Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight and all recognizable characters and situations contained therein. All original content contained in this story is property of the author. Story is rated M and may contain graphic language, violent content, mild to moderate drug use, descriptions of domestic violence, and sexual situations.
**The Next Morning PPOV**
The grey morning light filters through the blinds, opening my eyes, I glance over and see that it's only about five in the morning. Getting out of bed, I grab a pair of shorts, hurriedly pulling them on, and heading across the hall into the bathroom.
This was Bella's first morning here, I wanted to get her on the road to recovery quickly, and in my opinion the place where she needed the most immediate help was her physical well being.
Shortly after our families had left I had set her up in the guest room with a special full face cold pack that Leah had gotten me as a joke one Christmas after Sam had started sparring with me. Bella asked if I didn't want to use it, and I had just laughed, and told her that I would stick with the bags of frozen vegetables in the freezer.
After that I had told her I would see her after she got settled in, and gone downstairs, and that was the last I saw of her for the night. Jasper kept to himself in the apartment, I knew that they had had a long trip, and it didn't bother me that they wanted a little time to themselves.
Finishing up in the bathroom I head back across the hall and grab a tee shirt, throwing it on before putting on socks and a beat up old pair of sneakers and heading downstairs. Jasper is in the kitchen surveying the fridge, he looks up briefly, "Mornin."
I nod in return, before replying, "Hey. I'm going to the store, do you want anything? I have to get some breakfast stuff."
He shuts the fridge, "Could you pick me up some orange juice? The non pulp variety."
Nodding again, I answer, "Sure thing."
Turning I grab my keys off the counter, and head out to my car.
**Meanwhile in Los Angeles**
Emmett Cullen lays in bed, Rosalie draped over him, she's sleeping deeply, he shoves her lightly, "Hey! Wake up."
She rolls to her side and glares at him, "What's your problem?"
He grunts at her, before responding, "You want Edward to come looking for you? It's almost 5 am. You have about 30 minutes before he wakes up, and if you want to slip back into his room you had better hurry, and get your ass outta here."
She rolls her eyes, "I don't care if he finds me. I'm with you now. Bella is gone and we can be together now!"
Emmett winces, but his voice is sharp, "Have you gone loony tunes or something? Bella will be back, most likely within the week. She hasn't even called her dad to say she's coming home. Dad's got someone out to bring her back. You need to leave, Rose."
A deep pink flush rises from her chest to her face, and her eyes glare sharply at him, as her southern really comes out in her anger, "I think you're the one who's loony Emmett Cullen. I was in the room when your daddy's bounty hunter called! Jasper knocked him a good one, I heard him tell your daddy that he was out!"
Emmett grins, "One, that was before Dad doubled the reward. Two, do you really think he's the only one out looking for her? Give it 3 days tops before one of them gets her. Then she'll be home. Now get out."
His voice goes menacing and dark, "I'm not going to tell you again."
Rosalie's blood chills, a shiver of fear running up her spine as she gets quickly out of the bed, grabbing up her clothes and throwing them on even as she's walking out of the room.
Emmett rolls over on his bed, looking at the picture of Bella on his nightstand before hunkering down into his pillows. He's not stupid, nor does he suffer from any form of amnesia, what he is, is numb.
He had tried fucking out his frustration with Rose, he had tried pounding it out on Paul Dixon's face just 3 days earlier. He had tried to love it out with Bella the night before all the shit hit the fan…it hadn't been the same. He knew she wasn't into it, she was receptive because she felt she had to be, he just wanted things to be normal again. He wanted his life back.
His hands turn to fists and almost without his permission his arm shoots out and he knocks the picture savagely off the nightstand, his thoughts raging, Fucking bitch! All I wanted was for us to get back to normal! All I WANTED was a night of normalcy with a fiancé who wanted to be with me just as much as I wanted to be with her! What did I get? Barely veiled disgust. A fiancé who slipped out of our bed as soon as she was able to! And where did she go? Out to the pool to text her fuck buddy! That stupid bitch! She's going to be so sorry when she gets back here. I'll make her beg me to take her back.
We leave him, letting him seethe in his blind fury. In another wing of the house Carlisle is on his way to the private security room behind the false wall in the back of his study, it's time to erase the tapes, no one in the family knows that Carlisle has cameras in every single room, and also in most of the outbuildings, and the pool area. He's known from the very beginning that Rose has been screwing Emmett behind Edward's back. It didn't sit well with Carlisle, Emmett was his adopted child, but Edward, Edward was his son. It didn't sit well with Carlisle at all to see his boy played for a fool by two people with no legitimate claim to the name Cullen.
Still, with Bella in the wind, and Jasper with her, protecting himself meant protecting Emmett. That meant that there could be absolutely nothing on the premises to point to steroid use, he would make a private copy of a couple of choice scenes from the tapes and he would put that tape in his private safety deposit box, not even Esme had access to it.
No, Rose would never be a Cullen, Carlisle would never allow it. In his opinion Edward had been wasting his time on the tramp for far too long as it was, and if he had his way that relationship would be over even before one of his bounty hunters brought Bella back. Once Bella was back, and Emmett's career was safely out of the woods he would pay his adopted child a hefty amount to get out of his life and stay out. In his opinion, it was time to cut his losses.
He goes to the false wall, hits the sweet spot, the wall swings open, and he steps inside. As soon as his eyes adjust he knows that something is very wrong. None of the monitors are recording, they're all flashing the same message at him on a blue screen, and as he reads it, his blood turns cold, fear tightens his chest, and he lets out an anguished cry as he reads those two words flashing over and over again on the screens…Insert Disc…Insert Disc…Insert Disc…
**Short time skip PPOV**
After unpacking the groceries I got to work. I had made the batter up for a simple buttermilk pancake recipe, put bacon in the oven to cook, and as I flip the first 3 pancakes all I can think is, perfection. Yeah I like to cook, I hardly ever get to because for the most part my meals during training are just grilled chicken sometimes with salad for lunch and dinner, and oatmeal egg whites and fruit for breakfast, but it is what it is.
I grab a plate, pull the bacon out of the oven, and put two pieces on a plate along with the pancakes. Going to the fridge I take out the butter and syrup and do the pancakes up right. It's about 6:30 now, so I put the plate on a tray along with a glass of orange juice, and a bottle of one of those shakes that they give to people in nursing homes and hospitals who haven't been eating to help them put weight back on and keep them healthy.
I head up the stairs carefully, and breathe a sigh of relief when I make it to the top without dropping anything. Going to the door of the guest room I knock on the door lightly, and after a minute Bella answers, "Come in."
Opening the door I find her laying on the bed, still fully clothed from yesterday. The mask is on her face still, she takes it off as I approach, and I can see that her face is a good bit less swollen than it was yesterday.
"Girl, did you sleep at all?", I ask worriedly.
She laughs a little, "I honestly passed out hard about 20 minutes after you left the room last night. I woke up at about 2:30 in the morning, and put this back in the freezer for about an hour, then put it back on, and went back to sleep. I just woke up again about ten minutes before you knocked."
Looking at her face again the bruises are still there, but with the swelling down a bit she looks more like herself. I bring the tray over and set it on the bed next to her, "I made you breakfast."
She smiles shyly, "Oh, wow! Thank you. You didn't have to do that, I don't think I could eat all that by myself."
I smile at her, "Try? I made the pancakes from scratch, you don't want me to think you don't like my cooking!"
She nods, with a slight giggle, "Okay."
Grinning at her, I reply, "Thank you. I'm gonna go make a few of those for myself and make up a plate, do you mind if I come back up and eat with you?"
She shakes her head, "That would be really nice actually."
**Short time skip still PPOV**
I take my plate and go back up to the guest room, knocking as I open the door. Bella smiles awkwardly, "The pancakes are really good Paul. Thank you."
I sit down on the chair in the corner, "You're welcome. I'm glad you like them."
Looking at her plate now, I see she's only eaten one pancake in the time I've been gone, she grimaces, "It's really bad isn't it?"
Giving her a questioning look, I ask, "What?"
She answers, "The shape I'm in. Honestly I'm stuffed right now, and I know I've only eaten one of these, and I shouldn't be this full."
I shrug, "Your perception is what counts, and if you think it's bad, then it is. That shake thing is probably the most important thing for you right now. The Cullen's starved you down Bella, you're malnourished, have been for the better part of a month now. The shake will give you all the vitamins and nutrients that you haven't been getting."
She nods, and shakes the bottle before opening it, and drinking, as I continue, "I need to ask you a question."
She puts the bottle back on the tray, "Sure."
Taking a bite of my own food, I chew and swallow quickly, before asking, "How do you think you look?"
She sighs, "Honestly, I don't think I'm fat. Emmett, and his family, they kept telling me, 'you need to lose weight, Bella', 'You've put on weight, you look so fat', just all the time with that. I would look in the mirror, and think to myself, 'If I'm fat, why do I look so fucking thin?'. Esme and Alice gave me these pills, I don't know what they were, some super fat burner or something I guess. I was never hungry so they must have had an appetite suppressant in them as well, and Emmett would make me go with his mother and sister on their work outs too."
Bella pauses to take another drink of the shake and another few small bites of pancake, and I take the opportunity to speak, "Okay so I don't have to worry that as soon as I leave the room you're going to go to the bathroom and puke up everything you ate, right?"
She looks up at me, shock plain in her eyes, "What? No! Of course not!"
She puts the tray aside and stands up, wincing a little from the bruises that were on her hips and arms I guess, not to mention the ones on her back from when she fell when Cullen hit her, and she looks in the full length mirror next to the dresser, "Damn. I guess I really do look Anna huh?"
I nod, "You really do, Girl. I couldn't even believe it when you walked in to the weigh in, but don't worry, we're gonna get you fixed up and healthy quick as we can."
She smiles, "Thank you. I really appreciate everything that you're doing for me."
Smiling back at her I nod, "It's no trouble Bella. I'm honestly really looking forward to getting to know you better."
Looking down shyly, she replies, "Me too."
