BPOV

We make our way down the hall when one of the kids that has been in the hospital under my care for a while calls my name from his room.

Noah is being raised by a single dad who has to work, so he's often here alone. I always make an extra effort to spend time with him so he will not be scared.

I stop at Noah's door. "Will you be back tomorrow, Bewwa?"

I smile at his adorable attempt at my name again. "Yeah, buddy. I'll be here tomorrow. I'll bring you some icecream tomorrow afternoon, sound good?"

His answering smile tells me he approves of the plan. Suddenly, he looks behind me to Edward and his little eyes go wide. I imagine he's fascinated by the badge and gun getup.

"Are you here to keep bad guys away from my Bewwa?" he asks Edward.

Edward looks surprised for a moment before answering "Yeah, I'm here to make sure she stays safe."

Without another thought, Noah tells Edward "Good, because dis bad mans took her away for a long time and she wasn't here to read me stories for a while."

I...don't know what to say to that. I just turn toward Edward and give him a look that says 'you can take that one, buddy. You're the one that took me away, after all.'

Edward's eyes soften and he looks down at the ground before asking "Bella reads you stories?"

"Yeah, everyone knows she does stories the best. The other doctors are always too busy and the nurses tell boring stories."

I smile at him and promise to tell him a great story tomorrow before heading back out the door and down the hall. Edward walks beside me but says nothing else.

"Umm, what happens now? Are you just following me to my house or...?"

He looks distracted for a moment before answering that he'll be driving me. Agent Hale is going to take my car home.

I follow him outside to his car, relieved that it isn't the same car I found myself restrained in only a few weeks ago.

I think he saw the relief in my eyes, because he stopped just before opening my door. "Bella, I need to know that you know you'll be safe alone with me. I know I probably traumatized the hell out of you, but I swear I'm only here to protect you."

"I know. It's just going to take some time for me to adjust, that's all. I'm fine, honestly."

He doesn't look entirely convinced, but he opens his car door for me and I slide in.

"I assume I don't need to give you my address?"

He just smiles and says "I think I can find it."

Damn super secret FBI agent.

About 10 minutes later, we pull up to my house. He puts his hand on my knee as I start to open my door. "Bella, I know it's probably overboard, but I need to take every precaution here, okay? Every time we drove up, I want you to stay in the car until I come around to get you. Then, just stay behind me while I open the door and I'll do a quick check through the house before you start walking around."

"Do you really think they're after me that hard?"

"I don't know for sure, but the fact is that we lost our inside connection when I had to kill James that night so until we verify that you're out of the woods, I want to be careful."

I nod and he comes around the other side to open my door. He scans the area around us and then opens my door. I walk behind him to my front door and hand him my house key.

He pulls his gun out and positions himself in front of me as he sweeps through the living room and kitchen area. "Stay here will I check the rest of the house, okay?" He moves swiftly to finish his check while I stand in my living room feeling like a lamb on the slaughter block. I almost jump out of my skin when he reappears. "It's all clear. You're free to do whatever you need to do."

"Okay, um let me clean up a bit and I'll make us some dinner. You can use the spare bedroom down the hall to the right, and any bathroom things you should need are in the hall bathroom. "

"You don't have to cook. I can order us something if you prefer?"

"No, it's okay. I like cooking. It helps me unwind after a long day."

I'll get my bag from the car and will be right back. And with that, I find myself alone in the house wondering how in the hell I'm going to survive this man staying here for an extended time.