A/N: All right some of you are going to probably hate me after this chapter, but trust me it will get better. Unfortunately, it won't get better until later, maybe 3-4 chapters more. Don't hate me too much. I did have a really hard time writing this because it is very sad and sensitive.

This chapter came out of nowhere. I had more time to write because my husband is home on Spring Break, so don't get too use to it. I will still post this Thursday and Sunday, but I have to make a wedding cake next week so I will post when I can, thanks.

Warning: This chapter describes signs of physical abuse. Proceed with caution.

Disclaimer: Again I don't own anything Twilight related, just this story.

Chapter 6 Nightmare or Reality?

∞Bella∞

Totally feeling like a hormonal teenage girl I was laying on my bed in a just a bath towel, my hair soaking my purple comforter, just daydreaming of Edward. This would be my first time ever having a date on Valentine's Day. It seems that I always had broken up with a guy before we got to celebrate it. In the back of my mind I knew I just hated that holiday because it was always blown out of proportion. Besides every friend I had would make a bigger production over Valentine's Day than it deserved. I knew once I was in love I would show that man everyday how much I did and hopefully they would do that in return Deep down I knew Edward was this man because the little things he did for me meant the most to me and made me happy.

After Edward's visit on Friday I had emailed Alice to let her know that he would be joining us for lunch. Apparently she was more than excited and insisted that he take me and just meet her there. Of course I couldn't call him so she offered to call him.

Finally prying myself from the coziness of my bed I went over to my closet and mulled over what I was going to wear. Since I was so stressed out I decided that my comfort was the best way to go. I hated stressing over wearing heels and tight dresses, I needed to relax and feel good in my own skin. Picking a plain blue t-shirt, jeans and my Nike shoes I headed to the bathroom to get ready. After getting dressed I dried my hair, I was elated because even though they had to shave some of my hair I still had enough to cover up the shorter pieces and make everything blend together, nobody would know the difference. Since I didn't make too much of an effort with my outfit I decided to curl my hair in ringlets and put some light makeup on; fifteen minutes went by and I was done. I absolutely loved that I didn't have to spend too much time getting ready, it just wasn't my thing to stand in front of a mirror for hours on end, and I couldn't understand the logic behind why some women did.

Seeing that I had an hour before Edward came to pick me up I headed back in my room to read my favorite book, Wuthering Heights, I searched everywhere and could not find it. Sitting on my bed I felt a little baffled because I usually never took it from my room. Letting the confusion pass I opted for my second favorite book, Romeo and Juliet, in a way a good pick to read on Valentine's Day.

Apparently I was so engrossed in my book because I barely heard the knock at the door. I flung my book to my bed and practically flew down the stairs. Collecting myself and letting my heart beat slow down I steadied my hand over the door knob, turned it and slowly opened the door. I was stunned for a moment when I took in Edward's appearance, our eyes met for a brief second and we started checking each other out. He was wearing black Doc Martens, dark jeans that showed off his firm legs, and a black t-shirt that hugged is body in the right places showing off his fit body. His hair was different from what I remember in the hospital, today it seemed all over the place, but still looking like it suited him. It didn't take long for me to glance over his body, but for some reason I caught him still scanning mine and he seemed to be in a daze. He was close to dropping the roses and chocolates that he carried, so not wanting to cause him further embarrassment I waved my hand in front of his eyes. His eyes met mine in a flash and I smiled so big at how vulnerable he looked at that moment.

****

As we drove to Port Angeles I wanted to express to him that I really appreciated his sweet gesture of giving me something for Valentine's Day, especially since I felt really guilty for not getting him anything. Pulling my dry erase board on my lap and hoping not to distract him from driving, I wrote:

You are so sweet and handsome by the way! I hope you know I really love the chocolates and flowers. Nobody has ever gone out of their way to do that for me and since I have nothing to give to you I will be buying us lunch.

As he quickly read it without diverting his eyes too much from the road he smiled and answered, "Bella, thank you, and are you serious nobody has given you flowers and chocolates before," I nodded my head confirming his question and he continued, "well, I guess I will just have to change that because you are clearly worth it. And since I know you are independent I am all right with you buying me lunch, but I definitely will be buying dinner, okay?" He took his eyes off the road and looked and me. "You are extremely gorgeous and just being in your company is the greatest present you could give me." My faced flushed; of course, he smiled and turned his attention back to the road.

How was it that he could say these things to me and turn me into mush? Interesting enough I felt the same way about him, but had a hard time understanding his feeling towards me when I obviously wasn't something incredible to look at like the Greek God that he was.

Finally reaching Port Angeles we found the restaurant that Alice told us to meet her at, Café Garden*, it was a small little café, but it had a homey look to it. As we pulled in and parked Edward got out and walked over opening my door for me. We gave each other fleeting smiles and I took his offered arm into mine, it fit perfectly in his.

Making our way into the café we immediately saw Alice, how could we miss her, she was jumping up and down motioning for us to join her.

I waved and Edward greeted her, "Hi, Alice it's great to see you again, shall we sit down?"

"So, Bella, you are looking great and your hair looks gorgeous." She complimented and looked at Edward. "Don't you think so?"

"Um….yes, actually she has left me speechless by just being in her presence," he answered assertively.

As I blushed, rolled my eyes and shook my head and wrote on my board, then lifted it up.

Knock it off you two, Alice you know I hate being the center of attention. Anyway we are not here to discuss my appearance. We are here because I was wondering if you, Alice, knew anything about Bree and the months of school that I can't seem to remember.

As she read it her face went bleak. "Well, Bella I was waiting for a good time to tell you and wanted to wait until you recovered a little after your coma. I hadn't planned on it so soon, but you do need to know."

Annoyingly our waitress came over and interrupted.

"Hello, my name is Victoria and I will be your waitress today." She seemed to be extremely interested in all of us. She looked at us as if she photocopied our images in her head and then she glanced down at the dry erase board. Instantly I snatched it from the table and set it on my lap, I didn't like how nosey she was being.

She looked at me briefly then looked at her pad of paper and took the pen from her ear. "What can I get you all today? Have you had a chance to look at the menu?"

Edward cut in obviously noticing her demeanor and not liking how intrusive she was being and spoke up. "We'll have three Cokes and three of your turkey sandwiches with green salads and that will be all, thanks."

"All right sir, it should be out shortly." She turned on her heels and left.

"Hope you gals didn't mind me ordering for you, but she seemed to be so intrusive it was a little strange?"

"Totally understand, she was really starting to creep me out," Alice answered as I nodded and felt an unpleasant chill run up my back.

"Anyhow, getting back to our conversation; you really don't remember do you, Bella?" I shook my head and she frowned. "This is a long story."

Edward talked for the both of us. "Go ahead Alice, I don't think we are in any hurry, are we Bella?"

Shaking my head I urged her to continue.

"Now then, you came to me at the beginning of September and ask me if I knew anything about Bree Newton. I of course informed you that I had her in my class when she was in kindergarten. You seemed to not want to ask me direct questions, but I assumed you were asking me if I had ever witnessed any signs of her being abused.

"Even though I never saw any markings on her body she did seem really shy and secluded herself from the rest of her peers. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary for a child her age to be shy, but she seemed sad as well.

"You seemed a little frustrated that I couldn't give you any more information, so you went and confronted Ms. Cope, but she had nothing to offer you as well.

"Now hear me out Bella, you seemed to start getting quite obsessive with Bree and you began to look like you were not sleeping. Plus, you would shut out the world unless you were teaching. We never talked; you came to work and went straight home after. All the teachers even Ms. Cope, were getting really worried that maybe you weren't handling being a teacher. We tried talking to you, but you always seemed as if you were on another planet.

"Your parents probably don't want to bring it up now, but they tried so hard to get you to see a doctor and you fought them on it. Everyone honestly did not know what was going on.

"A couple of days before Christmas vacation, I think it was December 9th, you rushed into the front office in school and said you were not feeling well and that you had to get home." She paused and then a tear rolled down her face. "That was the last time we saw you, Bella."

Honestly, I didn't know how to respond to this, so I just reached across the table and took her hand and clutched it with mine. I pulled away and jotted down quickly:

I am sorry for putting everyone through the pain that I apparently caused them. I love you all for the support you have shown me. It's seems as though I was trying to get information to help Bree somehow and even now I still feel inclined to gain more to find her.

Our food was finally served and while we were sitting there practically in silence, Edward spoke up and turned to look at me.

"I guess now would be a good time to bring this up." I looked at him questionably while he rubbed the heel of his hands against his eyes. "Man, I could get in a lot of trouble for this, maybe even get fired, but it's already been done and I want to help you, so here it goes. I searched the hospital database to see if anything pulled up on Bree…….um…..there was more than I thought there was." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded yellow piece of paper and handed it to me. "Some of the medical terms there you probably won't understand, but there are around seven different times within the last nine months that she has come to the ER. At first I was a little surprised that I couldn't remember her, but when I looked closer it appeared to be that the same doctor treated her every time, Dr. Laurent. Now I know he strictly works in the ER and I personally have only worked with him in passing so I don't know if there is a connection."

As I scanned the paper tears came to my eyes, I tried to hold them back but failed. Edward put his arm around my shoulders and kissed me on the forehead.

Pointing at the paper he continued. "Now I am having a hard time because these cases were obvious signs of abuse, but yet they were not reported. See here, she came four times and each time she had around five small burns, described to be from cigarettes, on her back. Last summer, the first time she came in, she had a broken arm and her lip was bruised and cut. The last time she came in she had welts all over her torso and back; that was the same day you went missing."

Leaning into his chest I let the tears run freely.

We finished eating our lunch deciding that Edward would talk to Carlisle to see if he would have any insight on Bree. Alice and I parted from Edward to get some shopping done and promised she would call him to meet up somewhere.

****

Alice took me everywhere and I was not in the mood especially after lunch. We went to the outlet mall and I swear we went to every store there, my feet were killing me and I was so thankful at that moment that I had put my comfy Nike tennis shoes. She insisted that we go to one last store and then call Edward to meet us there.

As we entered Alley Cat Boutique, supposedly her favorite store in Port Angeles, she pulled her phone out and called Edward. Apparently by the sound of it Edward had been pulled around Port Angeles too by Emmett; helping him with presents for Emmett's wife Rosalie. I hadn't met Rosalie and considering the information I had received from Edward she seemed to be quite high maintenance, but I wasn't going to let that cloud my judgment of her before I had a chance to get acquainted with her.

I definitely started feeling like I was Alice's doll. She picked out all sorts of clothes, shoes and even lingerie for me to try on. She would have helped me get dressed, but that is where I drew the line.

After about forty-five minutes of torture from Alice, Edward finally arrived. I thanked Alice with a hug and she told me to email her when I got home; with Alice sometimes emailing her was better than talking because I didn't have to struggle getting off the phone with her. I conceded, took my bags from her car, and put them into Edward's Volvo.

Moments later we were finally driving to a restaurant for dinner.

"Well, you look a little worn out. How was your day?" He spoke up with a small smile on his face.

Alice took me everywhere and made me feel like a Barbie doll. She insisted on picking everything out for me, even down to my underwear. Plus, all these new things I have learned about Bree have been weighing on my mind.

While raising his eyebrows amusingly at my underwear comment he spoke. "I am so sorry, sweetheart. I can understand how everything has been quite overwhelming. You know…why don't we order take out from the restaurant and head back to Forks, does that sound all right?

Are you sure, I don't want to ruin the evening you planned for us?

He reached up and caressed my cheek and I leaned into his hand. "Bella, if you are tired and overwhelmed I want to make sure you are cared for. Ordering take out would not ruin our night as long as I am with you that's all I care about, okay?" I nodded and kissed the palm of his hand.

Where are we going?

"You inspired my pick on this restaurant and it's really good…Bella Italia*. Do you care if I order for you? Do you like mushroom ravioli?" I nodded in agreement while he pulled his phone out and dialed the restaurant. He ordered my mushroom ravioli and for him he ordered Tuscan Steak.

When we got to the restaurant Edward ran in and got our food, I fell asleep before he got back into the car.

****

I was obviously tired and waking up with the sound of Edward turning off the car as we sat in front of my house. We walked into the kitchen and ate our dinner. I felt so bad because I caught myself on several occasions about to have my face smack right into my food.

Catching my attention Edward lifted my chin and said, "You, my sweetheart, have got to get to bed."

He swept me up into his arms and took me to my room. He took my shoes off and placed me under my covers. While kissing my forehead he ran the back side of his hand down my cheek.

"See you tomorrow sweetheart." And with that I was asleep.

****

Bree!

I wasn't asleep too long when I woke up thinking about her. It was now midnight. Trying to go back to sleep and not succeeding I decided that maybe I could go to my classroom to see if I had left anything there that might help me with Bree. I knew it was late, but I also knew that I couldn't go back to sleep and I had to do ease my mind a little bit.

Grabbing my truck keys and my phone, just in case, I headed to my truck.

As I was going down the highway I turned on my radio to drown out my noisy truck. It was eerily still outside. Looking in my mirror I noticed a black SUV approaching me at an alarming rate with no headlights on. I increased my speed, but the vehicle was gaining up on me. I hated my truck at that moment because it wouldn't go over sixty miles per hour. The SUV started tapping the back of my truck urging me to pull over. My heart started beating so fast that I was having a hard time controlling my truck. Then the SUV was on the driver's side smashing into it. I struggled to keep it on the road, but the SUV took one last hard hit on my truck sending me off the road and hitting hard into a tree. My head hit the dashboard, but luckily left me conscious; unfortunately though my head was bleeding. I abruptly opened my door and got out. I looked around and couldn't see the SUV.

As I pulled out my phone and dialed Edward, even though I knew he couldn't hear me, I hoped it would inform him that there was something wrong. While I was dialing I heard the crunch on footsteps on the road and whipped around noticing a man wearing a ski mask and holding a rope. His masculine figure looked familiar.

"Well, well…what do we have here?"

Cliffy, I know don't be too mad at me.

Check out my references on my profile.

Café Garden

Bella Italia This is the restaurant that they ate together on their first date in Twilight

Alley Cat Boutique is an actual store in Port Angeles, but they don't have a website.