Song: Fortune Days by The Glitch Mob (Song played while they're on the matts.)

SM Owns the Twilight Universe… I own a box of Timbits. I promise you that they will no longer be a part of this world by the time I finish proof-reading and post this chapter though.

. . . . . . . . . .

I just stared at her as she came out of the bedroom. I swear, no woman had ever been so beautiful in the existence of the universe.

"That's a gorgeous dress," I said in a bit of a daze. It was a white lace that went from her collarbone to halfway down her thighs, that had a soft, baby blue coloured silk underneath.

"Thanks, your sister made it for me," she said with a smile. As soon as she sat next to me I wrapped my arms around her, kissing her neck since her hair was up in a messy bun that gave me such easy access. "Edward…" She moaned quietly, her hands fisting in my shirt.

"Hmm?"

"We can't…"

"Says who?" I growled, tightening my hold on her. She giggled.

"You, you're the one who decided on a lunch meeting."

I sighed, letting her stand back up, but I kept my hands on her hips, keeping her in between my legs and just taking a moment to enjoy the sight of her.

"What?" She asked with a suspicious grin.

"Nothing, I just like looking at you," I told her honestly. She blushed.

"Well, the feeling is very mutual," she said with a wink, making me laugh. I got up, walking over to the door with her before we put on our shoes and sunglasses and headed down to the lobby. Bella drove to the restaurant this time. We argued for about five minutes over it before she won, because honestly, I was just too turned on to make any more logical arguments. She was sexy as hell when she was pissed off.

She drove with a smile on her face over to Elemental.

"So, do you know the owner or something?" I asked curiously, thinking of the last time we had been here, also to meet Marcus.

"Yeah actually. We lived here in LA for a few weeks when I was seventeen. We lived in the same building, and his dog got out once. She got along really well with Zeus, and I would walk her for him sometimes."

"What did you do here when you were in LA?" I asked curiously, and she seemed to lose a bit of her energy.

"Not much. I'd go for walks with Zeus, go to the gym that Emmett was instructing classes at, and work on online courses at home." She pulled up in front of the restaurant, and I did not fucking like the Valet that opened her door and helped her out. He was grinning and watching her like a hawk, and I just really didn't like him touching her.

I shot him a warning glare as I wrapped an arm around her and led her inside.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly, and I looked down to see her watching me worriedly. "You're tense."

"I'm good," I said with a smile, feeling my body relax as I kissed her temple. It didn't really look like she believed me, but she leaned into my side.

"Reservation for Cullen and Volturi," I told the hostess, and she smiled sweetly at me.

"Right this way Mr. Cullen," she said politely, and led us over to a table.

"This isn't our table," Bella told her politely when we stopped.

"Pardon me?"

"Benjamin put us in his corner table," she told the woman, who looked at her disbelievingly. I could practically feel Bella's irritation in the air, but her voice remained polite and calm. "Go get him."

I didn't say anything, because I knew Bella would have been uncomfortable as shit sitting at the table we were at now. It was very close to a window, and was surrounded by other filled tables.

"But-"

"Go get him," Bella said in a voice that made the girl flinch, and she left without another word, coming back a minute later with the same man who had come to speak to us last time.

"Hey Ben," she said with a sweet smile.

"Stephanie!" He said with a happy smile, then looked around in confusion. "Again?" He asked, sounding annoyed.

It was always so weird, hearing people use her past names. I had difficulty enough with Bree, and it was just a harsh reminder of what her past had been like.

She shrugged with a sweet smile, and he laughed before escorting us over to the private corner table closer to the back of the restaurant.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why-"

"There was a photographer sitting at the next table, my guess is that he saw our names and bribed her to put us next to him," she told him, and he frowned.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Nothing to worry about. She'sonly human," she said with a shrug. "Oh, sorry, Ben, this is Edward. Edward, this is Benjamin, who I was telling you about earlier," she said with a smile for me. I grinned at the man, and leaned forward to shake his hand.

"It's very nice to see you again Mr. Cullen," he said politely, and I smiled.

"Likewise."

Drinks were brought to the table, but Bella was sticking to water because she still wanted to drive, and Marcus arrived only moments later.

He practically sprinted over to her, but stopped himself right before he hugged her.

She gave him a gentle smile, and got up to hug him herself. His face looked so pained as he held her.

"Are you okay? How are you feeling? How is Emmett? How are things with the press going?" He asked in one breath, making Bella laugh.

"I'm fine Mac, really."

He sighed, leaning back and cupping her face in his hands. She rolled her eyes at him, making him laugh before he let her go.

Then he looked over at me, giving me a calculating look before smiling. "It's nice to see you again Edward."

"You too," I said.

"So how long are you two in town for?"

"We're heading back home tomorrow," Bella said, smiling at me. "But, we'll be back in a couple weeks."

"We, as in, both of you?" He asked in surprise, looking extremely pleased. Bella grinned up at me.

"Yes, we bought a house outside of the city, B's coming down to join me while I'm here for filming."

"Ugh, Zeus is not going to be happy about being put in a crate on a plane," Bella laughed, making me laugh too.

"Oh, would you like to use my jet?" Marcus asked happily.

Bella's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Sure, I know it can't be easy for the two of you to travel together publicly," he mused with a grin. "When are you coming down? I'll have it sent for you."

She beamed happily. "Two and a half weeks, on a Thursday."

"Done. I'll send you the details," he said with a smile. "So what will you be up to while you're down here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know really, but I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy," she said easily.

"Well, you'll always be welcome around the studio, and if you're up for it, there are a few things I could really use your opinions on," he said with a smile.

"Sure."

I grinned, taking her hand under the table.

"So, I finally have a co-star for you," Marcus stated, shooting another look at Bella.

My stomach sank. I'm not quite sure why, but it just made me uneasy. "Oh yeah? Who'd you end up choosing?"

"Jane," he told me simply, and I stared for a moment before I could say something.

"She's a great actress. I'm sure she'll do wonderful. I've never worked with her before."

She was a great actress, a reallygreat one. I'd met her at a few award shows, but never really talked to her much. She was actually the top person I'd recommended from the list he'd gone over with me.

But for me, the only person that would have been able to do this role justice would have been Bella. I'd thought so since the first moment I had read it.

I knocked back the rest of my drink, and felt Bella squeeze my hand.

Just thinking about having to kiss another woman made it hard to breathe. Would this upset Bella? If anyone had ever…

The scene of that night flashed in my mind, running toward her as she sank to the ground, Victor kneeling in front of her, kissing her…

"Edward?" Bella asked quietly, her hand brushing back through my hair. I looked up at her, and even though she was perfectly fine, sitting next to me, smiling, I couldn't get the image of her bleeding everywhere, her eyes fluttering closed, and thinking that they might never open again. "Baby, what's wrong?" She asked, her voice thick with concern.

I just cupped her face in my hands and kissed her. I kissed the hell out of her. I didn't care about the crowded restaurant or our company, I just needed to make sure she was real, that this was real, that I wasn't losing my fucking mind.

I was never going to act in another film in my life after this, ever. I just couldn't handle it.

"Talk to me," she whispered, sounding close to tears. I just shook my head, because I had no clue how to explain the chaos that my mind was in.

. . . . . . . . . .

I hadn't felt like myself for the past little while. I'd never really been the jealous type, but when it came to Bella… Every time someone touched her, or even came close to touching her, I felt like I would fucking snap.

I'd come pretty damn close to having a few anxiety attacks because of it, but she was always there to calm me down.

I kept having nightmares of Victor. Him kissing her, him pulling her right from my arms in the middle of a dense crowd. Touching her.

Of Bella screaming for my help, but I could never get to her in time.

It was really starting to fuck with my head, and the only time I ever really felt calm was when I was in our apartment with her and Zeus, with the locks on the door and the safety of her secured floor.

And the worst part of it all was that it was hurting Bella too. I saw it in her eyes every time that I looked at her. She was worried about me, but it wasn't something I could talk to her about.

It made me feel weak, because what I'd seen was nothing compared to what she'd been through, and she was the one trying to comfort me.

I was seeing Siobhan the day we got to LA. Bella had been right, as usual. I needed to vent.

"Edward?"

I looked up from my book, my heart jumping into my throat when I saw her with her shoes on, her purse slung over her shoulder. "Where are you going?"

"I told you, I have that appointment with my tattoo artist today," she said gently, watching me worriedly.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I forgot." My hands clenched into tight fists, and she set down her purse before walking over to me, and sitting down right in my lap, straddling me and taking my face in her hands. I felt myself relax when her soft lips brushed against mine.

"Have you ever seen someone get a tattoo before?" She asked, her lips moving across my jaw.

"No," I said in a deep exhale.

"You said you were thinking of getting one, would you like to come with me and check it out? See what it's like?" The tip of her tongue traced the shell of my ear, and I tightened my hold on her waist.

I knew she was probably just doing this to calm me down, comfort me, but after hearing her words I was really curious. Plus, I wanted to meet her artist, the woman who had turning my girlfriend into a beautiful canvas.

"Sure," I said with a bit of a smile. I felt myself relax as I felt the smooth skin of her waist under my fingers.

"Okay then, let's go." She shuffled off of my lap, and pulled me up to me feet. "I should warn you though, Rory is going to hit on you like crazy, and there's not much I can do about it."

I laughed, and we headed out into the beautiful weather.

. . . . .

"Angel!" The man shouted, running forward and wrapping his arms around my Bella. My fists clenched automatically as I watched him. He was wearing dark, cut-off jeans, and had a tight, sparkly, silver tank-top on. His hair was cut into a fohawk, bleached so blonde it looked almost white with red and blue star designs dyed into the sides.

And, he had tattoos. A lot of fucking tattoos. He was covered in piercings too. He had two on his eyebrow, one on the bridge of his nose, a gauged lip piercing, and more silver hoops and bars in his ears than I could count.

This was Rory? But she'd said-

He looked at me then, dropping Bella.

And then he squealed, at a frequency that would have put my sister to shame.

And then he fainted.

"Shit," Bella said, catching him on the way down. I helped her quickly, because he looked heavy, and I still worried about her lifting too much weight. I helped her carry him over to a side room, where we laid him down on this table-like bench.

I looked around, and noticed there were about four pictures of me on the walls around the room, one that I'd apparently autographed. They were all from different movies, all with my shirt off.

"Did you give him these?" I asked curiously, making Bella laugh loudly.

"Nope, he collected them all by himself," she said in an amused voice. Then it clicked.

Hmm.

"Oh my god, I knew it was a dream," he cursed, then opened his eyes. I thought they'd fall out when he saw me again, and I gave him a friendly smile.

"Hey, nice to meet you," I said with a smile.

"OHMYGOD! It was real! Shit, did I faint?" He beamed at me. "Did youcarry me in here?"

Oh my fucking god. This was hilarious.

"I sure did," I said with a smile, and he squealed again.

"Oh my god I am like your biggest fan! What are you doing here? Do you want a tattoo? I have a client coming in any minute but-"

"He knows Rory, I'm still right here," Bella said in an amused, dry voice. He looked at her in confusion. "And I'd appreciate it if you stopped drooling over my boyfriend."

"SHUTTHEFUCKUP!"

"You're the one who's yelling."

He looked at me, fucking pouting.

"It's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you," I said in a friendly voice, and he just seemed to melt. I was a little put off by the way his eyes roamed over me, but he seemed harmless.

"Mhmm," he said, watching me like he was waiting for me to disappear.

"Rory, stop eye fucking him," Bella said with a slight glare. He didn't take his eyes off of me.

"Your tattoo is free if he sits in here with his shirt off while I do it," he said, sounding completely fucking serious.

"No deal, I don't want your attention divided."

He sighed sadly, turning back to Bella. "Fine. Okay Angel, strip for me baby."

I choked on a cough, looking at them in disbelief. Bella rolled her eyes at me, then undid her jeans before sliding them off like it was nothing.

Okay, I didn't like this so much.

But he was staring at me, not showing any interest in my beautiful girlfriend who was sitting there in a fucking bikini bottom that tied in these little strings on the side, and I felt a little reassured.

Not that I wanted him hitting on me, it was just reassuring that he wasn't checking out her.

"Don't make me sit here all day half naked," she said dryly, and he sighed before turning around and getting to work. "You can come sit over here if you want baby," she told me gently, and I took her invitation, sliding up on a rolling stool next to her.

"Any changes Angel?"

"Nope."

"Awesome." He pulled a sheet of what looked like wax paper out of one of his drawers, rolling back over. He adjusted her leg, and undid the bow on one side of her bikini, before lining up the paper and transferring a stencil onto her thigh. After it was done, he took out a special marker, and started to make a few changes and adjustments to the design. "How's that?"

"Looks good."

"I won't be able to finish in two hours, but I have a cancellation right after you. Four, four and a half and I can finish it for you today if you're up for it."

She pursed her lips for a moment. "Is that okay with you? I wasn't planning on taking that long," she said, looking up at me.

"I don't mind," I told her honestly.

"Okay, go for it then," she said lightly, and I watched as Rory starting setting up his needles and ink.

The buzzing was loud, and ominous. I watched, not able to bring myself to look away, as he brought the tattoo gun to her skin and started his work. I winced at first, but Bella just sat there comfortably, her arms folded behind her head looking completely at ease.

"Does it hurt?"

"Nope."

"What does it feel like?"

"Hmm… a vibrating sunburn." I laughed, because that was a fucking weird description. "The healing hurts more than the actual process, the needles don't go very deep."

I didn't get bored, though Bella looked about ready to nod off a few times. I watched in awe as he joined the tattoo on her hip to the one on her thigh, blending clouds of different colours together to create the most stunning collage. The blood made me uncomfortable, but it was nothing like… that night, so I didn't freak out. It was just odd.

Bella seemed fine until about three and a half hours in, when she started getting queasy and asked to stop for a short break. She assured me it was fine, normal, that it just started to upset her stomach a little bit, but after our short recess he got right back to it, and Bella let me hold her hand while he did so.

The end result was even more impressive than I thought it would be. I had never been that big on tattoos, but on her… I think it made a really big difference, knowing that there was meaning behind each of them, and what those meanings were. But combined with Rory's impressive talent, and just her… she was so fucking beautiful.

He wrapped up her tattoo, and she was a little shaky as she pulled her pants back on.

"So, is that it then? Were you thinking about, you know, the shots…"

"No, the scars are barely noticeable, and they're… different. This is it for me Rory, but it's been fun."

His eyes watered, and he crushed her in a tight hug. "Come back and visit in a couple weeks, once they're healed."

"Actually… I'll be in LA for the next few months, but I'll come visit when we come back."

"And promise you'll bring your man candy back with you?" He said in a whining pout. I laughed.

"I'll be back, I've been thinking of getting something of my own done, and I already know your work is amazing," I said with a wink.

. . . . . . . . . .

The next couple weeks were hectic. We were packing things up, getting ready for our extended trip, setting up our new house from a different state, but I was also practically living at Emmett's gym, paying him to beat the shit out of me every day in preparation for the movie. I needed to put on about fifteen pounds, and by the time I got back to the apartment on that last day, I just wanted to whine and fall asleep because I thought my body was on fire and about to just fall apart at any moment. Everything fucking hurt.

After giving Bella a kiss on the head, I navigated my way through the Labrynth of boxes and dropped face first into the bed.

"Rough day at the gym?" She asked lightly, and I felt the bed dip as she crawled over.

"I figured out what he was doing."

"Huh?"

"Your brother. I figured out what he's doing. He was trying to kill me, so I wouldn't be able to take you to LA. I'm damn sure of it." She laughed, and I felt the corner of my mouth twitch up into a smile. "Everything fucking hurts, I don't think I'll be able to make it to the airport."

"What hurts most?"

"Shoulders," I mumbled into the sheets.

The bed moved again, and I felt Bella straddle my waist, sitting on me lightly. I groaned as her hands slid slowly up my back, with just the perfect fucking amount of pressure, then slid out over my shoulders. I was putty in her hands as she worked out every knot and tight muscle, until I like a felt like a pile of goo and just passed out on the bed underneath her.

. . . . . . . . .

It had been an emotional send off. Everyone came to the private airport with us; Alice, Emmett, Jasper, Rose, and my parents. There were hugs shared, tears shed, but we told them we'd be back to visit for a couple days in a month, for my sister's wedding, before the three of us, Bella, Zeus, and I, loaded up on the small private plane. Another perk of Marcus' generous offer was that we could pack as much as we wanted, and not have to ship it off separately. Everything we were taking with us was in the cargo hold.

Zeus was not comfortable in the slightest being on the plane, and Bella gave him something to help him sleep that she'd gotten from the vet the other day. It made him all groggy, and I ended up carrying him over to the truck I had waiting for us in LA.

"Nice rental," Bella said in approval as she patted the hood.

"It's not a rental," I said, loading Zeus in the back seat before I helped her start unloading boxes into the truck bed.

"Edward-"

"Baby, we needed a vehicle, it would have been stupid to rent something for four months," I said logically.

Well, that, and I just really liked the truck. I felt like I was driving a tank when I was inside it.

Bella just shook her head with a smile.

It was about an hour drive to the house, but it looked amazing. We'd done our shopping online, and everything had been delivered and set up last week before we got here. I had the cleaning service, gardeners, and alarm systems already set up. I wanted to take her out for dinner, but she was so excited about trying out the new kitchen. I caved quickly, because she also never seemed completely comfortable while eating at a restaurant.

I figured it was something she just needed to get used to, it would get better with time.

So we had an amazing barbeque in our back yard, and after Zeus shook off his medication he was on cloud nine, running around like a deer in the giant yard. I was actually pretty good on the grill, which was weird since I was pretty much useless inside a kitchen, and we relaxed and enjoyed our first night in our new home with a delicious dinner and a few bottles of wine, and we both passed out completely exhausted in our new giant bed after thoroughly breaking it in.

. . . . . . . . . .

We only had a few days to ourselves before work started up, but Bella was like a niece to Mac, and he was completely serious it turned out when he said he wanted her on set. More than that, really. Bella had seemed so nervous a few weeks ago when she told me that Mac had offered her a job. She had this ridiculous notion that I'd be uncomfortable with her working on my movie. I was ecstatic.

So, Zeus was allowed too. I thought it was funny, the way most people shied away from him. Yeah, he was huge, but he was just a big puppy. All he wanted to do was give kisses and have his belly rubbed. We got in early on that first day, and took our time to explore the studio together before I dragged her along with me to my first meeting. She didn't need to be there, but was indulging me by letting me parade her around. That, and she was keeping my schedule organized for me.

She didn't care if I was lazy, she fucking loved me.

Close to a dozen tables were pushed together in the large-ass conference room, and I went around, introducing Bella to everyone. She was uncomfortable with the fact that she'd become sort of famous since that first night that I took her out for that damned dinner. Her picture was on almost every tabloid, a lot of them without me even with her.

Her plan had worked though. She'd let a few things slip, just enough for the press to find out about "Bree." They were going wild for pictures of the well-praised self-defence teacher, security consultant, business investor and retired procurer from the New York Historical Society.

So I was introducing her as Bree, which was kind of weird, but everyone already knew her name. They were a little surprised that Marcus wanted her on staff, but her presence wasn't questioned much after that.

It was only the last introduction that made me uneasy, because I didn't really know her much myself.

"Hey Jane," I said politely, holding out my hand to shake hers. She gave me a sweet smile.

"It's nice to see you again Edward, I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Likewise," I told her, with the weirdest feeling in my gut. She seemed like a nice person though. She had dark brown hair that went just past her shoulders, and eyes so dark brown that they looked almost black. She was about the same size as Bella, a couple inches taller and a few years older. "Jane, this is my girlfriend Bree, she's working as a consultant for Marcus on the film."

"It's nice to meet you," she said with a big grin, and shook Bella's hand enthusiastically. Bella gave her a small, polite smile.

"You too. I've seen a few of your films, you've done some great work."

"Thanks," she said, and there was a moment of silence.

Zeus was glaring daggers at the woman, but he sat and calmed when Bella's hand moved through his fur.

Bella smiled when Jane looked at him warily, and Marcus called the room to attention, telling us to take our assigned seats.

That first day was spent going over introductions, because a lot of changes had been made in the time since the casting party. After that, it took hours to go over the lengthy schedule. Bella had given me the copy she'd done up with notes for me, and was making notes and changes to both of them to accommodate the changes Marcus had made.

We were in that damn room for fourteen hours.

"I need a cigarette," Bella whispered, making me grin.

"You don't smoke baby."

"I'd pick it up if it meant getting out of this room for ten minutes."

I coughed to cover my laugh, catching the attention of a few before I grinned and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, kissing her cheek.

. . . . . . . . . .

"So, you'll be in conference room D running lines with group one today," Bella reminded me as she stepped out of the shower. I was a little distracted, because she was naked and dripping wet, and I just kind of hummed. She looked at me with a knowing grin.

"Which conference room Edward?"

"Huh, oh, one."

"No, that's your group, you're in-" I cut off her words, stealing the air from her lungs with a kiss as I backed her into the shower once more.

I'd had a 'towel bar' installed, just like our one at home, and we were damn close to being late by the time we got to the studio. Bella walked me over to the conference room, and I froze when she said she'd see me later.

"Where are you going off to?"

"I've got some work of my own to do, I'm not going to sit and listen to you run lines for the next three days," she said with a smirk.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I was trying to, but you interrupted me," she said, stretching up on her toes as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I just picked her up, holding her at my eye level. "Not that I minded, I definitely enjoyed it," she said in a sultry voice.

Fuck, I didn't want to let her go.

But we both had to work apparently, and I sighed before kissing the hell out of her and setting her back down.

"When will I see you?"

"You have an hour lunch at one, I'll be on set three then if you want to stop by, but we'll both be pretty busy until around seven."

"I'll come stop by," I told her, like I had a choice. I didn't like the idea of her being around strangers, in this new place. But things had gotten a bit better after my two sessions with Sib so far, and she did have Zeus with her.

"Watch out for your mom for me, okay boy?" I told him, ruffling his fur. He barked happily at me, and Bella rolled her eyes before the two of them took off.

. . . . . . . . . .

The time went by pretty quickly actually. Jane was pretty fun to hang out with, and I found that we got along really well. She was a sweet girl. When they called for lunch, she asked if I wanted to go out to grab something, but I told her I was going to just grab something in studio on my way to check in on B. It was just easier for me to stick with her nickname, since I really didn't like calling her Bree. She decided to tag along when I offered.

There was a pretty big crowd in the studio, people were cheering, and though the music was loud I could still hear the soft thumping of someone hitting something else. I ran through the crowd, my stomach sinking, and Jane was right on my heels.

I froze when I saw what all of the commotion was about, grinning when I realized what Bella was consulting on.

She was in the center of the fighting matt with a man that was at least a foot taller than her, a few years older, and ripped like fuck. He was wearing no more than a pair of shorts, sparring with Bella who was wearing a pair of tiny black shorts, and a white tank top with her hair in a ponytail. They both had headgear on at least.

She deflected and weaved through his hits effortlessly, not making any offensive hits of her own. She looked like she was talking him through it, but I couldn't hear what either of them were saying, and she had a sort of taunting look and teasing smile on her face.

But then Zeus barked and ran over to me. Bella looked up and saw me, and she faltered for a second, and the man's hand went right for her throat.

I almost panicked, but the crowd erupted in cheers as she grabbed onto his arm with both hands, and lifted herself right the fuck off the ground as she wrapped her legs around his arm, causing him to lose his balance and fall forward. They rolled, and Bella had him pinned on his back, holding his arm with both her legs and her hands in a painful looking position as she sat on his chest. She held him like that for a moment, and it looked like she was pissed as she spoke to him, but then she laughed, and helped the man up a moment later before calling for a break. She waved me over as she picked up a towel and wiped at her face.

"Hey baby, how were lines?" She asked, breathing heavily. I just walked right up to her though, and wrapped my arms around her as I kissed her. "Edward! I'm all sweaty," she laughed, trying to push me away. I just held her tighter, smiling against her lips.

"Mmm, I know," I growled back, and she shivered against me before pushing me away, giving me the look.

"Edward, this is your stunt double, Mike Newton," she said, and I gave him a friendly smile.

"I hope she didn't beat you up too badly," I said with a smirk.

"Bah, I'm used to it," he said easily. I looked at them in confusion.

"Err, we fought in a couple competitions when I was younger," she said, before giving Jane a friendly smile. "Hey, how's it going?"

"Good," she said a little quietly. "You're, like, really good at that."

The smile Bella gave her was brilliant. "Why thank you. Have you ever taken self-defence lessons?" Jane shook her head. "I teach them occasionally at a gym in New York. If you ever want a lesson, let me know. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other over the next while." Bella shot her a wink, and Jane fidgeted.

Mike came back and tossed Bella a bottle of water, which she caught easily and immediately inhaled. I felt a little bad for distracting her from her break, and was worried as shit to let her go back to what she was doing now that I knew what it was. I knew she wasn't in any danger, dad had cleared her a month ago, but I was really worried she was pushing herself too far.

"You ready to go back to it?"

"Yeah, we'll take it from the top, no more playing," she said, turning back to me and giving me an apologetic smile.

"You sure your stomach is okay for this?" I asked her gently. I immediately saw her restraint at trying not to glare at me, but her hands did curl into tight fists at her sides.

"I'm fine," she told me quietly, and she was really trying hard at keeping the anger out of her voice.

"What's wrong with your stomach?" Mike asked worriedly, then his eyes went wide. "You're not pregnant are you? Cause dude, I can't-"

"No," Bella said, her voice hard. "It's nothing like that. Don't worry about it. I'll talk to you later Edward." She turned away without looking at me, and Mike gave me an apologetic grin that did not look sincere in the slightest.

"Um, maybe we should get back," Jane said, giving me an understanding smile. I was still kind of in shock about what had happened in like, thirty fucking seconds.

I was at war with myself, because I knew Bella was sensitive as hell about the fact she couldn't have children, and to have had that question thrown at her would have hurt. I wanted to comfort her, but she was obviously pissed at me and wanted me to leave her alone right now.

So I just nodded to Jane, and we turned and walked back to the room we'd been running lines in, grabbing some lunch on the way.

. . . . . . . . . .

She was waiting for me outside with Zeus when I finished. We hadn't even noticed the time, and I felt like shit for being over an hour late. She just smiled at me though, and I did too in relief as I walked over. I pulled her up by her hand, and just wrapped my arms around her and held her.

She held me back tightly, which just made me feel worse.

Because when I'd first gotten back to work, I had gotten pissed off. Really, really fucking pissed. Mad that she hadn't told me what sort of work she would be doing. And I still didn't really know. Why was she training with Newton? Was there another actress she was training too? What else would she be doing?

Then I wondered if she had purposely kept it from me, even though she swore when she woke up that she'd never keep something from me again. But as I thought about that, I'd kind of figured out that it was something worse.

I'd never even asked.

And I really couldn't blame her for not bringing it up, because she'd never been really good at talking about herself. It was just something she missed out on a lot growing up, because all she had for so long was Emmett. She couldn't just talk about herself. She was good at answering questions, and whenever I asked her something she'd tell me every single detail that she could think of. I knew that, so I couldn't hold it against her.

"I love you," I whispered into her hair.

She squeezed me tighter. "I love you too, but…"

I froze and pulled her away so I could see her, and she was grinning up at me.

"I'd love you even more if you fed me."

As if on cue, her stomach growled in the silence of the small lot, and Zeus barked as if to agree.

I laughed and kissed her, and we all walked over to the truck, piling in together.

"How does steak sound?" I asked hopefully, because I could really go for a nice big steak.

"Oh my god, that sounds amazing," she said in a dreamy voice. "We don't have any at home though, and Zeus can't go into a restaurant. Grocery store?"

"Sounds good, I know one with a really good butcher."

We made the drive, luckily it was on the way home, and Bella went in on her own while I sat with Zeus. I didn't really argue with her on that one, because I knew she was very meticulous about picking out food. She came back out fifteen minutes later, looking very uncomfortable. I got out and grabbed her bags for her, loading them in the back with Zeus, and then hopped up in the cabin again. She usually let me drive the truck, just because I found it hilarious to see her drive the gigantic thing and had a hard time keeping the smile off of my face when she did.

"What happened?" I asked before pulling out, titling her face up with a finger under her chin to face me. She chewed on her lip for a moment before answering.

"I just met a complete stranger, who seems to genuinely hate me because I 'stole you from the world,'" she said, making the ending sound as dramatic as possible. I could tell she wasn't joking in the slightest though, and was just trying to make light of it. I sighed.

"Sorry baby, there are a lot of crazies out there," I said, wincing at my own words. Bella just laughed though, choosing not to say anything about that. I grinned. "It's why I stay away from the internet, some of that shit freaks me out."

She laughed. "You know, when you first came to New York and I looked into you, I looked to see if you had a Facebook account like your sister. The only one there though was obviously fan-made." Her smile turned gentle, and she ran her fingers through my hair. "Even when I was trying to hate you, I liked having something in common with you."

I grinned, leaning in and softly brushing my lips against hers as I spoke. "And how long did you try to hate me for, Ms. Swan?"

"Months," She breathed. "But I couldn't do it."

"Why? What made you stop?" My voice was barely more than a breath, the loudest noise in the cabin was Zeus' heavy breathing in the backseat, which I tried to ignore.

"It was too hard, and I hated hurting you. It was painful." She swallowed loudly. "I loved you, everything about you. It was impossible to hate you."

I kissed her hard, stealing her breath as I pulled her against me on the bench. Her arms wrapped around me tightly, and I almost pulled her into my lap before the bright flash caught my attention.

We both froze, before looking out the window to the smiling photographer. He waved.

And Bella burst out laughing.

It was impossible not to join her, and we both waved back to the photographer before heading home.

. . .

It was a hard choice, deciding what I wanted to do first, her or steak, but I'd kept her waiting so long after work and she was obviously starving.

Besides, she'd need the energy. I chuckled to myself.

"What are you laughing about?" She asked with a suspicious grin, stirring her fucking-amazing peppercorn sauce on the side burner of the barbeque as I flipped the steaks.

"That I need to feed you before I drag you inside so you have enough energy," I said, looking over her hungrily. She laughed.

"You're really sweet when you want to be, you know that?" She said with a grin. I smiled back, but her comment just brought me back to my earlier realization. I didn't ask about her enough, and she kind of needed me to. She always asks about me, she always wants to know. I wondered if it hurt, if she thought that I didn't care.

Because I really, really did, I wanted to know every bit of her. I just knew that a lot of her life was hard for her, and was wary about making her talk about things that were difficult.

Just ask her.

"What's wrong?" She asked worriedly, her index finger looping through a belt loop on my jeans. I looked at her worriedly.

"Is it hard for you to talk about your past with me?"

She fidgeted. "Sometimes, not often though. Just about… him." She smiled at me. "You're just easier for me to talk to for some reason. Always have been."

Her words actually made me flinch. I felt even worse about it now, but she took it the wrong way.

"I'm sorry, I try not to talk about it, I know you don't want to-"

"Please, just, stop," I said, barely able to fucking breathe with her apologizing for it. I wanted to hug her but I didn't feel like I deserved to, but Bella looked like she was about to panic too and I couldn't let her think that I didn't want to hold her.

So I pulled her against my chest and held onto her for dear life, because that's what she was. All that really mattered.

She made me feel alive like no one else ever could.

"Please say something," she cried into my shirt.

"I love you so god damn much. I love every piece of you, I want to know every story, every scrape, every smile and every tear. I want to know everything you love and everything you hate and even the things you think don't even deserve an opinion. I want to know your every thought and every dream, and I want to be there and help you achieve every one, and watch you smile as you do because it's the most fucking important thing in the world to me. I want to know everything Bella, don't ever doubt that."

I had to swallow hard to clear my throat, at a loss to how to put it into words. None of them felt like enough.

"But I don't feel like I deserve you. I feel like I'm constantly doing something wrong, and that you deserve better than this-"

"No," She cried, clinging to me tightly. "You've never done anything wrong, not one god damn single time. I don't know how you can't see how amazing you are. I don't want anything Edward, I just want you."

I cupped her face in my hands and looked at her, and could see in those beautiful brown eyes that she meant every word as I swiped away her tears.

"Please don't break up with me," she whispered with watering eyes.

Damn it.

I really sucked at this shit sometimes.

"No baby, never. That's not what I meant at all," I assured her painfully. Was it really possible that I scared her as much as she did me? The painful relief in her eyes was all the confirmation I needed.

I kissed her, hard, my left hand cupping the back of her neck possessively, my fingers tying into her hair as my tongue and lips took control of hers. She moaned lightly into my mouth, her hands gripping tightly onto my shirt.

I reached for my wallet in my back pocket, but forced myself to stop. Not like this, not when she was worried, or after the day we had.

Not until we were done with filming. That was the plan.

I really fucking hated my plan right now, but I had it for reasons.

"Fuck, Edward," she said, and I grinned.

"That's the idea," I said with a grin, kissing her neck.

"No, Edward, the steaks are on fire," she half moaned.

I took one quick second to turn off the grill, then shut the lid on the barbeque.

"Screw dinner," I growled, picking her up and carrying her inside to our room as she fucking giggled. She didn't argue at all.

. . . . . . . . .

Okay, so… I know a lot of you wanted to see Bella co-star, but it just didn't seem plausible, even though this is fiction. She's still trying to hide who she really is while under a bright Hollywood spotlight. That being said though… there are a lot of things that haven't been said yet.

*Puts on glasses and crosses her legs, holding up her clipboard and pen.*So, how does that make you feel?

And what do you think about her new job?

Edward is having some issues coping now that his Bella is out in the open too, can you really blame him though? He'd started to get used to living with Bella, hiding behind their secrecy. He's working on it though.

And what do you think of Jane? And Mike? And what about Marcus himself? And then there was Rory...

Take care till next time lovelies.