DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction for which we will receive no compensation, especially since all characters belong to a different Stephenie. But this story helped save the babies, which we are all for.

Thanks to maplestyle.

***TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER MENTIONS VIOLENT SITUATIONS AND MAY BE UNCOMFORTABLE FOR SOME. ***

Chapter 22

Bella took a deep breath before entering the guest house. The living room and kitchenette space were empty. The bedroom door had been fixed, but it was open, and she could see there was no one in there. The cottage was silent and still, and Bella wondered if Edward was even in here.

She peeked through the living room window and saw that his car was still on the street, so wherever he'd gone, he got there on foot. She figured she may as well wait him out in the cottage, hoping he wanted to talk.

And that she'd know what to say if he did.

She headed to the kitchenette and noticed the door to the liquor cabinet was open. She didn't have to check the bottles to know the vodka was missing, and she began to worry. Edward was a sloppy drunk under normal circumstances, but after what went down today, there was no telling what he might do.

It was then she heard a thump and muted curse in the bathroom. She hadn't thought to look in there because the light was off and the door was closed, but she sighed in relief, at least knowing where he was.

She approached the door and knocked lightly. "Edward?"

He muttered something that she didn't catch, and she wondered just how drunk he was.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"No," he said faintly. "I... I don't want... I mean, I..."

"It's okay. I get it." Bella realized that for all their acting and flirting, this level of realness was beyond anything they had agreed to. Maybe this was too much for him and he just didn't want her here. She didn't want to go back to the main house, but maybe she could take his car and do some sightseeing around the...

"But don't leave," he added. "I mean, unless you have somewhere to be."

"I don't. But this floor is hard as hell, so let me get comfortable."

She stole a cushion from the wingback in the living room and an afghan in case she got cold. She also didn't think it would be fair if he was the only one drinking, so she grabbed a bottle of wine and a stemless glass. One of them needed a semi-clear head right now, so tequila might be too much.

She settled against the wall next to the bathroom and kicked off her shoes. The bathroom door opened a crack. The light was still off, but he was at least willing to have her nearby.

"Do you want silence?" Bella asked. "Because I can do that."

"All evidence to the contrary," he muttered, and Bella chuckled. He didn't say anything else for a while, and Bella was content to just sit with him.

"So, you know." He eventually cleared his throat. "About Tanya."

Bella sighed. "Yes."

"I... I never meant for you to find out that way."

"That was your business to share or not share when and however you wanted. I don't feel any type of way for not knowing."

"I planned to tell you, especially knowing what might happen this week. I just didn't..."

"It's all right, Edward. Honest." Bella paused then quietly asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay."

"But if you want to ask about it, I don't mind answering your questions."

Bella nodded, but he couldn't see her. It would be entirely selfish to ask Edward to expose that part of himself to her, especially since his past with Tanya had no real bearing on things between him and Bella now.

But as that thought entered her mind, she realized how untrue it was. What happened with Tanya literally drove Edward across the country to Seattle and into Bella's life. Beyond that, Tanya's treachery with Emmett made Edward the man Bella knew him to be now.

The angry, wounded man she wanted to get to know.

Edward laughed suddenly, the harsh sound bringing Bella out of her thoughts. "You know what's funny?" he asked.

"What?"

"When she first walked in, for a split second, I was actually happy to see her." He took a swig of vodka, relishing the burn. "Can you believe that shit?"

"Yes. Someone can only have the power to hurt you if you loved them once. And as much as you might want to, you can't completely silence the part of your heart that remembers that."

He rested his head against the wall beside the door. "Fuck."

Bella refilled her wineglass and set the bottle beside her on the floor. "Did you... I mean, did you actually see..."

"See my best friend balls-deep in my wife when I came home early to surprise her with concert tickets on the afternoon of our eleventh wedding anniversary? Yep."

"I don't even know what to say to that."

"Neither did she. You should have seen them, scrambling to cover themselves up with the same sheet. She's tugging it one way, he's tugging it the other, both of them so busy offering bullshit excuses that they kept yanking the sheet from the other's hands. If it wasn't so fucked up, it would have been hilarious."

"I'm sorry."

"Why? You didn't fuck Emmett."

"And I wouldn't." She pressed her hand against the wall between them. "You have to know I would never do that to you."

He took another swig of vodka. "I know."

Edward fell silent then, his tolerance for the subject growing fainter by the moment. Bella knew the window of openness between them wouldn't last very long, and she wanted to do something to show him not only that she appreciated his honesty but that his pain was safe with her.

And in that moment, she realized she needed to do something. It was something she'd never thought she'd do – least of all with him – but in this moment, it was the best thing she could do.

"I, uh..." She cleared her throat. "I've told you what a horrible person my mother is, how she berated and mistreated me in private. Well, she could be even worse in public. One afternoon, she asked me to have lunch with her at work. I was on summer break and surprised she wanted to spend time with me. She asked me about my life and seemed genuinely interested, so I told her that I finished the year with a 3.90 GPA and would be spending the summer in Florida with a girl from UMass before starting my third year of med school. Her face fell, and she forbade me to go. Told me anything less than a 4.0 was worthless and she did not raise me to be some bikini-clad coed wasting her life on a beach when she could be preparing for her future. Her attitude pissed me off, so I told her I didn't need her permission and was going anyway."

Bella paused to take a sip of wine, and she heard Edward shift in the bathroom. "Go on," he whispered.

"She slapped me. Right there in the Mass Gen cafeteria with some of her colleagues in full view. I ran to the nearest stairwell, trying not to fall apart, and as I sat there with my head in my hands, I felt someone beside me, handing me a tissue. He said, 'If it makes you feel any better, she stepped on my foot in the elevator this morning because I missed a question during rounds. I think she broke my pinkie toe.'

"His words made me look up, and I saw this kind face looking back at me. He introduced himself as Peter, one of my mother's interns, and showed me where I could get some ice for my face without anyone seeing me. He walked me to my car and asked me if I'd be up for a drink when I came back from Florida. I didn't think he'd remember me, but when I called him that fall, he asked me out again. At first, I just dated him to further piss off my mother, but I really started to like him. I'm no stranger to one-night stands, but Peter wanted us to wait, so we didn't sleep together until like the ninth date. Suddenly I was a normal girl with a normal boyfriend, and the more I got to know him, the more I liked him. Well, the more I liked the person I thought he was."

Bella took another drink of her wine, and even though Edward didn't say anything, the door to the bathroom opened a little wider.

"One night we went to a bar, and Peter got a page from the hospital. He went to the pay phone in the back, and I waited at our table. Some guys came in... guess they didn't know I was with anyone because one of them had a drink sent over. As I politely declined it, Peter came back and dragged me out of the bar by my wrist. That was the first time he hit me. But he apologized and cried and seemed sincere, so I believed him. Until the second time when the Patriots missed the playoffs and the third time when I lost his umbrella. After that I stopped keeping count. But when he shoved me into the kitchen counter because I made him a sandwich with mayo instead of mustard, I decided that was the last time. I waited three weeks until he was out of town at a conference, packed my shit, and left him."

Edward didn't say anything, and Bella was grateful. If he interrupted her now, she'd never get it all out.

"We had no contact for several months, and I was starting to get past it. Then out of the blue, he was waiting for me outside my apartment, saying his grandfather had died. They had been close, so I felt sorry for him. He said he couldn't find one of the cufflinks his grandfather had gotten him when he graduated from med school and thought he might have lost it at my place. We'd gone to a few formal events as a couple, and he always wore those cufflinks, so it seemed plausible. I let him in, and when I went to lock the front door..."

Bella broke off on a sob, closing her eyes and covering her mouth. She heard the bathroom door open all the way and soon felt a warm hand on her knee. With a stuttering breath, she laid her hand atop his hand and continued.

"He cornered me and beat me unconscious. I woke up in Mass Gen the following night having little memory of what happened. Esme came in all frantic and took my hands. 'What did you do now?' she hissed. 'No one would do this to you if you hadn't given them a reason.' Through my shock at her reaction, I told her Peter did this to me, that he'd been beating me throughout our relationship and that's why I broke up with him. She went white as a sheet, dropped my hands, and rushed out of the room. While she was gone, the police came in, and I made a formal complaint. But when they went to check his alibi, they discovered that Dr. Benjamin was at the hospital all night on special assignment for his supervisor, even had time stamps from his ID badge to back it up. That's right: my mother provided the alibi for my abusive ex. She even told the detectives that I was a known slut and that any one of my many one-night stand partners probably did it."

"What about..." Edward cleared his throat, speaking gently. "What about DNA or physical evidence?"

"I don't know if he wore gloves or cleaned up right afterwards, but he didn't have a scratch on him. No one saw him arrive or leave my place, so it was my word against his. And with the great Esme Platt backing him and calling me a liar, I had no chance." She exhaled loudly, rubbing her damp eyes. "Can you... can you grab my purse from the living room?"

Edward scrambled to his feet and was back in seconds. Bella pulled out a tattered square of paper and handed it to Edward, murmuring, "This is my reminder of what happens when I trust the wrong people."

Edward unfolded the paper and gasped. The young woman in the xeroxed polaroid had a black swollen eye, a bloody nose, and a fat, busted lip. There were abrasions all over her face and bruises on her neck from where someone tried to strangle her. Though her face was unrecognizable, Edward's heart sank at the knowledge that this was Bella.

"I recovered in my apartment alone because Esme had not only cut me off financially but stopped speaking to me altogether. Once I was better, I took out loans and got a job to pay for school. I just put my head down and tried to blend in, doing everything I could to avoid attention."

"The baggy, dirty clothes..." Edward asked on a soft gasp. "Not doing your hair. That was... that was your way of protecting yourself?"

"I just didn't want anyone noticing me. Peter's abuse was always bad, but the way he'd act after a male cashier smiled at me or a guy held open the door for me... I figured looking good wasn't worth the risk anymore."

Edward removed his hand from her knee and crawled to his feet, his chest tightening. His mind instantly recalled every insult he'd ever hurled her way, every time he belittled her appearance, her mind, or her very existence, and he felt sick with shame. There was no apology big enough for the vile things he'd said to her, for the way he'd treated and thought of her, and now that he knew the truth about her past...

He gasped, a deeper truth stabbing him in the heart. She experienced his cruelty first-hand, yet she was here, helping him out of a situation that, compared to the horrors she'd endured, was barely worth her notice. Let alone her physical presence, commitment, and compassion. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he had been beyond wrong about Bella Swan. Wrong on in every possible respect.

And he had no idea what to do with that information.

"I didn't tell you that to make you feel sorry for me," she murmured from somewhere behind him. "I just... I guess I wanted you to know that I know a little something about terrible exes. And I would never judge or think less of you for what happened with yours."

Edward nodded, not trusting his voice. She was trying to help, but every thoughtful word she uttered only made him feel worse. He felt suffocated in his own skin, as if his soul was on fire, and he wanted to run from the house and not come back until the feeling subsided.

But some tiny part of him realized he owed her better than that. That while he couldn't do anything about who he'd been to her before, he could damn sure be better to her now.

"I'm going to lie down," Bella murmured. "All this dredging up the past has been a little exhausting."

"Would you..." Edward turned to face her, his eyes soft. "Would you like some company?"

Bella looked up at him. "Company? In bed?"

"Yes." The obvious jokes didn't even occur to him as he walked over to where she still sat on the floor. "I'd like to... I feel like anything I could say right now would be totally inadequate, and I just... I want to do something, so I'd like... well, can I hold you? Would that be all right?"

Bella looked down, blinking against the sudden sting in her eyes, and gave a small nod. Edward gently pulled her to her feet and led her to her room. He climbed on top of the made bed, lying on his back and opening his arms in invitation. Bella removed her earrings and joined him, snuggling into his side as he covered them both with a duvet. She rested her head on his chest, and he closed his arms around her. Neither said a word as time ticked by, and they shared a few silent tears before falling into a deep, restful sleep.

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