AN: 'As You Sleep – Something Corporate'. So, I'm on a mild sugar high from Reese Cups. I'd rather not say how many in hopes that I won't sound like a fatty. I know I am but it's fun to pretend I'm not. In other words, I was too impatient to think long and hard about a song so I thought of the first song I could.

Bum bum bum, aftermath of the fiasco! Edward Cullen style.

ALSO: Why must i forget? i know! i WANT to think i own these beautiful characters instead of the wonderful SM...alas, i do not, my friends, i do not.

EPOV

I did not want to let Bella leave my side. I wasn't trying to be possessive but the longing looks that Mike was giving her (and the death glares he was giving me) could only mean that he was up to something.

I sat at the table in the room holding the dance trying to not look like a worried wreck but to no avail. Then when Mike made a not so subtle escape from the room my worries escalated tenfold.

The corridors were empty when I went to investigate and I even checked the women's restroom, knocking on the door and calling Bella's name. No answer. Walking back, I could hear a considerably loud squeal come from a nearby classroom and I could tell it was being muffled by the sound of it.

When I reached the room causing the disturbance I found it was locked. I was almost one hundred percent certain that Bella was behind this door. Where else could she have gone? She wouldn't have just ditched me like that; Bella wasn't that kind of person. Throwing all of my weight against the barrier, I managed to enter the room.

The sight I was met with made me feel two things. Nausea and infuriating anger. The vile Mike Newton had Bella pressed up against the wall and for a millisecond I felt a pang of jealousy until I realized she was crying. I acted on impulse, quickly pulling Mike off of Bella.

What I did next came as a shocker to even myself. I punched him. I am not and never have been prone to violence but in the heat of the moment, my instincts took over.

I must have hit him pretty hard because after he hit the floor, he didn't move. However, that was the least of my worries right now.

I turned my gaze back to the curled-up form by the door.

"Bella?" Her eyes were clamped shut, tears still streaming down her face. She seemed to refuse to open her eyes so I reached forward in hopes that she would calm down at my touch.

When my fingers gently touched her shoulder, she cringed away further along the wall since she couldn't back up anywhere. I felt like I had been punched, the way she shied away from me.

"Bella," I whispered again. "Bella, please open your eyes. It's me, Edward."

She cracked one eye open and then the other. Without warning Bella flung herself at me, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck.

"Oh, Edward," she sobbed, "I was so scared. I couldn't do anything; he was too strong. H-he ki-kiss—" she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Shh, it's all right. You're safe, Bella, see?" she nodded weakly.

"Come on, let's get out of this room," I helped her up, wrapping my left arm around her waist. I stopped abruptly in the doorway when I remembered the other being in the room. Mike. Even my mind sneered the filthy creature's name.

We met Alice and Jasper outside of the room, Alice looking frantic.

"What's wrong? What happened? We were only gone for—" Jasper put a calming hand on her shoulder.

I informed them briefly of what happened, Bella not having the courage to speak right then and told them that Mike was still in the room. Jasper said that he'd take care of it. How he would explain to the doctor that Mike had 'fallen' and possibly broken his nose was beyond me but I didn't have time to inquire this. My main concern was Bella.

"Bella, are you all right?" I asked as we walked to her room.

She simply nodded again, looking like she had seen the dead come back from the grave.

The first movement she had made in minutes, besides the legs she had been using to walk, was opening her bedroom door. Bella quickly walked in and sat down quietly on her bed, still staring directly ahead of her. She looked like she had gone into some form of shock.

I lingered in the doorway for a moment, not knowing if she wanted me to stay. The roles seemed to have been reversed as I remembered back (which really wasn't that long ago) to the weekend where Bella had stayed to take care of me.

She indicated for me to join her on the bed as she lied down on top of the blankets. I crawled in behind her and wrapped my arms once again around her waist. It was quiet for another moment and it was starting to make me nervous that Bella wasn't saying anything.

"Bella, I'm sorry," I whispered, nuzzling my nose into her strawberry scented hair, "I should have found you earlier and you wouldn't have had to endure Mike—"

"Edward," Bella all of the sudden said, turning around in my arms, "It was not your fault. I shouldn't have gone off by myself…" she drifted off and I could tell she was remembering tonight's events.

"Bella, it was neither our faults."

I could feel the fabric on my right shoulder quickly dampening and I looked down to find Bella silently crying.

"Bella? It's okay; it's over. He won't get to you now," I subconsciously pulled Bella closer to me. It took everything in my power to not run back to that room and finish Mike off.

I was snapped back to reality when I heard Bella mumble something.

"Hm?"

"I couldn't believe it was happening again…" she sniffled, eyes downcast.

I automatically tensed. She hasn't been…has she?

"You couldn't believe…what was happening again?" I asked quietly.

Bella raised her head so her red, puffy eyes could look at me. A look of newfound determination was on her face. With a deep, unsteady breath she began,

"In my sophomore year…" she paused again. "A guy asked me out to this party. I shouldn't have agreed to go…but I did. I mean I had had this huge crush on a guy… James. I was just ecstatic that he took notice in me for whatever insane reason that he did." Bella stopped again with a look of honest confusion on her face. She really didn't see herself clearly. But I was fairly certain I could see where this confession was heading and I knew I wouldn't like this James character in the end.

"It started off okay, I was a little uncomfortable; I didn't know anyone there but James stuck by my side for the most part," Bella nodded her head absentmindedly, thinking back to the night.

"Then he told me he would be back in a few minutes, I'm not sure where he went. His friends quickly began offering me god knows what, a sip of beer or a drop of LSD. There was so much drugs there," she added in a whisper.

"They wouldn't leave me alone, wouldn't accept my declines. They started threatening and pressuring me. Saying how James wouldn't like me if I didn't try cocaine…I wouldn't be good enough… and so I tried it. I liked him so much and no boy had ever shown interest in me before; I had never been on so much as a date. I really wanted James to like me. Unfortunately, trying it that one time would lead to my addiction.

Anyway, the guys gave me something else as well; I'm not sure what but it left me…disoriented. They advanced on me, trying to get me too—" Bella stopped and shut her eyes, causing the tears that had been threatening to spill over her eyelids to fall down her cheeks. I softly brushed them away. I was about to tell her that she didn't have to tell me when she continued.

"Before anything too serious could happen, James came in. He at least had the decency to prevent his chums from doing anything to me. At the time, this made my heart sore; James had saved me. But the following Monday, back in school, James didn't want anything to be with me. I admit I wasn't looking the greatest from the cocaine. He called me a filthy crack head and a… a whore for sleeping with his friends. This wasn't true, of course, and he knew it; he had been there. I felt worthless and even more so when the entire school believed him and treated me as if I was some horrible, deadly disease." A new round of tears fell from her eyes as I looked on with a shocked expression.

How could sweet Bella have been put through this? Why would anyone want to treat her this way? My thoughts quickly turned murderous as I remembered James and what he did. How could he toy with her emotions like that? It was almost as bad as his friends trying to rape her.

I was also elated that Bella had shared this with me, however awful it was. If I remembered correctly, she had never shared that with anyone. This must have meant that she trusted me a lot. But the thought of her having gone through this and never talking about it to anyone before was saddening.

Thinking this through was like a roller coaster, it seemed. I then remembered I hadn't said anything yet.

"Bella…I'm so sorry. I had no idea. You do not deserve any of that. He," I couldn't even speak his name, "was a fool for not realizing how amazing you are."

Bella smiled weakly and rubbed some more tears from her cheeks.

"Yeah, well…now you know," she said, trying to act like what she went through was nothing. It was obviously the opposite.

I sighed, "Bella…" I didn't know what else to say when I noticed it was nearing curfew. I couldn't believe how long we had been lying there. The dance was probably over by now. I didn't want to leave Bella like this but they would most definitely not allow me to staying in her room. "I should leave…" I said, sounding uncertain.

"No!" Bella said quickly, latching onto my shirt. "Please," she whispered, "don't leave me."

"Never," I replied with a small smile, secretly celebrating the fact that Bella didn't want me gone. The look on her face had nearly broken my heart. I think she honestly believed I would leave her on my own accord. I wanted to prove her wrong; I wanted nothing more than to stay like this, with Bella in my arms, forever. I kissed her forehead softly, hopefully conveying my thoughts.

She smiled and sank her head back into the pillow.

"You should sleep now," I suggested in a whisper. She looked dead on her feet…or in this case, dead on her back. It seemed that she was fighting her eyelids from succumbing to what they truly wanted; sleep.

"I can't. I don't want to relive what happened tonight in my nightmares," Bella whispered.

She needed sleep so I began to hum the song, which I realized was now a lullaby, to her and she quickly fell asleep.

I watched Bella's angelic face as she slept, noticing as her brow furrowed. Was she already having a nightmare?

When I had first laid eyes on Bella, never in a million years would I have guessed she would have had such a traumatic past. Proof that you shouldn't judge a book by their cover.

I didn't have the chance to ponder this when the door to the room opened, revealing Alice.

"How is she?" she said not nearly quiet enough. I warned her with a 'shh' and nodded my head to the sleeping Bella. A look of realization dawned on her face and she immediately quieted.

"Sorry…well?" Even with her hushed whispers I could distinctly hear the annoyance that her question wasn't answered.

"She's…better. Upset, but that's normal, of course. She only just went to sleep."

"Edward, I can't thank you enough. To think what would have happened if you hadn't been there…" Alice said with a serious face.

"I have an idea," I muttered.

"I'll go to Jasper's room and stay there tonight. I'm sure he won't mind," Alice said after a minute.

"No, you should stay. It's your room after all. I'll leave," I said with a pained face.

Alice wore a small smile, "No. You stay. If you left, Bella would be upset. I trust you to take care of her."

"Thank you, Alice."

She nodded her head and went to grab a pair of pajamas.

"Try not to get caught by the Room Advisor," I said lightly, though I knew it wouldn't be much trouble as long as she was sneaky. He could care less of the goings on in our corridor; that I'm sure of.

"You too," she replied with a grin, and then left me to fall asleep beside the wonder that was Bella.

AN: (sigh) Once again, I was going to keep going; I wanted to make you all happy and give you a long chapter but at least you found out Bella's story however boring it may have been. If I can make myself get up early tomorrow morning I will try and start the next chapter before I have to tackle the mountain of homework I have. I hate life.