YOU'RE WHAT!

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.

Esme had asked Bella if she needed help to the bathroom to take a shower. Bella smiled and nodded her head.

It was while Bella was in the shower that she decided that she was going to go to the house that Alice and Rosalie had mentioned to see if she could find the teenager.

CHAPTER 39: GATHERING THE INNOCENCE

Bella knew that she needed to devise some kind of workable plan to be able to get out of the hospital without anyone noticing. And, as much as she hated the thought, she was realistic enough to know that it would require the help of Edward's parents. That is, if they were willing to help her.

So, it was with that thought in mind that Bella wanted to figure out a way to ask the older Cullen's for their help, but she would have to have a secure plan formulated before asking them. The silence in the room was growing heavier by the minute as Bella was deep in thought trying to come up with a plan that would work while at the same time keeping the older Cullen's safe.

But there was only one plan that she could see of having any sort of success of working and she wasn't sure that Dr. Cullen would agree to it. Bella felt that Mrs. Cullen would be ready to go along with what she was about to suggest.

'Well, here goes nothing,' Bella was thinking to herself as she opened her mouth and began to explain her plan. As she finished speaking Carlisle asked, "Wouldn't it be better if I went with you instead of Esme? I mean, if you ran into any kind of trouble, I would be better equipped to handle it than my wife."

"Dr. Cullen, you are the only one that can keep the nursing staff at bay and out of here until I can return. The only thing Mrs. Cullen will be doing is driving me to the house where last night's incident took place. That is going to be the place where the young girl will be; at least, she will want to be someplace close to an area that she knows in hope of some member of the family coming for her.

"And before you ask me why I'm so certain of those facts, I'll tell you. She will stay where she knows that someone will know where to look for her. Somewhere that they all will know that she's safe until she can be recovered.

"Right now, I need to get dressed in a nurse's uniform that will disguise me to be able to leave here and I need for Mrs. Cullen to call Alice or Rosalie to get the address for me." Bella had finished speaking and it didn't take long for the other two to get to moving after much discussion between husband and wife.

Carlisle had to agree that Ms. Swan's line of thought was a correct one in regard to him being the only one that would be able to keep others out of her room. Although, personally, he still felt that he should be the one going and leaving his wife out of the situation, just in case a problem of defense arose. The one thing that Carlisle wasn't considering was the fact that Bella was a trained professional and was able to take care of herself.

He was also forgetting the fact that Bella had managed to escape her capturers on her own. She had already escaped before Charlie had shown up on the scene and the shooting match had taken place. In fact, she had been wise enough to manage to hide herself from detection until help had shown up.

So, yes, Bella was quite capable of taking care of herself, if the occasion called for it, even in her current condition. But there was no reason to assume that any sort of trouble would come anywhere near the two women once they arrived at the murder scene. After all, all of the excitement had already taken place hours before.

Without too much more discussion or arguing, Carlisle finally agreed to Bella's plan and Esme when to secure a nurse's uniform for Bella to aid in her being able to leave the hospital without anyone's knowledge.

XXXXX

The night had passed slowly at times and then at other times it seemed to fly by quickly. Everyone was anxious about the upcoming meeting, especially Edward, Emmett and Jasper. Neither Alice nor Rosalie had informed the guys that they wouldn't be attending the same as the two agents were staying away from the meeting as well.

Alice and Rosalie had discussed about when to tell the guys that they were going to be staying out of things, but never came up with a timeline. Now they've run out of time.

No one but Alice and Rosalie was aware that Bella had awakened since all five of the men were gathered in Bella's home office discussing ideas they wanted to present at the upcoming meeting. So, the phone call and subsequence conversation between Bella, Alice and Rosalie wasn't overheard by any of the five guys. The idea of dealing with some slightly enraged charges wasn't something that the two agents were looking forward to having to do.

"Sam, what time is the meeting set to start?" Edward asked as he was drinking his second cup of coffee that morning after the meeting had been called to a halt and everyone was having their morning pick me up.

"In about an hour from now."

"I guess we had better get moving so we can be there on time." Emmett commented before anyone else had the chance to say anything.

It was then that Alice and Rosalie could no longer delay the bad news. "Guys, none of us except for Sam and Felix are going to the meeting." Rosalie informed everyone after seeing the hesitation on Alice's part. Rosalie knew that Alice was worried about how disappointed Jasper was going to be and was hesitant about being the one that had to break the bad news to him.

"What did you say? You've got to be kidding! Why the hell not?!" Were the questions and exclamations that could be heard coming for all of the men, including both Sam and Felix.

Both Alice and Rosalie held their hands up motioning for everyone to be quiet. "Alice and I have discussed this to some extent, and while we all would like to be there and be involved, it isn't our job. And, it isn't the place we need to expose our charges to."

"Expose your charges to? Is that all we are to you three? Just charges?" Edward exploded.

Edward's explosion and his questions shock both Alice and Rosalie. He should know, well, all three of the guys should know better, than to ask such a question about their personal feelings towards the guys. "Our job, guys, is to keep you safe and sound until the trial; not to involve ourselves or any of you three into dealing with the arrest or possible danger that will be involved in the takedowns.

"It isn't our place, or yours, to help plan this type of action. However, it does fall into the job description for Sam and Felix. But push come to shove, it is the FBI's job to take the lead on this with the help of the other departments.

"We need to stand back and let the other departments do their job while we do our job by keeping you three safe and sound without allowing our personal feelings to enter into the situation or our decisions. Because if we start letting personal feelings dictate how we do our job then we are inviting failure and danger into the situation. We can't afford to do that. We have to do our job first as we love you at the same time. It's that love that is demanding that we do our jobs first despite any personal feeling from anyone." And as she finished speaking, the room was so quiet that a pin could be heard hitting the floor. It was as if Rosalie's announcement had frozen all the men where they stood in shock.

Jasper was the first one to begin to recover, but Alice didn't allow him to have a chance to say anything even though he had opened his mouth to speak.

"No, Jasper, there is nothing you or any of the others can say that will change our minds. It's time that everyone does their correct job, and nothing less will do to help keep all of you safe or to bring all of this to a satisfactory end."

"I can't believe that Bella would be taking this stand, if she was here." Edward groused while making a great effect to hold in his sudden anger and disappointment.

Of course, it took a lot of control from both Rosalie and Alice to maintain their silence about Bella being the one that issued the orders that is withholding them from attending the meeting and from taking part in the planning.

Felix had to ask since he was concerned about the protection of the three guys the same as everyone else, "Why isn't Sam included in staying here to help protect Edward, Emmett and Jasper? I mean it was decided that he would assume Edward's protection until Bella was able to resume her duties."

"Felix, Alice and I feel that we will be able to provide all of the protection necessary as long as everyone stays confined to this one location. So, with that being the case, it frees up Sam to be with you for you both to be able to attend the meeting and to both participate in the necessary actions of bringing down the Volturi." Rosalie answered without any hesitation.

And with that explanation both Sam and Felix felt the freedom to honor the requests without any doubts or hesitation. Of course, it wasn't the same for Edward, Emmett or Jasper; they were extremely upset and frustrated with being left out of the upcoming planning and action.

The three friends looked at each other for a few moments and with a slight nod from each, they turned to leave the two women. However, it was Alice that spoke, saying, "Don't any of you think about leaving this house. We have it monitored through the alarm system.

That brought them all up to a sudden halt, but their anger put them back into motion once more and ended with the slamming of more than one door.

XXXXXX

Bella and Esme arrived at the scene of the shooting only to be shocked by the amount of chaos and debris that existed. Bella got out of the car after requesting for Esme to remain in the vehicle. "But won't you need help amongst all of this mess?" She asked Bella only to be told that Esme would be of greater help being on the watch outside and to stay safely in the car in case they had to leave in a hurry. "At least, stay for now. If I do need any help I'll come back and get you."

So, left with no other choice, Esme just nodded in agreement and watched as Bella walked toward the house. And, it seemed as Bella made her way to the house, she kept turning her head looking in all directions as if seeking something out of the ordinary. However, not appearing to see anything that drew her interest, Bella disappeared in the house.

It seemed that Bella had been out of sight for hours, but in truth, it had only been about thirty minutes before Bella walked back out to the car. She bent down and stuck her head into the car window to talk with Esme. "You want to stay in the car or take a walk with me?" Bella asked.

"What do you have in mind?"

"From what I could find inside, some building material receipts had been found and I want to see what all of that could have been used for. And, I also found what appeared to be a girl's room, and in there I find quite a bit of artwork of wildlife drawn while the girl had been in the woods.

"From what I can see there is a wooded area behind the house, and I want to have a look there to see if I might be able to locate the girl. Also, it might make her feel more comfortable if there are two women instead of one, if we do find her." Bella explained.

So, without hesitation, Esme got out of the car, happy that she could finally be of some use in all of this mess concerning her son and his friends.

Bella led Esme around the side of the house toward the back since she wasn't comfortable having Edward's mother seeing all of the blood and mess inside of the house.

Once they reached the backyard, Bella stood still as she looked in every direction around the yard before noticing a slight pathway which led off into the woods. But before moving toward the path, Bella seemed to be studying the ground for some reason that Esme didn't understand. What could she be seeing there that could be of any help? Esme was asking herself.

Suddenly, looking in the direction of the half-hidden path, Bella walked over to the beginning of the path and stopped as she once again studied the ground around her.

Esme had stayed in her original position after they had arrived in the backyard, not moving or saying one word as if afraid of disturbing Bella's concentration. But now Bella was motioning for the older woman to join her at the edge of the woods. And again, Bella would walk so far along before pausing to look at the ground, to look at the area surrounding them and then looking up into the trees. However, not once did Esme question Bella's actions; she remained silent knowing for some reason that Bella had reasons for how she was investigating things.

After entering the woods and having walked some directions both Bella and Esme spotted what appeared to be a treehouse of sorts and Bella knew in her heart that the young girl was there.

AN: Is Janie still in the treehouse? Has Bella and Esme managed to locate the young teenager? Edward, Emmett and Jasper are upset with Alice and Rosalie. Did the two women make the right decision by following Bella's orders and keeping everyone, but for Sam and Felix away from the meeting?

We are nearing the end of this story with only two or three chapters, including epi remaining.

Hope you will enjoy this story and will let me know your thoughts, ideas and comments as we move forwards.