A/N: Sorry it's been forever.

Edward's POV

I turned sharply, running back to her side. Charlie was standing awkwardly off to the side, taking in the scene unfolding before him.

"Bella," I breathed, kneeling at her side once more.

Her blackened eyes were opening hesitantly; the light was probably hurting her. I spoke quickly to Carlisle and he dimmed the harsh, bright lights.

"Edward?" She questioned again, and started to stir. I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, stopping her from sitting up.

"I'm here Bella, I'm here."

"Where am I?"

"Bella, you're at the hospital. Don't worry, Carlisle's here."

She frowned and then winced hard as she did. Running a hand over her bruised and swollen lips and black eyes, she looked at me questioningly. "What happened?"

She didn't remember? I looked at Carlisle in disbelief.

"Edward?" She prompted again in her beautiful, yet pitifully weak tone.

"Uh . . ."

Luckily, Carlisle interceded for me.

"Bella, wait right there, I need to speak to Edward and Charlie for a moment."

She nodded.

I followed Carlisle into the hallway.

"What's going on? How could she not remember what happened?"

"Well," Carlisle looked at us gravely, "I think that the most likely thing that occurred is amnesia. The blows to her head probably caused a slight short term memory loss."

"Amnesia," Charlie whispered to himself.

"What other explanation could there be?"

Edward, I could hear his hesitation in his mind, I think it's probably the first theory.

I shook my head stubbornly.

He sighed in defeat.

"It could be her mind's defense mechanism."

I could see from the look on Charlie's face, he didn't understand. Carlisle saw it too.

"When traumatic events occur, if it's bad enough, the mind blocks the memories in an attempt to preserve and heal itself."

The pain seeped back into my mind. I could hear the one word being repeated over and over again in Carlisle's mind. He couldn't have known he was doing it. Every time I heard it, I died a little more. Torture.

"How long will she not have her memory?" Charlie asked.

"Well, it's hard to estimate a specific time. It depends mostly on the person. It could take months and weeks, or she could regain it all in a matter of minutes."

I hoped vehemently that she never regained those awful memories. I hoped that she forever forgot.

One Day Later

Bella's POV

I was dreaming, I could tell I was dreaming, though I couldn't seem to wake myself up, hands were running over my body and I felt disgusted. What was happening? What was going on?

"Bella, Bella, wake up!"

The instant my eyes opened, I remembered everything.

The horror, those eyes, their hands, the feel of it. Everything.

I looked at Edward and burst into tears.

In an instant, he was holding me, comforting me.

"I'm so sorry Edward," I sobbed into his chest as he held me.

He stiffened and pulled away, a dangerous look on his face. "What did you just say?"

"I'm so sorry for letting you down, for not being strong enough." I didn't know if he knew, or how much he did, but the guilt was eating me alive. "I couldn't believe it at first. I'm so terribly sorry."

He pulled away from me. He was through with me, I could tell from the look on his face.

"Bella-"

"Stop Edward," I said in a disheartened tone, "I understand, and I was thinking the same thing. I already figured it out for myself."

"Figured what out?" His voice was deathly low.

"Well, you wouldn't want to—want to," I choked back the lump rising in my throat, "be with someone tainted like me."

Edward's POV

She was having a nightmare and I had one guess what about. She was writhing and saying "no, no, no," over and over again.

"Bella, Bella wake up!"

She opened her eyes and I could tell she knew. She remembered what had happened. It broke my heart to see the utter despair in her eyes. When I found whoever did this to her . . .

She burst into tears, crying loudly.

I gathered her to me gingerly. My poor Bella, she shouldn't have to go through this.

"I'm so sorry Edward," I heard her say as I held her. I stiffened.

Why would she be apologizing to me?

"What did you just say?"

"I'm so sorry for letting you down, for not being strong enough. I couldn't believe it at first. I'm so terribly sorry."

I pulled away from her. How could she say that about herself? What could she have possibly done? This wasn't her fault, it was his fault. And he would pay.

"Bella-" I tried to comfort her but she cut me off.

"Stop Edward, I understand, and I was thinking the same thing. I already figured it out for myself."

"Figured what out?" She was acting abnormal. Where was she going with this?

"Well, you wouldn't want to—want to, be with someone tainted like me."

I felt like I had been hit by a truck. A strange ache resonated in my heart. She thought that I didn't want to be with her.

I closed my eyes. "Bella, how could you say something like that?"

She looked away from me. "Because it's true."

"Hey," I gently turned her face to look at me. "Nothing will ever change how I feel about you." She opened her mouth. "Nothing."

"This was not your fault, not a minute of it, not a single detail. I won't have you saying anything derogatory about yourself anymore. Do you hear?"

Tears were glistening in her eyes. "Do you really mean that?"

I smiled for the first time in days. "Yes Bella, I will love you forever."

"Thank you."

I heard the footsteps coming. "Charlie's going to be here in a minute," I told her in warning. She started to panic, and her heart rate started to accelerate.

"Relax Bella, relax," I tried to soothe her.

"Does he—does he know?" she choked out.

Grimly I shook my head. "Carlisle told him when he found out."

She hid her head in shame.

I hated him, whoever he was with every inch of my being. How someone could do something like this to someone as innocent and pure and good as Bella . . .

"Bella," I whispered, "it's fine, it's going to be fine."

She just shook her head.

Then Charlie came.

What's wrong with her, he looked over at me, I swear, if that boy had anything to do with her being upset . . . oh, she must have remembered.

"Uh, hey Bella," Charlie said awkwardly.

I cringed mentally, she didn't need people to be awkward with her, she needed people to be normal with her, to show her that she wasn't changed by this, that she was still the same person.

"Hey Dad," she replied softly, a blush filling her pale, bruised face. For once, the sight of her blush didn't give me happiness.

"So Bella did you—uh, did you remember anything?"

I watched helplessly as a shiver passed through her broken, delicate body.

"Yes."

"Okay, well . . ."

How am I going to tell her this? The kid's always been great, never caused me a lick of trouble. She's almost always been respectful, except when it came to that boy. Why would someone do this to her. She didn't do anything to deserve this. And now I have to humiliate her further by making her retell her story to make an official report. The poor kid, I hate having to do this to her.

"Bella, you've got to help us make an official report on what happened then."

Her eyes widened and then turned to me, pleading.

I shook my head sadly. "Bella, we have to know." And I especially needed to know, so I could hunt him down. The police wouldn't stand a chance.

She exhaled in dejection and turned to Charlie. "When?"

Whoa, I expected her to fight this, either she doesn't have the will to fight me, or that boy's got one hell of an influence on her.

"I had to call Port Angeles PD to have them send someone over. It was in their jurisdiction, so…" Charlie drew off and seemed to regain himself, trying to draw up some of his professionalism. "I was making giving him my statement. There's an officer waiting outside now."

"That soon," she whispered in desperation.

He nodded. "That way it's fresh in the vict—in your memory and you can get it over with."

I heard Carlisle's thoughts before Charlie went to notify the officer.

"Charlie, I think Carlisle should probably be in before she makes her statement, okay?"

He nodded, "I'll tell him to wait a couple of minutes."

Bella's POV

Carlisle walked in after Charlie left.

"Hello Bella," he said kindly, as he walked into the room.

"Hi Carlisle," I said quietly.

"Bella, now, you understand that you have some very serious injuries, correct?"

I nodded.

"You have two broken ribs, a severe concussion, contusing basically everywhere, a sprained wrist, a sprained knee . . ."

I shuddered as the image came to me, of the man twisting my leg until it popped.

I continued to shudder until Edward hugged me.

I relaxed in his grip.

"It's okay Bella, it's okay."

Carlisle looked appreciatively at Edward.

"Now Bella, I need to ask you some sensitive questions. Would you rather I asked you, or another doctor."

"You," I said. I didn't want anyone else to know what happened.

"And do you want Edward to leave?"

Edward looked at him as though he was saying 'over my dead body.'

"No, I want Edward to stay." I turned to him. "If you don't mind."

"Of course Bella, I was planning on staying. I want to be with you. I'll try to help you through this."

I really didn't deserve this level of devotion, not after what I was.

"Okay, you were sexually assaulted, correct."

"Yes."

"Was a condom used?"

I tried to think back, then I tried to repress the thoughts.

"No, I don't think they used one."

"THEY?" Edward jumped up off of the chair he'd moved beside the bed. "What do you mean they?"

"Uh, I-I-"

His eyes were a frightening shade of black now, and even Carlisle looked taken aback. Obviously they had thought it was just one person.

"Calm down Edward."

When Edward didn't respond, or calm down, Carlisle pushed him into a chair.

"There was more than one," I said quietly, now completely mortified.

Carlisle wrote something else on his chart and looked me squarely in the eye.

"I've already taken some tests to see if you contracted any diseases; the results should be back in a few hours."

I swear my heart stopped. I hadn't even thought about that. What if I had an STD or something? What if I was even more tainted than I had thought?

"And Bella," he was talking gently as if he knew he was going to upset me, "there is the possibility that you could be pregnant."

I felt like I was going to black out. Black spots swam in my vision as Carlisle's faze got blurry and his words sounded fuzzy. They echoed as if spoken far away.

"Bella, Bella, stay with me."

Edward's POV

I could tell Bella was losing consciousness. I ran my hands over her face and told her to breathe deeply.

"Did you really think right now was the best time to inform her of that Carlisle?" I said angrily.

He looked at me sadly.

Edward, just because you don't want to believe it could happen, it could have. She had a right to know about the possibility.

It killed me to think of Bella being pregnant. She couldn't be. If she wasn't, she could move on with her life and we could put this behind us, but if she was pregnant . . .

Slowly, she came back to us, and after asking her a few more, less horrifying questions, Carlisle left and the officer came in.

He looked at me. He was young and cocky looking, and I didn't like him from the moment I saw him. He seemed to falter a couple of moments in opening up his tape recorder and placing a new tape in. Very young, it seemed. I decided to close my mind to his thoughts. My control was hanging on by a weakening thread and I didn't trust it. I didn't want to hear anything out of his mind. I just wanted to concentrate on Bella.

"I'm Russell Cramer from the Port Angeles Police Department. I'm here to take your statement miss," he flipped through a couple of papers, "Swan."

He seemed calculating in the face of her distress. It grated on Edward at the boy's lack of affect. What kind of an unemotional, harsh officer had they sent?

He looked at me as he pulled a chair up to Bella's bed.

"Your boyfriend's going to have to leave, and your father opted to not be with us during the statement."

Bella grasped onto my hand in a death grasp.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said firmly.

"You are going to have to leave," he said, looking bored.

I gave him the most brutal look I could manage, which was usually quite effective on Mike Newton.

"I'm staying," I ground out.

"I'm not saying anything without Edward," Bella said. I was proud of her firm tone.

"Fine," Russell said dismissively, "Let's just get started. From the beginning."

"I was shopping in Port Angeles and I walked out of the mall, the one on Fourth Street, when I ran into some people."

"Did you know them?"

I saw her frown. "Well, not really, I mean yes-"

Russell's interest perked up and he pressed her, for the first time seeming eager. "Did you know them or not."

I fought to contain my growl. "She's trying to explain that to you."

"Um, I ran into them one time before."

Who was she talking about?

"They were following me when I was in Port Angeles two years ago."

Oh no. Not them.

"And what happened?"

"They didn't have a chance to do anything, Edward," she nodded to me, "came and saved me."

He eyed me suspiciously. "A regular hero."

I wanted to snap his pencil holding hand.

"Anyway, I realized who the first man was right off and tried to walk away, but . . . but they each grabbed one of my arms and forced me into a van."

"Describe the van."

"It was gray and had four doors."

"That's it?"

Bella looked at me helplessly.

"Hey," I said in a dangerously angry tone, "if that's all she saw, that's it."

Cramer frowned. He didn't like my interference. I failed to care.

"And one of the men jumped in the back with me and the other one got in the driver's seat."

"Describe the man."

She gave a generic description of the men, I, of course, had a picture perfect memory of them, but I didn't need to give a description. I didn't plan on letting police handle this matter.

He seemed pleased with the description and I was curious. It wasn't particularly helpful. I opened my mind to catch his thoughts, but Bella's obvious distress at his next questions distracted me and I closed off again.

"What then?"

She hesitated, obviously embarrassed.

"We drove for maybe an hour and arrived at-"

"Did the men say anything or do anything while you were in the van?"

A spasm went through her. "Yes," she said softly.

"Then you'd best say it now. Everything that was said or done needs to be put in the report and if you can't tell me, how do you think you're going to stand trial?"

"Listen, this is hard on her," I started furiously, angry at the way he seemed to be enjoying this part of the interview too much, but Bella silenced me.

"No, he's right, they need to know everything. The guy in the back of the van with me, they called him Lenny, he pulled me onto his lap and asked me if I remembered them. I wouldn't answer him and he—he, he started touching me."

She let out another shudder.

I tried to hold back the wave of fury that erupted within me at her words.

"Where?"

"What," she asked, looking more horrified and embarrassed.

"Where did he touch you?"

"Um, he started to; started to, touch my chest."

"Fine, what then?"

The officer had better watch himself. It was certainly the right decision to not listen to his thoughts. I wouldn't have been able to control myself based on the look on his face. I would be calling the PD myself to check in on the miscreant.

"Then the driver, his name was Stan, told the other one to not . . . damage the goods." She closed her eyes tightly. I couldn't even imagine how hard this was for her.

"And he said he wouldn't, and then we got to the building. It was dark outside and I couldn't make out much, there were steps and the door was rusted. There were four locks on their apartment door. There were three other guys inside and they recognized me from the night two years ago. Then, the one called Stan pulled me into a room. He turned on the light and asked me if—if I was s-still a virgin." She started crying now. I took a tissue and wiped at her face, soothing her sobs.

"Shh . . . Bella, it's going to be fine. You're almost done."

She took an unsteady shuddering breath, trying to gain an ounce of composure and failing utterly. I wished this would just end for her. Most all, however, I wished that all the test results would come back negative.

"I-I told him no, but he said . . . said that I had it a long time coming. Then he-he-he-he," the shudders came back.

I tried to rub her shoulders comfortingly, aware of the sensitive bruises on her back.

"What?" the cop prompted.

I gave him a look of pure loathing.

"She will take just as long as she needs and you won't be saying another thing until she's done."

"Okay, ah," he cleared his throat and finally took on a more professional undertone, "go on."

"He well, he-he did it," she finished miserably her voice barely audible, even to me, keeping her eyes trained on the doorway. If I could have switched places with her, I would have. I should have prevented this. I above anyone else should have been able to protect her.

The cop laughed shortly. "'Did it?' Listen sweetheart, you gotta say it, did he, or did he not rape you?"

She winced. "He r-raped me."

"And did he say anything that came to mind while the action was going on?"

She looked petrified. This had gone far enough.

"Okay, I think we're done here."

"No, I-no, Edward go outside, I need to finish up here, just wait in the waiting room." I was so surprised when Bella said that that I froze, staring at her.

"What?"

"You heard her kid, get on, we're almost done."

"Are you sure?"

"Go on," she urged, "and don't listen."

Her eyes were pleading with me. I wanted to stay, I didn't want to leave her with this excuse for a human being, but I didn't want to upset her more.

I stared at her solemnly.

"Okay."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

Then I walked out and promptly closed the door and took a seat beside the room, clearly within audible range. I needed to know.

A/N: Okay, well that was way longer than I thought it would be. I hope you liked it. Review and tell me please!