Disclaimer: I do not own any of the twilight characters. They belong to Stephenie Meyer :)

Chapter 2: Bella who

One didn't need a disaster to create a catastrophe; it just needed one name. Alice.

"Bella, you have to help me." Alice pleaded, "Do you want me to go down on my knees? Because I will if I have to!" She said and was about to fall onto her knees when Bella stopped her.

"You said the exact same lines the previous time! And the previous, previous time too!" Bella rubbed the sides of her head in an attempt to soothe her thoughts. It didn't help.

Alice paced around anxiously in Bella's living room before continuing, "I can't take a single good photo of the models. It's too difficult! And my editors are complaining on the lack of 'Alice air' to it. How am I going to break the news that the previous batch of fashion photos were taken by you as well? I'll lose my job." Alice's eyes saddened at the thought, "And lose my chance of meeting Him."

Yes this Him. And that was the main reason why Bella had agreed to 'help' Alice who knew naught about photography to take the high fashion editorial photos. As it turned out, rather unexpectedly, they were an instant hit. And the photographer Alice became an overnight sensation – bagging the term "photographer to shoot for" (bad pun but oh well!)

"You haven't even met Him before in person! What's his name again?" Bella enquired, she faintly remembered seeing him appearing on the tabloid news, but she hardly caught up with any TV, so she didn't know much anyway.

"Jasper," Alice repeated for the umpteen times, "He's a legend among the models. One would have to live in the mountains to not hear of him, but then again, the last I heard, he's also appearing on the side of drink cans. So it's almost impossible for anyone not to know him unless the person's blind."

Bella smiled thinly, "The last I checked, I passed my eyesight's test. But I still don't know him."

"You will! Trust me, he's Everywhere."

-

Jasper's face really was Everywhere. By the sides of the road, tabloid magazines were flooded with news about him, the billboard had his pictures and even the sweeper by the road was wearing a T shirt baring his face and some other parts that she didn't pause to see.

"Okay, so remember, I'll meet you at my place after the arrangement. No one knows you're here and the models barely know how I look like so posing as me wouldn't be a problem tomorrow. The only thing I'm concerned about is..." Alice paused thoughtfully before shaking a head, "Never mind. I doubt you'll bump into that person anyway."

Bella paused, narrowing her eyes a little, "Bump into who?" She wanted to remain incognito as much as possible and if anyone realised that she was posing as 'Alice', she could kiss her privacy goodbye. And she hated for that to happen.

Alice adjusted her hair and hemmed and hawed a little, "Well... it's rumoured that the ever reclusive designer of "Eclipse" is finally back after a 3 year hiatus from who knows where. And I did hear something about them using one of the rooms for him to work with. But it should be alright as long as you don't enter that room."

"Or else-?" Bella raised her brow a little. She did hear about the brand Eclipse and that says something about the brand as she hardly kept track with the fashion world. In fact, it was impossible to miss the brand Eclipse as it was a conglomerate company that had its hands in every aspect of business, from Hotels to eateries. Anything that could be made into business, you can bet your ass that Eclipse had holdings in it.

"You'll just be exiled I guess. They're fiercely protective of their designer and no one knows who he is either and they intend to keep it that way, but oh well it's just a rumour that he's here! So I've got to go! I'll see you when you're done! Thank you so much Bella!" Alice hopped into her car with her sunglasses on and sped away as abruptly as she had appeared.

Bella blinked and held up her hand, "Bye?" to no one in particular before lifting up her heavy back pack of equipments and entering into a 7 storey building with a rather weird infrastructure.

On the outside, it appeared to be a rather small building but upon stepping in, she realised that the building was actually bigger than it looked from the exterior. There was a high tech security in place and one could only gain entry by having a special card. She was about to slot the card into the lift door when someone stopped her.

"Hi, I'm sorry. I seem to have misplaced my card..." The voice said in a rather slow, lazy drawl. Bella narrowed her eyes, "I'm sorry. I 'm afraid I can't help you." She pointed to the card, "It says here: for one entry only."

The person sighed loudly, she couldn't really tell how the person looked like as it was dim and the guy (that much she could tell) was wearing sunglasses, a cap and a grey hoodie. But she found him too suspicious for her liking; he could very well be a reporter trying to get a big break for his tabloid news.

The guy stopped the lift doors from closing, "Look. I've left my workplace to grab something to eat, and it would take hours before security would drop by as I've given orders to ignore me as much as they could. And for once, just once, they actually really did. So now, I'm stuck outside and it's about to rain, with my work incomplete and my deadline's tomorrow morning. So I would really appreciate it if you could let me into the lift as well and look, oh yay, we're in the same floor. So that means I would be able to take the same lift as you."

Bella took a long, long look at him. She smiled widely, her teeth showing. The guy smiled back as well; thinking that she had agreed and was about to step into the lift when she abruptly pressed the door closed, "I'm sorry. I play by the rules." She pointed to her card and the doors slammed shut.

--

Edward's mouth gaped at the closed lift, and he could think of a million things he wanted to say to the obnoxious girl but he jerked his mouth closed instead. He checked his phone again and shoved it back into his pockets. No good, there weren't any signals around this area, and he had given specific orders to everyone to steer clear away from this place.

And of all days, everyone had to be so obedient for once! And it didn't help that the girl he had just met was as unsympathetic as the mosquitoes around him. He glanced up at the weather, the sky looked threatening enough, bolts of lightning were flashing and he heard the low rumblings of thunder in the distant. And of course, they had to add in an element of 'artistry' to this building by not building the lobby a shelter.

He pulled up the zip to his jacket tightly and folded his arms, aware that the temperature was dropping rapidly. His lips were drawn to a thin straight line. The closest store was miles away and he hated driving, much less driving in the rain. But he could grab an umbrella from his car, were there any? He wondered out to himself and glanced up at the lift's level.

The girl had reached her level; he sure hoped she would be happy now as the first drop of rain fell onto his face.

Great. Just Great.

-

Bella felt lighter already the moment she removed her glasses and horrible wig, the disguise was part of the plan in appearing incognito. It was distracting enough, and now that no one was around. She returned to her usual self by pulling back her hair into a ponytail.

Her eyes followed the clothes display in front of her and she examined her drawings. The theme for the photo shoot was: "Young and Alive". She had thought about it previously, what could possibly highlight youth?

And then it came upon her. Time. She wanted the pictures to bring out the short span of youth, yet she didn't want the shoot to be bleak and preachy (as if everyone didn't know that they were pitching themselves against the unforgiving thing called Time), she wanted the shoot to be inspiring. To let the viewers see that the only way they could redeem time was not to live in the past of 'what if's or in the future of 'if only'. She wanted them to live in the moment - to savour one day at a time.

Now, how was she going to bring that out? She was about to start drawing when a clap of thunder startled her. And she realised that the weather had taken for the worst.

Now that she had thought about it, the lobby didn't have a shelter. Bella sighed loudly as she glanced at the time, it was already an hour past, and she wondered if the guy was still standing by the lobby. Out of a rare glimpse of goodwill, she decided to head towards the level downstairs to grab a sandwich.

The lift's door opened with a "Ping" and she glanced outside. It was already raining pretty badly, and in order to walk to the vending machine, she had to use her umbrella. She glanced to her left, then to her right. It was impossibly cold and the hairs on her arm stood up. He couldn't possibly still be here, could he?

The lobby was empty. She shrugged; just as well, she concluded that he was lying about here being his workplace as well. Her hands were reaching towards the buttons when she heard a sound on her right and she glanced. There was an umbrella sitting on the floor. She blinked, no, there was a person holding onto an umbrella squatting on the floor. She walked towards the red umbrella and saw that the guy was curled up like a ball and sulking. She was amused to find that he looked rather like a petulant child who was sulking because he didn't get invited to a birthday party.

"If you're here to gloat, don't." The guy said softly, his palm placed on the end of his chin and he barely glanced up at her. The red umbrella was lazily placed on his shoulder and he sulked at the rain. She was amused, barely irritated, but not sympathetic. He was surviving pretty well!

She could have jolly well stayed upstairs and not came down to see how he was doing.

"And if you're here to watch the rain, you're blocking my view." He drawled. Very well, she nodded her head lightly and took a step to his right before squatting down beside him as well. She placed her umbrella the same way he did, with it resting on her shoulders. And she stretched out her hand to feel the rain.

Seeing it falling down with a fat plop had a rather soothing effect on her. She watched it dropped, fall then died as it hit the concrete floor with a splat. "This is pretty soothing," she finally commented as they both stared at the same spot where rain fell hard and fast in a steady tangible rhythm.

"It is, isn't it?" Edward agreed, even though he was freezing his ass off. He couldn't take his eyes away from the rain. Or the girl who had rejected helping him, "Say, you look pretty familiar," he said, looking at her through his glasses. He peeled them away and Bella realised that her disguise was gone, she wasn't wearing the glasses Or the wig!

She stood up abruptly and tried to hide her face when the guy suddenly said, "I know. You're...the one I met by the cliff the other day."

She paused and then turned around to see the youth she had drawn, or had been drawing. The one with the golden sad eyes, she said after a pause, "Edward?"

He smiled, "In the flesh." He said when her umbrella was blown away by a huge gust of wind that came abruptly. She struggled to catch it but it only blew further away. And the onslaught of rain caught on, drenching her from head to toe. She could only yell across rain mangled hair to Edward, "Do you want to head up or not?" Her voice drowned by the howling wind and rain.

But Edward nodded and stepped to shelter her from the rain, and the side of his lips lifted before saying, "Thought you wouldn't ask –" and with that, he took out his jacket to place it around her.

--