Author's Note – Thank you for all the support for this story. I know it isn't the norm but it was something I really wanted to write.

Thank you as always to Tiggrmommi, Pomme_de_Terre, and VJGM for all their support.

I do not own the characters, only the story.

Friday Morning

I couldn't sleep at all that night. I tossed and turned, every time I closed my eyes I would see him and I would lay there in bed dry heaving. Eventually around two in the morning I gave up and went into the kitchen where I made myself a cup of hot chocolate. With shaking hands I took my tape recorder out of my bag and started to listen to the tapes from our interview. His voice filled my kitchen and I just closed my eyes and listened to day after day and noticed how our talks changed as the hours passed. As I listened the sun began to fill the room and I got up so that I could get ready for the day.

I took a shower and as I wiped the condensation from the mirror I doubted that there was anything that I could do in order to make myself presentable today. I picked out a skirt and a fitted blue wrap shirt. I did my best to conceal my lack of sleep with make-up and brushed my hair so that it flowed down my back. I didn't try to deny myself that I was taking extra effort to get ready, I had given up that fight a long time ago. I gave my lips one last swipe of gloss and headed out the door.

The drive took longer than it usually did. News vans were stationed outside of the prison and protestors were lined up holding signs up high over their heads. I didn't bother looking at them I had been in the business long enough to know what they would say. My head stayed down while I drove though, not making eye contact with anyone, trying my best to block out anything they might say. Someone slammed their hand on my car as I passed and started to scream something I couldn't quite understand. I just wanted to make it inside and not have to deal with this too. Today was going to be hard enough.

Finally I made it through the gates and went into the bathrooms for a moment to compose myself before I went to the interview room. I was already ten minutes late and I did my best to calm myself down in a timely manner. When I entered the room he let out a sigh of relief.

"I was worried that you weren't going to come." He looked horrible. The circles under his eyes were darker and his skin was pale and ashen.

"Sorry it took a bit longer to get in today." I didn't want to elaborate on the reasons why.

"Yes, the guards told me about the protesters outside. Sorry, I hope it wasn't too bad to get through." He took a deep breath as I sat down across from him.

"It wasn't a problem." I wasn't sure what to say anymore. He seemed happy to have me there but I wasn't sure what we should talk about.

"You look very nice." I looked down at the clothes I had picked out, not remembering what I was wearing.

"Thank you." He looked like hell but that didn't seem like the proper thing to say.

"You don't look like you slept very well though." He looked concerned even though he looked much worse than I did.

"I couldn't sleep." I pulled on my hair self consciously.

"I know the feeling." He rubbed his eyes. "I was thinking about you last night." He seemed to perk up a bit as he changed the subject.

"What were you thinking about?" I debated about turning off the tape recorder, not sure if I would be strong enough to listen to all of this again later on. Finally I decided that I would possibly regret not having it one day.

"I was thinking about things I would have liked to do with you. Even something as simple as sharing a meal with you is a memory I would like to have had." I didn't try to hide the tears as they fell down my face. "I'm sorry, I'll change the subject." He looked distressed as the words left his mouth.

I wiped away my tears as I shook my head.

"No, I was thinking the same thing last night. I wondered what it would have been like if we had met under different circumstances, what our chances might have been." My voice shook with emotion as my tears fell onto the table.

"In my dreams we were incredible together." His voice was low but filled with an emotion that I hadn't heard from him yet.

"Mine too." Our hands stretched across the table until they were joined. He squeezed my hand tightly as he closed his eyes.

"I'm so sorry Bella." He opened his eyes and they were shining with tears. "I'm sorry that you will have to be alone after this. I never wanted you to care about me and I hate to think about the pain you will be in after tonight. I almost wish that you would have never met me. This would be easier if I knew that I wasn't leaving you behind."

"I'll be okay." The words didn't even sound believable to me. "You were still leaving your family behind though. That couldn't be easy."

"Nothing about today is easy but my family has each other and somehow that comforted me. You never mention your family and so I worry about you more." He used his hand to brush a stray hair away from my face.

"I'm an only child and I'm not close to my parents." Even if I was close to them I could have never turned to them after this. My mother had her own life and my father was a police officer who wouldn't condone me having feelings for a murderer.

"Where will you go after…" He hesitated for a moment. "Where will you go after tonight?"

"I'll go home. I have the next few days off anyways." I was supposed to be working on my article, Angela wanted it by Monday morning but all of that seemed so unimportant at the moment.

"I wish I could be there for you. I wish you had never met me." He looked so broken sitting across from me.

"Don't say that, please don't ever say that." I squeezed his hand, trying to let him know that I needed him to be strong. I could survive this if he remained strong. It was selfish of me but I needed the comfort. "I will never regret knowing you, please don't forget that."

"Thank you. How about we change the subject?" He looked away quickly while he used his free hand to wipe at his eyes.

"What would you like to talk about?" My head hurt and I couldn't think of any other subjects at the moment other than what was scheduled to happen in mere hours.

"Why did you go into this field of work?" I felt like we were wasting time if we talked about me but this was what he wanted. I knew I should ask him endless questions but I didn't have the strength at the moment.

"I'm not much of a people person and this was what my teacher's used in school to get me to open up. I was always capable of using written words to express myself in a way that I wasn't capable of doing out loud and so I majored in journalism in college and this is where I landed afterwards." It was a story I had told many times and yet it all sounded trite as I said them.

"Do you enjoy what you do?" This sounded like a conversation we should be having on a first date, the getting to know you phase of a relationship and yet it was marred by the fact that we would never move on from this phase in our relationship.

"I love it. No day is ever the same and knowing that someone out there is reading what I wrote is a gratifying feeling." He smiled at me as if he was proud of what I had accomplished and it felt good to know that he felt that way. "What about you? Why did you go into your line of work?" He had been a successful consultant who owned his own business before all of this. It had been big news when his employees discovered that he had set up funds for each of them to be paid for the next five years.

"I originally wanted to be a doctor but I was disillusioned by the world around me. I used my parent's money to start my own consulting firm as a way to have some more control over my life. I found that I enjoyed it and I was good at it." He clenched his free hand into a fist. "What does it matter? Really? Why are we talking about this as if it matters? It seems like a lifetime ago. I want to know about you? Your favorite flower, your idea of a perfect date, what you do in your free time, what makes you laugh, what makes you cry."

"But I want to know about you. I want to know those things about you too! I want to know your likes and dislikes." My voice cracked as I spoke and he looked even more exhausted.

"Why Bella? Why do you want to know those things? What does it matter? By this time tomorrow what I like or didn't like won't matter anymore." He looked confused as he said the words as if already his life was forgotten.

"It will matter to me!" I couldn't help the way my voice rose. "It matters to me because I care about you. I'd like to know that if I was walking down the street and I saw a daffodil or whatever flower it is you like that it in some small way is a connection to you. I don't want to walk out of here tonight not knowing anything substantial about you. I want to know something about you that I wasn't able to read about you before I met you. You may think it doesn't matter but it does. It will be all I have left." My breath was coming in gasps but I managed to hold my tears at bay.

"I didn't think of it that way, I'm sorry." He pulled my other hand into his and pulled them flush against his chest. "I like sunflowers, they always make me happy. I enjoy going to the beach and always thought that having dinner in the moonlight on the beach would be a very romantic date but I never found a woman worth going through that trouble for. I wish I could do that for you though." He reached out to wipe a tear as it fell from my eye. "My favorite food is steak and I prefer red wine to white. I don't have a favorite book because I enjoy reading far too much to just pick one and if forced to pick my favorite muppet I would have to choose Kermit the Frog."

I laughed through my tears at this bit of information. "I am rather partial to the little green guy myself."

"A frog in love with a pig, how can you go wrong with that?" He joined me in laughing. "So I would like to know about you too."

"It's hard to think of anything after Kermit but let me try. I love tulips. I've never given much thought to a dream date because I haven't had many. I suppose any date where the man didn't end up licking my face at the end of it is a bonus." He stuck out his tongue and moved closer to my face and I couldn't stop laughing. "Don't even think about it."

"Who in the world licked you?" He pulled away from my face.

"Let's not talk about that, he was more dog than man. " I looked down at our hands still linked together. "I think that the beach would have been very nice." We both got quiet, the moment of levity broken.

"I would do it for you if I could. There is so much I would like to do for you." He closed his eyes and brought our hands to his face and rubbed against them. I could feel the stubble from his face burning a path along my hand.

"I know. I feel the same way." We stayed silent, neither one of us sure of what to say. "So what happens now? How much time do we have together today?"

"You can stay as long as you want. They are quite lenient when your hours are numbered." Hours, we were down to hours now. Not even half a day remained of our time together. "I'd like for you to stay, please stay."

He sounded so desperate asking me that I couldn't tell him no. "I'll stay as long as you want me to."

"Forever," he whispered. "Please stay forever." We sat there, each holding onto each other, neither one of us saying a word. There were so many things that I wanted to say, so many things that we should be talking about but nothing seemed important at the moment. Nothing was more important than just holding on to each other.

A knock on the door alerted us to the presence of the world around us. He didn't even bother to pull away from me. What did it matter at this point? A guard came into the room to let us know that Edward's family was here. I stood up to leave and he pulled me back down.

"I thought you had agreed to forever." His hand pulled harder on mine until I was sitting down in my chair again.

"But your family, don't you want time alone with them? I don't want to intrude, it would be rude." Still he wouldn't let go of me.

"Today is about me and this is what I want. Please just stay." I started to vocalize another argument when the guard opened the door again and started to unlock Edward for moving. I must have looked confused because he turned and addressed me.

"This room isn't big enough. We are moving him down the hall." I followed as he led Edward down to a different room. I tried to ignore the sound of the chains around his ankles dragging along the hard concrete floor. It seemed to fill my head and it was pounding by the time we reached our new room.

As we walked in Edward reached for my hand and squeezed. Immediately six sets of eyes were on us which only served to make me more self conscious. To my surprise they began to unlock and remove the hand and ankle cuffs. He flexed his hands and rubbed his wrists as soon as they were off. The guard stepped out of the room and remained stationed on the other side of the door. As soon as he was out of the room an older woman came up to Edward and hugged him while tears streamed down her face. This scene was repeated with every other person while I stood awkwardly in the corner and watched.

I debated about trying to leave. I didn't belong here, this was their time to be together but as if he sensed my intent Edward came to my side and reached for my hand. His family looked at me suspiciously. Who could blame them though? Here was this stranger with them, intruding on a very intimate moment.

"Everyone this is Bella, she came to interview me this week." Everyone nodded their greeting, no one able to say the words. I did notice that every single one of them looked down at our hands though as we all stood there staring at each other.

"It's nice to see you again." Edward's lawyer broke the silence in the room as he held out his hand to me.

"You too Mr. Whitlock." I shook his hand.

"Please call me Jasper. This is my wife Alice." Introductions were made around the room and hesitant handshakes were exchanged. They needed time alone so I excused myself.

"Bella please don't go." He placed a hand on my shoulder applying gentle pressure to stop me.

"I'll be right back. I need to make a few phone calls but I promise I will be back." I turned to face him. "I promise I won't be long. Please spend time with your family." I whispered. He looked hesitant to let me go but eventually removed his hand from my shoulder. "I promise." I whispered one last time before I motioned for the guard to open the door for me.

I walked down the hall and stopped halfway down and leaned against the wall. Bending over I rested my elbows on my knees while I tried to catch my breath. I looked at my watch and realized that only a few hours remained before he would be taken away. I retrieved my purse and checked my messages. I wasn't surprised to find several from Angela. Knowing that I should call her back I quickly dialed her number and was relieved when I got her voicemail. I quickly explained the situation and let her know that I would be contacting her in the morning. I turned off my phone and threw it back into my purse.

Finding the bathroom I went inside to compose myself yet again. I came out of the stall where I had allowed myself a few minutes to just let go and splashed water on my face thankful that I had remembered to pack a compact in my purse. I went through the motions of trying to look presentable because for some reason it still mattered that I appear composed to him.

Finally I made my way back down the hall. It seemed like hours since I had last seen him but I knew that it hadn't been more than fifteen minutes. The guard started to open the door as he saw me approaching but I shook my head. I wanted to look inside first and make sure that I wasn't interrupting anything. As if he were attuned to me Edward looked up as soon as I peered inside the room. His family followed his gaze and watched me until I came back into the room. It was silent as soon as I entered but Edward moved to be by my side and guided me to the chair that was next to him. His aunt was crying softly in the corner as his uncle tried to comfort her. I felt out of place, an intruder on an intimate moment but it was clear that Edward was not going to let me leave.

I tried my best to blend into the background. The conversation went on around me and I found it hard to focus on the words being said. All my focus was on the man next to me. The way his fingers flexed underneath mine and the warmth that I felt transfer from his body to mine. While it was obvious that no one was completely comfortable with my presence no one said a word about it. It was clear that Edward would not tolerate any objections to me.

I said nothing but it was almost as if I could physically feel each and every minute ticking by. As I watched the second hand tick by my heart skipped a beat every time it moved. I tried to focus on the conversation around me, talks about their childhood together, favorite memories all things that I couldn't contribute to in any way. Each time I would look up at the clock Edward would squeeze my hand as if he was reassuring me. I wasn't doing so well at being present as a source of comfort to him. Somehow the clocked started moving faster and faster, time moved at a rate at which I had never experienced. I was not the only one who noticed this phenomenon because there was a marked increase in sobs from his aunt.

I watched in amazement as the clock continued to tick down at its rapid rate. Seventy five minutes, sixty minutes, fifty minutes, forty five minutes. There was a knock on the door as thirty minutes remaining approached. We all jumped at the sound since the room had become relatively quiet as we all watched the clock.

"You have ten minutes." The guard was gone as quickly as he had appeared. Edward had declined a last meal assuring us that he was incapable of eating a bite of anything and so now we all stood as the sound of the door closing echoed in the room.

His Aunt Esme arose from her chair and threw her arms around him as her sobs overtook her. She wailed his name and his Uncle Carlisle gently lead her away and comforted her as her body shook from the force of her sorrow. I had pulled myself away during this time and stayed off to the side watching the heartbreaking scene in front of me. His cousin's wife Rose came up to him next and gave him a hug, whispering something in his ear as she held on tightly. Emmett was next, first offering him a handshake before shaking his head and drawing him into a hug. There were tears in his eyes as he pulled away and Rose pulled him into her arms offering him whatever meager comfort she could. Jasper also gave him a hug and nodded as they both looked towards me. Alice hadn't stopped crying since the guard knocked on the door and he gave her the largest hug of them all, tears streaming down his face as he pulled away. He walked over to where his aunt and uncle were sitting and wrapped his arms around both of them.

Unable to stand on my own two feet as I watched the goodbyes taking place I took a chair that was positioned by the table and laid my head on the cool faux wood. I didn't bother to stop the tears that flowed down my face. I didn't belong here during this and yet they would have to drag me away to make me leave. A hand rubbed small circles on my back and I looked up, my eyes raw from the pain I was experiencing.

"It will be okay." I looked into the warm eyes of Jasper and tried to shake my head in denial but he continued to talk. "This was his choice, he'll be okay. You don't need to be strong for him. It will be nice for him to know how much you care." Jasper walked away and I could hear the door open behind me, the sound of sobs getting fainter as it closed again.

We were all alone and I stood from the table and wrapped my arms around him. I could barely see him through the tears that filled my eyes. I felt his arms wrap around me and pull me closer to him.

"Bella." He whispered my name and I just held onto him tighter, never wanting to let him go. "Bella." He whispered my name again while placing a finger under my chin to force me to look up at him. "It's almost time for me to go."

I shook my head from side to side, hoping that through sheer will alone I could stop the events that were about to unfold.

"It's time to say goodbye." I was shaking my head frantically now, not ready to say goodbye. He placed a hand on either side of my face to keep my head still. "Please, I need to hear your voice one last time. I want your voice to be the last thing I remember."

Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks. "Edward, I don't think I can say goodbye." He lifted my face so I was forced to look up into his eyes. He didn't try to hide or stop the tears that flowed down his face.

"You don't have to say it then." He was about to say something else when the door opened again.

"It's time." The guard was gruff as he approached Edward.

"Please not yet." The guard shook his head. There was no bargaining for extra time. Tonight was all about staying on schedule.

Edward gave me one last hug. "Thank you, I'll never be able to repay you for everything you have done for me."

They started to pull him away and I held on tighter for one more second. His arms loosened from around me and I thought I might fall when they were pulled completely away. I started to sway and his arms were around me again instantly. He led me to a chair and let his hand rest again my cheek for a moment before he leaned down. He placed the softest of kisses against my forehead before he was taken away and walked out of my life forever.

The rest of Friday will be coming this weekend. This chapter was very hard to write so thank you for sticking with me through this.

Jaime