Disclaimer: I own a lot of stuff, but not Twilight.

A/N: You guys are the best! I love getting your reviews. Especially when I'm at work. They liven up my night. So this chapter has some info, some drama and some lovin'. By the way, all my crime speak in here is going off of crime shows that I've watched, and I'm sure I embellished some. Of course I did. So, don't yell at me if it's wrong. BTW, I had to redo this chapter because I wrote the first 6 pages from BPOV before I realized it was Edward's turn. He was not happy with me. As a result, he wanted to play some D&D (Dungeons and Dragons for those that don't know). Are you ready to get your nerd on?

Design For Life

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."~ Cicero

EPOV

Last week had been interesting to say the least. I'd had my job interview on Wednesday with Jared and Paul and surprisingly it had gone well. I'd been so nervous, and I was sure that they could tell.

"So, Edward. Why do you want to work in a comic book store?" Jared had asked me.

And in true Edward Cullen fashion I blurted out, "Because I'm a nerd."

Yeah. Not one of my finer moments. I dropped my head into my hands to hide my face and the blush that had taken over. Thankfully, both of the guys had laughed. After that things went a bit more smoothly. By the time my lunch hour was over, I had been offered a job which I readily accepted.

"Let's get in touch sometime next week to go over the finer details," Paul had said.

"Sure. What day works best for you?"

"We've got meetings all week, except for Monday and Wednesday night," Jared said.

"Yeah, but we have D&D on Monday night," Paul interrupted.

I perked up a bit. I hadn't played D&D in years. "You guys play?"

"Yeah. You?" Jared asked me.

"Not since college."

"We can always use another person or two. Let me talk to the others and maybe you can join us for a game on Monday night."

"I've got plans with my girl this Monday," I told them.

"Oh, yeah. Bella's awesome. I've met her briefly. See if she wants to play and let us know."

We shook hands and said our goodbyes. The minute I got back to the library, I sent Bella text. She called me a little bit later, and I filled her in on my good news. She was ecstatic. Heck, she even squealed which had me cracking up.

On Sunday we'd had brunch with my folks, and Bella had informed me how hot it was when I was arguing with Jasper about who was cooler, Wolverine or Iron Man. Obviously, it was Iron Man. An idiot would realize that. And on the way home, my sweet girl had asked me to move in with her. I was thrilled. I was going to be living with my girl all the time. We spent the early part of the week, moving most of my stuff in. I'd been appalled at the lack of order on her bookshelves. I quickly fixed that.

By the time Tuesday night rolled around, we were all anxious to hear what Mark had to say. I just hoped he had something good to say. Like, Caius had been caught. I had a feeling that was wishful thinking.

I had just finished rearranging the DVDs by title and genre when the front door opened and Bella came in followed by Jake and Seth.

"How's it going, Little Cullen?" Jake called as he walked into our kitchen, making himself at home.

"I'm doing pretty good all things considered," I told him before turning to Bella. "Bella?"

"Yeah, babe?"

"I've put the movies in alphabetical order by genre. Do not mess it up or there will be heck to pay," I warned her.

She rolled her eyes. She'd purposely put some books away in the wrong place to see what I would do. I was on to her. I'd had to tickle her as punishment. Which had led to some activities between the sheets. That had been fun.

By the time seven arrived, so had everyone along with several large pizzas. Mark stood in the middle of the living room and began to tell us what he'd learned.

"Demitri sang like a bird," Mark began. "Here's what we've learned so far. He met Laurent in New York at a party that Laurent's employers had dragged him to. Within a few days, Laurent was looking for a fix. According to the Denali sisters, whom the New York P.D. have talked to, they had to let Laurent go because he was tweaked all the time and couldn't do his job. After Laurent lost his job, he went to Caius and became a drug runner for him. Not the best of decisions."

"I'll say," Bella muttered.

"Within a month, Laurent was so far in debt to Demitri, that Demitri stopped selling him drugs. Laurent got furious and beat the shit out of Demitri. Demitri, in return, hired a few people to get his money back from Laurent. Long story short, Laurent stole drugs from Caius in order to pay off Demitri. However, Caius believes that Demitri and Laurent were in it together, so Caius ordered a hit on both of them. The minute Demitri got wind of it, he booked it, figuring that if he could find Laurent and bring back the drugs then Caius might let him live."

"Idiot," I mumbled.

"Demitri tracked Laurent back to Forks. He confronted Laurent, asking him where the drugs were, but Laurent refused to say, just telling Demitri that the drugs were hidden in a safe place."

"Why did Laurent come back here?" Bella asked. "He had to have known I wouldn't take him back."

"We're not sure. All we can figure is that he thought you might forgive him or at least give him a place to lay low for a while. Obviously, you didn't so he had to find somewhere else to go. Demitri said that Laurent had been camping out on First Beach.

Meanwhile, Demitri got a call from one of his people telling him that Caius had sent someone out here to get rid of the problem. He thought that Laurent had probably hidden the drugs somewhere on First Beach, but decided to wait until the coast was clear to look for them. A few days later, Demitri learned that Laurent had been murdered and that Caius was furious that his drugs hadn't been recovered."

"And Caius figured that Demitri had them?" I asked.

Mark nodded. "Yep. Demitri was hiding out in Port Angeles, but when he saw Heidi poking around near his motel, he took off to Seattle. He knew that she had been sent down to kill Laurent and then him. One of Demitri's guys said that Caius is furious that Heidi was unable to recover the drugs, and he's on his way here. When he arrives, he's going to realize that we have both Demitri and Heidi if he doesn't know already."

"Fuck, this is bad," Bella said, tugging on her braid.

"Yes, it is. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of man power to spare. That being said, I will have one of my deputies watching you at all times, Bella. Caius knew that Laurent dated you and chances are good he's going to come looking for you."

"Is the F.B.I. involved in this at all?" Dad wanted to know.

Mark nodded. "They are. There are two agents questioning Demitri and Heidi at the moment."

"Well, can't they put Bella in a safe house?"

"At the moment, they don't feel that Caius is a threat to her."

"I don't want to go to safe house," Bella protested. "I'm not going to let some fucking asshole keep me from living my life."

I took her hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. I knew she was scared and angry. I was, too, but if there was a way to get her into a safe house I was darn sure going to make sure she went.

At around nine, everyone left, leaving Bella and myself alone. I was worried that her nightmares were going to come back. Last night had been the first night she hadn't had them, but I had a feeling that Mark's information was going to bring them back in full force.

Unfortunately, I was right. I woke up several times during the night to a screaming, crying Bella. It tore my heart out to see her like that. I wished that there was something I could do to help her, and I told her so.

"Your just being here helps. More than you'll ever know," she told me, curling up against my side.

I held her close, pressing kisses everywhere I could reach. I wanted to make her forget her nightmares, if only for a little while. I gently rolled her over until she was on her stomach, then I straddled her back. I didn't have any lotion nearby, but I could still give her a massage. She was so tense, and I hated seeing her that way.

Before long she was wiggling, moaning, and letting out little breathy, sexy sounds that were driving me crazy. Which was probably her plan. I placed gentle kisses along her spine while trailing my hands up and down her sides. She arched her back, giving me an idea. We'd made love in several different positions, but I'd never had her from behind. The idea had definite appeal. Gently, I hauled her up on her knees, reaching underneath her to palm her breasts.

"Hmmm," she moaned as my hands cupped her.

I cupped, molded, and tugged on those wonderful breasts, enjoying the reactions I was getting out of her. She pressed her delectable behind onto my groin, causing me let out a low moan. I needed her. With one hand still holding a breast, my other traveled down until I found her warm and wet center. Slowly, I dragged my finger through her folds until I found her nub. Gently I began to rub it, enjoying the sounds that she was making. Within moments, Bella was moaning and crying out my name.

"Edward! I need you inside of me," she said, after coming down from her high.

Who was I to say no? Positioning myself, I thrust into her, groaning. I loved the way she felt around me. So warm, and tight, and slick. Oh, I loved the position we were in. Thrusting harder and faster, I reached down and flicked her little nub, causing her to scream out my name.

"God, Bella. I'm so close," I growled against her neck.

"Come for me, Eward," she commanded.

And I did. There was no way I could refuse her.

By the end of the week, we were both tired and stressed. She was still sleeping poorly as was I, and she felt horrible about it. She even offered to sleep on the couch. There was no way I was letting her do that.

"Sweet girl, you're not sleeping on the couch. I want you here with me," I told her.

"But you're not getting any sleep! If I slept downstairs then you would at least get a decent nights' sleep."

"No, I wouldn't. I would be worrying about you. I'd much prefer you be here with me. If you have a nightmare I can wake you up from it."

Finally, she relented and agreed to stay in our bed.

I was happy to say that I was officially all moved in to our house. Our house. I got a little thrill out of saying it each time. I'd honestly never allowed myself to believe that I'd ever have a girlfriend, much less one I had moved in with. Sometimes, it was overwhelming, but in a good way.

Friday night, Jared called me to let me know that he, Paul, and a few other guys were planning a game for Saturday night. He asked if I wanted in and if Bella wanted to join us. I figured it would be a great distraction and take our minds off of things for a bit.

"Hey, sweet girl?" I asked, after I got off the phone with Jared.

"Yeah?"

"Want to go play some D&D tomorrow night?"

The look on her face was comical. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Why? Afraid to get your nerd on?" I teased.

"I've never played before. What if I suck at it?"

I shrugged. "Then you suck at it. Please, please, please," I begged.

She let out a laugh. "Fine. I'll go. But nobody better make fun of me."

If anything, she was going to end up making fun of us. Some people really got into D&D. I enjoyed it, but I didn't let it consume my life.

Heading upstairs to our little office area, I grabbed some of my D&D books off the shelf as well as some character sheets. We both needed to make characters. I walked back down to the living room and handed her a sheet as well as a book.

"What's this?"

"A character sheet. Start filling it out. This book will tell you all you need to know about different races and classes."

We spent the next hour filling out our sheets and coming up with background stories for our characters. I was going to be playing a human ranger named Thane while Bella had decided on playing a half-orc, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why.

"Why a half-orc? I don't think I've been in a group with one," I said.

"Well, then all the more reason to. I feel bad for them. It seems like no one likes them."

"Okay, so what class are you playing?"

"I want to be a barbarian. I want to kick some ass."

And thus Myven, the half-orc barbarian was born. I had a feeling it was going to be an interesting game.

Saturday afternoon, we headed over to Jared's apartment and were introduced to the other players.

"Edward! Bella! Glad you guys could make it," Jared said after letting us in.

He led us over to the kitchen table, and we sat down across from Paul.

"Guys, this is Edward and Bella. Edward and Bella this is Colin and Brady. Brady's our DM."

"What's a DM?" Bella whispered to me.

"Dungeon Master. He's the game organizer and in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure."

"Basically, I'm the guy you don't want to piss off. I have the power to kill your character," Brady said with a grin.

"Ah, gotcha. Don't piss off the DM. See. I'm learning already."

I handed her a bag of dice and watched as she dumped them onto the table.

"Why in the world do I need so many dice?"

"There are different dice for different things. You see that 20-sided one? It's called a D20 and it's your main die. You'll roll that for a lot of your skills or to see if you hit something during a fight. Depending on your weapon, you'll roll either a D6 or D10."

She looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language.

"You'll get it once we start playing."

After we were all seated, Brady quickly explained things to Bella. He explained that our campaign was starting off in the city of GreyHawk. Jared, Colin, and Paul's characters were already in a party together, so Brady quickly introduced our characters to the party. It was explained to us that we could join the party and help stop the city from being overrun by demons.

"This is so nerdy," Bella whispered in my ear.

I snorted. She had no idea how much nerdier it was going to get.

After an hour, introductions between characters had been made, and we were ready to start our quest. Or at least I thought we were. Bella's character had other ideas.

"We need to get going," I told the group, having taken the role of leader.

"We're not going anywhere 'til we formulate a plan," Bella said.

"We can formulate a plan on the road. It's too dangerous for us to stay here," I explained, anxious to get going.

"I'm not going anywhere until we have a plan," she argued. "So, unless you want me to beat your ass, I'd suggest we start planning."

Thirty minutes of arguing and sword to my character's throat later, we had a plan. It wasn't the greatest of plans, but it would have to work. I had no idea that Bella could be so stubborn. Granted, it wasn't Bella so much as her character, and she was doing an amazing job staying true to her character. Half-orcs tended to be short-tempered and sullen and loved to fight.

By the end of the first two hours of playing, Bella had slain three demons and a vagrant who hadn't gotten out of her way quick enough.

"There was no need to kill that man," Colin's character, Rious, said.

"He was in my way," she told him.

"Well thanks to you, the town guard has been alerted."

Bella just shrugged. "Then I guess we'd better get a move on," she said, completely unconcerned.

It was so hot to see her get so into her character.

We ended up playing for well over seven hours before calling it a night. It had been a blast, and we all agreed to pick up the game on Monday night. After we said our goodbyes, we climbed into my car and headed for home.

"Did you have fun tonight?" I asked.

Bella graced me with a beautiful smile. "I really did. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but I totally had a blast. I can't wait to pick up on Monday."

"Bella Swan. D&D player. Bet you never saw that coming."

"I never did. But I can honestly say, I had a lot of fun."

I was immensely glad. It was nice to see her so relaxed after everything.

Two weeks had passed since Mark had informed us that Caius was looking for the missing drugs. Heidi had refused to say anything, and she'd been extradited back to New York. Bella and I had settled into a nice routine. We gamed on Monday nights, hung out with Jake and Seth on Wednesdays, and spent our weekends either by ourselves or with our family.

Bella's nightmares had slowly subsided, something I was extremely grateful for. It was almost easy to forget that there was danger nearby until it showed up on our doorstep.

I'd headed out to get the mail when I spotted a strange car parked a little bit down the street. I got a tingling feeling on the back of my neck and knew that something wasn't right. We knew most of our neighbors, and I didn't recognize the car at all. I couldn't make out the license plate, but I got the make and model of the car. Heading back inside, I could've sworn that someone was watching me. The second I was inside, I grabbed my phone and called Mark. I gave him the make and model of the car and told him something didn't feel right.

I spotted the car a couple of more times throughout the week. It was never in the same place. I saw once when I was at the library. Another time when I was at the grocery store. I had the feeling that I was being followed. Mark's deputies finally tracked down the vehicle parked near the diner. There was no one in it, but Mark had impounded.

"Hey, Edward. It's Mark," he said once I'd answered my phone.

"Hey, Mark."

"Turns out that our mystery car was reported stolen outside of Portland two days ago. We dusted the car for prints and they came back to two guys who work for Caius."

"Fuck," I whispered.

"My feelings as well. My deputy, Jason, is watching your house. He hasn't reported anything out of the ordinary, but he'll let me know if he sees anything strange. Unfortunately, the men are in the wind, but we will catch them."

I couldn't exactly say that I was reassured.

I woke up later that night to the sound of something hitting the floor. At first I thought that Bella had gotten up and knocked something off the bedside table, but when I rolled over she was lying there. Maybe, it was my imagination.

I sat up, listening to see if I could hear anything. When I didn't I crept over to the window and pulled the curtain away from it. Jason's car was still parked outside our house. I highly doubted anyone would get in without him seeing them, plus we had an alarm system. I was about to climb back under the covers when I heard one of the steps on the stair creak.

Quickly, I turned to wake Bella up, but I found her sitting up with the covers clutched to her chest. Her eyes were wide with fear.

"Oh, my God! Someone's in the house!" Bella whispered.

We haphazardly threw clothes on, and then she tossed me her phone as she quietly got up and locked our bedroom door. While she was doing that, I called Mark, my hands trembling so bad I could barely push the buttons.

"Hunter," he said.

"Mark, it's Edward. Someone's in the house. They broke something downstairs, and we heard them coming up the stairs. What are we going to do?" I asked as quietly as possible while trying not to freak out.

"I need you to stay calm, Edward. Is the alarm going off?" Mark asked me.

"No," I whispered as loud as I dared. "But we're trapped! How are we going to get out of here?"

"Breath, Edward. I've got a call out to Jason as we speak, and I'm on my way."

"What if they come up here?" I asked, terrified that someone was going to hurt my Bella.

"Lock yourself in the bathroom."

So, that's what we did. As quietly as possible we snuck into the bathroom, locked the door, and huddled in the tub together. Both of us were shaking like there was no tomorrow, and it only got worse when we heard someone rattling the doorknob to the bedroom.

"Fuck. It's locked," we heard a guy say.

"Fucking break it," another guy snarled back.

We had Mark on the phone the whole time, and I told him that it sounded like there were two guys trying to get in.

"Fuck! I can't get a hold of Jason. Just hang in there. I'm on my way," he said before his phone cut out.

I knew it was only a matter of moments before they broke in the bedroom door and then the bathroom door. There was a window beside the tub that we could climb out of, but I had no idea how we would get down. Bella must have been having the same thoughts that I was, because she climbed out of the tub and quietly opened the window.

Standing behind her, I helped her remove the screen which I gently set on the floor. We had to be as quiet as possible. Shaking, she turned to face me.

"I love you!" she said fiercely.

"I love you, too! We're going to be fine. We just need to stay calm."

Which of course was easier said than done. I watched as she grasped the edge of the window with trembling hands. She lowered herself through it, and I watched with baited breath as she dropped onto the lower portion of the roof that was underneath it. Once she was safe, I started to climb out the window. I was halfway out when I heard the bedroom door slam open.

"Where the fuck are they?" I heard one of the men growl.

Quickly, I scrambled down onto the roof. Grabbing Bella's hand, we followed the roof until it dropped off. We were going to have to jump. Bella crawled to the edge of the roof and slowly lowered herself down until she was hanging from her fingertips. The drop didn't look too awfully bad, and I prayed that she would land safely. She let go and landed in the backyard on wobbly legs. I followed suit. Once we were on the ground, we clasped hands and began running toward the neighbor's house.

We had almost reached the neighbor's house when we heard sirens ring out. We watched as two cruisers pulled up to our house, sirens wailing and lights flashing. We stayed where we were, hidden in the shadows of a large evergreen, waiting until the coast was clear. We didn't want to alert the bad guys of where we were.

We watched as one of the deputies ran toward Jason's car, while the others entered our house. Minutes passed by and then a shot rang out through the night. We both jumped, the noise startling us.

"Oh, God," I whispered.

Bella clenched my hand even tighter, and I knew she was praying that none of our people had gotten hurt. Ten minutes went by before Mark and several deputies came out of the house with two men. One of whom was bleeding. We heard Mark radio for an ambulance after he shoved one of the handcuffed men into the back of his cruiser.

Feeling that it was safe to step out from our hiding spot, we headed toward Mark. The look on his face was pure relief. I'm sure the look on our faces was much the same.

"Oh, thank God," he said as we approached him. "I was afraid that they'd killed you and hidden your bodies."

"We climbed out the bathroom window," Bella told him, her small hand trembling in mine.

"Is Jason okay?" I asked, seeing one of Mark's deputies hovering around Jason's car.

"One of the guys pistol whipped him. He might need stitches, but he should be okay. He feels awful."

Bella frowned. "It's not his fault. He didn't send those guys after us."

"I agree, but he feels he let everyone down. He was supposed to be watching your house to protect you and instead, he gets knocked out."

The next half hour passed in a blur. Jason was taken to the hospital as was one of the bad guys. Bella and I were separated and asked a million questions; the cops probably wanted to make sure that our stories were the same. During our questioning, the police had taken over our house. Yellow crime tape was put up, and guys with kits were stomping around inside. There was no way we were going to be allowed back in the house for a while, and honestly, I didn't really want to go back in there at the moment.

"Do you have somewhere you can stay for a few days?" Marks asked me, drawing my attention back to him.

"Yes. We can stay with my folks."

"Good. I'll keep you and Bella updated about what we learn. I'm going to follow you to your parents' house just to make sure you get there okay."

I thanked him and went to collect Bella. One of the deputies came out and gave us the keys to my car, and we climbed in. The drive to my parents' house was silent. I think we were both lost in thought. We pulled into the drive and waved as Mark drove past. We climbed out of the car, and it was only when we were halfway up the walk that I realized that I hadn't called my folks to let them know we were coming over.

I didn't want to unlock the door and scare them into thinking there was an intruder, so I rang the doorbell. A few minutes later, Mom opened the door.

"Edward! Bella! What's wrong?" Mom asked as she let us in, her gaze searching our faces and seeing signs of obvious distress.

"Two guys broke into our house," I told her.

Mom let out a gasp before wrapping us up in bone-crushing hugs.

"Are you two okay?" Dad asked from behind Mom.

"Yes, we're okay. Shook up and scared, but fine."

"Don't forget pissed off. Because I'm extremely pissed the fuck off that someone broke into my home yet again," Bella growled.

Mom led us to the kitchen and put on a kettle of water for some tea. As we sat down, I let out a snicker as I got a good look at my Dad. He was wearing a hot pink robe that I was pretty sure belonged to Mom. Or at least I hoped it did.

"Nice robe," I smirked.

"What?" he said, then looked down.

His face turned bright red, and then he turned to Esme.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Mom put her hands on her hips and leveled him with a glare. "Because, Carlisle, I was more worried about our children than who's robe you put on."

Dad mumbled something than headed upstairs, presumably to change robes. A few minutes later, Dad came back down with Emmett in tow.

"What' happened?" he asked, worry clear in his voice.

Over the next thirty minutes, Bella and I explained everything that had happened. By the time we were done, we were emotionally drained and more than a few tears had been shed by both of us.

Mom had a death grip on Bella's hand, while Dad had flung an arm around my shoulders.

"I'm just thankful that the two of you got out," Dad said.

"For a moment, I didn't think we would," I told him quietly. "When I heard them start to break down the bedroom door, I thought for sure it was all over."

Dad gave my shoulders another squeeze, and I could see the relief in his eyes that neither one of us was hurt.

"Is it okay if we stay with you guys for a while?" I asked.

Mom turned her gaze to me. "Of course. You never have to ask."

"Maybe we should check into a hotel. I don't want to bring danger to your doorstep," Bella said.

Mom cupped Bella's face in her hands. "You're staying here. Don't even think about leaving!"

Bella nodded. She knew better than to argue with my mom.

After a few more hugs and tears, I led Bella up to my old room. I opened the door and grimaced when I saw the dorky posters still on the wall. I thought Mom had taken those down, but apparently she hadn't. My room looked the same that it had when I'd lived there during college. There was a queen size bed, a dresser, a desk covered in books and junk, an overflowing bookshelf, and my dorky literature posters.

"How is it that I've never seen this room?" Bella asked as we stepped over the threshold.

"Probably because I was too embarrassed to show you."

"Why? It's totally you."

Soon we were stripped of our clothing and cuddled in my old bed. As we were lying there, wrapped around each other, all of my fears came to the surface and tears started to fall despite my effort to contain them.

Bella didn't say a word, just held me tighter as sobs wracked my body. I could have lost her tonight. Eventually, my sobs subsided, and I was left feeling exhausted. Resting my head against her chest, I let the sound of her heartbeat lull me to sleep.

a/n: Uh, yeah. So ... there you go. I certainly didn't plan on half of that happening, and I almost ended the chapter with them locked in the bathroom. But, then I thought that would be a bit mean of me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm off to go see The Woman in Black. The spousal unit actually offered to take me despite the fact that he has no desire to see it. Makes me wonder what he wants. Anyway, you know what to do! Leave me some love. Please, please, please!