Day 13

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Another day, another weak excuse from Emmett. He claimed an emergency through an email—couldn't even bother to make a phone call! She wanted to explain to him what an emergency was—running out of PRBC's when a patient was bleeding out. Orphaned children, the same age as first graders in this country, taking care of orphaned babies. Medical supplies stolen to be sold on the black market, leaving the clinics cleaned out. Hundreds of children and only enough vaccinations for half of them. Those were emergencies!

She was so worked up, pacing the few feet across the room, staring at her laptop, waiting for Emmett's face to finally appear. The ping sounded and she looked over at the email.

The subject line was: SORRY-SORRY-SORRY PLEASE BE MY FRIEND AGAIN

Oh, if this was Emmett putting off their session again—wait—she didn't recognize the email address.

EAC111714, similar to hers, IMS111714—it had to be Edward.

She almost didn't want to answer it. The way Emmett had been acting, it was clear something was very wrong. She didn't think Edward would gloat, but…

Emmett was still a no-show. Could it be he was planning some grand gesture, and was currently jumping through the hoops and filling out the paperwork so he could visit her?

She doubted it. She clicked on the email from Edward.

Bella

I'm sorry I acted like a jerk. I don't know your boyfriend, I don't know what's happening in your life beyond this place, and I shouldn't have been so pushy. That's just me, I'm very protective of the people I care about. Please see me again. I miss you. I have no one to help me mock bad movies, and eating lunch and dinner alone sucks.

Please forgive my sorry ass

Edward

She couldn't help but smile, picturing his face as he talked back to the characters on the TV whenever he thought they were acting stupid. She'd made up her mind to forgive him before the email, but this clinched the deal. Not wanting to give in too easily, she considered what she would write in response when the Skype notification came up.

Emmett. Now that he was finally responding, she barely knew what to say. Demand answers? Accuse him of hiding something? Break things off immediately? To be fair, in honor of their three year relationship she needed to listen to what he had to say, but unless he had an incredibly good answer, a walking on water, parting the Red Sea kind of reason, she didn't see how she could continue like this. It would be better to do this in person, but…

She answered. Opening the screen he looked like the Emmett she'd known all these years, perfectly groomed, coordinated shirt, tie and handkerchief. She could see that he was in their dining room, the walls the familiar green and her favorite Ansel Adams print hung behind his head. His big smile, the one she'd always loved, today seemed insincere. Compared to Edward, whose open face and laughter made her grin right back at him, today Emmett's smile made her leery. His, "Hey Babe!" sounded too practiced.

"Hi Emmett." She waited for him to start apologizing, and he did, in his way, which meant blaming everyone but himself for his failing.

"Yeah, it's been crazy out here in the world, Mike is working my tail off, last minute meetings, kissing client's asses, but you know me, working 24/7…"

"Answer me one question Emmett. Where did you skype me from the other day?"

His eyes darted back and forth, "What? What are you talking about?"

"When we skyped, the day after Thanksgiving, you were in a room with yellow walls. None of our rooms are yellow. Your office is beige. Where were you?"

"Ohhhh. Oh that." He adjusted the knot of his tie. "You caught me. After dinner I went out with Mike and a client, had a little too much to drink so we cabbed it to his house. That was his guest room."

Bella had been to Mike's house, but never to the bedrooms. It was possible that he had a yellow guest room. And while Emmett wasn't a drunk, occasionally he did overdo it. That answered the question of the yellow wall. She wasn't convinced, but now that Edward had pointed out the non-engaged status of their relationship, Bella had to ask.

"Em, where do you see us in five years?"

"Whoa, what brought this on? Are they giving you tranks in there or something?"

"I've had a lot of time to think Emmett. And it seems like we're not moving."

"I thought your liked our place?"

"That's not what I meant."

"No offense babe, but when you said this was urgent that I talk to you, I thought it would be—"

"About that." Her calm was disappearing. "I send you an urgent message that I have to talk to you, an URGENT MESSAGE and you don't bother getting back to me for over a day? How do you think that makes me feel?"

"Babe, I was busy—"

"Too busy for a two minute phone call, to see what was going on with your girlfriend?"

"Bella, you're really, I don't know. Are you on something right now? Cause you never minded before when I was busy."

"Well I mind. I mind not being a priority for you. Tell me, Emmett. Are you buying time?"

"I don't know what brought this on." She could see his face getting red, and he swallowed. "Maybe you're getting that thing, the jungle fever."

"Answer the question Emmett. Are you staying with me until you find someone else you like better? You talked to my father a year ago. What's going on?"

"What? How did you know? That was supposed to be a surprise. I wanted to do a big thing, uh, that's why I—"

"Really? It takes you a year to figure out this 'big thing'? If that's the case, show me the ring."

He swallowed, his eyes darting back and forth a few times before he answered. "It's not here. It's in my safety deposit box, at the bank."

"Since when did you get a safety deposit box?"

"I've had it. A while." He made a big show of looking at his watch, the very expensive watch she'd bought him for his birthday. "I've got to go babe. I'll, uh, call you tomorrow."

"I'm not done—," she said, but his end shut down.

She wanted to reach through his computer and grab him by his overpriced silk tie. She knew it was a mistake, doing this remotely. She should have waited until she was close enough to kick him in the balls.

-21 Days- Day 13-

The sudden fierce knock on his door surprised him.

"Dr. Swan is here to see you Mr. Cullen."

"Send her in." He stood up from his bed but the door was open before he had a chance to straighten the sheets or his clothes.

"Hi Bella—"

"Do you want to take a walk with me? Now, like, right now?"

He'd never seen her so agitated. Her face was red and she was seething, her fists clenched, her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Did you get clea—"

"I already requested clearance. Are you coming with me, yes or no?"

"Yes." He sat down to pull on his shoes. From the corner of his eye he could see her foot tapping. He hurried.

Out in the courtyard for the first time he had to work to keep up with her as she raced walked two laps around before she slowed down and started talking.

"I spoke with Emmett. I've been an idiot."

"You're not an—"

She stopped in front of him, and turned to face him. "I am. I just accepted what we had because it was nice to have someone for things. For parties, to come home to, whenever he was actually home. He makes a very nice appearance, very neat. He'll talk to a rock and smile while doing it."

He suspected she did not want him to comment at this point. Alice had warned him, "Guys always want to fix things. Sometimes, women just want to tell you what's going on, to vent. Trust that she can fix things on her own, and just listen."

Bella's hands were fluttering in the air. "To think the nicest thing I can say about the guy I spent my last three years with is that he's NEAT."

She kicked the gravel at her feet and walked on. Edward walked next to her. Just as he was about to make a comment she stopped again.

"And you're completely right about the engagement thing. He was obviously lying when he said the ring was in 'his safety deposit box'."

Bella made her voice low, obviously mocking Emmett. He thought she sounded very funny, but the look in her eyes…he just hoped that her anger was only at this one particular male of the species and did not extend to the entire gender. He was the closest representative after all. He slowly crossed his hands into the fig leaf position, protecting his manhood, just in case.

"And my parents, they think he farts rainbows. I can't wait to have this discussion with them, and—"

"Wait, did you break up with him?" He hoped he didn't sound too hopeful. That was how he was feeling, but it wouldn't be right under the circumstances. Even he knew that, without Alice telling him.

"No, that's what's so frustrating!" She pounded her fist into her other hand. "He kept acting like I was crazy. He even asked if I was on tranquilizers or if I had some kind of 'Jungle Fever'. And then the worst…"

"What was the worst?"

"He hung up on me before I finished."

Trying to avoid stating the obvious, but not seeing a way around it, he asked, "Why didn't you call him back?"

She let out a huff, then took a deep breath. "I thought about it, but I realized he'd now have time to make up better answers, get some alibis in place. He'll probably call my parents, make up some bull about me acting weird."

"That's…not right."

"No, it's not. So I've got to call them first, tell them my side. But I needed to calm down."

They were back at the start of the loop. She put her hands on her knees and took a few calming breaths. She spoke very quietly. "Ok. I'm going to go do that now."

But she didn't move, so he mimicked her posture, leaning his head close to hers. She turned to face him, and spoke in a whisper, "Thanks for walking with me. I wanted to be totally calm and rational before I did this." She leaned in until their lips met, her hands sneaking around his head pulling him into the kiss. Her tongue slid between his lips and she sucked, making an audible smack when she disengaged. "Thanks, I needed that."

He stood like a statue as she trotted back over to Angela and disappeared into the building.

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AN: Thanks for all the lovely reviews, follows and favs. Greetings new readers; if you're this far along, might as well keep going!

1)To answer a few technology questions: Their communications are both limited and monitored for security purposes. No cell phones, so no 'face time' or texts. They have a wired landline telephone and a laptop with a secure private network. They can only use their government issue email address, and get incoming mail and video from approved senders. Earlier in the story, Jasper mentioned that certain groups were trying to contact anyone who'd worked with Ebola patients, possibly to develop a biological weapon, making this a National Security issue. In my mind, not in RL. That I know of, anyway.

2)Most reviewers agreed that breaking up in person was the right thing to do, but in this case, any means, including carrier pigeon, would be acceptable.