Beneath The Surface

by MyBella

One summer, an internship in Africa, bloodlust, sharp teeth, and a boatload of fear are all that stand in the way of Bella Cullen landing a job at the Atlanta Aquarium - As long as she doesn't count cocky shark expert Edward Masen on her list.

39. 39 Trapped In A Rip Tide

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Stephenie Meyer owns anything and everything relating to Twilight. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended and in order to keep it that way, No reproduction, copying, reposting, downloading, or any kind of redistribution of this story is allowed. This is to cover my arse as much as yours! And finally, the Original characters, plot, names, nicknames, songs, poems—anything I created from my very own brain—are all the property of the author of this fanfic, My-Bella. Unauthorized use of the material is plagiarism so please be kind and don't steal my creations.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Chapter 39 – Trapped In A Rip Tide

Thursday, July 24th

Masen put down the book he'd been reading and turned on his side to face Bella. She was soundly sleeping with the covers pulled up to her nose and a mountain of pillows piled behind her back. It was ridiculous the way she made the bed seem so small by sleeping this way but if it helped her sleep well then he wasn't going to knock it.

He wanted nothing more than to wake her with kisses but the early hour showing on the bedside clock forced him to behave. He decided to head upstairs for some coffee and one last look over today's agenda. It was going to be a busy day, especially since they were going to have to work around some uncooperative weather right around lunch time. The others would get a break but he and Bella had a video to watch together until the weather passed. After that, they would get back to collecting data and photos.

After grabbing his file from the office, he headed upstairs to the kitchen. He was stopped in his tracks by the t-shirt stretched across Gopher's large chest. It featured cartoon drawings of a scuba diver and a shark facing each other, and was emblazoned with "Sharks hug with their mouths".

"What the hell are you wearing?" Masen asked, not quite sure if he was amused or annoyed. On the one hand, the shark was kind of cute. On the other, it made light of a serious situation.

Gopher smiled wide while opening his arms to show off the newest addition to his wardrobe. "Sweet, huh?"

Of all the words racing through Masen's mind, 'sweet' was most definitely not one of them. "How the hell do you find all these insane shirts you like to wear?"

"There's nothing insane about my shirts. Most are super hero logos, a few are movie quotes, a few more bear our company name, and the rest are fun to wear just for the reactions I get." He pointed his thumb at Masen. "Like yours."

"I'm telling you right now, if Guppy's reaction is anything less than amused, you're taking that damn thing off."

"Bro, Guppy's gonna giggle her cute little head off. You watch."

He shook his head and grabbed one of the empty mugs waiting in front of the coffee machine. "Where the hell did you even get that thing?"

"My baby sister sent it to me in the package I got at the house Monday. She found it in some beach shop while on a weekender with her little girlfriends."

"Sounds like Megan is enjoying her summer."

"Just so long as she doesn't enjoy it too much. She's gonna be a high school senior but sometimes she tries to act like she's in college."

"I wouldn't worry about it. You're a legend in your home town and all the guys know she's your baby sister. No one's gonna mess with her."

"They damn well better not."

Masen smiled behind his coffee cup, picturing some pimply high school kid cowering before the intimidating form of Gopher.

"Yeah, go on and smile, you asshat. You don't have a little sister so you don't know the stress that comes with it. I've got four of them and not one of them has ever appreciated my attempts to protect them from themselves and the disgusting little perverts they decide they're madly in love with. I can still hear the ear-splitting scream Kelly let out when she discovered I'd warned her junior prom date I'd break his damn legs if he tried to have sex with her."

"Sounds like a reasonable consequence to me. And just so we're clear, I've felt plenty of stress watching out for Lee."

"I know you consider her your sister, but it's not the same as when you watch them grow from a tiny baby. There's something primal that happens when you hold your baby sister for the first time. From that moment on, you just know that it's your mission to protect her by any means necessary. That's part of the reason it took so long for Guppy to stand up to her baby sister. She was stuck in that primal protection mode."

"She seems to be out of it now," Masen replied, sitting at the table with his coffee and his file.

"She had to choose what was more important, her objectives or her sister's acceptance."

"Maybe now that Alice has had a change of heart, Bella will get to have both."

"Maybe so but that all depends on the realness of that change. Hard to tell since we were only around her for a day and a half."

Masen understood the man's reluctance with Alice, and though he felt some himself, he had to remain positive for both Bella and Whit. "For now, we operate on the premise that it's real and keep our focus where it really needs to be—Bella's progress."

Gopher sat across from him with his own cup of coffee. "Today's the big video day, huh?"

"Hopefully she can look at it with a scientific eye but I'm prepared for her to have an emotional reaction. At least I hope I am. She still manages to surprise me in some way daily."

"I kind of think she's going to hate the video and not really for the sharks, but for the idea that you might be that researcher guy."

Masen looked up from his papers, completely surprised by Gopher's suggestion. "Do you really think so? You're not just screwing around?"

"Dead serious, bro. Hell, first time I saw that video, that was my thought. At the time I was still learning how much safety means to you. And I damn sure didn't know just how much control Lee and Whit can have over you, so yeah, I thought you might try some crazy shit like that to get the photo and the data."

Masen gave him a disapproving look. "I'm driven, not stupid."

"Yeah, I know. Now. And hey, I could be wrong. Guppy has spent a lot of quality time around you so she might not have that concern."

"Do you have to make that face?" Masen asked, annoyed by the size of Gopher's grin and the undertone it gave the man's words.

"With the way you two were kissing in the hallway last night, hells to the yes, my friend." He swiped his coffee cup from the table and rose to his feet. "I'll just leave you to think on that while I head up front to see how my lady love is doing at the helm."

Masen leaned against the back of the booth and let out a breath as he ran both hands through his hair, wondering for the hundredth time why his previously impenetrable self-control fled so easily in the face of his kapu. He hadn't meant to get so carried away last night and definitely not out in the open for anyone to see, but she'd just looked so damn cute in that stupid Seuss shirt with her hair all wet from her shower and hanging down her back. Her skin had been pink from the heat and steam, the scent of her soap clinging to her body as much as the dampened shirt. He'd just wanted to touch her, to see how soft her skin would feel fresh out of the shower. He could clearly remember saying "come here" and her smiling at him while putting her arms around his neck. After that though, things became incredibly hazy. There had been kissing, of course, and enough of it to make her lips look red and swollen. And the heat and feel of her body, smaller and softer and yet fitting perfectly against his at the same time.

With a rough shake of his head, Masen forced the memory away. He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or scream as he adjusted himself, confused as hell about how just thinking of being pressed up against Bella could set him off in a tail spin not unlike the sharks here with their slippery seal prey. One minute, he was calm and collected. The next, he was lost to everything but her and the need to have all of her.

He'd tried to talk to Esme yesterday about his surprising lack of control but rather than tell him how to get it back, she'd just reiterated some of things Whit and Bella had each said to him about accepting the possibility the wait could end before the internship did. If his concern wasn't a hundred percent genuine, then maybe he would be able to let go and not regret it. Since it was genuine, though, that possibility was only speculation and therefore would not be tested. He couldn't risk hurting Bella, not after all she'd been through with him and Alice this summer—and her father and her uncle in her past.

Feeling sufficiently pep-talked into submission on the lusting for his kapu front, Masen opened his folder and busied himself with today's agenda. Bella would be getting back behind the camera on the skiff today. He'd purposefully given her the morning slot just in case the video proved too much and scared her away from the afternoon one. Lee had been a little disappointed but she'd also supported the choice. Masen snorted as her comment came to mind, sharing is caring. His best girl friend was quickly becoming his girlfriend's best friend. While he liked to joke that he needed to put a stop to it, the truth was that he couldn't have been happier about it. That might change if they ever decided to team up against him, but for now it was just nice to watch his family becoming her family.

Thinking of his family moved him straight into thinking of their safety and he spent the rest of his pre-sunrise time pouring over his plan to ensure there were no gaps, not even the tiniest hole, that could cause their day to end in anything other than no harm, no foul.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Bella stood in the doorway holding a plate in each hand while Edward pushed the chairs back and dropped the cushions onto the floor. Honestly, she didn't care where she sat and she highly doubted she was going to touch much of anything on her plate. She'd been dreading this video since he'd mentioned it on the way back to the boat Monday afternoon. Multiple close-ups of great whites eating were not at all her idea of valuable footage. If she wasn't so sure Edward wouldn't have scheduled this if it wasn't necessary to her progress, she'd have begged for any other assignment.

"Come here," Edward called, patting the cushion beside him.

After a deep breath and quick internal pep talk, Bella joined him on the floor and handed him his plate.

He smiled as he twisted open a water for her. "Don't look so green, Guppy. It won't be that bad."

She wished she believed that. She also wished the rain had gone around them; she'd much rather be on the skiff with a camera than here in this room.

After opening his own water, he set the TV remote on his knee. "Before I start the video, I want to tell you a little about what you're going to see. It's clear you have more control over your anxiety when you know what to expect.

"This is a documentary film so there won't be any sensationalism or ludicrous special effects that you would get from a movie clip. There is a whale carcass involved, but it was already deceased before the first shark arrived."

She knew asking would prolong the inevitable but she was also curious so she didn't feel too bad about it. "What kind of whale?"

"A cousin to the blues and the humpbacks. B-r-y-d-e-s pronounced brudess."

She vaguely recalled hearing about that species from Mike, her Sea World co-worker. "Toothless right? They have baleen plates instead?"

"Yep," Edward confirmed with a nod. "They have twin blowholes and their coloring is a dark smoky gray with a white underbelly. They're considered erratic compared to other baleen whales because they surface at irregular intervals and often change course for no discernable reason. For every fifteen minutes underwater, they surface and complete up to seven blows before submerging themselves again. Their swim speed is usually relaxed at around four miles an hour but they can reach speeds of fifteen miles an hour."

"So nowhere near the speed they need if one of these jumping whites goes after them."

Edward snorted. "Jumping Whites. I like that term."

"So if not a shark, what turned it from a whale to a carcass?"

"No one knows. It washed ashore with no clear signs of why it died. Since local officials were unsure what to do with the carcass, they had it towed to Seal Island, figuring the sharks would take care of it for them."

Bella's eyes grew incredibly wide and she nearly dropped her water bottle. "Here? This happened here?"

He reached over and took the bottle from her shaking hand, setting it on the floor in front of their cushions. When he was looking at her again, he answered her question. "Last season."

He said it so calmly, so matter-of-fact. Last season. Like he was reporting the weather, which happened to currently be rain.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to see the situation through his eyes. It was a fact. It had happened and there was nothing that could change that. He was a researcher reporting a documented event. And that's the role she needed to take on right now—researcher learning the facts.

She met Edward's gaze and said, "So last season they dragged this carcass to the island. What happened then?"

"Once the boat moved away, the sharks moved in one by one until there were about fifteen in the group. Not only was it atypical to see so many great whites gathered in one location, they were also remarkably orderly about eating, each waiting their turn. After a few hours of gorging, a noticeable change happened in their behavior. The sharks seemed almost drunk and the males appeared to be aroused. One of the researchers you'll hear on the video has a theory that a full stomach causes a change in hormone levels and creates a reduction in aggression needed to allow for mating."

"Do you think there's anything to his theory?"

He shrugged. "Not sure. We know next to nothing about this species' mating habits so it's hard to form an opinion one way or another. The idea of fullness altering hormones isn't beyond the realm of possibility." He grinned while leaning in closer to her. "I know I feel more docile after one of Gopher's big meals."

She smiled as she pressed her palm to his forehead and gave a slight push. "I thought you didn't like his cooking."

He took her hand into his and kissed her wrist below her bracelet, his eyes locked on hers the entire time. "I know you've been dreading this for days now but I really think it'll be fine. Just think of how nervous you were about Alice and then we got there and it turned out okay."

"We were only there a day and a half, though. Who knows where her head will be at when we head back tomorrow night after being gone for most of the week. It's not like she's called or emailed me or anything."

"I know that's been bothering you, but I think she's nervous about calling you after everything she did. I know she's called Whit every night and he says she always asks about you."

Bella nodded as if she agreed but she was still reluctant to completely put her faith in her sister's change of heart.

Edward must have seen her uncertainty because he put aside their plates to pull her into his lap and wrap his arms around her. "I think this is a good time to tell you what she and I talked about.

"I was anxious, kind of like you are about this video. I wasn't sure I could explain to a stranger what I've barely been able to explain to myself, and I knew if I failed, then she would never truly understand what she'd done. But once I started talking about you, about how I feel when I'm with you, it wasn't as awful as I'd expected. When I was done, I could see in your sister's face that I'd gotten through to her. That was a good feeling and it makes me hopeful that things really will be better between the three of us.

"This video, I think it's going to be a good step forward for you with sharks, like my talk with your sister was for us. There's nothing wrong with being anxious about it. There's no shame if you find yourself needing to stop and take a break either. Just don't give in to the fear and give up before you give yourself a real chance to push forward."

Bella picked up the remote and sounding far more confident than she actually felt, she said, "Let's do this."

He grinned and brushed a kiss along her cheekbone. "Press play, Guppy."

The video started with a man narrating, explaining the whale had been dead for days and had washed up on a public beach. Needing to get it away from the people and not really sure what to do with the thirty-five foot carcass, it was towed offshore next to Seal Island. The camera panned across the carcass and then moved to capture two fins slicing through the water nearby.

The first shark head pierced the water and Bella gasped as it sunk its teeth into the whale's flesh and began shaking its head back and forth, reminding her of playing tug-of-war with Lizzy. When the shark disappeared under the water, an extremely visible gap stood out a stark white in contrast to the undisturbed and discolored flesh surrounding it.

All of the shark's flailing and thrusting had left behind waves that rocked the massive carcass back and forth across the water's surface, and just as they began to calm, another shark would appear and begin the process all over again, tearing away a wide gap and then disappearing to let the next one get a mouthful. It was orderly, just like Edward had said. But it was also violent and full of such raw power that she couldn't contain her shiver and it rattled her from head to toe.

"We can pause if you need," Edward offered, whispering the words into her ear.

"I'm okay," she replied, confident she could handle a bit more.

Yet another shark came in for a bite and the camera panned to the boat, showing it was right next to the carcass. It was a stun to her system to see the boat and the humans right there and see how the sharks were completely ignoring them, their focus only on the rotting flesh they were feasting on. This was not the behavior of a group of monsters. These were animals satisfying their hunger, plain and simple. For all their speed and their acrobatic skills employed in preying on the seals, each one must barely equate to a mid-meal snack for these massive creatures. The energy used to catch them almost seemed too much for their trouble so it made absolute sense to her that they would gorge themselves when presented with a basically endless meal.

The camera focused on a researcher in dive gear who was getting into a cage; Bella tensed, worried this man was taking the sharks' distraction for granted and putting himself in harm's way. Even the narrator said it was 'extremely dangerous'. Of course, his very next words were that this was an opportunity that might not come again.

Next, the diver explained what he saw beneath the surface of the water and explained his theory on a possible great white mating ritual. He seemed completely unfazed by the suddenly uncoordinated sharks banging and bumping into his cage, their teeth showing and undeniably sharp.

The video cut to the next morning and there was hardly anything left of the whale, though the sharks in the water were still numerous. A close-up of the carcass flashed on the screen and then a man appeared climbing onto it.

"Stop it!" Bella yelled. "Why is he doing that? Stop it! Pause it!"

Edward hadn't been expecting her reaction and he fumbled the remote and dropped it twice.

Coming from the TV were the words, "This is about the dumbest thing I've ever done. Anything for a good picture."

The video finally paused, leaving the screen frozen with the man sitting on the carcass with a camera in his hand and a shark right behind him.

Bella turned her face away and focused her eyes on Edward's knee, not wanting him to see how freaked out she was feeling. She wanted to make him proud.

She could feel her racing heartbeat in her temples and her fingertips, and she struggled to control her breathing, knowing a panic attack wasn't that far off. She thought of what a real researcher would do and forced herself to ask a question. "Why? Why would any sane person do that? Make me understand."

He tightened his hold on her as he answered, "Every team, every researcher has a different level of acceptable risk. This man and his team felt the sharks were docile enough that the reward would be much greater than the risk. I promise you that nothing happens to him. I would never let you watch it if anything had."

"If I've learned anything at all about Great Whites, it's that docile is not an appropriate adjective for them."

"I wholeheartedly agree with that statement." He did too. She could tell from the combination of his quick response and the conviction in his tone.

She wet her lips and forced her next question out of her tightened throat. "Would you? For a picture, would you do that? Would you get on that small, slippery surface and put yourself a foot away from a Great White's teeth? Would you risk leaving behind your family?"

"No." Again, no pause, no sense of deception. "What he's doing does not meet my own personal criteria for an acceptable risk, and it damn sure doesn't meet the team's."

"That's good. That's good because what he's doing is absolutely insane. There's no data that he's going to get from a close-up photo that he can't get some other way. There's just not. You can't convince me that there is, you just can't."

"Breathe, Bella." It was a demand that she found hard to follow but eventually managed thanks to his calming voice and the soothing way he rubbed his hands along her arms. He reminded her of her bravery on the skiff, of how she'd helped with the seal and coped with seeing the shark right beside them. He also reminded her how wonderful she'd done diving and swimming in the bay the previous week.

"Sorry," she said once she was sure she was in control of herself.

"It's okay. Watching someone purposefully put himself in harm's way can be a troubling experience. Add a massive shark to that and it's completely understandable that it would be a lot for you to handle. But, Bella, you are handling it."

"You wouldn't do that, right? Nothing dangerous like that?"

"No, nothing like that," he promised.

She nodded as she pulled in another deep breath. "Even if he's fine, I can't see him with a shark so close. Not today. Just tell me what else happens."

"He takes a few photos and then they get him back on the boat. They mention that the waters become calm for the next few days. The full sharks retreat to relax and digest, leaving the seals to enjoy the waters worry-free for a short time."

"And then?"

"Back to business, recording breaches on seals and the occasional mistaken penguin."

"Which they don't like and spit out but it's already too late for them because of the pressure exerted by the shark's jaws when they clamp shut."

"That's right." He hugged her tighter. "You did good. You got a little worked up at the end, but you still pushed forward and finished. Good job, Guppy."

"I don't feel like it was a good job. I feel like I wanna barf the lunch I didn't eat."

He chuckled at that. "Before that part, though, did you find it interesting at all to see how the sharks were eating?"

She took a moment before responding, making sure it was the researcher answering and not her fear. "A little, yeah. They were cordial to each other rather than territorial like I expected. It's an interesting tidbit to add to what I've been learning about this species."

"Now that you're not seeing them as evil monsters, what do you think about sharing a cage dive with me? With your skills behind the camera, you'd be a valuable asset to the team."

She tried deflecting rather than outright refusing. "Even you have trouble photographing underwater here."

"That's true, but I'm still managing to get a few good ones here and there. And considering all of your above water shots have been pretty damn near perfect, I have no doubt you can adapt to the underwater conditions and be a big help. Don't answer me, now. Just take a few days to consider it and then let me know."

"Edward, I really—"

His blue-eyed gaze was almost as mesmerizing as the green-eyed one. "Think about it for a bit. If you decide now, you won't be able to keep your anxiety from influencing your choice."

"Alright," she agreed with a nod. "I'll take some time to consider it."

"Good. Now do you want to try to eat or do you want some time in your room with your journal?"

She grimaced as she placed a hand over her flip-flopping stomach. "Journal."

"Then enjoy your writing. If you need me for anything, I'll be in the kitchen."

She couldn't help grimacing again. "All those sharks and it didn't dampen your appetite at all. I can't wait to feel that way."

"In all honesty, you may never completely feel that way. What I can promise you is that you'll have the control to lock it away when you need to keep your focus."

She hugged him tightly, her anxiety slightly eased by his complete honesty. "Thanks for telling me what I need to hear rather than what I'd like to hear."

"Just part of my quest to be a master mentor," he joked. "Now go write. I'm hungry and you're impeding my eating progress."

She smiled at his playfulness then kissed his cheek before leaving for her room to pull out her journal. This was definitely an experience that needed recording and reflection no matter how queasy her stomach felt at the thought of recalling that video.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Masen set the two still full plates down on the table and then slid in beside Whit. "It could have been worse but it damn sure could have been better too."

Gopher frowned at the untouched plates. "I was right, wasn't I?" He didn't seem to relish his accuracy for once.

"You were partially right," Masen admitted. "The shark being so close set her off first, and then hearing the guy was after a photo finished it off. It wasn't as bad as when we were on The Submarine but it also wasn't as controlled as when we were on the skiff." His stomach chose that moment to growl loudly so he popped a chip into his mouth.

"Where is she?" Lee asked while stealing one of his chips.

"She wanted to write in her journal. She figured it would help her settle down." He picked up his sandwich and took a huge bite out of it.

Whit snorted. "At least you're not worried about it."

He shrugged. "She knows that's not going to be me or any of you so I don't see it being something she'll fixate on."

"How was she before that point? Was she able to watch the sharks eating?" Lee questioned.

"Yeah, she watched. She flinched a bunch but she kept watching." The thought he was struggling to ignore was only getting louder the more he talked about Bella, and that left him no choice but to deal with it now. The rain was ending and the sun would be out soon, allowing them to get back to work—work that required him to have a clear head.

He looked to Lee, knowing Gopher would follow her lead. "Can you guys give me a few minutes alone with Whit? I need to talk to him about something."

"And you can't say it in front of me?" She was smiling but he could still see the hurt in her eyes.

He held his hand out to her and once she took hold of it he told her, "Let him help me translate it into something you can understand and then I promise you'll be the next person I talk to about it. Deal?"

She smiled again and it was much more genuine but not completely hurt-free. "You are such a pain in my ass."

"Love you too," he replied, giving her a hand a squeeze before letting it go.

"Come on, Gopher," she said as she stood. "Let's go check the latest weather report and make sure this rain is really breaking up for good."

Gopher waited for her to walk away first and then quickly spoke to Masen. "Thanks for not being an asshat and just ordering her to leave. She's been fighting her homesickness lately and she got a call a little bit ago that her mom's rheumatoid arthritis flared up and is hurting her pretty bad. She can barely move around the house on her own."

"Why the hell didn't she tell us?" Masen demanded to know.

Gopher smirked. "Because she's just as stubborn as your ass and figured she'd worry less about her mom if she worried about Guppy instead."

Whit chuckled. "And there is the proof that some things will never ever change around here. No matter how much we pull Masen and Lee out of their heads, the instant someone they love is hurt, they're right back in them."

"We better call her back in here," Masen said, turning to see how far down the hall she'd gotten.

"Relax, bro. I've got her," Gopher replied, setting his hand on Masen's shoulder. "You take care of whatever you need to with Whit first. You can help cheer her up after."

Once he was gone, Whit pushed Masen's plate at him. "Eat a little first so your stomach doesn't interrupt your explaining."

After wolfing down half of his sandwich and a handful of chips, Masen let Whit in on what was troubling him. "I thought being a mentor would be easy. The easiest job of all, really. I'm just sharing everything I've learned since we started this company together. But I learned pretty quickly that wasn't going to be the case with Bella because of her fears. Still I thought I could pull this off. Today, though … Whit, I'm a failure at this and I don't know what to do about it."

Whit opened his mouth but quickly shut it. At first, he looked like he wanted nothing more than to laugh his ass off. But before Masen's temper had the chance to boil over, that look faded into a contemplative one.

Whit ended up sitting quietly long enough for Masen to empty his plate and half of Bella's. "Before I respond, I'm gonna need a little more explanation here," Whit shared. "You're a failure yet Bella's fears are lessening. How's that work?"

"Because I'm only helping her as her boyfriend. She got through the video because her boyfriend was comforting her, not because her mentor was successful."

Whit chuckled and shook his head. "As much as your logic helps you solve complex problems, it also creates ridiculous new ones. You didn't discover you fail at mentoring, Mase. You discovered that you're finally mastering your first and most needed people skill—reading others reactions instead of blindly going off what should logically happen.

"When Bella has needed you to be demanding with her, that's what you've been. When she's needed a push to acknowledge she's ready for the next step, then she's gotten it. And yeah, when she needs comfort, you've given her that too. That's one human giving another human the support they need most in the moment."

"But I can't hug every intern we have," Masen argued.

"You don't have to," Whit answered, not holding back his laughter this time.

"Hey, nudger! Stop laughing and fucking help me!" Masen demanded.

"I am helping," Whit promised. "I'm just also laughing at how damn ridiculous you're being. In all seriousness, Mase, I highly doubt any other intern we have will want a hug from you when Lee and I are so readily available. We only lost out with Bella because she fell for your challenging ass." His smile widened before he added, "I bet if I put money down that you're still trying to figure out why you two fell for each other, I'd win enough to finally get myself that Kawasaki Jet Ski I've been drooling over."

Masen grabbed his hair and let out a frustrated grunt. "You have no concept of the true meaning of serious."

Whit gripped Masen's shoulder and gave it a playful shake. "Look, bro, even if a future intern wants or needs a hug, it's not going to have the same connotation for either of you that it does for you and Bella when you two hug. You're worrying for nothing. You'll see. Being able to read people is going to pay off big time for you, especially with how much trouble you have with social cues.

"And here's a perfect example to prove what I'm saying is right … When we were down in Australia and I wasn't feeling the conditions there, you couldn't understand why I was fighting you on it. You just kept saying it didn't make sense for me to distrust the look of the water and the weather reports we had on hand. The only reason you eventually gave in was because Lee and Esme took my side.

"That version of you wasn't trying to argue with me or be a jerk. He was just looking at things logically. But this guy you are now, if I said the same thing about the water here, you wouldn't fight me. You would ask questions and try to ease my worry for sure because that's who you are no matter what, but once you saw it wasn't changing how I feel about it, you would offer to come up with a new plan. You would offer what's illogical to you because you realize how much it means to me. That's something you didn't know how to do before Bella came into our lives."

Masen blew out a breath while running his hands through his hair. "If I was such a shit person—"

"You weren't, Mase. Don't take it like that, bro," Whit said, squeezing his friend's shoulder. "You have always been the man who would do anything for us. That hasn't changed and never will. You just weren't very good at taking emotions into account. You needed to feel the big emotions to understand them and that hadn't happened yet for you. Now that you're experiencing them with Bella, it makes you a better leader and it's helping you as a mentor."

"Yeah?" Masen asked. It wasn't that he doubted Whit for a second; it was that he was still worried about screwing things up with Bella because the logic he'd relied on his whole life kept failing him in this one area.

"Have I ever sugarcoated anything with you in all the years of our friendship?"

"No," Masen said with a snort. The memory that had immediately popped into his head was his first full summer with Whit and the many pimples that had made their home on Masen's face. Esme had tried to be sensitive about the issue but Whit had damn near been brutal, telling him to do what he needed to get it under control or get used to being called 'Pebbles' for as long as the acne stuck around. Whit never would have really used the nickname but he'd known the threat would keep Masen from being lazy and making it worse.

"Trust me, bro, you're doing a damn good job as a mentor," Whit assured him. "If that starts to change, I'll be the first to let you know."

Masen hooked his arm around Whit's neck and pulled their heads together. "You're pretty damn lucky to be my bro."

Whit snorted. "You've got that backwards."

"Yep," Masen agreed with a chuckle.

"All right," Whit said, sighing as he sat up straight. "Now that we have your shit sorted out, let's go deal with Lee."

Masen stood and asked, "Does dealing with her include telling her how damn stupid it is to try to hide her mom's condition from us?"

Whit lifted both eyebrows and stared intently at him. "You can do that just as soon as you stop being exactly like her."

"Hey, I didn't hide the mentor thing from you," Masen argued. "And I'm going to tell her about it now that I know what to say."

"Bullshit!" Whit exclaimed with a laugh. "You only told me to clear your head for work. If this was an off day, you'd still be brooding over it."

Masen said nothing. Then again, his smirk said it all for him. Whit had, had his number before the first word had ever left his lips. If Whit ever decided to use his best friend skills for evil, Masen would damn sure be doomed.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Friday, July 25th

Masen checked the time on his watch and then took one more look at the painfully quiet water. His shoulders slumped as he finally admitted what had been evident for the past couple of hours. "Today's a bust."

"Big time buster," Gopher agreed. "What now?"

"I'm calling it." He hated to do it, especially after losing so much time yesterday because of the rain, but there was nothing else he could do. No sharks meant there was nothing to document. "Radio in to Lee and let her know to tell Whit and Guppy. I'll reel the decoy in."

Gopher grabbed the radio from its holster with one hand and tossed Masen a pair of gloves with the other. They landed at his feet and with one look at them he decided there was no way in hell he was putting them on. He was also going to demand new gloves be put on the skiff as a public health service.

Masen braced his right hand under the line and used his left to pull the decoy toward the skiff. As he worked, his mind raced with possible reasons for the sudden silence they'd seen today as well as ideas on what their next step should be. It was only three in the afternoon so there was still plenty of time for them to try something else. He could bring up the idea of pulling a decoy with the skiff again, see if anyone was more receptive now that they'd had some experience with the decoy breaches. This could also be the perfect time to bring up the cage to Guppy again. She seemed completely over yesterday's anxiety from the video, and the lack of sharks in this area would be a big plus to her. She could take some test shots and acquaint herself with the cage and underwater—

His eyes and brain registered the change in the water around the decoy immediately but it didn't do him much good. The shark had a head start and those extra couple seconds were the difference between his hands being out of the way and the line pulling taught and slicing into the palm of his right hand. Luckily he'd moved out of the way enough to keep from harming his wrist as well.

"Fucker!" Masen yelled, forcing his eyes to continue tracking the shark even as they watered from the pain and began to spill over. He had to be ready to toss the weight holding their end of the line if the shark decided to pull the decoy under.

In one quick movement, Gopher pushed him aside and cut the line. After setting the wire cutters down, Gopher yanked his shirt off, twisted it up a few times, and wrapped it tight around Masen's hand.

"Should have risked the bacteria and put the gloves on," Masen joked.

"My fault. I should have loaded a newer pair on days ago. We all know how you can turn into a germaphobe when gloves and rags start getting old. Want me to radio ahead to let Whit know to get his supplies ready?"

"No, it's probably fine."

"Dude, my shirt's changing color already. You're gonna need stitches."

"Fuck." Not only did Masen hate stitches, he hated having to divert his focus between working and making sure he didn't pop them or get them wet.

"Don't beat yourself up. The water's been dead-quiet for hours. Nobody was expecting a last minute visitor."

"Speaking of that visitor, she's long gone but our decoy is still bobbing along the surface."

Gopher surveyed the area around the decoy closely. "So this is what we'll do. You drive us up beside it nice and slow and I'll yank it into the boat."

"I'm going to amend that plan slightly. If the decoy is beyond salvage, we leave it."

"Sorry, bro. We are duty-bound not to pollute the waters with our trash."

Masen snorted. "Not forever, you clown. Just until after I get my stitches."

"Oh. Then let's get those now and come back for the decoy after. Probably better to make sure our visitor is really long gone. Besides, I don't really want you bleeding on my steering wheel."

"Your steering wheel?"

Gopher grinned. "I drive the skiff all the time, I'm claiming her."

"Then I guess it's time I put Guppy to work as the driver."

"Guppy's not yet calm under pressure out here," Gopher pointed out.

Masen grinned, sure he had the perfect comeback. "You flooded the engine not that long ago."

He was wrong; Gopher had the perfect one. "And you just sliced your hand."

"Fucker."

"Asshat."

They finally stopped pretending to glare at each other and laughed. Gopher started up the skiff while Masen returned the wire cutters to the toolbox. He was still not touching those gloves. He'd let Gopher make sure they ended up in the trash once they were back on Galeos.

Masen grabbed the radio from its holder. "Come in Galeos."

Lee's voice answered him. "Are you as completely bored by this day as I am?"

Masen snorted and then answered her. "I was until we got a surprise visit after calling it a day."

"Seriously? You got a breach?" Her raised voice left no doubt she was annoyed.

"We did but we didn't get any footage so it doesn't count." He didn't want her to worry so he kept his voice casual as he added, "Hey, would you ask Whit to get his medical kit out? He might need to administer a small stitch or two."

"Did you slip and fall?" She didn't give him time to answer because she immediately began teasing him. "Can't believe you're going to ruin our no harm, no foul status, Mase. So disappointed in you."

"Yeah, yeah. Over and out." He set the radio back in the holster and caught sight of Gopher's grin. "What's that for?"

"There's been a cut. You know what that means."

Masen's eyes widened as he caught on. "No. Hell no! Not with Bella around."

"Dude! It's tradition!" Gopher insisted.

"She's not ready to share in that particular tradition."

"It's just stories."

"Stories with scars that involve sharks and other dangerous activities."

"Can we at least ask Whit and Lee what they think?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Let me deal with my hand first," Masen replied, hoping to buy himself some time. If he held out long enough, then there was a chance Gopher would forget all about it by the time dinner rolled around.

To be perfectly honest, he was partial to the tradition and enjoyed it. He especially loved how proud Whit always looked when he was declared the 'bad ass' for his leg scars. But after Bella's reaction to the video yesterday, Masen felt it was too soon for her to watch them roll up their sleeves and shorts to show off scars and share how they'd received them.

When they reached Galeos, Lee came down to help Gopher tie off the skiff while Masen headed up to find Whit. He found him in the kitchen waiting for him with his tools at the ready. And with Bella at his side, nervously twisting her bracelet.

"I thought you said a couple little stitches," Whit accused as he carefully unwrapped the bloody shirt from Masen's hand.

"It will be," Masen replied, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "It's just cut in one of those spots that bleed a lot."

Whit shook his head, not looking convinced at all. He turned the faucet on before unwrapping the last section of shirt and then immediately put Masen's hand under the water.

"Does it hurt? It looks like it hurts," Bella rambled.

Masen smiled in hopes of reassuring her. "It's fine. The water on it actually feels pretty good."

"You'll need a local," Whit warned.

"Not for this," Masen refused. "We have more to do and I can't do it if I've got a headache. Numb it with ice."

Whit looked at him sternly. "Allow me to remind you for the millionth time that you are not in charge when it comes to this area. If I decide you need a local, you're getting one."

"You know that shit gives me a headache."

Whit wasn't the least bit sympathetic. In fact, Masen was pretty sure his friend pressed down harder than necessary while soaping up and then rinsing off the wound area. When Whit was satisfied the area was clean enough, he patted it dry with a square of gauze.

"Hop up on the island for me," Whit instructed. Once Masen was seated, Whit left it to him to hold the gauze in place.

"Aren't you going to take him downstairs? Wouldn't it help keep things sterile?" Bella questioned.

"Don't worry, Guppy. I'll make sure he's fine," Whit told her. "Besides, the lighting's better in here." He gave her a smile and then focused on Masen's hand, pulling back the gauze to get a good look at the injury.

He frowned a lot and he even cursed a couple times, but that was about all. He stepped away to pull some ice cubes from the freezer, mumbling to himself things that Masen was sure he'd get an earful of later. For all of Whit's talk about how Masen and Lee hated for anyone to get hurt, Whit was no better at it. At least he was going with the ice cubes and not the damn local that never failed to give Masen a splitting headache.

The sound of beads clicking together drew Masen's eyes away from his friend and to his kapu. "Come here," he called, offering her his uninjured left hand.

She gripped his hand and forced a smile.

"Don't worry, please. It's really nothing," he said, hoping she would listen.

"How did it happen?" she asked.

"Good question," Whit said as he pulled away the gauze and replaced it with a couple of ice cubes.

Masen kept his eyes on Bella to keep her eyes off of his bleeding hand. "After I called the day done, I started reeling in the decoy. The movement must have been pretty attractive because a shark came out of nowhere and breached it. I saw something was about to happen right before she hit but I just wasn't fast enough to get both hands out of the way."

"What happened to the decoy?"

"She let it go and we left it floating for the time being. We're gonna go get it after Whit finishes playing my doctor."

Bella's eyes turned toward Whit but quickly flicked back to Masen's face. He figured his hand must still be bleeding based on her reaction.

"Weren't you supposed to be wearing gloves?" she asked.

"Yeah, but the ones we had on board weren't wearable. And with the afternoon being so quiet, I took the risk."

"And got hurt."

Whit jumped in at that moment. "Mase, tell me if you feel this."

Masen looked over to find his friend prodding his skin with the tip of the stitching needle. "That thing looked smaller in the case," he said as he let go of Bella's hand to grab the edge of the island.

Whit grinned for a second and then became all business again. "Do not move. Don't even breathe hard."

The needle was so small that Whit had to use a special pair of scissors to hold onto it and maneuver it around the wound. His hands were steady and his movements exact, not that Masen saw much of it. He had closed his eyes to relax his breathing and calm his heart rate—and also to replay what had happened to see if he could have avoided the injury in any way other than putting on the nasty gloves.

It wasn't long at all before Masen's wound was closed with ten stitches that ran in an arc across his hand from the webbing above his thumb to the edge of his palm just above his wrist, exactly where the line had been resting in his hand.

Bella's exhale was clearly audible. "Is that it? Do you just wrap it now?"

"Pretty much," Whit answered. "I'm going to put some salve on it to keep the area moist and hopefully keep him from getting a noticeable scar."

"And then you're going to waterproof it," Masen reminded him. His eyes were still closed but for a different reason now. He was hoping it would help stop the headache that had suddenly started building behind them. He was also rubbing the side of his fist along his forehead in hopes of releasing tension.

"You feeling okay?" Whit asked, lifting Masen's face. "Open them," he demanded.

Masen did his best to open his eyes and not squint. He also said he was fine simply because he wanted it to be the truth.

"You're a shit liar, bro. I can see the pain in your eyes."

"Fucking headache hit me out of nowhere. Feels like when I stepped on—Fuck!" Masen glared at his friend despite how much it hurt to do it. "You did it anyway, didn't you?"

"I apologize for letting you think I wasn't going to give you the local," Whit told him. "You needed it with the length of the cut. You're damn lucky it was mostly superficial."

"Lucky? That's the last thing I'm feeling right now. How the hell am I supposed to work with a splitting headache?"

"That's easy." Whit had the nerve to smile at him. "You don't."

Masen was about to let his friend know exactly how he felt about that but Bella spoke up at that moment. "You can't work. Even if you didn't have the headache, your injury is on your hand and you need both for work on the skiff. That's an MMR safety rule. I know because I read them all multiple times when I was stuck at the house after my run-in with the ray."

"I don't need two hands to drive the boat," he argued.

"It doesn't matter if you think you do or not. That's the rule and the rule is to protect everyone. Safety first."

He sighed as he slid his fisted hand along his forehead, once again trying to rub away the pain that was steadily increasing despite his efforts to stop it. "I appreciate your concern, but I know what I'm doing and what I can handle."

"If you really feel you need to be there to supervise Gopher retrieving the decoy, then I'll drive."

He appreciated her attempt to be helpful but also felt it was wholly unnecessary. "There's a time for compromise—it's called 'later'."

"Edward—"

"Bella." Between the throbbing in his head and his annoyance with Whit, he had zero patience left for anyone or anything else right now. "It's my call to make so back the hell off."

"Wrong," Whit declared. "It's my call. Masen, you're done for the day. Bella, go let Lee and Gopher know he's done. If you can handle it, I'd like you to drive the skiff so Gopher can retrieve the decoy. Lee can drive in the open water but she's shaky with launching and docking."

"Fine." It was all Bella said before she left.

As soon as the door closed, Whit flicked Masen in the side of the head and caused him to groan in pain.

"The fuck, bro?" Masen asked, wincing from the pain talking added.

"You are a total fucking idiot!" Whit yelled, causing him to wince again. "She's concerned for your idiot ass and you pretty much bite her head off for it."

"So she's pissed. She'll get over it."

"If you hadn't been so busy with the headache you're trying to downplay, you'd have seen the look on her face. She's not mad. She's hurt. And she's got every right to be with the way you just talked to her."

"What was so bad about telling the intern that I can handle my job?"

"That's not what you said. You said the safety regulations don't apply to you. You said you were going to risk your life and the lives of those around you by taking on a role that requires you to be one hundred percent healthy and focused when you so clearly aren't. You also said you don't trust her to step up and fill in when it's needed.

"Weeks of telling her to trust you and to trust that safety always comes first—you just piss it all away in a moment of distraction. And what I don't get is you thinking for a second that you were ever going to get back on that skiff today. So there you go, genius. You just created doubt about your commitment to safety with your intern and you hurt your girlfriend's feelings for basically no reason. Two fuck-ups at once. Have fun digging your ass out of this mess. You're gonna need one hell of a shovel."

Masen was in equal parts pain and denial and really should have kept his mouth shut. Unfortunately, he often missed the cue for when he should stop. "If her feelings are hurt, it's because she took what I said the wrong way. She'll just have to get over it."

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

"How is he?" Lee asked, having heard Bella's grumbling and the cabin door closing with some extra force.

Bella was much more hurt by Edward's behavior than angry but since the anger was easier to control, she used the emotion to her advantage. "I can't answer for how. But if you'd like to know what he is, he's a giant stubborn ass."

"Ah shit," Gopher said, sliding a hand over his cropped hair and doing nothing to cover up his smile.

Lee smacked him across his chest. "Hush." Looking at Bella she asked, "Is he being a baby about the needle?"

"Not really sure of his thoughts on the needle, but if you'd like to know how he feels about the safety rules, he doesn't believe he needs to follow them." She clenched her fists at her sides, begging her eyes not to water.

Lee looked and sounded confused. "That doesn't sound like him at all. Are you sure?"

"Perfectly so. He planned to drive the skiff one-handed for Gopher to retrieve the decoy, and when I brought up the safety rules about being one-hundred percent for a role like that, he told me he makes the calls."

"Oh did he now?" Lee replied, crossing her arms.

Bella wasn't certain which direction Lee's anger was aimed so she wanted to make it absolutely clear Edward was in no shape to be driving the skiff. "I should also mention he has a headache from the local that's bad enough that he was having trouble keeping his eyes open."

Lee whirled on Gopher. "A local? I thought it was a tiny cut!"

"That's what Edward wants everyone to think," Bella told her. "It took ten stitches to close his laceration."

"Ten!" Lee cried, looking between Bella and Gopher. She suddenly stilled and her eyes narrowed to slits as they focused on the door to the cabin. "Oh he is so going to get it!"

Gopher grabbed her around the waist and held tight. "Hold on there, my little spitfire."

"Em, let me go," she demanded.

"I will after you hear me out. I have a better plan, one that will annoy him infinitely more than one of your good punches."

"I'm listening."

"We do the one thing that breaks him almost as fast as Esme … We ignore him."

Lee grinned. "Oh that's good. That's really good. His patience level deteriorates faster than a bowl of Cheetos set down in front of you."

"No, I don't think so," Bella said. "Just because he's angry and doing his best to make us feel that way doesn't mean we should sink to his level."

Lee pulled out of Gopher's arm and went to Bella, giving her a tight hug. "I'm sorry my idiot brother hurt you."

"No, I'm—"

"Bella, if you were only angry, you would have jumped all over Gopher's idea."

Bella swallowed thickly as she returned the hug, hoping to keep her voice even. "I just don't understand what happened. It's not like I yelled at him or told him he had to stay inside. I just offered to drive the boat."

"Didn't Whit try to shut him up at all?" Gopher asked.

"It happened so fast that he didn't get a chance," Bella shared. "He did say that Edward is done for today and the three of us should go get the decoy."

Lee sighed. "I can't believe he'd try to pull something like this. Stubborn ass."

Gopher snorted and caused both women to look his way. "You don't want to believe it, but there's plenty of precedent for behavior like this. Pain is the one thing that short-circuits Masen's logic chip. Well, that and Guppy."

"That's no excuse for him to—" Bella bit her lip, afraid she'd start crying if she said anything more.

"You can say it," Lee encouraged. "To be a dick-tater."

"It's pretty stupid of him to go on a power trip in his condition," Gopher mused. "He has to know none of us would have allowed him on the skiff."

"Yeah, one threat to call Esme and he would have backed right down," Lee added.

"Great," Bella said through clenched teeth, her hurt shifting toward anger again. "So it's just because it was me talking to him. Guess I'm a bigger interference than he was letting on."

"No, I'm sure that's not it," Lee replied. "He's in pain and he's being stupid, that's all."

"Lee's right. You'll see, Guppy. By the time we get back with the decoy, he'll have gotten himself under control and he'll be looking to apologize to you," Gopher assured her.

Bella nodded to be polite but she didn't believe that at all. Gopher hadn't seen the fury on Edward's face or heard the annoyance in his voice. She was pretty sure that an apology was the last thing Edward would be making today. On the bright side, Lee and Gopher were being supportive so maybe this was as bad as things would get.

"So how do we get this decoy?" Bella asked, preferring to work rather than replay what had happened.

"First we check the water to determine the decoy's exact location," Lee explained.

"Then we make sure it's clear of sharks, drive the skiff on over, and scoop our decoy up," Gopher added.

"That easy, huh?" Bella questioned, feeling only slightly nervous. Their area had been pretty quiet all day long and she couldn't think of any reason why that would change now.

"We'll take it slow and steady," Lee said with an encouraging smile.

Bella smiled back as she made the decision to trust her teammates and go for the decoy with them. She couldn't help glancing back at the cabin door and wishing Edward wasn't going to miss her first time driving the skiff. It was his own fault, though. And she had no idea why that was, why he'd reacted so nastily. The only way she would ever know was if he decided to explain himself—after he apologized for being so cruel.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

After a pain-killer-induced nap and a hot shower, Masen was finally starting to feel like a human being and not a giant ball of ache. His thoughts were still jumbled to the point that he was having trouble focusing on any one thing. His mind jumped from today's accident to tomorrow's plans to Bella's attempt to interfere with his work. That last topic was his least favorite and he continually pushed it aside only to have it return again and again. He wouldn't be surprised at all if he ended up with another headache because of it.

Stepping into the hall, he came face to face with Gopher. "You owe me a new shirt, bro."

"Just wash the thing," Masen responded.

"Tried that. Poor Green Lantern's logo is stained beyond the power of our laundry detergent. I emailed you a list of shirts I would enjoy seeing on my person as a replacement."

Masen snorted. "Of course you did."

"How are the hand and the head?"

"Hand's a little tight and a lot sore. But I'll take it so long as that damn headache stays gone."

"Good to hear your head's mended. Now you can focus on pulling it out of your ass."

Masen sighed. "Figures you'd take her side."

"It's not about sides, Mase. It's about right and wrong and your dumb ass was wrong on a ludicrous level."

"The only thing ludicrous around here is you," he said as he moved past him.

Gopher didn't seem ready to give up just yet. "Sure because wanting to work a job that requires two hands right after getting stiches makes sense. Just like taking your anger out on Bella when it was really yourself you were pissed with."

Masen rubbed his good hand across his wet hair while turning to face the man. "Gopher, I'm sure somewhere deep inside you mean well, but you need to butt out of this. I know exactly who I'm angry with and why."

"Fine." Gopher crossed his arms, staring Masen down. "Let's hear it."

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"That's true. That's very true. Although, a smart man would jump at the opportunity to try out his apology before delivering it and digging his hole any deeper."

"A smart man also knows not to apologize when he hasn't done anything wrong."

"You're going to be one lonely fish in the sea if that's how you really see things."

"Why would I be lonely?"

Gopher's eyes widened. "You seriously think she's going to be chatty with you and sharing a room after what you did?"

"If she wants to be childish and ignore me—"

"Actually, that was my plan and she rejected it. She'll talk, but it will be in answer to work questions during work hours. Outside of that, you will be s-o-l."

"So now she wants to keep work about work," Masen sneered, shaking his head.

"Oh, you idiot," Gopher replied, his voice rising with each word. "I see it now. I totally see it now. You completely misinterpreted her attempt to protect you as your teammate. You thought she was trying to boss you around as your girlfriend and that's why you got angry and were such a fucktard to her."

Masen shook his head in denial. "You weren't there. You're making a bunch of assumptions off whatever she told you."

"It doesn't matter one damn bit but just for your own personal knowledge, she didn't tell me anything other than that you were trying to break safety protocol and had a miserable headache."

"Like you said, it doesn't matter. What does is her attempt to tell me what I can and can't do as the team leader."

"Once you get hurt, you're a teammate up for reassignment."

Masen could feel his jaw drop. Those were his words; he'd said them to Lee a couple summers ago when she'd stepped on a broken shell and cut her heel. She'd been arguing that she could still climb up into the crow's nest and stand on her feet for hours to man the video camera.

After giving him a moment to think, Gopher told him, "You have preached about safety pretty much from the moment Guppy got here. All your files, your visible daily commitment to it, they give her that extra oomph she needs to get out there and work with us every damn day. It kept her from leaving when you took that hit to the side from the shark's tail. And it gave her the courage to offer to drive the skiff while she was looking at your bleeding hand. Instead of standing here trying to be self-righteous in your misplaced anger, why don't you try seeing things from her point of view?"

Gopher's argument was pretty damn convincing and Masen almost fell for it, but then the image of Bella twisting her bracelet came to mind. "That's a nice theory but I know what was really driving her and it had nothing to do with safety. It was her anxiety. She was just trying to use safety as an excuse for getting me to stop working."

"If that's all it was, then how come she was so hurt by your behavior?" Gopher shook his head. "You know what, don't bother. You're still lying to yourself so you'll just keep peddling the same shit. I really hope for her sake that you don't stay in this limbo of denial too much longer."

With his peace said, Gopher headed upstairs and left Masen standing in the hallway.

"He's wrong," he assured himself. There was every chance Bella was in his room right now, ready to give her apology. She had been anxious—he'd seen her twisting the bracelet. Hell, he'd heard the beads click.

Masen looked toward the empty stairwell while going over Gopher's reasoning once more. He shook his head in refute again and turned toward his bedroom. Even if Bella wasn't in his room now it wouldn't mean anything because it wasn't really late. In fact, he'd bet she was upstairs finishing dessert with the others.

His room was in fact empty. That part did not surprise him; what did was the clench he felt in his stomach. He blew it off as a side effect of the medication from today and headed upstairs, expecting to find her sitting at the booth with their friends.

Bella wasn't with them.

He thought about asking where she was but one glance at the stairs in the corner had him feeling certain she was up on the viewing deck. He climbed them slowly, feeling the eyes of his friends on him and not wanting to give them anything more to say. He didn't want Gopher to think for a second that he was right about this because he wasn't. He'd see. Masen would find Bella, she'd do the apologizing, she'd come downstairs with him, and then everything would go back to normal.

The deck was empty…

So was the crow's nest…

The video room…

The helm…

Masen blew out a breath as he trudged over to the booth where his friends were seated. He could feel the tension in the air as he waited for either Lee or Whit to look up from the card game they were playing. Neither did.

Gopher looked at him but only to give him a shitty smile. "Lose something, little lonely fish in the sea?"

"Call me that again. I dare you," Masen challenged.

"He's not the enemy, no matter how much you might want him to be," Whit piped up. "You are your only enemy."

"I'm not wrong here. She was the one trying to give me orders."

Whit's look of disappointment was impossible to miss. "If this is how you're going to be, I'm sorry I ever nudged." He lowered his eyes to the table and slapped a card down on top of Lee's. "Seems that line thing was a good idea after all."

Masen said nothing out of pure shock. Whit was the calmest person he'd ever met so seeing him visibly angry over what was supposed to be a small misunderstanding felt completely out of place.

"Don't look at him that way," Lee demanded. "He's right and you're wrong. Again."

"Yeah, you've all made it perfectly clear you've taken Bella's side," Masen replied angrily, not understanding how this whole thing had snowballed into a 'let's hate on Masen' episode.

"Where is she?" he asked. "The sooner we get this apology shit over, the sooner all of you can get off my case. She can say she was sorry, I can graciously accept, and we can move the fuck on. So where is she?"

He received shrugs from Lee and Whit, and a "not here" from Gopher.

"Are you guys really not going to tell me?"

"Can't say what we don't know," Gopher informed him.

"You really expect me to believe you haven't seen her at all?"

"That wasn't your question," Gopher pointed out. "You asked if we knew where she is and we do not possess that particular piece of knowledge. Why don't you fix yourself something to eat, spend the night in your project room, and give yourself some time to reflect?"

Masen rolled his eyes and walked away to find Bella on his own. They were in a boat in the middle of shark-filled water so there were only so many places she could be.

He checked his office first and then his bedroom just on the chance he'd missed seeing her pass when he'd been upstairs. Both were empty.

He had just decided to check his project room when he suddenly came to a stop in front of what was technically her room. "Bella?" he called as he turned the doorknob.

To his great surprise, it was locked and didn't turn.

"Bella?" he called again. When he didn't get an answer, he put his ear to the door and asked, "Are you in there?"

"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow for work."

"What—"

"I'd really appreciate some privacy. It was a difficult day and I'd appreciate some time to digest it all."

He didn't hear any anger in her voice. He also didn't hear the hurt Gopher had claimed was there. Of course, that wasn't completely conclusive with a door in between them.

"Goodnight." It was all he could think to say since he was completely bewildered; this was not anything like what he'd imagined happening.

Silence followed. Enough that he began to feel silly standing in front of a closed and locked door. He headed for his room, stopping twice along the way to look back at her door and wonder what was going on behind it. Was she writing about today in her journal? Would there be a side note about their argument? Would it say he was the one in the wrong?

Masen closed his bedroom door but he didn't lock it—just in case she decided to come to him in the night. He took a moment to move his pillows to the way he liked them and then he plopped down among them, setting one under his hand to keep it elevated per his doctor's orders. He closed his eyes, ready to relax and hoping to maybe even drift off for a bit. He still felt off from that stupid local Whit had insisted on giving him; he figured some good rest would make him feel better.

But he couldn't rest.

That door. That door was bugging the hell out of him. She'd caused everyone to get mad at him and now she was hiding behind that damn door and leaving him to deal with the fallout. Even Whit was acting weird. That stuff about regretting pushing Masen to get to know Bella—Whit couldn't really mean that. Not after one argument that she caused. That made no damn sense at all.

When Masen closed his eyes this time, the image in his head was Whit's hand forcefully placing his card on top of Lee's. It was out of character for Whit to be visibly angry. That fact broke through Masen's own anger and made him take a step back. It also made him admit that Whit didn't support anyone who didn't deserve it.

Masen rubbed at his temples, unsure if he was rubbing away the ghost of this afternoon's headache or the start of a brand new one.

The sound of knocking had him quickly scrambling off the bed, certain of which door was being rapped. He cracked his own just enough to see out into the hall.

Whit stood outside of Bella's door, whistling to himself while he waited for his knock to be answered. Masen doubted Bella would answer for Whit after the quick way she'd dismissed him.

Masen was wrong once again.

The door opened and Whit leaned up against the frame, half-in and half-out of her room. Masen couldn't hear what was being said but he damn sure heard her laugh. It wasn't the giggle he could pull out of her but it was still a true laugh.

Something else was said and then Whit stood up straight and kissed her on the cheek. "Goodnight," he said as he stepped back, allowing her to close her door.

Masen heard the lock click.

He watched until Whit disappeared into his own room and then he closed his door and returned to his empty bed.

Whit was supporting Bella and she was opening her door for him. He always supported whoever deserved it and he damn sure wasn't supporting Masen. Why exactly was that?

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Bella sat in the middle of the bed with her chin on her knees and her eyes focused on her bedroom door. She wanted to go out that door and down the hall and through Edward's door but that wasn't going to happen. He was so convinced he hadn't done anything wrong that he hadn't made a single attempt to rethink what he'd said to her. If she went to him now, he'd never realize what he'd done, how he'd hurt her.

She had gone over every word she'd said and the volume and tone she'd said it at; nothing warranted his reaction. Whit had been standing right there witnessing the entire thing and he agreed that she hadn't been in the wrong. In fact, he'd admitted he'd have said all the same things if she hadn't.

So then why was Edward being so stubborn?

She thought about calling her uncle or Esme to ask for advice on how to approach Edward to talk about this mess, but felt it was premature to get them involved. Any minute now he could knock and ask to apologize.

Or he could knock with that same demanding tone he'd used earlier.

"This is bullshit," she grumbled as she leaned back into the pillows propped against the headboard. "It's in the safety rules. Rules that he has said again and again are for everyone. Not to mention that whole personal set of acceptable risks crap he was peddling yesterday during that video."

She wondered once again what would have happened if she'd stayed silent. She wanted so badly to believe Edward would have eventually come to his senses and realized he was in no shape to go after that decoy. She wanted to hold on to the trust they'd worked so hard to build between mentor and intern.

It wasn't even an apology that she was really looking for, though she damn sure deserved one. And a real one! Not that crap he'd peddled after their first meeting. What she wanted most of all was just to hear that he wouldn't have gotten on the boat, that he wouldn't have put himself in danger and risked not being around for his family anymore. For her.

She felt such an incredible sadness that she couldn't hold back her tears. She could handle him being stubborn, silent, angry … All the things that annoyed the piss out of her. But not having him—that thought just about broke her heart. It was why she'd been giving such serious consideration to alternate career paths, a topic she'd been trying to find a time to discuss with him.

Maybe it was for the best that she'd never gotten to bring it up. If he was so against her reminding him of the safety rules, then it was highly doubtful he had any interest in her being a permanent part of his team.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Masen did what always felt natural to him when he was anxious or confused or angry—he worked. He went down to his project room, put on his lucky shirt, and worked until he either calmed the flow of information in his head or had a breakthrough idea that showed him how to solve his troubles.

He was in his room, and he had the shirt on, but there was no calm and no ideas. To make it worse, his headache had returned. It hadn't reached that splitting level from earlier yet, and he feared if he didn't take something that it soon would. He even left all his materials strewn about rather than take the time to put them away and leave the headache more time to build.

He found the pain pill Whit had left out for him, along with a sandwich that Lee had made. He could tell from the way the bread was smashed in spots, always a sign of her making food while angry. They were pissed at him but that didn't stop them from loving him and helping to take care of him.

It was eerily quiet as he sat at the booth eating and waiting for the pain pill to kick in. He knew Whit had gone to bed because he'd seen him. He figured Lee must have done the same because whenever she helped Gopher watch the helm there was always talking and laughing.

They were all mad with him, an entirely new occurrence and one that left him uneasy. It created a tiny voice of doubt within him, a voice that questioned if he should be so sure he was right. What would he find if he replayed that conversation with Bella? Would she still come off as an unnecessarily afraid girlfriend trying to interrupt his work? Or would he find what Gopher had suggested was right, that Masen had misinterpreted things?

What really happened earlier? he asked himself. He focused first on what he'd been feeling and thinking. He'd been in pain and irritable. There had been annoyance over the missed footage, and aggravation that there hadn't been any clean gloves onboard.

There'd also been concern for her feelings—at least at first. He'd nixed Gopher's idea of sharing scar stories. And he had tried to ease her anxiety by holding her hand and keeping her focus on him and not his bleeding hand. So what had changed?

He closed his eyes and focused on remembering everything about those moments. The light had been streaming through the windows, hitting those highlights in her hair that reflected red. He smiled, remembering Whit's bright idea to call her flame because of her hair. His hands twitched from the sudden need that gripped him to touch her hair, her face, all of her.

With a deep breath, he brought his mind back around to his task. There she'd been standing in the kitchen with him and Whit. There had been concern in her brown eyes but no panic. She'd been talking and at no point had her voice been shaky or high-pitched. She'd been in full control, a state that had never once resulted in her saying anything without thinking it through. If it wasn't how she was speaking to him, then maybe it was the words she'd chosen.

Masen's eyes popped open as the moment he'd gotten trapped in a rip tide of anger became glaringly clear to him. Three words. You can't work. That was all it had taken to cause him to see red and decide she was out to stop him from working just because she'd gotten scared. He'd done what he'd been promising he'd never do—he'd held her anxiety against her. He'd forgotten all about how he'd felt after she'd been hurt by the ray, all the worry that had inexplicably filled him every time she'd moved. He'd flat out demanded she stay put while she'd made an effort to compromise with him, one that he'd shot down immediately and rudely. For all his surety that she would be the one to mix up their personal and professional lives, he had been the one to do it in the most spectacularly fucked up way possible. They were all right about him—he'd been an asshole and he needed to apologize.

Now that he was seeing much clearer, he realized an apology alone wouldn't do it. He'd done more than be rude here. It was exactly as Gopher had said—Masen had put their trust at risk. He'd sullied her belief in his commitment to safety. He'd also most likely filled her head with a dozen scenarios of his injured hand causing more harm.

"Shit, shit, and more shit," he grumbled. He tried getting his anger under control by focusing on rubbing his hand across his head but it didn't have the same effect as doing it with two hands.

Even if it wasn't going to fix much of anything, the apology would be the key to start working on the rest. She needed to hear he was sorry and that it covered far more than being wrong about her intentions.

Masen headed downstairs and straight for her door. His hand was already gripping the cool knob when he remembered that this door was locked to him. Another consequence of his own making. He considered knocking but what right did he have to wake her and interrupt her sleep just so he could unburden himself? The answer was none.

He sat across from her room with his back against the wall. I'll just sit here until her door opens and then we'll talk. I'll start with the apology and then I'll listen to her share her feelings. That's important. Whit says it's important to listen and he's never wrong. I'll listen and I'll find out every hole I've poked in her trust and belief in me and then I'll start patching them up. I can fix this. I will fix this.

Of course, whether or not he fixed things wasn't really up to him. It was up to her and he hoped she'd give him the chance. Even more, he hoped this would be the last time she'd have to forgive him for being such a giant ass. He'd do better, be better. He'd listen to her more and talk things out rather than just decide he knew what she meant. He wanted her and he could see now that it would mean being worthy of her at all times.

Somewhere between creating backup plans and his self-loathing, the combination of the medication and his exhaustion put him to sleep. Legs stretched in front, head against the wall, and injured hand resting across his chest. Add to that picture his wrinkled clothing and jumbled wild hair and one could almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

Bella wasn't any closer to sleep at two in the morning than she'd been at midnight, or at nine-thirty when she'd first started trying to fall asleep. Making matters worse was the growing intensity of her growling stomach. If it wasn't growling, it was gurgling and causing a rumble like a tiny earthquake was happening in her empty stomach. This was what came of only poking at dinner rather than actually eating it.

She heaved herself out of bed and then used her hands to sweep her hair back into a ponytail. After trading her tank top and pajama bottoms for a t-shirt and shorts, she turned to leave her room only to find herself rooted to the floor by the sight of her locked door. She'd hated doing that, forcing space between them, but had she left it unlocked then Edward would've come barging in here wanting to talk on his terms and his time and she hadn't been ready for that. Knowing there was a high probability that he would say he wouldn't have changed a thing and actually hearing it weren't anything close to being the same and she hadn't been ready to hear those words. She wasn't sure she could ever really be ready but after taking the night to sort through her thoughts and emotions, she felt better prepared for it.

Her stomach growled again, nearly shouting for her to get upstairs and find some food. She grinned for the first time, picturing her uncle's kitchen and the two of them sharing a late night snack of mini bagels and cream cheese. She doubted she'd find those aboard the boat but she was sure Gopher's snack shelf in the fridge would hold something good to tide her over until breakfast.

Opening her door wiped all thoughts of food right out of her head. Sitting across the hall was Edward, only he wasn't exactly sitting so much as leaning up in his sleep. Not wanting to wake him, she quietly crossed the hall and knelt beside him. She almost pinched herself to make sure she hadn't somehow dozed off. Dreaming would definitely make more sense than him actually sleeping outside of her door. She'd asked him to leave her alone, which he had technically done, but at the same time he hadn't been able to leave her. He was being completely illogical in doing so but instead of thinking it a ploy, she saw it for what it really was—the only way he knew to prove the sincerity of whatever it was he needed so badly to share that he'd camped outside of her door. But just what was it that he'd come to say? Was it that he'd finally realized she'd just been trying to protect him the same as he'd done for her so many times? Or had he only come to defend his call?

The idea that he'd still be defensive stung her harder than she'd expected and she struggled not to let the tears in her eyes escape. Defending his call would make it impossible to trust him as her mentor. No matter how much she wanted to believe it wouldn't affect their personal relationship, she wasn't naive. Even one core item missing from a functioning relationship spelled disaster. They'd have no idea when the end would arrive, but it would come and it would deliver consequences and much more pain than she was feeling now.

Edward breathed deeply and opened his eyes. The sadness and the ache of loneliness she felt were mirrored in his blue eyes, so much so that she knew she hadn't been quick enough to fix her expression and he'd seen the hurt she was feeling. He also looked equally rumpled and exhausted, though she knew he'd at least slept some since she'd heard him snore while she'd been puzzling over his presence.

His lips parted and she squeezed both of her hands into fists, bracing for the worst while praying for them and the bright future they could build together.

"My call was wrong. I was wrong."

His words brought her an immediate wave of relief and caused her tears to spill over her cheeks and land on the backs of her fisted hands.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his warm hand cradling her wet cheek. His blue eyes had a glassy sheen and his lower lip trembled when he tried to speak. He swallowed hard and tried again to talk. "Kapu, I'm so damn sorry. Please. I need you to know how sorry I am."

She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, needing to physically connect with him and hopefully ease some of the intensity of seeing his emotions so nakedly displayed. This. This was the real Edward. This was the beautiful soul of the stubborn man and oh how her heart clenched and her smile shined with her love of him.

That thin line between pleasure and plain existed on both of their faces as their lips met and clung, eyes wide open and fully focused on each other. They parted for a breath and when their lips met again it was with closed eyes and lighter hearts. There was so much they needed to say to each other but for now just the promise of the discussion was enough. The words could wait until she'd had a little time to enjoy being kissed by a man who left no doubt that he wanted to be loved by her. Knowing he still wanted them allowed her to believe the trust could and would be fixed.

"~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^~~~^~~~~^"

A/N: Melding personal and professional lives is a hard task for a lot of people. At least Masen is getting a hell of a lot better at apologizing. That was nothing like his first apology to Guppy – "I apologize your first night with us wasn't what you expected".

EA has put the picture of Gopher's shirt up on the blog for you guys. We'd love to hear your ideas on what kind of shirt Gopher should request as a replacement for his ruined one.