AN: This chapter is the next day after Bella's visit to the ER and her reflection on the events. I wanted to have a chapter between her and Alice but it just wasn't flowing from my head into written words the way I wanted it to. Sorry - Annie

BPOV

I had always joked if I didn't feel good that I felt like I had been ran over a Mack truck. Those simple words almost came to pass last night.

I met Alice for an early dinner at the coffee shop. She wanted to go into Port Angeles but I objected. I didn't want to drive 45 minutes for something to eat. I was working 7 a to 7 p the next day so a late night wasn't a good idea. With a three-day weekend coming up I told her maybe we could go this weekend if she didn't have any plans. That was met by a big squeal and a very emphatic yes.

Just like with Edward I couldn't believe how easy it was to talk to Alice. I apologized a hundred times. Telling her how sorry I was for not talking to her before I left and for not calling over the years. Again just like her brother she said she had been worried about me. I told her since she was a senior in high school when it happened there wasn't much she could do. Her reply was that she would have been there to listen to me and to discourage me from leaving.

I couldn't believe how much I had missed. Emmett married Rosalie Hale after graduating from USC. He had high hopes of an NFL career but due to an injury his senior year it wouldn't happen. When I heard that it took place a few weeks after I left, I was shocked. I couldn't believe what the fall of 2002 had brought the Cullen's. First the loss of Edward and mine's baby, my leaving and then Emmett getting hurt. While I was off wallowing in my own self-pity, they were here at home taking care of each other. I was so disgusted with myself that I was having a hard time keeping up.

I finally caught back up to her when she told me about Emmett and Rosalie's 4-year-old twin boys, Jamie and Jace. Apparently flag football wasn't good enough for them so Emmett found a peewee league that played full contact in pads. Alice said she hadn't missed a Saturday game this fall. She said they looked like little bobble heads on the field with the shoulder pads and helmets. One little push and they tipped over. But the true entertainment was Rosalie yelling from the stands you better hit somebody if you don't want me to come down there. I guess the other parents were afraid of her and kept their distance. Emmett and Rosalie took football very seriously.

Emmett had surprised everyone when he brought her home from USC his freshman year of college. Rosalie was tall, statuesque with wavy blonde hair. A California beauty, nothing was ever out of place. She was perfection. On the outside she looked like a beauty queen poised and ready for her tiara. That wasn't her at all. To say the least we were surprised that she spoke Car and Driver, football and wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and she could put Emmett in his place with one look. He had met his match.

When Alice started telling me about Jasper Whitlock and her, how he proposed, their wedding and how she wished I had been there. It brought tears to my eyes. She said she gave Charlie an invitation for me. I can imagine he thought by not telling me about it that he was helping me somehow. I wish he had given me the option. Even now I'm not for sure what I would have done. Would I have called or would I have made the trip back home.

Jasper Whitlock was always at the Cullen's just like I was since he was Edward's best friend growing up. Alice always had a crush on him but he never looked at her more then a little sister. She said that someday he would regret not noticing her. He finally noticed her during spring break our senior year when we went down to Los Angeles see Emmett and Rosalie at USC. Alice insisted on going. She said it wasn't fair that we were going to visit her brother without her. Carlisle and Esme finally agreed to let her go. Surely between five of us we could keep their seventeen-year-old daughter safe. She was kept safe all right. Jasper wouldn't let her out of his sight after a day at the beach and several guys started flirting with her. From that day on they were a couple.

It was also during that trip that Edward's life and mine would be forever changed. Somehow with the excitement of getting out of Forks for a week, site seeing in LA, falling asleep and waking in Edward's arms, neither one of us realized something was forgotten until our return home. Birth control.

I found myself drifting to the past again when Alice started telling me about the woman Edward was with last weekend when I ran into them at Emmett's, bringing me back to the present. She was quick to tell me there wasn't anything between them and that I didn't have any competition. I had to laugh at that since I had figured that out myself from the conversation I over heard him having with her.

When I told her I hadn't seen or spoken to Edward since that night, she let me know that no one had. Aside from reporting to work when scheduled, none of the family had seen or spoken to him either. Everyone was giving him his space and letting him deal with whatever he was trying to figure out. She never said it but we both knew the reason. Me.

After spending a couple hours with Alice and assuring her that I wasn't leaving and making plans for another time, we finally parted ways.

I was so lost in thought that I wasn't paying attention when I went though the intersection. When out of nowhere a semi truck clipped the front of my car, spinning me 180 degrees and pinning my door against the guardrail. Unfortunately it was enough for the airbag to deploy and a ride in an ambulance.

Instead of letting me climb out of the passenger door, the wonderful Forks fire department took great pride in cutting me out of the car. I knew I should have climbed out the first chance I had. Not only did I get the joy of riding in an ambulance but I also have to look for a new car.

The one bright spot of my evening in the ER was Edward telling me he loved me. It felt just the same as it did the first time he said those words so long ago. Perfect. We still had a long way to go, but our future together was headed in the right direction.

Charlie even surprised me by apologizing to Edward for the way he treated him over the years. He still saw him as the eighteen-year-old kid who got his daughter pregnant instead of the adult that he had become.

Arriving to work, just as I stepped out of the elevator, there stood Edward talking to Carlisle. I couldn't breathe. Here before me was the man that I had declared my love for the night before. In all of my weeks here, he never came up to this floor to see his Dad. Never. Since I wasn't ready to broadcast my personal life to everyone within range, I decided to just acknowledge him with a nod and walk on by.

Mistake.

I managed to swipe my badge into the locker room and open mine before he reached me.

"Don't I get a good morning or anything?" he asked. Swinging the locker door he added, "This reminders me of high school and waiting for you between classes."

Laughing I said, "Good morning." Closing the door, looking up at him I said, "Don't you need to get back to work?"

"I'm on my break so I came up to talk to Dad." Very seriously he asked, "Are you feeling okay? I still think you should have took the day off."

"I'm fine. I told you last night I wasn't calling off for my fender bender."

Shaking his head at my choice of words he asked, "Did Charlie drop you off?"

"Yes. I have to call for a rental car at some point today and then I get to spend my weekend looking for a car." I replied.

My curiosity was getting the best of me so I asked, "What were you talking to Carlisle about? I've never seen you come up here to see him."

Edward leaned towards me and whispered, "You've been avoiding me, how do you know I don't come see him?"

"Yes I have avoided you but I'm not anymore."

"You tried again just a few minutes ago. Did you think I would let you walk by with just a nod?"

I looked at him and smiled. "I'm sorry. I just didn't know what to do when I saw you."

Leaning towards me again he said, "This is what you should have done."

He closed the small gap between our lips, startling me but I immediately responded to his lips moving against mine. The kiss began to slow as we both began to get a hold of our feelings.

I pulled back and looked at him not believing that had just happened. Gazing into his eyes I noticed that the spark that was missing the other night had returned.

Smiling up at him I said, "As much as I enjoyed it, I wouldn't have done that in front of the elevator."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" he asked.

"I can be adventurous but not when we are both at work."

He whispered seductively into my ear "I will hold you to that statement once we get our workday out of the way." Feathering kisses along my jaw he added, "I love you."

That is how he left me. Standing there with my mouth open. There was no way I could spend the next twelve hours here knowing he was in the same building.

3rd party POV

Interesting. Tanya had vented to me over the weekend how she wasn't making any leeway with Dr. Edward Cullen. She said she decided to play nice last Friday night by going to the dive his brother calls a bar. Out of nowhere some Plain Jane walked in and Edward ran out after her. It wasn't until today that I put two and two together and figured out that the Bella, Tanya was up in arms about was the same one that I worked with. How stupid could I be? It wasn't like Bella was a common everyday name. I wonder what Tanya will give for the information I can get for her.

Since Bella Swan kept to herself, no one knew anything about her except that she is the police chief's daughter. Everyone thought she was having an affair with Dr. Carlisle Cullen since he always made a point of going out of his way to say good morning to her or have a goodnight. A few times it was also noticed that he would have lunch with her. But now with the addition of his son into the mix, I couldn't wait to find out her story. Maybe she was sleeping with both of them.