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A round unvarnished tale

EPOV

Holy shit.

I have never been in a brawl of any kind; I've never actually thrown a punch. It's not that I don't think I can, and it's not that I've never been angry enough to do it – it's just that I know how much work it takes to set broken bones and treat fractured skulls, and I've never found anything worth creating that kind of bother for another doctor to fix. Aside from Bella. I'd break bones for her in a heartbeat and not think twice about it. My bones, or someone else's. Doesn't matter which.

From the looks of him, Emmett's thrown more than a few punches in his time. He's probably filled a few ERs with the victims of his temper. I really don't want to be one of them, because I like Emmett a lot, and because I can't imagine Carlisle would be too happy about it, and because getting into a fight with Emmett would create an even larger pile of shit for me to fix with Bella. There's already a mountain between us as it is. I desperately want to grab her hand and hold on tight, but I can't even look at her. If I look at her and see that she's upset with me or sad, it will kill me. I know it's coming, and I deserve to deal with it because I put off telling her the truth about who I was. Stupid. But I just can't look in her direction, and keep my eyes focused instead on Emmett.

He points the pool cue he's holding at Jasper, motioning with it for him to move away from Alice. Jasper obeys the pool cue and the person holding it, and takes two large steps away from Alice's side. Alice has an immediate issue with the behavior, and starts to follow him, but Jasper shakes his head at her and tells her to stay where she is. Rose moves away from the door and grabs Alice by the shoulders, pulling her further to the side and out of harm's way.

"Seriously, Em, what the hell is wrong with you?" Alice is clearly outraged. "You don't even KNOW these guys! Is this about sex? It's not as though you don't know I have sex, right? I mean, you must know that, even if you don't want to acknowledge it, and it's none of your business anyway. I'm a grown woman, not a little kid. And as for Bella -"

She's interrupted by the door bursting open, and into the room tumble Mike and Jessica. Jessica's giggling, and Mike has his arms wrapped around her hips. "Mike!" she shrieks. "Can't you wait until-" They both stop short as they see us in our intriguing tableau.

"Uh," Mike says. "Uhm, sorry. Didn't, uhm…yeah." He's at a loss, and who can blame him? Emmett's still got the pool cue pointed at Jasper's face, Rose is holding Alice back, I probably look like Mr. Tumnus after the White Witch gets her hands on him, and Bella…well, I don't know what Bella looks like right now, but I'm sure it's not happy. Mike shifts his eyes around for a moment, then quickly pulls Jessica back out through the door and shuts it behind them.

"Lock that thing," Emmett snarls at Rose.

Rose raises her eyebrows at him, because apparently you don't speak to her that way if you'd like to keep your limbs attached to your body. "There's no lock, Einstein. This is a game room, not a bathroom or a bank vault. And it's only your house, so you should know that."

"Forget about the stupid door! I want to know what right you have to be freaking out like this!" Alice stomps her foot.

"Can it, Alice," advises Rose. "Let him handle this."

"Emmett, I had no idea. Believe me, if I had known, I never would have – I mean, I don't go around just talking about…you know," Jasper says, holding his hands up in a silent plea.

"You think that makes it okay? Do you really think I'm cool with it now? I don't give a shit if you-"

The door opens yet again, and this time, Banner walks in, followed by Bill, Pete and Ben.

"Excuse me," Doug starts, with an edge to his voice. "I don't know who you are, but Jasper's a friend of mine, and I don't like the way you're pointing that stick at him."

That's all it takes to rile Emmett back up. "Why would I give a flying fuck whether you like it or not? This is my house!"

"Even if you don't know which doors have locks on them and which don't," Rose mutters, because she can't help herself.

The noise rapidly attracts more people to the door, and before I've had a chance to blink, we're joined by James and Angela, and Mike and Jessica make a return visit as well.

"What's going on?" Angela whispers to Ben.

"No clue," Ben answers. "Stand over there behind the couch, though, just in case."

The lady in the turban who played Dogberry when we were out on the patio sticks her head through the doorway. "Darlings!" she cries, floating over to us. "Are you doing another play in here? May I join you again? I'll take any role, I'm not choosy in the least."

"For the love of Christ, will someone – ANYONE – shut the damn door!" Emmett screams.

Turban lady puts her hand on Jessica's back. "Oooh, he's very good, isn't he? I absolutely believe he's furious. I feel the rage in him. Such conviction."

Esme Cullen and the guy with the little dog are next through the doorway. "Emmett, what on earth are you doing? Have you lost your mind?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Doug, Bill, and James whispering to each other. I have no idea what they're planning over there, but if they're thinking about taking Emmett on, they're going to need the help of everyone in this room including the little dog, because theatre guys aren't generally renowned for their deadly skill in hand-to-hand combat.

"Mom, stay out of this. It's between me and these two assholes," Emmett spits.

"Take that back, Em," Alices says, in a dangerously quiet voice. "Take it back. Now."

"Emmett Cullen, these two boys are guests in my house. I don't know what's gotten into you, but I want you to apologize this instant for your behavior."

"I'm not apologizing. Forget it. This one over here was just yakking to a total stranger in a bar about what a great lay my sister is. And that one, next to Bella, is a scumbag who likes to pretend he's a character in a freaking movie when he's with a woman because that's how he gets his kicks. Think I want either one of them anywhere near Alice or Bella? Do you honestly think I want to see Alice with some guy who treats her like an inflatable sex toy and then brags to strangers about it? Do you honestly think I want Bella with some guy who's just gonna mess with her head again?"

And there it is. There's the end of everything great in my life, right there, in that speech. I don't blame Emmett, though. I blame myself. In Emmett's shoes, I'd have done the exact same thing, although I probably wouldn't have been waving a pool cue while I did it, because I don't even have the guts to crack somebody's skull open.

While Emmett was talking, Bill and James were creeping up behind him, I assume in an effort to grab him and take away the pool cue. Bill's not watching where he's going, because he's got his eyes trained on Emmett and he's still probably a little drunk from earlier this afternoon. He trips over his own feet and falls into James, who crashes into the pool table. Emmett hears the noise and whips his body around, accidentally smashing the lighter end of the cue stick into the right side of James' face.

"Fuck! My eye!" James yells, grabbing his face and falling down on the floor. He's writhing around in agony, and I have to forget everything that's just happened to go deal with the situation, because suddenly he's a patient and I'm a doctor, and that's the first priority.

The room explodes into a babble of noise and voices. Carlisle comes running in, and, seeing James on the floor and Emmett with a stick in his hand, he's naturally got a few questions.

I ignore everybody and just focus on the task at hand. "James, let me take your hand away so I can see your eye," I say calmly. He's got his hand locked over his face and I have to pry his fingers away one by one, but eventually, he lets me take a look. I gently feel around the eye socket, and there doesn't appear to be any break, although I can't say for certain whether or not he's got a fracture to the zygoma or the sphenoid – I'd need to get him to x-ray to make sure. The frontal bone appears completely unimpacted. "Can you open your eye for me, James?"

He slowly lifts the lid. His pupil dilates appropriately. He has a subconjunctival hemorrhage but that won't cause any lasting complications. I suspect he's shortly going to be sporting one hell of a shiner too, but it could have been much worse. "Great. Now close your good eye and keep the other one open. Can you see me with the eye that was hit?" He nods his head. "Well, it's possible that you have a fracture in one of your facial bones, but I don't think you do. You might want to come along with me to the hospital to check it out anyway, just in case. Your eye seems fine – the pupil is reactive and normal. Your vision is probably a little blurry due to the blood vessel you burst in your eye, but the blurriness isn't permanent. Do you think you can sit up now?"

James slowly lifts himself into a sitting position, with me holding my hand on his back to steady him.

"That's great," I say. "Would you like an ice pack for your eye? I'm sure it hurts like a mother."

"Yeah," James nods, once more covering his eye with his hand. "Ice would be great, thanks."

The sound around me starts filtering back into my ears now that I know he's not in any immediate danger. I look up to see that Carlisle and Emmett are walking over to where we're sitting.

"Edward?" Carlisle says my name, but the question is really about James.

"No apparent fractures to the zygoma or spheroid, and no frontal involvement. Subconjunctival hemorrhage. Pupils normal and reactive," I say, repeating what I've discovered in my exam. "I saw the hit, and it was clean – nothing on the neck and there wasn't enough force in the movement to cause damage to the spinal cord. Just the face."

"Thank you. We should get him to the hospital anyway – I want to run him through x-ray and maybe CAT to make sure there's no damage." He flips open his cell phone to call the ER desk for an ambulance.

Emmett's face is the picture of remorse as he looks down at James. "Man, I'm so, so sorry," he says. "That was a total accident." James waves him off, not wanting to get into things right now. I look around for Esme to see if she'll bring me some ice in a towel, but I can't see her in the crowded room. As I'm looking around, I feel a tap on my left shoulder.

"Can I help?" Bella asks softly.

Now I have no choice, so I turn my head to look up at her. She looks calm, but her eyes are unreadable. "I'd like to get him an ice pack, if possible. Just a few cubes in a towel or dishcloth would be great," I tell her. She nods and leaves the room.

Emmett's still standing in front of us. "I'm really pissed at you, Edward," he says.

"I know," I answer. And I do. I mean, I get it. I wish I didn't – I wish I could somehow prove to him that I'm not that person anymore, that I'm a real boy now, but I don't see why he'd care anyway. And the truth is that I'm not really worried one way or the other what Emmett thinks of me. I only care about what Bella thinks, and he can't answer that question, so there's no point in going over it with him.

"If you hurt her – if you fuck around with her head – I promise you now that I'll find you, and I won't need a stick of any kind to make you sorry. She's a good girl, and I've got her back. Remember it. And I hate that I'm having this conversation with you at all, because I like you, dude. I really do. But these girls are my girls, and you need to step off if you're not planning on doing right by her. When I think about the fact that I was actually helping you out here, I wanna hurl," he grimaces, then walks back to where Alice, Jasper, and Esme are standing, presumably to vent more spleen in that direction.

Bella comes back into the room; she's carrying a makeshift ice pack consisting of a cloth napkin and a small Ziploc bag full of ice. She hands them over to me – I wrap the Ziploc bag in the napkin and place it over James' eye. When I'm sure he's got a grip on it himself, I let go and stand up, reaching down my hand to help him to his feet as well. "Come on," I say. "I'll walk you out front to wait for the ambulance. Dr. Cullen wants you to head over to the hospital to make sure nothing's broken."

James and I make our way out of the game room and down the hallway, through the kitchen and the living room and out the front door to the porch, where we sit on the wicker chairs there to wait for his ride. I'll go with him to make sure everything's okay – I should examine the films as soon as he's done in x-ray, because I'm sure Carlisle will be calling me to find out whether or not he sustained any serious injury. I keep a close eye on him as he's sitting next to me; he seems fine and stable, but the head is a tricky piece of machinery, and I'm watching to make sure that he's not drifting off or showing any signs of a bigger issue than a black eye and a bad headache.

"You've been really great, Edward. Thanks," he says softly.

"No problem," I answer. "Sorry you got caught in the middle of the unscripted drama back there."

As we're sitting there, people start to filter out of the house and back to their cars. Banner walks past us, giving me a small but warm smile. "Call me if you want to talk," he says. I nod and wish him a good night. The rest of the cast comes out shortly thereafter, except for Bella, Alice, and Jasper. They're looking at me, but none of them seems to be doing so in a particularly unfriendly or unsympathetic fashion. They call out to James, hoping that he's all right and that he'll be back at rehearsal on Tuesday.

Turban lady drifts out with a short, balding man in her wake. "Darling, you were spectacular," she enthuses. "You could be a real doctor, you're that convincing." I have to smile at that, and I wish her a good night.

Carlisle walks out to meet us just as the ambulance is pulling up. I stand and start to guide James over to the wagon, but Carlisle puts his hand on my arm to stop me. "Edward, I'm going to go along with James – I want to see the films for myself. No offense to you whatsoever; it was my son who caused the injury, and I can't be comfortable until I know for sure that everything is alright." I nod my head and tell James to take care of himself; he smiles at me strangely, but follows alongside Carlisle to the waiting EMTs.

I should probably go back inside and make sure Jasper's okay too, but instead, I sit back down on the wicker chair and stare out across the front lawn. It's twilight now. I've been up for almost seventeen hours, worked a busy shift, performed an unfamiliar role in one of my favorite plays, taken a swim, been threatened with bodily injury, and possibly lost the only woman I have ever or will ever love through my own cowardice and stupidity. All in all, it's been a very long day, and I'm finding it hard to gather the necessary energy to stand up again and locate my car. So I'm just sitting here, trying not to think, trying to find a reason to get up and leave.

Suddenly, Bella is standing next to me. I didn't even hear her approach, but here she is. Without a word, she sits down in the chair recently vacated by James and stares out at the front lawn with me. I don't know what to say to her. I have no idea what she'd like to hear from me now, if she even wants to hear anything at all. Maybe she just wants to yell at me, which is fair. She gave me the absolute truth about herself and I held back, afraid to let her see me until I'd proven to her that that was then and this is now, and things are so very different from the way they used to be.

I don't know how long we sit there in silence together, staring into the gloam. Every part of me absolutely aches to reach across the short distance between our two chairs and just touch her, just feel her there, tangible proof that she has mass and isn't what I fear will become some kind of constant, shadowy figment of my imagination, frustratingly close and yet impossible to claim. And because she is now and likely always will be braver than I am, she bridges the distance for me, reaching out to touch the back of my hand where it rests on the arm of the chair. I let out a deep breath and turn over my hand to hold hers.

"I wish that hadn't happened," she says, simply, and more than a little bit sadly. "I wish you'd told me yourself."

"I'm really sorry, Bella. I know you have no reason whatsoever to believe anything I say right now, but I hope you can at least believe that. There is nothing in the world I want less than to hurt you in any way."

"I believe you. Or, at least, I want to believe you, so I will," she sighed. "I do want to hear it all from you, though. Your story. Your side. If you think you're ready to tell me now."

Grateful beyond words for the opportunity to even explain myself, I tell her everything. Every girl in Chicago, everything about Tanya, every reason I had for leaving and finding someplace else to be while I figured out who I was. I tell her about how I keep things separated in my head when we're performing in the play, and how I constantly check myself to make sure that what I am telling her is the truth, because I don't want to offer her anything less than that.

She listens to everything, nodding occasionally but not speaking until I pause. "And when we – when you and I are – when we're together…?" She trails off and it takes a moment for my tired brain to process the question and read the implication behind it. I have to tell her about Jack Nicholson now, too, so I do.

"Never since the first time, and that was only at the very beginning, I think because I was so surprised that you were actually willing to, you know, go there with me. But the minute we were in bed together, everything changed, and it's been all me ever since," I finish. Now she knows that it's even possible for this to happen with her, despite my best efforts to avoid it. "I'm sorry, Bella. I'm really, truly sorry," I say again.

"Edward, you're asking me to believe you when you tell me that it's so different with me, but can you see how difficult that might be? I mean, I tell you that The Philadelphia Story is my favorite movie, and now I'm just supposed to buy that you're this perfect mash-up of Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant by accident? It doesn't seem very likely," she shakes her head, sounding slightly angry.

"I'm not doing anything intentionally, I swear. At least, I don't think I am," I answer, because I'm not sure of anything at the moment. I suddenly don't know who I am, and it's more terrifying than anything I've ever experienced before. What if I'm just lying to myself along with lying to her?

"Come on, Edward. You're every bit as lovely, and sweet, and awkward as Jimmy at his peak, and you say things to me that sound so earnest and sincere that they make me want to quit my life and follow you around every minute of the day. And then – well, just look at you, for crying out loud," she gestures, moving her hand up and down in the air next to my body. "And you're funny, and smart, and you get inside my head and finish my thoughts before I've even formed them. It's as though I'm a script you've read in advance, so you know just when to say what you need to say to move the story along, and just when to do something to make me react the way you want me to. It's not normal, and it scared me to death even before I knew all of this about you. Now…" she trails off, and it's clear that she's really not sure who I'm trying to be any more than I am.

"See, what worries me isn't who you're being now," she continues after a moment. "What worries me is who you'll become if you wake up one morning and decide you're sick of who you're being now. I won't know that person at all, and I probably wouldn't want to," she says sadly. "And as for who you were before I met you - all those women, Edward. You Hemingwayed them. They were just plot devices to you too. Even if they were just one-night stands, that's bad enough, but then Tanya. Oh, my God, Edward. Didn't you stop for one minute to think about what your behavior must have done to her?"

"I know," I groan, closing my eyes and shaking my head. "Bella, it started out as a game, and I just wasn't thinking, and before I knew it, people were getting hurt. It's why I left. Because whoever I am, I know I'm NOT someone who wants to hurt people. If I could go back and erase it all, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but I can't. All I can do is try to figure out why it happened and never let it happen again. And I'm scared shitless that you think I'm someone like Jake, who'd just pull this kind of stunt for kicks or sex and not care about the consequences."

"I don't think you're like Jake, Edward."

"Really not?"

"Really not. I don't know who you are yet, but you're not that guy."

"Thank you," I tell her. It's the best thing I've heard in what feels like hours.

"Don't thank me yet. There's still a very good chance you could turn out to be much, much worse than he ever dreamt of being," Bella smiles, but I realize she's only half-joking about that.

I can't stand not knowing what she's thinking for one more second, so I have to ask the question I'm dreading. I'm still holding her hand, and I squeeze it even tighter now because I'm afraid she's going to take it away from me and I don't want – I just can't bear her to. "Bella? Where does this leave, you know, us, now? Are you – will you give me a chance to show you that you can trust me?"

Please say you'll give me a chance to prove myself to you, Bella. Whoever myself is, I know this one thing beyond any doubt at all: he loves you and he doesn't want to live without you.

Bella looks down at our knotted hands in the space between us and bites her lip, considering the matter. It's hard as hell not to just grab her and drag her away from this porch. I want to lock her up in my house and not let her out until I've worn her down into agreeing to be with me forever, even though that kind of capitulation is hardly an ideal thing upon which to build a good relationship. But even as I'm sitting here, waiting for her to speak, I realize that there is no way on earth I'm letting her get rid of me. I don't care what I have to do - I'm going to do it, and she's just stuck with me.

She sighs again. "Anything I do at this point is going to hurt."

I put my other hand over our joined hands. "Oh, Bella, I wish I could say that I'm going to offer you a choice, here, but I can't say I'm going to do that, because it wouldn't be the absolute truth. The absolute truth is that when it comes to you, I'm my mother's son – I'm a terrier, and you're a slipper. I said I was going to chase you into the ground, and I wasn't kidding about that. Plus, you know, I'm quite a strong runner, and you're propulsionally challenged. You'll trip eventually, and I'll be right there when you do."

Her lips twitch. "You really are a bit of an arrogant jackass, Edward, even if you don't know that about yourself."

And here I have to shake my head at her, because that's just not true. "I'm a persistent jackass. I thought we already covered this ground in an earlier discussion."

Bella's eyes meet mine, and in them, I see hesitation, and a challenge, and also a plea. "Figure out who you really are. Make things right. And please, be quick about it."

"I will. I will. And I will," I promise, addressing each part of her last statement. "And I'm going to start right now by telling you that who I am is someone who's planning to kiss you in the next five seconds." I lean over to her, meaning to give her a light and sweet kiss to thank her and to let her know that the game is afoot, but I discover another fact about myself: when it comes to Bella, I'm completely incapable of middling gestures of affection. I twist myself out of my chair and swing my body over to follow my lips until I'm half-crouching down in front of her as she sits. And then I give her the kind of kiss that tells her she's going to need a crowbar and a blowtorch to fight me off. Because she is.

Bella puts her hands on my shoulders and gently pushes herself away from me. "I need to go," she says breathlessly. "I have to go help Alice."

I hold my hands out to her to help her out of the chair. "Is Jasper still alive?"

She nods. "It's ugly, though. Alice and Emmett aren't speaking to each other, and Emmett doesn't want Jasper in the house. When I left them, Esme was standing between the two of them, trying to broker a peace deal. I'm assuming you were there when Jasper told Emmett whatever it was he told him. Can you tell me what it was? It'd be helpful to hear it from someone other than the two of them."

"I can absolutely see why Emmett's upset, but Bella, Jasper didn't say anything bad about Alice, I swear. All he said was that they kind of fell into bed with each other a day after they met, and that they'd been having the most incredible sex ever since, and that she was a real sweetheart and the best thing that's ever happened to him. And you know Jasper – he didn't mean anything sleazy by it. He's crazy about her."

"How on earth did you two end up talking to Emmett, anyway?"

"I met him in the bar across the street from the hospital a few weeks ago, right after you and I first met at rehearsal. I was trying to figure out how the hell I could approach you and be normal about it, and he offered me some advice. Jasper and I met him again the weekend you two went to LA, in the same bar, and that's when Jasper told him about Alice."

Now she's curious. "What kind of advice did Emmett give you?"

"He told me I was totally lacking attitude, and if I wanted you to notice me that I should swagger a little and be a bit of a jackass. So the next time I saw you at rehearsal, that's just what I did."

"Oh my God – he was responsible for that? Edward, all you had to do was talk to me. Believe me, I already noticed you plenty. Noticing you was never an issue."

"Really? Well I didn't know that, did I? He seemed to know what he was talking about, and I was desperate, so I listened to him."

"Emmett and Rose met when they were freshmen in high school. He's operating on the principles that work for a fifteen-year old, not an adult."

"What the hell do I know about anything? I thought I needed to, you know, flirt with you. Emmett said that all women like to be kept a little bit on edge."

"You didn't put me on edge, Edward – you sent me screaming off a cliff. It took the combined efforts of Jasper and Alice to keep me from hyperventilating and running off to a new town under an assumed name. Seriously, you scared the crap out of me."

"I had no idea. I thought it was what you wanted, so I did it. I'd never actually tried to get a girl to notice me before you. Back in Chicago, Eric was always the one who went out and found the women. I just kind of sat there and took up space, generally wishing I was home watching a movie instead of someplace loud and crowded. And then when Eric would bring the women over, it's not as though I was being myself anyway, so the subject never came up until I met you."

Bella closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Tragic. You're really a little tragic, Edward. I thought I was a dating spazz, but I'm minor league compared to you."

"I'm a late bloomer. But I plan on making a really strong finish," I grin.

"Go home and get some sleep. You look exhausted." She brushes a lock of hair away from my forehead, and the action is so sweet and full of concern for me despite everything I've just put her through that it's all I can do not to blurt out how much I love her right then and there. But I know I need to wait for that, because it won't mean anything to her until I can show her exactly who I am first.

I pull her close to me and give her a hug instead. "You're not coming over tonight." I say it instead of asking it, because I already know it's the truth. And I despise this truth that I've caused with my sins of omission and my dysfunction.

"No, I'm not," she confirms quietly.

I sigh and hold her to me even more tightly. "I hate that you're not coming over."

"I can't, Edward. And it's not that I don't want to, because I do – I really do. But I just can't. Please don't push me." She's sad, and confused, and I'm the cause. It kills me. I'm going to fix this, or die trying.

"I won't. I know. I'll make it right, I swear I will," I promise her. "I miss you."

That makes her laugh. "I'm right here, silly. I haven't gone anywhere."

"I know. I'm just saying it now because I'll be saying it all night, and you won't be there to hear it."

She gives me a little squeeze and then loosens her arms, signaling that it's time for the hug to end. I let her go, and she steps back a little. The free space between us is paradoxically my prison cell, full of need and ache. "Go home, Edward. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

"I'll call you in the morning."

"I'd like that. But by morning, you know I mean after 10 AM," she says, and grins, and then I can see that something occurs to her. "Oh, hey – is James going to be okay? That was some kind of hit he took."

"He'll be fine, I think – nothing seems to be broken. He'll have a hell of a headache and a fantastic black eye, though. He gave me the strangest look when Carlisle was taking him out to the ambulance. There's something a little – I don't know – creepy about him."

Bella nods her head. "I know! He gave me a creepy look earlier when we were at the pool. I thought I was reading too much into it because he's playing Don John, but it's weird that you saw it too."

I shrug my shoulders. "I don't think I've spoken more than ten words to him in all the time we've been rehearsing, so I don't know what his problem could be."

"Let me get back inside to Alice. Is it alright with you if I tell her what you told me about Jasper's conversation with Emmett?"

"Of course."

"Okay, then. Goodnight, Edward."

"Goodnight, Bella. I miss you again, for later." Bella smiles and turns to go back into the house. I realize that I left my towel in there, but I don't feel like going back inside, because it might look to Bella as though I'm not giving her any kind of space and that might tick her off. I can live without the towel, but I don't want to live without Bella, so I walk down the steps and head toward the valet guy to retrieve my car. I've got to work out a way to show her who I am. The only way I can see to do that is to figure out who I was before I met her, before Eric and Chicago, before this became so important, and then trace the line forward to today.

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A/N – So now it's all out in the open, and Edward's got to find a way to tell Bella who he is. At least nobody died, and James got a nice whack in the face, so it's not a total loss, yes? Please review if you have a moment – even if you find you must hit me with a pool cue, I'll take what you have to say with good grace!