Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does and she is oh so very awesome for letting me play with them. Thank you.

So It Begins

The entire drive towards Chicago, IL I could not get her off of my mind. As desperate and selfish as it sounds she would also probably be the only reason right now that I made it out of here alive and back home. I had to find this mysterious Bella and save her from herself, I needed her to be mine forever and even then an eternity was probably not enough time with her.

I had left my car on the outside of the station and was currently sitting in a line to get a haircut. The check in process was very mundane and organized; everything including everyone had a place and purpose, which I guess is good for those people who are concerned about where their tax dollars are going. Consistency was a vital part of the military branches but it made me feel more like a robot, or well a soon to be robot.

There were a few other people sitting in the plastic chairs next to me also waiting to have their hair chopped off. One guy had hair that appeared almost as untamable as my own except it was golden blonde. There was an awkward glance shared between us when I had been caught staring at his hair so I diverted my eyes to the floor and began pushing a speck of dirt around with the toe of my shoe. I didn't want to have enemies in this place and I sure as hell didn't want to have any of the guys thinking that I was gay.

"My name is Jasper Whitlock."

My head jerked up a little too quickly when the blonde had cleared his throat and stuck his hand out towards me. I looked at his hand and then my eyes traveled up his arm to his expectant glare. I needed to get my mind out of the clouds and focus so I stuck my hand out and shook his quickly as he took the seat right next to me.

"Sorry about that man, I'm kind of out of it right now…my name is Edward Mason."

He nodded his head as an all knowing smile approached his face. His lips curved up into a smirk as he leaned forward on his elbows and clasped his hands together lacing each finger slowly before taking a deep breath and leaning back in the uncomfortable chair.

"LSD?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"LSD?"

"What, Oh…no man."

Jasper twisted his mouth to the side like he was thinking harder than absolutely necessary. I can't believe the guy just asked me if I was on LSD. Only the hippies really took that stuff, come to think about it…I guess I really didn't pay attention to his entire appearance, his tie dye shirt was nothing out of the ordinary but he did have a few questionable quirks about him. Like the belt bottoms he wore and the dark circles under his eyes due to lack of sleep, I kind of wondered how much Jasper really knew about LSD.

"Grass?"

"No, I do not mess with drugs man."

"Oh, so then what's got you out of it right now?"

"A girl."

Jasper raised an eyebrow and turned his head to the side when the man in the dark green uniform came into the waiting room. He held a brown clip board and scanned it carefully before raising his head and calling on another poor soul named Clarence Jones. I felt bad for the guy because he had black thick framed glasses and hair that probably went down to his waste once he undid the pony tail. It was all about to disappear for him, and from the sad look on his face he was aware of that fact.

Both men moved at a slow pace through the door and with a click it closed again. Jasper looked from the door back to me and then down towards the floor where his feet shuffled slightly and the chair squeaked under his weight. I decided that this time it was my turn for the line of questioning, I was very curious by nature anyways.

"LSD?"

"Not in a long time."

"Grass?"

"A few weeks ago."

"Really?"

Jasper smirked and then shook his head before letting out another long and drawn out sigh, he began rubbing his hands together somewhat nervously and I had wondered if I again stuck my foot in my mouth. I glanced down at the floor and began moving the speck of dirt around again.

"Yes really. I guess you can say I have a pretty colorful background. My parents were hippies so I was born into all of that stuff. I'm actually kind of glad to be here, I like history and the whole idea of military services. How about you? Do you have any ghost in your closet?"

I looked at Jasper and couldn't help the short lived chuckle that escaped my mouth. I wouldn't say I had any 'skeletons' in my closet but I might have a few ghost there now. How in the world would a person describe that without being looked at as if they were crazy? I better stick to the family story for the sake of my own sanity.

"Nothing major, I have a younger sister and a pretty cool family I guess. I plan to go to medical school when I get out of here."

"How young?"

"What?"

"You sister, how young is she?"

"Oh, she's only a year younger than me."

"And how old are you?"

"18 and you?"

"19."

We both tightened our expressions and nodded before turning back towards the ground. Jasper began lacing his fingers together as I played with my speck of dirt. I didn't feel awkward talking to him, actually I felt like I had known him my whole life, but in reality we had just met and well, that made things a bit weird if you ask me.

"I hope we get stuck together, we seem to have the same goal in mind."

"Oh yea? And what goal is that?"

"Stay alive."

I laughed at the ground and shook my head to agree with his statement, Jasper patted me on the back and then leaned back in his chair while he folded his arms behind his head. Four of the new enlistments had already started to pile out of the room so that means we had to be coming up on the list soon. I did wonder what exactly it was that we would be trained and sent off to do in the war. The large wooden door creaked open again but this time there was a different man holding the brown clip board scanning for names. They must have had a shift change.

"Edward Mason and Jasper Whitlock?"

We both stood up but Jasper seemed to have a little bit more 'pep in his step' than I did. I wasn't really looking forward to my hair being chopped off. We sat in our chairs pretty much facing each other with stern expressions on our face. The electric buzzing sound coming from the clippers startled me slightly at first which caused Jasper too chuckle at me, he must think that I am a real pansy ass. I rolled my eyes and concentrated on the mirror image of the back of Jasper's head. It also reflected myself and reminded me of a multi dimensional portrait.

The buzz cuts were sloppy and I could hear Alice snickering and advising how she could fix it for me in the back of my mind. I was really going to miss her; I wonder what she would think about Bella? A wave of Jasper's hand in front of my face brought my out of my musings, he was waving it slowly with that all knowing look in his eyes again.

"Are you sure you haven't smoked any grass before coming here Edward?"

"Yea man."

"Hmm…well I don't mind being your partner, but I am going to ask that you stay in the real world, I can't save both of our asses the entire time."

Jasper let out a cocky laugh as we started towards check in to get our uniform and bunk assignments. I was pretty particular about sharing a room with anyone and kind of hoped that they would let me have a private bunk. I realized quickly that I had no such luck when a piece of paper detailing a room number along with a stack of green cloth with black boots was piled into my arms and I was shoved away.

I followed other soldiers to the housing building until I spotted my new assigned room number. There was a gangly man standing in the room unpacking his suit case and setting up his bed when I entered the room alone.

"Are you my new roommate?"

"I guess I am my name is Edward Mason."

I stuck my hand out to the kid and he returned the gesture by shaking my hand gently. This kid didn't look any older than I was he maybe stood at a whole five feet eight inches tall, his hair was jet black with dark brown eyes. I set my stuff next to what I assume to be my bed on the other side of the room and began the tedious process of unpacking everything. I had wondered how far down the hall Jasper would be from me, so far he was the only friend I had made in this place.

"My name is Eric Yorkie by the way."

"Nice to meet you Eric."

I continued unpacking my stuff until a loud alarm sounded through the entire building, Eric dropped what he was doing and flung the bedroom door open and stood outside of it. I didn't know if this was what we were required to do but I followed suit not wanting to start any problems. There were several other men already standing outside of the room with their shoulders squared off and their arms laying flat at their sides. I took a glance down the hall until I spotted Jasper wearing what I can only assume to be a look of disgust on his face. Maybe he doesn't like his new roommate? There were men standing on either side of them, one was a short but stocky build with blonde hair, blue eyes and a cocky smirk on his face while the other was a tan complexion man with brown hair and grey eyes. Jasper stood out amongst them and nodded his head in my direction as soon as he spotted me.

Out of courtesy I gave the same nod and waited for our new commander to finish running his checks as he walked down the hall way with another brown clip board in hand. Again, I felt more like a robot than I did a human being at this point in time.

The instructor was an older man, possibly in his late fifties early sixties with grey hair that almost looked translucent in the hall lighting. His face was covered in wrinkles and dull brown eyes didn't seem to hold to much excitement. He had a stern 'no bullshit' look on his face and I got the feeling that training was going to be no walk in the park for some of us.

After a very brief introduction the instructor who I now know as Sgt. Bilkie gave us what our assignments would be. I was a little bit excited to hear that Jasper and I would be training in the same aeronautics field together. I had always wanted to learn how to fly and this was a great opportunity to do so, I guess you can say that I was trying to look at the glass as half full. Training was going to start early tomorrow morning, we were not told how early so I decided to read a few pages out of a book I had packed and then I settled in to bed for the night. My mind was still racing with thoughts of Bella and what she must be thinking.

"Wake up assholes! You have fifteen minutes to get your scrawny butts dressed and out on the field!"

My body jerked straight up from the loud banging on the door, I glanced at the clock that read 3:00 AM and groaned. It was way too early to be awake, but I threw the covers off of me and reached for the green military issued uniform that I would be wearing for the next few years. After a very quick inspection Eric and I ran out of the room, down the hall, and outside to the court yard where other men were already standing at attention awaiting further instructions.

This is officially torture at its finest. As I stood in line next to Eric I noticed Jasper and his roommate the stocky blonde come out of the building. Jasper stood next to me at attention and elbowed me in my side to let me know that he was there. I glanced at him through the corner of my eye as he smirked at me. For 3:00 AM he seemed pretty chipper and wide awake which surprised me slightly but not very much. I knew from the beginning that Jasper would be the one who enjoyed this torture the most.

We did pushups and pull ups, we ran for what felt like hours straight in all weather conditions. We practically starved during our physical conditioning and when it was all said and done, we did it again. This went on for a few weeks before we would start our flight training and I swear to you the only reason I was able to keep my legs moving was because Jasper stayed close by to push me when I started to slack. Alice, my sister, wrote to me all the time telling me how things were back home. I confessed to her about Bella and asked her to look her up for me. She seemed a little hesitant at first, so I didn't think that she would do it, when she reported back that she had found nothing I was happy that she actually tried, but devastated that she didn't come back with anything useful.

Jasper had developed a secret crush on her, they had never spoken or even written to each other, but I had caught him one time staring at a picture of her, and he sure as hell asked me a lot of questions. It wasn't until about three weeks into training when Jasper and I were just starting our flight training that I had received the worst news possible. My parents Elizabeth and Edward Mason Sr. had died in a car crash. Because of where I was at I did not get to attend the funeral and pay my respects and of all things, I found out through letter because they would not let Alice call me.

I got into my first fight that day, Jasper's room mate Michael smart mouthed something about my family and I lunged at him. I was blind with anger and rage, Jasper pulled me off and I was sent to the infirmary to have my bleeding knuckles looked at. That's where Jasper and I met Dr. Carlisle Cullen. He didn't appear to be older than his late twenties; he had blonde hair and golden colored eyes. His skin was a soft translucent pale color that made me wonder if he was sick. When he held my hand to inspect it I felt a chill, he joked about it and confirmed what used to be a myth to me about doctors and there irritably cold hands.

Jasper also seemed to take to the doctor quite well and we became friends from that point on. I cannot really say that I made any other friends, but I did have several acquaintances throughout this hell hole. No one but Alice knew of my encounter with the beautiful Bella though, and I still planned on keeping it that way, it wasn't that I was ashamed of her, almost the exact opposite. I just didn't want people to think that I was crazy and lock me up…at least not until I found her.