I love that you loved Rory! Thanks for the reviews guys :) If you were closer, I'd give you all some of the peanut butter cookies I just baked. But you're not, so I guess I'll just have to eat them myself…

Song: Money Maker – The Black Keys

. . . . . . . . . .

"So, what's on your schedule today?" I asked, trying to bite back my yawn. Bella had needed to practically drag me out of bed this morning, I had no idea how late we had stayed up.

And I still had no idea how my slightly-insomniac girlfriend even functioned. Seriously, I loved her beyond all reason, but I think she might be some sort of witch.

"Working with Mike again, it's going to be like that for the next couple weeks," she said over a mouthful of food. I almost felt guilty for ruining dinner last night. Almost. She was on her third breakfast sandwich… which I'm pretty sure was mine.

"Are you eating my sandwich?"

"Yes. You owe me for not feeding me last night."

I sighed, and she grinned, holding out my sandwich and letting me take a bite. I laughed before conceding, taking the biggest bite I could and winking when she scowled at me.

"What is it exactly that you're doing with Mike?"

My heart sank when she beamed at me, looking so fucking happy that I was asking.

"Well, my 'official' title is stunt choreographer. There are six scenes that he's doing for you, and they total about four and a half minutes. So what I'm doing right now is choreographing the moves for the fight scenes. First I show Mike the moves he's supposed to do, and then afterwards he practices them against me. Then it's doing the same thing with Jane's stunt double, and then I'll be showing the extras their moves, playing Mike's and Jane's parts against them before I supervise them doing the moves together. Once they have them down it's redoing them at the location shoots and in the green rooms. It's kind of a crazy amount of work for such a small end result," she said with a laugh.

"Is that everything that you're going to be doing for the film?"

"Well, just those six scenes are going to take a few weeks if my students don't give me any problems, which is when we start doing location shoots. And Cloe, Jane's double, has a little more running time than he does. Then it's just supervising the actual scenes and making them match properly with your parts. I'm not expecting there to be any problems with Mike though, he's good. I've never worked with Cloe before but she has a pretty impressive resume."

"What you were doing yesterday didn't seem like any parts of the script."

She laughed. "No, not really. He was being whiney, said he wanted a rematch from when I kicked his butt when I was sixteen. So I gave it to him. He almost thought he had me for a moment when you distracted me," she said with a smile, which disappeared quickly. "The rest of it isn't nearly as intense as what you saw the other day. I'm sorry for worrying you, and for snapping at you, it's just… I just wanted to prove to myself that I could handle it, and it was nice practicing with someone who didn't look at me like I'd been shot."

"I'm sorry I didn't ask beforehand. I should have talked about it with you, I've just… things have been so crazy lately, I feel like we haven't had any time to just… be." And that was the damn truth. We were barely a week into this thing and I was already going through some serious withdrawals.

"No, it's okay. It's not your fault. I'm trying, it's just… I'm just not used to talking to people about what I do with my time. It's just really… I don't know. Sib calls it 'censoring.' I'm working on it."

I grinned, hearing her pick up on the nickname.

"Censoring?"

She fidgeted a bit in her seat, looking extremely uncomfortable, but answered me anyways. "Angela was the only real friend I had growing up besides Emmett. I told her everything, but after… I couldn't bring myself to do it again, with another person. Besides, there was no one else. I had my dad and Emmett. I couldn't just… bring someone in and tell them what had happened. There was too much that could get out, it wasn't just not safe for them but for my family either. It never was. We never stayed anywhere longer than a few weeks after we left Forks, I couldn't make any friends, and I just got… used to keeping things to myself. It was a necessity, and it just became the norm I guess. It's weird not having to do it. Even in New York, I had all these different jobs, but I wasn't myself in any of them, but someone different in all of them, and I had to keep them all separate. It's a hard habit to break, not having to keep my personal life and my professional life separated."

These were things I had speculated, or figured out just from spending time with her, but to hear her actually be able to talk about it… I saw that as a lot of progress. At the same time though, I could see when she didn't want to talk about certain things, just by the look in her eyes, but she always did anyways. I'm pretty sure she was too scarred by her own guilt from her previous secrets to really deny me anything. Not even to put up a fight about it. She just forced herself to answer.

I hated it, but didn't know what to say about it either. This was Bella's way of trying to let me know her, to communicate her feelings with me. She was trying so fucking hard to let me all the way in.

I pulled into a parking spot before clicking her belt buckle and pulling her to my side, kissing her gently as I cupped the side of her face. When I pulled away slightly, I watched her eyes for a moment before I spoke. I had a tendency of getting lost in them.

"Never the less, I still should have asked, and I'm sorry I didn't. I want to know these things, everything. I just want you to know that. I love you so much."

"I love you too," she said with a smile, and leaned into kiss me again. She was still smiling when she pulled away.

"Will I be able to see you at all today?" I asked, still not loosening my hold on her. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.

"I have a long lunch today… maybe I could bring you something?"

I grinned brightly. "I'd love that."

She looked a little relieved, which made me wonder just how hard it was for her to ask me little things like this. Still. I was starting to see a pattern really, it was like she was afraid to interrupt, or impose.

"Okay, well your break is scheduled for one, I'll come by then."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

We parted ways, but I turned to take one last look at her before heading into my building, and shot her a wink when she did the same only seconds after I had turned. That little bit of a blush that only I was able to bring out in her had me grinning all the way down to my conference room.

"Good morning Edward," Jane said cheerfully with a smile as I walked into the room. We were the first two there, and I knew it would be something I would have to get used to. Bella was an 'If you're not fifteen minutes early, then you're fifteen minutes late' sort of person. It didn't really bother me, I just would have preferred to spend that extra fifteen minutes making out with her in my truck.

"Morning Jane," I said with a smile, dropping down into my chair and taking out my phone to check my schedule for the day. I saw the buffet table and jumped back up, grabbing a banana, then a croissant, and grapes are always awesome, and then a plate was necessary. Then since I had the room, I grabbed a muffin too.

Now that I didn't have Bella distracting me anymore, I was fucking starving. I didn't even care if I was going to want a nap afterwards. Besides, I was still supposed to put on another three pounds, but it wasn't like Marcus was fucking weighing me. And I looked pretty awesome right now, if I did say so myself.

Never thought I'd be a morning person, but shit changes.

"You seem to be in a cheerier mood today," she mused, and I almost thought I heard a hint of disappointment in her voice. "… And hungry, apparently." I watched her face closely as I replied.

"I am."

"So things are okay between you and Bree?"

"They always were." I was confident enough in my sexuality to inhale that banana.

"She seems… nice."

I laughed. "That would depend on who you asked, but I wouldn't have her any other way." Croissants are better with cheese…

"How did you meet?"

It was moments like this when I was kind of relieved that she was still using her old alias. I didn't have to make up a lie.

"She helped out my sister, and was an investor in my cousin's company."

She nodded, pursing her lips, and Marcus came into the room, greeting us cheerfully before quickly being joined by a few of the other actors we'd be running lines with today. I made quick work of my breakfast, and we settled in for a long six hours of rehearsing lines and skimming through the script, separating shots and scenes, where we'd overlap with doubles, and I got lost in my old world.

. . .

"Would you like to join us at the restaurant?" Marcus asked with a clap to my shoulder and a smile. I smiled back at him.

"No thanks, I already have some plans."

"Hot date?" He asked with a wink. I laughed.

"Understatement, Marcus."

"Sweet talker," Bella said, walking into the room with a smile, Zeus at her side. I winked at her, and would have pulled her in for a kiss if Marcus hadn't intercepted me and pulled her in for a hug.

"Having fun on the matts?"

"Always Mac. You going to join me some time?"

"Sorry sweetheart, I value my life, and my hip."

She laughed, and kissed him on the cheek. I caught Jane giving them a slight frown, but she quickly covered it with her sweet smile.

It gave me a slightly uneasy feeling.

One that I didn't brush aside. I was going to keep an eye on her. I walked over to Bella, wrapping an arm around her waist as she waved goodbye to the others.

Zeus huffed, and I laughed before scratching his ears.

"It's beautiful out, do you want to eat outside?" She asked with a smile. I grinned back.

"That sounds perfect."

And it really was. We rolled out a blanket in the bed of our truck, and had a little picnic outside in the sun.

. . . . . . . . . .

We drove in early, dropping off the car and going for a run around the studio lot with Zeus. We were still working on building some sort of routine, not an easy thing to do when you work by a schedule that changes by the day. We'd always loved running together though, it was the first real activity we'd ever done together and it was something we wanted to keep up.

"The scenery's kind of boring," I noted after a few minutes. Lots of big buildings, not enough trees. It was nice, but not therapeutic sort of nice like running laps around the lake at Central Park.

"It's better than having those photographers following us though," she said with a smirk. "And it's too nice out to be stuffed inside that gym."

I nodded. "We could try driving to the beach next time, might be able to lose those photographers."

She smiled brightly. "That sounds like a great idea." I knew she was still uneasy about the few reporters that had been following us around, though she wouldn't say it aloud. It was probably going to take her a little while to get used to having her picture taken I think.

"They'll get bored soon and back off," I assured her. "It won't always be like this, once the novelty wears off, and something else comes along, they'll move on. They always do." I'd been through this over and over through the years. They pick up on the movie, chase you around to get pictures for their articles about it, try to get some details from you, fade off, then come back for the buzz when the film is about to release, and stick around until the next big thing come out. Sometimes they'll hound for a bit with a new romance like this, but it usually dies back down after a few weeks. Bella, or 'Bree' was a new name and a mystery though, which is probably why they were still at it.

She nodded, but still looked uneasy.

I liked this, I had never been fond of talking while running, but I always wanted to talk to her. I knew she was the same way, we only really listened to music if we were on the treadmills these days. Besides, this was a bit of a relaxed pace for me. Not that I'd say it aloud, but I was in a better shape than her right now. All that time with Emmett had really paid off. That, and she was short.

Also something I'd never say to her aloud.

"So, day three of recording. Are you enjoying it so far?"

"It's… yeah. It's okay," I told her.

"But?"

I didn't know what exactly it was, let alone how to word my discomfort. I asked her a question of my own instead.

"Have you done a background check on Jane?"

It was a moment before she answered. "No, I've been trying to avoid that stuff."

"Stuff?"

"The background checks, the hacking, the monitoring… my 'obsessive habits' as Sib calls them. She thinks they're some outlet for a need for control, a coping mechanism to deal with my trust issues."

She looked a little embarrassed admitting it, but I was so happy that she was able to talk to me about this stuff at all, and gave her a reassuring smile.

And I agreed with Sib a hundred percent on it. If she kept living with those habits, those crutches, she'll just grow more dependent on them. But still…

"That must be hard," I noted. "How are you feeling about it?"

"Worried. It feels wrong. I wanted to keep my search program going, just to see if anyone uses my… you know, other name. To give me a heads up if anyone finds out, but to do that I'd have to get into the e-mails for everyone here and… I guess I see what she meant when she told me that it would just make it harder to stop if I tried to keep that." Her voice trailed off quietly, and I nodded. I got what she was trying to say, there wasn't a partial way to go about it, so she had to give the entire thing up. "I can though, I'm just trying not to do it to every person I meet like before, so if you're concerned about something she's doing I can-"

"No, she hasn't really done anything," I assured her. I was happy she was working on that, and I'd be damned if I was going to set back her progress. "I guess I just don't really trust her. She seems nice and everything, there's just this really, I don't know… fake quality about her?"

"Yeah, I get what you mean. She does not like me," Bella said with a bit of a laugh, and I was a little surprised.

"What makes you say that?"

"I'm good at reading people, and that woman's been giving me the evil eye every time I've brought you lunch this week when she thinks I'm not looking." She shot me a smirk. "I think she likes you," she teased, and I laughed.

"Then I hope she enjoys disappointment."

Bella gave me a loving smile, before concentrating on her path once more.

"If something comes up and you want me to look into her, just let me know."

"I will," I assured her. And I would, but for now there really wasn't any reason to go to that extreme. "And how are things going with Mike and Cloe?"

"Awesome," she said happily. "It's been pretty easy, actually. They know what they're doing and are good at following directions. I've gone over all the scenes with Marcus, so I have it all pictured in my mind and… I love it. It's been really fun so far, having the resources to just build what I see in my mind."

The smile on her face and the excitement in her voice as she said that… well, I was just a tiny bit jealous. Because I had a hard time getting into the scenes with Jane. Everyone else so far, I loved it. I wasn't the same man I had been during my last movie, not even close, but I still loved the work. She made me a little uncomfortable though, or just exasperated maybe. The way she was always leaning into me whenever she spoke to me annoyed me, and the effort it took to contain my irritation sort of sucked the fun out of it I guess.

I didn't want to give Bella the wrong idea and possibly worry her though. I was thrilled that she was enjoying working here, that she was just happy here. I had worried that taking her away from New York might have set back her progress, but she seemed to be doing a lot better since coming here. It was a noticeable difference to me, and I don't think it was even just her therapy. I think the change of scenery was doing wonders for her healing process.

Sib was obviously doing some good work too though. Bella and I were still working on our communication problems, but it was getting a little easier to get her to open up about her feelings.

"You know, I was thinking about what I was going to do for work, when we get back to New York," she started, getting my full attention.

"Oh yeah? What were you thinking?"

"Well, now that I can just stick to one thing, and work as many hours as I want… I was thinking about teaching my classes full time."

I smiled brightly. "I think you'd be great at that," I said honestly. That, and I knew that she'd love it. She told me once that if she could, she would want to do it full time. Now she could, if she wanted to. "Would you have enough clientele to do something like that full time?"

"I think so. I kept it small before just because of my availability, that and because Garett works at the gym, and I didn't trust him, and had him believing that I lived in Chicago so I had to be cautious about running into him. All of my students before came from personal recommendation and word of mouth."

"Really?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah, most of them were either from support groups that I'd sponsored, people I'd met and offered them to, and people that were referred to me by previous students. It wasn't something I advertised."

"Have I met this Garett guy?"

"Yeah, he was one of Em's groom's men." It was getting a little harder for her to talk through her efforts, but we were almost done.

"Why didn't you trust him?"

"Just made me uncomfortable, he was always checking me out."

Yeah, I remembered him now. He'd been sitting at the bar when I'd had a drink with Bella that night. I hadn't liked the way he looked at her either.

I was aware that I was biased though. I didn't like anyone looking at her.

We slowed to a jog, and then a walk as we passed our starting point. I tried not to ogle her too much, the way the sun caught and sparkled on the sheen of sweat covering her face and neck, and the way her thin, white shirt clung to her damp skin, hinting at her tattoos underneath… Yeah, I was staring.

She loved it, though I doubt she'd admit it. She knew what she did to me.

I was grinning as I pulled her into my changing room with me, and she pounced as soon as the door was locked. Our clothes were abandoned in a trail of destruction as I walked her backwards into my bathroom and shower.

I couldn't lie and say that we were trying to conserve water by sharing, because we were in there for a while.

. . .

I went over to today's set, meeting up with Marcus and the others that I was shooting with today. We spent two hours reading through, then it was going through wardrobe and make-up. The first two scenes went well with few takes, and we broke for lunch. Bella was too busy to come by today, and I stayed with Marcus, whose wife Didi came by to join him, Jane, and Adam and Joshua, who'd I'd just finished shooting with. Those two practically inhaled their food and ran off to another set though, then Marcus had to make some phone calls, and I was left with Jane.

Fuck, I didn't get a good feeling from the way she was looking at me. I knew that look.

This could make shit awkward.

I took out my phone and started up a game of Tetris as I grabbed another sandwich.

My attempt at being antisocial was sabotaged as she moved over to the chair next to mine.

"Whatcha playing?"

Manners. Polite, I can be polite.

"Tetris."

"You know… we probably have a good half hour before they come back," she said in a low voice, looking up at me from below her lashes. Fake lashes, we were still in costume, though she'd taken out her contacts.

"Yeah, so?"

"The door has a lock on it." I'm sure her smile was meant to be seductive, but it had the entire opposite effect on me.

I tried not to snap at her though; I was stuck with her for the next four months.

"I have a girlfriend Jane," I warned, my voice a curt. She wasn't deterred though, and just smiled, leaning in and placing her hand on my thigh.

"That's okay, I can keep a secret."

Done.

I removed her hand. "Well, you won't have to. I'm not interested." She frowned, scowling almost as I got up, taking my sandwich with me and going for a walk to clear my head.

This was going to make shit awkward, hopefully she'd back off though. I was uneasy as I made my way back to our set twenty minutes later.

She acted like nothing had happened. She was just like she had been yesterday, but now every time she got a little too close, leaned against me, touched me, I knew exactly why, and had a migraine by the time we called it quits for the day from trying not to snap at her.

Bella immediately noticed my bad mood of course, walking up right when Marcus called cut. I pulled her against me, and I think I caught her off guard when I kissed the hell out of her. I felt my tension dissolve as I held her, her hands slipping into my hair, and didn't spare Jane a glance as we said goodnight to Marcus and I got out of my suit.

Bella sat on my couch and watched with a smile as I got changed, but she could look as long as she wanted to. By the time we got to the truck, my previous mood was completely forgotten.

"Is everything okay?" She asked gently, once I pulled out of my spot.

"Yeah baby, just a long day," I said with a smile, pulling her hand up to my lips and kissing her knuckles, and her fingers threaded through mine as I rested our hands on my thigh.

I needed her to concentrate on herself, there was no need to stress her out with Jane. I could handle her. We picked up dinner on the way home, and not long after we ate and cleaned up, I fell asleep with a smile, Bella snuggled up against me in bed while we watched a movie.

This, right here, was not only all I needed, it was all I wanted. Jane would figure that out and back off.

. . . . . . . . . .

Hey guys. The lengths for the rest of the chapters are going to be varying… just because it feels better that way. I feel so, so close to being finished… I'm just trying not to rush it.

Should he have told Bella about Jane's flirting? Or do you think he was right in saying it would just needlessly worrying or upset her?

Oh, and a small note. I had no idea that there is an actress named Jane Seymour in RL. She's not the woman in my story. I picked the last name because I read The Other Boleyn Girl for like the hundredth time a little while ago. Love that book.