A/N: I guess I need to apologize to a few readers…(caww and ktlewis my most prolific reviewers) My dissatisfaction with this story has to do with the way Edward's relationship went. I like this story over all, just not the whole thing with Edward dating a girl he didn't really like. I mean, why would you purposefully put yourself in a situation to spend more time with someone you can barely stand?

That didn't come out on paper quite like it was in my head. I guess it needed more editing before posting. I think I like this chapter better, but tell me what you think.

Thank you so much for liking this story. I kept trying to make it better for those who really like it…

Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter 7

BPOV

I pulled up outside Alice's house and sat in my SUV, trying to calm my heart. This was where Edward had lived for most of his life. It was a large four story brick townhouse with balconies off the upper floors. The bricks were covered by trailing ivy…and I admit I was avoiding going in to talk to Alice. I hadn't told her about Jacob so she was expecting him to be with me. I actually had avoided her since I'd sent him on back to Florida.

The curtains in the window I knew was Alice's moved. I was spotted. I had to face her.

"Bella! Bella! Bella!" She yelled, throwing herself at me as I stepped out of my truck. She looked at my new SUV and over to the empty passenger seat. She raised her eyebrows at me, but didn't say anything. She just put her arm around me and told Jasper to get my suitcase. He'd followed behind her, expecting to be introduced to me, and probably my boyfriend Jacob. I told him which suitcase to get and followed Alice inside the house.

Without even talking about it, we avoided Edward, Dream, and Jacob until the day before I left. We spent the whole two weeks shopping and sightseeing and getting to know Jasper a little. I knew Alice had been trying to convince him to spend a summer working for Dream, but he seemed wary of the whole living on water thing.

I could tell they were getting serious and that worried me. Sure, he'd transferred to our college, but he was still taking her away from me. I knew that if he didn't work the Inspiration, that she'd eventually stay away too.

I wanted to get back to the ship two days early so I could get settled in before Edward and Jacob got there. Usually only the seasonal and the new employees got there that early, so I was sure I would have some time to myself. When it got closer to time for me to return to the Inspiration, I couldn't hold it back. I spilled it all right before bed.

"And Jacob hasn't even called me once. I don't know whether to be worried or relieved. Without him, I won't have any close friends on the Inspiration." Alice was speechless for once, digesting all that I'd told her.

"Wow. Jacob, an alcoholic. I always thought Jacob had an addictive personality. So, instead of spending time clearing your head and thinking about what you want to do in your future, you've worried about Edward and Jacob. All your thoughts were concentrated in those directions." I nodded.

"Alice, they both have something to do with my future. And they are both part of my past." How could I explain something that I barely knew myself? That Jacob had been a friend while Edward and Alice were not around? I had cared for him. Even though he had lied to me and hurt me, I still felt I owed him something after standing by me when Edward didn't.

I didn't know how to explain it to her, so I didn't even try. After all, she had Jasper who'd transferred colleges to be with her. Lucky girl.

I left early the next morning because I wanted to get to the ship in time to get settled in before Edward and Jacob arrived. As part of the crew and management, they both had to be there earlier than any other staff. I am usually distracted until I get settled in on board and didn't want to run into them with my guard down.

I also hoped that maybe I could fit three months of thinking into two days. What was I going to do with my life?

I took the same route through the city to the dock as I always did, but this time something caught my eye.

On the left side of the highway was a rather large building with a very small sign out in front of it. I had never noticed it before because I was always in a hurry and the roads were always crowded with summer tourists. However, winter wasn't as busy. The building was off the road by itself and had a large parking lot in front of it. I turned around at the next light and pulled up in front of it.

I was looking at the DayStar Children's Center that Anderson had said Edward worked in. There, in one of the employee spaces was Edward's car. I felt almost like a stalker since Edward hadn't told me about this himself, but I was still curious. Why would he hide this from me? A children's center was nothing to be ashamed of. It was wonderful. It was amazing. It was so Edward. Or at least it was the old Edward. I didn't think the new Edward would go along with it.

I didn't know what kind of car Lauren drove, but I doubted that she would have been there anyway. She was the creator of the new Edward.

I walked cautiously inside, on the lookout so that Edward wouldn't surprise me. There was a large waiting room decorated with pictures of smiling people and of non-smiling people. Some of them were wearing nice clothes and looked like volunteers and were standing with groups of people, mainly children, who were dirty and looked worn out. And those worn out children looked beautiful to me. I could see into them and see the worth that God had placed there. One of the larger pictures was of Edward with a bunch of dirty, ragged, probably smelly kids hanging all over him as he played the piano. His smile brightened up his whole face. I had never seen him smile like that before.

Apparently, Lauren hadn't either. Fortunately the waiting room had large pillars along the wall of photos. Just as I discovered Edward's picture, I heard yelling and knew it was Lauren.

"No Edward. You should have been honest with me. Spending all your hard-earned money on these people? And this place? No wonder you were so easy to catch and still single. I should have known. Now, I realize that this all happened before you met me, so I will give you another chance, choose this place, or me." My heart was pounding so hard, I knew that someone should have heard it. But I risked a peak around the pillar I hid behind. Fortunately neither one of them was facing me.

Lauren was furious, her face red with anger. Edward's face was blank. He had been bent slightly, trying to grab her arm and pull her back into a private office area. But when she gave her ultimatum, he straightened up and looked around the room.

In part of the room there were children playing with a large bunch of toys; they were ignoring the adults as most children do. Along another wall people sat, apparently waiting for different things like food, clothing, maybe to be admitted into the resident groups, some watching the children play with proud smiles on their faces.

I held my breath. I knew what the old Edward would have chosen. He would have chosen the hurting people. But since he'd started dating Lauren, he'd changed. I didn't know what he'd choose now. The people sitting in the room were looking at Edward, but trying not to. The receptionist stared at Lauren as if her hair were green or something. The silence in the room was very heavy.

Edward continued to look around the room, studying each detail, as if memorizing it while saying goodbye to it. I saw his resolve waver as he glanced back to Lauren. Her hands stayed on her hips, one slightly cocked in an attitude. Her glare never left his face, waiting for his answer.

I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the pillar. When I stepped out, I moved into Edward's line of vision. He didn't look surprised to see me. But his face was blank and hard to decipher. All of the indecision disappeared and was replaced by the hard mask I'd come to know as the new Edward. He looked at me a while then turned back to Lauren, his decision apparently made.

EPOV

I had finally had enough. Lauren had been in town for two months and hadn't left me alone one day. We were together all day every day. She only left me to go to her hotel to sleep and she'd even hinted that she wanted me to join her even there. That whole time I hadn't been once to the DayStar. The other administrators understood my girl troubles though, and were just glad that I had a girl to have trouble with.

They all loved me and wanted me to be happy. I had been set up with all of their friends and nieces and daughters. I also had had a few other dates. Most of them left me after they found out I spent most of my money and off time at the DayStar. With some of them I'd even taken to mentioning it in the first ten seconds of the date. With the ones I really wanted to continue seeing, I kept it to myself a while or downplayed my involvement. None of my co-workers liked the idea of me hiding my passion, I knew, but none of them ever approached me about it.

My co-workers understood my needing the time off, so they waited until I called them to do any business. In any emergency, they left messages for me on my cell phone. But they were definitely missing and needing me. The last message from my secretary made up my mind for me.

"Edward, I know that Lauren is important to you and all, but we really need you here. You will have to tell her sometime or other if you ever want the relationship to progress beyond the Inspiration. You will be much happier if you were up front with these girls first. Let them know about the DayStar and you will save yourself a lot of trouble. Anyway, please call me ASAP, preferably during business hours if possible."

Lauren had left me alone long enough to go to the bathroom and I checked my messages. By the time she came out, I'd decided it was time. Almost six months and I still wasn't completely relaxed around her. Not like I was with Bella. Man I missed her. Everything was all messed up now. Why couldn't I have just told Bella about the DayStar? And why was I so stupid as to go out with Lauren? It would have been easier just to be selfish and let things go where they would with Bella.

Now I'd been such a jerk that I didn't know if Bella would ever forgive me if I asked her. I'd really never found any redeeming quality in Lauren, but stayed with her as a distraction. It didn't work. She was fun, but was a little too much focused on kissing and physicality. And there was her annoying habit of texting me all during meetings and practices and complaining when I didn't answer her until after they were over. She didn't share my passion for politeness.

This little break changed my mind and made me give up. I had to tell her about the DayStar. It was time to get back to me. I'd missed me almost as much as I'd missed Bella.

"Lauren, listen I have something to tell you. I have enjoyed going out with you and getting to know you. But I haven't let you get to know all of me. So, I have something to show you." It was early in the day, and I knew that most of the DayStar guests would not come in for a while. I hoped that today wouldn't be a busy day with a lot of new homeless to register. Lauren would need to be acclimated slowly. She was from a rich family and was very prim and proper.

She kept asking where we were going. She was giggling and teasing and flirty. When we pulled up in front of the DayStar Children's Center, she got really quiet. We got out of the car and I led Lauren inside. Fortunately, there weren't very many people in the waiting area.

"Hi Mr. Cullen. Good to see you today," the receptionist said. There was a frosted door with silver lettering spelling out Edward Cullen- Administrative Director. We walked through, Lauren still silent.

"Edward-Glad to see you got my message. Hello, I'm Edward's secretary, Allison Trusty. You must be Lauren. Pleasure to finally meet you." She stuck out her hand to shake hands, but Lauren was too stunned. I gave Shelly an apologetic look, led Lauren into my office, and closed the door.

"Are you okay?"

"What is this?" Lauren squeaked out finally.

"This is the Florida DayStar Children's Center."

"Okay, I'm waiting for an explanation. Why did you bring me here? And why does everyone know you? And who in the world were all those smelly, dirty people?"

"Lauren, this is what I do during the off-season. Five years ago, I learned of a plan to build a DayStar here. I had visited the one in Los Angeles and fell in love with the homeless and the hurting. I wanted to help somehow. I already worked on Dream and decided to donate as much as I could to help. Ever since, I have given most of my time and money to the DayStar." I breathed in and continued.

"It is my passion and where my heart is. To help people, to love people, and serve them in whatever way I can. Here, I work with mainly children, teaching them to play instruments and such. Not to mention being an administrator. I work nine months a year to spend three months here."

"You spend all your money here? So you're not-"

"Yes, all of my extra money goes here. Every pay check."

"I just thought that you had modern tastes. Very simple. Well, now that we are together, that can change. You need to save your money to invest in your future. I mean they can't possibly need all your money now. Five years is long enough to get other sponsors. You could leave this position to another person and we'll just continue career on the Inspiration. I'll convince Daddy to give a few donations and they'd surely be okay with giving you up. We can get married and I can give your house a much needed woman's touch."

"Um, marriage? We've only been dating for six months."

"No matter. I wasn't meaning us to get married tomorrow. But it is inevitable. The only thing standing in the way is this place." I was silent for a long time. When I did speak, it was in a whisper first.

"I'm not giving up the DayStar."

"What?"

"I'm not giving up the DayStar." She flipped her hair behind her shoulder and spoke loudly.

"Well, it is either me or this place! I will not stay with you as long as you spend all your money here. It's either me or the DayStar." I tried to get her to calm down and lower her voice, but she just got louder, expecting me to cave at any time. She started personally attacking the DayStar people.

"I wish you had been honest and shown me who you really were before we started going out." I knew that was the wrong thing to say, but it slipped out. Right then she got so mad that she opened my office door and walked out.

"No Edward. You should have been honest with me. Spending all your hard-earned money on these people? And this place? No wonder you were so easy to catch and still single. I should have known. Now, I realize that this all happened before you met me, so I will give you another chance, choose this place, or me." I looked around at the people in the room. The children who were playing in the corner. Their faces were lit up and I knew they had never played with toys like those before.

The adults were trying to avoid looking our way. After years of being ignored and laughed at on the streets, they were used to it. And then Bella stepped out from behind a pillar. I tried very hard to keep my face blank, but my heart stopped. She was the reason I had gone through all this with Lauren. I never meant it to go this far or deep. But my heart told me that I still loved Bella. Now she knew about my secret life; how did she feel about it?

But I couldn't deal with that right now. I would come up with other ideas later. Her presence there was just a reminder about how much I'd changed in the past six months.

"I don't know what has come over me Lauren. You've changed me a lot since we started going out. And I hate the person I've become. These people are beautiful. And my place is here with them. Goodbye Lauren." I knew Lauren would be even madder when she saw Bella, so I went back into my office before she left. I couldn't deal with Bella right then. I had to calm down and rearrange my thinking. Lauren had screwed me up so much. I no longer even felt like playing the piano for fun.

BPOV

Lauren was breathing heavily with anger as she watched Edward turn and walk away. She heaved a few breaths and whipped around to leave. Instead she nearly ran into me.

"You. What are you doing here? I suppose you knew all about this? No wonder you two never went out. You were the smart one." She looked back towards Edward and stomped out the door. I looked at the closed door too. I almost left him alone. He'd not been very nice to me and now seemed pretty mad that I was there. But I couldn't just let it lie.

I waited a few minutes then went to the door where Edward and Lauren had come out. I went into the first door and there was a secretary at the desk.

"May I help you?" Her smile was strained as if she was personally affected by Edward's break up with Lauren.

"Mrs. Waters, I work with Edward on the Inspiration. My name is Bella Swan. I don't really want to disturb him because I just saw his break up-"

"No, Miss Swan. I don't think right now is the best time," she said, but I wasn't about to leave right then. The secretary must have been very close to Edward because a tear escaped her eye and slid down her cheek.

"Just tell Edward that if he needs me he knows where I'll be. And tell him I won't tell Alice about him and Lauren-I'll leave that for him." I quickly stepped over to Edward's private office door and said

"And Edward, I broke up with Jacob, too." I walked out before Mrs. Trusty could do or say anything to me. I was shaking as I walked to my car.

I abused myself all the way to the dock and through employee check in. I didn't know if it was wise to have just left like that or if I should have forced my way into his office. Should I have told him about me and Jacob? Should I have went ahead and told him I loved him still? I didn't want him to think I was trying to take advantage of the situation. And I really didn't know if anything had changed as far as he was concerned.

Did he have feelings for Lauren? Surely he'd loved her to date her for so long.

And as he'd said, he had changed a lot. He'd pulled away from Alice, and I knew they'd been very close. She said she knew he'd stopped going to DayStar meetings regularly, and that he was rarely at his off-season job because he spent all his time with Lauren.

As soon as I reached my regular room, I really pitched a fit. There was no way that he cared for me more now than before. He hadn't changed in that aspect, and I had probably just made things worse with him by witnessing his break up. Yeah, he said it was a mistake going out with her, but anyone can say anything in the heat of the moment.

I don't know what I expected from Edward and Jacob. They both avoided me for the first couple of days. More so than was usual for the first of the new season. There was a lot of work to do to get the ship winter sailing ready in addition to the regular repairs after the three month off-season. All three of us threw ourselves into the work. There was not even a chance of us running into each other. I had heard from someone that Jacob had requested that all three of us had different areas. His excuse was that we were too good of workers to be in one area—he thought we should be spread out.

Everyone knew that the first week was too hard to spend with friends so no one asked any questions about me and Jacob or Edward and Lauren. The first sign of trouble was at the first practice of the season. Edward was late and Lauren was not there. She had revoked her contract for the year. And we all knew that that meant that she couldn't work again for one more year. So she couldn't even return as a seasonal for a year and a half.

Then everyone started talking about Edward and Lauren. What could have happened to make her not want to come back? There were rumors about her being pregnant or Edward abusing her or that she ran off with a hotter guy or even that Edward and Lauren had secretly gotten married and he didn't want her to work so she was at home. Edward had never answered any personal questions so no one asked him.

However, apparently Lauren still talked to her friends who were on the ship. Shortly after the first practice, everyone suddenly knew about Edward's DayStar. Lots of girls that normally drooled over Edward avoided him. Well, except for those that were more interested in the female lead spot. I made a point to try to talk to him but never quite got to do so. I admired him for his stand. I just wished that I cared about something as much as he cared about his DayStar, but I couldn't seem to get the opportunity to let him know.

Something stirred in my heart when I thought about the children's center. All those people that Lauren had insulted. Their faces barely registered the hurt they must have experienced because of her words. Unless they were too used to hearing it that it didn't even register with their minds that they'd been insulted. They deserved better than that.