Disclaimer: I do not own either Twilight or the Covenant. They are the property of their respective creators. I am simply playing with them for fun. It is my take on what might have happened during N.M. and afterward if maybe Bella had given her heart to and made plans with someone else before Edward.

[A/n: This story will go back and forth from the past to the present. Flashbacks will be in Italics. Also thank you, to all of you readers and reviewers. I greatly appreciate each and every single of your comments.]

Bella opened the door and grabbed her purse and within 10 minutes they were on the freeway heading towards Port Angeles. Thankful that they had taken Jessica's Toyota instead of her truck, Bella relaxed into her seat and let Jessica flip through radio stations in an attempt to find something decent to listen too. Frustrated with the lack of selection in stations that came through Jessica finally turned the radio off. That done she then proceeded to chatter about the latest town gossip. Apparently Lauren had a new boy toy which came as very little surprise to Bella. Lauren showed little discretion when it came to who she dated and local rumor had it that such practices applied else where too. Bella slowly began to drift off to sleep to the sound of Jessica's inane chatter and slept most of the way to Port Angeles.

Bella only finally woke up when Jessica had to slam on her breaks as they started to enter the town limits. They entered Sassy Salon and Nails and gave their names and took seats to wait for the stylists assigned to each of them. As they sat waiting Jessica finally asked her, "Not that I'm not all about having fun and doing this sort of stuff, but I am curious. Why did you call and ask to do this?"

Bella weighed her response carefully and deciding that in this case the truth was a better option than any story that she could convey. "You know that the Cullen's left and so I'm sort of single again." Bella was not given to long explanations and hoped that further comment would be unnecessary.

Jessica frowned and mumbled "Yeah, I'm very aware of that fact. Mike dumped me again because of it." Jessica and Mike were an on again and off again couple and their fights were usually stupid and beyond small. However, they always seemed to lead to a break up followed by begging by Mike until they made up. Mike had dumped Jessica once before when Bella had first moved to Forks so that he could pursue her.

Bella chose to ignore that and continued, "Well, before I dated Edward I was not exactly dating, but I was involved with someone else. He is coming into town and wants to see me. So, I want to look nice." Jessica nodded, "That makes sense." Just then Kim and Susan (who everyone calls Sassy) came out and called the two girls back into the main Salon.

Sassy asked Bella, "What do you want done today?" The talkative redhead with vibrant green eyes loved getting to play with people's hair and always did very drastic but beautiful cuts. The style here was modern and Bell hoped that she would walk out looking like she belonged in Tyler's world and more importantly his life.

Bella smiled, "I leave that in your hands I want to look clean and contemporary?" Sassy nodded and got right to work. The first thing that she did was wash and condition Bella's hair. Next, she began to work on cutting the long locks of Bella's hair. She took it up to just above her shoulders and added some layers to it. Moving around to the front Sassy gave Bella some bold fringe bangs. Then Sassy told her, "I'd like to play with some highlights. You've got some beautiful natural red highlights but they don't come through very well." Bella nodded and let her go to work.

When Sassy was finished Bella was stunned. She could hardly recognize the girl that Alice had tried desperately to get to do this not even a full month ago. The mere thought almost had her in tears. Where as she had not exactly been in love with Edward; Alice had been a great friend and she would miss her. She would also miss Emmett and his boisterous laughter and playful attitude. She would miss Dr. Cullen and Esme too. They had all been very nice to her well, except for Rosalie.

Next, Bella and Jessica went into a pair of pedicure stations and had mani-pedis done. Giggling through out as their feet were scrubbed, filed and massaged. Bella picked out a bold orange-red color for her toes while Jessica went with a brilliant blue. Both girls opted for simple opaque colors for their fingernails.

On the way home Jessica and Bella rode most of the way home in relaxed and companionable silence. Once they had turned into the driveway to Charlie's Jessica put the car into park and took a deep breath. "Bella, I know that I haven't been that nice to you lately. I want you to know though I really am your friend. You look great and whoever this guy is he'd better realize just how lucky he really is to have you."

Bella smiled, "Thanks, Jessica." With that Bella got out of the car and went inside to get dinner ready for when Charlie pulled in. It would be a long night where she would need to finish a lot of things to get ready for Tyler's visit.

Bella was still in the middle of making enchiladas when Charlie came in and hung up his coat and gun belt. Turning he noticed Bella over at the oven, "What is with the new look Bells?" It was not like Charlie to comment on things like a new outfit or a hair style change. However, something drastic like what she had done today especially since she rarely did the girly thing he would. Now she would need to explain herself. This was not something she had thought about.

Sighing Bella knew that Charlie would not be too excited when she explained why so she opted for the more subtle and suitable answer for her father. "I had a girl's day with Jessica and I let her talk me into trying something different."

Charlie smiled, "That's good, I guess, I'm just glad that you're not sitting around here mopping like a lot of girls would." Bella nodded and went back to working on their dinner. From there on out it was like any other night since she had moved to Forks. They had dinner and then Charlie went to watch whatever game was on while she did dishes. She proceeded to do a couple of loads of laundry however before she went to bed.

The following day Bella found it hard to focus on school work. Tyler's flight would get in at 1:00 if it was on time and that meant that he would be at Charlie's around 4 after he checked in at a hotel in Port Angeles. At lunch Bella could hardly eat and she found herself staring off into space in the direction of the table that the Cullen's used to occupy. When she finally came too she found Angela waving her hands in her face, "Earth to Bella, Come in Bella." A little shocked Bella looked around her and found that the cafeteria had basically cleared out.

"What happened?" It worried her that so much time had passed without her noticing. It was not like her to just completely zone out. Then again she thought maybe it was just the nerves. After all she had every reason to be nervous tonight was going to be majorly important to her and her future.

It was Ben who responded for both he and Angela, "You space out, it's already time for Chemistry." That brought Bella to the reality around her. She got up from her seat and grabbed her bag. Bella nodded and proceeded with her friends to the Chemistry lab where they would work again on qualitative analysis.

Seattle, Washington

That same day

Tyler Simms got off of his flight from Salem to Seattle at Sea-Tac International feeling more than a little tired. He proceeded to go and grab his one piece of luggage that he had checked upon getting on to his flight. That done he went to the rental car desk and picked up the keys to the Audi that he had reserved along with his plane ticket. He fiddles with the stations on the radio until he landed on a station that played classic rock music. That taken care of he proceed to leave the lot and get onto the freeway. Tyler hoped that he could stay awake for the drive.

Thankfully, the drive to Port Angeles proves to be smoother and quicker than he thought. Then again, Tyler did not exactly care too much about speed limits. He quickly found his way to one of the nicer hotels that he had been able to find in Port Angeles, a Ramada Inn and Suits. He checked in and went to get ready and change before he headed to meet Bella in Forks. Tyler was not so naive as to believe that this would be the most pleasant of trips, but he hoped that it would not be completely miserable either. If things went well he just might be able to salvage his relationship with the woman who had second to his mother meant the most to him. It was hard for a woman to find a place in the hearts of the sons. Each of them had a place in their hearts for their mothers out of love and respect. If another lady was lucky enough to find their way there it would be the woman they chose for a wife.

Tyler made swift work of showering and taming his curly dark brown hair. He dressed in dark blue fitted jeans and a fitted grey button down shirt with a blue v-neck sweater over it. He shaved his face and sprayed D&G, Light Blue cologne using some as aftershave. Putting on some nice suede, driving shoes in grey he made his way towards his car and Bella.

Meanwhile, the bell finally rang, signaling the end classes for the day. Bella made her way to her truck as quickly as she could and made her way to Charlie's. Once there Bella showered and changed into one of the skirts that Alice had foisted on her during one of her many shopping trips. To top it off she picked a plumb colored blouse. She sprayed on some simple vanilla scented perfume and running a brush through her hair as she ran downstairs. She put on a pot of coffee and pulled down two mugs from Charlie's cupboard and decided that she would order pizza for dinner tonight. That would allow her to keep things as simple as possible.

Everything was in place and ready thankfully by the time that Tyler arrived and knocked on the door. As Bella opened the door she almost literally had to pick her jaw up off of the floor. They talked and written for years after the tournament where they met. Pictures however hardly do justices to a person especially school pictures. Bella was left both speechless and breathless. Her mind screamed at her that she had been stupid to not keep up the fight and deny Edward as well.

As Tyler stepped through the door he came face to face with Bella for the first time in years. In years past they had exchanged school pictures and such with their letters and so he had held some idea of what she might look like. He had watched as she went through her awkwardness as a teenage and yet he had seen potential there even then. After all this was the girl who not only understood him, but knew what he was and accepted him. None of that had prepared him though for what he came face to face with though this day.

What he saw in front of him was a woman who could give any of the debutants at Spencer a run for their money. The funny thing about it though is unless the last year had drastically changed the girl he knew she was the farthest thing from. From what he could see and assess the girls there were mostly social climbers and gold diggers. There was no one who remotely drew his attention the way Bella had.

We'll now proceed with the girl's 400 meter breast stroke. Bella had taken her mark along with the others including a couple from Tyler's own club. As he had watched the girls get ready Tyler had noticed the girl with long brown locks as she tucked them under her cap. Then he saw her as the race started. She was graceful and had a very fluent form that served well in the water. She easily gained half a lengths lead and by the time the race was won she was a full length ahead. The woman sitting next to them was the mother of his club mate Kayla Barnes who had swam in the race. He heard her grumbling about how a poor girl from Arizona could not possibly have beat her daughter. Deciding that he wanted to meet her Tyler had wandered down to congratulate her. After that they had just kept talking.

As they had gotten to know each other he had come to realize just how right he had been to take a chance to meet her. They had spent the rest of the meet talking and watching the races. Conversation was easy and flowing and they found that they had a lot in common. All too soon it was time for the end of tournament dinner and he asked, "Will you and your mother sit with us for the awards dinner?"

Coming back to the present Tyler hoped that nothing had happened to change the girl that she had been. He had long ago decided that he would not get involved with social climbers and gold diggers. He considered Caleb and Pogue lucky to have found anyone who was not like that. Indeed Sarah and Kate were rare and very different from the rest of the Spencer Academy crowd. He respected and liked his two sisters-in-law alright but they didn't quite suit the type that Tyler needed. They were however perfect for his brothers.

Looking again at Bella he could see why the boys would be paying attention to her. Tyler did not necessarily like it but he could understand it. The problem though would be trying to get Bella to understand it. He knew well enough what her assessment of herself had always been. In exchange Tyler had always done what he could to assure her of her worth, goodness knows that her parents didn't help with that.

Bella finally regained her senses and offered for him to take a seat and went and got two cups of coffee with just a little bit of cream and sugar. She was so nervous now that he was here that her hands were literally shaking as she poured. Still with hands shaking she made her way back bringing their coffee into the living room.

Right before she went to hand Tyler his cup her hands actual dropped the coffee she was shaking so hard. Thankfully, she was near enough that Tyler was able to reach out and catch one of them. The other they weren't so lucky with. The cup fell to the floor and the coffee spilt. So Bella went to gather up supplies to clean the mess up. Mentally she was kicking herself for making such a mess the whole way to the cleaning cupboard.

It was then when Tyler realized just how nervous Bella was about all of this. He'd known that she must be feeling somewhat nervous about all this after all the reason that they were meeting was serious. However, for her to be so nervous that she literally had her hands shaking and couldn't even hold on to a cup of coffee was not what he had wanted.

When Bella came back Tyler gently took the cleaning supplies from her and cleaned up the mess. Finally, having mopped up the coffee he took the mug which thankfully was not broken and refilled Bella's cup. Coming back in to the room he said, "Bella, I don't want you to be so nervous. It's just me that you're talking to. I know that the reason that I'm here is serious but you don't need to be so worried. I just want to understand what happened. I got your letter and it read like a confession and it just radiated all sorts of negative emotion. I just want to understand, why I lost you?"