AN: I still don't own Twilight; I am just having fun with the characters.

I would love to hear from all my readers out there. Do you like the story? Any plot theories?

Jagga-Love, as always you rock my world baby! Thanks so much for your hard work!!!

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EPOV

I was angry at Tanya for making us so late for the party. She had no real good excuse for it, and deep inside I knew that she just wanted to make a grand entrance. Today she would be meeting my parents and the rest of my family and she said she wanted to look her best for them. I thought it was weird how selfish and pretentious she was for someone who was doomed to die soon.

It had been my experience with families dealing with children with brain tumors and other types of degenerating diseases that the moment they lost hope all the little things in life ceased to exist and the only comfort they had was to remain together for as long as possible.

Tanya must have been in denial because she went through life only caring about her appearance and nothing else. I also thought that it was very strange that she seemed so full of life and so healthy. She had mentioned that she stopped radiation therapy more than a year ago because there was no hope left for her, so I could not understand how she was not showing any signs of her disease. Something was not right, and I did not think I would be able to get a straight answer from her. For some reason I felt like I could not trust her.

I had become increasingly irritated with her over the past week. All she seemed to want to talk about was the fact that she wanted to be married before she died. I had no idea how, but I needed to tell her soon that I had no intentions on marrying her. I felt guilty enough not to abandon her, but I still thought that the best thing for us was to break up. Of course, for now I had to pretend that I was fine with everything she asked because I wanted to check out on her mental state before I made any decisions. I did not want to be responsible for causing her any more grief or problems. If she was dying, I was going to do my best to support her and be there for her, even if it was not the way she had envisioned it.

My mother called me from the gala asking me where I was and Tanya was seated next to me, so I had to tell her that I had a surprise for them but that I would arrive shortly. I turned to leave my room as I winked at Tanya to let her know she was the surprise, and what a surprise this would turn out to be.

To say that my family was going to be shocked about me dating was an understatement. I was also very afraid of Alice's reaction. She always seemed to know who would be best for me, and I had a feeling she would not approve of Tanya. I am sure if she could, she would have moved air and sea to find Bella… My Bella.

We arrived at the gala twenty minutes later and Tanya immediately excused herself so that she could go into the restroom, saying something about looking perfect for her future in-laws. She had this unique ability to get on my nerves almost instantly. I knew she would have been upset if I met with my family without her, so I lingered near the dance floor waiting for her. I was about to go find her when someone caught my eye.

There was this beautiful brunette walking from the direction of the restroom, she had beautiful dark hair and a sexy little dress, she looked exquisite. I looked all the way down from her legs to her upper body making sure to catch every detail of her. I then slowly lifted my face so that I could see hers when it struck me… my angel. It was her, and all the memories I had of her did her beauty no justice.

I stood there frozen. I didn't even want to breathe just in case it was just my imagination. I watched her as she looked at me and quickly turned around as she approached her table. Had she forgotten me?

I was still frozen, staring at her like a stalker, when she turned back around and met my gaze. My knees went weak and my heartbeat accelerated as she recognized me. We remained motionless for what seemed like an eternity. It seemed as she was also trying to convince herself that I was real. I was able to gather my thoughts and I started to make my way towards her.

I was within touching distance when I heard the most annoying sound in the world. "Eddie, there you are," Tanya said as she kissed me in the lips and wrapped her arms around my waist. I did not even turn around to acknowledge Tanya as a look of horror crossed Bella's face. I was about to push Tanya to the side when my angel took off running, leaving me speechless and unable to move once again.

"Eddie, honey, who was that?" she asked as anger crossed her face. "Let go of me Tanya," I snarled as I took off running after Bella. This time I was not going to remain motionless as she ran from me. This time I was going to get her number, her full name, and I was going to tell her that there had not been a single second in my life that I had not thought of her for the last year. I wanted to tell her that although I barely knew her, that I had missed her so much that it ached and that my heart was empty without her. I wanted to tell her that Tanya meant nothing to me, that she was the one I wanted.

I was too late. I saw her speed up in a taxi as I reached the outside of the hotel. I thought about grabbing another taxi and following after her but I was stopped by Tanya. "What the hell are you doing? What is your problem, Eddie?" she asked, not bothering to mask her anger.

"Edward?" I heard Alice call after me. "Why did you let her go?" she asked. I could not understand what she meant. Did she know that Bella was the angel I met in Acapulco? Why didn't she mention anything before?

"Who are you and what are you talking about?" Tanya asked, glaring at Alice.

"Tanya, stop it, you are being ridiculous!" I yelled.

"I'm the one who is being ridiculous!?" she asked, an incredible look on her face. "You just took off after some slut and have another one here ready to pounce on me and you are calling ME ridiculous?!"

"Isabella is no slut you witch, and who the fuck are you to talk to my brother in such a way?" Alice yelled back as Tanya gasped, shocked that she was not portraying her perfect self in front of my sister.

"Oh, I am sorry. This is just a big misunderstanding. My name is Tanya, and I am Edward's fiancée," Tanya said to an incredulous looking Alice.

"Hold up, my fiancée? What the hell Tanya? I have definitely not proposed to you, stop acting like we are more than what we really are." I told her as I felt the heat of my anger rush to my face.

"Can someone explain what is going on?" my mother asked. I had not realized that she had witnessed the entire exchange.

"You must be Esme," Tanya stated as she approached my mother, her hand stretched to say hello. My mother took her hand politely and then looked right at me still waiting for an explanation.

"Mom, Edward just found the woman he has been talking about this whole year and he let her get away, and I am not sure why he still standing here wasting time with this woman," Alice sneered as she glared at Tanya.

"Alice, I think it would be best if you let me explain," I said. "Tanya and I have recently started dating. She was my surprise to you guys tonight."

"You just started dating and she is already calling you her fiancée?" Alice asked. "What kind of psycho is she?"

"I am no psycho, I am just…" Tanya was saying as she fainted. I was able to grab Tanya before she hit the floor. We made it back inside the hotel lobby and I took her into one of the sofas in the waiting room area. I called her name several times before she woke up. "What happened?" she asked.

"Tanya, you just fainted. I don't think you should be getting as upset as you were, it's not good for your health. Please stay here, I need to talk with my family in private. Would you be alright if I leave you here for a few minutes?" I asked and she nodded.

Now my entire family was in the hotel lobby and had witnessed Tanya fainting. I had a lot to explain to all of them. I made a notion with my head for them to follow me outside, and they all followed me quietly.

"Look, I know you all have many questions, but please let me explain and then you can ask whatever you like." I started, not giving them a chance to object. "I met Tanya a little over a year ago, she is one of the nurses in the surgical wing. We had been friends for some time and decided to go on a couple of dates. I realized that I did not have feelings for her, and that I would never develop them, and I was about to break it off, when she told me that she was dying. I know that she comes across as if she is a little crazy, but please understand that she does not have a long time left to live, and I think she is clinging to me because she does not want to die alone."

"Edward, that is very noble of you, but you need to clarify things with her," my mother said.

"And what about Bella? I thought you were dying to find her?" Alice asked.

"How do you know her Alice, and why didn't you say something?" I asked, my irritation coming back.

"Is not like you ever gave us any details Edward! She works with me, and until recently, I had no idea that she was the person you met in Acapulco. As soon as I realized, I wanted to tell you, but later I found out that she was going to be here, and I decided to surprise both of you," she said sheepishly.

"What am I supposed to do now Alice? As much as I want to run after Bella, I can't leave Tanya like that. You saw how this whole situation affected her."

"You need to think of you Edward. You can still be there for Tanya as a friend, but if you don't love her, then you need to make that clear to her. I also have a feeling that you want to be with this Bella girl you met, and if that is what your heart is telling you, then go for it," my mom told me as everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Let's have a conversation about this later, the ceremony is about to start and we all need to be there," my dad said. We made our way back to the hotel and Tanya was still waiting where I left her. I helped her up from the couch and I whispered in her ear that it would be alright.

The ceremony was a few hours long. My dad received an award for his groundbreaking work in the world of neurosurgery, and both my mother and my father received another award for all of their charitable contributions to the hospital. I was able to have a quiet conversation with Alice throughout the ceremony and she told me that Bella was staying with Angela. Apparently Angela was Bella's best friend since they were in high school, and they were very close.

After the ceremony was over, I went to see Angela and Ben. She told me that Alice had figured out that I was Bella's mystery man, and that she was in on the plan to get us together tonight. I explained about Tanya, she was shocked. Tanya and Angela were not close friends, but we had hung out as a group for a while now and she was surprised to hear that she had been dying all this time.

I asked her if she knew where Bella was, and she told me that Bella had left for Washington DC on the last train leaving Baltimore. She had taken a taxi straight from the gala to the train station, and she called Angela from the train asking her to send her things with Alice. I asked her if she was alright and she told me that Bella wouldn't tell her anything, that knowing Bella, it would be a long time before she talked to anyone about what happened. She also told me that it was best if I stayed out of Bella's life until I sorted out my situation with Tanya.

What was I going to do? I had no idea how to confront Tanya without creating another crisis, I needed to talk to Alice and figure out a good way to do this. "Look Edward," Angela said. "This thing with Tanya is really, really strange. I have been on my oncology rotation for two weeks now and I have never seen her there," she continued. "I have a bad feeling about all of this."

"I know Angela, me too. She showed me her test results, and it does look like she is telling the truth, but I do get this feeling that she is acting." I told her. She felt the same way I did and told me that she would keep an eye on her just in case.

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I spent the rest of the weekend with my family. Tanya was upset that I was not allowing her to spend time with them, but I told her they needed time. Alice did not agree with Angela about me staying away from Bella. As far as she was concerned, I should just dump Tanya and go find Bella. "I have seen the way you have ached for her Edward," she told me. "You can't let her go this time. She will find someone else and you will lose your chance."

I told her that I was going to gather my thoughts and decide what to do, and that I would let her know as soon as I made a decision. She told me that she was going to explain to Bella what was going on with Tanya. She did not want Bella to think that I had fallen in love with someone else.

I was not too happy with that plan, I wanted to be the one telling Bella how much I cared for her, and the truth about Tanya, but I also did not want her to be upset, so I decided to let Alice talk to her while I figured out what I was going to do. I knew that all I wanted to do was be with Bella, but I could not face her until I had everything figured out.

I went back to my apartment on Sunday evening after saying goodbye to my family. My parents were moving from Baltimore to Washington DC in a week to open my father's new practice. They had purchased a house in Chevy Chase, MD, and were looking forward to being near the city.

I had a lot of decisions to make, one of them being if I wanted to join my father in his practice. I had accepted the Attending position with John Hopkins on a temporary basis until I figured out what my next move was, but it was time for me to make a decision. Could I leave Tanya all alone over here? Should I leave Bella alone and give her a chance to be happy? I had no idea what to do. Bella had been so close, yet she was so very far. I felt like fate had dealt me a bad hand. My angel…

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RPOV

This weekend had been interesting. We all knew that something had happened to Edward while we were in Acapulco, but we did not know exactly what had happened. I also had no idea that he had been part of Bella's past. Leave it to Alice to put two and two together and figure it out, the girl was a psychic genius.

I hoped Bella didn't mind, but we had all started referring to her as Bella ever since Emmet mentioned that she had allowed him to call her that. I felt bad for her. I knew that she had tried to hide all her emotions from us the entire year. Mostly I think, because she saw them as a sign of weakness. I would have to have a conversation with her and make it clear that opening up to her friends was not a sign on weakness, it was – in fact - a sign of trust, and we all loved her very much. She was so similar to Edward in that sense, always so reserved, always suffering in silence.

Our trip back to Washington, DC had been very quiet. Emmet loved Bella as a sister and he was really upset that she had left in those terms and that she had not answered her phone all weekend. Alice was beating herself over and over for her plan going so horribly wrong, but there was no way either one of us could have guessed that Edward was dating someone. He had refused to date for a very long time, claiming that he preferred to be alone and that no one was interesting enough. I couldn't understand what he saw in Tanya, she was as fake as a plastic Barbie.

Emmet had been so worried about Bella that we made it to DC in record time. He dropped Alice and Jasper off at Friendship Heights, were they lived, much to Alice's disappointment. She wanted to talk to Bella and explain things, but Emmet was very protective of her, and he did not want her ambushed by all of us at once.

As soon as we got back to our apartment building he went straight to Bella's apartment, not even bothering to bring up our bags from the Jeep. I told him that he would not go by himself and that I was as worried about Bella as he was, and that I needed to be there too.

We knocked on her door and waited; when there was no response we knocked again…nothing. I was about to grab Emmet and take him home when he yelled. "Damn it Bella, I know you're in there. Please open the door or I will have to break it. Either way, I have to see you. I have to make sure that you're ok." We heard footsteps coming from her apartment as she approached the door. We were shocked by the sight.

Bella was standing at the door, in her PJs, looking as if someone had beaten her up. Her eyes were so swollen from crying that she could barely open them. "Bella… my God… are you alright?" I asked. She shook her head no as a fresh batch of tears started flowing down her face. Emmet immediately picked her up and placed her in her living room. "Bella, please talk to me. We're here for you," Emmet told her, looking as if he was about to start crying as well.

"It was all in my head…"she managed to say. "I am so stupid."

"No Bella, that is not true. Edward is my brother and I know for a fact…" Emmet was telling her as she interrupted.

"Your brother? You all knew?" she asked, looking disappointed.

"No Bella, we had no idea," I explained. "Alice was the only who figured it out, and she did so just recently. We are all very sorry about what happened. Edward…" I was explaining, but she stood up and made a motion for me to stop talking.

"I don't want to hear it, Rose. Please promise me that this will be the last time we discuss Edward. I was wrong, and I am just going to move on and forget about him," she said, an adamant look in her face.

"But Bella, he is…"

"No Emmet, I meant not one word. Please?" she pleaded. "The same goes for Alice, Jasper, Angela, and Ben. I want to close this drawer of my life and I want to move on. I don't even want to cry about it anymore."

"Fine, we will do as you say, but you have to promise something in return," Emmet pleaded. "You have to promise us that you will come to us once you are ready to talk about it and we will clarify things for you."

"There is nothing to clarify…" she stated.

"Just promise us, please," I said, hoping that she would leave a window open for us to explain everything.

"Fine, I promise."

"Good, then we promise to drop the subject," I said, for now.

We spent another hour with her, making sure she was truly alright. I cleaned up all the tissues from her room, and Emmet brought her bags back. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep on the couch as we cooked her some soup. I put the home brewed soup in her fridge so that she could have it later, and Emmet finished her laundry and tucked her in bed. He was so sweet with her. I knew that one day he would make a wonderful father and I could not wait for that to happen. Our wedding could not come soon enough.

We left Bella a note in the kitchen letting her know that her laundry was in the drier, and that the soup was in the fridge. Once back in our apartment, I called Alice and I explained everything that had happened and what we promised Bella. Alice was livid. She was really upset that we had left her with her misunderstanding and that she did not get a chance to explain things to her.

I reminded her how stubborn Bella was, and I pleaded with her to respect our promise for now. Bella has just recently started opening up to us, and I did not want her to go back into her inner shell. After a lot more coaching Alice agreed, but not before she warned me that if Bella showed any sign of unhappiness, that she would take that chance to explain things to her and make her realize she was wrong.

After hanging up with Alice, I went to find Emmet. He had fallen asleep on our bed, and he looked so peaceful. He never ceased to impress me, he was such a dork, but he had this huge heart and he was the most sensitive guys I had ever known. I was so lucky to have him.

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MPOV

"Bella, Bella… what have you been up to, my little wife?" I screamed at the nothingness of my hotel room. I had lost her trail this weekend and I was not happy about that. "I'm coming to get you, honey!" Soon… very soon, she would pay.