HOW I GOT HERE

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.

It wasn't long before Bella was completely recovered and back to work again, the same as Edward, and they both were enjoying life with their babies. But, no one had any idea that tragedy was running towards them at a rapid pace. Only a few months' reprieve and then all hell was going to break loose once more.

CHAPTER 13: HEARTACHE KNOCKING

Life seemed sweet and moving forwards at an enjoyable pace for both Edward and Bella. Their boys were growing and healthy. The couple, if asked, would have responded that life was good; now.

Of course, during the time Bella was healing after delivering the boys and then having to have emergency surgery that resulted in her never being able to carry any more children, was a difficult time for everyone. She felt guilty that she wouldn't be able to give Edward any more children that was a combination of their love for one another. It didn't matter that Edward told her that it wasn't that important since he still had her and they had the twins. It was then he continued explaining that there were so many children in the world that had no one to love them and to teach them how to bring light to the world and that he was just as happy to be able to adopt.

But, although, Bella agreed with this point of view consciously, it did nothing to relieve her of the guilt she carried silently within her heart. She felt that her body had let her down and betrayed her since she had lost the ability to reproduce for the future of their family, that she was cheating Edward out of a future of having more children of his bloodline. And, as much as she thought that she was concealing these feelings from her husband, that thought was a complete failure. Edward was very much aware that his Bella was withdrawing more within herself.

She was outgoing and putting up a good front of acting around others and even, Edward would have been convinced if it hadn't been for the fact that he knew her so well. From the time they had first met and then started dating he was constantly learning about her: her thoughts, ideas, reaction to things, likes and dislikes, even, her fears and her joys; absolutely everything and that meant he learned how to read her. At times, it was as if he could read her thoughts.

But, as time passed and Bella realized, eventually, what was happening to her, she did seek help and overcame her feelings of loss, uselessness and that she was no longer a whole woman and the fact that she had developed a hatred for her own body. So, as she did begin to heal, truly heal, she accepted facts as they were and began to live again. She accepted the fact that, even though, she wasn't able to produce any more children, she was alive to begin to enjoy watching her boys grow and to be able to help them learn; to be able to help shape them, hopefully, into men that had value of all things rightfully earned in life. That was a gift that she learned to embrace as strongly as her loving husband embraced her and their boys.

With Bella getting back to normal mentally and healthwise, she fully picked up the reins of her job and her writing with a new vigor. And, it was because of her own struggles that she decided to do a story about a woman's journey, as well as her family's, of dealing with the emotional upheaval that has to be dealt with to regain a balance in life once again after a traumatic experience such as an unplanned hysterectomy.

She discussed the idea with Edward and he was totally in favor of her doing it. He felt that by doing this project that it would help to complete her recovery of what they went through. However, he did suggest that she make it a more traumatic experience, to maybe, combine the loss of a child and the emergency surgery together into one storyline.

In fact, he felt that it would be a project that he would want to do since he did have personal knowledge and experience in one area that he would be able to draw upon to help him to be able to portray the husband's side of that journey. And, he also felt that it could be an Oscar for the both of them if he can manage to give the full emotionally felt meaning to her words. Of course, the choice of female lead would have equal value of bringing the story to life.

XXXXXX

During all of this time certain groups were finishing up their investigation of the facts and checking out the events covered in the story of Time Everlasting and what they were discovering was about to change a good many peoples' lives.

Even though, Bella had done a good job of hiding the truth of the whole incident and Charlie had given his okay after reading the script before it had ever been submitted, it seems that certain key facts drew the interest of some of the persons that had been involved in, or, aware of the happening of trying to get a hold of Charlie's family at that time. There were a few trigger points that brought the incident back to mind and the need to seek revenge.

And, little did Kathrine realize that it was her crusade to separate Edward and Bella that really started the deeper look at the people she was badgering and that was what led them into checking out the movie. A big conference was planned to deliver the facts that had been uncovered, so, a decision could be made as to what action was needed and who the act would be against as a means of retribution. Who would be the one that would draw the most attention to be hitting home of why such action was taking place and to let the person it was directly aimed know that he had been discovered.

XXXXXX

Kathrine was bitter about how things had turned out when she was trying to separate her rival from her target. The way things turned out, Kathrine was the one left looking like a rejected, bitter fool. She was at times, ridiculed, poked fun of and accused of being jealous by the media. Then to make matters worse she was said to be crazy by imagining that any sort of relationship had existed between her and Edward Cullen. All evidence point to just the opposite being the case.

The media did discover that Edward and Kathrine's sister, Irina Howard, had been married back in their college years. But, the reason for the divorce wasn't discovered and they tried questioning Irina to find out what had gone wrong. However, Irina would only say that it had been a mistake on both sides and that she was now happily married. With all of that coming to light, the media assumed that Kathrine was nursing a case of sour grapes still.

But, in spite, of all of that, Kathrine refused to give up and made every effort to be at the same places that Edward and Bella were. She even tried at times to make Bella look like a fool, but, it always backfired on her. And, as Kathrine would pull these stunts it would again bring forth the original story that she had spread about Bella stalking Edward. And, once again, except for a few media outlets, Kathrine always would end up having the unflattering comments made about her instead of Bella.

Then to make matters even more difficult, she was now being offered parts of being a jealous shrew in the movies; she realized she was being typed cast by how the media was referring to her in real life. Oh, good parts came her way as well, but, if it turned out to be one that Edward was interested in doing, Kathrine was completely bypassed, even though, she would have been right for the part. All of this was because of Edward refusing to ever work with her on any movie after Time Everlasting and the mischief, as he phrased it, that she pulled during the filming of that movie.

All of this did nothing to endear the happy couple to her and only made her more resolved to find a way to make Edward's and Bella's, especially Bella's, life a living hell and a permanent nightmare. Little did she know that her dearest wishes were about to be fulfilled in a manner that she had never dreamed would happen.

XXXXXX

Bella worked on her script and Edward read it over to give his honest opinion. He was blown away by the emotion presented in the story as it delivered the pain from both the man and the woman. It told of what each had silently gone through, but, also, revealed the verbal arguments that became part of their experiences. In fact, it was so well done that Edward told his wife, to see if she would object, that he wanted to try his hand as a director and being the male lead in the story. She was delighted that he felt that strongly about her story and was very supportive of his wants. So, as all the arrangements began to move forwards towards Edward making his directorial debut, Bella was happy being fully engulfed with her work at the studio.

Bella, as a way to show her complete support and trust of her husband, left all decisions in his hands. She gave him full control and refused to have anything to do with the decisions except for the script rewrites, as Edward might feel was needed to move the story along. And, it totally surprised him that she was showing her trust in him in this manner.

Bella was aware that Edward had aided the director on a few of his past movies during filming and editing, so, she had no fear of agreeing to let him try his hand at directing. He had been learning from other directors and had also taken a study course since that was the direction he was wanting to take his career now that he was married and the twins were born. He was wanting more time at home than what he had as an actor. But, all of this was leading to his main desire of starting a production company of their own.

Edward felt that with their combined talents they would make a success of it. It would also help to incorporate his family's many talents into making the company a success for all of them. And, now that his Bella had agreed to entrust her current baby into his hands he was determined to make it a blockbuster hit.

So, as Edward assumed the responsibilities of making the movie from beginning to end, to bring Bella's script to life, Bella was busy at work in her script department and taking care of the boys: her three boys.

Everything was peaceful on the homefront, at least, for the present time, but, that was quickly about to change. There was no warning, nothing suspected of being wrong or out of place; just nothing to alert anyone about what was about to happen.

XXXXXX

"So, we're all in agreement that instead of doing anything to the Swan family we go after the one that would bring the most lasting pain to all involved from the Phoenix incident."

"I believe that going after Edward Cullen would bring the most impact to all involved. After we have dealt the blow then we can quietly inform, by an indirect route, that what happened was retribution for the past. It will let Charlie Swan know that it and his actions hadn't been forgotten like he seems to have thought they had been."

"It will take time to get everything organized and set in motion, but, I will choose people we can trust to do the deed."

"How long will it take?"

"Just a couple of month or a little longer; no more than six, I would say. We will need to study their habits and learn how we can get close enough to have everything in place."

"Do it. The only time I want to hear anything else about this is when I read of it in the papers or hear about it on the news."

XXXXXX

Everything seemed to be going great with filming, but, all of a sudden things started going wrong. It went from the script being screwed up at times, to the lighting equipment creating problems, to actors being quarrelsome for some reason, and then some scenes got misplaced and those had to be redone. Everything going wrong started off small to where it wasn't really noticed at first, or, was just shrugged off, then it gradually grew into things getting bigger and bigger as time went on.

It was really stressing Edward out and it was showing in his temper. He would come home impatient, worn out and would snap at Bella whenever she asked a question or asked him to do something. The arguing got so bad that they were considering spending some time apart, but, neither really wanted to take that step. It seemed as if it was admitting defeat.

Then one morning after Edward had pulled an all-nighter to get a handle on getting the movie and the budget back on track, he came home exhausted. Of course, Bella had the boys ready to go and was going to be dropping them off at Carlisle's and Esme's for the day while she was at work.

As it so happened Bella accidently bumped into Edward and spilled her coffee on him and this set off another argument between the two. Edward had noticed that his car was parked in the driveway and demanded to know why Bella was using it instead of her own.

"I told you that my car was giving me problems and that I had to have it put in the shop to be worked on. I didn't see a problem using your car since you're using a driving service at the moment."

"You could at least have asked instead of assuming that you have a right to use what belongs to me personally." And, with that said he stomped off as she got the boys out the door. And, as she did she had an approaching car, and saw that it was Esme showing up to collect the boys since she didn't want to have Bella going out of her way to drop them off before going to work.

She took one look at Bella's face and realized that Bella and Edward had had another fight. However, she never said a word, but, Bella helped Esme to get the boys into her car. Both women left, one behind the other, but, going in different directions after pulling out of the driveway.

Bella was speeding towards the highway and reaching to turn on the radio when suddenly the car veered off to the right. Bella quickly turned the wheel slightly to bring it back under control and realized that the car was gaining speed going down the incline. Off to one side was a drop off, not too steep, but, still a danger if someone went off the road on that side.

As she was pumping the brakes to no avail as the car was still gaining in speed and as she approached the only sharp turn in the road the car went straight and flew off the road and into the ravine.

A/N: Thank you, Kathrine. See what your nonsense has caused? Since we're nearing the end of this story, I'll be posting the next chapter next week. At that time we'll find out what happened to Bella and how well Edward takes the news.

All thoughts and reviews are always welcome. Thanks for reading.