Outtake Two - EPOV
Captain Masen Learns His Lesson
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Once Emmett and I have begun Breaking Dawn's start up procedure, I retreat to the wheelhouse. It is my sanctuary, a place where dangerous temptresses can not follow me... at least not physically. Skies are clear and the water is calm. Only a few pleasure craft are out and about this morning. The engines roar to life with the simple press of a couple of buttons. Free from her tethers, the ship pulls away from the pier. I settle in, alternating between steering around obstacles in the harbor and keeping tabs on the gauges positioned around me.
The ship travels a good distance in the next couple of hours. My guard eases somewhat when we reach the open ocean. There's not another vessel in sight. I kick back and relax. Only a soft, musical voice from the other side of the door has the power to lure me out of my chair.
"That sounds amazing. Did you really cook all that by yourself?"
I lean against the door frame. I'm unsurprised to see that it was Bella's voice I heard just now. Emmett is chatting with both her and that young blonde girl who tried on the life jacket during the safety demonstration.
"Cooking is a hobby of mine," he explains. "Captain Masen and I usually take turns with the duties on board - except when it comes to the kitchen. His cooking sucks. He has no imagination. If I wasn't here to stop him, he'd serve the guests meals that come from cans. And there'd probably be Twinkies for dessert."
Although I appreciate how he refers to me as Captain Masen while in front of the passengers, I am slightly annoyed by his insult against a childhood favorite of mine.
"Twinkies are as American as apple pie, and they taste just as good," I retort in their defense.
He half rolls his eyes. "Only you would say that. I'm sure if these lovely ladies were given the choice between the delicious cake I poured my heart and soul into and your cheap Twinkies, they would pick mine every time. Isn't that right..." He looks expectantly at the woman who has been the source of my unrelenting fantasies for the past twenty-four hours.
"Bella," she answers.
"Ah, Bella. Now that's a beautiful name for a beautiful woman." Emmett aims a side smirk in my direction. "Don't you agree?" he says pointedly.
For Christ's sake. He's giving her hints! If that fucker wasn't built like an armored tank, I would kill him right now.
"I love Twinkies!" chimes in the squeaky-voiced blonde. "I mean, I think they're great. They're so long...and the creamy filling is my favorite."
The perky blonde created a nice disruption to the conversation. Hopefully, Bella won't put two and two together and realize what Emmett was hinting at a moment ago. Still, things aren't going well for me. The way the blonde is checking me out leaves no room for doubt:
She wants me.
Emmett chuckles to himself. Yeah, yuk it up, asswipe. I'm glad my discomfort amuses you. He knows my interests are reserved exclusively for brunettes - preferably ones who possess functioning brains. On top of that, I have a little rule to live by: The only women I would dare touch cannot be young enough to be my kid.
That makes it three strikes against blondie here.
She introduces herself as Tanya and tries to weasel my first name out of me. I avoid answering the question. I go by Captain Masen for a reason. Passengers are more likely to respect me if I keep things professional. The use of Edward is strictly for trusted friends and family - and there's only a select few who fall in that category.
Before Tanya can flirt any further, I make a clean getaway to the wheelhouse. As I eat the lunch Emmett brought up, curiosity gets the best of me. I pull up the passenger list on my laptop and study it.
Carlisle and Esme Cullen are in the first suite. That must be the married couple I saw earlier.
Rosalie and Riley Cullen are sharing a room with twin beds. I'm guessing this is the married couple's daughter and grandson.
Tanya Petrov. Room Four, single occupancy. This room belongs to the Twinkie-loving airhead.
Lastly, I find the information I was searching for. Mike Newton and Bella Swan are registered for the only other suite on the ship. It features an extra large bathroom, dramatic ocean view, and a king-sized bed.
I stare at the two names listed before me for longer than what would be considered normal. Now I know the fiancé's name.
Mike and Bella. Bella and Mike.
I'll never understand it. How can she stand sleeping in the same bed with someone she clearly cares nothing for?
Hours later, the sun sets on our first day into the cruise. Emmett is currently serving the passengers their dinner; I am resting in the crew's quarters. And by resting, I mean I am hunched over our tiny kitchen table and laboring over my notepad. Bella wore a hat today. The ribbon around the band matched her sundress. While reclined on a deck chair, she read a book. Not a book downloaded to a Kindle or e-reader, but an actual book. There was a touch of classic elegance about her that you don't often see nowadays. Preserving the moment on paper is a must.
I'm deep into the drawing when Emmett saunters down the stairs. He's whistling one of Britney's old pop monstrosities that never should have made it into the Hot 100. I swear, sometimes I wonder if there's a thirteen year old girl from the year 2000 trapped inside of him.
He reaches into the fridge and cracks open a soda. After taking a swallow, he leans back against the kitchen counter.
"So... I talked a lot with Bella today," he says casually.
"Mmm." Muttering nonsense is my polite way of letting him know that I don't care to hear another word. He usually ignores this just to irritate me. Tonight is no exception.
"She's nice, smart... Cute, too. No wonder you like her so much."
"How could I like her? I don't know her at all," I reply with an air of feigned indifference.
"Then maybe you should try getting to know her."
This triggers me. I glare at him. "Where are you going with this?"
"I'm just sayin' you two should talk. This crazy, horny thing you have for her must mean something. Maybe it's the beginning of something bigger."
"She's engaged, Emmett."
"Yeah, but the guy she's with is a smarmy little shit. You should've heard him during dinner. He tried telling me that the wine I picked out didn't go with the meal I prepared. Inside my head I was like, 'Excuse me, dude, but only a barbarian would drink a dessert wine with glazed lamb.'"
"You're basing your dislike for him merely because he disagreed with the wine selection?"
"No, I'm basing it on the way he talked over everyone, including Bella! He acted like he was God's gift to humanity." Emmett takes on a fake snob accent. "'I donate all my old clothing to charity - even the name brand stuff. Those less fortunate who end up with my castoffs can't completely understand the sacrifice I'm making, but I'm sure they appreciate looking almost as good as I do.'" Emmett loses the pretentious way of talking and raises an eyebrow. "See what I mean? Dude is a jerk. Personally, I think you'd be doing Bella a favor if you broke them up."
"That won't be happening."
"He doesn't deserve her, Edward. She's a sweetheart."
"A sweetheart? You've got to be fucking kidding me!"
I launch into what I saw at the restaurant last night. Emmett listens and doesn't interrupt. At the end of my story, he offers his perspective.
"Who gives a damn if she doesn't really love him? Did Anna Nicole Smith love that old dude she married? Hell no! Did the old dude care she only married him for his money? Not likely! He got what he wanted out of it - a hot babe to hang from his arm. Maybe it's that way with Bella and Mike too."
I shake my head. "I don't think so. You didn't see the way he looked at her. She's using him somehow, and he has no clue."
Emmett takes a long swallow from his soda, just watching me. It's a good minute before he responds.
"You wanna know what I think? This obsession you have with her scares you, so you're desperate to make her out to be the bad guy."
"I am not obsessed with her. I just find her to be somewhat attractive. She's an interesting subject to draw."
"Oh. My mistake." He joins me in looking down at my notepad. "Hmm. You forgot to add her freckle."
My head snaps up so fast, I almost suffer whiplash. "What? Where?!"
His shit-eating grin is pure evil. It's my fault, I suppose. I walked right into his trap.
"Welp, my point has been proven, Mister I'm-Not-Obsessed," he declares smugly. He struts away a few steps and stops. "By the way, I wasn't lying about the freckle. She's got a teeny tiny one right about..." He points at a spot on his left shoulder. "There."
As much as I want to kick his ass for making me look like a fool, I still owe him one. At least my drawing of Bella is accurate now.
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The next morning, the ship docks at our first destination. The island is small and the village is rustic. It's always a hit with the passengers since they are allowed to explore the area on their own for a while. I notice Emmett being extra attentive to Rosalie and her son before they leave. He goes out of his way to give them ideas for kid-friendly activities to do while on shore. He even waves them a goodbye as they disembark. I'm not sure if it's because he loves interacting with children, or if he's infatuated with the mom. I wouldn't be surprised if both possibilities are true.
After we do a quick clean up of the public areas of the ship, Emmett wanders off to shop at the island's farmers market. He enjoys haggling with the locals and later serving what he bought for dinner. With some free time available, I pull up a chair near the boarding plank and make myself comfortable. The notepad keeps me occupied. I concentrate on the expression I saw on Bella a short while ago. Upon hearing that we would be scuba diving this afternoon, she smiled only with her eyes.
For the next half hour, I work on getting the expression just right.
The sound of light footsteps persuades me to look up. And there she is. Bella is the first to return from exploring the village. Her arms are weighed down with souvenirs. I glue my eyes to the safety of the notepad. The boarding plank creaks as she walks over it. I try valiantly to pretend I don't care that she's back.
Her quiet gasp is all it takes to reel me in.
Several things happen in quick succession. She has lost her footing. She's seconds away from falling into the water. My body reacts before I can fully comprehend what's going on. Notepad, pencil, everything is abandoned as I rush to her aid. I catch her around the middle and pull her close. She's pressed against me, her back to my front.
Every nerve in my body buzzes from the thrill of holding her.
I am overwhelmed by the incredible softness of her skin. And she's so very, very warm. She exudes a comforting warmth you might experience while underneath a pile of blankets on a cold winter's morning. It makes me not want to let go. The scent of coconut - from her sunscreen, no doubt - plus something else permeates the air around her. It's faintly sweet and soothing to the senses. The scent reminds me of home, a place I've spent years running from.
She turns around. I cannot look away. Her lips part open like a newly-bloomed rose, pink and delicate. It makes me want to bite them. Her eyes are no less diverting. Dark chocolate with tiny veins of gold. They are fathomless. I could fall into them and never resurface.
The longer I stare, the more I find myself enticed by the idea.
"Hey, Bella!" shouts Emmett from nearby. "You ok?"
Slowly, she nods. Our locked gazes sever. Emmett's interruption came just in time. It broke the spell she cast over me.
"I... better go check the engines," I say in a strained whisper. It's a shitty excuse, but I'm desperate to get away.
Snatching my notepad and pencil from where they fell, I flee below deck. Down the stairs and through a short hallway is a storage area. I don't go in that direction. My destination is off to the left. Motors the size of compact cars are in the exact center of the engine room. Buttons, levers, and pipes take up much of the remaining space, giving the area an industrial feel.
I barely give my surroundings a glance. I'm too busy banging my head against the wall to pay attention to anything else.
"Fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck!" I hiss over and over.
What's gotten into me? Had Emmett not opened his big mouth a minute ago, I might have done something stupid. I was this close to kissing Bella. The sight and smell of her intoxicated my brain and turned it to mush. Even now I want nothing more than to make her lips red.
I hate myself for it.
How could I let this happen? After Heidi stomped on my young heart, I learned to keep my emotions in check. I promised myself I would never let someone have power over me again. But look at me now. All Bella has to do is use her big doe eyes on me and I end up losing my mind. I have got to fight against this. I have to get a fucking grip!
Movement from behind me disturbs my self-flagellation. I don't bother looking. The engine room is off limits to guests. It will only be Emmett.
"Edward... I came down to check on you," he says gently. "You feeling all right, buddy?"
I continue banging my forehead against the wall. Knocking this obsessive shit out before it destroys me completely is more important than discussing my problems with him.
"I saw what happened," he goes on. "You rescued a beautiful girl and then took off running down here. Why? Did you get excited when you touched her? Need to go shiver your timber?"
I pause momentarily to flip him off. He laughs and leaves me to my suffering. It's times like these that make me wonder why I agreed to go into business with Emmett. Looking back, maybe I would have been better off with a dog.
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And so the days pass. I work, do my job as expected - but on the inside - I am in agony. No matter where I go or how much I pretend to ignore her, I cannot escape Bella. She haunts me every moment, a living spirit let loose on the ship. Her smiles, her laughter, her words are never meant for my eyes and ears. That doesn't make any difference. I soak up information about her like a sponge.
One thing which stood out to me is how easily she endears herself to new people. For instance, we stopped off at the island home of some good friends of mine the other day. The Timon family have worked the land for generations. They own a small but prosperous farm where they allow visitors to look around. Of course, I pay them handsomely for the privilege whenever my ship anchors there. Their youngest child, Kalia, is normally shy with strangers. She rarely interacts with people she does not know. But almost as soon as she saw Bella walking around the farm, Kalia became a different person. She glued herself to Bella's side and couldn't stop smiling. I've never seen her so chatty with someone she literally just met.
As always, the family served lunch at the tour's conclusion. Kalia sat next to Bella and continued to talk. When I realized she was asking Bella questions, I found myself eavesdropping. I could not believe I had sunk so low. But on the bright side, I learned more about Bella in five minutes than what I had learned in the past several days. Now I know where she comes from originally, where she lives currently, and a dozen other things only a child (and myself) would find interesting.
Before we left the farm, Kalia gifted a hand-made flower wreath to Bella. She proclaimed it to be a crown. I barely hid my smile. That's why she was in awe of Bella - Kalia thought Bella was a princess! Playing along, Bella lowered herself enough to where Kalia could perform the "crowning" ceremony. The sight of her wearing it nearly stopped my heart. Kalia was correct. Bella really does look like a princess from a storybook, one with grace and enchanting beauty.
I'm still on the fence about what her heart is made of, though. She's either a kind person and I've completely misjudged her, or she's a conniving ice princess.
Back to the present, Week One of the cruise is almost over. Besides my fixation with Bella, a problem of a different nature has plagued me on board Breaking Dawn. Tanya has spent six days bugging the hell out of me. Besides the over-the-top flirting, she has been following me around like a headache, asking inane questions while I'm trying to do my job. Our conversations usually go something like this:
Tanya: Hi, Captain! Where are we exactly?
Me: We're around five miles below the equator.
Tanya: That's so exciting! Will we feel the bump when we go across it?
Me (visibly confused): What?
Tanya: You know! I saw on a globe one time that the line goes all around the world.
Me: I think you're confused. You can't actually see or feel the equator. It's an imaginary line.
Tanya (giggling like a schoolgirl): Oh, you! Stop kidding around! Now, when we do cross it, should we put on seatbelts just to be safe?
Drinking alcoholic beverages is not allowed while I am on duty.
This is hands down the worst rule I ever made.
Tanya accelerated her pursuit of me last night. I woke up to knocking at my bedroom door. I opened it, assuming it was Emmett. It wasn't. Tanya tried inviting herself into my personal sanctum. Her purpose: sex. What really bothered me was how she automatically assumed I would agree to it. I've never given her reason to believe I enjoyed her company, so why she thought otherwise is beyond my comprehension. Before she could wedge her way through the door, I shut down her plan and sent her on her way.
She hasn't talked to me at all today. I think she's avoiding me.
It's my first lucky break this entire trip.
A large tropical cyclone has formed in the region. The worst of it is projected to pass to the west of us. Regardless, I will be monitoring it closely. The outer bands are predicted to hit this area later this evening. It's nothing much to worry about, but I do spend the daylight hours preparing the ship for strong wind gusts and rain.
As I'm lashing down the outside furniture, a figure passes close by. I can tell just by the way she walks that it's Bella. I watch her from my peripheral vision as I work. She moves to the bow of the ship and leans over the railing. The position this puts her in makes it hard for me to concentrate on anything else. It doesn't help that the pants she's wearing highlights her lush figure.
Footsteps shuffle to my side. Emmett stares where my own eyes have been these last several minutes. "Damn," he says quietly. "Bella's got back."
I swing around. "Shut the fuck up. Don't talk that way."
"Geez, it was only a compliment."
"I don't care. Stop looking at her ass."
"Why? You were doing it too."
"I was only looking over there because... I need you to do something, Emmett."
"What?"
"Go tell her to stop leaning so far over the railing. One rough wave could jar the ship and send her overboard."
"Oh, good point. But why don't you tell her? Still too chicken to talk to the pretty girl?"
I give him a go-to-hell glare. He simply grins before strutting over to do what I asked. Unfortunately, he does it his own way. He sneaks up on her and practically nuzzles into her ear. He's only joking around, but that doesn't matter to me. Seeing him flirt with her is enraging. What's worse is that she doesn't shut him down. She smiles, clearly amused by his antics.
I stomp away to the engine room. There's an indentation on the wall from where I've been hitting my forehead these past several days. That wall will probably be knocked down completely by the time this fucking trip is over.
It's dark outside by the time I'm finally done with my chores. Inside the crew's quarters, I heat up a plate of leftovers. As I pull up a chair to the table, Emmett comes barging in. He takes one look and goes pale in the face.
"What are you doing?!" he bellows.
"What does it look like? I'm trying to eat."
"Shit, man! Karaoke night starts in fifteen minutes. Don't tell me you forgot!"
"I didn't."
"Then how come you're sitting around in your boxers?"
"Because I plan on staying down here while you throw your little party. Listening to tone-deaf singing isn't really my thing."
He groans. "Please don't do this to me. This is the inaugural night!"
"So?"
"What's it gonna look like to the passengers if the captain of the ship is the only person who didn't show up? That's embarrassing, bro! I need your support if this is going to be a weekly event."
I sigh. Doing Saturday night karaoke was Emmett's idea. He claimed it would help bring more business if we provide entertainment while out at sea. He may have a point, but I also suspect he just wants to sing his favorite songs in front of an audience.
"Fine. I'll come - but don't expect me to do anything. This is your responsibility," I remind him.
"That's cool with me." He checks the time. "Fourteen minutes and counting!"
"I can't wait," I mumble tepidly before digging into my food.
Approximately thirteen minutes later, I am dressed and back among the passengers. Emmett rearranged the lounge this afternoon. It now has the ambience of a miniature karaoke bar. I find a table off by itself and set up my laptop. If I have to be here, I'm at least going to work. To keep up appearances, I pay occasional attention to who is at the mic. Emmett sings well but his taste in music is questionable. Tanya's isn't much better. The other passenger performances aren't bad, though Mike could use some singing lessons.
Roughly an hour in, Emmett once again takes the mic. "Hey, Captain! It's your turn to shine. Get on up here!"
I glance up from my laptop. He knows for a fact I wouldn't get up in front of anyone - even my own mother - and sing. I conceal my annoyance since we are surrounded by the passengers.
"No thanks. I'm keeping up with the updates on the cyclone. Plus, I'm working on a budget for the next quarter."
"It would only be for a couple of minutes! And there's plenty of songs that were made for you to sing. I can name some right off the top of my head." He grins cockily at me. "The Girl Is Mine. You Belong With Me. If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don't Want to Be Right..."
My temper threatens to explode like a volcano. I cannot fucking believe he's taunting me in front of all these people. Those song choices are not innocent. They have an obvious hidden meaning.
"I said 'no thanks'," I hiss through my teeth.
"But-"
"I mean it, Emmett. Do you want me to accidentally screw up your pay for the next three months?"
His eyes widen. He read my message loud and clear. My patience is at its limits. I can only take so much teasing before I snap.
Slapping on a smile, he looks to our guests. "Ok! So that's a 'no' from the Captain. Who else wants to sing?"
Confident that Emmett won't crack any more jokes at my expense tonight, I relax and focus on the work in front of me. Rosalie goes up to sing. From the little I caught of her performance, she did fine. Once she is done, Emmett claims the stage. The opening bars of the theme song from Titanic begins to play.
Inwardly, I groan.
Emmett has a weird attachment to that movie. He says it's because he was given the VHS tape of it back when he was a kid. It had been the only gift he received that first Christmas in the foster care system. For this reason alone do I humor him when he insists on playing that damn movie every Thanksgiving.
I'm surprised when he drags someone to the microphone with him. Bella is clearly nervous as they begin their duet. Ordinarily the song makes me want to rip my ears off.
Not so tonight. I hang onto every note.
Bella fumbles the lyrics at first. Gradually, she gets into the spirit of the moment and the performance improves. Her voice has a light, pleasing quality that goes well with Emmett's rich baritone. Her eyes sparkle. She smiles. It looks like she's having a good time.
For once, I'm glad Emmett came up with this karaoke night idea.
At the end of their duet, she returns to the couch to sit with Mike. He congratulates her on how well she did, even taking the time to kiss her cheek. I'm hit with a wave of jealousy... though that does not last. The instant Mike looks away, she wrinkles her nose and wipes her face - as though he is the most disgusting creature that's ever had the audacity to touch her.
There she goes again, making it obvious she doesn't give a rat's ass about the guy.
I find it much easier to return to my work now that I've been reminded of how cold her heart must be.
After the karaoke event comes to a close, Emmett declares it was a success. I don't feel like celebrating. I head off to my room and climb into bed. Exhaustion pulls me under quickly.
I'm torn from my dreams by a pounding on the door. With one eye open, I squint at the time. It's almost one in the morning. I force out a gust of air from my lungs and glare up at the ceiling.
Fucking hell.
Tanya's back. Who else would be bothering me at this hour? I thought she had gotten a clue and had given up her pursuit of me. How many times will I have to explain to the girl that I will never have sex with her?
I slip a shirt over my head and swing open the door. But rather than confronting a clueless airhead, I meet the steady gaze of Bella.
Her dark hair is slightly damp. She looks clean and fresh as a daisy. Her little robe stops just above her knees. From the way it's tied tightly around her waist, it makes me wonder if she's wearing anything underneath.
I stifle a groan. To think of her in that way is wrong, especially since I know her morals are out of wack. But I can't help it. Why is she down here? Guests are forbidden in the crew's quarters. Of course that didn't stop Tanya. She broke the rules last night to ask for sex. This brings up an interesting possibility:
Perhaps Bella is here to do the same.
To say I am not tempted would be a lie.
Bella's already impossibly big eyes seem to grow larger. Her mouth opens, breaking the silence.
"I smell smoke."
This is not at all what I expected her to say.
Confused, I step into the hallway and inhale. My senses snap to attention. It's light, barely perceptible, but I do smell the stench of smoke.
Fire on board a ship is a serious matter. Taking control of the situation as soon as possible could mean the difference between life and death. I beat on Emmett's door to alert him of the danger. While he wakes up, I throw together the essentials, such as the satellite phone, a knife, compass, and my notepad. Following the scent of smoke, the three of us rush to the main deck.
It's worse than I feared. A fire is blazing in the engine room.
The first thing I do is order Emmett to go to the wheelhouse and call for help. Then, he is to get all the passengers off the ship. He isn't happy that I'll be fighting the fire by myself, but he is well aware that getting everyone to a safe location is our number one priority. Our second priority is to save the ship, if possible.
Seizing a fire extinguisher, I duck below deck. The amount of smoke is insane. It's thick and stings my eyes. The shirt I tied around my head does very little to protect my nose and lungs. My morale sinks when I finally get a good look at what I'm dealing with. Almost half the engine room is ablaze. The contents of the fire extinguisher empties fast. I grab another strapped to the wall. It meets the same fate. Neither did much good. Flames spread faster than I can combat them.
The power flickers out. Emergency lights kick on. The feeble light is no match against the thick, black smoke. I shine my tiny flashlight around the room. Dread fills me when I see the fire crawling towards a thick pipe. It's the fuel line to the engines. Once it gets there, it's game over.
There's no fighting this fire. It has won.
I have no choice but to abandon ship. Halfway up the darkened stairs, I run into something blocking my way out. I push it forward like a bulldozer. Only when I reach the main deck do I realize it had been Bella hindering my escape.
"What do you think you're doing? You're supposed to be on the life raft!" I shout.
She's coughing so much, she barely can get words out. "I can't find Mike!" she croaks. "Do you know where he is?"
She claims to have looked all over the ship for her fiancé. She asks if there's anywhere below deck that I haven't checked tonight. I mention the storage area in the vaguest of terms. The room is hot and humid, like a tin can in a sauna. It's not a place anyone would want to be in for long. I doubt Mike went in there. But even if he had, it would be too late to save him now. I watched the fire claim that space only minutes ago. To keep her from panicking, I wisely keep that information to myself.
Bella's nose tips up arrogantly. As she attempts to get around me, I grab her arm and pull her back. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to get Mike."
"The hell you are. You are not going down there."
"Oh yes I am. It will only take a minute."
"Do you not understand? We have to get the fuck away now. The fire is out of control. It's almost at the fuel line. This ship is about to be blown out of the water."
"Then that's a good reason for me to go get Mike before that can happen, isn't it?"
Her blasé attitude is irritating. I barely keep my temper under control.
"I don't have time for this," I grumble.
"Neither do I. Let me go and get out of my way."
In this moment, she sounds exactly like a spoiled princess - one who's so out of touch with reality, she believes she is invincible.
That leaves me with no choice.
Before she can guess what I'm up to, I throw her over a shoulder. For a moment, my hand accidentally touches her ass. Under different circumstances, I might have considered this as foreplay.
"Hey!" she yells. "What are you...? Put me down!"
I tune out her tantrum as I head to the portside of the ship. The more she kicks and struggles, the tighter my grip around her legs. I grab a life preserver and rope along the way. There's no time to take anything else. Swinging my lower half over the railing, I observe how the ocean swells are rough tonight. It's going to take a lot of effort to find Emmett and the life raft.
I give a warning before I haul us both overboard. The resulting splash silences her angry protests. We're pulled deep into the cool, watery depths. I rely solely on instinct to bring us up. While she's distracted with spitting out salt water, I start swimming us away from the ship. Sooner than I expected, a boom shakes the night air. Fragments of wood and other debris fly in multiple directions. Worried something will hit us, I dive us underwater again. Bella's fingernails dig into my arm. She must be running out of air.
We float back to the surface. With a perverse sense of curiosity, I look upon the fate of my ship.
My entire livelihood has gone up in flames.
Breaking Dawn quickly sinks to oblivion, barely leaving a trace. It took a decade for me to build my life to this point. For it to be destroyed in a matter of minutes is a crushing blow.
Bella's reaction is the only thing which snaps me out of my depression. She no longer struggles in my arms. All she does is stare limp and forlorn at the floating rubble surrounding us. I ask her if she is all right.
She doesn't even blink. She mutters one incomprehensible word and then goes eerily silent.
Jesus Christ. She must be having a break down. I have to get her out of the water right now. I can brood over my clusterfuck of a life later.
I come up with a strategy. Swim a minute, check to see if I can find the life raft's flashing beacon, then swim some more. It isn't easy. Waves crash over us continually. Even with Bella's life jacket and the preserver to keep us afloat, my arm muscles burn from trying to keep our heads above the water.
Fortunately, I do eventually spot the dark outline of something against the night sky. As I bring us closer, I realize this isn't the raft. I have found our transport boat. How it got loose is a mystery, but I'm not going to complain. It's miraculous that it survived the explosion. Having a raft and a boat ensures our survival until help arrives.
Bella summons the awareness to climb in first, to which I breathe a sigh of relief. The first thing I do once I'm inside is collapse on a bench. After I catch my breath, I check on her. A flashlight is pointing at her pale face. Bella is not the one holding it. There's a third person on this boat.
It appears Bella was searching Breaking Dawn for no good reason. Mike was safe all along.
Suspicious by his very presence, I confront him.
"How did you end up with this boat? Did Emmett give you permission to take it?"
"Um, no..." he hesitates.
"Then I fail to see why you took this particular boat. I ordered everyone to get on the life raft."
"Yeah, uh. I guess I kind of took the boat before you gave the order. I remembered you once said something about if an emergency ever came up, we should abandon ship. So, that's what I did."
His explanation is close to what I had already guessed. Mike saved himself and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves. He didn't even bother taking Bella with him. He left her behind too. I had to drag her off the ship myself.
Emmett was right. Mike is a piece of shit.
"I see," I sneer contemptuously. "Your fiancée almost got herself killed trying to find you."
Mike's face turns angry red. He doesn't like the way I'm speaking to him. That's tough. He's a coward, and cowards don't deserve respect.
"Mike?" whispers Bella. "You... left without me?"
The distress in her voice is gut-wrenching. The look on her face is worse. I see the same hurt, dismay... the sheer emptiness I felt years ago when someone betrayed me.
Confronted by the evidence, I come to grips with the truth:
I completely misread the situation. Bella is not some heartless ice princess. While she may not be in love with Mike, evidently she does care deeply for him. Why else would she risk her life looking for the spineless dick? That shows more quality of character than I gave her credit for.
What I thought I knew about Bella was wrong.
A growing part of me is eager to correct my mistake. I want to learn everything about her first-hand, from her thoughts on the state of the world to her favorite book. I want to know her inside and out.
And that's what terrifies me the most.
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A/N-
I hope you enjoyed this peek into Edward's head!
The next outtake is back to Bpov and takes place over a year after everyone was rescued from the islands. It features Bella and Edward going to... Whoops! What am I doing? I almost spilled the beans!
Thanks for reading. :-)