A/N: Hello lovelies!

Well, a few things need to be done as always. My thanks go out to allll of you guys! TH made it's first 100 reviews yesterday! *throws confetti* That makes me feel allllllllll kinds of awesome and I love you guys for it!

To Twilly and MyHeroin01, you guys mean more to me than I can say. It's great to have a team that's so great. ILY!

Okay, on with it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, but I do own this particular Badassward and Bitchella. ;)

Six weeks.

It had been six weeks since I started this gruesome exercise regimen. Six weeks since I had contact with anyone besides my new 'family'. Six weeks since I had disappeared from the face of the earth, and nobody cared.

Not one fucking person even acknowledged that I was missing.

Not one!

I took to the trail with a vengeance, vaulting over boulders and hopping falling trees with ease. The course had become much more tolerable, and my muscles no longer seized with pain after our morning run. As we broke through the clearing to the meadow, I felt a hand wrap around my bicep.

"Okay, what the hell crawled up your ass this morning?" Bella asked, ducking her head to look into my eyes.

"Does it matter?" I snapped, my voice louder than I had intended.

She backed away, hands up in surrender, "Sorry! No need to be dickish, Edward."

I exhaled a long breath, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just... I'm here, nobody cares, and I haven't done a damned thing but run around here with you for the last six weeks!"

She let out a wry chuckle, and just like that, any headway I'd made with my partner vanished.

"So, you think you're ready because you've gained a little bit of muscle mass, and you can run six miles?" Her dark chocolate eyes glinted in the sparse sunlight as she advanced towards me, "Listen, pretty boy, you are still that same guy. The one who cowers at the sound of a gunshot. The one who has the confidence of a banana peel. The one who..."

Her voice trailed off, but her lips were still moving. My pulse rate skyrocketed as everything in sight became brighter, clearer and sharper. The only thing that I could hear was the slow steady cadence of my breathing, and her severely muffled voice. It was the eeriest feeling, almost like being underwater. Without my permission, my hand shot outward towards her, and I gripped the straps of her tank top in one hand and pulled towards me. It wasn't until she drew back and punched me right between my eyes, that I felt that I had actual control over my body.

"OH FUCK!" I roared, slapping my hand over my forehead, stumbling back a few steps.

"If you ever grab me like that again, I'll rip you to shreds!" She hissed in a deadly, venomous voice.

"You don't understand! That wasn't my intention!" I yelled back in irritation. It was the truth, I've never been violent towards a female. Ever. Not even the one who ripped my heart to pieces.

"What do you mean 'it wasn't your intention'!? You reached out and grabbed me! For fuck's sake, my feet were off the ground!"

"I literally couldn't stop myself!" I yelled back, one hand fisted in my hair, the other cradling my now throbbing head.

Excitement flashed in her eyes as she lunged at me, grabbing me by my shoulders, "Edward! I think I've got it!"

[~x.X T.H. x.X~]

"I don't understand what the hell you're doing here, but let me tell you, this hurts like a bitch!" I groaned, pulling apart the velcro on the kevlar vest I was wearing.

I rubbed my sore ribs, with a grimace. Bella, seemed to have had the notion that I was one step away from unleashing what I was capable of.

"I'm trying to figure out what your trigger is." She shrugged, "It's unique to each individual."

Unfortunately for me, that meant testing her theory with target practice. Me being the target, that is. I glared at her as she re-loaded her gun with practice bullets. In reality, practice bullets are just rubber balls, but that definitely doesn't mean they don't hurt.

"Okay, I get it, and I appreciate it. But I don't think..." My voice died in my throat when I heard her firearm discharge. A sharp, stabbing pain radiated from my left arm and up my shoulder.

"Hmm, apparently the element of surprise isn't it either." She murmured.

"Are you kidding me right now!?" I yelled, inspecting my wounded arm. Okay, so it wasn't really wounded, the skin didn't actually break.

"I'm sorry! I don't know what else to do! It's not like there is a protocol for this kind of thing!" She huffed in frustration, flopping down next to me on the bench. Her head dropped back to the wall with a soft thud, eyes closed and deep in thought.

"Tell me something." She murmured after a few minutes had passed.

"Sure."

"What's your biggest fear, Edward?"

"Failure." I answered immediately without thought. Her eyes opened slowly, shifting to mine for a brief moment.

"Huh, I guess we have a lot more in common than I thought." She stated softly, placing the gun in my hand. "Look, we're going to try this a different way."

She walked across the room, and set the timer for the 'pop up targets.' Pulling on a pair of goggles, she gave me a small smile, "You have about ten seconds to get yourself together before we both die."

I frowned at her, "You know my aim sucks, Bella. I can't just..."

"Yes, you can!" She hissed, frustration coating her normally pleasant voice.

The spring loaded latch released on the first target as I tried to steady my hand. Before I could even align the sight on the barrel the target was gone, and yet another was up across the room.

"Edward, don't over think! Just fire!"

I gripped the gun tighter, focusing even harder. Unfortunately, that yielded the same results. Bella was in my periphery, watching me with extreme scrutiny. I could even make out the slight pucker between her brows as she analyzed my every move.

"FIRE THE DAMN WEAPON!"

A familiar surge of adrenaline rushed through my system. My mouth was dry, sweat beaded on my forehead, and it was as if I saw the world in technicolor. Every sound was sharp and clear, the latches and pulleys loud and thunderous in my ears.

To my left...

To my right...

The undeniable focus never wavered as the discordant sound of gunfire echoed over and over again. As the last target popped into view, partially obscured by Bella's shoulder, I fired without rhyme or reason. I could see it all, the puff of gunpowder as the practice bullet discharged, the displacement of air as it sailed forward, the slight flutter of Bella's hair as it whizzed right past her hair, and the shredding of the cardboard as the practice bullet made its mark. All of it, as if someone slowed the entire world down. Her startled squeak snapped me out of the trance. I watched as her hand flew to the unmarred skin of her neck.

Slowly, she turned and assessed the target behind her. A perfect headshot.

"My god, Edward. Do you realized you just emptied an entire clip in 10 seconds? That every shot was perfectly timed and fatal?"

I swallowed thickly, shaking my head in disbelief.

She nodded fervently, turning her awestruck eyes back to me once more. "I think... No, I know you're ready."

For you guys who read the teasers on The Fictionators, how many of you thought that my little Eddie Spaghetti was violent? LOL!

No, that's definitely not the case here. I do not, under any circumstances condone a woman-beater. Just saying. :)

So what are you thinking? Let me know, I live to get inside your heads. Drop me a line, and I'll drop you one back.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to respond to reviews. You guys know I try my hardest, but I do work around 52 hours a week. So yeah...

LOVE YOU! See you next Tuesday!

xoxoxoxo

KK