Disclaimer: All Twilight-related material belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Well, I'm glad that everyone was happy with Tanya getting the smack down from Bella! ;) I think she got off easy. Hopefully she's not done yet, eh?

This is a shorter chapter, but necessary. Next new chapter will be up tomorrow night (Thursday).

BPOV

"Mommy… why are we leaving?"

I give Masen the best smile I can muster as I answer him. "We'll talk about it later, okay?"

"Okay," he says with a nod of his adorable little head.

I close the door and take a deep breath before I get into the passenger seat. As soon as I'm sitting, Edward's hand is immediately grasping mine. "You okay?" he asks, his eyes full of concern.

"Yeah," I sigh. "I'm sorry that we have to do this."

"Don't, Bella," he says tightly. "This is not your fault."

I sigh again.

Edward's tone is different when he looks at Masen in the rearview mirror. "You ready for our adventure, buddy?"

"Yeah!" he shouts, giggling from the back seat.

Edward grins at him as he backs out of the driveway. I fight back tears as I look at my house; the place that has become our home together, slowly disappear in the side view mirror.

My sadness doesn't last long, quickly melting into white-hot anger. It's so unfair. Why should we have to leave our home? Why should we have to run away and hide? We've done absolutely nothing wrong – Tanya, Laurent, and whoever the man she hired to "get rid of" me, are the ones solely at fault here.

Tanya is currently rotting in a jail cell, but Laurent and the mystery man are still out there, somewhere, so we can't stay in Forks. We must go into hiding until they're both caught – which is why this is all my fault.

Suddenly, my phone rings. Well, technically, it's not my phone – it's the phone that Alec gave me. I answer it immediately, even though it's a random number, because my dad and Alec are the only two people who have this number.

"Hello?"

"Hi there, Bells," my dad says quietly. He sounds as sad as I am. "Are you guys on the road now?"

"Yeah… we just left. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything is fine. Esme is having a hard time, but Rose and Alice are taking care of her."

I close my eyes and try to control my warring emotions. My emotions have been going haywire lately, especially over these last few weeks. Sadness overtakes me once more as I think about everyone this situation is hurting. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially since we don't know how long we'll be away; it could be days, weeks, even months. Esme has taken all this the hardest.

"This is ridiculous," I mutter. I see Edward looking at me out of the corner of my eye. "How long are we going to have to do this?"

My dad answers first. "I don't know, Bella. I know it's hard, but you all need to be safe."

"I should've just done this myself."

I see Edward's hands grip the steering wheel tightly. I know I've pissed him off – we've been fighting about this for the last few days.

When my dad and Alec told us that I would have to hide out, I wanted to go alone. Edward, on the other hand, had other ideas…

"No fuckin' way, Bella! You are not going alone."

"Edward… I need to. It's not fair to you and Masen. There's no reason to uproot all of our lives just because of me."

"This is not your fault! This is Tanya's fault. Actually, if you want to be accurate, I guess this is all my fault. She's my ex-wife; I'm the reason she's in our lives, Bella. What am I supposed to do without you, huh? Do you think I'm going to be able to relax, at all, the entire time you're gone? I won't be able to even breathe, not knowing what's going on with you; not being able to talk to you…"

I close my eyes and try to rein in my retort. I don't want to fight with him; I don't want to give Tanya another victory in our lives. "Edward… it's not safe."

"It's not safe?" he laughs. "It's not safe for us here, either! What if this guy decides to go after Masen to lure you out of hiding? What if he decides to use our son as bait?!"

He won the fight, right then and there. That's why I agreed for us to all go together. I couldn't risk Masen's safety.

"Bella?"

My father's voice breaks me out of my memories. "Sorry… what did you say?"

"Hang in there, honey. Alec will get in touch with you as soon as this is all over, all right?"

"Okay. Thanks, dad. I love you."

"I love you, too. Tell Edward and Masen that I love them as well."

"I will."

I hang up and slip the flip phone back into my purse just as Masen asks his favorite question for the tenth time. "Are we there yet?"

I smile. It's the first genuine smile in days. "No, not yet baby. We'll be there soon."

.-.

"Well… it's not… so bad."

I scoff at Edward's assessment of our new living arrangements. "It's not so bad, Edward? We're going to be staying in this room for who knows how long. How are we going to do this?"

I look around the small hotel room that's jam packed. Two queen-sized beds sit against the back wall with a nightstand in between them. On the opposite wall, there's a flat screen tv, a desk, and a closet. On the farthest wall, there's a door that I can only assume leads to the bathroom.

As I walk toward it, I pray that it's moderately sized. I groan when I open the door and realize it's the size of a closet. There's a small shower with no tub, a tiny toilet, and a small vanity with a circular mirror.

Edward follows me into the bathroom and wraps his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my right shoulder. "We can do this, Bella. It isn't going to be like this forever."

"I know," I sigh, leaning back against his lean, strong frame. "It's just… hard."

"I know it is."

"Mommy! Come here! Look out the window! You can see everything!"

"Wow!" I share in his excitement, trying to make this as easy on him as possible.

"Look at the park across the street! Can we go there? Pwease?"

I look to Edward who shrugs and nods with a smile.

Half an hour later, after getting settled in our room, we're both watching Masen laugh and run around the small park. He slides down the tallest slide, giggling all the way down. His giggles make me giggle, but as happy as I feel right now, I can't make myself relax. My eyes dart around the park constantly looking for a threat.

Could this mystery man somehow know where we are? Were we careful enough? Is there any way that he can find us?"

"Where are you?" Edward asks, squeezing my hand. "Come back to me."

I try to give him a smile, but I can't help the tears that fall down my face. Embarrassment washes over me. I feel like a failure.

"Hey, hey, relax," Edward coos as he pulls me closer to him on the bench. "Everything is going to be fine, Bella. I promise. I won't let anyone hurt you or Masen. Okay?"

"I'm trying, Edward. I really am. It's just all too much sometimes, you know?"

"I know, baby, I know."

"I just… I thought that once Tanya was out of our lives, things would be easier, but somehow… our plan backfired. Everything is just… worse."

Edward sighs and runs his hands through my hair. "I know it seems that way… and maybe you're right. But… I believe that sometimes, things need to get worse before they get better. Remember when you thought you'd always fear Riley?"

I nod. "I still fear him... sometimes."

"That's understandable, Bella. Honestly, there will always be a part of you that feels that way. That experience left its mark on you, it left a scar on your heart. Do you know what scars prove?" I shake my head. "Strength." He kisses my forehead. "Bravery." He kisses my nose. "Survival." He kisses my lips gently. "This will all be over and it will only be a scar; something we faced and beat together."

"I love you, Edward. I love you so much."

"I love you, Bella, more than you know." He hugs me to him tightly. "Let's just think of this as an extended vacation, okay? I'm sure there's plenty to do here in Olympia."

"Okay," I grin at him.

I snuggle against him and scan the playground for Masen. My heart plummets into my stomach when I can't find him. "Masen!" I scream as I jump up, nearly knocking the entire bench over, and Edward right along with it.

He catches himself and is at my side in seconds, his head moving from side to side as he scans the park. "Masen!" he hollers, cupping his hands. His voice is filled with the panic that I feel.

"Why you guys yellin'?" We both whip around and I cry out when I see Masen standing there beside the bench. "Look," he says nodding toward his closed hands. "I caught a bufferfly!"

He opens his hands and the butterfly slowly flutters its wings, not moving from his tiny palm. I stumble towards him and collapse in front of him. I feel Edward beside me as I pull Masen into my lap. Edward wraps his arms around me, pulling both of us against him.

Surprisingly, all the commotion doesn't seem to bother the butterfly at all. "Isn't it pretty, Mommy?" Masen asks me with a grin, totally unaware of how shaken Edward and I are.

I smile at him, hiding my anxiety. "It sure is. Can you do me a favor?" He nods. "Can you make sure that you stay where Daddy and I can see you?"

He nods, but looks confused. "I thought you sawed me. I walked right past you, but you was kissing."

He makes a disgusted face and Edward lets out a strained laugh that's on the verge of tears. "We're sorry, buddy."

"Are you gonna cry, Daddy?" Masen asks, his lower lip trembling. He shakes his hand, causing the butterfly to leave his palm. He crawls even further onto my lap and kneels on my thighs, resting his head on my shoulder as he looks at Edward. "Don't cry, Daddy. I'll tell you where I'm going, even if you and Mommy are being gross." His little nose scrunches up, making us laugh.

"Sounds like a good idea, buddy. Are you ready to go back to the room?"

"Yeah, "Masen nods. "Can we watch a movie?"

I hear the smile in Edward's voice when he answers. "Anything you want, buddy."

A/N: So… our lovebirds are in the home stretch here with handling all the jerks who want to mess with them! Woohoo! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I'm re-writing one of my other stories, like I did with this one, and would absolutely love it if you could check it out and let me know what you think! It's called Ready, Set, Action! Check it out. :)