A/N: I am fixing a typo from the last chapter. Bella is 23… she graduated one year ago when she was 22. Yes, she graduated a year early instead of 4 years early… imagine that.

Disclaimer: Stephenie owns this shit. Sucks for me.

Chapter Two

His gentle arms clothed me in icy heat as his sweet breath tickled the hairs on my neck that weren't restrained by bandages.

"You gave me quite a scare, little Bella." He whispered against my ear before his nose nuzzled deeply in the crook of my neck, no doubt feeling my heart skip a beat when his granite lips met my thin sheet of skin. "I thought you said no more accidents." Tears welled up in my eyes and spilled over my lids before I could control them. I guess I didn't have the strength after everything he's put me through. He hadn't been here five minutes and he was already lecturing me on my clumsiness. "You promised."

"What? Just like you promised that I would never see you again? That I would feel like you never existed?" He pushed back to study my expression, as if desperately trying to read my mind. "Well, some people lie, Edward."

"That was a long time ago, Bella." It was obvious at that moment that no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't going to wake up from this nightmare.

"Well, then how come it hurts like it only happened yesterday?" I shouted and tried desperately to shove him off of the bed. Computers and TV screens were beeping all around me telling me I should feel searing pain in every inch of my body, but it only hurt in my heart. How could he have left me and expected me to forget it all the second he walked back into my life? He was only a fucking century old. There is no way he could be that naïve.

I glanced at him through my tears and looked deeply into his eyes seeing hurt and despair. It was exactly how I felt when he left me in the woods all those years ago. "Bella, why are you doing this?" His voice cracked a bit as he spoke. "We've talked about this over and over again. I had to! You said you understood. I couldn't endanger the life of the thing I love most, and when it was safe again I came back to you."

"Well, I can't fucking remember discussing this!" I threw one of my pillows towards his head in an act of desperation. Maybe causing him enough pain would help me remember everything I had forgotten. I felt like I was going crazy, and maybe I was. The horrified expression on Edward's face suggested that maybe I should be tied up for a few years and handed a healthy dose of shock therapy.

Suddenly a group of nurses came trotting into the room, checking meters and sticking needles into my arm, turning the world around me into a fuzzy mess. Right before I was knocked out I noticed a big burly mass, probably Jacob, pulling Edward out of the room. So I fell back into deep sleep comforted by the fact that one thing had definitely never changed, Jacob. He was always my rock, the one thing that looked out for me no matter how many vampires lunged at me. He would always be here.

**********

"Okay, I think you are good to go." Jasper flicked his tiny flashlight back and forth in front of my eyes a few more times before smiling and standing up. "You've made a lot of progress in the past week and I see no reason why you shouldn't go home and get some rest… maybe look at a few old pictures and get that memory up to speed again."

"I only hope it will be that easy." I sighed, as Jacob helped me into the wheelchair.

"Now, today is… Thursday, in about three days I would like to switch you over to crutches and some light walking and then in about a week or so we can get a boot on that leg." I nodded in false agreement. After about four broken legs alone I had become a pro at the rehabilitation process… Knowing how badly crutches and I got along, I guessed that I would be in a boot before noon on Monday. Jasper turned to Jake and began reeling out symptoms. "For the next few months she will experience severe mood swings that will grow tamer with time, her equilibrium will be off drastically so keep an eye on that, and obviously some memory loss."

"How long do you think it will take for me to remember?" I begged. "Are you sure there isn't some pill I can take to induce memory."

"No, but if someone invents it, you will be the first to know." He laughed a little and then said his goodbyes as his name rang through the loud speakers.

"Well, I guess we should get going." Jacob sighed. I nodded and held one of his wrists in my hand as he wheeled me through a maze of hallways and elevators. I could feel his heartbeat. It was steady and strong, and it gave me the strength to hold on to what little sanity I had left as he loaded me into a strange car and drove me to an unfamiliar apartment. We rode the elevator up to the eighth floor before we exited. "Here we are… #801." Something in my chest hummed a little bit, reminding me that somewhere deep inside I knew all of these things.

The apartment was gorgeous. It was rustic and modern at the same time, a scheme I enjoyed very much. I could tell that I had probably picked out every piece of furniture that was in the space… until I saw the clear dining chairs.

"I knew you hated them!" Jacob pointed an accusing finger at me as I grimaced.

"Did you pick them out?" I laughed.

"You told me you loved them." He threw himself onto the nearest couch and stared out the window, pouting.

I walked over to where he was and sat on his legs, looking at the amazing view of Seattle. You could see the entire skyline, and in the background Mt. St. Helens stood tall… and menacing. The only thing I could think about when I looked at it was the video we watched in eighth grade about how it exploded and killed 57 people.

The first time I had noticed its menacing looks was the last day I had seen the Seattle skyline.

*****Flashback*****

I looked out the slightly damp window as we made our descent. Seattle was really amazing. It was like none of the rain mattered. I could live here simply for the view. I think it was mostly due to that huge needle building. I've always wanted to go up to the top of that thing. You can go up to the top right? Who knows?

I guess it also has to do with the combination of space needle and Mt. St. Helens. Yeah, it was the contrast of the looming volcano with the sharpness of the needle.

It really was a beautiful sight.

If I hadn't been so afraid of being engulfed in lava or smashed by an exploding side then I probably would have chosen Washington University instead of Dartmouth. Charlie would have liked it if I stayed close, after all those years of being separated. I guess I could apply to both… in case I change my mind.

**********

"What happened with college? What happened to graduate school?" Jake looked out the window as a small rain shower began to build.

"Well, after you graduated last year, you applied for graduate school and were waitlisted."

"WHAT?" That couldn't be right. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I was always completely prepared.

"No, it's not what you think. You certainly could have gotten in, but you really didn't put your heart into it. Your professors saw that too. So you had a long talk with your advisor and you decided to wait a year for you to figure things out. That's when you moved back here and almost immediately landed on Washington University for graduate school. You've finished a year of it… right now you are taking a year off because of certain events that caused you to forget all of your recent learnings." I laughed at his sarcastic tone and eased backward, rolling off of his legs until I met couch. "This is all going to be so frustrating. I'm apologizing in advance for my bottled angst."

"What do you mean?"

"Bella, you have forgotten ever turning to the side of the light. You have forgotten the moment you realized I was the one for you instead of that bloodsucker. So, now we're back to the infatuation with no reciprocation." He reached out to hold my hand and I let him for a few moments. It was… okay… nothing like the feeling I got when Edward held my hand. It was just a hot paw. As I sat there enduring the discomfort of my hand, I came to a certain realization. I had chosen Jake to goad Edward. I didn't know whether that was true or not, but it sure felt like it.

"So… I saw Edward." Jacob's face contorted with anger.

"I know." He growled. Apparently his hatred for vampires, namely one's named Edward Cullen, hadn't changed a bit. "I'd rather not talk about him… ever."

"Jake, I don't think that is an option." I let out a sigh and began my monologue. "I know that it is possible that I could have loved you." I tore my hand from Jake's and glanced out the window at the torrential downpour. "But the fact that Edward came back… It confuses me. I thought that you could give me all of the answers, but now I'm not so sure. I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but Edward came back. I would thought that I would choose him. I think he knows better than anyone why I didn't. So, I need to just talk things over with him… I have a feeling it could help me remember."

Jake let out a long drawn out sigh and smoothed over his eyes with his palms before pinching the bridge of his nose. He settled back into place with a new sadness clouding his eyes. He looked like a cute little puppy that was sent outside after it peed on the carpet. Okay, that wasn't the best analogy, but it was true.

"Fine." He stood up and went into the kitchen, removing a beer from the fridge. "But you need to realize that you are committed to me. I won't have you going back to him like last time. You're mine."

"Last time?" My ears perked up with curiosity.

Jacob stood up straight and took another swig of his beer before setting it down and exiting into the nearest hallway. "Look who it is." He cooed as he opened a door. A soft jingling sounded from another room and the faint pitter pat of nails on the floor grew nearer and nearer to where I was sitting now. I looked toward hallway to see a wrinkly mess running towards me.

We had a basset hound… we had a really fat smelly basset hound. That couldn't be right. It only had half a tail. Then it did the grossest thing I have ever seen in my life. It threw up a little bit of water onto the floor, right at my feet… and licked my leg. I almost vomited myself.

"Woah, someone missed you. Throwing up already." Jacob laughed as he patted 'it's' head before running to the kitchen to grab some paper towels. So the vomiting was a regular thing… awesome.

I forced some laughter as the stumpy thing howled. "What is his name?" Its tail was whipping about and its folds exposed two blood red eyes as it yelped and barked. How could I have let this happen? Not only did I dislike clear puke, I really didn't like the horrible yelps that this thing was emiting.

"It's a she… and her name is Ruby." As if it couldn't get any worse. Ruby. Ruby. Ruby. Nope I hated that name. "I adopted her from a shelter last year and gave her to you for Christmas." Jake was beaming as he leaned over and began batting around the dog's face, sending it into a frenzy. It began running around whimpering and running into walls while Jake chased it.

With all of the running and howling I was beginning to get a rather large migraine. So I quietly told Jake I would be taking a nap. He pointed me to our room and I walked in staring at the furniture. It was pretty. It all looked fairly new. There was a large four poster bed with all kinds of throw pillows in browns, golds, and reds. I should have been very impressed, but when I laid down there was not sunken ditch in the mattress from years of use. There wasn't a fluffy purple comforter that Charlie bought me all by himself. But the most depressing of all, there was no cold, pensive Edward staring at the ceiling as a form of restraint as he swallowed the venom collecting in his throat.

**********

It was like I was in the hospital all over again. Every time I fell asleep something would wake me up seconds later. When I tried to nap Ruby tried to wake me up by licking, barking, and clawing. When I tried to sleep Jake made the bed all hot with his high body temperature, not to mention he kept growling and panting in his sleep. I could see why he and Ruby got along so well… they're both dogs. Then I came to the realization that I was in a relationship with a dog. Literally. It was kind of funny… in a sad way.

The next couple of days I was stuck in the house, rummaging through my old college notebooks and pictures from parties and weddings. I was a bridesmaid in three weddings, one was Angela and Ben's and the others were a mystery to me.

I found out that I had a rough topic for my dissertation, and I have to admit… it was awesome. I had no idea what it was about… but it was awesome. It was something about man's inner monster manifested into characters such as Frankenstein and Dracula. It was all about comparing the monster itself to the author's life and to the main characters life. I would probably need to read Dracula at some point.

**********

I got my boot even earlier than I had expected. By Saturday Jasper had decided to take pity on me and relieve me of my crutches on the grounds that I could break another bone if I kept fooling with the crutches.

Jacob tried to kiss me that day. I gave him the cheek. I could sense his building frustration with my memory loss, but I didn't know what else he wanted me to do. I had tried everything! I actually had kissed him one day… nothing… I couldn't imagine I actually enjoyed kissing his squishy human lips after connecting with the stone-cold granite of Edward. I was growing tired of trying to please Jacob, and I knew at some point I would have to throw him out of his comfort zone to let me meet with Edward… but I would have to be subtle about it and make him think it was his idea.

That night I made him my famous lasagna, and he sat down to watch Monday Night Football. It was the perfect time to set my plan into motion. Operation Make Jacob Comfortable With the Fact That I am Meeting With Edward… Operation MJCWFTIMWE. At least my ability to create meaningless acronyms had not been affected the accident.

"So Jacob, I'm getting kind of antsy. I feel like I should be remembering a few things by now." He grunted and shoveled another bite of lasagna into his mouth. He kind of reminded me of Charlie.

"I was thinking, maybe I should venture away from the apartment a little… see if anything else in the city will help." Another grunt… My plan had failed. I had forgotten that football overshadows everything in the outside world. I needed to regroup.

"I'm going to see Edward tomorrow. Where does he live?" Jacob dropped the fork onto his plate as his mouth hung open in disbelief.

"No." He picked the plate back up and began eating again.

"Yes." I stated firmly. He looked at me and glared a little bit. A low growl rumbled from his chest. "You don't scare me."

"Isabella, no." He raised his voice significantly and I heard Ruby whimper in the background.

"Yes, Jacob." We both stood and glared at each other; daring the other to make the first move.

"God DAMN IT. No! You saw what happened in the hospital! They had to sedate you. I'm not letting you go near him." That was a lie. I could see right through his little charade. Something else was keeping him from allowing me to go freely.

"Why don't you want me to see him, Jake?" I asked in a softer tone.

"I just told you!"

"No you didn't. That was a complete lie. What is going on? Are you still afraid he's going to bite me, because after the first couple of years of devotion I think he pretty much made it clear that was the last thing he wanted."

"Fine! Go then! He lives on the corner. Oh, that's right… you don't remember. When we started looking for a house, you and Alice picked this condo out and didn't tell me that it happened to be four buildings down from Count Edward!" He sat back down with a big thud and picked up the plate. Then he just sat and ate. He looked like a child.

I didn't sleep much that night. Ruby threw up on the comforter.

**********

I walked down to Edward's apartment with the directions Jasper had given me over the phone. The building was rather modern looking, which I liked, and Edward even had his own door, due to the fact that it wasn't a condo style apartment.

I rang the doorbell and was met with a cute little yipping noise. I could hear Edward approaching the door and the noise quieted a bit, and he cooed a little bit.

"Bella?" His voice cracked. I assumed he had peeked through the peephole in the door. The door swung open and the barking went out of control. For a man who got absolutely no sleep, he always looked perfect… maybe it was the whole vampire thing, but I was positive there was another secret to his success.

"Hey. I was just in the neighborhood." He let out a small chuckle and then reached down to pick up the feisty little puppy at his feet.

It was the most precious puppy I had ever seen in my life. She had big curly black ears and a white little snout. For the most part her coat was swirled with black and white, but a few smatterings of tan surrounded its eyes and back.

Edward smiled and held her out to me as she wriggled and writhed. I swear, she looked me straight in the eye and smiled, and I instantly reached out. She jumped into my arms and began pawing at my chest and licking my face.

"Hey there." I squealed in a baby-talk voice. She whimpered in reply and shook her tail so hard that her entire butt was wagging. "Who's a good girl?" Wait. Is she a girl? I snuck a peak and saw no male genetalia to speak of.

Edward opened the door wider and pulled me inside and led me through the little foyer into a large room. It was so open and airy, completely Edward's style. The kitchen opened up to the massive living room, complete with a piano and there was even a set of stairs off to the side, suggesting that his apartment had two floors.

"I'm really happy to see you." I smiled as Edward took the puppy from my hands and dropped her onto the floor where she immediately scratched at my legs begging me to pick her up again. It was odd. I had never really been one of those people that dogs flocked to. I took that back. I was with Jake so I really had no room to talk. "So, why are you here?"

"I wanted to talk to you." I walked over to the window, looking out at the street. "And I needed to get out of that condo."

"Is Ruby still there?" Edward stated the name dramatically.

"Yes. That dog is disgusting." I looked back down at my feet and saw the tiny little spaniel sitting on its hind legs waving its paws at me. "Not like you. Isn't that right." The dog gave a little yelp in agreement and I picked her up again. "Good girl, Violet."

I didn't even realize I had done anything until Edward reacted. He ran over and wrapped his arms around me tightly. "You remember!"

I placed Violet on the floor and folded myself into his embrace. I didn't want to ruin the moment by telling him the dog's name was the only thing I remembered. I still didn't know where it came from or why it was so attached to me, but the fact that I had known the name gave me hope.

After all of those days going through pictures and reading notebooks and Edward's dog's name was the first thing I legitimately remembered since my accident.

Edward let go of me too quickly and led me over to the couch and we sat for a few minutes.

"I have no idea how I knew." His face fell a little bit. "I still don't remember everything.

"It's okay." He placed a gentle had on the base of my neck and laid a familiar kiss on my forehead. "You will. Just give it some time."

"But I went through my entire apartment… I went through every book, every picture, I even made myself kiss Jacob, and nothing!" Edward's eyes clouded over for a moment.

"You what?"

"I don't understand. What's wrong?" I placed a hand on his shoulder and he calmed down.

"I'm sorry, it's just… hard." I put another hand on the opposite shoulder and leaned in until our foreheads were touching. I could feel him smile as Violet yelped for attention, and he broke away to lift her onto the couch.

"Edward, how come, after all that you did, leaving me and trying to take away every memory I had of you… how can I still feel the same way I did the day you took me to the meadow." He pressed his hand to my cheek and chuckled a little bit.

"Because you are obsessed with me." I couldn't believe what I was feeling. I should have been furious and hurt but instead I shed a few tears of joy and let him dazzle me the way he always did. He rested his forehead against mine again and hummed a few measures of my lullaby.

That's when I began to lose control. My mouth plummeted forward tackling his lips as my hands wrestled their way into his bronze hair, tangling themselves deep in his roots. I pounded my lips into his, overcome with need and want and he replied with full force, wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I moaned as he growled and pushed. We were like animals. Like wolves. Jacob. I pushed at his chest, knowing I didn't have the strength to move him, but the pressure would give him a hint.

"What about Jacob?" Edward didn't have to read my mind to sense what I was thinking. "Let me show you something." He grabbed my arm and led me upstairs to a doorway at the end of the hall. "Go in." He whispered from behind me.

I gently pushed the door open and looked inside.

"My bed." I sighed as I panned the room. My purple comforter was spread across the queen size bed. Around the room I saw all of my old things. My cactus from Phoenix sat on the window sill, my carpet was spread across the hardwood floor, my lamp and alarm clock were sitting on my bedside table, my desk with my tattered Austen book and Wuthering Heights stood on the opposite wall from the bed. I stepped in and saw that the blind wall held Edward's CD collection, and the chaise from his room in Forks sat in a corner. "What does this mean?"

And the mystery continues.

I have posted all of the apartments and such on my profile and also a picture of both dogs... one is cuter than the other... haha

Please, REVIEW, I'm begging! I'm on my hands and knees... metaphorically speaking.