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Summary: Bella falls in love with Edward, her best friend's older brother but he doesn't see her that way. Or does he? All Human. AU. All Canon couples eventually.

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Happy Reading everyone!

So, did you all give Marcus a listen to? What did ya think? LOL. Okay yeah, I love to pimp out the boys' music : - ) Every single chance I get.

Here's another update for all those that have read and reviewed. Thanks so much! Welcome all the new readers that alerted the story in the last few days too!

Music for writing this chapter included Robert Pattinson, Sam Bradley, Marcus Foster, Bobby Long, Kings of Leon, Lifehouse.

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Chapter 21

Bella's POV

I watched as Edward's car disappeared through the gate and down the road out of sight. A feeling of deep sadness almost overtook me. As I stood there unable to move, I felt a soft pair of arms envelope me in their embrace. I turned to find Esme holding me and my head fell to her shoulder, a sob catching in my throat.

She gently drew me towards the house and into the family room. I couldn't help the tears that seemed to just flow from my eyes as she seated us down on the couch that Edward and I had lounged on for so much of the weekend.

If felt like hours later that my tears were finally spent; I was exhausted from the expended energy. Esme grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen as I sat in the family, missing Edward more and more with every breath I took. After thanking her for the water, I wished Esme a goodnight and practically ran up to Edward's room. I could feel her eyes follow me and I knew she was worried.

Once in his room, I crawled into bed and cuddled up to the pillow he'd used all weekend, breathing in the remnants of his scent left behind. I kept playing over and over the part of the weekend where he actually said he loved me. It was a moment I wouldn't forget and hoped it would sustain me during the next five days.

That first night without him was the worst. Thankfully, my dreams were more about Edward than nightmares about James.

Jaz and Em picked Alice and I up, Rose was already in the car when they came around. We discussed the possibility that Tanya was helping James and I agreed that it was a possibility. He had hung out at the school quite a bit while he was stalking me before. He might have known who she was and her connection to Edward. I wouldn't put it past him to have researched everything he could find out about Edward and his family. This brought up whole new fears for me as I looked around the car at my closest friends. If anything was to happen to them, I don't think I could handle it.

Tanya was mysteriously absent from school when we got there. We still got evil looks from her cohorts Lauren and Jessica. I still couldn't believe that Jessica hung out with them. We had been friends before Tanya had transferred to our school. I sometimes missed our friendship.

The week went fairly smoothly, Tanya had been conspicuously missing all week which made us all a little curious as to what was going on with her. I talked to Edward every night and we texted during our lunch break. Our friends tended to laugh at me because of how unusually attached I now was to my Blackberry.

Despite my fears that James would do something, nothing happened. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. It just dragged out the fear and suspense that much longer. My dad had traced the message I got from James to a throw away cell phone so that turned out to be a dead end. Anyone could have sent the message but I knew James was behind it, no matter what he told anyone else.

Friday was upon us before I knew it and I was so excited that Edward would be home tonight. Like the week before, I hadn't slept much while he was in Seattle. I knew he was safe though. As Carlisle had promised, the apartment building Edward lived it had a security guard on duty by the time he got home from school on Monday. It was a relief to know that he had extra protection.

We had left school and were almost at the Cullen's when I noticed a strange car parked down the road from the house. As we passed, I peered through the dirty windows and saw someone scrunched down in the driver's seat. All I could see was a mop of blondish hair, and my breath caught in my throat. Alice and Rose heard me and felt my body stiffen.

"What's wrong Bella?!?"

I could barely string a coherent sentence together. "That car …… blonde … James!"

The both gasped and Emmett immediately grabbed his cell phone and discreetly dialled Charlie's direct line which automatically bumped over to his cell when he was away from the office.

"Charlie! Bella thinks she's spotted James. He's in a reddish coloured 4 door old Toyota Corona. Windows are all dirty but she swears it was him. I don't think he noticed us drive by since we're using Jaz's dad's car today. His had to go in for servicing. The car is sitting about 5 minutes or so down the road from the Cullen's."

He nodded into the phone, then blushed as he realized Charlie couldn't really see him. We knew he did it on purpose to relieve some of the tension in the car because we all laughed at him.

"Yeah. We're heading towards the Cullen's house. We should be there in about 5 minutes. We'll see you there."

I relaxed a little knowing my dad was on the way. Looking quickly at my Blackberry, I realized that Edward would already be on his way to Forks and I really didn't want to give him the news on James while he was driving. I figured when he got home was soon enough. Checking my messages, I saw a text from him letting me know he was on the way and would be home around 5ish like last weekend.

We pulled through the gates at the house and Jaz parked close to the doors. Em got out first and ushered us girls in. Esme rushed up to us as we entered the door and enveloped us all into her arms.

"I'm so glad you're here. Charlie called and let me know what you saw Bella. Edward's already on his way. I'm sure you already got his message?"

I nodded at her as she got us to all go into the kitchen. It was the only room with very few windows in it. Apparently it was Charlie's orders to keep me away from any window in the house. I was starting to get a little scared by the precautions that he was setting up for me. Did he think James had a gun or something?

Half an hour later, my dad came through the door.

"It wasn't James. It was some kid who was given $50 to drive his car to that location at 3pm and sit there for an hour."

I gasped. What. The. Fuck. What was James playing at now?

I really don't know why I was so surprised. The guy was certifiably nuts.

"We got a description of the man that paid the kid and it does sound like James. Unfortunately, he hasn't broken the protection order since he hasn't been anywhere close to Bella. Once again, he has managed to do something without actually being directly involved."

I was starting to get really pissed off. I had practically lived in fear for the past 2 weeks whenever Edward wasn't home as well as being pretty much under house arrest. What right did James have to do this to me? Not that I didn't enjoy spending all this time with Rose, Alice and the guys or sleeping in Edward's room. But I missed my room sometimes and I actually missed being around Charlie more. It just wasn't enough to only see him when he had time to stop by the Cullen's house.

The anger started to burn deep down in my gut. The fire was so strong, I really wanted to hit something or someone. Preferably James or the little nob he had working for him in Forks. Everyone was right. There was no way that James was doing this by himself. His picture was posted all over Forks as "someone of interest" so he wouldn't dare show up here. There had to be someone in town doing his dirty work for him. Tanya's absence all week had really bothered me. I hated waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not to say her cohort Lauren didn't put her two cents into everything that we said or did while at school this week. She didn't come up with anything original though. Just the same old crap her and Tanya usually spew to people they don't like. You'd think at their age they'd fucking grow up or at least come up with something new.

The more that I sat there and listened to Charlie run through everything that they'd found out through the investigation so far, the more angry I was getting. By the time he finished I was almost shaking with fury. Everyone who knew me was well aware of my temper, especially those that had grown up with me. Although since this issue with James, I'd been so low key and almost timid around others that they may have thought I'd grown out of it. But whatever had kept my temper dampened for so long was obviously not working anymore. I was so involved in holding my anger in that I wasn't aware that everyone had stopped talking and was looking at me. A noise behind me had my head whipping around, startled. I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't even heard the front door open.

I could feel the tension flow out of my body as my eyes met Edward's sparking green ones. How could just seeing him give me such a sense of peace? He was leaning against the door jam smiling my favourite crooked smile and I could feel my knees go weak even though I was sitting down. His smile could melt me into a little pile of goo in a second.

"What are you all discussing?" he asked, keeping his eyes locked to mine as he started to walk towards me.

I lowered my eyes to my hands, not wanting him to see the residual anger I was suppressing. He'd never really seen me angry while we grew up. He'd always kept away from Alice and I, as if having anything to do with his young sister and her friend was something so abhorrent. Of course, I now knew that it had been jealousy that had steered his actions then. But to us, he was just being a mean jerk. Alice had seen my temper too many times to count and although it had never ever been directed at her, she knew to stay away when I lost it.

Edward looked around to our parents and the others in the room with a questioning look.

"Okay everyone, what happened? It's not everyday I come home to the Chief of Police in the house and everyone looking like someone ran over the cat. They didn't. Did they?"

There was a low muffled laugh from Emmett who was trying hard to keep from seeing the hilarity of the situation which, unfortunately, he did at every single opportunity that he could. That boy's sense of humour was inappropriate at the best of times.

I knew someone was going to have to tell Edward the latest thing that James had cooked up and I knew he was going to be pissed about it. In getting to know him more over the last few weeks, I was also aware he would feel guilty about not being here with me.

I looked over to my dad as Edward sat down beside me and took my hand. He must have gotten the feeling that I'd rather that he be the one to explain to Edward what had transpired in the last couple of hours. He went through the facts of the situation in a very matter of fact way but I could feel the tension get stronger and stronger in Edward's body; the anger coiling through him like a viper preparing to strike.

I reached my hand up to his shoulder and moved it slowly down his back, "I'm okay Edward. I wasn't even anywhere near this person. It was just James trying to psyche me out."

He leaned back against my hand as it moved in circles over his back and sighed. "I know Bella. I just hate that this guy is getting away with pretty much terrorizing you without any consequences."

"Now wait just a minute there, son," Charlie cut in. "He isn't going to get away with anything. I will catch the little bastard. His luck will run out and I'll be there."

The discussion wrapped up with no solutions thought of. We would all just have to work within the law and be extremely careful wherever we went until James finally screwed up and gave himself away. This didn't appease me whatsoever. The anger I'd felt before I'd seen Edward standing in the doorway was still brewing under the surface and I was terrified that he wouldn't like me if it exploded. Some people just couldn't deal with anger and mine was not something I could always control when I was younger. Charlie had at one time considered sending me to a counsellor specializing in situations like mine. After the incident with James, my anger hadn't been an issue but now the feelings were returning.

I walked my dad to the door and stepped outside with him.

"Dad, you know before the incident with James when I couldn't control my anger very well."

"Yes Bella. I couldn't forget those years if I wanted to." He laughed softly and gave me a wink. "We went through a lot of dishes, if I remember right."

I gave him a half hearted smile. Yeah, I'd broken a lot of things in the house back then.

"Well, the more I've thought of James today, the more I feel my anger getting stronger and stronger. The only time it started to settle down a little bit was when Edward arrived, but I really feel like I'm going to explode any moment. It frightens me and I don't want to take it out on him. I don't think he's aware about how bad it was before James attacked me."

Charlie looked at me thoughtfully. "Maybe you should just talk to Edward about it, Bella. I'm sure Alice would be there for you if you don't want to broach the subject alone."

Even though I knew that he'd probably tell me to just talk to Edward, I couldn't help but wish he'd come up with some different idea. Sighing, I gave him a quick hug and let him head home. I knew he'd be just doing a quick dinner and heading back to the station and I felt bad that I couldn't be home with him. I missed him.

Turning back into the house, I headed to the family room where I knew Edward was. Upon reaching his side, I slipped my hand into his and looked up into his eyes. He smiled down at me and I almost lost the courage to talk to him. I didn't want to reveal my shortcomings to this amazing guy that was looking at me like the sun rose and set with me. I gritted my teeth and straightened my spine. I could do this.

"Can I talk to you privately, Edward?"

"Sure, luv. How about we go upstairs?"

I nodded and still holding his hand, headed towards the stairs.

Bella's a little self conscious about how uncontrollable her temper used to be and is afraid it's going to go back to that again. What will Edward say?

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2811 words

Posted January 11, 2010