Nobody managed to find the error or omission so I've let it go. If and when the mistake crops up in later chapters please don't hesitate to let me know because it's going to bother me lol.

Thank you too for all the lovely reviews and the hundreds of private messages in the past few days. I've not had a chance to reply to them all, rather I've been concentrating on getting this bugger done. Forgive me, please.

Emmett didn't sleep until the sun was almost ready to come out. He was in his bed, in his own cabin, but he didn't sleep. He could hear Ed's quiet snoring and the odd movement of the trees outside, but other than that it was silent enough for just what was going on in his head to keep him awake.

For two hours he laid there and hoped to Christ that what he'd just done was the right thing. He hoped that he hadn't just blown not only his future but Rose's too. He hoped that his fit of sureness was correct and that his impulsiveness wasn't going to come back and bite him in his ass at some point in the near future.

But most of all Emmett hoped that he'd just taken the first step towards that future, not away from it.

As his eyes closed, finally, his mind began to replay what he'd done that made him feel so uneasy and at the same time so sure.

He knocked, loudly, but didn't wait for her to come out and answer the door. He tested the handle and when he found it wasn't locked he walked right into the living room. "Rose," he called as he picked up the crumpled cheque from the counter. "Rose," he called as he smoothed it out and folded it neatly in half again.

She was red eyed and rumpled when she made it out into the living room. "What?" she'd asked softly, unable to meet his eyes.

Hating that she'd been crying Emmett stepped to her and folded her against his chest. It was instinctual. For all he knew the tears in her eyes could've been tears of joy and relief rather than tears of pain. After all, they looked the same, didn't they?

But Em was pretty sure she was as upset as he felt. So he pulled her to him and held her. He stroked her hair and let her cry for a minute or so.

He kissed the top of her head and held her tightly. He was surprised and grateful that she hugged him back with the same enthusiasm. "Shhh," he whispered into her hair as she cried. "It's okay," he told her. "We'll be okay," he said and really meant it for the very first time.

"I'm so sorry I..." she began but he shhh'd her again.

"Nah, don't worry about it," Em told her. "You had every right to assume I was drunk. I usually am," he'd chuckled wryly. "And I'm sorry I got angry about the car and the money and I am grateful that you want to help me. And I did mean what I said. I do want you. I want this. You and me. I do. But I can't do it right now," he'd trailed off and Rose had stiffened in his arms.

"But you can't just..."

"Shhh," he told her again gently, holding her closer and inhaling the sweetness of her shampoo as his eyes began to fill with his own tears. "I've gotta go, Blondie. You know I do. I've gotta go and do this for myself. I'm coming back here. Don't you think for one minute I'm not. You'll be sick of the sight of me soon, I promise. But I've gotta go now."

Trembling, crying hard and shaking her head against his chest Rose's heart broke even though she was so fucking proud of him. "I know," she told him between sobs even though she hated that he was leaving her, for however long.

"The course is four weeks long, then two weeks of practical shit," Em informed her, sniffing back his tears. "I'll cash your cheque in the morning, if that's ok?" he'd asked and smiled when she nodded. "You keep the car as collateral for the loan," he'd said pointedly and felt her nod again. "I'll keep my cell on all the time. I won't turn it off and you'll call me when you're ready, right?" he'd asked and got another sobbing nod. "I'm coming back, Blondie. I'm coming back for you when I've got my shit together and when I do you'll be ready to share your shit with me too, right?"

"I'm sorry I didn't..." is as far as she got because Em stepped away then.

He let her out of the embrace and used a finger under her chin to tilt her face upwards and then he's kissing her. Hard. Desperately. He's memorising how she feels and how she smells and how she fits right there up against his chest.

"You aren't ready to share. And that's okay," he'd told her firmly, breaking the kiss before it got too out of hand and he lost his nerve to leave. "Whatever is going on for you, and I know that something is, you aren't ready to share it. It's alright. I get it. This is still new and you're used to doing everything by yourself. But you have to tell me right now whether it's about your feelings for me, or whether it's something else. I don't want to make promises to you if you don't want me to come back."

"It's not about us," Rose gushed, eager to reassure him that the shit coursing through her head was nothing to do with him and her. It was her usual depression related to having failed her guests. And he was right. She wasn't ready to share that side of herself with him yet. She would be in time, but not yet. She had to let him go so he'd come back to her.

She was about to go on, to explain further, but he shhh'd her gently again, relieved that whatever she was dealing with wasn't about their budding relationship. "That's enough for me for now," he'd told her with a smile. He'd kissed her again then. Long and slow. He tries to fill it with all the promise, and loyalty, he can muster. He hopes she feels what he's trying to tell her. He hopes she feels how hard it is for him to break the kiss and to let her body go. "I'm coming back for you," he'd said firmly when the kiss had ended. "And when I do you'll be ready to share your shit with me."

"I'll be ready," she'd agreed.

"Call me when you're ready," he'd said as he'd stepped away.

What Emmett couldn't know was that Rose watched as he shoved the cheque into his jeans pocket and then watched him walk out her cabin door and into the night for the second time.

What Emmett couldn't know was that Rose was reeling just as he was.

She put herself back into her bed wearily and curled herself into as small as a ball as she could to stave off the cold she felt without him in the bed with her. She lay there, almost as long as he did, thinking and wondering and planning.

He'll do his course and come back for her and when he does she'll be ready to share her shit with him she tells herself firmly. She wraps her arms around her waist and tries to clear her head so that she can sleep. She feels awful but underneath it all there is a little spark. A tiny little glimmer of hope that she's not just given her heart to an utter shit who now had eighteen thousand of her hard earned dollars in his pocket that she'll never see again.

No, Emmett wouldn't do that to her.

Stateside Mary Alice was beginning to worry about the lack of contact from her sister.

Rosalie was yet to furnish them with that weeks 'report' and her mother was making ominous sounds about putting a call through to the camp herself. Mary Alice knew that couldn't be allowed to happen. Not now that Isabella was finally asking the right questions.

Jasper was worried and nervous and Mary Alice herself was worried and nervous for her sister.

Unsure whether she wanted to know, or whether she had a right to know what it was about the situation that was troubling her husband so much, she did her best to be patient.

Mary Alice, for all her knowledge, didn't know large parts of what was going on within her family. She knew that her sister's engagement was a farce and that it had been both politically and personally manufactured by their father. What she didn't know was why. She knew of Jake's reputation and his need for a compliant wife. She knew that he'd benefit from a union with her sister and she knew that her sister wouldn't cope or handle being married to someone like Jake. She understood why her mother thought the match would be beneficial to both Bella and to the family as a whole, but she herself had never agreed with it. Not fully. And especially not since watching her sister's steady decline into depression and ultimately the attempt at taking her own life.

For that was what it had been. Mary Alice knew that. Their parents might want to hide their heads in the sand and say it was a rebellion, or a stress reaction, but Mary Alice knew it for what it was. Her sister would rather be dead than marry Jacob Black.

The arranged marriage she found herself in was different to the one her sister faced. She'd known that from the beginning. She'd been lucky have had an instant connection and attraction to Jasper. She knew that Isabella had had no such reaction. She'd been fortunate that Jasper had felt the same and long before those around them realised it for themselves the pair was deeply in love and thrilled that their union was a welcome one for both their families. It had been luck that she'd fallen for him, chance that he'd fallen for her too and Mary Alice felt it had been more than a little destined that they be thrown together.

But it wasn't like that for her sister. Mary Alice had hoped that it would be at the start. But it hadn't taken long to realise the mistake it would be.

Mary Alice may have tried as hard as she could to be allowed to visit privately with Isabella when she was in the hospital, and she'd played along when their mother had assumed her pleading for a private audience was so that Mary Alice could try to make her sister see sense, but in truth Mary Alice had wanted to warn her sister off.

She wouldn't have interfered if Isabella had chosen go along with the marriage. Because who knew? Maybe all Jake needed was the love of a good woman, and Isabella was a good woman. Well, girl anyway.

But Mary Alice knew that her sister didn't want to marry Jake, or anyone really, and had pled for a chance to speak with her in the hospital. It wasn't to be though and it was to Jasper she had turned with the idea to send Bella to Crossroads.

She knew all about her husband's past. He'd been honest and concise and he'd told her everything about himself before she'd faced him at the altar. She knew he'd been wild, dangerously so, in his youth. She knew all about his shameless womanising and his addiction to prescription pain killers – after a sporting injury in high school - and she knew all about his previous love of alcohol. She knew all about his gambling to pay for those addictions and she also knew all about his torturous recovery.

Yes, Mary Alice knew what Crossroads could do for her sister.

But now her own husband was nervous and worried and she knew instinctually that there was more going on than what she already knew for herself. Jasper wasn't a nervous man. Not anymore. Sure, he loved Isabella as a brother in law should and he too was aghast at the situation she'd found herself in, but this was more.

He wasn't sleeping well. His appetite had left him too. He'd taken dozens of secretive phone calls over the past weeks. He'd locked dozens and dozens of file folders in his filing cabinet in his home office and he'd never done that before. He rarely bought his work home, choosing to leave it at the office and not invade their private space with it. But he had and Mary Alice was worried and nervous about that too.

She didn't know if it concerned her sister but if Jasper was this worried about something how could it not she rationalised.

Jasper hadn't ever kept anything from her before that she knew of. If anything that was bothering him involved Isabella there had to be a good reason that he was keeping it from her and so she trusted that if he was keeping it secret the reason must be significant. When he didn't confide in her about it she had to assume that it was none of her business and that whatever it was he was handling it.

As it was Jasper wasn't struggling nearly as much with the information he had as he was with withholding it from his wife. He'd sat on the information for so long and he was worried what her reaction to it was going to be.

He was eager and grateful for the help she'd already given him but it was the tip of the iceberg and he felt awful because his wife didn't know that. He had only kept quiet this long because he was sure he'd be able to find something – some tiny piece of information that he'd overlooked – that would present the solution to him and he could preserve Mary Alice' perception of her parents intact.

That solution hadn't presented itself and Jasper knew he was fast running out of excuses to keep his wife in the dark. He was also running out of time.

Bella would be returning to the States in four short weeks. The invitations for the wedding had already gone out, announcements in the newspapers had appeared and Jake was already reaping the political benefits of the engagement.

His research for Tyler had turned up nothing that would help anyone at camp sort out the looming mess. In fact, all Jasper could find from regular sources was more of what he already knew to be true for himself.

Edward was a good guy. A conscientious student with no history or record of any kind of bad behaviour. Actually, when he looked at the guys records Jasper couldn't find a record of behaviour, bad or otherwise.

On paper the guy was just like every other guy who came from wealth and privilege.

Good schools, private tutors, nannies and opportunity.

On paper the guy had seemed to fly through his schooling, and his higher education, easily. He got good grades and had graduated on time and with honours from business school. He had a family legacy within the real estate and business world and on paper it looked as though he was a clone of his father.

But that was on paper. Jasper knew better than to believe it as gospel. After all, on paper it looked as though Isabella had had a perfect upbringing too.

But Jasper knew better. Thankfully he knew better.

After all, he'd come from wealth and privilege too. He'd had access to good school, private tutors, nannies and opportunity too. And he'd hidden the worst of his excesses and all of his addictions until it had very nearly killed him. So, on paper Edward Cullen seemed normal, but Jasper knew that seeming normal wasn't the same as being normal.

It didn't take much for him to see what was missing from the papers and reports about Edward Cullen. There was not a single insight into the guy's character. If you used professional journals and college papers to ascertain the character of an individual you'd find opinion pieces and professional reviews. Someone at his college would've either bagged or praised him in some way. If you used the internet you'd find snippets on social media and forums that would give you a feel for the persons likes and dislikes and which way he or she swung on social issues. If you followed the threads on social media you'd find their friends and colleagues making judgements about their behaviour and beliefs and you'd be able to build a rough picture of the character of the person.

That was what was missing from the research Jasper had done.

There weren't any character judgements made about Edward Cullen by anyone. He had no social media accounts that Jasper could find and there were no links or 'family trees' of his friends and family to back trace either.

He'd been an active member of several clubs and societies during college but they were all academic clubs where social interactions were limited and not discussed online.

There wasn't anyone who'd passed comment on Edward Cullen other than in a professional manner anywhere.

To Jasper it looked as though his parents had mapped out his future just the way Charlie and Renee had mapped out Isabella's. He was poised to take a high position in the Cullen firm and just like Isabella he'd gone along with every careful step his parents had placed before him.

The guy was just like Bella. Oppressed, repressed, alone.

And just like Isabella he'd more than likely buckled from the pressure of going along with one too many of his parents plans. At least that was Jasper's opinion.

On paper there was no record of any incident that should've led the guy to be sent, or even volunteering to go, to Crossroads. On paper there was nothing to even hint at the slightest hesitation from the guy taking his rightful place in his family's business.

But Jasper was a better lawyer than most and he knew that sometimes things didn't appear on paper. And so he'd called in a favour and met for coffee with one of Carlisle Cullen's junior executives. The guy had been at college with Jasper though they'd studied in different areas of the law. They'd remained friends after graduation and stayed in regular contact. So it wasn't hard, or unusual, for Jasper to invite him to coffee for a chat.

What he learned was perhaps more valuable than everything he'd seen on paper about Edward Cullen.

Sure, everything he'd seen was true. The guy did come from privilege and he did get good grades. He was a nice guy. He was loyal and trustworthy and he'd been around the offices of the Cullen firm often enough as he was growing up – and more often as the time came nearer for him to take up his position there – that Jasper's friend knew him as well as anyone Jasper could find could. But only professionally, just like Jasper suspected.

Nobody knew Edward Cullen socially because Edward Cullen didn't have a social life. Just like Isabella.

He was timid, Jasper's friend had said. Almost frightened. He was quiet too. He seemed to want to hide in meetings and rarely spoke unless spoken to. He seemed to cower in the shadow of his father but was a little brighter when his father was absent.

But what stood out most in Jasper's friends recollections of Edward Cullen were the events of his first proper day on the job.

There was an air of expectation and excitement when the day arrived. The staff was eager for Edward to begin his career there and almost everyone who currently worked at Cullen Enterprises had hoped that the younger Cullen would take over from his father fast. He was much fairer, they thought. Carlisle was brash and abrasive, uncompromising and dictatorial. Edward seemed more likable, softer even, and so most of the current staff hoped that the elder Cullen would step down and that his son would take over.

It hadn't quite happened that way.

The guy had cracked up were the words used. He'd arrived on time and had been nervous and sweating before he'd gone into his office for the first time. Jasper's friend said he heard the guy dry retching right before he'd burst out of said office and made the run to the mensroom. He was barely breathing by the time the paramedics arrived, he recalled. And he never came back again. Ever.

The impression Jasper got from the conversation with his friend was that Edward Cullen simply didn't want to be there. He was terrified of it. And he'd reacted almost the same way Isabella had when faced with marriage to Jacob Black.

He'd panicked and made himself ill.

Apart from the information Jasper was already privy to regarding the guy's financial situation he turned up nothing else that gave any further insight into Edward Cullen at all. When he was sure he'd looked everywhere legally available to him for information Jasper reluctantly called Tyler and told him what he'd found.

As he'd suspected none of it would help Tyler, or Rosalie, to help either Edward or Bella.

Tyler promised to keep a close eye on things and Jasper had to be content with the news that whatever issues the pair had had with each other the night of the trivia competition it had been resolved. They were once again as thick and as close as thieves as Tyler put it.

Until one or both of them contacted him and told him what they wished to do with the information he'd furnished on them there was nothing Jasper could do. Legally he was probably bound to expose some of it but this was his family too. Mary Alice could be crushed to learn what her father had instigated and he really didn't want to put that to her if he didn't need to.

But after thirteen full days with no word from either his sister in law or Edward, and no resolution to any of the problems he foresaw coming their way, Jasper had to concede that enough was enough and called his wife into his private study in their home after their evening meal.

He began his story by swearing to her that he was bound by the law he'd sworn to uphold that he couldn't have told her any of this information beforehand. He made sure she understood that he was only telling her now because it had reached a critical stage and that her sister was directly involved. He was insistent that it was all true, that he himself had drafted some of the documents that had set this mess into motion and that she wasn't to tell anyone what he'd just told her or he could lose his license and probably face prosecution himself.

Alice listened carefully as her husband spelled out the lies and deception her father had taken part in for all these years. She listened tearfully as her husband showed her the proof that her father had all but sold her sister to Jake. She sobbed openly when her husband handed over a copy of the paper he'd faxed for Edward personally.

But through it all she never once doubted her husband. He would never, ever lie to her. He never had and he wouldn't over something as important as this. She didn't need to see the actual documents he spoke of but allowed him to hand them to her anyway. She knew and understood that Jasper needed to show them to her.

They talked for hours. They ran scenarios that would dispel the myths and absolve her father. None of them were credible. They tinkered with the wording on some of the documents to try to make excuses that could be plausible. None of them were believable. She read and reread each page carefully and tried to deny what she was seeing. But even before her husband had placed the first of the papers in front of her on his desk she knew. She knew he was being truthful. She knew her sister had been used as a business pawn and she knew that the men involved didn't care at all that her sister had made herself ill at the prospect of marrying Jake.

What Alice didn't understand, and refused to believe as a truth, was just exactly had been her mother's involvement. Jasper had no information about that. He had never personally witnessed her in the room at any of the meetings he'd attended and if all the pages he had in his possession were the only ones pertaining to the deals he attested that her mother was never mentioned and she'd never signed anything.

Alice reconciled that that didn't necessarily absolve her mother and like the true lawyers wife she was she argued that there was a big difference between innocence and acquittal.

Jasper was impressed. He knew that Mary Alice was smart. He loved and appreciated her and he knew the depths of her understanding, but hearing her speak so rationally about matters of the law made him positively radiate with love and devotion to his amazing wife. She got it. She simply got it. Just like that.

Mary Alice saw what he was trying to say and she thought just like he did. Renee Swan might not have been privy to the cloak and dagger deals that were conducted that led to her daughter being 'sold' off to Jacob Black, but she was well aware that the deal had made her daughter ill. She'd ignored that. And for that both Jasper and Alice were in agreement. His mother in law might not be guilty but neither was she innocent.

Quite late that evening Alice left the first of several messages on Bella's cell phone.

At the same time Jasper left the first of several messages on Edward's cell phone.

Quite early the next morning Mary Alice placed a call to Crossroads.

Later that same afternoon, when she realised that nobody she'd contacted prior was going to return her calls, she called her mother and asked her to pencil her in for brunch the following day.

Nobody packed Emmett's things because they were, most of them, still in Rose' cabin. His mistake wasn't realised until he'd dragged his duffel bag onto his bed and had thrown the contents of his dresser into it.

He knew his resolve to leave wouldn't hold if he went to her now. He knew he'd crumble and just stay if he went there to get his stuff. So he didn't. It would all wait right where it was when he returned. And he was determined to return. He'd made the right choice; he'd made the right choice he chanted as he gathered what he had left. Which wasn't much.

He didn't bother taking anything other than the clothes he had because he'd just replace them once he got where he was going. Of course he didn't know where that was yet he thought grimly as he patted his jeans pocket to make sure the cheque was still there.

He stood outside Edward's bedroom door for quite a while trying to decide whether to wake him up and say goodbye. In the end he thought it best that he just leave a note. His resolve was faltering now that he had his bag on his back.

He scribbled the note and told his new friend that he believed in him, that he wished him all luck and that if Edward ever needed anything or nothing at all, that he should give Emmett a call either way. He left his cell number on the bottom of the page and put it in plain sight on the kitchen counter and then he put his cabin key beside it and left.

He didn't stop outside Rosalie's cabin even though the pull he felt towards it made his gut clench and his head ache. He simple walked right on by, past the admin building and out onto the road. He didn't pause as he went through the front gate, he just kept on walking.

The sun was only just up and he hadn't wanted to call a cab. He could use the walk. He was totally sober but still had the shakes and thought that the fresh air would do him good.

Emmett walked all the way to town and when he got there he used the last of his loose change to buy a train ticket and then boarded the first carriage.

With his duffel at his feet he watched the scenery go by without really seeing it. It felt wrong to be moving away from the mountain but right to be moving towards a fresh start. It hurt and yet it felt good. He was a walking contradiction.

At the foot of the hill he changed trains and got off at the station closest to where his course would begin in a few days time. He walked the streets on either side of the railway station and tried to familiarise himself with the place. It was just like every other suburban main street and it didn't take him long to find the building that was going to be his classroom for the next few weeks. He noted the opening times and then doubled back to the main street.

He located the bank and sat on a bench in the shade while he waited for it to open for the day. He people watched to eat up some of the time.

He watched old ladies drag their shopping buggies up and down as they collected their groceries. He watched a guy dragging a pretty pissed off dog on a leash behind himas he tried to jog and he watched two high school girls scream at each other over a boy named 'Jamie' for ten minutes before their respective friends pulled them apart.

Buses and trains came and went and people hurried along by him as they went about their day.

When a small eatery beside the bank opened its doors he bought himself a coffee and a donut and then went back to his bench to wait some more.

When the bank finally opened he went in and cashed his cheque. He then handed over six thousand dollars and had a bankers cheque made out in the name of the school and the rest of the money he split into three. Four thousand he kept in cash, four thousand he deposited into his own bank account and the other four he turned into travellers cheques. It was the safest way to carry that amount of money, or so the teller told him.

It wasn't hard to hand over the bankers cheque at the school because for Emmett it was the first truly positive thing he'd ever done for himself. Even if it wasn't really his money he was using to pay for it.

That done he went back into the main street and into the supermarket. He replaced his toothbrush and his toiletries and bought a few cheap noodle packs and a couple of bottles of water to tide him over for a day or so and when he'd finished his transaction he went two stores down to the internet cafe. He bought half an hours internet time and Googled share accommodation in the local area.

There were quite a few rooms going close to where he was so he did his best to weed out the obvious scams and the really shitty sounding places. There was a Tafe college in the next suburb over so there were heaps of student type accommodations which suited him just fine. He just needed somewhere to sleep.

Twenty minutes later he had two interviews for two rooms later on in the day, one quite close to the training school and one in the next suburb over.

Next on his list was wheels. Temporary wheels. He used his last few minutes of internet time to find the closest used car lot. He walked there after downing a bottle of the water and eating raw one of the noodle packs. He sure was going to miss the spread at camp he thought as he wandered up the street towards the car lot.

The place was pretty crude but that's what he'd hoped it would be. Beggars couldn't be choosers and an hour and a half later he was the proud owner of the shittiest, beat up three thousand dollar Toyota he'd ever laid eyes on. But you never could kill a Toyota he thought to himself as he drove it off the lot during the test drive.

The body was crap. Dings in almost every panel, one of which was a different colour to the rest, but there was no rust. The motor sounded pretty good for an old girl her age and the interior was alright too. There was tread on the tyres and enough meat on the brake pads to get him through. It had detailed service logs and a sticker on the windscreen to say she'd recently been serviced. He knew better than to believe all of it, but some of it could be true. It had a current roadworthy certificate too but the major selling point was that it was cheaper than the others because it only had another two months of registration on its tags.

Most buyers would see that as a drawback, but not Em. To him it was a challenge. Firstly to keep her running for the two months and secondly because within two months he was determined not to need her anymore.

He handed over the wad of cash, signed all the paperwork and sat in the car and arranged for the cheapest third party insurance he could find using the internet on his phone.

Next he filled her full of gas and made his way to the first interview for the first room.

It didn't take him long to realise that the place wasn't going to suit him. Three young guys were looking for a fourth 'playa' as the interviewer had called him. When the interview began with the words 'you want a beer, man?' he knew he was in the wrong house.

A couple of weeks ago Emmett would've thought he'd found heaven. But the new Emmett wanted to be different. He wasn't yet and the lure of three guys to hang with, drink with and party with was strong. But the attraction of a proper life, one that included Rose, was stronger still and Emmett declined the offer of the room.

He was glad he'd passed up the first as soon as he got to the second.

Mrs Carstaires ushered him into a neat and cosy living room and offered him tea. Real tea in a proper tea cup he grinned as he accepted the fine china carefully.

Her son, a 'big boy' like himself, was off in Western Australia on a search and rescue helicopter for the equivalent of the Coast Guard service. Her daughter, 'a lovely girl' Emmett was told, had just married and of course that meant moving away from home.

She'd already let one of the two rooms available to a nursing student named Natalie and asked why Emmett needed the room. He told her, truthfully, that he'd changed his mind about his career choice and his parents had cut him off. He'd enrolled in another course nearby – he left out the explosives part of the explanation – and he'd only need the room for six weeks or so at the most.

No, he didn't have any references. Yes he had cash for the deposit and a bankers cheque for the bond. No, he didn't drink or smoke, anymore, and no he wouldn't be bringing young ladies back to the room at night. He knew how to do laundry and would be happy to tend the lawns and gardens and do anything else Mrs Carstaires needed doing around the place. Yes he would be sure to let her know if he wasn't going to be home for dinner, that would be on the table promptly at six each night. Yes he would love it if she sent him off to his classes with a packed lunch.

Emmett had found a place to live.

He signed the modified lease and handed over another wad of Rose' cash and one of the travellers cheques as the bond, and then he unpacked his duffel bag. He left again for an hour or two to buy some clothes and the required steel capped boots and ear protection he needed for his course and then he returned to his new home to begin cutting the lawns as he'd promised.

He checked his cell phone often but wasn't surprised to have no message from Rose yet. It had been less than a day he rationalised.

As he tucked into steak and vegetables and the best tasting gravy he'd had in an age Emmett hoped that Rose was okay and that she really was going to still want him back once he was done getting his shit together.

Edward sighed as he read the note left for him but wasn't surprised. Em's parting words the night before rang in his head and suddenly it didn't seem so cryptic in the cold light of day.

Emmett had decided what he wanted from his life and he'd gone off to get it.

Lucky bastard Ed thought as he tucked the note into his jeans and snatched up Emmett's discarded key before going down for breakfast.

Bella was surprised to learn that another of her friends was gone from camp. Edward explained as much as he thought he should about the situation their mutual friend had found himself in and was careful to point out to her that Em had seemed convinced and happy to be going off to sort out his life.

Edward watched her eyes fill with tears at the news and held her hand on top of the dining table until she'd shaken off the melancholy enough to continue eating her meal.

And then there were two Rose thought as she made her way to her office that same morning. Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen.

She'd seen them both heading for the dining hall as usual this morning and was pleased that they still seemed so enamoured with each other. She'd thought as much but hadn't spared the time away from her own situation to make sure. Whatever had gone down on trivia night was either resolved or on its way to being resolved.

And then she thought no. Nothing was resolved for either of them despite their closeness here at camp now. At home was waiting a storm and it was a big one. She knew enough to work that out.

And that wasn't fair at all. From what she knew neither of them had done anything to deserve what was waiting for them.

With a determination to be professional Rose went through her email inbox quickly dealing with the things she could and forwarding anything she needed to delegate. She then turned to the answering service and listened to the messages that had been left overnight. There were always a few. Especially from overseas because of the time difference. There were a couple of enquiries for corporate spaces and one or two from prospective employees but then she got to the desperate ones from Jasper and Mary Alice Whitlock.

They were both concerned, both worried and both getting anxious about the lack of contact from Bella. And it seemed, from Edward too. That was curious and once again Rose had to try and work out what the connection between the two families could be.

Another message from Mary Alice gave Rose a start.

So caught up in her own private affairs Rose hadn't realised that her weekly report was late in sending.

It was the last of the voice messages that got Rose' mind back to the task at hand. As sad as she was at Emmett's departure she had a responsibility to the guests who were left. She owed it to them to help them as much as she was able. She owed it to herself to do what she'd promised she would, give of herself to help others through whatever troubles had led them to her camp.

Yes. That's what she would do now while she waited for Emmett to return. She'd throw herself into helping who was left. She took the sheaf of messages she'd transcribed for her staff and put them into the inbox on the reception desk and then headed for the conference room.

She had no idea where Emmett was or whether he was alright. All she knew was that he was gone. Hopefully not forever she thought as she stood at the windows and stared at his beloved car.

She was startled when Edward cleared his throat at the door.

"He left his key," he told her quietly, sad and sorry for her obvious distress.

"He'll be back," she whispered, Edward thought mostly to herself.

"Yeah," he replied noncommittally because he didn't know if that was true. "Are you okay?"

"When he's back I will be," Rose said with as much of a smile as she could muster. "But for now it's back to work." She took the offered key and slid it into her other hand while she held out her right for Edward. As he shook it, not knowing why he was, she smiled just a little more convincingly. "Thank you for being his friend," she said simply.

"He's a great guy," Edward said honestly.

"He'll be back," she said again more firmly. "But until he is I've got you and Bella to help. Tell me how to do that," she asked as she led him back towards her office.

A/N: Thank you for reading.

I promise this isn't the last you'll hear of Emmett. He has always been, in every single one of my stories, one of my favourites to write. I wouldn't abandon him now and I promise that all of you who have begged me not to let his story fall to the side that I won't let that happen.

Please review.