Hey there! I'm so sorry for getting this up so late. Chapter 2 is already done and will be sent to the beta shortly. Many thanks to Browns for her patience regarding my lack of commas. IdPattThat pre-read and assured me she likes Baseballward. Have you read her story, Accidental Atonement? No, you should.

A quick note: Just because this has angst in its genre title doesn't mean it's a tearjerker at every turn. It's still the same story I had posted, just with a beta, some great input from friends and hopefully and less misspellings.

Chapter 1: Starting Lineup

A baseball game is twice as much fun if you're seeing it on the company's time. ~William C. Feather

Bella Swan

"Okay guys, I would like to make a toast. To our girl, Bella! Youngest person to be a featured columnist at the Sun!" Rosalie raised her beer, and the others followed with happy sentiments.

"Thank you, guys, this really means a lot." Bella started to blush and looked down as she shuffled the deck of cards.

"So tell me, Bells, when can I expect those Cubs tickets?" Jake asked.

"Seriously, Jake? Ticketmaster has more pull than I do." Bella sighed.

"Yeah, but you don't charge a fee for breathing," Jake whined, "Besides, you get to go in the locker room; you can take me with you."

"Jake is the only straight guy I know who would willingly go into a locker room full of hot naked guys." Angela laughed. "And Bella is the only girl I know who wouldn't want to go into the same locker room."

"Are you guys going to keep talking about tickets or are we playing cards?" asked Rosalie. The makeshift poker game was at Bella's place this month. Every first Tuesday of the month, for the past two years, the four friends got together to catch up and just relax. Grateful for Rose's snip, Bella dealt out the cards and poker night was back underway.

Lately Bella had been skipping out on poker night because of work. NFL training camp was going to be starting in six weeks and major-league baseball was now in full swing, she was a busy woman. She had just been promoted to featured sports columnist for the Chicago Sun paper; the youngest in their history at the age of twenty-eight. She now held the responsibility of writing her column on all professional sports. She shouldered the added pressures of it being nationally syndicated in the paper and online, doing public appearances, and now she was to attend to all the major sporting events, up close and personal.

After an hour and a half of cards and a multiple accusations of Jake hiding cards with Angela's help, Bella needed a break. Grabbing a bottle of water, and walking out of her kitchen she paused and took in her friends. Rosalie, Jake, Angela, and Bella had been together for a few years, She never imagined that she could be this lucky to have such a tight-knit group when she was in high school. Four years ago when she transferred to Northwestern from University of Washington, she was a loner. It was pure coincidence that she ran into Angela, her best friend from her hometown in Washington State.

"Okay guys, it's getting late and I have an early meeting. I'm kicking everyone out," Bella announced. It wasn't really that late, but she was leading her first staff meeting, doling out assignments to other reporters, those who were furious that they were overlooked for the promotion. Bella was nervous, she knew her position was well deserved, but it still didn't mean she wasn't going to get glares and passive aggressive comments from embittered jackasses.

As they were all leaving, Rose gave her a tight hug and whispered, "You are going to kick ass tomorrow, just wear the suit and you'll be fine. Good luck, call me and we'll grab lunch afterwards, okay?" Bella nodded and gave her thanks.

Locking the door behind her, Bella climbed to bed waiting for the Tylenol PM to kick in and drift her into a dreamless sleep.

/RT\

Bella walked out of the meeting surprised. The meeting had gone a lot better than she had expected, especially not getting as many nasty glares as she had expected. Maybe it was the suit, she thought. As she was walking down to her boss' office, she heard a voice calling her name.

"Bella! Wait up, whatcha doing for lunch?" Eric Yorkie came chasing her down the hall. Bella internally groaned and put on her best fake smile.

"I have a date." It was a technicality, but it wasn't a lie. She and Rose had arranged to meet up in a few hours.

"Oh, okay. Well I'd like to take you out to celebrate your promotion sometime. Maybe dinner instead?" Bella didn't have the heart to turn him down directly, so she assured him sometime after her workload let up.

"Sorry, Eric. You know the rules, no inter-office dating. We should just stick to being friends. I need to go, meeting with the boss man." She turned on her heels and started heading towards her boss' office.

"Yeah, good luck with that," he called after her. Bella knew she wouldn't need luck with this one-on-one. Aro had always been nothing less than wonderful to her.

Bella stood outside her boss' door for what seemed like ten minutes. She shouldn't have been nervous. Aro Eisenberg had always been her mentor for as long as she could remember. They had first met when he guest lectured at the University of Washington and then met again when she was in graduate school. He recognized Bella's talents immediately and took her under his wing when she first started as a newbie with the Sun. He had given her the idea to apply for the feature columnist position when the spot opened. She looked up to him not as a father figure, but rather a well-traveled uncle with great stories and guidance.

"Don't just stand there Bella, come on in," Aro called to her from the other side of his door.

"Sorry. What can I do for you Mr. Eisenberg?" she asked as she slipped through the door, allowing it to close softly behind her.

"Bella, have a seat, and call me Aro, you know that Mr. Eisenberg was my father." He motioned for her to sit down, not looking up from his papers. After a few minutes Aro looked at his protégé and smiled. "As you know, the All-Star break is coming up in a few weeks, and this is huge for us. I need to make sure you have your stuff together and you are ready." Bella nodded, he continued, "I have received a request from ESPN for you to be on the panel for a special MLB episode of JRIB."

Bella gasped, "You want me to be on ESPN? I just got this position, isn't this something James should do?" By now her stomach was doing flip flops. It was one thing for her column to be read; she was always better making her observations on paper than vocalizing them. The four-lettered network was a bit out of her element.

"I have full confidence that you will make the Sun proud, who knows, if this goes well, you could become a regular." Aro had never been more pleased with Bella.

Right now her emotions were all over the place. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry or lose her breakfast on Aro's three hundred dollar shoes. "Can you email me the details of when and where?"

Aro nodded. "I'll have Jane send them over in a bit. We still have other details to discuss, but we'll talk more when the time gets a little closer. We still have a few weeks before anything is finalized."

"Oh, I forgot, I know I'm new in this position, but is it okay for me to bring Emmett? He's new to Chicago," they both grinned at her comment, "And I wouldn't bring him for the actual game, but maybe the Derby? I think he'd get a kick out of it."

"You want to bring Emmett? By all means, it's okay with me. Just expect people to raise some eyebrows. Until you guys are ready to go public, people are going to talk. Are you okay with that?" Aro asked.

Bella shook her head. "I don't think people would figure it out. Besides, it might not be a bad idea for me to get the first exclusive sit-down interview with the first round draft pick for the Bears?" Aro grinned at her.

Bella stood up to leave, turning the handle on the door. She looked over and smiled, "I can't believe this, thank you so much, Aro, for everything. I couldn't have gotten this far without you."

"You did this all on your own, kid. I just showed you the way."

Walking quickly back to her office, she pulled out her Blackberry and dialed the first person she could think of, her dad.

Edward Cullen

"You are going do it. It's good publicity and it will show your fans that you are back to your old self."

"No."

"Why not? Give me one good reason why you won't go to the All-Star weekend? And don't give me that crap about your plants."

Edward groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, someone has to care for my ficus."

"It's plastic."

"It needs to be dusted. Ali, you know I don't like being the in the public eye that much. Need I also remind you, it's in Chicago?" Edward said, cocking an eyebrow.

"You should have thought about that before you became a professional athlete." Alice chuckled. She continued, "it's not like you are actually playing the game. You wave to the public and go to the game the next day. It's a win-win, the camera is on you for maybe twenty minutes total and you can go back to hiding. I won't even make you go to the cocktail party. Need I remind you, this is what you pay me for? So what if it's in Chicago, are you worried about seeing her?"

This was an argument that Edward knew he wouldn't win. He knew Alice was right, it would be good for his image and the events didn't take that long.

It's only a couple of days, he might run into her, but chances were pretty slim. Finally caving, Edward sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine, but no interviews, no featured stories on my return, injury and for the love of all things holy, nothing on my personal life. Just keep the reporters and media away from me and we'll be good."

"Whatever, Edward, you'll have to talk to reporters eventually." Alice rolled her eyes. Deep down, she didn't blame him one bit. It wasn't his fault that all the gossip magazines and newspaper reporters were all over him for dirt on his private life. It was her job as his agent and publicist to do what he wanted and for the past five years, she had done just that. Since Edward didn't do much publicly other than show up to games and donate money to charities and team events, Alice had it pretty easy. She liked to think of herself as a barrier between the world and Edward.

"Thank you, just send me an email with the information so I know what I'm doing next week. I'm gonna go meet up with Jasper for a few hours of therapy, should I tell him you say 'hi'?" Edward said slowly, waiting for Alice's reaction.

Alice rolled her eyes, and scoffed, "Sure, whatever." She knew what game Edward was playing. She'd had a thing for Edward's physical therapist from the first day she saw him, she didn't want to admit it to herself, let alone Edward.

So what did you think? Like it? Love it? Hate it? I would love to hear your theories! Reviews = teasers.

Thanks for reading.