THE MISFORTUNES OF BEING A WOMAN

Disclaimer: The Cullens, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

This chapter has been beta'd by dowlingnana and her work is making the story flow more smoothly.

"There isn't any information known as to why they killed a year ago and that isn't any of our business, but, the actions they have conducted over the last several weeks are beyond their normal business and the involvement of innocent people isn't to be allowed. That is when it does become our business.

"So, I would suggest that we all get completely settled, get down to our perspective jobs because the way I see it this should be finished by this time next week since today is Wednesday and we will be heading home by next Tuesday." Allison tells all of them. Everyone nodded in agreement with those facts then separated to get some rest.

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Carlisle and Edward met the Swans at the private airfield and then conveyed them back to Chicago and the main family home. Not one word was spoken during the whole time. Emmett was in awe of his sister, Charlie and Jasper were worried about how Bella was going to be influenced with getting back together with the Crew, Renee was totally upset with her men folk while worrying about her daughter and the Cullen family was confused, worried and curious for what was about to happen.

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Mario was doing the same as the Black family heads; waiting for someone to make the next move that would lead them to the next step that would need to be made.

CHAPTER 36:

As Carlisle and Edward got the Swans back to the parental home and everyone said their greetings before the question was asked about which hotel the Swans were staying in. "None, you're staying here. After all you are family and we all need to be together right now to work this thing out about Bella and the people she has called to her aid." Esme tells them all. And with that information said, she proceeds to assign rooms to the four people while having their luggage collected from the vehicle outside and taken to their respective rooms.

"Esme, we can't intrude upon your family like this. Sure we have things that need to be discussed and done to work through all the information concerning my daughter, but, we can just as easily stay at a hotel and meet some place that is private." Renee stated as she was making a motion for Emmett and Jasper to retrieve their baggage.

"Nonsense. This is where you belong and we are private here and can discuss everything here without a chance of being overheard or interfered with." Carlisle took the stand of what Esme had told them. so, nothing else was said and the four went to their rooms to unpack and get their thoughts together before meeting the Cullen family down in the family room to begin discussing and trying to put a plan together to stop, but, if not stop, to at least help Bella with her plans and then to be able to walk away, hopefully for good this time.

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Everyone scrambled after getting settled, finding out what the mission was about and then making a list of all of the items they would need to get the job done. It wasn't long before each person had gathered the necessary equipment, had it set up and was ready to go.

Mary James, the Researcher, was the first to begin her task. Information, lots of information was needed to decide on the best course of action. That way they would be able to minimize the risk factor to themselves. But, they also needed to know who to target and who to warn. It had never been their way to harm anyone that was doing nothing more than following orders. Those were the ones that needed the warning to leave before getting in the way or being taken down after the police were called. The choice would be the individual's after the warning was given.

It doesn't take long before she turns towards the others and asks, "Did you know that a Mario or Marco Vincentelli, he seems to go by both names, had been hired to locate you and Jasmine? And, from what I can see he was hired by none other than Jacob Black." and then she turns to type a bit more before turning back to the group once more to tell them, "But, he was following a member of the Cullen family for some reason. Possibly to try and locate you through her."

Everyone is quiet for a moment or so before Mary continued, "This is a person I've heard of on other occasions. He's quite good at locating anything or anyone and freelances for the highest bidder which in this case seems to be the Black family.

"By the way, the Cullen bunch are more or less the high ranking of all of the Chicago crime families aren't they?" she asks Bella.

"They are, just as my family holds the same on the Western seacoast, especially in the Northwest. But, that has nothing to do with this. Black was fine until he refused to let go and then his obsession started endangering innocent people. That, we can't allow continuing any longer than it will take us to put a stop to the threat and his organization."

June Summers had been listening to everything said thus far and then offered an idea for consideration, "Mary, can you locate all of their accounts, both legal and illegal?"

"Yes, but, it will take a little bit of time."

"I would suggest locating the accounts, expected shipments coming and going along with information concerning upcoming meetings and things of that nature. Once we have that information then we can begin to divert any funds that are going to be paid out for said goods, meetings, pay offs and the like. This will get their attention rather quickly.

"It will also have the effect of alerting others as to Black's family having problems existing that will give them pause to reconsider associating with him. The method could possibly start causing discord amongst his own family as well."

"That's a good idea. We pull from one brother's account and deposit into the other's which would cause distrust between them. Then doing that with some of their other trusted persons as well will bring total disarray between all of them. Giving us a better chance doing what we need to do.

"We still need to warn others that have nothing to do with making decisions, to withdraw or stay away." Bella stated. Then looking around at everyone else to see if they had anything to add, but, all she saw was a nodding of heads. "Well, it seems that we have the first part of our plan decided."

So, while Mary was busily tapping away on her computers everyone else were quietly discussing what actions needed to be taken from that point. And, once again it was June that said she needed to get onto a computer to be able to locate the perfect place for them to try and then carry out sentence for Jacob and Sam.

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"Have we heard anything yet from Vincentelli?" Sam questioned.

"Nope, not a word since he lost track of Alice Cullen. However, he did report that he was following Edward Cullen and his father, Carlisle. He saw them pick up four people from a private airstrip and then they all returned to the main Cullen home."

"Okay, how long ago was that report?"

"A few hours ago."

"This idea is starting to be a total loss. It isn't accomplishing anything. All we are doing is paying him to move around the city and nothing else. He is supposed to be the best at locating and dealing with a problem, but, so far, he hasn't produced any results. It is starting to piss me off."

"Don't worry so much, Jake, the man knows what he's doing. I've taken the time to check into him myself and he hasn't failed once." Sam commented as he was passing through and had overheard the complaints.

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It was Aro's shift to be observing Mario's activities and keeping tabs on his going and comings in regards to the Cullen's. He had followed everyone out to the airfield and then back in and what he saw started to raise red flags once again. Something big was about to happen; that was the only reason the Swans had returned so soon to Chicago and then are presently held up at the Cullen home.

The problem was that no one, Marcus, Caius or him, had picked up on any indication as to what might be coming down. Nothing seemed to be happening except for the fact that everyone was after the same person and that person had been seen and has a connection with two of the top crime families, both the Cullen's and the Swans.

Black wants her because she had witnessed some of his less finer activities and could testify to that fact if the FBI could ever get a hold of her and then convince her to cooperate with bringing them down. But, so far that hadn't transpired and now she seems to have dropped completely out of sight.

As he was getting comfortable by shifting positions, Aro took the time to let his memory float back in time and drift to a time when all crime families were on edge. Sure that had been several years ago and it was comical in one sense as to what was making them all so nervous and distrustful of each other: a small group of individuals that was known as "The Crew". They delivered justice and ways that seem to fit the crime that person had committed against an innocent and then they called the police to pick up what was left with all information of where to find the evidence against said individual.

He was thankful that said group had stopped as suddenly as they had started and that they aren't involved with the current situation. If that were the case all hell would be about to break loose.

As he reached that point in his thoughts Aro felt his phone vibrate. Reaching to take it off of the seat next to him and then to answer he listened to what was being said on the other end. "Oh, shit. What the hell brought this about? Are they sure of the message received at headquarters?"

He stopped and listened for a moment longer and then asked, "Do you know what this means? This town is about to burst wide open if the "Crew" is here and after someone. Everyone is going to start running scared.

"I don't suppose by any chance that we have any information as to who they are after?" he asked and then paused while listening to the answer.

"So, all we have is a warning to be on standby for a call to pick up "the trash" as they referred to the person when they gave a call."

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"Charlie, is everything you said on the phone about Bella and the Crew factual?" Carlisle asks as everyone meets in the family room.

"Yes. I told you everything and now since she feels that she needs to take action and has called all of the team members to meet, she will act."

"Is she likely to get in touch with you before taking any action after sending that message to you through Esme?"

"I really don't know. The only reason the message was sent in the first place was because she promised me that is what she would do if the need ever arose for such an action. Now, that she has taken it I'm not sure what her next move, or, theirs, for that matter, will be."

"So, we are in a holding pattern at the moment until we can detect what she might be planning, or, until we hear from her next." Edward commented

"That's about it, son." Charlie tells him and everyone else. "There isn't anything else that I can tell you that hasn't already been said. But, I do know that once we find out what is going down we are going to need to be ready to move quickly to get her out of the way."

A/N: The Cullen's and the Swans are together and wondering what Bella and her group are about to do. The FBI has been alerted as to a forthcoming event. Jacob is getting upset due to the lack of results while Sam tries to reassure him. And the crew is putting together their plan of action in stair step order.

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