Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight...I own a Superman Bag.

Hurry

BPOV

My fingers wouldn't stop touching Edward's skin. The pads picking up on the infinitesimal changes as they travelled across anywhere I had access to. In a desperate bid to ignore the silence that had been swirling through the house for hours I had borrowed Edward's IPhone, buried the buds deeply into my ear canals and started molesting the sleeping topless vision of godliness laying on his front beside me.

Emmett had explained what had been told to them by Carlisle and Esme down in the kitchen whilst Edward had crushed himself into my side in silence, his gorgeous lips pouting out slightly. Questions had been answered for both of them, but as far as I could tell it had posed more even more that were desperate to be answered.

They had opened Pandora's Box down in the kitchen and it felt like my purpose in this twisting tale was to remind Edward of what was left when everything flees. I had to remind him there was hope left, hope that it would all work out, that in the end everyone would be safe.

My fingers stuttered across the scar on his back, the one that lived just beside the base of his spine. It had to be three inches long and it was old. It had that faded look that matched the two inch scar on my knee from when I fell off a float during a Thanksgiving Day parade when I was nine. I became fascinated with dragging my fingers across the shape of it. The edges were ragged from where it was sewn shut without much care.

Bored from staring at the ceiling my gaze shifted down to drink in his face. I jumped back slightly when I realised he was awake, his eyes crinkling with amusement and a lazy smirk gracing his gorgeous mouth despite the revelations of the day. Fingers plucked a bud from my ear and placed it in his own.

"Pearl Jam?"

"Eddie Vedder's voice does to me what no man ever could." His eyebrows disappeared into the hair that was swept across his forehead. He sat patiently when I fisted my hands into his hair so that I could fix it.

"I'd like to test that statement." His voice dropped so low that it vibrated throughout my body, he inched his face closer to mine.

"Is it not bad enough that I'm in your bed? I don't want to put your parents in an awkward position Edward."

"The rooms are soundproofed. And I know an awkward position that you would love." As he spoke his breath kissed against my face, my mind was telling me no but my body was responding to everything he did by inching me further down the bed until out faces were practically touching. I closed my eyes to collect myself and that's when his lips pushed onto mine.

"I wasn't ready. It's unfair to stealth attack me." I managed to mumble at him, his tongue glancing across my lips begging entrance to my mouth.

"You're not exactly fighting me off you know." Grinning at me he stopped his hand just as it was disappearing into my jeans. "I'll stop if you want."

"Like I'd ever want you to stop." Managed to escape my mouth in a sigh. "I've wanted this all day."

Fingers disappeared into my jeans without me having to say another word. My hips instinctively bucked up to meet his touch. His fingers should be cloned and made available to the women of the world; the way they play me like a piano is obscene. Before he could bring me anymore graphic pleasure I pushed his hands away. We'd had a full day of foreplay.

I was sick of foreplay.

Edward watched me struggle to undo the button and yank down the zip until he realised what I wanted, that the end goal was in sight. His fingers replaced my own and in seconds he was lifting my hips impatiently with his hands to slide them down.

Soft moans escaped my mouth every time he made contact with bare skin; my body was operating on a higher frequency, vibrating with need. I ripped off the rest of the clothes I was wearing and threw them away from the safe island of Edward's bed. I watched as he stood above me, unsteady slightly on the mattress, removing the last articles of clothing he wore.

My eyes tried to take in everything at once, tried to tell him how much I needed him, how much we both needed this right now but he knew already. The look on his face told me everything I needed. His eyes travelled down from the top of my head to the painted nails on my toes. His hands worked fast to slide a condom on. Taking in every detail of my body, he drank in the sight of me naked below him as greedily as I feasted on the sight above me.

The air crackled with the electricity of our connection. It was making us both drunk and excited and desperate. We paused, both so consumed with just looking at each other, until his foot brushed against my thigh. My arms reached up for him just as he started to drop down.

We were a tangle of limbs, of hands fisting in hair, of fingers digging into flesh, of moans mixing together as they drifted towards the ceiling. Lips, tongues and teeth clashed in a ferocious meeting of lust. We rolled and spun and moaned and groaned, his dick twitched against my thigh as his mouth claimed the peaks of my breasts.

I pulled on his hair to bring his face back up to mine, my legs wrapped around his waist and my hand reached down to grip his shaft to guide him in. He thrust into me with a frenzied push of his hips making my back arch and my breathing hitch.

Then we were still.

Neither of us moved. We watched each other. Sweat was beading on his forehead with the strain of supporting his body on just his arms. My hands stroked across his shoulders and down to his elbows, I pushed them out so that he collapsed on top of me. I wanted his full weight on top of me, to reassure me he was real, that he was with me in every way. Breath rushed out of me when his body crashed down onto mine.

"Shit, are you ok?"

"I needed to feel you on me."

Our eyes locked and he started to move again, his hips pulling away before pushing back with purpose. Within seconds we were thrusting against each other with abandon, our eyes never looking away, our foreheads a millimetre away from touching. With Edward inside me I felt safe, felt loved and felt the telltale signs of imminent orgasm. His panting became more laboured, his thrusts more urgent.

"Bella....Bella....mine." I could barely make out his words and I didn't care what he was saying. He could have told me he was Hitler reincarnated at that moment and I wouldn't have given a damn. "Fuuuuck...Bella...I'm gonna...mine...Bella's mine."

"Yours." I managed to gasp out in reply before I clenched down, pulsating around him, bringing him over the brink into the land of happiness that is called orgasm. With a final violent thrust into me he stilled, never looking away from my face as I continued to ride through the waves of pleasure lapping at my body.

His lips rained exhausted kisses across my face making me giggle and pull him closer to me.

"Shit. You are fantastic."

"Not so bad yourself." I replied. He was already almost asleep. Large hands dug under my body after he rolled off me and disposed of the condom to pull me closer to him. He tucked my head under his defined jaw and promptly fell asleep.

I woke first, the room was still black and I think I had only been asleep for half an hour. I could hear muffled music from somewhere so made it my mission to hunt down Edward's IPhone. I hopped off the bed, pulled on Edward's shirt and concentrated on finding the offending article. Edward moaned and rolled over onto his stomach, his body uncovered completely. Finally I found the thing and shoved the buds back into my ears.

I should probably go back through to the guest room. I didn't want Carlisle or Esme to find me in here in the morning. It was bad enough that I had allowed myself to be led in here earlier, not to mention the desperate copulation I had just indulged in. Having said that, I certainly wasn't feeling as tense as I had been. I took another look at Sleeping Beauty realising I couldn't leave without kissing him again.

Quietly I walked back over to the bed, scooping up my discarded clothes on the way. I pressed a kiss down onto his temple and let my fingers stroke across the scar on his back. Unable to resist I dropped my lips down onto it.

"Did you just kiss my scar?" His voice penetrated the silence of the room but I barely heard it over the music in my ears.

"Um, yes, I did."

"Why?"

"Because it's part of you." I turned to leave but his hand shot out from the bed to catch my wrist.

"Don't leave yet." At least he was acknowledging that I would have to go to the other room at some point before morning. I crawled back up on to the bed, put a bud into his ear and found myself enveloped in his embrace once again.

"How did you get that scar?" The question just blurted out of my mouth without prior warning. He tightened his arms around me slightly and sighed deeply.

"It happened when I was in care."

"Oh, I'm sorry, it doesn't matter." Quickly I retracted the question.

"No, don't worry, I'm going to tell you it all at some point anyway. Why not today?" He laughed without humour. "It seems like today is full of things I would rather forget. With the exception of a few shining moments of course. It's how I met Carlisle anyway, so it's an important story."

"All of your stories are important. You tell me about your scar and I'll tell you about mine." I smiled through the darkness.

"Deal." He released me and stood up to pull on a pair of pyjama bottoms. They hung low on his hips, the definition of his pelvis held my attention for longer than is considered polite. "Stop staring at me." He smirked.

"Sometimes I don't think you're real. I think that maybe I'm in some kind of heightened state of delusion, drugged up and tied down in a psych ward somewhere."

"You're crazy."

"See?" Chuckling he jumped up onto the bed to sit in front of me cross legged, I leaned back into the mountain of pillows, my feet sitting on the cross of his ankles. "I'll go first if you want?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Look at my right knee." I bent it up a little, his hands travelling up from my ankle not leaving the skin, which was highly unnecessary considering I was trying to pay attention to talking.

"Did you fall over?" His eyebrow raised in amusement. "Someone leave a matchstick lying about?"

"Well you obviously don't want to know the story then." I huffed.

"Sorry." He laughed, stroking his hands along my legs. "I'll be quiet."

"Renée was off on some spiritual retreat that I refused to go to, so I came to Forks for Thanksgiving. Charlie arranged for me to be the Princess on one the floats."

"Bet you loved that." He sniggered but stopped when he realised he had broken his promise of silence.

"Anyway, the dress was too long, I had to walk along and throw presents into the crowd. I tripped over the hem and tumbled off, straight onto the crowd." I laughed until I saw his face. "What?"

"That's where I saw you." A grin split his face. "I was there, you landed on me! Don't you remember? I knew I had to have seen you before!"

It came rushing back to me, the flashes of bronze and green as I refused to look at anyone. Catching a glimpse of the poor boy I had crushed under me when I was running away. I was convinced I would never forget him; the embarrassment burned into my mind would ensure that. Edward's hands quickly pulled me up by the hips until I was sitting on his lap; he crushed me in his embrace.

"I knew we weren't crazy."

"I never doubted it...ok that's a lie, but still."

"That's one mystery solved." He told my hair.

"Only about a million to go."

EPOV

At long last something made sense again. My original desperate justifications had proved to be right. I had seen Bella before. I knew that had to have been it. There was no way I would have been able to dream up someone as wonderful as the woman currently sitting on my lap and returning my hug with equal intensity.

Bella was right though, there were still a hell of a lot of mysterious still to be solved, but suddenly a big part of me didn't care. When she was with me I felt invincible. I felt like everything that went before paled into insignificance, the memories were beginning to fade and look like they belonged to someone else. It was beginning to not hurt when I thought about them.

"So, I was about to tell you about my scar before we discovered we weren't actually certifiable."

"You don't have to tell me, it's none of my business." We were still holding each other tightly; her hand had wandered down to it and started stroking across it. I loved that she loved every part of me, even the ugly parts.

"I want to tell you, I want to tell you everything. I also want to know everything about you."

"Compared to you there is nothing to tell Edward. I lived with my Mom, she married Phil, I moved to Forks, I met you...and they lived happily ever after?"

"If I have anything to do with it there will be the happiest ever ever after." I could feel her smile against my shoulder.

"I'm going to hold you to that."

"Good. So do you want to know?" I knew she did, the question would never have been asked if she didn't.

"You know I want to know everything."

So I told her.

About the day I realised that there was no one left to love me, standing in front of the coffins holding the remains of the two people who were meant to see me through life. There were only a handful of people around the graveside, and one of them was meant to take me to where I was going to live. Mrs Cope took my hand and led me away, she let me look back but kept my hand in her iron grip afraid that I was going to struggle and run.

I didn't.

I knew what was left for me now and there was no point in fighting it. It had been explained to me by the doctors at the hospital they wouldn't let me leave. I refused to speak or eat for a week after they died until I finally realised that it wouldn't bring them back to me.

Cope took me to the house, to my new home. She lived there with her husband and their son, plus another kid who was supposedly in their care. That kid was all kinds of messed up, he had been abused and discarded by more than one person in his life. He resented me coming in, resented the attention he perceived me to be receiving. Even though in reality I was just as ignored as he was.

We lived under a roof of tension and resentment, their real son was barely ever there, apparently being a biological relation doesn't guarantee you the love that's supposed to exist. I had to share a room with the other boy. He was worrying in general. Kept himself to himself, sometimes I would hear him mumbling to himself and staring at me but I could never make out the words.

One night we were all in the kitchen, we rarely had dinner together and I forget the reason we were that night. I don't know what I did, but the kid flipped. He grabbed the carving knife and just stabbed it into me.

"Holy Christ, that's crazy."

"I know. We had been living in the same room as each other for pretty much a year, the tensions were running high, we had been in a couple of fights but nothing serious."

"I sometimes resent the fact that I can't get my hair to sit right but I don't fricking stab it."

"I think that maybe, just maybe, there could be different scales of resentment Bella." I chuckled.

"I suppose." She conceded. "So, he stabbed you and then?"

"Mrs Cope was about to take me to the hospital but her husband stopped her. He said that if they took me they would be reported, they could lose the cash that was coming in. She wasn't bad, but they were poor and I think they had hoped they would get some of my inheritance for my upkeep or something."

"Money grabbing wankers." There was outrage laced through the words, I hadn't heard Bella be that vitriolic about anything.

"Yeah, I mean, it's an awful thing to be, but they were pretty desperate. So, he stabbed me and they wouldn't take me to the hospital. The husband pulled out a needle, sterilised it, pulled thread through it and stitched me up."

"That's barbaric."

"I know." Her fingers continued to run across the scar.

"And incredibly unhygienic."

"Yup, that's why it got infected."

"And that's how you met Carlisle?"

"Exactly. I blacked out at school, they couldn't get a hold of my guardians." She scoffed at the word guardians. "They took me to the nearest hospital and Carlisle was my doctor."

"Serendipity."

"I never took you for a hippy."

"Shut up and finish your story." She laughed.

"That's an oxymoron if ever I heard one."

"Ok then Mr Smarty Pants, continue."

"They thought it was flu for a while, at least that's the way it presented, but one of the nurses saw the wound and alerted the doctors. That's one of the very few times I saw Carlisle lose his temper."

"What did he do?"

"He pinned Mr Cope up against a wall by his neck and called him all sorts of bad words that I should never have heard."

Bella wriggled back off me and sank into the pillows behind her. My legs had gone numb twenty minutes ago but I didn't want to say anything because I liked holding her. Groaning I stretched my legs out, wincing at the feeling of the blood rushing back down them.

"I had to stay in the hospital for a while before I got better. I think Carlisle maybe stretched my stay out a little to make sure he had everything in order. He came in to see me one night with Esme. They told me they couldn't have children, and that Carlisle could see in me what they had hoped to achieve in a son."

"It sounds really formal."

"I think he wanted to put it across like some sort of business deal." I laughed. "Like he had read a "how to..." book on bartering for an adopted son. From the start they treated me less like a kid and more like a small adult. I figured anything had to be better than where I was. I went in a Mason and came out a Cullen."

"I wish I had known you then, been able to help you through it."

"I don't." I told her honestly. "I wouldn't have been able to love you the way you deserve. I was broken. We met at the perfect time Bella, I can love you now. I wouldn't have been able to before."

"Except that you hated me at first."

"I never hated you, I was just scared. You don't know what it's like, knowing that at any moment you can be told that you are leaving. Even though Carlisle and Esme promised this would be the last move I never believed it. I thought that I would just lose you like I lost everything else."

"I won't let you lose me. I'd be like one of those dogs that travel the country to get back to their owners. You could leave me at the Grand Canyon and I'd find you again." The words came out of her mouth with conviction, the look on her face contemplative as she imagined herself tracking me cross country.

"I'd never leave you behind in the first place."

Eventually Bella went back to the spare room. I was beyond giving a shit about what would happen if she was found in here in the morning, but she was adamant about not having Carlisle and Esme lie to her dad. I fell into a fitful sleep. Telling Bella about how I got that particular scar had stirred up some pretty potent memories that made themselves known in my dreams. It was the first time I hadn't dreamt of her when we were apart.

Glints of knives temporarily blinded me, I was walking around the mansion calling for something and desperate to get to it but I couldn't walk any faster. His face was grinning at me around every corner, taunting me to come and get him. Pictures I'd never seen before adorned the walls, everyone was in them.

Bella standing with Alice.

Me kissing Bella that first time beside her truck.

Jasper and Alice caught up in an embrace outside the school.

Emmett talking to Rosalie outside her house.

And others showing things I would never be privy to and made me wonder about my subconscious because it was making this shit up. I'd pay to have the images burned out of my head; no one needs to see their brother bent that way.

Rustling in my closet woke me up. I prised my eyes open to find Jasper half naked in my room. Quickly I shut them again and told myself I was dreaming. Why I would be dreaming that I have no idea.

"I saw you open your eyes."

Shit, he was really in my room.

"You could have got dressed before gracing me with your presence." I grumbled.

"I've got more clothes on than you did last night when I had to wrestle you to the ground."

"Sorry about that."

"Yeah, you said."

Finally I opened my eyes again and sat up; at least I was still wearing the pyjama bottoms I'd pulled on last night. He was rooting through my closet with abandon, discarding things left and right for not fitting with his clothing ethos.

"I need a shirt." He answered my unspoken question. "I'd take the Ramones one back but I'm pretty sure you and Bella got up to some naughty touching in it and I'd rather not think about either of you like that."

"Bella ripped her fingers through it anyway."

"When she was trying to calm you down?"

"Um...sure, yeah, that's when that happened." I tried to sound convincing but a smirk appeared on his face and I'm pretty sure he didn't buy it.

Finally he found a shirt that he could tolerate and yanked it on over his head. There was something on his mind. When Jasper is anxious he can't look at anything for longer than a second before his eyes dance onto the next thing. He was currently doing the eye dance with the CD's lining my wall.

"Is Bella alright?"

"Is Alice ok?"

We both spoke at the same time.

"Sorry, you go." I told him.

"Is Bella alright? I went in to see her but she was still asleep."

"You went in half naked?"

"Yeah, she's seen it before."

"What?!"

"We've been swimming before Edward, it's nothing untoward. You know how much I love Alice for god's sake."

"Sorry, I'm just...on edge." There was an irrational part of me that was jealous of Jasper for knowing Bella as well as he did. Sure I knew her better than him in some ways, but he has years of history with her. Even the irrational part of me knows that they are completely platonic, like siblings, but it doesn't stop the little pangs of jealousy that dart through me when Bella goes to Jasper instead of me.

"I know what you mean. Whoever is doing this is fucking with the people we love most in the world."

"It's going to stop Jasper. I mean, the police are involved now. Do you think Charlie is going to let this lie knowing that someone was in his daughter's room?"

"Good point."

"It's going to end. And we'll all make sure that our girls are ok."

BPOV

Alice bounced on the bed. My eyes were closed but I knew it was her. No one else in the world would risk the decapitation involved in waking me up before I woke naturally. Being obstinate I continued to pretend to sleep. There was a shift in the air above my face and it took every drop of discipline within me to not start giggling. I could feel her breath on my cheek, could just imagine the impatient frown on her face at me not waking up. Just as my patience was wearing thin and I was going to admit defeat I felt her tongue lick right across my cheek.

"What the fuck?!" I bolted up right, narrowly missing her retreating head with my own. "Did you just fucking lick me?!"

She had retreated to the bottom of the bed and was looking at me with wide eyed innocence.

"Nope, maybe you were having an Edward dream?"

"You're a shite liar." I rubbed my wet cheek with the palm of my hand and glared at her.

"It's not like I'm venomous." She retorted. "Besides, you wouldn't wake up."

"You didn't even say wake up to me, you just bounced on the bed then licked me. There is something very wrong with you."

"I knew you were faking." She grinned at me.

Rolling my eyes I dropped down onto my back. This bed was obscenely comfortable. The perfect amount of soft and hard. I need to ask Esme where she got it. That is if she wanted to talk to any of us. Last night's conversation would have been difficult for her. She might see me as the reason she can't take her sons to somewhere safe and I'd hate that. Not that they have ever been safe anywhere from the sounds of it. Alice crawled up the bed, lifted the covers and lay herself down under them next to me.

"I'm scared." She admitted. "Are you?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think so. I think that Charlie won't let anything happen to us. And neither will Edward, Jasper and Emmett."

"I'm not as strong as you are."

"Don't talk nonsense; you're stronger than you give yourself credit for. You're a force of nature." I gave her a reassuring hug just as someone knocked on the door and walked in.

"Hold it right there, I'll be back in a minute with a camera." Emmett sniggered. "This is better than the internet."

"Emmett what do you want?" I laughed. "Except to give us more of a reason to think that you only have one thing on your mind at all times?"

"Breakfast ladies, breakfast."

Alice and I forced ourselves out of bed and as soon as we walked into the hallway the smells of breakfast assaulted our nostrils. All of a sudden I was ravenous.

Having breakfast with seven other people was different, but it felt comfortable. It felt like it fit, like it was the most natural thing in the world and we had been doing it forever. Edward sat to my right, filling my plate with a bit of everything. It was like at lunchtime when you had to act fast before Emmett got a chance to claim everything. His plate was piled high with an assortment of the delicious things Esme had cooked up for us. It looked like she had been up for hours to prepare it.

"Thanks so much for breakfast Esme." I smiled tentatively over at her and she returned my smile with a hundred times more warmth than I was expecting.

"I didn't get much sleep. Cooking kept me busy."

"We thought that maybe you should all take the day off school today." Carlisle addressed the table, waiting for our reactions, as if expecting some sort of mini riot. There was no way we were going to refuse a get out of school card. When no one reacted he continued. "I'm going to go into work; Esme will be in the house if you need anything."

"Sounds like a plan." Emmett commented through a mouthful of bacon.

"Nice of you to consult us." Edward mumbled darkly under his breath. "Come on Bella." He stood up and waited for me. My fork was halfway to my mouth, pausing I looked up at him.

"I'm not finished." With a huff he sat back down. "Stop acting like a child." I muttered to him.

I understood his annoyance, but I wondered if he understood how much Esme and Carlisle were hurting right now. They had done what they had thought was best for them as a family and couldn't be blamed for that. It was obvious that they regretted their actions and wished they had talked to Edward and Emmett way before this. I hadn't seen this side to Edward before and it made me realise there was still so much to learn about him.

I took as long with breakfast as I could, the annoyance radiating off Edward in waves affecting everyone else at the table too. Finally I'd had enough and stood.

"Ready?" I quirked an eyebrow at Edward. He immediately stood up, took my hand and led me away from the table.

Where he was taking me I had no idea. We traipsed down a flight of stairs and then he stopped us in front of a door I thought was an airing closet.

"I need to show you something." I nodded, waiting for him to elucidate. "If anything happens in the house and I can't get you out..."

"Edward, stop. What's going to happen? There are eight of us; we are going to be fine."

"Please, Bella, indulge my concern for your safety." His green eyes searched my face, pleading with me to take him seriously.

"OK."

He pushed on a panel that sat flush with the wall; unless someone knew it was there you would never have stumbled across it. A small metal hinged door detached itself from the wall revealing another keypad.

"This is the panel to get out of the house if there are no other ways." He informed me. "I'm going to get you to put in a 4 digit number in a minute. Please don't forget it."

"You're giving me my own code to your security system? Surely Carlisle and Esme will have something to say about that."

"They know I'm doing it. They suggested it already."

"This is almost like you giving me your letterman jacket, class pin and asking me to prom."

"Welcome to the modern age." We smirked at each other. His fingers did a little Samba over the keypad making it beep and light up like a spaceship. "OK, put it in."

"Should I hide it from you?"

"Do you want to?"

"Nope." He watched as I pressed 2013, he smirked but didn't say anything about my choice when he pressed the button to save it.

"Right, try it." I pushed in the numbers and watched in amazement as the door beside us swung open noiselessly. "Perfect. Want to see?" He held out his hand to me grinning, his eyes shining. Nodding we walked hand in hand through the door, he pushed it shut behind us. There was no noise but I knew that if I tried the door it would be solidly static.

"The infamous escape tunnel? I thought you were joking." I admitted.

"Never joke about Cullen security, rule number one." He laughed. "Come on, it's a long walk to get out but it's worth it."

We walked for twenty minutes; there were slight curves and occasional sharp corners as we walked. The entire tunnel was made out of steel, it felt smooth under my fingers as I trailed them along it when we walked. Sporadic vents dotted the roof but apart from that the tunnel was sterile and non-descript.

We finally reached another door after walking for what felt like forever. Edward was practically bouncing with excitement when it came into sight. It was infectious.

"Why are you so giddy?" I laughed.

"This is my favourite place in Forks." He told me.

"This door?"

"No, silly, what's outside this door. It's beautiful and I wanted to share it with you. Put your number in." He nodded enthusiastically at yet another keypad. I did what he asked and the door opened just as quietly as the first one had.

The door had been built into the side of a hill, hidden by bushes and trees. Like the one in the house you would have had to know exactly where to look for it to find it. It looked like every other hillside in Forks. Trees as far as your eyes could see, mossy branches tilting down looking like they were ready to smack you in the face if you were out of line.

"Um, it's lovely." I tried to be as enthusiastic as he was.

"No, this isn't it. Come on." He pulled at my arm and walked off ahead of me up the hill.

Up the hill?

This could pose a problem of leg breaking proportions. I scurried up after him careful to not lose my footing and snap my ankle in two. Halfway up the hill he realised that I wasn't right behind him. He watched me in amusement as I skipped over barely noticeable holes in the ground lying in wait to incapacitate me. Finally I reached where he waited.

"As happy as I am that you are sharing something beautiful with me Edward I should remind you just how accident prone I am." Just as the words were out of my mouth I slipped on the wet grass and landed on my ass. "Ow." I was wholly unimpressed at this point.

"I forgot. I'm sorry." He picked me up easily. "Climb on." He crouched down in front of me, encouraging me to climb onto his back. Pride prevented me from clambering straight on; I waited a beat before finally conceding.

"If I'm too heavy just put me down."

"Are you crazy? You weigh next to nothing." His hands curled under my thighs before he took off again.

I could feel him labouring for breath the higher we climbed; it surely couldn't be much further? It would have taken me while but I would have made it at some point today without his help. Resting my head on his shoulder I closed my eyes until a sudden burst of sunshine shone straight down onto us.

"Are we there yet?" I asked.

"Yup." His hands released my legs and he waited patiently whilst I stood myself upright. Once he was sure I was steady he took a couple of steps away from me. "Look." He gestured expansively around him.

He was right, it was beautiful.

At the very top of the hill stood a meadow of sorts. Wind whipped across the top of the lush thick grass the exact green of his eyes. The grass was overgrown, offering a thick cushioned blanket ripe to be sat on, the wind made it ripple and look like it would be soft to touch, like fur. Clusters of wild flowers grew across it, polka dotting it with vivid colour. Trees enclosed the body of the meadow, making it seem like the most private place on earth.

"Do you like it? I used to come up here when I needed to think."

"It's stunning."

"I used to think so." He frowned a little. "But now that you are standing here it pales into nothing." He took steps towards me and kissed my bashfully smiling mouth.

"You think you're so smooth." I giggled.

"Seems to be working." My fingers ran through his thick hair, tilting his head so that I could kiss along his jaw and down his neck. His hands cupped my ass, lifting me so that I could wrap my legs around his waist. Slowly he walked us over to the line of trees.

"You are not doing me up against a tree Edward Cullen."

"Oh, come on, it'll be hot."

"Bark in my ass is not hot."

"I knew I should have brought a fucking blanket." His lips worked across my neck in a last ditch effort to persuade me and it would have worked if I hadn't twisted my head to the side so that he could graze my earlobe with his teeth.

Something caught my eye.

"Do people camp up here a lot?" I mumbled, distracted by his tongue working across my lips, trying to act outraged at him wanting to have sex in a known camping spot.

"No. Carlisle owns the land, I don't think it's legal."

"Why is there a tent then?"

"What?" His body tensed in my arms, his mouth paused above my collar bone and his head finally turned to look at what I saw.

A tent was sitting just past the line of trees that circled the clearing. After letting me down we walked over to it. Edward called hello but no one answered. He popped his head through the opening of it but pulled out quickly screwing his nose up.

"It stinks in there."

Scattered around the tent was a camping stove, a ring of stones containing a burnt out fire and various cooking utensils that obviously hadn't been washed in a while.

"It could have been here for years." I told him. "When was the last time you were up here?"

"I came up the weekend we came home, it wasn't there then. It looks like someone has been living here." His face was creased in thought, the sudden apprehension I saw making me nervous.

"What do we do?" I whispered just as we hear twigs breaking not far from us. He immediately crouched down in front of me; pride wasn't a factor this time as I practically leapt onto his back. We were in motion seconds later.

"We need to go."

I craned my head back to look at what was behind us, no one was in sight yet and the rate Edward was running us both down to the hidden door made it unlikely that I would see anyone. Turning my head back to rest it on his shoulder my eyes once again locked onto something.

Clear, calculating bright blue eyes appraised me until Edward moved us beyond the curve of the hill.

"Hurry."

A/N: and so we reach the end of another chapter....I sincerely hope that you enjoyed it and if you did would welcome a review...I've had a truly awful week and reviews cheer me up no end and make me want to write quicker too.

I calculated that 1 out of every 125 hits has generated a review....I'm an Accounts student - I'm all about the calculations...so if you are that 1 person out of the 125 hits then I love you.

Platonically of course...unless you are male and have a jaw that rivals Rob Pattinson in the rugged sexy stakes....in that case we should talk.