This one is kinda short… but it had to be. I don't own Twilight or this song, but these characters are allllllll mine.

"One breath, one step is keeping me here. I've nothing left and nothing to fear. I've come too far now... These four walls could never hold me, and these two hands could never hold me back. I'm just before the open door and I'm so much more than these two hands." These Two Hands, Hana Pestle

"Is there anything else you would like to add, Miss Swan?"

I slowly shook my head after rereading the police statement I'd just filed. My father gently squeezed my shoulder before handing me a pen. My fingers clumsily held on to the small piece of plastic while I attempted to sign my name.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "It's hard to hold… my hand…"

"Not a problem," Detective Jenks gave me a small smile before tearing off the yellow carbon copy of my statement. "You're more than welcome to leave now, if you like."

I looked up at my dad. "Is Edward finished?"

He shook his head. "He's still talking to the detective from Seattle. I can take you home though."

"Can I wait?" I quietly asked. "I'll sit outside if you need me too."

"You can stay as long as you want. In fact, why don't you wait in my office? I've got to go file these." Detective Jenks held up the papers in his hand. "You'll have some privacy and there is a couch in there."

I hated to be a bother, but the idea of being somewhere quiet was appealing, so I let them lead me to his office. My father left the lights off, and even though I offered him a spot on the couch, he sat in one of the chairs across from the desk.

"Why don't you just lie down? It could be a while."

"You don't have to wait with me, Dad." My head leaned against the arm of the couch and I reluctantly let my eyes close. "I'll be fine."

I heard him mutter something under his breath but couldn't find the energy to ask him to repeat himself. Instead, I pulled my legs up onto the couch and tried to just… not think. It had been over forty-eight hours since I'd slept and I couldn't remember eating anything recently either. I seemed to have been moving on some sort of autopilot function, leaving blank spaces in the memories of the past few days.

I remembered seeing Jane, and telling Edward what she had told me. I didn't remember leaving Seattle or coming back to Austin. I could recall bits and pieces of our conversation with my father, and other detectives from the Austin police department. But really, the only thing I could keep thinking about was them. Sam, Emily and Garrett had all played a part in this entire mess, leaving Jessica as the only true friend that I had made since moving to Austin. Sadly, she was just as hurt by all of this as I was. They had betrayed her trust, too.

With the hurt and betrayal, there were also a million different other emotions that I was trying to deal with. Most of them I understood, like the anger and guilt. But there was also a sense of finality that seemed surreal. Maybe it was because we had been dealing with this bullshit for months and now we finally knew who and what had caused it. Aro, and pretty much anyone else who had worked with him in Seattle, had been arrested a few hours ago and charged with drug trafficking across state lines. Sam followed their same fate, as did Emily. Garrett had been released after giving his statement to the police, but he didn't exist as far as I was concerned. I didn't want to remember him. I didn't want to think about him. I just wanted all of it to be over.

I tried to keep myself from crying, because I was tired of it. I hated the way it made me weak and worthless. But when tears started falling down my face, I realized that there wasn't a chance in hell that I could stop. I heard my dad's chair move as I roughly wiped my eyes with my unbroken hand.

"Sleep, honey." My father's voice was quiet as he slowly ran his fingers through the top of my hair. I nodded and waited for the calming peace that exhaustion would give me.

xXxXxXx

"Hey." I felt someone touching my face and tried to turn away from them. That brought on a quiet laughter that was slightly familiar. "Bella, we're home."

I had to force my eyes to open and even then I couldn't really focus on anything. It was still dark, which didn't help with any of the blurred images in front of me. I slowly shook my head before I dumbly asked, "What?"

"Come on." Strong hands helped pull me up. "You can go back to sleep once we get upstairs."

It took a few minutes for me to kind-of-sort-of wake up, but even then it felt like I was walking in a dense fog. I leaned against Edward as we took the elevator upstairs and then followed him to our front door. Once inside, I briefly thought about just laying down on the couch, but the idea of our bed won out.

Edward went for the kitchen while I walked down the hallway to our bedroom. I didn't bother with the light; instead I just kicked the shoes off of my feet and lazily sat on the edge of my side of the bed.

"Take this before you fall asleep." Edward shook the orange pill bottle in his hand. "Jessica went to the pharmacy for you while we were at the station. The pain meds will help you sleep."

"I don't think that will be an issue." I held my hand out and tossed the pill in my mouth when he handed it to me, followed by the bottle of water in his other hand. After I swallowed, I looked up at him. "Thank you."

Edward didn't say anything in return; he just kneeled down in front of me and started unbuttoning my shirt. I watched him for a few seconds before reaching forward and gently touching his cheek. He smiled and continued his work, only pulling away from me when he pulled the shirt off of my arm.

"You're taking care of me," I whispered.

He nodded before telling me to lay down. The second that my head hit the pillows, my whole body seemed to melt away. I could hardly pay attention to the fact that Edward was pulling my jeans off, or even try to thank him for pulling the blanket over my nearly naked body.

I tried to smile when I felt his lips against my forehead, but fell asleep before he could finish telling me that he loved me.

xXxXxXx

Edward had tried several times to teach me to play the piano. I still wasn't great at it, but I could play a few scales without screwing it up. Well, I could before I broke my hand anyway. I sighed before letting my uninjured fingers tap the keys beneath them. The notes sounded off but I kept playing them, one by one.

"You okay?"

I nodded at Edward's question. "Yeah, just… I dunno. Disappointed?"

He moved another stool next to mine and as I started to play the only song that I really knew, he took over the right handed keys. I smiled when he started singing. I was slow and clumsy with my left hand, making a mess of the simple notes, but it didn't stop him from playing with me.

When we had finished, Edward looked at me. "It's okay to be disappointed. I would be surprised if you weren't."

I shook my head. "It isn't just them… it's…" I sighed before closing my eyes. "I really thought that I was better. I was almost normal again."

"Bella, don't-"

"I know, Edward. I know that I shouldn't let what has happened change anything but it has. I was…trying." I paused before looking at him. "The festival wasn't just… music. It was about proving something to myself. It was letting go of all of my fucking insecurities and just living my life again."

He didn't stop me when I pushed away from the piano. Instead he just turned to where he could watch me pace around the room.

"And now… now because of them… I'm back where I started! I feel so trapped in my own head that I can't… I'm suffocating all over again! I can't play, I can't write! I'm just… here. And I'm tired of feeling like this. I'm tired of existing without living!"

"Then do the festival." Edward stood up and walked towards me. "Fuck what Garrett and Sam did. Play the festival without them."

I held up my broken hand. "How? I can't play."

"Jessica can play and you can sing." When I started to shake my head, Edward put his hands on my shoulders. "There comes a time when you have to start being a voice, Bella, instead of just a fucking echo."

His hands moved to where they were on either side of my neck. He gently tilted my head to make me look at him.

"Since I've known you, you've always held back. You thought no one saw it; that you could just slid under the radar without people noticing, but I saw it. I saw you. I've heard you, Bella. I know that you have a voice in there, one that you're just too scared to share with people. But I can promise you that once you do, once you let go of everything, you will realize that you are so much stronger than you ever gave yourself credit for."

"I'm scared," I barely whispered.

Edward shook his head. "Scared of what, Bella?"

"Failing."

He let me go and I watched as he left me standing there to go back into the office. He walked to the bookcase and returned a few seconds later with a notebook. His fingers quickly flipped through the pages before handing it to me.

"What does that say?" Edward asked.

I looked down at the familiar handwriting.

"It says 'Even if this turns into a mistake, at least I can say I tried. And I can't fail at trying." I answered him.

Edward took my old journal back from me and nodded. "What happened to the girl that wrote that?"

I hated the truth, but I had to say it. "I don't know."

He dropped the notebook on the stool he'd vacated and shook his head. "I can tell you where she is." His hand gently moved to my chest, resting over my heart. "I know you feel it, Bella."

"What if I suck?"

Edward shook his head. "You won't."

"What if I forget the lyrics?"

He smiled. "What if you wake up thirty years from now and regret never doing this? What if you look back on your life and always wonder what could have happened if you just would have tried?"

Could I do this? It had been hard enough to convince myself to just play in the band. Now I was considering singing, by myself. What if I made a fool of myself? What if I got up there, in front of thousands of people, and completely lost my nerve?

Edward's hand gently pressed against my chest, making me look up at him. He held up a pen and smiled. "Let go."

"I…"

His hand applied more pressure. "Bella, let go."

This was it; my proverbial fork in the road. Did I stay the same scared, weak Bella that I had been for the past four years? Did I want to stay the type of person that I'd grown to despise? I knew the answer was no. I didn't, couldn't live like this anymore. But I had told myself this before. I'd reasoned with myself and said that I would change, but then something would happen, and I would fall apart all over again. I was tired of being broken. I was tired of living a half life. I was… tired… of all of this.

With a shaking hand I reached forward and took the pen out of Edward's hand. "I'll need your help."

xXxXxXx

"Well?" I sighed. "What do you think?"

Jasper and Jessica looked back at me, before looking at each other. They each held new contracts for the music festival that put the three of us in a new band, where we had one drummer, one guitarist and a lead singer. I bit my bottom lip and waited for one of them to say something.

"You know I'm in." Jessica nodded. "How could I not be?"

I smiled and looked at Jasper.

"It's been a long time since I've played, Bella." He looked back down at the contract in his hand. "I mean I think that what you're doing is… fucking amazing. But I don't know if I'm what you need for this."

I reached across the table and held on to his hand. "You're exactly what I need for this, Jasper. You're my oldest friend and someone that I know I can trust."

Those words meant something totally different now. It wasn't just something I threw around to make someone feel better about themselves and he knew it. I trusted Jasper with my hopes, my dreams, my words… my music. I knew that he would stand by my side, leading me when I needed it and making me lead when I didn't want to.

"I need you, J." I squeezed his hand. "Please."

He smiled before nodding his head. "Alright."

Jessica hit her shoulder against his before looking back at me. "When do we start working?"

"Now?"

A/N: Two more chapters and an epi. Crazy ride, huh? I will be posting a lot of Edward POV after I finish this story. This chapter is for Miss AllyinPerth, aka, ChampagneAnyone. You are a fighter through and through baby doll. I love you.