A/N: Dang, you guys. I accidentally deleted this whole file this morning. I am having a MONDAY.

But… still having a better time of it than our poor Bella.

"Damn." Bella winced when she saw the time. She'd clocked out of her shift a half hour before. No sooner had she swiped her card than the slimy owner of the pub and grill where she worked popped up beside her, telling her she was going to cover for Victoria—a favor he never would have granted Bella. She knew better than to think she'd get paid for her time either. At least the tip had been decent for the extra work.

The problem was, being late getting off work meant she was going to get home late—home being the couch in her high school friend's living room. Angela was sweet and easy-going, but Bella had already worn out her welcome with Angela's husband, Ben. Not two days ago, Ben had ranted about her being a bad influence on the twins, coming in all hours of the night.

Bella didn't see what the big deal was. The twins were just a little over a year old. They were asleep well before Bella got off work, and it wasn't as though they were attached to her. And anyway, what was so morally wrong with working late hours? Bad influence?

But she knew better than to argue no matter how indignant she felt. Beggars couldn't be choosers. Angela and Ben were all she had left; the only door that hadn't slammed shut in her face.

Yet.

Bella slipped out of her dumbass high-heeled Mary-Janes—fuck everything about her work outfit, really—and into her Chucks. She didn't have time to change if she had any hope of catching the bus. She dashed out into the night to the bus stop, one block down.

Right in time to watch the bus pull away.

"Of course," she muttered under her breath, watching as the bus turned down a side street. "Of-fucking-course."

Her feet hurt. Her heart hurt. Frustration churned in her gut. Her eyes stung with tears she refused to let fall. She breathed in and out, trying to find calm.

"Hey, baby—" a sleazy voice nearby began.

Bella whirled, glaring. "Don't even start with me tonight," she warned. She felt dangerous, though she knew better than to think she was invincible. This guy, though, was just a drunk idiot.

He grinned at her, swaying, cackled, then wandered away.

Though it seemed like he was headed back to whatever bar he crawled out of, and Bella felt angry enough at the world that she could tear him apart, she knew better than to linger. She started walking in the vague direction of home, trying to formulate a new plan.

The shortest route was through a not-so-great part of town and more direct. She had a bad habit of getting turned around when there were too many streets involved. It wasn't horrendously late—ten-thirty. It would be okay.

Resolved, Bella unclipped her pepper spray from where it hung on her bag and set off. She walked fast, but kept it under a jog so as not to call attention to herself. She reached back, undoing her hair from her high ponytail so it fell in her face, and made sure to scan the area as she walked.

She was trying to walk, keep hold of her pepper spray, and rifle through her bag, looking for her sweater, at the same time when the inevitable happened. A car pulled up, rolling along the street slowly beside her. Shoving the pepper spray in her bag in an effort to get going, Bella looked resolutely forward, picking up her pace. She heard the window roll down.

"Hey, whore."

She recognized the voice; it was the only reason her head snapped to the side. Sure enough, it was Tyler, hanging out the backseat, driver's side window with a sneer on his face. The car was full of Mike's friends, Bella realized. Though, thankfully, not Mike himself.

The men snickered. "Ha, she looked," one of them hooted.

"So, it is true, huh?" Tyler's grin broadened. "Hey, you gotta find some way to make money now that Mike finally kicked your worthless ass to the curb."

Bella gritted her teeth, faced forward, and kept walking. She'd always hated Mike's idiot friends and the way he'd paraded her around in front of them.

The car, of course, kept rolling alongside her. "Out here spreading your legs for cash, and you still think you're better than anyone, don't you?" Eric, the driver, asked.

"Not much different than what she had before, was it?" Tyler sneered. "I always figured it had to be good for Mike to put up with her bullshit for so long. Hey, slut, how much do you cost these days, huh?" He reached out an arm, beckoning. "Come over here and let us help you out."

Fury churned in Bella's gut. She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth and kept walking, trying to tell herself these morons weren't worth her time.

"There's only one reason a man keeps a filthy, disrespectful mouth like yours around," Paul, the car's third occupant, said. He leaned over Eric, calling out the window. "Don't act like you don't like it dirty. Mike told us some of the kinky shit you were into. What's your going rate these days, huh?"

And something in Bella snapped.

Mike had been a lot of shitty things, but he'd been good to her in bed. She'd had a bad experience for her first time—not assault bad, just bad—and he'd been patient and gentle with her early in their relationship. He'd continued to be good to her; a safe person to explore with.

His asshole friends violating the sanctity of her memories were the straw that broke the camel's back. She lunged through the driver's side window, clawing in Paul's direction, calling him every name she could think of.

The car swerved and all three of the men were screaming at her.

"Psycho bitch."

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You jack asses want to come up on me like you give a fuck about Mike?" Bella yelled, her hands clenched in fists by her sides. "You think I'm the reason he caught a case? I didn't even know what the hell you assholes were into. I hope he rats you all out. I would. In a heartbeat, I would." She kicked the side of the car. "Fuck all the way off."

It happened quickly, then. As she tried to step back, Tyler lunged halfway out of the car. He was a tall man, and very muscular. He managed to grab her wrist and yank her forward.

She didn't even know what they were saying at that point; or what she was saying for that matter. Tyler had grabbed her head in a lock, pulling her partly inside the car. The window dug into the skin at her collarbone. Eric started driving fast enough that Bella's feet started to drag against the pavement, unable to keep up with the movement at the awkward angle. She screamed, swinging her hands, trying to dig her nails into whatever available skin she could find.

"Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?" a new voice boomed from somewhere behind Bella. There was more yelling and the sound of skin hitting skin. Then, she was free, her body glancing off the side of the car as she tumbled onto the pavement. She put her hands over her head, curling into a ball as the car's tires squealed—far too close to her body for comfort—and the assholes drove off.

Bella stayed still, curled up as she sucked in deep gasps of air. The world was shaking. For one bizarre moment, she thought after everything else, she must have been caught in an earthquake. But no, she was trembling. Badly.

"Hey."

Though the voice was soft, Bella flinched, registering the nearness of someone over her. She fought for control of her panicked thoughts, trying to remember how to move.

"Bella? It's okay. Let me help."

The voice was…vaguely familiar. Someone else she knew? She tightened her arms around her, thinking that maybe she hadn't seen a fourth person in the car. Maybe they had gotten off, pretending they cared that their friends were lunatic assholes only to try to hurt her again.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the voice said.

The panic loosened its grip just the slightest bit, and Bella brought her arms down from around her head, hissing as all the aches and pains began to make themselves known.

"I'm going to help you, okay?" the voice reassured, and she felt a warm hand against the bare skin of her back.

"Okay," she whispered.

He got an arm around her, helping her into a sitting position. She blinked sporadically, trying to focus on his face.

Edward Cullen.

Of course, it was Edward Cullen. She should have expected it—the cherry on the shit sundae that was her life.

He kneeled in front of her, and she flinched again as he reached for her, but he only pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Are you okay? Is anything broken?"

She tried to concentrate on his words and then focused on her body. She knew she was bruised. Her skin was scraped raw in some places, but nothing major. "I think I'm okay."

"Good. We need to get off the street." He braced an arm around her and helped her up.

Almost immediately, Bella crumpled back down to the ground with a cry. She gritted her teeth against the pain that shot up her leg. "No," she said with a groan.

Not one more thing.

She couldn't take one more thing.

"It might just be sprained," Edward said, easing off her shoe. Her knee-high socks were crumpled and dirty. "No blood, and it doesn't look out of joint. Looks like it's swelling, though." He looked up into her eyes. "I think we should get you to the ER."

Bella closed her eyes tightly shut, but not before a tear slipped out. She took a shuddering breath. It was taking everything in her not to lose her shit.

Her eyes snapped up open. "Wait. What the hell are you doing out here at this time of night? Where's my brother?"

"My mother is watching him," Edward said, a hint of impatience in his tone.

Motherfucker didn't like being questioned by the likes of her, she figured.

But, his words were even when he continued. "I'll give her a call and let her know I'll be late. It's not a big deal. It's your right foot, so you won't be able to drive yourself, and I doubt you want to spend the money on the ambulance when I'm right here, right?"

She bristled at the slight condescension in his words, but then she scoffed. "I don't have a fucking car anyway, remember?" she muttered.

She was so well and truly fucked. Sure. Why not let the asshole who already thought she was the scum of the earth drag her to the ER?

Edward's car was stopped haphazardly at the side of the street, as though he had jumped out of it when he saw her being harassed. Some part of her knew she needed to thank him for that. And for peeling her off the street. And now for driving her to the doctor while his mom babysat her brother.

Bella was too angry, though. She was pissed off at everything that kept kicking her while she was down. She was hurt and scared and worried about how the hell she was going to keep her job if she couldn't walk. She hated that her brother was with yet another stranger while she was still deemed unfit to care for him. She hated Mike and his asshole friends and whatever bullshit they had gotten into that started this whole mess.

Luckily, Edward seemed to be able to read the room. He didn't try to talk to her; just drove her to the ER. Once there, she tried to get him to leave her to her own devices—she needed a good cry, and she sure as hell wasn't going to do it in front of him—but he was insistent on helping her.

Bella tried to hold on to the little things. Jessica, whose job it was to help Bella and Emmett get reunified, had gotten her hooked up with social services first thing. She had medical insurance and a small food stamps stipend. She was also working on finding transitional housing for Bella and Emmett to move into. Edward had saved her from the ambulance ride—an expense not covered by insurance. At least she wasn't going to have an outrageous hospital bill to end this hellacious night.

When she was settled into a chair in the waiting room, she was surprised when Edward sat in the chair one seat over. "I think the hospital staff can get me from here," she said.

"It's fine. I'll stay." His tone was brusque now.

"Look, you got other places to be, and I'm a big girl. My brother needs you." The words tasted sour in her mouth, but she couldn't deny them. She would rather someone she knew was with Emmett now if she couldn't be.

"Believe me, your brother is the reason I'm still here." He blew out a puff of air as if trying to shake off his annoyance. "Look, you said you didn't have a car, even if you do leave here able to walk. It's going to be the dead of night by then if you're lucky. I'll get you wherever you need to go safely."

Bella hated being treated like a burden. He was right, though, and she couldn't see a way around the problem. "Fine. It's your life." Then, grudgingly. "Thank you."

"It's fine." He sighed when she shivered and started unbuttoning his sweater. "Here. Put this on." He took off his sweater and draped it over her shoulders.

"Thanks," she said again, though the word was laced with the irritation she felt building in her, sparking her anger all over again. "I have my own." She shrugged the sweater off, handing it back to him while reaching for her bag. She really wasn't thinking straight. She'd hardly noticed that she was sitting in the middle of an ER in her god-forsaken uniform from the pub and now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she was freezing. Her fingers trembled as she rummaged through her bag. She hissed as she pulled her T-shirt on over her head, not realizing until that moment just how badly her shoulder ached.

When her shirt and jean jacket were both on, she leaned back in her seat.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Edward had relaxed one iota, the obvious tension draining from the set of his shoulders. He shifted in his seat, angled slightly toward her. "Look, I know you don't want to hear this from me…"

"Oh, god," she muttered under her breath. "I'm sure you have a lot to say, and I appreciate your help, but believe me, I'm really not in the mood for a holier-than-thou sermon. It's just not the time."

"Do you care at all about getting your brother back?"

She dropped her hands to her lap and stared at him. "Excuse me?"

"I don't want you to think I have personal issues with sex work in general. I think it's ridiculous that sex work is illegal, but it is. I appreciate that you're having issues with money, but if they know what you've been doing…" He wiped a hand over his face. "And technically, I'm mandated to tell them—"

"No!" Bella glanced around, having shouted that last word. She leaned in over the seat between her and Edward, her eyes narrowed. "You're no better than those jerks, are you? God fucking dammit. How many people are going to call me a whore tonight? I'm not a sex worker, prick."

In her rational mind, she understood what it looked like. Her uniform from work didn't leave much to the imagination—a plaid miniskirt, knee high socks, a crop top that pushed her cleavage up and out. And he'd come across her late at night in a not great part of town with her head halfway in some asshole's car. A bad situation, sure, but he had no way of knowing she didn't make a habit of sticking her head in guy's cars.

But he was threatening to have Emmett taken away permanently. Or worse, getting her arrested.

"What I saw—" he started.

"What you saw was my dumbass ex-boyfriend's even dumber friends finding me while I was trying to walk home after a shift at my job, where I work as a waitress in a pub that gets fashion advice from Hooters. I'm a waitress in a skimpy skirt, not a prostitute. It's perfectly legal and Jessica already knows."

Edward was silent for several long beats. "Oh," he said quietly.

Bella pinched the bridge of her nose, all the fight going out of her. "Listen, I know you're sick of doing me favors, but it's late o'clock, and I'm crashing on my friend's couch. Do you think I could borrow your phone long enough to send a quick text message?" It had been one of the million things racing around her head since she'd gotten into Edward's car—how she was going to let Angela know where she was. Ben would be furious if she kept Angela up all night worrying.

"It's no problem," Edward said, handing over his phone.

Bella had committed Angela's number to memory after her phone was cut off. It didn't take her long to shoot off a text summarizing the turn of events, leaving out the details that would make her friend get over-worried. Then, she handed it back with a curt, "Thanks."

"You should be able to get a phone, you know?" Edward's voice was soft again, missing the condescending tone. "For cheap—if not free. If you have state medical insurance, you probably qualify."

"I know that," she snapped. "I've just had a lot to do."

"A phone is important for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is I know Emmett wants to call you."

"How many ways are you going to find to tell me I'm a bad parent?" she asked between clenched teeth. The words hit hard, like a knife to her chest. She hated disappointing Emmett. She hated the image of his crestfallen face that popped into her head.

"That's not what I meant," Edward said. "I'm just trying to help."

"Newsflash—your lectures don't help me. It must be great to have everything all figured out, but that doesn't make you an expert in my life. I'm doing the best I can. I have nothing, you understand? I sleep on a couch that I'm about to get kicked off of. I have no phone. No car. No home. And I'm about to lose the job I only have for fifteen hours a week. I was trying not to get kicked out of school—which is why I haven't taken care of the phone thing. I just…" She pressed her hands to her eyes, digging in hard. "I need one thing to go right. Just one right thing."

Her shoulders shook, and she lost the battle against her tears. Hiding behind her hands, she cried. She didn't sob as she very much wanted to, but she couldn't stop the slow, steady fall of tears.

"I didn't mean to upset you," Edward said with genuine regret.

Bella shook her head. She took several deep breaths, trying to find calm again. Her ankle hurt. Her head pounded. Everything, including her heart, ached. It seemed like ages before she got ahold of herself, though a glance at the waiting room's clock said only a few minutes had gone by.

Edward offered her a handkerchief, and she had to laugh. "You carry around a handkerchief. Who does that? You, of course." She took it, dabbing at her eyes.

"I really didn't mean to make you cry."

"Don't give yourself so much credit." She sighed, leaning her head against the wall. "I've had a really shitty week."

"Well, I didn't have to make it worse."

"Yeah, it would be nice if you'd back off on that just a little." Bella blew out a breath. "I know I forgot to thank you."

"For?"

"Stopping those idiots." She shivered. "I know you'll probably call me naïve, given that my ex was obviously into illegal things, but I didn't realize they were dangerous. Bad life choices, man." She shook her head. "I'm better at them than I thought."

Maybe she was her mother's daughter after all.

"It's hard to know who you can trust. I understand that better than you'd think," he said. It didn't sound like he was patronizing her. "I'm glad I was there, though."

"Me too."

And she was also desperately curious what a rule-follower like Edward was doing out in that area at ten-thirty at night when he had a child to go home to.

But that was none of her business.

"Isabella Swan?" a nurse called. When she raised a hand, he came over with a wheelchair, and she was whisked away, leaving Edward alone in the waiting room.

A/N: Sooooooo.