Twilight is still not mine.

Special thanks to my lovely beta TellMeTheTruth. She killed a lot of commas reading through this chapter and didn't complain once!

Please be sure to read the A/N at the bottom for some exciting news!

Chapter 4: An Apple a Day

"There are a lot of things and in order to be at the top and maintain your focus you have to have something that motivates you. For me, it was what I perceived as a lack of respect from the boxing world as well as the media, which made me want to work so hard and be great." ~ Marvin Hagler

I woke up at my normal time of 6:30am. I was smiling; it felt good to know that at least my internal alarm clock wasn't working against me like it was yesterday. I slowly began stretching out my body; it didn't feel quite right. Normally, I would have a light ache in my muscles as a result from my daily training. I didn't feel anything of the sort and I cursed under my breath, annoyed to have lost a day in the rigorous regime I had set for myself. It wasn't like I was a gym rat or anything, actually that was a lie but I had goals and they wouldn't be achieved lying in bed. Nor would they be achieved if I was unable to exercise for a week.

My plan was very simple; I wanted to be a member of the Olympic Women's Boxing Team. The very boxing team that would be going to London in 2012. It was a pretty big deal for women to be allowed a chance to fight, there wasn't a team in the Beijing summer games and women's boxing was considered illegal in Britain until 1998. I wanted to wipe away the stereotypes of women in boxing. Either you aren't taken seriously or you are looked at like a side show. I wanted to help bring equality and recognition to the women of boxing and the best way I could do that would be by making the Olympic team.

This brought me back to my problem at hand…Carlisle. He had all the power; he could hold me back or allow me to push forward. Hopefully at my appointment with him this morning, he could see that I was fine and allow me to continue training. I hoped. And if I had to use guilt to get what I wanted, I wasn't above that.

Looking back at my alarm clock on the bedside table, 6:35am, I sighed. Waking up this early did cause one problem; I didn't have anything to do with my time until my appointment with Carlisle at 9:30am. Normally, early morning hours would be filled with my run and training session at Kellington's followed by teaching yoga classes in the afternoon.

Today I needed to come up with something else, especially after my slip up with Jimmy and subsequent saving from Emmett. No, I'd have to be good today; I did not need another reason to be indebted to Emmett. The breakfast he ate yesterday was enough to feed a family of four not to mention it cost me a small fortune.

Personal hygiene was probably a good place to start seeing as I skipped that yesterday in my anxiety to talk with Jimmy. Actually, a bath would be a really nice way to force myself to relax and if I managed to stretch it out, I could take at least an hour and half to get ready maybe even two hours if I straightened my hair.

An hour and fifty minutes later, I managed to bathe, get dressed, blow dry and straighten my hair. I even convinced myself to spend five minutes applying some light makeup. I didn't usually wear makeup, especially since it melted off during my sessions at the gym. However, I didn't think today would be a waste of makeup. I knew Carlisle pretty well and if I was being honest, I was fairly certain he'd want to keep me from training for at least another few days before allowing a gradual return to my regular sessions.

Pleased with my ability to kill time, I grabbed an apple off the kitchen counter shoved it into my purse and headed for my car. The drive to Carlisle's office wasn't too far from my townhouse and conveniently, there was half a dozen Starbucks along the way. After passing the fourth Starbucks, I pulled up to the drive-thru of the fifth one, secretly hoping that by bringing coffee for Carlisle and Esme, his wife and nurse/receptionist, it would soften him up a bit before he made his decision about my training. Even if the coffee ruse didn't work, it was also a silent apology for my shitty fight on the weekend.

With coffee tray in hand and purse over my shoulder, I pulled the door to Carlisle's office. Esme was tucked behind a large reception desk with a high counter; you could only see the top half of her face. The waiting area was also large, and had some of the nicest waiting room chairs I'd ever sat in, not those plastic ones that made your ass go numb if you had to wait longer than 20 minutes. A hand full of people already waiting spread out amongst the chairs. It didn't concern me because they could be waiting for any of the three doctors that worked in Carlisle's office.

"Bella! It's so nice to see you again," Esme called to me as we made eye contact. I could hear the smile in her voice and see it in her eyes even if I couldn't see her mouth to know she was smiling.

"Esme, it's great to see you too. How have you been?" I asked as I placed the coffee on the countertop.

"Busy, but well," she responded as she stood up to give me the best hug she could manage with an entire desk between us.

"Oh? What's keeping you busy these days? You know, besides running an office and running around after a preschooler?" Esme gently laughed and nodded her head at me, I didn't give her time to elaborate any further as I pulled out one of the white to-go cups and passed her the tray. "I brought you a Chai Tea Latte and a black Pike Place Roast for Carlisle," I said while pointing to each one.

"That is really sweet of you Bella. Thank you." She took a dainty sip from her drink as to not burn her mouth and 'hmmed' in approval. "You can have a seat, Carlisle isn't here just yet. He had to make a stopover at the hospital to visit a few post-op patients but should be in shortly." I had expected as much, Carlisle was a well known orthopaedic surgeon in the Seattle area; very convenient to have a bone doctor who moonlighted as a Cutman for our boxing club. He even had to set a couple of my own fractured fingers after I didn't properly wrap my hands before a fight. I only needed to learn that lesson once, albeit said lesson involved two fingers, before I started asking Emmett to do it for me.

"Of course, I'm a bit early anyways," I smiled back at her and found a seat in the corner by a table of magazines. I sipped on my Caramel Macchiato and read the latest gossip magazine, not paying attention as the waiting room gradually filled up with other patients.

After a short while, having lost interest in the magazine, I chose to people watch. Nothing too exciting, an elderly couple sat together, the man with a walker in front of him. A mother with a death grip on a little boy who was trying to make an escape from her arms. A bored looking girl about my age who kept looking at her watch.

One of my favourite things to do while people watching was to make up a story about them, I chose the bored girl.

I decided her name was Jessica. Jessica recently graduated from the University of Washington, majoring in Education. Based on Jessica's choice of non-descript black slacks and blazer combo, she would be heading to fill in as a substitute teacher later this morning at a local elementary school which was why she kept looking at her watch; the doctor was running late, therefore she was running late.

Jessica huffed in annoyance after a third look at her watch in under a minute. In an attempt to distract herself, she began looking around the waiting area, much like I did a few minutes earlier. I diverted my eyes to avoid being caught staring.

After a pause, I chanced a look up; Jessica has found something that held her interest. She was staring out the front door; I looked to see what put such a predatory smile on her face but was at the wrong angle from my corner to see anything. I assumed it was a guy because Jessica had now whipped out a compact; checking her face and fluffing her bottle blond hair. I didn't have to wait long to see if I was correct because I heard the door swing open and heavy foot falls on the tiled floor. I heard shuffling and looked back to see Jessica had decided to sit a little taller, no longer slouching, sticking out her chest. Cue my eye roll. I could see her mind going over all the ways in which she would strike up a conversation, should he decide that he just had to sit beside her instead of one of many open chairs.

Looking back toward the door way, there wasn't anyone there. Looking around to see what I missed, I spotted a tall male figure standing at the desk I was at not ten minutes ago, talking to Esme. Esme smiled at him and motioned toward the waiting area. Before he turned around, I noticed something familiar. It was familiar because I'd spent most of the night dreaming about it, much to my fascination and annoyance. It was that damn military helmet. Not wanting to jump to conclusions, I held my breath and waited the three seconds for the guy to turn around.

Grey eyes were looking right at me, it was Jasper. I quickly looked down at the seat beside me and placed my purse in it, indicating I did not want him to sit next to me. Rude, I knew, but I just didn't have it in me to care considering our previous interactions. However, Jasper appeared not to be easily deterred as he sat in the chair opposite mine in the corner by the table and placed his helmet on the chair beside him mirroring my position. I released my breath in a huff of annoyance and looked over at him, he was smirking. I want to hate the smirk simply on the basis that it was directed at me, but the twinkle in his eye made it very difficult.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned, not bothering with a good morning greeting. His eyebrows raise a bit, he seemed taken aback by my harsh tone, he obviously didn't expect me to come right out and ask.

"Same reason you're here, I suppose. To see Carlisle," Jasper responded like it was obvious, which it should have been, given we were both in a waiting room at a doctor's office.

I rolled my eyes at myself while nodding at him and took a sip of my coffee to avoid further conversation. I looked back over at him, because I liked to make myself suffer; the smirk was back and again, being directed at me. Something had amused him, I realized it was me.

"What?" I questioned looking down at myself to see if I forgot to put a shirt on this morning or something else equally embarrassing that would result in a guy looking at me that way. I looked back up, challenging him with my eyes to tell me what he found so amusing. But before he could answer, there was ringing from the pocket of his jeans, breaking our silent stare-off. He pulled it out and looked at the screen, a slight frown appearing on his face.

"Excuse me, I have to take this," he mumbled while grabbing his helmet and quickly walked toward the door with long powerful strides.

"Whatever," I muttered under my breath in annoyance. This was the third time I'd seen the guy, second I'd actually spoken to him and all we managed was a thirty second interaction. Was I that difficult to talk to? How was it that he could get me so hot under the collar? And if I was being honest with myself, hot other places, while I seemingly had no effect on him. At least he said more than two words this time, that's progress, right?

I watched the doorway, waiting for him to return. It was clear the phone call wouldn't be a short one when he didn't come back right away and I returned back to people watching with less enthusiasm than before.

My eyes wandered over the same people and made their way back to Jessica. She was looking at me. Her would be pretty face was distorted into a sneer of jealousy and I quickly looked away and in the direction of Esme's desk where I saw Carlisle had arrived.

They were talking quietly to one another and Esme handed him the coffee I brought. He looked up in my direction, a warm smile filled his face as we make eye contact. As I returned his smile paying no attention to the poorly disguised scoff coming from Jessica's direction. Carlisle had his coffee in one hand and a file folder under his arm as he walked around the desk and called out my name.

I quickly gathered my purse and coffee and made my way towards Carlisle. While I passed by the front door I chanced a look outside to see if I could spot Jasper. He was still on his cell phone and looked a little angry, waving his arm around aggressively.

"Bella, sorry to keep you waiting," Carlisle smiled again as I approached him. I followed him down the hall and we made our way into an exam room.

"Oh, no worries Carlisle. Esme told me you were caught at the hospital, it happens."

"Well, I hope you weren't waiting too long."

"No, not very long," I reassured while I sat my purse and coffee on a chair and then hopped up on an exam table.

"So, let's do a quick check and see how things are, shall we?" He didn't leave me any time to respond as he pulled out his light and began the same tests as before. "How has your head been since Saturday? Any headaches, dizziness or nausea?"

"I had a small headache on Sunday morning but I'm blaming Emmett on that one. His snoring is loud and having to be woken up every hour, you'd have a headache as well. Otherwise, no problems, I feel great in fact." He chuckled at my joke and tucked the light back into his coat pocket.

"Well, I think you're doing great. The concussion wasn't that bad. I'd say you'll be good to return to full training by the week's end."

"So by full training, you mean I can do some training in the mean time?" I asked hopeful.

"You're in great shape, Bella. Athletes tend to recover from these types of injuries faster than non-athletes. I know you're itching to get back to your regular sessions. However, I can't allow you to do anything high impact just yet. But, I also can't reasonably expect you to just sit at home and not do anything. So, let's compromise with light activity until the weekend and then you can go back to normal, OK?"

"That sounds fair, Carlisle. I'm just happy I don't have to find someone to cover all my classes at the Y. I probably would have done those even if you restricted me," I smiled at him cringing at my blatant honesty.

"I know you would have. That's why I'm giving you permission to do that and only that until the weekend. I don't want you at the club and I want you to take it easy at the first sign of any dizziness or nausea. I also think it would be wise to cancel your fight this coming Saturday if you have one, just to be safe." Carlisle smiled back and began to jot down some notes in my file. Normally I would argue about cancelling my fight but didn't need to since I didn't have a fight this weekend. I was quite pleased with this meeting; Carlisle had been more than reasonable with his restrictions.

"That's all then?"

"For today, stop by the front desk and let Esme know I'd like to see Jasper before I get started with the rest of the patients if you don't mind."

"Yeah, I can do that," I agreed while slinging my purse over my shoulder and grabbing my now lukewarm coffee. I wanted to ask him why Jasper was here too but know he wouldn't break doctor patient confidentiality so I kept my question to myself. "See ya later, Carlisle." I said as we walked out of the exam room. While walking down the hallway, Carlisle was beside me taking a sip of his coffee, chart tucked back under his arm.

"Thanks for this, by the way," he gestured to the coffee as he walked into his office.

"Any time," I smiled back continuing toward the reception area.

Esme was on the phone when I approached her desk. Trying to give her some privacy, I busied myself with drinking the last of my coffee and looked around the waiting area again, Jasper had yet to return. I wondered what could be so important that he'd been outside talking on the phone all this time. I turned back to Esme as I heard her hang up the telephone.

"Carlisle says he'd like to see Jasper before he gets started with his regular patients."

"Oh, thanks Bella," Esme said while standing up and grabbing what I assumed was Jasper's chart. A frown appeared on her face as she scaned the waiting room.

"I think he might still be outside, that's where he went earlier," I offered, looking over at Esme. "I can let him know if he's still out there on my way to my car, if you'd like."

"That would be very helpful Bella," Esme said over the ring of the telephone. I waved at her as she picked up the call, making my way to the front door. Throwing my empty cup away as I passed by a trash can.

Once outside, I took a quick look around the parking lot. Jasper had parked his red and black Harley next to my red Expedition. I was lame enough to have noticed the shades of red were not quite the same. Jasper's was more of a cherry red, darker than my candy apple red. After my color assessment, I took a fleeting moment to smile at the thought of how it would look to see these two vehicles parked beside each other in front of my townhouse. My thoughts were interrupted as I noticed Jasper pacing back and forth on the pavement between our vehicles still talking on his cell phone.

He must not have noticed me because he didn't lower his volume or make an attempt to hide the anger in his voice to whomever he was speaking with.

"I don't care what they say they are going to do, they can't blame me for this mess…It's not your fault either…Everything would be so much easier if you just switched with me…Just give it a thought, would you?… Please, I don't want them to cause problems for you too," Jasper trailed off when he saw me approaching and stopped his pacing. I began searching through my purse trying to look like I hadn't just heard his one-sided conversation.

"Look, I've got to go. I'll call you later, OK?" Jasper said hastily.

My hand landed on the apple I grabbed before leaving the house and I chomped my teeth into it, looking like a pig ready for a roasting spit no doubt. At the sound of Jasper snapping his cell phone shut and I pulled the apple from my mouth slowly chewing on the sweet flesh as I looked toward him. The frown was still on his face and I wanted to smooth the crease between his eyes. I mentally scolded myself for having such thoughts when I saw his hard stare at me, clearly he did not hold the same affections toward me.

"Carlisle is ready to see you now," I said to him after I swallowed the mouthful of apple, avoiding an admission of hearing the tail end of his conversation.

"Right, I should head in," Jasper said still looking at me with suspicion and a questioning look on his face. Does he think I was eavesdropping? We were standing awkwardly looking at each other for a moment and I was uncertain what to do next.

Shaking my head at myself I nodded at him, taking another bite of my apple, leaving it in my mouth again while I fished my hand back into my purse to find my keys. I pressed the unlock button, hearing that annoying beep sound to indicate it was unlocked.

"See you around, Jasper," I said around another mouthful of apple. Jasper opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something only to quickly close it. Taking that as my cue to leave I made my way over to the driver's side door, away from Jasper and his bike.

"Wait! What did Carlisle say to you, are you still restricted from training this week?" Jasper suddenly appeared behind me and I startled at his voice, dropping my apple to the ground. "Shit, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he mumbled as he bent sown to pick up the fruit. He looked at it for a moment, uncertain if I wanted it back and finally held it out to me. I looked down, frowning at the dirt marring the white of the apple's flesh but still taking it from him.

"I'm partially restricted," I said looking away from the apple and back to Jasper. His eyebrows relaxed a little and the crease lessens. I pulled out a Kleenex from my purse and wrapped it around the useless apple. "I can do light training but nothing at the gym until the end of the week." Why was he suddenly interested if I could train?

"Oh, well, that's good, right? Better than not being able to do anything," his grey eyes were searching mine and I answered him before I could stop myself.

"I suppose. It's nice to know I'll still be able to do my job and continue my morning runs."

"You mean like the run you took to the gym yesterday morning?" His tone was teasing but also let me know, he'd paid more attention to me than I thought. It also lead me to a revelation that maybe I wasn't so stealthy either.

"You noticed that did you?" I said, my face warm with embarrassment.

"Sure, who else comes into a gym wearing running shoes and listening to their iPod when they are only supposed to be there for a talk?" He looked a little surprised at his own admission for a moment before flashing me his now trademark smirk. Jesus, that smirk, why was it so infuriatingly hot? I was sure he knew what that smirk does to girls; why else would he use it so much.

"I didn't realize you paid so much attention to me, Jasper. Do I need to take out a restraining order?" My tone was light and joking but I saw a look of panic cross his face for moment before he covered it up with a forced cough-laugh.

"Uh, no. You needn't worry about me, unless you want to," he rushed out. His eyes were twinkling in a silent challenge.

"I'll let you slide this time. But know this, my father is the Chief of Police in Forks and a phone call can easily be made to the station here," I smiled back at him.

"Is that so, I'll be sure to watch myself then."

"You do that. You should also go see Carlisle before Esme has to come out here and get you," I said shifting my gaze toward the Clinic where Esme could be seen looking out the window in our direction.

"Shit, right," Jasper said, turning to leave but not moving until after he used the same words I said to him only minutes before. "See you around, Bella."

He didn't bother waiting for me to answer as he quickly jogged across the parking lot and into the Clinic. Shaking my head, I climbed up into my SUV unsure of what exactly just happened. Would that teasing exchange be considered flirting? Possibly. But how could I be certain based on my limited interactions with him? I'd have to reserve judgment at this time. However, more important than flirting, what had Jasper meant when he said I don't want them to cause problems for you too while on his phone call? Was Jasper in some sort of trouble? If so, did this trouble have something to do with him leaving his last trainer?

So many questions rattled around my mind while I drove back home. There was only one way to find out the answers, I'd have to hope Jasper continued our friendly exchanges so that I could see if he dropped any hints. It shouldn't be too difficult to strike up conversation considering Jimmy said he wanted me to start training with Jasper instead of Emmett. What I considered punishment was now a convenience. Thank you, Jimmy!

The only disappointment would be that I'd have to wait until Saturday when we had the club's weekly training session before I could actually see Jasper again. Wait, maybe that's why Jasper was so interested if I could start training again, Jimmy must have told him he wanted us to be partners. Shit, maybe it wasn't flirting after all. Maybe he didn't want to be stuck without a sparring partner. My curiosity was starting to get the better of me. To make matters worse, I wouldn't be getting any answers until Saturday. I was not the most patient person at times. This would definitely be a long five days.

So, just a couple of things.

First, I'd like to thank everyone who is reading my story. I smile everytime I get a message that it's been put it on alert/favorite. And a special thanks to those of you who have reviewed!

Next, I want to tell you about a One Shot contest that yours truly is on the panel of judges! It's called Show Us Your Rebel. It's an anonymous contest and submissions are being accepted until September 30th. The link is on my profile, be sure to check that out.

Finally, I do have a teaser from Chapter 5 for those of you kind enough to review!

~Christie