Chapter 3 - Intruder

A/N

To clear some stuff up: Bella is 23, Edward is 34.

Things will start to make sense as the story goes. I can't give you everything from the start, what's the fun in that? :)

As always, SM owns everything.

Present time – Panama City, Panama

EPOV

A loud thump wakes me from my sleep and as I look at the alarm clock on my bedside table, I can see its 2:37 a.m., way before I'm supposed to be up for my morning briefing and way before the rest of the team has to be up.

What's going on?

I get up, grab my gun and walk towards the hallway. Moments after, once again, there's a loud thump.

Who's out there?

I make my way quietly out the door, careful to not make any noise, so the intruder doesn't hear me and tries to escape.

I can make out an outline of a body in the dark. A small and fairly thin man- wait no, it's a woman. The intruder is a woman? As soon as the though goes through my mind, I bump into one of the corridor tables and come to a halt. The person in front of me jumps in shock and turns around.

Bella?

"Edward? Is that you?" It is Bella.

"Yes, it's me." I pass her and reach the light switch for the corridor and flick it on. She eyes me suspiciously and then notices my gun.

"Why do you have your gun with you?"

"I thought you were an intruder."

"You're all paranoid."

"We're cautious, that's all." She nods and continues on her way to the kitchen.

I walk behind her and wonder why she's up at this time. Can she not sleep? Is she having nightmares again? Do I still make her feel safe?

"Why are you up so late? Well, early… depending on how you look at it." I ask her.

"I can't sleep." She says it nonchalantly, like we haven't been through this already. Like I don't know the reason for it.

"Bella…"

"Don't start with that, please. I'm fine. A human being can have trouble sleeping every now and then. It's not some weird thing." She's like that lately, so defensive.

"I only ask because I want to help. I used to help you with that, you know?"

"I know, Edward. But I was eighteen the last time. It's not happening again, you can relax."

I sigh, knowing she isn't going to tell me what's on her mind. Why does she hate me? Why can't I be her friend like old times? "Okay, then. I'll be in my room."

She looks at me and I can tell she's sad. Her eyes have always been like a window to her soul. So transparent and obvious. Now, I'm just confused and never know what she's thinking. She doesn't tell me either.

7 years ago – Seattle

"Edward!"

The chilling scream wakes me and has me darting down to the room next door. Her cries always have me acting out automatically.

I open the door and rush to her bed. I grab her face and make her look at me through the tears.

"What's wrong, Bella? Are you okay?"

"I'm scared. I had a dream about tomorrow." Oh? So her dreams were no longer about her past? That's… progress, I guess.

"What scares you about tomorrow?" I knew it was her junior year homecoming and she was going with Jake, our neighbor.

"They all think I'm weird, they'll laugh at my dress. They'll probably give me a hard time. I don't want to go without you." I sigh and look at her. Those brown eyes aching for some type of reassurance that tomorrow will be okay, that she'll always be okay.

I grab her and sit her on my lap, she's always liked that. I think feeling herself tight against another warm body is something she wasn't used to as a child, but ever since she's been under my watch, it's become something usual for us.

"They're teenagers like you, Bella. They're all insecure and seeking approval. Maybe right now they can't see past what Kate and her crew say about you but someday they'll realize how wrong they've been and will definitely regret it. Especially when you become president." I joke with her so she can relax a little.

Kate Johnson is a senior at her school and a textbook definition of a bully. You always read about girls like her in books or see girls like her in movies, but you never think they exist. They do. And the happen to go to school with Bella.

You see, Bella was transferred from her school after the incident three years ago and everyone already knew who she was. The girl from the news, the one who was search for by thousands of authorities over the U.S. for over two weeks. The girl that had been taken, held under horrible conditions and traded for millions. Daughter of Charlie Swan. The traumatized girl. The one they had heard went to a therapist, like it was some big deal.

She was constantly scrutinized. If she dropped her apple in the lunch room, they would all grow silent and stare at her, then whisper about how she was always shaking. She wasn't, she was just cold, but they always had to create rumors at her expense.

I knew it wasn't all bad. She had some friends, but the fact that her father didn't allow parties or social get togethers made it difficult for her to keep up with them regularly. That's why I always tried to talk to her as much as possible and find out about her life. I wanted her to feel like there was always someone there for her, who she could confide in.

"Do you think I really can be president, though? I'm a woman, isn't that illegal? She jokes back. She's always been witty. She'll be a great lawyer, one day.

"We're making progress, you know? Some men are making their own midnight sandwiches right about now." I laugh with her.

She hugged me tighter and rested her head on my shoulder as I massage her hair gently. Minutes after she's fast asleep so I lay her down and kiss her forehead.

"I'll always take care of you. I'll always keep you safe."

Present time – Panama City, Panama

I lay in bed, wondering why Bella is having a hard time sleeping. Maybe it is a normal thing, just a normal girl having some normal sleeping issues. Except she's not normal. But she is, she's just in not normal conditions…I close my eyes and decide to rest for what's left of my "free" time.

After my typical 6 a.m. briefing and a quick sprint, I shower and get ready for the day. As I head into the kitchen, I see Jasper making coffee.

"Sup, man.?" He hands me the coffee and some creamer. I decline the creamer.

He laughs. "Rough night?"

I shake my head no. "Nah, just didn't get much sleep, nothing major."

"You take this job too seriously." Here we go again.

The other guys in the Panama team, Emmet, Jasper and Derek, always have opinions on how I handle my job.

We're supposed to be off duty around forty hours a month, ten hours a week. We get to do whatever we want or go wherever we want as long as the rest of the team stays. Some days, when Bella is sleeping, the guys head out to the balcony and enjoy a beer or two and talk about what they did in those ten hours and with who.

Usually the stories are about women, sometimes about men, in Derek's case, and sometimes the stories were about what they will do their next break.

But they don't have the responsibility I do. They don't carry the weight of a young girl's life on their shoulder and they haven't looked that same girl and the eye and swore to her, to never ever let anything happen to her.

"Edward, that girl can't be your entire life, you've got like thousands of free hours accumulated by now. You could probably take like 2 years off as paid vacation time." Jasper insists. I know he means well, but he should know by now that I'm not listening.

Jasper and I hit it off instantly as soon as I joined their security team. He was the youngest, after me, of all of us and we bonded a lot during Bella's school hours, when we would literally sit outside all day waiting for her to come out. He joined the agency after his high school sweetheart and wife, Maria, passed away after a college shooting.

He first started dating her when they were fifteen, were together for seven years before getting married and only two years later, on her graduation, some kid with issues decided to seek revenge and ended up killing six students and eighteen more were wounded. Of those eighteen wounded, four died. One of them, Maria. He joined the team and never looked back.

I know for a fact, when he goes out in his free time he goes to strip clubs or whore houses and pretends he can clear his mind that way. I know for a fact, he hates himself every time.

"Jas, I understand your point. I just don't feel like asking for any free time. I don't have anything to do if I leave this house. Hell, I don't even know anyone that doesn't live in this house." I mean, that is true. It's not why I don't leave, but I don't need him knowing more than he does.

"There's hundreds of cheap strip clubs in this country, man. It's better that you don't know anyone."

"I'm not interested in that kind of thing." I look him in the eye and hope he gets my point and just drops it.

"Your loss." He grabs his cup and heads out to join the rest of them.

I eat alone on the kitchen table and wait for Bella to wake.

A/N

Reviewers get to sneak up on Edward at 2:00 a.m. ;)