?" my mother told Kate and Masen sternly once she had recovered from choking.

Masen scrunched up his nose, utterly confused. "What word?"

"The F-word, Masen." Kate informed him and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you mean F…" Kate clamped her hand over his mouth and my mother looked as though she was about to expire.

"Masen, that's not a nice word, okay?" Bella said calmly, maintaining eye contact with him. "If we ever hear you say that again, you're going to be given a time out."

"Tanya doesn't get time outs," he replied cheekily.

"Don't talk like that to Bella." I reprimanded him. Where was this sudden attitude coming from? "Say sorry, please."

He jumped down from his seat and rushed to her side to hug her. "I'm sorry, Bella," he mumbled into her neck.

Esme, seemingly, appeared to regain her ability to breathe and sighed. She met my eyes and gave me a look that told me she was more than horrified about what Tanya was saying around the kids.

My mother and Tanya had never gotten along. There had been a brief period when Tanya was pregnant with Kate that my mother made an effort to get to know her, but Tanya wasn't interested in anything she had to say.

Tanya re-entered the room and placed her handbag over her shoulder. "Well, I have a meeting with my agent now, so I'll be going. Esme, it was…as pleasant as usual to have you here," The way she said 'pleasant' made it seem like her perception of the word was similar to a root canal.

Bella Swan

Edward's eyes flashed to mine the moment Tanya had left the room. This was it, we needed to follow her. She hadn't gone out over the past few days for some reason, so we didn't have a chance to spy on her.

Masen and Kate left shortly after to go watch TV in the living room, leaving Edward, Esme and I at the island.

"Mom, would you mind looking after the kids for a bit? I just wanted to buy them each a small gift since I didn't bring them anything from Chicago."

"Of course, Edward." Esme's eyes were now filled with kindness and affection as she looked at her son.

"Would you mind coming with me?" Edward asked me, giving me a meaningful look. "I think you have better idea of what the kids would like than I do."

My eyes widened slightly and I nodded before hastily grabbing the plates off the table and placing them in the sink.

Esme grinned and gave me a suggestive wink as we left the house, which left me feeling utterly confused as Edward began reversing out the driveway like a maniac.

"Don't hurt yourself," Edward said out of nowhere.

"Eh?" I felt my brow furrow deeper as I turned to look at his face.

"You look like you're thinking about something," he said and smiled.

If he wasn't driving, I would have slapped his arm. "Ha Ha! You're hilarious. I can barely contain my hysterical laughter," I muttered sarcastically.

He chuckled. "You're funny, you know that?"

I feigned hurt. "You've only noticed this now?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes playfully. "I just meant that you seem more comfortable around me."

I frowned as I considered this. I knew deep down that this was true. I did feel more comfortable around Edward lately, ever since he had hugged me. It was like something changed in that moment and we became friends and not simply employer and employee – or co-spies.

"I guess so. Even though you irritated the crap out of me when I first met you," I said.

His bark of laughter startled me. "Yes, I remember that. You thought I was some kind of stalker."

"Just be glad I didn't knee you." I grumbled and then realized something. "You don't have your cap and glasses on!"

Edward swerved a little due to my sudden change in pitch. "Dammit. I knew I forgot something."

"We'll just have to make sure we stay hidden then," I said as I opened the glove compartment and grabbed my camera. I would have to make sure to add a cap and a spare pair of glasses in case we had to leave on an unexpected 'mission' again.

He turned to follow Tanya towards the direction of Port Angeles while I turned up the radio. The soft melody of Muse's 'Endlessly' filled the short silence.

"So what are you going to do once we have the evidence?" I wondered, turning the camera on to check the battery.

"I'll have to phone my lawyer, give him everything we have and he'll handle things from there," he answered, making another turn to follow Tanya while still making sure she couldn't see us.

"This pre-nup you mentioned sounds a little bizarre and I'm not sure I understand everything…"

"Remind me to show it to you sometime, so you can read it for yourself," he offered calmly.

"Thanks," I sighed.

-x-x-x-

"Oh my God, it's cold." I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself in an attempt to warm up.

We had been walking around Port Angeles for the past hour, following Tanya. So far, she had bought two pairs of shoes and a dress but she hadn't met up with anyone yet.

Edward and I had been walking in the alleyways to stay unnoticed and it was fucking cold. The grey clouds above us had finally given up and drops of water splattered around us.

Why had I chosen today to wear a pair of shorts and a tank top? Thank god, I was wearing a bra otherwise my nipples would surely be visible and saluting the innocent people that passed by.

Edward placed his hands on both my arms and rubbed, trying to warm me with the friction and it helped a little.

"Look, she's talking to a man." Edward whispered. I was momentarily distracted by a single droplet that was clinging to a strand of his bronze locks that hung over his forehead.

I followed his gaze and noticed Tanya talking to a tall, russet-skinned man. They seemed pretty cozy and his hands were linked with hers as they spoke.

Edward released my arms so that I could take a picture of them and just as I took the shot the man leaned in a little closer to kiss Tanya firmly on the lips.

"I got it!" I cheered.

"Fuck." Edward muttered all of a sudden as Tanya and the man started walking toward us.

I suddenly found myself pressed up against the cold brick wall of the alleyway. Edward's body was flush against mine as if shielding it from some unseen danger. His face was directly in front of mine, his hot breath fanning across my face and I moaned at the sensation. The warmth was just so good against my cold skin. The fact that it was Edward's breath just sweetened the deal even more.

I inhaled sharply as I felt something pressed into my stomach. Was he wearing a belt buckle or something? Maybe it was his cell phone?

I shifted a little to try move the obstruction and heard him let out a hiss.

Holy shit, he had an erection!

I was distracted from my indecent thoughts when I heard Tanya's obnoxious laugh. My heart started beating so fast I thought it was going to break through my chest as I heard her heels clacking on the pavement signaling her approach. This was it. We were caught like a mouse in a trap. Everything was about to fall apart in mere seconds.

"Edward," I whispered and shivered as I noticed his eyes, they were evergreen forests blazing with intensity as he gazed into mine.

"I'm sorry, I have to…" he hurriedly explained before his mouth descended on mine.


AN: Maybe I should attend 'Cliff Hangers Anonymous'?
Muahaha, you all wanted some E&B action. And there it is!

Plus they got some evidence!
It's all win/win.

Thank you to MrsEdwardCullenP, you're an amazing beta.

You can follow me on Twitter for updates on random stuff. I'm under the same name: xVampiree.

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