Hey, people! Me again. Not much to say today. Though I would like to make a few shoutouts. I want to thank Dark and Wild for that ridiculously long review that made my day. I loved it! And to the person who threatened me with the giant chocolate bunny (I accidently erased your pen name from where I stored it so I don't remember it, sorry) thanks for that. It made me laugh.

To my wonderful beta, BellaTonks, I love you! You are awesome and I couldn't ask for a better beta! To my best friend, Little Silver Rose, who puts up with me and my almost-pregnant lady-like emotions when I can't write or am having a particularly bad day. I love you lots!

More info at the bottom.

Disclaimer:"Hey, Steph, here! Some interesting things have happened, right? Wait till you get a load of this. Read on! Steph, out!" S.M.

Chapter 29

BPOV

He found a way out! James found a way out!

"You did?" I called.

The bright light hurt me eyes, so I had avert my face some.

"Yeah, hold on, I'll be right back."

Wait. Be right back…was he leaving me here? How could he just leave me here? After all the things he said he was just leaving me here!

I tried to move towards where the light was coming from, but the second I moved my left leg a pain so sharp shot up my leg from my calf to mid thigh. It made tears spring from my eyes. I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming out in pain. I looked down at my leg to see blue and black bruises all over it. I hadn't even known something was wrong with my leg. I had no reason to move it because previously I had nowhere to go.

I gripped my leg but that was a bad idea because my ribs were broken. Since I couldn't get to the hole James was in without any help, I thought it be wise idea to remain still which I should've done in the first place. I was just so eager to get out and now I couldn't move, at least not without any help.

I heard some rustling and then the light was blocked out. James grunted and I breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't left me here all alone. I could see his figure coming out of the hole and then he closed it up.

"James? Why did you close it? Aren't we going to leave?"

I followed him with my eyes as he made his way back to me.

He shook his head as he again plopped down on the mattress.

"We can't leave, at least not yet, anyways. It is broad day light and Mark will see."

"Where did you go?"

"Well, there's a door and a short tunnel that leads out the back of the house. My truck is right out there and I still have my keys on me so that's a plus right there. Um…"

He was quiet then. I could hear more than one pair of footsteps above me and some voices. They were muffled so I couldn't make them out. Then I thought about something. If James' truck is out there and him having his keys is a plus then…

"James?"

"Hm?" He seemed as if I'd pulled him from a distant train or thought.

"Where are we?"

"Oh, um just outside of Phoenix, in the suburbs. That kid, Mike, his mom owns this place? It's a nice house but as you can see the basement was never finished. The crew that used to work on it used that tunnel, I'm guessing, to come in and out instead of tracking shit through the house."

"So close yet so far away," I murmured to myself.

My heart jumped at being within driving distance to Phoenix High, but no one knew where I was so no one could find me. My only hope now was James…

"Okay, I've got it!" James suddenly said.

"Huh? Got what?"

"Here's how we're going to get out of here…"


EPOV

It's been a week. Five days since I've seen her face. Five days since I'd heard her laugh. Five days since I'd seen her smile. Five days since I'd heard her tell me she loved me.

Five long, miserable, dark days.

I felt like I wanted to kill myself every hour that went by. My family tried time and time again to help me get through this but how could I get through it? How could I continue going on when Bella was out God only knows where with the possibility of her never coming back?

How could I go on knowing that she was gone and there was nothing I could do about it? How could I go on?

Dad let me go home the day after I woke up the second time. Everyone else was either in the house with me or helping Williams. I wanted to help Williams too, but I was a living shell. I could hardly bring myself to get up sometimes.

I ate without tasting the food. I drank without really knowing what I was drinking. I was numb when I took my showers. I was numb when I walked around the house, if I ever walked around the house. Alice stayed with me most of the time. She'd fill me in on the case. She'd stay with me even when I didn't talk, which I seldom did.

She told me that Williams was trying to find Mike. He was nowhere to be seen. They couldn't find Charlie or Mark or whoever the hell he was and some other guy he said worked with him at the station in Forks. Williams said that Mike was the one that trashed my room at school and that somehow he was involved in her kidnapping as well.

Anger swelled in me when I thought his name. So many things I wanted to do to him that were probably illegal in all fifty states. If I ever saw his face again, he wouldn't have one by the time I was done with him.

Alice brought home Bella's poem book on the fourth day of purgatory. She knocked quietly on my door and stepped in. Bella's blue polka-dotted book was held tightly to her chest. She came towards me.

"Williams finally let this go. They didn't need it as evidence anymore." she said quietly.

She placed the book next to me and kissed my forehead. Then she left, shutting the door softly behind her.

Sometimes I truly felt bad for being such a shell of nothing because I knew it hurt her. I knew it hurt everyone to see me like this, but I also knew that Bella was the only one who could break me out of my shell. My family knew it too. They knew that they wouldn't be whole without her, that I couldn't be whole without her.

I couldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. To live without her was to live without a life. I spent seventeen years without her and I was not going to spend the rest of my life without her. I refuse to.

I looked at her poem book. I'd seen her writing in it numerous times. I always wondered what she wrote. She never let me see inside of it and I respected her privacy. But now, in this deep pit of hell I was going to read something even if I knew it would only hurt me in the end because she never came back.

Loosing What I Love

If I lose you, I won't know what to do

My whole world would crash down

What did I do to lose you?

I'd be buried six-feet in the ground

Just the thought of it

Scares me, makes me shake

It's going to kill me, somebody get an emergency kit

I know it's too much for me to take

Being left alone without anybody

It's like getting lost in the dark

All alone, it's so cloudy

Feeling this way is going to leave a mark

Living without you is like walking around at night

You're scared that the worst is going to happen

Walking, walking, until you find the light

Wondering and searching for the end

Losing you is too painful

Come back to me

Don't put me through something dreadful

Come and set me free

Free from misery and pain

Free from being lost in the dark

Free to hold you, love you, to look upon you

Please just come back and love

Just like before.

Why did it seem like she knew this was going to happen? Why did it seem like she knew exactly how I would feel if anything ever happened to her? Why? Why? Why?

So many 'why' questions that weren't being answered or couldn't be answered because she wasn't here. I needed her. She needed me. But neither of us could do anything to help each other. It seemed we were both doomed in a sense, but I decided not to speak that out loud. If I did, it would make it final and I didn't want that.

I would never want that.

Feeling

When I look into your eyes I see success

It's just the feeling I get when I know you're not a mess

When I'm around you I don't know what to say

Then I remember how much I reminisced about you everyday

Your touch makes me feel like we're the only ones on the earth

I bet you don't know how much your touch is really worth

When you kiss me I feel like a surge is going through me

Feelings I can't explain, but you'd think it'd be easy

Sometimes you just can't put into words, like love

Yet some people try to explain it like the feathers of a dove

Aggressiveness, that's all you

But you don't pressure me to do what I don't want to do

The things you do to me, I allow you to, why

Because of the feeling, the star in my night sky

What else can I say to make sure you understand?

Send you a marching band

Because of you, my life has been turned around

You helped me out of the dark and off the ground

It's like the feeling you get when you're suddenly lifted into the air

At first you're scared, but then you just don't care

Wait, I just realized something, you are mine

And I'm yours, for all time

I'm telling you it's that feeling

Yes, it's just that damn good feeling.

Was this how she really felt about me? I knew she loved me. I could see in her eyes every time she looked at me. There was no doubt about it. But the last time she truly told me how she felt about me was the first time she told me she loved me.

I realized that I missed when she expressed her love for me. She felt open enough to tell me of her love and of course I didn't doubt her word but she never showed me, she never told me and that was the missing piece to the puzzle we created. A piece I didn't even know was missing…

Her poetry always stuck with me. The first poem I'd read, 'White Fire,' I saw as I flipped through the pages of the book and reread it, was my favorite. She had over forty poems in the book. They ranged from anger to confusion to love. There were emotions she wrote about that I'd never even felt before because I always had a loving family around me. There was never a need for me to feel these things.

Just reading these, I felt closer to her somehow. I felt and knew what she went through and didn't claim insanity, of course with the help of her mother. Because I felt like I knew her so well, it hurt more that she wasn't with me. She wasn't here.

And suddenly…

I cried.

These weren't quiet tears either. They were loud. Loud and obnoxious and heart retching and terrible, even to my own ears and I was the one doing them. My chest hurt. My head hurt. I felt like a heavy weight was on my shoulders that kept me from getting up and finding Bella myself. My eyes closed and tears fell from them.

Sobs ran through my body. I shook uncontrollably. I didn't even realize it when arms wrapped around me and I was being held. I hardly paid attention to the things around me. All I knew was that Bella wasn't here. It was like half of me was missing. I felt hollow and broken and just empty.

Sometime later I felt fingers run through my hair. Someone was rocking me and whispering words in my ear. My face was buried in someone's stomach and my arms were wrapped tightly around their waist. It was a wonder they were breathing with how tight my hold was. After a few minutes, my sobs quieted and I was coherent enough to realize it was Alice that was holding me. She was whispering word of comfort and running her fingers through my hair and rocking slightly.

I couldn't be any more grateful for my twin than I was now. Alice was always there for me. She always knew what I needed when I needed it.

"Alice," I said hoarsely. My throat was scratchy from the sobbing.

I felt her lean over and her hands left my hair and my face. Something that sounded like water was being poured.

"Here, drink this." She handed me a mug and I drank the warm tea without complaint.

"Thank you," my voice sounded a bit better.

Anyone else would've asked how I was doing but Alice didn't. She knew that would only make me feel even more like shit and she could tell just by looking at me exactly how I felt.

"Williams has a lead on Mike's mother. They found her in Hawaii drinking Margaritas. They managed to get a warrant to search her home for any evidence. He thinks they may have something on a property she owns but they're still looking."

I nodded.

"How long have I been…?" I trailed off, not sure what to call what just happened to me.

"Um, about twelve hours I guess. I left the house to go to the station to check up on things when Jasper calls me and tells me that you were throwing a fit or something. He said when he and Rose tried to console you, you went crazy. You trashed your room. You wouldn't let anybody in. I rushed back to the house as fast as I could.

"When I got here I could hear you crying from the stairs. Mom and dad were at the hospital and Claire had a business trip or something. Emmett was at the station but I told him to stay. Jasper and Rose were looking so helpless it almost made me cry.

"I rushed up the stairs and threw open your door only to find you in the fetal position hugging Bella's poem book to your chest. It about broke my already broken heart to see you like that. It took a while for me to get you on the bed, but I did and I had Rose make you some tea because I knew you'd need it when you stopped."

All of this was said in a whisper. Oh, how grateful I am to have Alice….

I squeezed her waist. "Thank you."

"I love you, Edward. I'll always be here when and if you need me." She kissed my forehead.

"I love you, too, twin."

We held each other for a while. I knew she was hurting too because Bella was like the sister she never had. They might as well have been related.

"Take a shower, Edward. You need it. I'll be here when you get back."

I shook my head.

"Don't you want to be with Jasper? I'm sure he'd—" She interrupted me.

"He's at his house. Everyone went home. They couldn't stand to hear you suffering and they felt useless anyways…" She shrugged around me.

I sighed.

"Okay," I relented.

She slid out of my arms and walked to my dresser. I opened my eyes finally to see CD's strewn about the floor, my bed a mess and books and papers everywhere. Bella's book was in my lap though and I ran my hand down the front cover. I missed her…

Alice appeared next to me with a towel, some boxers, and a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She handed them to me and I stood stiffly and walked to the bathroom. I turned the water on hot and stripped down to nothing.

The shower did help a little. It relaxed my aching muscles and cleaned the salt from my face. I felt like I hadn't washed in days. I probably had, I was just too numb to remember.

When I got out I looked at myself in the mirror. I needed to shave. I was growing a bit of a beard. My eyes that once looked full and happy now looked empty and hollow. There were dark circles under them which meant I probably didn't get enough sleep. My hair was its usual horrible mess.

I dried off and dressed and then decided to shave. I had just gotten my shaving materials from the cabinet above the sink when the doorbell rang. I heard Alice leave to answer it and just as I put the razor to my cheek, Alice screamed.

"Edward!!!"


BPOV

"The coast is clear," James whispered to me.

"Are you sure? How do you know?"

"No one's moved upstairs in a while. And according to my phone it's about one in the morning. Everyone's sleeping." He assured me.

James went over the plan three times before I mustered up enough courage to go through with it. We had to wait till it was dark and no one was lurking around the house to put it into action. But as we were waiting I continually lost consciousness and my breathing was irregular. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then, on the side where my ribs were broken, the pain increased. It hurt too much to stay awake. I knew that if I didn't get medical help soon and if any of the broken bones' shards pierced my lungs, I was going to get pneumonia. It could be fatal.

James crept up the stairs and looked under the door. He looked for a minute then came back down to me.

"James?"

"Hmm?"

I struggled to get this out. My breathing was shallow again. "I-if I don't get medical help soon I could get pneumonia." I breathed hard once and spoke again. "It could be fatal. I don't know how long I will last…"

"Shit…um, okay, we're going, now."

He found a blanket and gently wrapped it around me. I hissed at the pain that ran through my body. My head was pounding and I felt dizzy.

"James…"

"We're leaving. Hang on, Bella."

"Where are we going?" My eyes closed. I felt myself being lifted up. I could feel my face scrunch up from the pain.

"I don't know where the hospital is…where can we go?"

I thought sluggishly for a moment. Where could we go? I didn't know how to get to the hospital. I only knew…

"Go to Edward's house." I gave him the address. "Can you get there?"

"Yeah, I know where that is. Mark made Mike and I scope it out once." I shivered.

I lost consciousness then.


My mind was confused. My eyes blinked rapidly but I couldn't really focus them. Every few seconds a light would flash on face. Something shook under me. I turned my head and my nose smelt leather. I tried to focus enough to figure out where I was. I jumped when I heard a few honking horns.

Then I realized I was in a car. The plan must've worked. We must be safe if we both got out unscathed, well mostly, at least.

"Bella, Bella, can you hear me?" James voice seemed so far away.

I groaned.

"We're almost there. Hang on,"

I couldn't keep my eyes open. It was dark and my chest hurt. Darkness felt better than this.


EPOV

I bolted out the bathroom, through my room, and down the stairs. Alice was standing at the door with her hands to her throat. There was a man with blond hair and dark eyes leaning against the door. He was clutching his left shoulder.

"Who are you?" I asked as I pulled Alice behind me.

"Are you Edward?" His voice was raspy.

I looked him up and down. He looked like a police officer by what he was wearing, but I didn't see any name tag on him like Williams had. He had no gun and his hand looked like it was bleeding.

"Yes, but who are you? Why are you here?"

He didn't answer my questions. He breathed heavily.

"You have to get in the car. She needs help. We both need h-h—" He dropped to the floor.

I ran to him, a reflex action. He was bleeding from a bullet wound on his arm and another in his leg.

"What are you talking about? Who—"

"The hospital! Save her!" He clutched my arm and stared into my eyes. They were begging me to save him and whoever was in his car. He fainted a moment later.

"Edward! She's here!" Alice called from outside. I hadn't even noticed she moved.

I turned and saw Alice in the back seat of a black SUV. I ran to her and saw what I thought my eye would never see again.

Bella.

She was here.

I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. My mind was jumbled. I stood, shocked, for a solid minute before Alice's voice registered in my head.

"Edward, we have to get her to the hospital. Him, too," she pointed to the guy passed out on the doorstep. "Put him in the front seat then get in the back and see how she's doing. I'll drive and call dad. Hurry!"

At least she had enough sense to put things in action. I was still slightly stunned that she was here. Bella was here.

She opened the passenger side door as I ran back to pick the police officer. The guy weighed a ton, but I was able to lift him and get him into the truck.

Alice ran back to the house, grabbed a few things, locked up and hopped in the driver's seat. I hopped in the back and cradled Bella's head in my lap. I pushed her hair from her face. I smiled slightly. Even though she looked like she'd been beaten to hell, she was still beautiful.

The blanket, that I guess was supposed to be wrapped around her, had fallen off. She was still wearing my shirt. It was tattered and dirty and torn. I moved part of it aside and saw dark bluish-purplish mark where her ribs were. I ran my hand over them and her face scrunched up as if it hurt.

"Alice, she has some broken ribs." Her face had a few cuts and there was quite a large gash on her head and her lip was swollen. "She was beaten up pretty bad." My voice was a whisper.

"I've got dad on the phone."

She reached her hand back and I took the phone from her.

"Dad," my voice shook. Tears were coming down my face and I didn't even realize it.

"Edward! Bella's with you? She's there?" His voice was frantic. I could hear mom in the background.

"Yeah, a man came to the house. He has two gunshot wounds. Bella's unconscious. She has some broken ribs and cuts on her face and head. I can't tell you more than that but she looks like she's been beaten to hell, Dad." My voice shook through the whole thing.

"Where are you?"

"We're on our way there. Alice is driving."

"Okay, son, I'll call Williams so he can get here, too. I'll see you when you get here."

I hung up. I stared at her face like I'd never seen it a day in my life.

"Edward, Edward, Edward…" She whispered.

"I'm here. I'm here." I said just as quietly. I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. She responded some and my heart beat faster. My breath came quicker. I felt one of her hands grip my shirt.

"I love you," she said against my lips.

I cried and clutched her close to me. All the numbness and emptiness that had consumed me felt like it never happened while she was in my arms. I felt whole and full and just all around happy.

"I love you, too, Bella. Always."

Sooooo? What did you think? I'm really hoping to reach 1,000 reviews by the time this story ends and there are about two or three chappies left. Do you think you guys could help me out here? I'd love that. Alos, there's a poll on my profile about whether or not you guys would want to see a sequel. Go vote and I'd love hear any ideas you may have about it.

The next update may be a bit delayed because some idiot stole my beta's laptop and she won't be able to get a new one till the end of the week. And then I'll be out of town for a few days for a family reunion.

I think that's all. Until next time...

R4L, peace!