I do NOT own 'Twilight'.

*Bella*

"I am sorry...I don't think I understand."

I had taken a shower...Which firstly was bizarre because how can a nightclub have a shower...Besides I wasn't complaining – I had access to my luggage and my private things so there was not much point in trying to find a downside of being clean.

However what I wasn't prepared for or even beginning to expect was the fact that Lucy had gone to get me a work uniform, tonight would be my first night of training and being nervous was enough without setting eyes on my so-called 'work uniform'.

"What's there to understand...This is what you wear Bella, you do realise this?" I held up the skimpy outfit in the mirror, It was even an actual outfit. An outfit to me was like a top and trouser combo but...THIS....How could I wear this in a public place with people watching me?

"This is my uniform?"

"Yes...Carlisle is very persistent that we all wear them, it pleases the customers."

"Pleases them so they DRINK more?"

"That and they give great tips with more skin."

"Lucy...I can't" The tears rimmed my eyes.

"Why not, you need the money right?"

"Yes...But I was hoping for...I don't know trousers."

"Don't be a stick in the mud...I am saying this for your own good, Bella....When Carlisle is protested against or if people refuse him..He turns nasty."

"What?"

Lucy looked at the door and then pulled up the sleeve of one of her arms...I gasped when I say large blue spots all up the top of her arm. "This was just for answering back to a regular customer."

"I covered my mouth with my free hand "how does he get away with this?"

"Because everyone who comes in here...Inspectors...Just get buttered up by him and he offers them a night with one of us girls for free...If they are gay he hires a man for them."

"So...We are whores?"

"No..Not whores...Strippers"

"Why are you doing this?"

"I have no money...And sometimes in life, Bella...You need to eat and you need to survive and take the hand you are dealt with."

"Oh Lucy...There is no way I can get out of this is there?"

"Not now, Bella"

I looked down at the outfit in the long length mirror again. "I have never liked my body" I choked the tears falling down my face now.

"You need to get to like it, Bella...Wipe away the tears and put on a brave face..It is as Carlisle says, people like to see smiles."

Lucy walked out of the room and I took in a deep breath.

How can I do this?

*~Edward~*

"Ugh...Now I don't want to go anywhere." I groaned...The car journey back home was awful..Now I was going to have to endure more of Jacob and Paul's drunken antics...As much as I admire them for putting their relationship out in the open...In their company I desperately wanted a girlfriend, at least for some company and a good conversation.

Was it wrong at this particular moment to be missing Bella?

"Cheer up, misery guts...Come on, a bit of beautiful lace may turn your mood right around."

Groaning again, I followed Jacob and Paul into the club...I hadn't been in here since I had first moved to France when I spent how many hours of each day partying the night away believing that alcohol would get me laid..However I lost my virginity to a show girl in 'Beau lace' who I never saw again after that night. One drunken antic and now I regretted it so much.

The booming of the music rang through my ears as we stepped in, Lucy the usual girl in the club smiled at us seductively as she took our coats and held the doors open for us. Jacob and Paul walked ahead of me hand in hand..I was the loose part hanging on behind feeling utterly and completely inadequate.

"Wipe that smile off your face, sunshine and get some stuff." Paul said pinching one of my cheeks and walking away to the bar.

"Gentleman, haven't seen you in a long time..What's been happening?" a barman said..Wearing nothing and to me, not looking so appealing at all.

'Beau lace' was known to have a type of woman as a stripper or dancer, usually blonde with long legs and a stick-like almost anorexic figure...They were not beautiful at all these girls, they just looked ill.

I leant against the bar dreading about the night to come.

I didn't want to get laid.

I just wanted to go home.

*~Bella~*

I examined myself in the mirror...This was not me.

Fighting back the tears I fastened the last belt across my bare chest and snapped on the black garter that was given to me in a separate accessory box.

"Knock, knock" Lucy peered through the door and studied me up and down the minute she had closed the door behind her.

"Wow...You are going to knock them dead out there"

"Lucy...I really don't think-"

"Still have those silly little doubts eating away at you, eh?"

"Lucy"

"The basics...Use your legs around the pole and smile at every angle of the strobe lights...Do not stand still under the lights as your make up will run under the heat. Besides from that, make sure you do everything that Carlisle says and you will be good to go."

"What is going on?"

"Nothing is going on...You are doing your job, Bella and besides the regulars are suckers for new faces."

"Is that all I am..A new face?"

"In this world, honey...Yes."

"Why?"

"If you want to make it big then you have to do all that is asked of you."

"But-"

"Come on, Carlisle will be wanting you for your entrance"

Lucy grabbed my hand and tugged me out of the small room...Pacing fast down a corridor and to a standstill where there were curtains drawn to the side of us.

"Now the minute that Carlisle calls your name, you step out."

"How will I know?"

"He has a microphone...I must go and stand in the entrance. Good luck sweetie!"

Lucy kissed my cheek and left me standing in front of the drawn curtains.

This was it.

This was really happening.

"Bella!"

After about ten minutes of standing like a complete and utter lemon...I heard my name being shouted over the microphone by Carlisle...I stepped through the curtain concentrating so much on not tripping in the heels I was being forced to wear...The lights hit me all different colours clouding my face and creating soaring heat on my face. All the people in the club cheered and raised their various beverages of alcohol and I found myself fighting back the tears again as I walked to the end of the catwalk getting used to the heels step by step trying to swing my hips like I had been told to do.

"Who starts the bidding at forty euros?" Carlisle said..I froze. Bidding...People were bidding on me?!

"Forty" a random person shouted holding up money in his hand.

"fifty" another voice said..I just stood there frozen on the stage...What was I supposed to do? Go and give them a lap dance?

I felt sick...So very sick.

"Eighty"

"One hundred!"

"One hundred..Do I hear one-fifty?"

"Two hundred!"

I couldn't believe what was happening....They were going to want me to do...Well anything they wanted. I was not experienced in the sex area..I had been with someone but hardly enough to make me an expert...I wasn't entirely confident with my body anyway.

"Move" Carlisle whispered to me...I flinched and grabbed the pole with one of my hands...I wrapped one of my legs around it..Having no clue about what to do or what people would like.

"Three hundred!"

"STOP!"

I froze at the voice I suddenly recognized...I took my leg off of the pole and scanned the crowd for the voice of the person I had been so longing to see....I can't deny the fact that I had missed him and he hadn't even been gone two days from me.

Someone climbed up onto the catwalk however due to the strength of the lights..I couldn't see anything and my eyes were beginning to hurt. There was a strong grasp on my hand and before I could manage to say anything to my rescuer – I was being lifted off of the catwalk and handed over to two pairs of arms below the catwalk.

"Hey...You're going to pay for her!" Carlisle shouted however...I was being covered by a coat and led out of the club the doors swinging past us and closing..I felt the cold air on my barely covered body as I was led outside.

"Bella what the hell are you doing?" I wiped my nose as more tears fell from my face...I stopped still as Edward grabbed my shoulders..I looked up into his eyes once again.

"I had to, Edward" I choked out.

"Guys can you give us a minute?" Edward looked behind me.

"Of course" Paul said the doors to the club opening again...I bit down on my lip.

"Bella...How can you work in a place like this..What would Maureen think?!"

"Edward, as pleased as I am to see you...I need the money."

"I know you are short on money, Bell but I am here...I earn...I can help you."

"Edward...I don't want help – I am old enough now to earn my own pay."

"By doing THIS?!"

"What's wrong...It's my first night...Nerves got the better of me."

"You are BETTER than this!"

"What if I'm not?!"

"Don't talk like that"

I turned and walked away from him...Keeping my eyes on the night sky above my head letting out some more tears when he wasn't able to see me. "Do you believe in fate, Edward?"

"What?"

"This is my fate....Must be....I have no other solutions."

"Bella...Do you honestly believe that this is all you are good for?"

"I don't see any other job offers, Edward!"

"Why is this happening...What has happened in the past DAY? I go away and come back to find you as a new girl in a strip club!"

"It's just money, Edward"

"Bella...It's not just money...It's sex"

"So?"

"Those people in there are not interested in beauty or talents...They want sex"

"How would you know?"

"Because I have been in these places...Living here, it's hard not to be in these places."

"So...You enjoy them?"

"USED to...I stopped all that shit when I got a real job"

"I need this"

"Give me one good reason why, Bella"

"You know...maybe it will help my self-confidence"

"Not good enough"

"Edward...I need to go back inside" I turned back and walked towards the entrance doors when Edward's hands stopped me, gripping my shoulders tightly.

"No...I would rather die than see you go back in there"

"This is my choice, Edward"

"No...I know you....I know you deserve better than this"

"You don't know me at all...By helping me out on my first night that makes you know me"

"Call it a guess"

"Let me go!" I struggled against him the coat falling off of my body completely leaving me almost bare in the night.

"Tell me the truth, Bella...The real truth"

"No"

"Bella, please?"

"No"

"Tell me!"

"MAUREEN'S DEAD!" I shouted uncontrollably...I put my hand to my mouth and reached down to take the coat off the ground with my free hand.

"What?"

"She's dead....My cousin died today and Ellie, her so called carer got everything"

"What do you mean she got everything?"

"Maureen wrote a will and as persuaded to hand everything to her"

"Jesus"

"No I have no money...No home and no prospects for my life here...My parents wanted this not me, Edward!"

"Bella" I backed away from him and put the coat over my shoulders...I knew what he was going to do..he was going to try and soothe me and tell me that everything was going to be okay.

"No comforts, Edward"

"I need you to understand that this is not a working place for someone like you."

"Someone like me?"

"Someone who has talent...has brains and has a strong head on their shoulders"

"Is that what I am...because believe me, I never see it"

"You do not see yourself very clearly then"

His words touched a nerve in my body...My already swollen eyes filling up with more salt tears at the honesty and gentility of his words. "I don't know what to do, Edward." I choked.

Edward said nothing as he approached me, once his chest was as close to mine as friends could hope to get to each others...He wrapped his arms around me and I immediately sunk into his warm chest wrapping my own arms around his waist in return.

"Bella...Listen to me, I am not going to allow you back in there. You can come and stay with me."

I lifted myself from his chest and looked into his eyes "no, Edward...I cannot afford to pay rent at the moment."

"I know that...You won't need to...I will pay for your share until you get a proper job and pay me back."

"No, Edward I couldn't"

"Bella..I understand that you want to earn things by yourself in life but right now, you do not have anyone...Only me, and I want to help you so much...Please let me help you, Bella?"

I nodded and he smiled...Kissing my forehead once and pulling me into another hug.

"Edward...Is everything okay?" Paul came back...I lifted my head and smiled at him.

"Hi Paul"

"Well little missy you gave us quite a shock there!" he exclaimed and I giggled.

"Paul..Is Jacob with you?"

"My angel of a boyfriend is inside collecting Bella's suitcase...He will be out in a minute."

"How would you feel about Bella coming to live with us?" Edward asked Paul.

"Hmm...I shall have to think about that........OKAY!" he answered and I beamed. "Edward needs a friend and the flat reeks of men it would be nice to have a girl."

"Paul..How can I thank you?"

"Don't thank us, honey...Thank Edward...He is the one who insisted you get off that stage"

"I turned to Edward.

"How can I thank you, Edward?"

"There is only one way you can thank me"

"Name it?"

"Promise me you will never go back into that club again."

"I promise"

Edward smiled and did the buttons up on my coat...Keeping his eyes firmly away from my exposed flesh and skimpy outfit.

When things get down, they say every cloud has a silver lining.

Edward was my silver lining.

For that, I will always be thankful.

Short and sweet again.

Thanks for reading!

.S.

X x x