Chapter 16 - Clueing in the Clueless

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"No can do." The uniform clad security guard shook his head. "I'm sorry sir, but I'm not allowed to disclose that kind of information. It is our policy to protect the confidentiality of our guests."

Edward nearly gritted his teeth in frustration. "This is ridiculous! I'm the paying customer, she's merely a guest, a tag along," he exclaimed and bounced Anthony over to his other hip. "I just want to know what time she left. She was driving a rental, a Toyota IQ. It was parked in the third row, second space from the right."

The man looked him up and down. "Is the car rented in your name? Do you have a signed receipt?"

"No, all the papers are in the car!... and the car is gone… I parked it here last night and now it's gone."

"If you believe that your vehicle has been stolen, you need to report it stolen promptly. I can get the police on the phone for you."

"Nothing has been stolen." Edward sighed, tightening his grip on Anthony who was wiggling to be set down on the ground. "I don't care about the car, but my friend took off rather abruptly and now I can't get a reach of her."

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

"You can, but you won't is more like it," Edward muttered sourly. "Look, even if I did call the police, there isn't much information I could give them. I don't even know the license plate number."

"That, sir, is not my problem."

Edward closed his eyes, slowly counting to ten in his mind. "Is there anything I could do to make you change your mind?"

"Right now… no… but I might consider reconsidering once I get out of this uniform," the guard replied, rubbing his index finger and thumb together in the universal sign for money.

"When does your shift end?"

"In 15 minutes."

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.oOo...

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Edward was fuming and it wasn't over the money he was about to throw away.

No, this was all about the findings he'd made in the cabin before storming off to look for the car again for the umpteen time that day.

When the clock had struck twelve and his so called 'fiancée' was still nowhere to be found, he had made the decision to search trough her belongings in hope of finding a note or something that could tell him where she might have disappeared to. But what he had found was something else entirely.

Pill bottles. Two of them. One unlabeled, the other one had a label, but big portions of the text had been crossed over with a black pen. What was left were the words vitamins, film coated tablets and then the dosage.

Was she lying about her health status again? Had she not learned anything? He knew she was pushing to get her status as a field agent reinstated, but to accomplish that she needed a clean bill of health. He'd seen her faint, he had seen her face turn white and clammy more than once. She had taken a nasty blow to her head mere months ago. Could she be suffering from residual neurological defects? The more he though about it, the more it made sense. Her appetite was not what it should be. She barely touched her food, unless you counted those protein shakes she kept downing. Normally she ate like a horse and exercised on a daily basis. He hadn't seen her take off for a jog or visit the gym even once this past few days. Instead she kept her physical activities to a minimum and she took naps with Anthony in the afternoons. She claimed it was because she liked to keep late hours, but now he was beginning to suspect that she was trying to mask that she was plagued with headaches. She was definitely hiding something. Why else would she keep her medication in non descript pill bottles, like that? Had she not learned anything from her past mistakes?

To say that Edward was fuming was an understatement as he crossed the tennis court behind the parking lot, and started up the hill toward the cluster of buildings tucked away amid the shrubbery and pines.

His pace was quick, too quick for his companion.

"Come here buddy." Edward held his hand out for Anthony who was lagging behind.

"I swing and slide."

"I know kiddo, but you've got to hold on to my hand. I know I said we could go to the playground, but I need to go get my wallet first."

"I play." Anthony whined as Edward tugged at his hand.

"In a minute."

Anthony's frown was set deep as he glared up at Edward. "Lator?"

"Yes, I promise I'll take you there later." He nudged the kid to go, but Anthony wouldn't budge.

"No, now!"

"Don't give me a hard time now, Anthony,'' he said, his voice rising in pitch with each word. `This isn't the time for it.''

Anthony's bottom lip began to quiver. "I play"

"I'm sorry, I can't let you wander off on your own. You'll have to come with me." He held out his hand again.

"No."

"Yes. I'm not fooling around here."

Having reached the limit of his patience, Edward lifted the child off the ground with an iron grip around his shoulders.

"Done like you," the toddler declared sullenly, and began struggling against his restraints.

"That's all right, I don't like you much right now either." Edward grumbled under his breath and winced as Anthony's kicking feet connected with his chest.

Without giving it much thought he hoisted the boy over his shoulder and carried him like a sack of wheat the rest of the way to their cabin. He may have used a little more force than necessary because when he sat him down on the porch steps the boy immediately threw himself on the ground and curled up into the tiniest ball he could make.

Edward swore inwardly and then knelt down to the boy's level. "I'm sorry, did I scare you? Come here! I'm not… I'm not mad."

The boy sniffled, but remained motionless.

"I'm sorry I raised my voice. Yelling is bad, I wont do it again."

This time Anthony rolled his head to the side to eye him with big cautious eyes, but he still said nothing.

"I bet you're hungry. We haven't even had lunch yet." Pulling a Snickers bar out of his pocket Edward tore the wrapper off with his teeth the and held it out where the child could see it.

"Do you want it?" Edward asked, purposely dangling the peace offering a little closer to him. "You can have it, if you promise to sit here while I go inside and get my wallet."

The boy uncurled slowly, pushing himself up onto his knees. "I have?"

"Yes, you can have it. I'm going to go inside and I need you to sit here and wait for a minute, okay?"

"Kay," Anthony replied with another sniffle, reaching for the chocolate bar.

Edward rose to his feet. "Stay put, stay out of trouble and I'll be right back!"

He didn't plan to be gone more than two minutes tops, but asking a two year old to stay out of trouble was like asking a cat to ignore a bird in a cage two feet away and when he came back out on the porch the boy was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, great," he groaned when he realized his mistake. "This is turning out to be a really, really shitty day."

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.oOo...

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Dearest diary, it has been ages since I dropped a note. But what is there to report? My life, one shitty day after another. Time seems to be dragging by extra slow at the moment. Good news is that I've lost the baby weight-and then some. The bad news is that Anthony has a week stomach and shitloads of allergies and hasn't taken to solid food particularly well yet. I had been hoping to have him weaned off the milk by now, but no such luck. How am I supposed to accomplish anything with an effing baby clamped to my tit?

Soon, though… soon I'll have my mobility back and when I do, I'll go after what's rightfully mine.

Speaking of which, I believe I was about to pen down how my road trip with Maria ended. The last NY show we went to was great fun. Ah, the memories…. It was an intimate, tiny, club gig, yet the crowd was noisier and more vivid than at the previous shows we'd been to, all thanks to the main act; the former boy-bander and his entourage of screaming, salivating, panty-throwing teenage girls.

Of course, looking back I realize Maria and I, were just as bad as those annoying fan-girls. We drank ourselves silly and then we gawked and squealed like the best of them. To our defense, it was our last night of freedom before getting back to the grindstone. Subsequently it was also my last chance to learn more about the guy that had become the light in my boring and mundane existence… Meaning I was dead determined on getting further than exchanging a few polite phrases with him this time.

I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed in Maria for not having scored guitar boy's phone number. She gave him a bj for f** sake. Did she not deserve a little something in return? Apparently not… as he had made no mention of wanting to meet up with her again.

This called for some creative planning… Actually what it called for was a more aggressive approach, which is why I helped Maria write some rather suggestively worded banner-signs-thingys to bring to the gig. Not that I had much experience in that particular area, but from what I had gathered no guy would turn down a sure thing when offered correctly. Subtle never got anyone anywhere.

The first sign read 'My breasts are heavy, will you hold them for a while?'. Innocent enough, right?

The second one read 'Hey baby, I got the F, the C and the K. All I need now is U!' This one did raise a few eyebrows in our general direction.

Then there was; 'I'm gonna ride you into the sunset so you might as well be there', which Maria and I both agreed was very fitting considering guitar boy's Texan accent. The bulky guy assigned to keep the audience from storming the small stage-like platform, did not agree and the sign was confiscated before the end fourth song of the night. That didn't discourage us in the least, though.

The forth and final sign had "Come find me in the bar at midnight", "bring a friend" and "don't be late," spelled out in big bold letters.

We headed outside for a smoke while the boy-bander tortured the audience with his bland four chord songs. Once we felt it was safe to return inside again we grabbed our recently acquired fake IDs and headed straight for the bar. I don't remember how long we waited, but 'guitar boy' didn't disappoint, because when he showed up, he showed up with a certain green eyed angel in tow.

They greeted us with sly 'hellos' and 'how-ya-doings'. Jasper made no pretence of not staring at the cleavage spilling out of Maria's low-cut tank top. That girl seemed to possess just the right mixture of innocent appearance and beckoning curves to lure any man in. Unfortunately my angel, my Edward, was no exception. His eyes too, went straight for her tits.

I was miffed to say the least. I wanted to try and chat him up, but since he wasn't even looking at me it felt awkward and unnatural.

Rounds after rounds of shots were ordered. Intermittently there was small talk, but no lengthy conversations. Edward wasn't very talkative and seemed quite distracted and maybe a little bored. I got the impression Jasper had more or less twisted his arm to get him to tag along.

At one point Edward actually looked straight at me and asked if he didn't know me from somewhere. I stared at him for a moment before laughing, and saying yes, he did know me, and then nicely reminded him of our encounter in Jasper's hotel room just the other night. I would have told him about that first time, our first meeting in my brother's photo studio, but before I got a chance to do so, his attention had already drifted back to Maria's tits again.

I really can't remember what else we talked about after that point as I was far too busy sticking imaginary pins into the boobage of an imaginary female voodoo doll.

I don't know if it was the voodoo thing that did the trick or if it was just natural progression, but soon thereafter Jasper and Maria started sucking faces like leeches. It was disgusting to watch. Evidently I wasn't the only one that felt that way, because Edward scrambled off his bar stool and announced that he was leaving.

I quickly got to my feet as well, not willing to let him out of my sight just yet. I tried to suggest that we should share a cab, but he replied by giving my shoulder a squeeze and telling me that I seemed like a "great girl" but that he "wouldn't be good company" because he was "in a weird place".

I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say so I just told him "weird place or not, you'll still need a way of transportation" to which he let out a hearty laugh and then he kissed me! I think he was aiming for my cheek, but I turned my head so the light peck that he had intended became a full-on smack. Sadly there was no tongue action or anything. One minute he was kissing me then the next he was gone, but it was progress non the less and it gave me hope.

The heart wants what it want then why should we deprive it.

Love always,

Angela Cullen

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AN:

I'm sorry you had to wait so long for this chapter. The good news is I've started my 4 weeks vacation now and should have plenty of time to write. The bad news is… err, scratch that, nothing can possibly be bad about having 28 work free days!

I get a lot of questions about when Edward is going to be told/find out about Bella's pregnancy. This story move in a rather slow pace. It's been less than a week since Edward learned about the paternity result. He deserves a few more days to sort things out in his head and get his priorities straight. It's mid December in this fic and Edward has made a promise to Esme to bring Anthony around for Christmas. Christmas is also the deadline Bella has given herself to tell her family about the baby. I'm thinking there might be a snowstorm or something coming up… We can't have the two love birds spending the holidays in different states now can we? How long do you think Bella can keep her secret around Alice and Carlisle and the rest of the Cullens?

I realize I haven't said this in a while so here we go; thanks to those who read and a big big big THANKS to those who review. I love every review you leave:)