Thank you for all of your lovely reviews on the last chapter! Every single one makes me smile :) Short chapter! But I didn't want it to take away from the next chapter. I'll try to update on Tuesday. I hope all you kids down in the US have a great memorial day weekend!

Song: Capital Cities – Safe and Sound

. . . . . . . . . .

The Cigar lounge we went to was really nice, much more Jasper's style then what we had done for Emmett's party.

I didn't want a bachelor's party, I'd rather be locked in a room with my fiancé all night.

We had a few drinks and cigars, and had a small poker game. I was thankful for the distraction, having something to concentrate on was the only thing keeping me from running across town to Eclipse. I was down about three hundred bucks- I was good at poker, but was kind of letting Jasper win- when my phone rang. It was Rose, and I frowned in confusion before answering.

"Hey cousin, what's up?" Emmett's eyes shot up to mine in worry.

"Edward… someone must have said something, there's a fucking mob outside of the club and B was pretty much swarmed when she tried to go outside. She had a few drinks and she's kind of drunk, one of them grabbed her and-"

"I'll be right there, just put her in your office or something, okay?"

"Okay, thanks Edward."

"No, thanks for calling Rose, I'll see you guys soon."

"What's wrong?" Emmett asked worriedly, getting up with me.

"Engagement didn't stay quiet as long as we wanted it to, the press tracked her down to the club," I told him. Jasper got up too. "You guys don't need to come, I can handle it," I assured them, but they shook their heads.

"Edward, you're not the only one who doesn't want to be here. I'd like to see my future wife again before tomorrow," Jasper said with a smile, and we exited the lounge together.

There was a mob outside here too.

"Jesus," Jasper said, taking a step back in surprise. They didn't intimidate me though, I was used to this shit now, and I was really pissed off.

"Get the fuck out of my way, one of you assholes grabbed my fucking fiancé, and I have no problem returning the fucking favour," I almost yelled, fucking livid, and they must have seen that because none of them touched us as we moved into the limo. We gave the driver the name of the club, and headed over.

Bella's mob was bigger than mine had been, and I hated that I'd put her in this position. She had the ring though, and that's what they most likely wanted a picture of. There was extra security out front, three big guys, and Emmett and I helped throw the leeches out of our way as we made our way inside. I sprinted up the stairs, taking two at a time, until we got up to the third floor and slipped into the VIP room.

It had been a while since I'd been here, but I didn't spare any of it a glance. I made my way over to the back exit by the bar, and was stopped by a huge guy with long black hair that looked familiar.

"Don't you-"

"Hey, calm down. I was just going to say that I'll show you to Rose's office," he said, holding up his hands in surrender.

"Oh… thanks."

"No problem."

He led me down the hallway to a room I'd never been in before in tense silence, before he knocked on the door and opened it for me, leaving without another word.

Bella was sitting on a tan leather loveseat, and she was cleaning up one of her legs. Her whole left shin was already wrapped in bandages, and it looked like she was picking pieces of gravel out of her other leg, where a large section of skin had been scraped off. She looked up at me in surprise, and wiped at her face quickly.

Okay, she's probably the only woman I've ever seen that still looks fucking adorable with mascara running down her face.

I was too pissed off to think about that for more than half a second though, and carefully sat down next to her on the couch.

"Did you see his face? Who grabbed you?"

"He'd be easy to recognize, I broke his nose," she said with a sniffle. "I'm s-sorry, I didn't know what to do. The guys didn't recognize me, and they didn't tell me they were out here, I thought they were just customers," she sniffled.

"Shh, it's okay. What happened?" She finished with her tweezers, and I lifted her legs onto my lap, and disinfected the large scrape before I started wrapping up her leg for her.

"I tried to get back in once I realized they were here for me, but one of them grabbed me, and I lost my footing and fell. Alice and I were doing shots and I'm really fucking tanked right now." I chuckled softly, and the corner of her mouth twitched. "So, I was pissed, and I got back up and punched him in the face before Jake pulled me back inside." She started crying again. "I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have hit him, I didn't even think about it. Now it's going to be all over the news, I'm-"

"Bella, please, just breathe," I said gently, taping up the end of the gauze before I picked her up and sat her across my lap. Her arms wrapped around me tightly as she hid her face in my neck. "I don't care that you punched him baby, he fucking deserved it and I'm glad that you broke his nose, though I would have preferred to do it myself." She let out a small giggle against my neck, and tightened her hold on me. "Are you okay though?"

"Yeah, just… embarrassed."

"What do you have to be embarrassed about?"

"Being too slow. He never should have been able to grab me, let alone knock me down."

I laughed. "Baby, you can't be a ninja every second of the day. Besides, I'm pretty sure it's just the liquor that had you off your game."

"God, I love you so much."

"Mmm, good."

She laughed again, and leaned back to look at me. I felt like an ass but I couldn't help grinning when I looked at her. She was a hot mess. I swiped away at her tears and running makeup with my thumbs, trying to do a bit of damage control.

"So, you're not mad that I'm probably going to look like a crazy person on a bunch of magazines?"

"Nope, besides, no one but I knows how truly crazy you really are," I teased, and she rolled her eyes with a grin.

"Do you think Mac will be angry?"

"Not at you."

She let out a huff of relief, and slumped against me.

"I hate bachelorette parties. I'm so not having one."

"God, me neither."

"What, no strip clubs?"

"No way, but if you want to strip for me you won't hear any arguments," I said with a grin, then kissed her throat when she laughed. She sighed, relaxing even more in my arms. "Are you sure you're really okay?"

"Yeah, I just lost my cool. I'm sorry that you got dragged out here," she said quietly. I shook my head.

"All I was doing was debating escaping to come here anyways, you put me out of my misery," I said dramatically, and she rolled her eyes at me.

. . . . . . . . . .

The wedding was beautiful, though I found being inside a little depressing when it was such a gorgeous summer day. My fiancé was looking fucking gorgeous in her little silver bridesmaid's dress, though she was grumpy wearing her 'hooker boots' as she called them, because it was so hot outside. She didn't want to ruin Alice's pictures with her bandages though. Her legs were shredded, which continued to enrage me whenever I thought of them.

She was just happy her dress had been long enough that the photographers hadn't gotten any 'good shots' when she'd fallen, since I'd kept that souvenir from our fun at the rehearsal dinner.

The only thing about the actual wedding that I hadn't liked had been the reception. My sister had a lot of contacts, all over the world, and most of them happened to be women.

A year ago, I would have loved it. Now, the flirting just annoyed the hell out of me. Bella wasn't the jealous type, and she had no reason to be because I'm sure that she was well aware by now that she was the only woman I even wanted to look at.

My fiancé thought my sullen mood was quite hilarious, really.

We stayed until the bride and groom left, spending most of the night with Emmett, Rose, and my parents, but once they headed out we needed to as well to catch our own plane. I had a scene to shoot tomorrow evening, after our appointment with the jeweler.

I pulled Emmett aside before we left, and his face was fucking glowing. He was drinking for two, as he had put it.

"Sup future bro?" He asked with a laugh.

"God, you're not even going to remember what I tell you, are you?" I asked with a frown. I didn't want to do this over the phone though, and I didn't want to have this conversation with Rose. Not in her condition.

I had to say something though, before it got too bad to be fixed. Bella needed me to, because I knew she'd never be able to voice her own fears. She'd let them go no matter how much it hurt her if she thought it was what the others wanted.

"Nah, I'm good, what's up?"

"You need to call Bella more."

He laughed. "What?"

"Call your sister more Emmett."

"We talk all the time, what-"

"I know you do, but when you call her you talk about baby proofing your new house, your pregnant wife, your future baby, and your work. I need you to just talkto her," I said nervously, looking around to make sure we were still alone.

"What's going on?" The humour was gone now, and he was watching me warily.

"You don't even fucking see it, do you? None of you do."

"See what?"

"How much this pregnancy is killing her. Do you have any idea how badly Bella wants to have kids? She won't say anything because she loves you too much, but I will. We're both happy for you, but I need you to stop shoving it down her throat."

"What-"

"And I need you to start calling her more often to talk about nothing Emmett. Normal shit, TV or something. Because once Victor died, I don't think a single one of you have noticed how lost she is. She feels like none of you even need her any more. It depresses the hell out of her coming back here and feeling like she isn't needed."

"That's… that's not true," he stuttered.

"Oh, I know. She doesn't though. And me telling her otherwise won't do shit besides making her feel self-conscious. I know you have a lot going on, I get it, but your sister feels like she doesn't have anything to offer any of you anymore, and you guys haven't helped by not even noticing how much it's hurting her."

"And what are you doing to help?" He spat back defensively.

"More than you. I take her to every one of her therapy sessions, I ask her what she does every day, make her talk about what she's thinking and feeling, and tell her that I love and need her every single fucking day."

He stared at me in disbelief. "She's in therapy?"

"Are you shitting me? You didn't even know?" I asked angrily. "She's been going since before we even moved. It's hard and she fucking hates it but she's doing it any ways. Start asking her about her life Emmett. I'm doing everything that I can to help her, and I'll do it happily, but I'm worried that if things between you guys keep going like this then you're just going to drift apart too far. And she won't stop it because I'm pretty sure she thinks you want it this way."

"I… I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything to me. I just thought you deserved a warning, because I know how much you love her. You're going to lose her if something doesn't change, and if she loses you, I doubt we'll even come back to New York. I won't take her back here if going to make her this god damn sad. I hate seeing her like this. I'll take her to the Bahamas and we'll never come back."

"Is this supposed to be some sort of threat?" He hissed, stepping into my personal space. I stood my ground, looking at him sadly.

"Not at all, this is me telling you that I'll do whatever I have to do to make the woman I love happy. I love you Emmett, you're a great friend, but she's my fucking world and I won't sit back and watch her suffer," I told him gently.

He had nothing to say to that, but his face looked tortured. I sighed.

"I'm sorry, but I had to tell you. I didn't want to do it over the phone and I didn't want to put any stress on Rose. This conversation never happened, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't share this. Just start watching more Emmett." I patted him on the shoulder, then walked back to the ballroom, feeling Emmett following.

And I bet he saw it now, Bella leaning against a back wall, a safe spot where she couldn't be snuck up on, looking so lost in the giant crowd of people but still trying to keep a smile on her face. Her face brightened when she saw me though, and seeing her real smile was a fail-safe way to bring up my mood. I walked up to her and pulled her into my arms, kissing her cheek.

"I love you," I whispered, holding her tightly.

"I love you too," she said happily.

"I'm just going to go to the bathroom then we can head out, okay?"

"Sounds good," she said easily. "I'll wait here."

I nodded, and made my way over to the bathroom, giving Emmett an encouraging nod as I passed him. I didn't actually need to go, but I washed my hands very thoroughly before walking back, just trying to give them a couple of minutes inconspicuously. Bella was with Emmett and Rose, while Rose talked excitedly about something, and Emmett looked like he wanted to rip out his hair as he watched his sister, finally seeing it. That her smile didn't reach her eyes, that she was putting on a mask for them, and that she just looked painfully lost.

But when she smiled at me, it was real.

"You ready to go babe?" I asked, pulling her into my arms. She nodded, looking almost relieved.

"Wait, B?" Emmett said, stepping forward and looking panicked.

"What's up?"

"Well, I was thinking, would it be okay if we came up and visited for a couple days? I'd love to see what you've been up to, and maybe we could have lunch with Marcus or something?"

She looked too shocked to speak for a moment, before a bright, hopeful smile split her face.

"I'd love that, we have plenty of room," she said happily, eagerly.

"I can't fly this late in the pregnancy Emmett," Rose said with a laugh, not seeing how the light quickly faded from Bella's eyes, and her smile once again became forced.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry Rose. Maybe another time?" Her voice sounded doubtful, and Emmett pulled his hand through his hair in frustration.

"No, we'll work something out, I'll come down on my own for a couple days," he assured her. She smiled, but still looked doubtful.

"Okay, well, we need to catch our plane. I love you guys," she said, hugging both of them. She didn't believe him and I knew she just wanted to get away from here. After our good-byes were said, we walked out together, and I kept a tight arm around her, hoping that Emmett followed through on his word.

I'd be content keeping her all to myself on an island, but I knew that there was a very large part of her that still needed her big brother.

. . . . . . . . . .

The spotlight on them is getting brighter…

Do you think it was good that Edward stepped in and talked to Emmett? Or should he have tried to get Bella to address it herself?