Hello!

A huge thanks to brittany86, Dulcinea21bella, Cina's, mixmatched9, rosaliehale1994, trs1, teamedwardtwilightfan, sujari6, BellaCullenObsessed, WeFallForever and Robsten345 for their reviews. Thank you!

Right, back to Bella for this chapter. I'm not a hundred percent happy with this chapter, but when am I ever! I've re-written it 3 times! But this is the final outcome and I'm sticking with it. I just hope you all like it. As ever, let me know what you think. Enjoy!

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This chapter is named after "Come on home" by Franz Ferdinand. A brilliant band. I really recommend them.

Disclaimer: Hey, guess what? I don't own Twilight. Shocking!

Bella Swan's Point of View

I was getting a mad sense of déjà vu as I picked up my cell phone, scrolled down my contacts list and pressed call when I landed on the name I wanted. It was at least the hundredth time I'd done it just this week alone, and I was getting pretty used to the routine.

The usual feelings of excitement and hope filled me as my phone rang out, those feelings quickly shattering into misery and disappointment as the same automated message reached my ears yet again. I knew this message off by heart now, I could mime to it like some geek-ass kid does to the lines of his favorite movie, and I'd be able to match the message word for word. I let out a breath whilst my phone spoke.

"Hey, it's Edward. I can't come to the phone right now, and to be honest, you leaving me a voice mail is pretty stupid because I never listen to them anyway. Probably best to leave me a text message. Oh, here comes the beep!"

I closed my eyes and clutched my phone tightly to my ear as I left what felt like the millionth message of the week.

"Hi, Edward… it's Bella. I'm, uh, still waiting on your call. I did what you said, I left you a text… in fact I've left you like a hundred, but you still haven't replied…" My eyes began to sting as tears trapped themselves behind my closed lids. "Everyone's really worried. Your mom, your dad, Emmett… me. Even Charlie's doing everything he can at the station to help." I opened my eyes, my body no longer able to hold the tears in. They cascaded down my cheeks, creating a watery path across my skin, the soft moonlight outside causing the wetness to shimmer. "We miss you… so, so much. Just please call. Please. I love you, Eddy-Bear. Just let me know where you are…"

I hung up the phone quickly before the sobs were able to escape my lips. I slipped off my shoes and curled myself into a ball on my bed as my cries were let loose. I shook, I sobbed, I blubbered like a baby.

But none of it brought my Eddy-Bear back home.

It had been an entire fucking week now, and Edward was nowhere to be found. We had called him, searched for him, reported him missing and had the whole of the Forks Police Department out fucking looking for him… but we couldn't find him. He really was nowhere to be found, he'd gone without a trace, it was like he had vanished from the face of the planet without a single word.

My chest heaved as heavy sobs left my body, my bloodshot eyes closing when the tears became too much. I wrapped my arms around my body, hiding my face in my pillow as I felt my world close around me, my head pounding.

If I thought the phone calls were pretty routine, then the hours upon hours of crying I did were routine too. I didn't think a person could possibly hold that many tears, but I'd proven that they did. I hadn't stopped, not since that evening when he failed to come home… not since that evening when my life felt like it had ended.

I just don't know what had happened. He had phoned me before he went into library to see if I was okay after I'd twisted my ankle. He sounded fine, and from the tone of his voice and the words he spoke, he sounded as if he was coming home soon. Yet when I phoned him later that night to see if he had his books, his phone just rang out.

Never in seventeen years of knowing him has Edward left me hanging on a phone call. Not once. He usually picks up on the first ring, especially if he knows it's me calling.

So, with no response from his cell phone, I called his house, only to be met with a slightly panicked Elizabeth Cullen. Turned out his parents had been getting the same treatment as I had. There was no Edward. So I turned to my dad, explaining the story and how no one could find my best friend.

Guess it sucks that you have to wait forty-eight fucking hours before you can report a person missing, huh? The justice system sucks! But I hoped it wouldn't come to that. That was the last thing I wanted or needed. I hoped that Edward would turn up the next morning, hung over or something. Anything to ease my worry.

He didn't.

And he didn't return the next day, either. Or the next, or the next.

His parents filed the report. The police went out looking for Edward. They came up empty. He was nowhere to be found.

The crying started from when that first phone call had rung out and, like I said, it hadn't fucking stopped since.

I hadn't slept, I hadn't been out except to look for him, and I'd done nothing but keep to myself for the entire week. But what else do you do when you realize your best friend has gone missing? I fucking flat-out refused to believe the worst. That kind of thing only happens on TV and in the big cities. We lived in dreary little Forks, so I knew he was alive… but that didn't stop the panic or the terrible scenarios that fluttered through my head.

I'd done everything in my power to find him. I'd phoned around, I'd gone out searching, I'd even made those fucking posters you make when your dog runs away, complete was a hundred dollar reward and a picture of Edward's grinning face. But it was all pointless, I still didn't know where he was.

I just wanted him back. I wanted him here with me, curled up watching movies like we were supposed to be doing. I wanted to go driving in his Volvo, me yelling at him for speeding whilst he just laughed. I wanted to visit our meadow and play hide and seek like we used to.

I wanted my Eddy-Bear to come home.

There was a gentle knock at my door before I heard it open, my visitor gently closing it behind them. I felt my bed dip behind me.

"I brought you some soup, honey," came my mother's calming voice. "It's chicken, your favorite."

"I don't want it," I mumbled, my voice muffled by my pillows.

"Bella," she said as I heard her place the tray on my bedside table. I felt her hand rest on my back. "You have to eat something; you haven't eaten properly all week."

"I don't want food, I just want Edward," I whimpered, sniffing my nose.

"I know you do, baby girl," she soothed, uncurling me from my ball and bringing me to her. I rested my body against hers, hiding my face in her neck as she wrapped her arms around me and gently rocked me. "And I also know that if he were here, Edward wouldn't want you to act this way. You know he'd want you to be brave and keep your strength up."

"I suppose," I admitted. "But… it just hurts so much, mom. I don't even know where he is or if I'll ever see him again. I can't possibly think about food whilst my best friend is missing."

"Of course you'll see him again. You two can never be away from each other for too long. You'd both go crazy."

"But what if I don't see him again?"

She pulled me away from her neck and cupped my face in her hands, wiping away the hair from my forehead and the tears from my eyes. "Your father is doing everything in his power to bring him home, Bella, we all are. Edward and Elizabeth are constantly in search of their son and I know you are doing everything you can. We will find him, sweetie. I promise." She gave me one of those mom smiles. You know the ones that tell you everything will be okay, even though you know it won't?

I nodded and attempted a smile back. "Thanks, mom."

She leaned forward and kissed the top of my head. "You're welcome. Now, you going to eat that soup for me?"

xXx

The sharpness of the sunlight outside hit my eyes as they fluttered open the next day, my mind quickly realizing that it was morning. I had quickly fallen asleep after my soup last night, the tears and the stress quickly sending me off to dreamland. It was just a shame that the nightmares visited me instead. Edward's disappearance had really taken its toll on my sleep patterns, the nightmares coming thick and fast, waking me up and covering me in a cold sweat. They were all the same - Edward either gone or out of reach. They were getting worse and worse. I was getting up earlier each day. It was the summer break. I should not be up before eleven!

I looked over at my bedside clock once I was able to see properly. It was 7am. I sat up, stretched and rubbed my eyes as I cast a glance around my room. Still the same as yesterday - Edward free.

I looked down at myself, noticing I'd slept in my clothes last night. Guess the soup and lack of sleep had really taken it out of me. With a sigh and what felt like a lot of effort, I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom for a shower. Emmett was still snoring his head off, dad was at work doing the morning shift, and I knew mom and Bree would not be up for a while yet, so I pretty much had the bathroom to myself. I turned the shower on and quickly undressed before entering the hot water. I let out a breath as the water hit my back, relieving just a little of the tension I'd been feeling this week.

I didn't take too long in the bathroom, so once my hair was washed and my skin was clean, I headed back to my room, wrapped tightly in a towel. As soon as I was dressed in fresh clothes, I began to blow-dry my hair, formulating a plan in my head for today's search. I was going to try the town again today. I was going to ask around and talk to anyone might have seen Edward the night he vanished, or find anyone who was willing to help.

I was bordering on desperation now, but I was willing to try anything to bring him back.

The sunshine soon disappeared and I knew it was going to be a cloudy day today. It would probably rain later too, but I had my trusty truck. My baby had never let me down in the bad weather before, so I knew she'd help me find Eddy-Bear today. She knew I was on a mission, so the old girl would have to cover quite a few miles today. With my hair finally dry, I turned the hair dryer off and bent down to unplug it and wrap up the cord. I looked out my bedroom window.

That's when I spotted it. My body froze and I gulped, blinking a few times to see whether my eyes were playing tricks on me. Maybe I was delusional and the week of stress had completely fucked my head up. But no, it was still there... I was still seeing it. I saw a quick flash of bronze in the Cullen's living room, the sight vanishing almost immediately. I bolted to my window and opened it to get a better look, leaning out and straining my eyes to get a good view.

I gasped as my legs trembled beneath me. I swallowed. Hard.

Oh god…

It couldn't be… No, it just couldn't… How had he… Was it really… I couldn't be sure, but I had seen the flash of his hair, I had seen the scurry of movement.

As quickly as my legs would allow, I bolted down the stairs and threw the front door open, not caring if I woke everybody up. I hadn't bothered with shoes, but the small rocks on our gravel drive didn't even phase me. All I could focus on was that bronze color coming from next door.

It couldn't be him, I'd have seen him coming, I'd have sensed his presence!

Edward and I have always had this weird connection. It's like we know what the other is thinking before they've even said it. We feel each other's pain; we know how the other ticks. I've always believed that the two of us are like one person, one soul, almost like twins! So I'd know if he'd come home.

But I knew what I had seen, and I had to know the truth.

I thumped on the Cullen's front door with tight fists when I reached it, my heart pounding heavily in my already tight chest. There were already tears in my eyes, I could feel them building, fighting to be let loose. Whether they were tears of joy or sadness, I simply didn't know.

"Let me in, please!" I begged as I banged on the door. I just needed to fucking know. Edward-Senior answered the door. He'd obviously been crying, his eyes red and swollen… but the joyful smile on his face as he greeted me told me everything.

"Oh god," I whispered as my hand flew to my mouth to stop my cries. "Where is he?"

"He's gone upstairs to change," Edward's father told me. "He's-"

But I didn't even reply to his answer or let him finish; I didn't have time. From the moment Edward's location was revealed, I ran to him, moving as quickly as I could. Excitement and adrenaline pumped through my veins as I fought my way to my best friend, needing to see him, needing to touch him. I had no idea what I'd do when I saw him, too many ideas flickering through my mind.

I wanted to kill him… I wanted to hug him… I wanted to scream at him… I wanted to hold him…

I didn't even knock on his door or ask his permission to enter his room when I reached it. He could be half-naked for all I knew, but I didn't care. I just wanted to see him.

I swung his door open, just as he was pulling a t-shirt over his head, his glorious bronze locks ruffled and messed up. He looked at me as he heard my entrance, and neither of us said anything to the other. We just stared in absolute silence, my hands trembling as I struggled to breathe.

He looked just as he did when he had left, but also slightly changed. It wasn't an obvious change, but if you really looked, it was very noticeable. His skin seemed a little paler, and I wondered if his location and not being at home had affected his health. Who knew where he had been this past week. His face seemed more prominent too, more defined and handsome, and I had to wonder if that was due to weight loss and not being able to find sufficient food whilst he was gone. His body was considerably still and stiff, just like a statue. I even had to look for whether he was breathing or not. His eyes seemed darker too, and I found, funnily enough, that I had no theory for that. But I didn't dwell on it, I didn't dwell on any of it. All I could think about was the fact that my best friend was home.

Tears fell silently down my cheeks as we stared, my emotions finally getting the better of me. My heart twisted and my stomach jumped when he finally produced my favorite crooked grin.

"Hi, Bellsy-Boo," he finally said, the silence still hanging heavy.

"You fucking idiot," I cried before running to him and leaping into his open arms.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck as I held him as tight as I possibly could. He buried his face in my neck as he hugged me, my tears dripping into his hair, turning it from bronze to a deep brown. I couldn't stop sobbing as he carried me to his bed and sat down, my body still wrapped around him, refusing to let go. I kissed the top of his head and along his cheeks, needing to know if he was real or not. He'd been gone for an entire week; I had to know if the man I was holding was my Edward.

"Is it you? Please tell me it's you."

I heard him chuckle. "Course it is, Bellsy-Boo. It's me."

"Oh god," I cried, joy and happiness flooding my body and setting me alight. I was full blown sobbing now, but Edward held me and comforted me the entire time. He rubbed his hands up and down my back and whispered gentle words into my ears. "I missed you, Eddy-Bear," I whimpered as I released my legs from his waist so that I could straddle him.

"I know. I'm sorry," he replied, pulling back and wiping the hair from my face, gently kissing my forehead. "I'm so fucking sorry."

I held his face in my hands, his cheeks feeling cold, and looked deeply into his eyes. They were… red.

"Your skin," I said as my eyebrows furrowed and my tears slowed. "Edward, you're freezing."

He lowered his eyes, his body tensing up. He didn't seem to be breathing. "I didn't have a coat with me this week."

I shrugged off the cardigan I was wearing and, despite the fact it was far too small for him, I draped it over it shoulders and rubbed my hands up and down his arms in an attempt to warm him up.

"My poor Eddy-Bear. Better?" I asked.

"Much... Thanks, Bellsy-Boo." He seemed timid and tense.

"Just breathe, Edward," I said. "You're home now, it's okay. Though, I'm ready to rip you're fucking head off. Where the hell have you been?"

I braced myself for the worst, but his answer was the last thing I expected. I was waiting to hear that he had been kidnapped by pirates or taken by drug traffickers. I was waiting to hear that he had been mugged and left for dead, or that he had taken a wrong turn and had ended up in Canada. What I didn't expect was the truth.

"I've… uh, been in Seattle, taking care of some last minute business at the university ready for our nexst semester. I've been staying in the apartment."

I just looked at him with blank eyes. My mouth opened a few times, the words just on the tip of my tongue, but it quickly closed again when I realized I had no words to say. He was in… Seattle. My previous happiness quickly turned into anger.

"What the fuck, Edward?" I yelled, getting up off his lap. Now I was pissed. "We've all been here, worrying like hell, and you've been in fucking Seattle? You bastard!"

"Bella, please," he started, standing up and approaching me.

"No!" I screamed. "Don't 'Bella please' me! Do you not check your phone? We've been ringing you, messaging you, Charlie even had the whole fucking police force out looking for you. And you were in Seattle the whole time? I'm gonna kill you." I stomped over to him.

The fucking bastard had been in Seattle the whole time! My head was spinning, my thoughts buzzing and making no sense. How could he have been so close to us and not even said a word, not even a phone call to tell us he was going in the first place? Was he fucking kidding me? How could he have done all that without telling me?

Edward and I tell each other everything. There aren't any secrets between us, it's the way we've always been. But to ignore me for an entire week and fuck off to Seattle was a joke.

I approached him, beating my fists angrily on his chest, letting at least some of my rage out. I was going to beat the shit out of him!

I stopped my motions almost immediately as a light pain shot through my hands. I pulled them back like I'd been electrocuted, quickly finding that my knuckles were red raw and cold. Edward's chest was like marble or stone. It was rock hard. I slowly lifted my eyes to his, finding his own staring back at me. They were still red, but they were also intense and strong, like they were hiding something… something I wouldn't want to know. I didn't like his look. I didn't like it at all.

He still didn't seem to be breathing.

Testing the waters a little more, I spread my hand out flat on his chest, pushing the skin. It didn't budge. I expected it to be soft and warm, but it was cold and hard. I dropped my hand to my side, looking back up at him expectantly. Something wasn't right.

"I did a lot of working out in Seattle. Joined a gym and everything," he shrugged, answering my un-asked question. Like I said, we always knew exactly what the other was thinking.

A gym? Well, that was a blatant lie, mainly because Edward was the laziest person I knew. It would take a miracle to get him to join a gym. Hell, it took a miracle to get him to walk around the block! But I knew his words couldn't be true because I knew that wasn't what a well-toned and worked-out chest felt like. Emmett's friend, Jacob, worked out all the time, but his abs weren't hard like Edward's were. There was still a little give left in the skin. But Edward was like marble.

"And your eyes?" I quickly added. "What's up with them?" I figured I may as well get everything in whilst I was at it.

"Contacts," he said. "A new shop has opened up near the city. They looked like fun. Cool, huh?"

"I suppose," I said, not believing a word he said.

I didn't get it. Why was he lying to me? Why was he keeping everything so secret? I just wished he'd tell me what had happened, because from the looks of it, something certainly had.

He wasn't himself, far from it. And it wasn't just the coldness, the hardness, the breathing, or the eyes. It was Edward himself. He was too tense, too quiet. He had barely cracked a smile or said a joke since I'd entered the room. He hadn't teased me once and he was far too distant for my liking. Something was seriously fucked up, but I just didn't know what.

I decided to dig for answers.

"Why didn't you phone us while you were in Seattle?"

He sighed and sat back on his bed. He opened his arms up for me and my legs moved towards him by themselves. I couldn't help it. I hadn't seen him for a week and, no matter how pissed off I was, I needed to be near him. I sat down on his lap and he wrapped his arms around me.

"I tried," he whispered in my ear before burying his face in my hair. I shivered, and I had to wonder if it was from his breath on my skin or his icy cold temperature. "But I couldn't get a signal. Then my phone battery died."

"You could have charged it at the apartment," I suggested.

"I would have, but I brought the fucking charger back home to Forks with me, didn't I?"

I sighed and snuggled into his chest. "You still could have told me you were going in the first place. Do you realize how scared and worried I've been this week?"

"I know, Bellsy-Boo," he said, kissing the top of my head. "And I am so, so sorry for that. I didn't mean to make you worry."

"Well you did," I said, hiding my face in his neck. At least one thing hadn't changed. He still smelt of my Edward.

He pulled my face from his neck and pressed his forehead to mine, holding me tightly around my waist. "Forgive me?"

And I did, because I always do. Edward and I have been friends long enough to not let anything get between us. Sure, we have fights, what friends don't, but we care enough about each other to not let them dampen our friendship. Our relationship and our connection is much stronger and so much more important than some fight or some hurt feelings.

"Don't I always?" I giggled.

"Thanks, Bella," he said as he lay back on his bed, pulling me with him and cuddling me to his chest.

"Just don't do it again, okay?"

He chuckled. "I promise," he smiled.

And just like that, the fight was over. We were best friends again, we were Edward and Bella, and his sudden disappearance was all but forgotten. I didn't want to fight with him. I'd only just got him back, I couldn't lose him again so soon. He'd been gone an entire week and I didn't want our reunion to be screaming and shouting. I wanted it to be hugging and laughing. So that's what I made it. I'd got my wish, I'd got him back, so why was there any real need to fight with him?

But even though the fight was over, the war had only just begun. Even though I could forget about his disappearance, I couldn't forget about the fact that he had changed. Something was up. You don't go away for a week and come back like a completely different person. And he was a different person. His skin was icy cold, hard, and pale. His face was much more defined and handsome. He didn't seem to breathe. His body was tense. His eyes were fucking red!

I couldn't not pick up on the differences. I'd known him for seventeen years, so I knew when his eyes were no longer green. But why the big cover up? What was the big secret? Why so distant and quiet?

Something major had happened during the week he'd been gone. My best friend wasn't telling me something, and there was no way in hell that I was going to rest until I discovered what that something was…

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