A/N: Oh, my lovelies. We all hope Bella is just in the bathroom.

Edward was dangerously close to going out of his mind. It was only his father's calming hand on his shoulder that kept him from strangling a stupid ass police officer.

It had been nearly three hours since Bella had disappeared. Each minute that passed, Edward grew more desperate, and he was having a hell of a time finding anyone who would help him. Three hours was entirely too long. Always good at math, Edward had automatically calculated how far away Alec could have taken her in that amount of time.

California, Arizona, Utah.

Edward rocked back and forth, pressing his fingers hard into his skull to stop himself from screaming. He was trying not to imagine what might be happening to his beautiful - and as of late very pregnant wife - while he went around in circles with the police officers.

Security had been on him within minutes. He supposed the fact he was yelling and running around the Forum Shops like a madman would do that. He'd begged their help, his panic doubling when Alice returned from the nearest bathroom, reporting that Bella wasn't there.

The security team had been impatient with him. He wasn't making a lot of sense, he supposed, and they saw deliriously drunk and belligerent people all the time. All the while, as they attempted to both restrain him and get him the hell out of their casino, Edward knew the clock was ticking. Each minute, she got further away. Each second was another second Alec could be hurting her, hurting Riley.

It was maddening because if he could have made them understand, it was likely the security team could have helped him get her back before Alec had a chance to lay a hand on her, before he even had a chance to get out of the casino. But he couldn't make them listen. There hadn't been a commotion. There hadn't been any screaming. She was just gone from one moment to the next.

They tried to tell him to calm down. His wife had probably just gotten distracted. Vegas was full of distractions. That was the point. She was probably caught up at a slot machine or Blackjack table. He begged them to look. He wanted more than anything to be wrong. If she'd really just gotten distracted she would be in his arms in no time and they would laugh about his paranoia.

But he knew he wasn't wrong; he could feel it in his very bones. She was gone, and she wasn't going to wander back on her own.

He asked them to prove it to him. There had to be a security room with cameras, videos. If she was still in the casino, he could find her with their help.

By the time he caused enough of a scene the police were called, his family had gathered around him. Caesar's Palace had offered up a conference room - anything to get them silenced so people could go back to shopping and otherwise spending their money in peace.

There, in front of all his family, Edward had to tell the whole truth to the police, hoping it helped. Things got loud for a few minutes before the officers asked everyone to leave but Alice, Carlisle, and Edward - Alice and Edward because they were the last ones to see Bella, and Carlisle because he refused to leave Edward's side.

Esme would have stayed, but Edward asked her to pick up Renee, hoping against hope that she might have some insight.

After all, who else would have told Alec where Bella was?

"Mr. Cullen, have you considered the possibility that your wife wanted to leave with that man?"

His throat was tight with rage he struggled to keep in check. "You've seen the video-"

"Yes, exactly," the other officer interrupted. "There's nothing in that video that suggests she's under any duress at all."

Of course there wasn't. They didn't know her as well as he did. To Edward, it was obvious how tense she was. Her shoulders were too squared, her hands clenched in fists as she braced herself against the shelf. In the video - the one concession the cops made to get him to shut up - Alec had come up behind her and must have spoken as she jumped. She stayed facing forward without looking at him - something Edward tried to tell them was unnatural. Bella was a very attentive listener and always turned to the person speaking, no matter what she'd been doing before. She stayed still for about a minute before she turned slowly and walked away with him. His hand was gripped at her arm, not in the way a lover's would be, but the way a cop led a criminal - controlling.

Worst was the fear he saw in her eyes for the brief second the camera caught her face before she walked out of frame. Her expression was impassive, but her eyes darted around. If he wasn't mistaken, and Edward was very good with angles, the first place she looked when she turned around was over in the direction he would have been.

Why hadn't he looked?

Why had he left her side at all?

"Something else is going on here," Edward said for what had to be the millionth time. "She wouldn't have left with him. Never. He had to have told her something to make her leave, and he's going to hurt her."

"What do you base that assumption on?"

"He took advantage of her when she was vulnerable. He threatened her and locked her in a closet for hours. You don't realize how crazy he acted, assuming Bella was his. The way he talked-"

"And this was something you witnessed yourself?" The officer raised an eyebrow knowing full well Edward had already told him he'd never met Alec face to face before.

"Of course not," he growled, aggravated.

"So you only know what your wife told you."

"There was no reason for her to lie to me."

"Some people don't need a reason," the cop said with a small shrug.

Edward's cheek twitched with rage. He told himself again that he just needed to make them see. The police had resources he didn't - it was as simple as that. He needed their cooperation. "You're suggesting an otherwise rational woman would suddenly abandon her life on a whim? She was scared enough that she ran here in the first place months ago. Does that mean nothing to you?"

"There's no record-"

"There is a record of James Hunter's attack on her in Chicago."

"But as we've discussed, you failed to identify James Hunter as her attacker."

Edward was silent.

"Why was that, Mr. Cullen? If your wife knew who her attacker was, why would you not want him caught?"

"Is it your habit to treat a victim's family so cruelly?" It was Carlisle who spoke then, his voice furious.

The officer's eyes flicked to his. "Our habit - or our jobs, as we prefer to call them - includes establishing whether or not anyone was truly victimized." He looked back to Edward. "Tell me, Mr. Cullen, was it your idea or your wife's to not divulge Mr. Hunter's identity to the Chicago PD?"

"Would it really matter if she had reported Hunter? It wasn't him who took her," he said rather than answer straight.

"To be frank, Mr. Cullen, we can't waste the time and resources of the department on a girl who, by your own admission, has lied to the police before and who has a recent history of erratic behavior. There might be something strange going on here, but there's nothing that points to the fact she's been kidnapped."

"We lied to the police in Chicago because there was no way to prove it was Alec behind the attack."

"That was something for the police to investigate."

"So they could make the same accusations against Bella that you are? That she's just an erratic child telling lies for attention?" Edward challenged, his tone bitter. "It was a chance - we both knew that. She would do anything to protect her daughter from that man. There's no way in hell she would simply walk away with him."

When Esme arrived with Renee in tow, things only got worse.

Renee was tearful. She admitted to getting into a screaming match with Alec several days before.

"It was the first time I'd talked to Alec since Bella told me the truth," the woman said, sniffling. "He came around wanting to know if I'd heard from her. I told him he needed to leave her alone. Maybe I thought he would be good for her once, but for chrissakes, she's married with a baby on the way. I told him it was time to throw in the towel.

"He got so... belligerent. He started yelling at me, telling me I was a horrible mother, letting her fall into drugs after her father died."

"She was doing drugs?" one of the officers asked.

"No!" Edward answered for her, insulted on Bella's behalf.

"Would you have any reason, any reason at all to suspect she was doing drugs?" the officer asked, staring right at Renee and ignoring Edward completely.

Renee stumbled over her answer. "I don't know that Bella and I have been on the same wavelength lately. Even if she did, who cares? Let's be honest. We've all needed to take the edge off, right? Who am I to judge?"

Edward tried not to growl.

"But anyway, he insisted that her husband," she glanced nervously at Edward, "was keeping her strung out and high. I told him I thought it was unlikely considering he was bringing me to Vegas, and to the Bellagio besides! I looked up what a suite costs."

"How did you know where we were staying?" Edward asked, beyond frustrated. He'd taken the precaution Eleazar suggested and hadn't told Renee, in their limited conversations, what casino they were staying at, planning to tell her only when she was already safely in Vegas.

The woman smiled sadly. "Bella said you had a perfect view of the fountain. I figured it out."

Edward scrubbed his hand over his eyes.

The police asked Renee a series of questions that made him increasingly infuriated. They asked about Bella's behavior since Charlie's death. It didn't sound good, especially when Renee made a comment that made it obvious Bella had let her believe she was less pregnant than she was, that Edward was the baby's biological father.

It was exactly what Bella had feared. They were painting a picture of her as increasingly irrational and unpredictable. She took off out of nowhere. She called Jacob, leaving cryptic messages that she was okay rather than call her mother. She'd run off to Vegas and married a total stranger, a very rich total stranger. And now this... disappearing without a word when the video showed Alec had barely touched her.

"Look," Edward said, slamming his hand down on the table, unable to hold back his fury any longer. "Enough of this. My wife and daughter are in danger, and you're asking asinine questions. If I'm wrong, I'm more than happy to pay a fine for wasting your time, but I'm not wrong. You already know who took her, and this city has a million cameras. Please." He leaned forward, his eyes pleading now. "Help me."

The officers looked at him steadily. "Frankly, this seems like a case of a flighty young person who had no business getting married before she was mature enough to do so," the rude one said gruffly. "She'll be back when she's got it out of her system."

Edward stood, taking a threatening step toward the officer before Carlisle's grip on his arm tightened.

The second officer's expression was cool. "Either way, Mr. Cullen, without any signs of distress, we can't consider this a missing persons case for another 24 hours. Just relax. I'm sure your wife will be back in her own good time. It might serve you best to go back to your room at the Bellagio and wait there."

Edward's nostrils flared. His hands were fists at his side, his body rigid with the effort of not leaping at the men. "If something happens to either of them, believe me, I'm holding you personally responsible," he snarled before he whirled, storming out the door.

He only got a short way down the hallway before he had to stop, overcome with panic. All his breath left him in a great whoosh and he bent at the waist, his hands on his knees as his body was wracked with horrible shakes.

"Edward?"

He hadn't heard the rush of feet but he was suddenly surrounded by his family. Someone was patting his back, and he could see several pairs of feet even as his vision wavered.

"What happened?" Emmett asked.

"They won't help." His voice was raw. "They think she ran off on purpose."

"Are you sure she didn't?" Rosalie asked.

Edward wasn't the only one who turned on her, but Emmett surprised them all by shouting at her. "Rose! How could you say that?"

She held her hands up, palms out. "I'm sorry. It's just... It's a lot. It's a lot you've lied to us about for months on end."

"Now isn't the time for this discussion," Esme interrupted, her expression leaving no room for argument.

"Excuse me," said a soft voice.

Turning, Edward saw Renee approaching them uncertainly. She looked so much like Bella it broke his heart, and he ached, positively ached to have his wife in his arms again. He sucked in a breath, trying to breathe past the pain, trying to put walls around his anger toward his mother-in-law for letting Alec know - however inadvertently - where Bella was.

She'd given him the edge Edward had counted on him not having - a few days advance notice to plan.

Then again, if Bella hadn't told her...

Edward shook his head sharply, willing away those kinds of thoughts. They were useless. "Renee," he said as gently as possible, reaching his hand out to the woman. "I'm so sorry we have to meet under these circumstances."

She surprised him by pulling into a tight hug. "No, I'm sorry. I know I was bumbling like an idiot, but those cops made me so nervous. It's just... I can't imagine my Charlie every acting like that with a family."

Alice was shaking her head. "They made up their minds what was going here from minute one," she said disgustedly.

Renee seemed to shrink back, her face pinched. "I can't believe this is happening," she said in a small voice. "Alec has always been such a sweet young man." She looked up at Edward with huge eyes - the same shape of Bella's eyes, though hers were a different color. "Do you really think he'd hurt her?"

"You said you believed her story," Edward returned, his voice harsh.

"Of course I do! Maybe I liked Alec, but Bella is my daughter. I know she wouldn't lie about something like that." Wrapping her arms around herself, she rocked a bit. "I did think maybe she was exaggerating - that maybe Alec scared her by yelling at her or something. She said he was delusional, but to the point he would hurt her?"

Her face crumpled. Esme stepped forward, taking the other woman in her arms, a mother comforting a mother.

"It would probably be best not to assume," Carlisle said to all of them.

"What do we do now?" Emmett asked. He looked like Edward felt - poised for action, like an arrow just waiting to know what direction to fly.

Edward ran his hands through his hair, trying to think ahead of the rising, entirely overwhelming terror in him. They could be anywhere. Anywhere. How was he supposed to help her with absolutely no resources available to him?

What could they do?

Edward called Eleazar, begging his help. He had to have contacts, someone who could check Alec's recent credit card activity... anything that would give them some clue where to start.

Renee called Alec's parents trying to find out if they'd heard from him recently. The couple said he'd missed a visit with them for the first time the day before. He'd left a message he had to be out of town for an emergency and he would call them as soon as he got back.

They weren't worried. Alec was a good boy.

As the sun faded from the sky, Edward retreated to the suite's huge bathroom, sitting on the edge of the giant tub where he'd relaxed with Bella only days before. And now she was gone.

He could hardly breathe.

He was so lost in the agony of his helplessness he didn't hear his mother come in until she sat beside him, her hand on his back.

"What if they're right?" he asked in a voice so twisted by his anxiety, the tone was absolutely foreign even to his own ears.

"Who? About what?" Esme asked gently.

"What if it was a lie? Everything she told me. What if she really did run off with him?"

His mother's hand froze on his back, and Edward continued on in a ramble.

"Is it so different from what Renee believed? What Charlie believed? What even Bella believed before he hurt her? Alec lied to their faces for years. Pretended to be someone he wasn't. How could I know this wasn't all some game or if Alec was right about her toying with his emotions? What if all this time he's just been a concerned friend who fell for her, and she manipulated him like she manipulated me?"

Esme was silent for another long moment before she spoke, her voice careful. "Does any part of you honestly believe that?"

Edward's shoulders slumped and he fell forward, his arms on his knees. "No." The word came out raw and filled with pain. "But if it was true, it would mean she's okay. I just want her to be okay, Mom."

His breaths were coming so quick by that point, he was on the verge of hyperventilating.

Esme shushed him, trying to soothe his worries, trying to help hold him together when he was so close to falling to pieces.

It wasn't long before the bathroom became very crowded. Then, it was his whole family there for him again. His parents sat on either side of him, his brothers crouched in front of him. Alice and Rosalie hovered in the doorway.

The irony didn't escape Edward that the first time he'd let his family, his whole family, be there for him, he wanted none of them. The only person he wanted in that moment was Bella.

A/N: Poor boy.

Yes, before you can ask, we will see Bella next chapter.

Thanks so much to Barburella and GinnyW for all their help. Much love and big puffy hearts.

And thanks so much to all of you for your kind words. I'm so glad you're with me on this little tale of mine. Thanks to those of you who voted for me in the Lemonade Stand's fic of the week. I was tickled pink, as they say.

Trying to update again with Bella by Saturday. Big puffy hearts to all of you.