A/N:

Some of you liked that Bella took charge the way she did in the previous chapter while some of you didn't, but I found out a long time ago you can't please everyone xD

Just so you know, though, Bella's not taking Edward back just like that. She had sex with him because she felt lust, and he was there. And she's agreed to give him a chance to redeem himself, nothing else :) Good? Okay, great ;-)

WARNING: HEAVY ANGST IN END OF THIS CHAPTER!

Title: The Perfect Partner Program

Author: MarieCarro

Beta: EdwardsFirstKiss

Pre-reader: brwneyedgrl01

Genre: Angst/Hurt&Comfort/Romance

Rating: NC-17

Summary: The summer of 2005 was the summer that changed Bella Swan's life forever. Sent to Ohio by her mother to attend a school for debutante girls not quite up to par, she meets Edward Masen, an apprentice. But is that really all he is? AH

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Word Count: 3, 041

CHAPTER 24 CLEARING THE TABLE

"If there's anything you want to know, just ask. It would be a hell of a lot easier than to use your mojo on me and have me question everything in return."

His eyes glittered with amusement. "You're right. So, answer this, I know you're still close to your dad, having followed in his footsteps and all, but I've only heard you mention your mother once. Where does she fit into your life?"

"She doesn't. Dad petitioned for a divorce pretty much the second the plot was revealed. I moved in with Becca and her mom until he found a house for the two of us before Christmas that year. Two years later he met Susan, and they married the summer after my twenty-first birthday. She's the only woman I consider my mother now."

He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "Susan? Isn't that the name of your obstetrician?"

"Hm." I tilted my head to the side. I had to admit that I was amazed by his talent to connect the dots and remember a name he'd just heard in passing once when he had driven me to the hospital. "Impressive," I said and folded my arms across my chest. "Yes, Sue is my doctor. I asked her to be the moment I knew I was pregnant. It feels soothing to have someone I trust take care of me when I will be at my most vulnerable."

He nodded, and then a cautious glint lit up his eyes. "Please, don't feel offended by the question, but why did you decide on insemination?"

I sighed, not completely comfortable with the question, but the answer was connected to him, like pretty much everything else in my life. So I guess the only way for me to be able to trust him will have to start with clearing the air of everything dark that has hung over us.

"You want the hundred percent honest answer?"

"Only if that's okay with you."

"I felt lonely." He hadn't expected my answer, but I didn't wait for him to ask for the explanation. "After Garrett, I knew I couldn't let a man close enough to me to give him the power to hurt me, and that sort of intimacy is important if you want to start a family. I haven't been in a long-term relationship for almost a decade, but I really wanted a baby. It's not the perfect solution since my child will be without a father, but I will do everything I can to make sure he or she always knows how much I love them, even though that means loving for two."

"What about when he or she's older and they want to know who their father is?"

"Then I will tell them the truth."

He let out an awed laugh and shook his head. "You really are the strongest person I've ever met."

"I'm not strong," I disagreed. "My walls are just a decade thick." I wasn't going to mention that he had managed to drill holes between a few of the bricks. There wasn't a chance in hell that I would hand over that knowledge and power to him.

The silence between us quickly grew awkward, and we decided to order just to have something to do. When our waitress once again left us alone, I couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer.

"Edward, why exactly did you ask me to eat lunch with you?"

He frowned in confusion at my question. "What do you mean? I'm trying to earn your forgiveness."

"I get that, but I need to know that we're on the same page."

"What is it you're worried about?"

I took a deep breath. "You didn't ask me here on a date, right?"

"Uh..."

"Because that's not what I meant when I said I would give you a chance," I continued before he could respond.

He gave me a small smile that was somewhere in between amused and embarrassed. "If this had been a date, I would have made sure that you knew that was the intent."

"Good," I said in relief and swallowed to assuage the sudden dryness in my throat.

"And with that cleared off the table," he said and chuckled. "I want you to know that there are no questions of yours that will be off limits. Anything you want to know, I will be absolutely upfront with you."

I thought for a moment about what I wanted to know, and the only thing that came to mind was the story behind his tattoo. I already knew it was a sensitive subject, but I had a feeling it was a story I needed to hear.

My curiosity ate at me, and I wanted to ask the question, but similar to when we were on my couch in our compromising position, I instinctively knew this wasn't the moment, and so I opted for something I felt was a safer subject.

"When I found out the truth, something I heard Renée say stuck with me."

"And that was?"

"Your hundred percent success rate."

Edward shifted his eyes away from me and nodded, but he didn't reply. He didn't have to.

"There were others before me, wasn't there?"

"Yes," he said quietly.

"How many?"

He grimaced as if he was in pain. "Does it matter?"

"How many?" I repeated.

"Four," he replied with a look of nausea on his face.

I tilted my head to the side as I thought about that. "How long had you been doing it? How did you manage that many before me? I mean, hadn't you just turned twenty-one when we met?"

He let out a heavy sigh. "I got my first case from Esme when I was seventeen. I'd just ended my sophomore year, and you already know what high school was like for me. In a twisted way, the Academy became my therapy for what I was put through by the kids who bullied me. The girls I was ordered to target reminded me of my tormentors' girlfriends and sisters; you know, the popular crowd. In my head, I saw what I did to those girls as revenge and that was how I justified it."

I started to boil on the inside when I heard him explain how it had all started. "You're telling me that your aunt used your pain? That she didn't care what kind of lingering damage she could cause to your psyche by giving you those jobs when what you really needed was someone to talk to?"

"Basically, yeah."

"What a bitch," I said with feeling. "I'm sorry to offend you by speaking badly of your family, but seriously, that's messed up."

He shrugged. "Don't worry, I'm not offended. Esme hasn't been a part of my family for a very long time."

Our food was brought out, but our conversation didn't cease while we ate.

"When did you stop working for her?"

"Thirteen years ago," he replied, and I almost choked in shock. "You were my last job."

"Why?"

"Like I've told you. Meeting you changed my life for the better."

"How exactly?" I still didn't understand how what he had done to me could better his life. "You still finished the job. You still did what you were told."

"True," he agreed. "But I don't think you understand how much I strayed from my own protocol with you. What happened between us wasn't how I usually did things."

"Don't I feel special," I said sarcastically and stabbed a carrot aggressively with my fork. "So why was I different?"

"Do you remember one of the first things I told you?" he asked, and I couldn't hold in my scoff.

"Not really. I've been trying to forget for the past thirteen years."

Sadness crept into Edward's eyes but I didn't acknowledge it. "I can never forget it because it was that conversation that started everything for me, and it was when I observed that you weren't like the other girls."

"You mean that wasn't your regular run-of-the-mill compliment?" I asked, unable to rein in my sarcasm completely despite his earnestness.

He chuckled uncomfortably. "Far from it. I never intended to say it out loud, but it just slipped out when I realized that you weren't a bully. You were a victim like I had been, and from then on, there were many times that I realized I actually enjoyed spending time with you, and not because I had to."

I stayed silent because I didn't know how to respond to that, and he continued.

"I didn't want to finish the job. I dreaded it more with every day that it got closer to the end of summer, and I started to wish that I could tell you everything. Show you who I really was, and hope that you would still love me."

An uninvited memory forced its way into my consciousness. The last time we were in the glade that had become our spot. He'd asked me if I would have still loved him if he hadn't been who he said he was. I'd thought he was joking, and so I joked back, but now when I looked at the memory, I realized how serious he'd actually been.

"When you found me with that girl, none of that was planned, and I had to improvise. Then you hit the nail on the head when you said you believed I'd freaked out because of how serious we had become. That's exactly what I did; freaked out, and I resorted to acting like a dickhead."

"Understatement," I commented and then our eyes met and I couldn't hold in my small little laugh. The entire situation was just so absurd, and it was impossible to not laugh at it. "This is insane, you know that right?"

He laughed with me, and it felt good. "It's barely the norm," he agreed.

"Can I ask another question?"

"Of course," he instantly replied with a small smile. "Ask as many as you want. I want you to feel as if you're finally getting answers."

It wasn't really a question I itched to know, but it was important all the same. He could tell me he was sorry and that he had changed as much as he wanted, but it wouldn't mean a thing unless he answered this question correctly.

"Those other girls; do you regret what you did to them?"

Very slowly, he put down his fork on the table before looking back up at me. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret it," he said, and the honesty in his eyes just couldn't be faked.

I'd studied human behavior and interrogation techniques in college, and if he lied and could hide it that well, then he could no longer be human. As humans, we had an endless amount of involuntary tics that gave us away when we lied, but he didn't display a single one of them.

"No matter how I used to justify it, they were essentially innocent and didn't deserve any of it," he continued. "However, I can't go back in time and give them a second chance even though I really wish it was possible."

I had to look away from him before I nodded. He'd passed the test, but my mind still told me to be cautious; to not trust him. "Let's say I forgive you," I said, and he looked slightly taken aback by the subject change. "You know, for argument's sake."

"Sure," he agreed.

"What would you do then?" I asked, genuinely wondering. "What do you expect from this? That we're going to become friends?"

"I'm not expecting anything," he said without hesitation. "What happens when all is said and done is completely up to you."

We finished lunch and he drove me back to the precinct where he'd picked me up. When we arrived in the parking lot, there was still twenty minutes of my break, and usually, I would use that to catch up on paperwork, but in the privacy of his car, I finally felt I could ask about his tattoo.

"Before I go, there's something I really want to know."

"Go ahead."

"The story behind your tattoo."

Just like the first time the subject had been brought up, his eyes filled with pain and darkened with it. He closed his eyes momentarily and took a deep breath.

I instantly regretted asking. "If it's too personal, that's fine. You don't have to tell me." I shifted to open the door, but he stopped me by placing a gentle hand on my arm.

"No, I want to tell you, and you also need to hear it. But I have to warn you, it's not a happy story."

I had never expected a happy story, but I understood what he was saying. It would be difficult for him, and he was telling me not to ask too many questions while he talked. I settled back in my seat and quietly waited for him to begin.

"After everything I've told you about how meeting you changed me, and that you were the last case I took from Esme, I still need you to understand that my change didn't happen overnight. After that summer, I was so conflicted, and I questioned everything about my life and myself." He sighed and absentmindedly started to rub the spot where his tattoo was placed. "At first I became worse. I became the ultimate bad guy. I drank too much, used girls for my own pleasure, and eventually, it morphed into heavier things."

"Such as?" I asked softly, not able to be completely quiet.

"Heroin. Mixed with whiskey," he chuckled humorlessly. "I fell down into a very deep pit, and it was at the very bottom that I met Kate. She was the quintessential party girl, and she enjoyed the drugs I introduced her to. She had only tried ecstasy and LSD before, and she was hesitant at first, but I..." he trailed off and swallowed. "I persuaded her to try one line, as if it was harmless and that it would be possible to stop after that first time," he admitted, and his face was drawn with shame and guilt.

For the first time, I realized and truly understood that Edward's life hadn't been easy at all. He had already been a tortured soul when we first met, but he'd hidden that part of himself from me very well. He had taken the opposite direction when his life had spun out of control. While I had studied hard and done everything I could to fix my life, he had just allowed it all to unravel and fall apart.

"One night, Kate was experiencing violent withdrawals because I hadn't been able to fix anything for us in a while. The police had a huge raid on a supplier, and a lot of the dealers had gotten scared and weren't easy to get a hold of. Kate became furious and was looking for a fight, and as we screamed at each other, she told me that she was pregnant."

I couldn't stop my intake of breath in reaction to his confession. It was the last thing I had expected. Did he have a child? What had happened with Kate?

Edward ignored me and continued, but now tears had started to fall down his cheeks. "I was so caught up in my own withdrawals that I yelled at her. I asked her how it was my problem that she had been stupid enough to get knocked up even though it was mine. I refused to take any blame, and I told her that if she wanted to keep living in my apartment, she'd better get rid of it."

His dam had broken completely at that point, and I was clueless as to what to do. I knew how to comfort my friends because I knew how to get them in a better mood, but I didn't know Edward that well. I had no idea what to say.

He wasn't finished, though. "My dad found out. Apparently, I'd told him while I was high off my rails, and he was so appalled by my behavior that he forcibly sent me to rehab, and threatened to never speak to me again unless I got clean. He and I hadn't had the best relationship after Mom passed, but he was all I had, so I did what he wanted. Our money got me into a really good program where I stayed for three months, but the minute I got out and stepped into my home, I relapsed." He glanced at me from the corner of his eye almost as if he was waiting for me to say something judgmental, but I stayed silent. "I almost OD'd, but my mentor found me in time since I didn't answer when he made a checkup-call. I was sent back to the program, and I stayed there for four months."

"What happened to Kate and...?" He flinched even before I finished the sentence. "And the baby?"

"Dad tried to keep in contact with her. He wanted her to go to rehab, too, and he offered to pay for it, but she refused. She said she wasn't a charity case and that she could take care of herself. When I was released the second time, I learned that she'd had the baby prematurely and th-that," his voice hitched and he had to swallow to continue. "That my daughter was born addicted to heroin, and it was so bad that she only lived a week in the NICU."

Edward wiped away his tears and then held his hand tenderly over his tattoo. "My tattoo is the date of my daughter's death and I have it there to remind me that my disgusting behavior not only killed her, but I also ruined another innocent life in Kate."

A/N:

I'm not expecting you guys to suddenly be sympathetic towards Edward, but you at least have some background story on the man now!

Thank you so much for your response on the extra chapter! Next chapter is on Wednesday, so see ya then!

Stay Awesome!