Mature content/reader discretion is advised in the first section. Be kind to yourself.

Isabella had been trying to sleep.

Her usual trick of counting backwards from 121 was not working and by the time she had gotten to 1 twice, she was more annoyed than asleep. She was especially annoyed because she had not been sleeping well in the past few weeks.

Granted, very few people had been sleeping well lately.

Lehman Brothers, one of the most prestigious players on Wall Street, had filed for bankruptcy protection. The sub-prime crisis had been escalating for weeks, but Lehman collapsing was the shot heard round the world. Merrill Lynch, one of the other older and most respected firms in the financial world capitol, had just been bought, saving it from bankruptcy.

Economies all around the globe were plunging into recessions following the collapses.

The dollar had fallen against the euro and the yen and the end of the carnage did not seem near sight.

Isabella had been monitoring the situation privately for over a year now.

That was the worst part of it all.

No one she worked with was really surprised. The fact that Lehman actually failed was a shock, but the fact that the market busted was not.

It wasn't a shock to them like it was to the rest of the world. Many of them who paid enough attention were wary of something like this happening. While they couldn't have predicted how extensive the rippling effects would be, they would have predicted an end to the booming period of growth they had seen since the last bust.

Jake's job was gone.

His father was finding him a spot on Wall Street so that he would still be one of the few who ended up on his feet relatively soon, but as of now, Jake had walked out of his office with a cardboard box like everyone else.

Isabella had always been conservative with her money. She made wise investments and because of her wariness in the real estate bubble, she had shied away from putting all of her eggs in that basket.

Jake, on the other hand, had lost millions and millions of dollars in the span of one day.

He had been out almost every night.

Isabella, having been made to feel guilty that she still had a good job, stayed quiet and let him cope as he felt he had to.

At the sound of the door creaking open, Isabella was abruptly pulled from her musings. With a quick glance at the alarm clock, Isabella saw that it was 1am, which for all intents and purposes, was early for Jake.

Not in the mood to talk -or argue- with him, Isabella stayed where she was on her side facing away from the door, her eyes closed. She hoped that he would just grab some things and head down to the basement as he had been doing for awhile now. But his footsteps did not leave the room. Instead, she heard him get closer to the bed. Then, she heard rustling and felt the mattress dip. She frowned to herself as her husband rolled from his side so that he was nestled against her.

He reeked.

Isabella's nose wrinkled as she smelled alcohol and something mustier. She gave a discreet sniff and then her eyes opened.

Jake reeked of sex.

"Isabella? Isabella, Isabella babe wake up."

For a moment, she did not move.

"Isabella!" he said, louder, this time, giving her shoulder a firm shake.

With a sigh, she turned and in a deceivingly sleepy voice said, "Jake? What time is it?"

"Who cares?" Jake said, wasting no time in shifting so that his body was on top of hers. "Babe, I need you."

Isabella stiffened as she felt his engorged penis against her leg.

"Jake, it's late," she said, moving to roll away from him.

He pressed his weight down against her, forcing her to stay exactly where she was.

"I'll be quick. I want you so bad."

"Jake…" she said warningly, trying again with more force to roll from under him.

Maintaining pressure on her, he leaned down and blindly groped at her midsection until he found the rim to the sleeping shorts she was wearing. "Ahh, that's right babe, fight against me, you know I love it when you do that."

With a firmer voice, she insisted, "Jake, stop, I'm tired, I need to sleep."

Jake's fingers gripped the hem of the shorts and started to push them down.

As Isabella tried to roll out from under him, she realized that she could not move. She could not move unless Jake allowed her to.

Physically, she was not strong enough.

It was the first time in her life she had ever thought that about a man.

An unknown bubble of fear rose up in her.

"No, Jake," she said, more frantically. As she did, she reached down with both of her hands to try and pull her shorts back up, fully intending on getting out of the bed and going to a different bedroom. And locking the door behind her.

"Shh shh shhh," he whispered sloppily as he grabbed both of her wrists and then pinned them above her head. This left his other hand free to pull her shorts down the rest of the way. "I'll be quick, babe."

Isabella jerked around, trying to wiggle her hands free from the vice grip he had them in. She tried to lift her legs up and kick up, but his weight kept all of her firmly pressed against the mattress.

"Jake! Stop! I do not want to."

The only response of her husband was to cover her lips with his own, forcing his tongue down her throat while simultaneously claiming his marital dues.

She wasn't sure how long he lasted, but by the time he removed both his tongue and his limp penis from her, she could feel the silent tears of fury falling from the sides of her eyes.

"I hate you so much right now."

Jake was already asleep and didn't see her run out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

~O~

It was Carlisle who was the one who had told him that it was important to keep your wife fed. It had been the only advice he had shared with his nephew on the night of his impromptu stag party.

He never said anything about not losing your wife.

After he had finished with his uncle in the latest stage in the batch of whisky they were distilling, Edward had gone to the office in search of his wife. She had looked paler than usual over breakfast and he wanted to make sure she was not coming down with anything.

Swinging through the lobby, he nodded at Jasper. "Can ye lock up in a few minutes?"

Not looking up from the monitor attached to the cash register, he said, "Sure thing boss."

When he entered the office and did not find her there, he was not immediately alarmed. Instead, he examined the room, noting that both her coat and her purse were no longer there.

He hummed in contemplation to himself before turning and going back to the lobby.

"Jasper?" he called, "Mate, have ye seen Bella?"

That got his cousin's attention. He looked up from the monitor and thought about it before shaking his head. "No, no since lunch."

Edward frowned.

"Is she no here?" he asked.

"Ah dinnae ken," Edward said slowly.

Isabella had never gone anywhere without him. Not in her whole time being in Scotland. With a start, he realized they had been in the same building at all times unless she had stayed at home while he had run an errand.

Jasper frowned. "I'll help ye look around the shop, aye?"

Edward nodded.

The distillery was not necessarily a small operation, but there were very few places she would have ended up and it did not take long to search them all.

"Carlisle…have ye seen Bella at all?"

Carlisle lowered the hose he had been using to clean some of the large aluminum containers. He had the same frown on his face that his song had. "No, I dinnae think I've seen her since lunchtime. Why?"

"She's not here," Edward replied tersely.

"She's gone?" he repeated back in surprise.

"Aye."

Carlisle saw in Edward's eyes the trepidation that his son had missed.

"I'm sure she's nearby," he said calmly.

She wouldn't have left. Not in broad daylight, was what his face said.

Edward nodded, "Aye. I'll call Esme and see if she is at the Inn."

Carlisle stared for a moment but nodded. "She's nearby," he repeated in what was meant to be a tone of reassurance.

Edward nodded, pushing down the feeling of fear in his stomach.

~O~

Ignoring the slight tremor in his fingers, Edward punched in the familiar phone number in the telephone in the office. He sat down in the chair that had recently been predominantly occupied by Isabella, his foot tapping impatiently as he listened to several bouts of rings before the sound of the phone coming off the hook came across the line.

"Isles Inn, how can I help you?"

"It's me, Auntie."

"Edward, hello my love!" his aunt's sweet British voice rang. "Forgive me, but is this terribly important? The girls and I are busy with the happy hour crowd."

"Has Bella been there?" he blurted.

"At Isles? Your Bella?"

"Aye," he replied shortly.

"No, I have not seen her," Esme said slowly, a frown in her voice. "Give me one moment, love."

Through a muffed hand, Edward heard her ask, "Alice, dearie, have you seen Bella today? Has she been in?"

Edward did not hear her reply.

"Fiona! Fiona, really quick dear, have you seen Edward's Bella here at all today?"

He didn't realize he was holding his breath.

"Edward, are you still there?" she asked unnecessarily.

"Aye. Has she been there?"

"No, no one has seen her."

~O~

"Mate, she could no have gotten far – she has no car," Jasper tried to assure him, crossing his arms over his chest.

Edward shook his head in frustration as his uncle and cousin watched him pace in the small confines of the office, an office which seemed too cramped at the moment. "Aye but there are busses…busses with stops no more than a mile away. Buses that go to train and ferry stations."

Jasper frowned, not having considered this.

"Edward, son, I do not think she has left," Carlisle insisted patiently, "Have the two of ye had a…a spat or something recently?"

Edward shook his head in frustration.

"I dinnae think so…I thought we had actually been getting on rather well…ah dinnae ken!"

"She has no left."

"How do ye know?" Edward demanded.

Carlisle remained infuriatingly calm. "That is an honest woman if I ever saw one. At the very least, she would no have left without telling ye."

Edward ran his hand through his hair and then grabbed at his coat.

He was not going to argue his wife's virtue with his uncle, but while he believed that she was an honest woman, he also was well aware of the fact that she had her fair share of secrets.

"I'm going to the house to look."

Carlisle was not surprised. He nodded and replied, "I'll stay here in the event she turns up and Jasper will go and track down Robert…he left in the afternoon, perhaps he knows something."

Jasper grimaced as he and Edward shared a knowing look.

"Whit now?" Carlisle asked, exasperation creeping into his calm demeanor.

"He went down to the boats with the fishermen," Jasper explained to his father. "They were going out this afternoon and I dinnae think they were planning on coming back until tomorrow."

Carlisle was nonplused. "Well. Go and see if they have left yet."

In a moment's time, both Edward and Jasper had shrugged into their coats and were headed to the door, in search for the missing American woman.

~O~

Having gotten stuck behind two slow moving tourists who had no business attempting to drive on the left side of the road, Edward was tense. So tense that his hands were shaking, something he would have noticed had he not been gripping the steering wheel to the point of white knuckles.

When he entered the home, it felt empty.

He didn't even bother to kick off his boots and instead brought in with him sludge like mud.

"Bella?" he called. "Bella are ye here?"

No response.

He went straight to the master bedroom, frowning when he saw the opened door leading to a vacant space.

"Bella?" he asked again, scanning the space.

` Upon laying eyes on her purse and jacket resting on the bed, Edward felt his shoulders sag.

She had been here.

At the very least, she had been there.

At this discovery, he expected to feel renewed hope and a sense of relief that at least she had not left him in the middle of the afternoon.

But where was she?

Edward left the room and checked in the bathroom, finding the door open and the room empty. He then checked his bedroom, finding it empty. There was no sight of her in the living room or the kitchen either.

"Bella?" he called, louder this time.

Nothing.

The telephone then started to ring, cutting through the oppressive silence.

Torn between haste and dread, he opted for haste, rushing to the home telephone set.

"Hallo?" he said hurriedly into the phone.

"Is she there?" Carlisle asked without ceremony.

His heart sank.

"No."

Carlisle was silent.

"We will find her."

Edward hung up.

Shaking his head, a sense of urgency mingling with his fear and concern, he refocused his efforts, looking out the window to the light fading on the horizon. Perhaps she had gone for a small walk. His father had often done that, enjoying their expansive land and the views of the Hebrides.

Making a quick stop in the detached garage to make sure she was not there, he continued around the perimeter of the house.

"Bella! Bella, lass, where are ye?"

With the wind whipping across his face, he searched for at least a quarter of an hour. The light faded, making it a race against time to search the perimeter of their lands before he was bathed in darkness.

"Bella! Bella?" he yelled, feeling the strain in his voice as he yelled against the wind.

Finally, it was too dark for him to see anything across the barren land. His hurried walk turned into a run as he made his way back to the house.

Something was wrong.

He could feel it in his stomach and had felt it ever since he found the office empty.

While he told himself he was being irrational, he would not ignore the sharp feeling in his heart that she was in trouble.

See you soon.