"So?" Bella began, falling to the ground in a stunned heap. "Who are you, really?"

Edward fell to his knees beside her, watching her intensely. "Isa--"

"No. Don't try and sugarcoat it, seriously. I can't take the crap anymore." She glared at him. "What? You're a serial killer? No, no wait, I've got it. You're not into me at all, it's Rose you like and you're just…"

He reached out and pressed one long finger to her full, soft lips. "No, Bella. Let me start from the beginning."

She raised an eyebrow at his pleading look and nodded sharply. "Fine. Go ahead."

He sighed, raising his face to the sky. Bella couldn't help but notice with the sun shining into his face, his eyes seemed even greener, sparkling like flawless gems.

"I had a sister once," he murmured.

Bella said nothing.

"Tanya. She was so…so…she drove me nuts. I was 4 years older and she would follow me around like a lost puppy; it drove me insane. When I was 16, we were living in the city--"

"In the city? Emmett said you were from Alaska."

He nodded. "We stayed in Denali for a while with some family, after--well, I'll get to that. We were in the city, I was sixteen. I had no interest in my twelve year old sister, I was looking for something--well, I was looking to find someone responsive." His eyes fell back onto Bella. "I was just a boy," he said hoarsely. "I was stupid. I thought that was all there was to life--losing my virginity, and my sister was getting in the way of that. I thought nothing would ever change, that life would follow the same pattern day after day that Tanya would always be there." He choked on a sob.

"Did she die?" Bella asked gently, feeling ashamed for her earlier reaction.

"No…yes. I don't know." He shook his head to dispel his demons. "She wanted to come out with me. I was meeting one of the girls from school, and it was well known she never said no…" He tilted his face upwards again. "So I brushed Tanya off, I told her I would meet her at the ice cream shop at the mall after school. It made my parents happy to think we were spending time together, and it stopped her complaining--"

Bella waited, watching the flow of agony across his handsome face.

"When I finally got there, two hours after I said I'd meet her, pissed because everyone was wrong and the date had been a total waste, she was gone. I didn't ask anyone if she'd been there, I just assumed she'd gotten the hint and gone home. I didn't even feel anything other than extreme self pity until I was walking back to our apartment, and--"

Bella reached out her hand, stroking his pained features, and he caught her hand in his, smiling a small sad smile as he pressed it closer to his cheek.

"I found her necklace in the gutter. I was looking at the ground, complaining to myself when it caught my eye. It was a locket, with a family portrait, and the chain was broken. It was barely twenty feet from the mall's entrance. I ran home, trying to make myself believe what I already knew wouldn't be true, that she was at home, that she'd tripped up and hadn't noticed anything. She wasn't there, of course. The apartment was completely silent; Mom and Dad were still at work. I called all her friends, knowing as I did that it wouldn't help. I could feel it. Despite how much she irritated me, she was my sister, and we were bonded."

He fell silent and time drifted on, unmarred by the sound of either of their voices.

"It wasn't until the cops went back the next day that we found out she had been there. She'd left with a man, a man who'd paid for her ice cream. The woman behind the counter had only overheard part of the conversation; that he was meeting her in place of someone, our parents I assume he said. No one has ever been able to find her. Not her body, nothing. It's as though she never existed."

Bella bit her lip, and waited, but Edward didn't continue.

"What happened after that?" she asked finally.

His shoulders straightened slightly, as though the worst he had to say was past. "We went to Denali, stayed with some family for a while, my mother's sisters. When Mom felt capable of moving forward, we found somewhere quiet, unobtrusive. Forks seemed perfect. We never made mention of it, and no one ever came around. Well," he said wryly, "except for Alice. That girl is nosy beyond words."

Bella laughed softly.

"So, I told everyone we were from Denali. I just didn't want to even think about where we'd been and what we'd lost. But I never forgot, and I will never forgive myself. I let her down. If I'd had one ounce of decency, one shred of kindness, I would have been with her--"

"Bull." Bella frowned.

"Pardon?"

"Bull," she reiterated. "You were sixteen. Of course you would have done what you wanted, because you had no idea what would come. I mean, what sixteen year old expects that to happen?" She drew a breath. "It's not your fault."

"Yes," he said simply, his voice ragged. "It is. That's why I took the path I did."

"And that would be?"

* * * * *

This time it was Jacob's turn to lie grinning, stretched out on Bella's bed, his head resting on his hands. Luned was beyond words. He watched her now as she slowly slipped the far-flung jeans back onto her body, a slight frown puckering the skin between her eyes.

"I must explain to you who I am Jacob Black, before I allow you any further into me."

He snickered. "Luned, I don't think it is physically possible to go any deeper into you than I just did."

She rounded on him, her bare chest distracting him. Until she spoke. "Jacob, do not be crude and base, that is not who you are. It is who I am. I am a mere servant, a tool for men's pleasure. A whore if you will."

He tried to sit up, his mouth opening and closing, his words unable to form themselves to respond.

"Do not try and say otherwise. I am not untouched. A whore is what I am; not a lady, not a wife; a whore. I have slept with men to whom I was not married, nor had any intention of being wed to."

Jacob dropped back down to the bed again, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, and? Everyone does that. I wasn't expecting you to be a virgin or anything."

"I slept with a man for revenge."

Jake just nodded in understanding.

Luned clenched her fists, his completely relaxed attitude frustrating and baffling her. "Do you not hear me? I gave myself to my enemy that I might avenge my sister."

Again, Jacob said nothing. Luned's eyes narrowed. "I am not like any woman you have ever known."

He raised an eyebrow, letting his eyes travel over her half naked body.

"I am not even from your time."

Jacob sat up, letting out his breath on a huff. "Look, Luned. I know you were raised differently to the rest of us, and you don't understand fully, but casual sex isn't frowned upon in most places. And marriage is a choice, not an expectation. I wouldn't have wanted you to be 'untouched,' because then," he knelt on the bed, reaching his hands towards her, "If things got serious I would be concerned you might forever wonder what another man would be like."

"Bella lied. I am not this Amish you believe I am," she spat out. "I am Welsh. I am not from now; I am from the time of Prince Owain of Gwynedd. I am a maidservant to the Cullen's; I was maidservant to Lady Isabella. I am unable to explain how I came to be here, but--"

"What are you talking about?" Jacob stared at her, his hands falling to his sides. "Who the hell is Price Owain?"

Lune straightened her shoulders, her heart thudding in her chest, wishing she could say nothing but knowing as well that she wouldn't want a man who didn't love her as she was. "He was the Welsh Prince in the year your Isabella calls 1137."

Jacob laughed. "You're kidding, right? Good one, I nearly thought you were serious." He reached out again, catching her around the waist and drawing her down to kneel in front of him.

"I am not kidding, Jacob Black. Ask Isabella, my lady will tell you."

He stared into her dark eyes, his hands gradually falling from her waist. "Tell me you're joking," he insisted softly.

"I am not," she returned, pity in her gaze.

* * * * *

"CIA."

"Please be serious."

"I am. I'm not part of that anymore, but I spent a few years with them, in a medical capacity, learnt everything I needed to know to hunt down my sister's kidnapper."

Bella shuddered.

"This is me, now, Bella. This is who I am. My life is focused almost completely on Tanya. Except for you." He picked up the hand that had fallen limply to the ground and pressed his lips to her palm. "From the first moment I saw you, you were the only normal thing I had. The only woman I looked at with anything other than hope that you could be my sister in some other form, the only person I thought of getting to know on a personal level. You seemed like a safe harbor, a quiet space, and I've always held that image of you in my head." He smiled the crooked grin a blend of sad and sheepish. "I hope you don't think I'm a bit--over the top?--for feeling that way, for asking Emmett about you."

"No," she said softly. "I think I can understand."

He held her hand to his cheek again. She marveled at the fact that his skin could be so cold under her fingers. Even though it was warm in the sunlight, it felt like marble she was touching, not flesh.

"Can I kiss you again, Bella?"

She bit her lip again and nodded. "I think I would like that, Edward."

Their lips brushed against one another gently, a subtle pressure, an acknowledgement.

One that was not unnoticed.

Laurent sighed. Damn the man, he was proving to be an irritation of epic proportions. He was beginning to wonder if the thrill of taking another man's lover right out from under his nose was worth the trouble of trying to get her alone. With a grimace of frustration he shimmied down the broad branches of the tree he had been perched in, his binoculars tapping against his chest with each movement. He slipped through the woods to his rented car, threw himself into the driver's seat and turned the key in the engine, the car he had chosen humming to life with lethal quietness. There was no use continuing on today, the sap was clearly so enamored of the woman he was clinging to that things weren't going to end at the Clark Gable-esque embrace they were sharing. The car purred down the winding tree lined road, the sun disappearing behind an ominous black cloud as Laurent's mind skimmed over Bella's features matching them up with his latest buyer's requests. He was certain he could demand more money, so perfectly she fulfilled the man's expectations.