TEAM FOREVER

Disclaimer: The Cullens, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

My stories are being beta'd by dowlingnana and she is doing an awesome job. Thanks so much.

Edward was on edge and had begun pacing waiting a little impatiently for Alice to call back and was worried about why she hadn't already done so. It was about thirty minutes before Edward did hear back from Alice and the news wasn't what he was wanting to hear.

"Edward, I don't know what to tell you, but, I can't get her on the phone. So, I called Mom to see if she had seen Bella at the gallery today and she said yes, they both had been there all day up until about an hour ago. It was getting late so they both decided to call it a day and go home."

"Alice, she isn't here and she hasn't called. What has happened to her?"

CHAPTER 25: PROBLEMS AND MORE PROBLEMS!

Bella had turned her phone on from time to time and checked her messages; she heard the two from Edward, but, didn't return the call. What was the point after what she had seen, not once, but, at least, twice that came to her mind. Add all of that to the pictures that had kept appearing in the rag mags which she knew was mostly lies, however, a person could only take so much.

She had given him the benefit of doubt concerning the pictures and stories, had even given him a pass after seeing Irina coming out of what was supposed to have been his room in the suite that was rented for him at the hotel when she had shown up to surprise him, but, this was an entirely the last draw. Going home and looking forward to see him only to find him and Irina sound to sleep in bed together; and, not in just any bed, but, the one she shared with Edward. No, that was where she needed to take a stand for herself so she did.

From the first time Bella had met Edward she had felt an invisible pulled towards him and she had fought it for as long as she could. It seemed that Edward had felt the same emotional connection and decided to slowly gain her attention. He said he fell in love with her at first sight, but, after getting to know her and hearing her history he had known that he would have to go slow to gain first her trust and then her love.

Bella had surprised him with the proposal of them marrying each other as a means of getting mutual pains in the ass a way from them. It had given Edward, so he said, the lead way that he needed to be able to get closer to her and to begin working to achieve getting her to accept him totally. And unbeknownst to Edward, Bella was constantly rethinking her feelings toward men, Edward in particular, and why she was reacting only to Edward, but, maintained her decisions of relationships towards other men. That is what led to final acceptance and admissions that took place for the couple to be able to get to the point of being a happy couple. At least, that is what both of them thought until now.

Bella and Esme had worked tirelessly all day long getting the final touches done to be able to open the new gallery on time. Alice had been unable to make it since she had work to do on her own clothing line that was debuting shortly, but, she assured them that she was also working on her side of things that could be put into place at the last moment. Then the time came to call it a day without Bella saying anything to Esme indicating a problem existed with Edward and that she had changed her place of residence because of that problem.

Going back to the hotel Bella ordered a light dinner and then took a quick shower before its arrival. She was planning to go over the plans for the opening once again to make sure nothing had been missed and then wanted an early night due to a very restless night last night. Her mind kept revisiting the scene of what she had seen concerning Edward and Irina, so, once again, a restful night became something dreams are made of and not the reality she was dealing with. But, as hard as she tried to stay with that decision of early dinner and early bed, it just didn't happen as once again her mind refused to shut down for the night so she could get some rest. So, after the continual tossing and turning she gave up trying.

She got up, grabbed her laptop and booted it up, but, while waiting for it to cycle on she called down to room service for coffee, "Lots and lots of coffee, please." She requested.

After it arrived she began with the first cup, then on to the second and so on, so, that several cups later she was absorbed in her work of not only of the new gallery opening, but, of the reports from her managers that were handling her other galleries and investments. In fact, a couple of managers each had submitted information to her concerning a young artist that she might be interested in taking a look at their work. The managers had taken photos of some of the artist's pieces and emailed them to her as samples of why they were recommending her attention to this person.

Upon viewing the samples sent Bella agreed that it was worth the trip to check out the artists in person, so, she turned on her phone and called her assistant to make the necessary travel arrangements. Once that was done she noticed that she had more messages and a few texts, all concerning the same thing: where was she and is anything wrong? And, as she had done earlier with all of the different messages, she ignored them by not answering and deleted each one.

She was withdrawing back into her shell of protection and putting the Cullen bunch along with their associates at a distance on the other side of her protective wall. Edward broke not only his vows, but, his word and trampled on the trust she gave him as if it meant nothing at all. Maybe he had been playing a sick game all along and she was foolish enough to fall for it hook, line and sinker.

Well, not any more. She made her stand and planned to stick with her current position. In fact, she was thinking of just returning to Seattle until it was time for the gallery grand opening in L. A. and for the finale of Team Challenge and returning for those events and that would be it; no other reason to return and no one.

With that pretty much decided upon Bella felt relief and decided to try sleeping once more, even though, the night was pretty much advanced in age. Surprisingly she did sleep and slept soundly for the rest of the night.

Bella awoke and was surprised as she glanced at the time on her cell phone; it was eleven in the morning and she had slept soundly after going back to bed. But, now it was time to get up and get ready to go to the airport as she had a plane to catch at one heading for New York and then down to Orlando. In fact, she realized how eager she was to get to each place to see for herself the works by each artist her managers had recommended.

Looking forward to a change from the tension the current situation has caused gave her motivation to rise and get a quick shower and then get dress while organizing her things for leaving. She knew that once she finished in Orlando that she would be returning to Seattle until it was time to come back to Los Angeles. So, she called down to order breakfast and then called the front desk to request that her bill be ready since she was checking out.

Everything went smoothly and she made her flight on time without any hassles upsetting her. It seemed the further she got away from Los Angeles the more the tension was left behind as well and she was feeling the weight being lifted from her shoulders and her body was responding to the lightening of the load.

XXXXXXXX

Edward had been trying off and on all night between calls and texts to get a hold of Bella. The longer she remained elusive the more he worried about why she wasn't getting in touch with him. It was then that the horror struck home that she might indeed as Irina had said, come home and saw the scene upstairs.

But, if that had happened why hadn't she said something? Surely since he had never betrayed her she would give him the chance to explain what had happened and that it wasn't his doing. That was why he was having a hard time understanding thinking of any possible reason of her not contacting him, Alice or Esme. He knew for a fact that his sister had been trying to get a hold of her as well since each time she checked in with Edward and he kept telling her that Bella was still missing.

"Edward, maybe you need to file a missing person's report with the police?" Alice had suggested at one point during the night.

"That wouldn't work, sis, since Mom had spent the day with her and they continued working before saying good night to each other after calling it a day." He reminded Alice and then continued, "So, she isn't missing, but, just not returning or answering our calls."

"Edward, is there something that could have caused this that you can think of, or, know of and haven't said anything about it as yet?" Alice asked him.

"Ugh, well, mmmhmm, what makes you ask that question, Alice?"

"You just answered my question, so, you might as well come clean, brother dearest."

"I didn't answer a damn thing."

"You're hedging my question and that hedging along with the hesitation that is loudly sounding in your voice tells me that you know more than what you're sharing. I'm calling the family and we'll be over in the next couple of hours. At that time you had better be ready to tell us what the problem is; that, my dear brother, is the only way we're going to be able to help." And with that Alice hung up before Edward could say anything to stop her.

"Shit! Shit! How the hell am I going to be able to explain any of this to any of them, especially, Alice and Mom and live?" Edward knew that his problem had just magnified to a whole hell of a larger scale. Now he had the additional problem of try to find a way out of the family having to be told about the mistake he had awakened to find in his bed and that his Bella may have walked in on to see it.

A/N: Okay, we know what Bella's current and immediate future plans happen to be, but, what is going to be Edward's after the family finds out what has happened? Will they want to kick his butt or agree to help him? Perhaps, do both!

Your reviews are always welcomed and I will be updating this story every three weeks due to the number of open stories I have going at the present time.