I know I promised this last night, but I hadn't figured out how exactly I wanted to play this out. Remember, I lost all my original notes and most of the details are being put back together as I go.

Chapter 12 - Expressions

Woodbridge, VA

9:39PM EST

BPOV

For the last half an hour I had been pacing the length of Tanya's living room. I spent a moment looking at the pictures that lined the mantle above the fireplace. There was a picture from Edward and Tanya's wedding. Tanya looked beautiful with tiny white flowers pinned into her strawberry blonde hair. Edward looked different with his short cropped haircut, but it was the slightly sad look in his eyes that got my attention.

I skimmed over a few until I came to a picture that had been taken in the living room I was currently standing in. Edward was seated in front of a Christmas tree with his son on his lap holding up an electronic keyboard. Both of them were smiling brilliantly and I felt my eyes water slightly at the beautiful picture.

Anthony looked about the right age for it to be from just this past Christmas. He looked so much like Edward, even if he had Tanya's coloring.

I turned back to the room and looked up at the clock on the opposite wall. I had about another twenty minutes before everyone else arrived.

The ambulance and coroner had already left. Physically, Tanya would be fine as her injuries were superficial. I couldn't say the same for her emotional state.

It looked like the young Irina had died instantly. Judging by the location of her body, she was probably killed before she had even really realized what was happening. At least she hadn't suffered or been subjected to whatever these monsters would have done to such a beautiful young girl.

Edward was currently upstairs in Anthony's room. He had locked himself in there after Tanya was taken to the hospital and hadn't emerged since. When I had knocked on the door, he said he needed to be alone until the others showed up. I didn't even pretend to understand, but I honored his request just the same.

I was now wired, scared, and pissed off. Nothing in this world pissed me off than someone harming a child. The fact that it was Edward's child just made it all the more worse. I firmly believed that Anthony was alive, however. It made no sense to take him out of the house if they just wanted to kill him. Aro had a motive, I just hadn't figured out exactly what that was yet.

I pushed the heavy fall of hair out of my face as I tried to piece the facts together, I was just finding it hard to keep my calm.

I continued to pace until the click, click, click of my heels on the hardwood flooring started to annoy the shit out of me. I kicked my shoes off in the direction of the entertainment center. That's when I noticed it.

Leaning up against the DVD player was a clear jewel case with an unlabeled disk inside. Stuck to it was a yellow post-it note that simply said: Edward and Isabella.

I snatched up the disk and ran back to the foyer and up the stairs. The knee length skirt and my currently emotional state almost caused a relapse of old Bella and I had to grabbed the banister to right myself.

At a slightly slower pace, I climbed the stairs and ran down the hall to Anthony's room. I only hesitated a moment before I banged on the door.

"Edward, I found something."

Almost immediately the door opened. Edward stood in the doorway with an expression on his face I had never seen before. All I knew was that I never wanted to be the one on the receiving end of whatever that expression held.

I held up the disk so that Edward could see the note. He took it from me and flipped it over looking for anything else that may be attached.

"Where was this?" he asked.

"In front of the DVD player in the living room."

Edward snatched up my hand and led the way back downstairs into the living room. He thoroughly checked the television and player before inserting disk and pushing play.

We both stepped back a few feet and waited for the footage to play. After a few seconds, Aro Volturi appeared on the screen with his hands resting on the shoulders of a terrified looking Anthony.

I had only ever seen still pictures of the raven haired drug lord, but to see him moving and talking was extremely off putting. He was smiling and seemed downright friendly until you looked at those pitch black eyes. There was something in there that made you think of the very deepest pit of hell.

"Edward…how very nice to be talking to you. Well, in a manner anyway. I have to say you have the most charming son. Very brave. Not too many children would have the courage to fight back against my employees. Not too many full grown men even have it."

Aro reached around to cup Anthony's chin. Anthony tried to pull away, but Aro tightened his grip on poor child's shoulder. Anthony whimpered slightly before he held still, but I didn't miss the spark of anger that flashed in the child's bright blue eyes.

"And he looks so very much like you. I bet he has all the little girls chasing after him."

Aro dropped his hands down and someone came forward to lead Anthony away and out of the range of the camera. Suddenly, all pretenses of civility left Aro's face and everything matched those hard, evil eyes.

"If you want the girls to continue chasing him, then I suggest you listen very closely. I will not have some Army pain-in-the-ass come between be and my revenge just because he wants to wet his dick with his high school sweetheart. Now, you will bring that sweet piece of tail with you to New Orleans. You two are going to go shopping in the French Market at 11am on Sunday. My men will find you and we will make a little exchange. One wanna-be soldier slut for one unharmed son. Simple.

Like the flip of a switch, Aro's face shifted back to that friendly visage.

"Have a nice weekend now and I will see you on Sunday. Ciao.

The video cut off and went to a black blue screen. Edward's chest suddenly came into my line of sight, but I couldn't bring myself to look up at his face. I wasn't sure what I would see there.

Edward's arm wrapped around me then and he pulled me up against him. I felt his breath tickle my neck as he buried his face in my hair. I wanted to hold him in return, but I couldn't seem to bring my arms up.

His arms tightened against my back and he whispered in my ear.

"I won't let him have you, Bella. We have thirty six hours to find Anthony and get him out. If we can't we'll come up with a plan for the market. We have both worked with worse odds then this and succeeded. We will not fail now."

Edward pulled back and forced my eyes up to his. Green locked with brown as he forced his determination and conviction on to me.

"We are the best for a reason. Aro is cocky and thinks we're going to let our emotions rule us. He thinks we're either going to get reckless and make mistakes or betray each other. But that isn't going to happen. We are going to calm down, find our center, and do our fucking job. Got it?"

I closed my eyes and looked for that hard, cold center he was referring to. Once I found it, I opened my eyes and nodded stiffly.

Once he seemed satisfied with my state of mind, he dropped his arms and stepped back.

Right then, the doorbell rang and Edward walked out of the room to answer it. I slipped back on my heels and waited by the entertainment center.

I heard some muffled speaking before Jasper and Alice entered the room. Alice came to stand by my side and give my hand a squeeze. Jasper leaned up against the wall a few feet behind Alice.

Jacob came in behind them, nodded in my direction and took a seat on the sofa.

Garrett, Charlie, and Caius followed. Garrett and Caius took up the remained of the couch while Charlie came to stand at my other side.

Eleazar and Edward were the last one to enter. Eleazar came to the center of the room, while Edward propped himself against the archway.

Eleazar took stock of everyone in the room and cleared his throat before he addressed us.

"Ladies and gentleman, I actually come bearing good news. The Angelis twins were picked up by Republic officials this afternoon. It seems there own slaves revolted and turned them over. In light of recent events, the government has given us permission to interrogate. If anyone knows the location of Aro Volturi, it's those two. Hale and McCarty were turned around in Paris and sent back to the Congo. They should have arrived about two hours ago. Right now, we are just waiting for whatever information they may gain. Caius, if you will?"

Eleazar stepped back to stand by Edward as Caius stood up from the couch.

"For those of you who aren't familiar with the Coalition, Ms. Hale is one of our expert interrogators and quite possibly one of the best in the world. She has extensive qualifications in psychology and I am quite confident she will have the intel we need shortly. In the mean time; Cullen, Swan, are your heads right?"

Caius looked at each of us and we nodded in turn. Apparently satisfied, he continued.

"I want you two to work together and come up with a basic plan of attack. We will continue to build on it as the facts come in. Whitlock, Brandon, I want you two to fly down to New Orleans. It's Aro's most likely location. I want you to acquire gear and scout out safe houses in the event we need them. Black, Davis, you two go to the hospital and keep an eye on Tanya. I don't think anyone will make a try for her, but better safe than sorry. We it's time for you to go, someone will come take over. I want all of you to rest when you can, sleep in shifts if necessary. Charlie and Eleazar will head back to the pentagon and I'll stay here with Edward and Bella. Now let's get moving and make this end the way we all want it too.

Goodbye's and good luck's were passed around as most everyone headed for the door. Caius was dialing away on his cell phone in the living room, and Edward and I headed into the dining room to plan what we could.

Saturday 1:18am

Edward and I had gone over what seem like a million and a half different scenarios, but without more information we were stuck.

Edward had fallen asleep about twenty minutes ago. His head was resting on his bent left arm, while the right was stretched out with his fingers still wrapped around the handle of his coffee cup. His hair was in total disarray from tugging on it and there was a deep line between his eyebrows that betrayed his frustration and worry.

I was just getting up to start another pot of coffee when Caius came in. He nodded in Edward's direction, so I shook him awake and sat back down.

Edward's head shot up and he dragged a hand down his face before he looked over at Caius. "Do we know anything?"

Caius nodded. "We have Aro's location. He's got himself a place out in the bayou. We're getting satellite images now, but it looks like he is definitely there."

This should be good news, but there was something in his eyes that told me there was more. "What else is there, Sir?" I asked.

Caius scratched at his eyebrow before answering me. "They found out who the mole is."

I felt a sick feeling settle in the pit of my stomach. I knew this wasn't going to be good. "Who?" I asked tentatively.

Caius looked us both in the eye. I swore I saw pain there.

"Marcus Hale."

The first outtake is up under the story name The Other Forces.

Please review and I'll be back next week.