Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight characters, but McCreamy is my own evil creation.

Author's Note: Just to warn you guys, I have a very busy week or two ahead between my son turning 4 and all of his birthday party arrangements and things, plus my mom is on vacation and I want to spend some quality time with her, so I won't have much time to write. If inspiration hits and the time presents itself then I'll most definitely do what I can, but I'm guessing that there won't be an over abundance of writing time at my disposal for at least a week or two…so expect at least a two week delay before you get the next chapter. And for those of you who follow Chasing Away the Shadows, I have the next chapter done and will hopefully be able to post in the next few days, but the same will be true for it as well. Thank you to my beta Sihaya9 for all of her great work as usual! Thanks for reading guys and I hope that you enjoy! Please remember to take time to review!

9. McDreamy, McSteamy, and McCreamy

BPOV

I was back in the white bedroom of my daydream, surrounded by fluffy cloudlike pillows, feeling warm and cozy. I knew I was dreaming and it was a beautiful dream that I really didn't want to wake up from. I took a deep breath and melted at the warm, clean, musky scent of Edward who lay next to me in nothing but a pair of white silk pajama pants. He cradled me to his chest with his warm arms wrapped around me. I leaned back and stared at his perfection, his face serene with peaceful sleep, his perfectly sculpted chest smooth and tan with only a slender trail of bronze hair traveling from his belly button down to disappear within the confines of his pajama pants. He was the epitome of perfection and I was actually lying in his arms.

I shifted slightly, allowing my face to rest on the hard, smooth, bare chest of the beautiful man next to me and let my hand travel softly across the smooth ridges of his abs and pecks. I was resisting the urge to brush my lips against them following the pattern that my fingers made as they ghosted across the surface, desperately wanting to taste his skin.

Suddenly I felt the warmth shift, His body pulled closer and enveloped me in both of his arms, cradling me closer to his chest and filling me cozy contentment. In my mind I was begging myself not to wake up, to just let me stay here indefinitely. Just when I thought my dream couldn't get any better, I felt Edward's lips brush my forehead softly as he whispered in my ear, "I love you Isabella Marie Swan…more than anything else in the world." I felt my body melt closer and I sighed; a smile spread across my face and my heart began to race. I relished the heat of his embrace. I cuddled into the space where his neck and shoulder met and placed three gentle kisses on the fragrant flesh of his neck, each slightly higher than the one before. A tingle traveled through my lips and radiated throughout my body. I buried my nose in his neck once again and whispered "Mmmm, Edward." as I reveled in the scent; I marveled at how real this all felt. I wished it could be real.

I was just about to sit up and place a kiss on his lips when he opened his eyes and screeched in my face in a high pixie like voice, "BELLA! We're Late! Bella! You have to wake up!"

My eyes shot open and blinked a few times in disbelief. I found my nose buried in Edward's very soft and fragrant neck. The memory of the five a.m. discussion and my subsequent invitation for him to climb onto the couch with me came flooding through my brain. I pulled back to find equally shocked green eyes staring back at me. I took stock of our position and realized that I was indeed wrapped neatly in Edward's arms, although he was still fully clothed in his uniform; my leg was wrapped around his thigh. I opened my mouth to say something…anything, but before the words could escape my throat a pair of tiny and yet impressively strong hands grabbed my wrist and tugged me off the couch, pulling Edward to the floor as I was dragged over his surprised body to the bedroom.

"Dr. K will be ready to kill us. We're supposed to be in rounds in less than five minutes!" Suddenly realizing how totally screwed we were I ran into my bedroom yelling for Jasper to pull the covers over his head. I tossed a pair of my scrubs to Alice for her to wear. I ripped off my pajamas and threw on my own set of scrubs as quickly as possible. Alice threw me a piece of gum which I immediately unwrapped and tossed into my mouth. I ran to the bathroom to grab my toothbrush, toothpaste, brush, and hair tie before running into the living room to jam my feet into my shoes and hurriedly follow Alice out the door. I tried to brush my hair into a ponytail while we ran. As I turned to close the door behind me I saw a flash of a bewildered looking Edward sitting on the couch. He gave me an apologetic smile in the second before the door clicked closed.

Alice and I sprinted at full speed toward the main doors of the hospital, asking Elizabeth, the receptionist, to hold our personal items behind the desk until we could make it back down later. We ran directly to the floor to find the team. By the time we arrived Dr. K, Sabrina, and Krista were already on their third patient for morning rounds when we skidded to a stop in front of them panting at the exertion we had expended to get there.

Dr. K looked ticked off but the annoyance quickly faded to a slight chuckle as she took in our appearance. We both stood with our hands on our knees panting in an attempt to stabilize our breathing. I looked over to see Alice was actually swimming in my scrubs; they were at least two sizes too large for her petite little body and were mismatched, with green top and mauve bottoms. Then I looked down at my own body to see that I was also mismatched, neither of us noticing in the rush that I had given her the top that matched my pants by mistake and placed the top that matched her on my own body. Alice's hair was even more wild than usual, and I'm guessing that my ponytail was far from straight, having secured it while in a full on race to arrive as soon as possible.

"Ladies, I take it you woke up late and ran all the way here?" We nodded with apologetic looks. "Well, considering what you had going on last night with your families, I guess I can excuse your tardiness just this once. I suggest the two of you take some time to sort yourselves out before you join us for the next patient. You hardly look professional." With another chuckle she shooed us away with her hand before turning back to Krista and Sabrina to enter the next room.

Alice and I shared a wary look as we made our way down to the faculty lounge. We locked the door and took a few moments to swap scrub tops and sort out our hair, doing our best to look as professional as possible under the circumstances.

"If this is any indication, it's going to be a long ass day," Alice moaned next to me as she rubbed her hands over her exhausted looking face. We both looked extremely worse for wear with dark circles under our eyes, having gotten less than three hours of sleep.

We shuffled our way back out to meet up with the rest of the Femmes looking a tad better, but definitely not up to our usual standards. We struggled our way through the morning, desperately wishing for a good double espresso to get us through. Finally sick of seeing us struggle through, Dr. K sent us to the cafeteria to get some lunch and ordered us to drink at least three cups of coffee before we showed our sorry butts back on her floor.

We walked away, both appreciative and mortified. We've always been the strong links in our team and it was very humbling to be the embarrassments. Dr. K had told us earlier that we all have our bad days; it's how we cope with them that show what we are really made of. Obviously we weren't doing a very good job of showing our worth.

Alice and I both grumbled as we meandered our way to the front desk to retrieve our belongings from Elizabeth. We ducked into the locker rooms to put our things away and tried to freshen up a bit more before making our way to the cafeteria. We typically tried to steer clear of the cafeteria during this time of the day; anxious to avoid the hospital gossip among the nurses and aids, and today was definitely a banner day for hospital gossip.

We went through the lines of food and made our way to an open seat where we were instantly greeted with the gossip of the day.

"Oh my gosh! Have you seen them yet? They are H-O-Double T HOTT!"

"Really? They're that good looking?"

"Oh yeah, definitely Chicago's version of McDreamy, McSteamy, and McCreamy!"

"McCreamy?"

"OH Hell yeah, as in cream your pants the second you see his sexy ass!"

The nurse getting the low down laughed. "Okay, so who's who?"

"The shorter one with the brown hair and the dimples, Dr. McDonal, is McDreamy, the blonde, Dr. Stevens, is McSteamy, and the tall dark drink of ice cold water, Dr. Sellers, is most definitely McCreamy."

"So where are they working today? Maybe I can accidentally wander into their ward or something."

"Oh Dr. Cullen is giving them the VIP tour so they're all over today. Who knows where they'll be by the end of it. I just got lucky they hit maternity early."

The nurses got up, still gossiping along the way and Alice and I exchanged a knowing look with a roll of our eyes. These new, good-looking hotshots were definitely going to be falling under Dr. K's rules of disengagement. Any docs who are getting Carlisle's VIP tour are definitely going to be some cocky Attendings who will be ruthless, cold, and most definitely off our menu!

After lunch and four cups of extra strong coffee we made our way down to the pits to finish off our day as Dr. K had instructed, feeling much more prepared to face the remainder of our shift. We settled in; both getting a handful of minor cases and happily relished in boring and mundane for once in our professional career. After our crappy morning, we needed a break from the insanity.

We were about an hour shy of our shift being over when I heard Carlisle talking outside of the curtains separating the area my patient inhabited from the rest of the ward. One thing I could say for sure, Carlisle was the king of talking up our facilities capabilities. To hear him talk you would think we were futuristic. I finished up stitching Mrs. Davison, who had cut herself with a kitchen knife while preparing supper, and gave her a few simple directions before stepping out of the cubicle. Returning to the nurse's station, I placed the chart in the 'outbox' and pick up my next patient when I heard Carlisle's voice behind me.

"Oh Dr Swan! Wonderful! I'd like you to come and meet our newest recruits at Northwestern Memorial!" I rolled my eyes at Suzie, my favorite ER nurse with whom I had developed a bit of camaraderie, before plastering my best "sincere" smile on my face and turning to meet the newest assholes.

My mouth dropped open and my eyes grew wide as I turned to find myself face to face with Dan, Chris, and Trevor. "Gentlemen, I would like you all to meet one of our brightest interns this year, Dr. Isabella Swan, Dr. Swan this is Dr. McDonal, Dr. Stevens, and Dr. Sellers."

"Hello again," Trevor replied with a smirk and a wink. "I didn't expect to bump into you again quite so soon."

I was at a loss for words. I had thankfully managed to remember to close my mouth before I started catching flies, but my voice was lost and I could feel the warm blush growing in intensity across my face.

"Oh, do you know one another?" Carlisle asked with a surprised expression.

"Actually, Dr. Swan and her friends were among the people we met last night that the bar you suggested across the street…Dooley's was it?"

"Ah," Carlisle answered with a nod.

I finally found my voice again and managed to smile a bit, "Yes, but I'm sorry I was so surprised that I didn't catch your last names doctor."

Trevor smirked, "Well, I'm Dr. Sellers, Chris here is Dr. Stevens, and Danny Dimples over there is Dr. McDonal. I can't speak for the rest of the guys, but I honestly would prefer for you to call me Trevor."

I struggled to reduce my blushing as I gave him a small nod. Moments later Alice, Sabrina, and Krista materialized beside me with matching looks of surprise which mirrored my initial expression. We went through the process of official introductions again before Suzie asked me to assist with a patient who had requested me. I told the three new guys that it was nice to see them again and followed Suzie to exam area 3 on the far side of the room, only to find it was empty.

Suzie spun toward me with a devious smile, "Okay chickadee, spill!"

I chuckled and sat on the gurney in the exam room with her. I whispered the details from last night before suddenly rolling my eyes at my own inability to deduce that Trevor worked here after the late night call. I guess he could have a number of possible jobs, but across the street from the hospital I worked at and was called to on occasion myself, I should have guessed.

"So, what's he like?" She was getting way too into this. Normally she wasn't one for the gossip mongering, but this time around she was all ears.

"I didn't have much of a chance to get to know him, but he seemed pretty nice. He said he just moved up here from Springfield, which is really close to where I grew up. I don't know anything about the other two. Trevor got called out before we talked too much, but I didn't see the other two the rest of the night either, so they must have been called in too."

"Trevor?"

"Yeah, we didn't discuss our jobs last night, so until a few minutes ago that's all I knew him as. But, I mean, he's an Attending; like Dr. K says, never ever get involved with the Attendings, there's a reason why they are where they are."

"Someday she'll be an Attending, you will someday be an Attending, and there wouldn't be any reason other than your innate skill that would lead you to the job. Maybe you should give the guy a chance before just brushing him off. He's really hot and you should have seen the expression on his face when he saw you! He went from 'I'm bored as hell and can someone get me out of this' to "Alright, now we're talkin'."

I started laughing as I gave her arm a gentle smack. "Oh stop; he did not."

She raised her eyebrows, "Oh yes he did! You were looking at me when he walked up so you wouldn't know what he looked like before Dr. Cullen referred to you as Dr. Isabella Swan. His face lit up like a Christmas tree."

I could feel my brow furrow, "Really?"

She laughed and rolled her eyes, "Yes really…is it so hard to believe? Half the males in this hospital drool over you and the rest of the Femmes every time you walk by."

"Oh, now I KNOW you're making that part up. Nobody drools over me…especially here."

"Please girl! If it weren't for the fact that they all know you have higher standards you would all have more dates than you have nights of the week."

I snorted, "Ooookay, Well, I need to get back out there I guess and see what's going on. Thanks for the save by the way. If I stood there looking like a moron much longer they would have started worrying about the integrity of the program! I swear I have never been less eloquent!" We laughed and left the area, floating back to the nurse's station where I had another stack of charts waiting for me. The new trio was nowhere in sight…thank goodness.

Forty-five minutes later I was a free woman as I made my way down to the locker room to grab my things and head home. The Femmes and I made plans to hang out at my place after we all went home to clean up and regroup. Some major strategizing time was needed to figure out the last twenty-four hours. They had been strange and the only way we were ever going to wrap our heads around it was to sit around sharing a large tub of ice cream and talk our way through it.

When I walked out the front doors of the building to make my way home I was startled by a voice behind me. I turned to see Dr. McCreamy himself leaning against the wall looking smug as hell with his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face.

"Well, well, well, I never dreamed that the sexy independent beauty at the bar would turn out to be one of the famous Femmes I have heard so much about over the past two days."

I chuckled, "Well I never dreamed that the handsome gentleman I met at the bar would turn out to be a cocky new Attending. You know we Femmes have sworn off all Attendings since all the ones here seem to be self-important assholes."

He laughed deeply, shook his head and pushed off the wall to cross the space that separated us. "I like you Dr. Isabella Swan. You really have chops…I like that. You're not one of the simpering little airheads that usually run around a place like this, trying to sink their claws into a rich doctor in hopes of becoming a kept woman…and I really hope you'll accept an invitation to grab some dinner with me. What do you say?"

I stared blankly for a moment, more than a little surprised by his invitation and his observations. "Uh…I…I can't tonight. I already have plans, sorry."

"Then how about tomorrow night? We can grab some supper and you can show me around town…what do you say?"

"Well…uh…"

"Oh come on, I'm not a hot shot attending yet. I just got here; I haven't had a chance to make a name for myself yet. Can you really turn down a downstate boy?"

I laughed, "Okay, fine. Tomorrow night, supper, a quick tour and then its back home again. I'm on the day shift all week."

He clapped his hands together once loudly with a triumphant smile. "Excellent! How about Benihana for supper? I know, I know, it's a bit touristy of me, but I love that place and I've only been a few times since I've visited Chicago."

I laughed, "Sounds good to me. I haven't actually been in quite a few years despite of the fact that I only live a few blocks away from it. It would be nice for a change."

"What…say Seven?"

"Sounds good."

"Where do you live? I'll pick you up."

I instantly thought of the boys and deadpanned. "Uh, how about if we just meet here. It would be easier on both of us."

He laughed. "Alright, it's a date."

I blushed as I turned and made my way down the street toward my apartment. Holy Shit! What did I just do? You NEVER get involved with the jackass Attendings! It's one of Dr. K's primary rules…but Suzie did have a point, wouldn't we one day be Attendings? We wouldn't be people that you wouldn't want to date. He's new to the area; I mean he's from my neck of the woods for goodness sake. He was a total gentleman at the bar last night. It's possible that he's another Carlisle type guy right? There has to be more than one out there!

I looked up from my internal debate to find I actually walked right past my building during my mental rant. I groaned, rolled my eyes and turned to make my way back to the door to the apartment.

To my great relief it was empty, but as I leaned down to kick off my shoes I caught sight of the couch and instantly remembered my dream. It all felt so real, the warmth of being in Edward's arms and his scent wrapping around me and incorporating itself in my dream; it was amazing and of course too good to ever be true. Edward would never have those feelings for me.

I sighed as I thought about the dream that would never be, trying to shake the image that would only lead to my own heartache if I ever entertained the idea in reality. Edward was not a one woman type man and he ran away from love as though it were a death sentence.

No, I was better off to forget the mental manifestation of my secret Harlequin addiction and concentrate on my real life options. I had a handsome man who wanted to take me, Bella Swan, out on a date…a real date…and he even called it a date himself. So, he might be one of the evil Attendings our Mama Doc had warned us about…or he might just be a nice guy who happened to land a great job. I would never know if I didn't at least get to know him better and find out for myself, right?

I frowned and shook my head as I ran toward my bedroom to grab a set of comfy clothes to relax in before running back to the bathroom to grab the shower. Since I had missed my morning routine I needed to clear my head of the chaos and relax in the warm streams of water beating down my neck. I would have a girl powwow in a half an hour in order to debate the finer parts of this new and unexpected situation. I would deal with everything then. For now I just needed a break from the drama.

Right on time there was a knock at the door and Alice came in with a gallon bucket of chocolate ice cream, Krista, Sabrina, and Rosalie were right behind her.

"Rose! I didn't even think to invite you…I'm so glad someone else did! It wouldn't be the same without you. Matter of fact, I am officially naming you an honorary Femme! You ladies agree?"

"Hell Ya!" "Sure!" "I don't mind." I heard the other three say and I turned back to see Rose grinning from ear to ear. The girls settled in the living room floor while I ran to the kitchen to grab five spoons, hitting the Pink play list on my iPod when I passed the stereo, making sure it was low enough not to impede our discussion, and settled down in the circle to lean against the couch.

"Sooo…" I started and the girls all nodded in understanding. I waited a few seconds before taking a deep breath and starting in. "He was waiting for me when I left the hospital tonight and asked me out. I told him I had plans tonight so he asked for tomorrow and I sort of said yes."

"What?!" All the girls yelled out in unison, three voices were incredulous while Rose looked excited with a devious twinkle in her eye.

"Well, I mean, he's new to town, and he's from a town near where I grew up. They can't all be bad can they?"

"Yes! They can!" Sabrina blurted from her side of the circle before shoving a big spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.

"Well, what about Carlisle…I mean Dr. Cullen? There has to be more decent docs out there than JUST him."

"Sweetie, Dr. C is one of a kind, when they built that beautiful, wonderful man they broke the mold. Trust me; there are no others like him." Alice said from beside me.

"What do we know about them?" Rose asked.

I told them all I knew about Trevor, Sabrina seemed to know very little about Chris, but surprisingly Krista had more knowledge than any of us. It seems that she and Dan had exchanged numbers too and had utilized the connection in the two hours since we had bumped into them at the hospital. Chris and Trevor were both transplants from Springfield while Dan had come up from Peoria. He didn't really know a whole lot about the other two, but Dan seemed to be a genuinely sweet guy who went to church and called his mother every Sunday. He was going to be the new addition to the Pediatrics staff. He loved pets, sports, and Nascar and even shared Krista's love for Dale Earnhardt Jr. I smiled as I watched the glow and sparkle in Krista's eyes as she spoke about him. If this man was for real he sounded like the perfect guy for our sweet Krista. I prayed for her sake he was what he seemed to be.

Okay so one down, two mysteries left to go. We compared notes on what we had learned from the gossip, which was very little. The only other information we knew was that both were in plastic surgery, a dream team known for miraculous works in post surgical and post trauma reconstruction.

Halfway through the discussion Rose raised her spoon. We all looked at her as she turned to me and asked a question I could tell she had been dying to ask me all evening.

"So, Bella, what's the story with you and Edward cuddled up on the couch this morning?"

"Ooohhh, good question," Alice squealed next to me bouncing a bit. "You two looked really, really cozy. If we weren't running late I would never have interrupted that insanely intimate moment you two were sharing."

My breath caught in my chest and my eyes widened at the excited little pixie. "What do you mean? Intimate how?"

"Uh Sweetie, you totally had your nose buried in the guy's neck, breathing him in like you were huffing glue and saying "mmm Edward" in your sleep."

I gasped and covered my open mouth with my hand. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" Then I gasped again. "Did you see me kissing him or anything like that?"

She squealed… "No! Did you kiss him Bella?"

I was shaking my head as the red flooded my face. Oh no, this can't be happening, please tell me that this didn't happen. Shit! What will I say to Edward? 'Uh, sorry I practically molested you on the couch last night, you see I was having this amazing sexy dream about you and how good you smell and look shirtless.' Yeah, right. Jeez, things were already all screwed up and now they're just going to get worse because he's going to get all weird. Then I thought about his wide surprised eyes and groaned.

"Hello! Earth to Bella…come in Bella." Alice was waving her hand in front of my face. "I think she's gone into shock….BELLA!" She snapped her fingers in front of my face and I finally blinked.

I shook my head and looked at her. "Finally, gesh! So did you kiss him or what?"

"W..well…uh, I was dreaming about him, and well, I don't know. In my dream I kissed his neck not too long before I sniffed him and said the "Mmmm Edward" part and then you interrupted…so," I buried my hands in my face and screamed a bit, "ugh, it's totally possible."

They all started laughing as I grew even redder grabbing a pillow off the couch and holding it over my face as I screamed out loud into it. This was turning out to be the most embarrassing day ever!

EPOV

The team and I were sitting in the conference room at the station discussing the tactical training program in Minnesota that we needed to take in a few weeks. One part of SWAT is that, while we might not always have missions to go on, there was a never-ending procession of training we had to undergo to acquire and keep our skills sharp and ready for deployment. Basically SWAT is the closest thing you can get to being in the actual military, and just like soldiers are in perpetual training, so were we.

I was supposed to be listening to the details of the trip and the overall planning needed to execute the faux mission, but my mind was far too distracted with the events of the morning. Bella in my arms. Saying the words out loud to her, I love her, even if she were asleep. Her warmth and scent when she cuddled closer to me, nuzzling her nose into my neck. The shock and excitement when she brushed her beautiful pouty lips across my neck in not one, not two, but three kisses before nuzzling my neck again breathing deeply and murmuring my name. Words cannot describe the feelings that flooded my body when that happened.

I struggled trying to decide what to do next. While initially I thought she might be awake, it didn't take long for me to realize she was sleeping, which was almost even more exciting because that meant she was dreaming of me. The way she cuddled closer and kissed my neck with such intimacy, not only was she dreaming of me, but she was dreaming of me in a profound fashion and even moaning my name. To say I was happy would be a gross understatement. To say I was turned on would be an even bigger understatement. To say I was totally and completely shocked would probably be the one phrase that would come remotely close to describing about half of what I was thinking and feeling.

I was milliseconds away from waking her up and telling her the truth of how I felt about her when Alice's screeching panic broke me from my thoughts. I didn't register what she was saying except the word late. Bella groaned and the tensed in my arms before slowly pulling away, looking at me with surprised eyes. I wondered what I looked like considering that the shock was still pretty much the dominant emotion I was feeling in the moment. Neither of us got a chance to say or do anything as Alice reached over grabbing Bella's hand and tugged knocking me backwards off the couch to land on my back on the floor. She pulled Bella over the top of me and dragged her toward her bedroom chattering the whole way, Bella's voice now just as panicked when she responded to Alice.

I lay there, still in shock for a little bit before finally moving back up to sit on the couch with my elbows rested on my knees and buried my face in my hands. To say that the last twelve hours had been confusion and emotionally charged would be about the twentieth understatement of the day. It was overwhelming how much had changed in my life, in my heart, and in my priorities. Suddenly the most important thing in the world to me was the beauty who had spent the last few hours wrapped in my arms and filling my body and soul with more contentment than I had known in my entire life.

I heard her run down the hallway into the restroom chattering nonstop with Alice. I stared in confusion as I watched the two girls come sprinting into the living room wearing mix matched scrubs, their hair all a mess. Bella leaned over, attempting to shove her feet in her sneakers with her hands full of toiletries. This morning was such a confusing whirlwind. I wished more than anything that we could talk about what had just happened and finish our conversation from when I arrived at the apartment the night before, but there was no time.

In spite of her messy mane that she was haphazardly trying to comb, while juggling the things in her hand and trying to shut the door, Bella was an absolutely beautiful sight to behold. All I could do was stare as she gave me a small apologetic smile in the seconds before the door clicked closed, thus leaving me in the silence of the apartment to wallow in my thoughts and feelings.

I wasn't alone for long. Soon Jasper emerged from Bella's room looking nearly as bewildered as I felt. Emmett and Rose soon followed looking like disgruntled bears being pulled out of hibernation. None of us were very awake or in a particularly good mood so we all sat in silence.

After a few minutes Emmett started to wake up enough to register that my presence this morning was out of place. "What the fuck are you doing here Edward? Didn't you go home last night?"

I sighed and shook my head. "I sort of took your advice last night and explained about the Maggie situation. Bella asked if we could talk more today when she was awake and coherent but then shocked the hell out of me when she offered for me to lie down next to her on the couch, so I did and we fell asleep there together."

All three smiled at me with knowing twinkles in their eyes. I couldn't help but smile back as I thought about all of the wonderful warm feelings that sleeping in Bella's arms gave me. I didn't go into detail about my declarations or Bella's reactions in her sleep; the details weren't necessary because everything I was feeling was written all over my face.

"Well, I hope you two can talk everything out soon and get past all the awkward shit. I'm sick of living in a fucking soap opera. Get that shit sorted and make our girl happy. Get me?"

I laughed. Things really had been a bit like a bad daytime soap lately. Hopefully our talk would go well and we could move past all this confusion and miscommunication and finally be settled into something new that I hoped would be wonderful. I really couldn't imagine it not being great. I loved spending time with Bella. She was just so easy to be around. There was never any pretense with Bella. She told you exactly what she thought and either you liked it or you didn't, it was your choice. I had never actually been around anyone so grounded and real. Emmett was close, he was also one that didn't mask what he was thinking and feeling, but Bella took it to a whole new level and you really couldn't help but love her for it.

After the all day planning meeting for our upcoming two-week trip to Minnesota we went to grab some supper at our favorite diner near the station. It was pretty much a mom and pop greasy spoon type of joint, but they had the best wings in town and the owners were really great people who always treated the officers that came in with great respect. This being the case, while every chain restaurant in a two block radius took a major hit when the economy began to crumble, Hal's Diner seemed to not only maintain it's normal level of business, but it seemed that their business nearly doubled.

I had already decided during the meeting that I was going to grab a quick bite to eat with the guys and then I was going straight to Emmett and Bella's to talk to her. I wanted all the shit aired out in the open, and sooner rather than later. I was about to sink my teeth into a big double bacon cheeseburger when I heard Emmett and Jasper's phones chirping from their hips. They both pulled out their cells, reading the text messages they had just received and exchanged worried glances; they groaned and then cast their gazes on me.

"What?" I asked dropping the sandwich back onto my plate.

They just looked at me apologetically as they stayed disquietingly silent. "Guys, you're freaking me out here, what's wrong? Is Bella okay?"

Another chirp sounded from Emmett's phone and he glanced down at the screen and groaned. Jasper's was a second behind and his reaction matched Emmett's.

"Motherfuckers, if you don't tell me what's going on right now I'm going to fucking punch your lights out. What's wrong?"

Emmett reached over and clamped a hand on my shoulder as he looked at me. "Rose and Alice are at the apartment with Bella and the rest of the girls. It seems that today while they were at work they discovered that the guys from the bar last night are actually new doctors at Northwestern." I groaned knowing this was going to make the whole guy thing with Bella more complicated.

"It gets worse," Jasper mumbled from across the table, "the guy dancing with Bella asked her out on a date tomorrow night and she accepted."

I felt like someone had used the ram to give me a gut shot; the air whooshed out of my lungs and my stomach tightened reflexively. How can this be happening? How can she go from sleeping in my arms this morning and dreaming about me, kissing my neck and murmuring my name in her sleep to accepting a date from that fucking player?! I could feel my heart cracking in my chest as shards began to crumble off its edges.

I rested my elbows on the table and buried my face in my hands trying to steady the room which felt like it was spinning around me. A moment so precious to me obviously meant nothing to her. Fucking Karma, I should have known someday my stupid decisions would come back to bite me in the ass. I have never felt so completely disheartened by anything in my entire life. I finally found a woman to love and I'm going to lose her as soon as I found her.

"Ed, dude, why do you look so completely defeated already? Where the fuck is our friend, the cocky asshole who gets what he wants? Fight motherfucker. If anyone's worth it, it's Bella. Don't be a pussy! Fight for her." Jasper said from across the table.

"We'll even help man. After the way that asshole was acting while he was dancing with Bella…there's no way in hell we're going to just sit back and watch him play my kid sister. You fight for her, and we'll work behind the scenes to help you." Emmett said from beside me patting his shoulder.

I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face one more time before looking back up to meet their eyes with new determination. "So where do we start?"

Rosalie POV

I smiled and tucked my phone back into my purse after getting a response from Emmett saying that they recognized Trevor as a player already and Edward was going to fight for Bella. I couldn't help but smile. Finally Edward was starting to show a little bit of his potential. I always knew he could be a great guy, if he'd just get his head out of his self-important ass and put someone else ahead of himself for once.

Alice and I had quickly pulled out our phones to text the boys when Bella took a bathroom break. I had seen Edward's face that morning after the girls left and told Alice all about it when she called to invite me over for the gossip fest. I knew that he was finally starting to see what all of us had seen all along. At last he was starting to let his relationship with Bella shift in the direction he wanted it to; I just had to hope that with recent events he wasn't already too late.

Bella came back in and we all sat around finishing off the ice cream as I pumped her for more useful information. The boys were never going to pull all of this off without some covert help from an inside person.

Over the course of the evening the subject changed many times as we bent the conversation back and forth over stories about our lives and our past loves. I have to admit, I was totally shocked by the stories Bella shared.

She was seventeen when she had her first kiss and I laughed when she told us about using Edward as her guinea pig. If only she knew he's give his eye tooth to be able to do that with her now. She told us about Jacob and how he ended up being her first 'real' kiss and also the first to see her topless and to get his grind on with dry humping style, but when she wasn't ready to proceed below the waist or put out for prom he dumped her, leading to the boys kicking his ass and breaking his arm.

Honestly that didn't surprise me. All of those boys adored Bella, especially her brother. He moved heaven and earth for that girl, and he would never do anything to hurt her or leave her behind. That was part of the reason that we weren't living together yet, he didn't want to leave her alone while she was in such an intensive part of her education. We had discussed it many times, and I had to admit that early on in our relationship I resented her a bit for the closeness they shared and how it got in the way of Emmett moving forward with me more quickly, but once I met her and got to know her, it all melted away. Bella was this strange mix of strong and fragile. She lost so much so young and basically Emmett and these boys were all she had left…it created a nearly indescribably and indestructible bond between them that nobody, including myself, could ever break. Emmett assures me that once she gets past her intern year he thinks she will probably be ready for us to take our next step together.

Her next boyfriend was freshman year at NW, but it didn't work out very well. He was the classic geek from head to toe and basically they were more study partners than anything. He was so intimidated by the guys that they never shared more than a few kisses.

She stayed single for a whole year before she met Caleb. They were both sophomores at NW, both premed, and happened to be put together as organic chem lab partners. It seems that he was also the first boy for Bella to share many forms of chemistry with. The nickname O Chem meant a whole lot more to her after being lab partners with Caleb. She said he was a really nice guy too, but a certain group of over protective brother types ended up walking in on a little O Chem action one day and ended up running poor Caleb off for good before she could actually lose her v card to him. That was the day she decided that if and when she managed to finally find another boyfriend, there was no way she was going to let them come within two miles of 'her boys'.

Between school, work, and the boys she hit a dry spell after Caleb making due with battery operated tension relief for the two years before she got involved with Damon. From the sounds of things Damon was a hottie looking a bit similar to Jasper. He was in her first year classes in the premed program so when they had group study sessions she would lie to the boys about them last about five hours longer than they actually did. That way she had time to go on dates with Damon, and eventually they practiced a little O Chem of their own. Damon was her first and actually only to this point. They dated secretly for a year and a half before she found out he was cheating on her with a slutty blonde waitress that worked at his favorite bar. It seems that Bella was the weekend girlfriend while the blonde was his midweek booty call. She says he's still around and she sees him occasionally, but he was a mediocre student at best and she thinks he's on the verge of failing out of the program and will probably not pass his intern test at the end of the year.

I listened to Bella weave her story about Damon I couldn't help but chuckle a little internally in spite of the sad tale when I remembered Emmett cracking up at the bar when we danced last night as he told me Edward just found out Bella wasn't a virgin. All this time he had been building her up to be the perfect virginal angel, and really he wasn't far off. She wasn't a virgin, but she was still quite innocent, that you could tell just by the way she would blush as she told her stories and also knowing exactly how little experience she did have. I also got the feeling that young Damon didn't have that much stamina to go the distance and none of the O Chem they shared happened by way of his dick.

I had been watching Bella closely all night long, especially when talking about Edward. I could see two things quite clearly when we talked about Edward. At the mention of his name she would light up like a roman candle, her face would go all glowy red, but then as quickly as the brightness came it would dim with sadness. It didn't take long to figure it out. A certain beautiful, smart, funny, and intelligent girl didn't believe that she was good enough to garner young Masen's emotions, and probably she knew him well enough to know that he was a commitmentphobe. If they could only get their heads on straight and actually give honest communication a try, I think they could work this shit out. But for now they were both lost in miscommunication and assumptions.

It was nearly eleven when Emmett and Jasper came bellowing into the room and we broke up our little gossip circle for the night. Emmett pleaded with me to spend the night, but I begged off confessing an early shift at work, but I was really just giving Emmett and Bella a chance to talk. I kissed him goodnight and followed Alice and Jasper down the hallway to the elevators.

"How bad do things look?" Jasper asked as he wrapped his arm around a beaming Alice. Her face dropped at the question.

"We really don't know for sure. I was watching her tonight and I think she's trying to convince herself that this Trevor guy might possibly be decent because she's convinced herself that Edward could never have feelings for her."

Jasper nodded, "Yeah, that sounds like Bella. She's never thought too highly of herself, and well, she knows Edward, or knew Edward. It's kind of freaky. In the past few days or so he's almost like a different person in some ways. It's like fucking invasion of the body snatchers or something, but she hasn't been around him to see because of the whole Maggie thing."

"Well, if he doesn't figure that shit out soon, he might be too late."

Jasper looked pale and nauseas, "I sure as fuck hope not. That Trevor guy is a total player. We caught him scoping some chick's ass while he was dancing with Bella last night. If he hadn't have gotten called away we would have kicked his ass."

"Shit!" Alice and I yell in unison. "Why the fuck didn't you guys tell us sooner Jasper? That information would have been much more useful a few hours ago! You do realize what you guys walked in on was a total girls strategy session right? It was all based on trying to figure out the guys. Damn it! And she's probably not going to believe you guys now because of your track record for running decent guys off!"

"What?" Jasper asked trying to look innocent as Alice shot him a narrowed evil look.

"That Caleb guy sounded like the only decent guy Bella's ever dated and you all ran him off."

The elevator doors opened about that time and we were exiting out to the street where we stood talking before getting into our cars to go back to our respective apartments.

Jasper frowned down at the sidewalk as he pushed around a cigarette butt with his toe. "He wasn't so great. I'm not sure what it is about Bella that attracts the assholes, but we found out he was dating not one but two other girls while she was seeing him. We never told her because we didn't want to hurt her so we let her think we ran him off just to be overprotective, but he was an ass."

"Well, damn, can't the girl catch a break?! Did you ever hear about that Damon guy she hid from you guys during med school? Jackass took her v card, kept her around for a year and a half to have fun with on the weekend all the while having a slutty blonde waitress on the side for mid week booty calls. She found out and dumped his ass after kneeing him hard enough that he thought he was going to have to have a testicular retrieval operation to return it back to his ball sack!"

Jasper looked pissed before looking at Alice sadly. "I wish I could say that she had better examples of how men should treat women, but to be honest is it surprising that she would be drawn to guys who treat her that way when she was surrounded by them at home? Until I met you I was no better. Emmett straightened up when he met Rose, and Edward is just now taking his head out of his ass. Hell Andy's been the only decent example for her all these years, but he always kept his girls far away from us for obvious reasons. We never treated her like that of course, she's basically our kid sister, but she was obviously drawn to what she was comfortable with."

We all stood in silence for a while. "Well, we're going to have to approach this Trevor situation carefully. He's already got her snowed and I think the fact that he's from down near where she grew up has her thinking that he's going to be more of a gentleman, which of course you guys have already observed that he isn't. If we push too hard one way then we're going to push her right into his arms."

We finally all said goodnight and climbed into our cars. I closed my eyes and sent up a silent prayer that Bella not get hurt yet again. She deserved a lot better than that. I sincerely hoped that if Edward does manage to win her that he's smart enough to keep his ass on the straight and narrow and actually manages to deserve her in the long run. If he fucked her over she would be completely and totally devastated and I really wasn't sure anything would ever be able to repair that damage.