Home, there was nothing better than being home, well
perhaps one thing, being home with Bella at my side. We were both seriously
exhausted and had slept most of the day away since Jazz and Em had brought us
here shrouded in darkness the night before. I was a mixture of pleased and
concerned that we are endangering my family by being here. Sure no one saw us
arrive, but after all that Bella and I had been through in Montana and during
our escape to Colorado we can't be too careful. My mother was unsurprisingly
beside herself with joy to see us both, I'm sure if a person could die from
being hugged, my mother would be up for a murder charge by now. Bella was a
little overwhelmed by the reception we received on our arrival, needless to say
she's going to have to get used to that, because I have no intention of letting
her go once this is over. The only downside in all of this is we're effectively
under house arrest, it's just not safe for us to step outside the door, let
alone look out of a window.
As much as I love my family, I've found myself longing
for those quiet days with Bella back in Montana, where we sat in the 'Bat cave'
and scanned hours of data, I've had plenty of girlfriends, but never have I
felt so comfortable, so... right about just hanging out and doing nothing with
someone other than my crew. Bella's so easy to be around, it's like breathing,
you don't have to think about it, it just comes naturally.
Not long after we'd arrived home, the guys had set up
camp in the basement, it's like they just up and moved the crew room, there's
equipment I never knew we had and a whole bank of computers I definitely knew
wasn't there before. Jazz has been busy while Bella and I slept. The exhaustion
of our ordeal finally knocking the last vestiges of adrenalin from us, we all
but crashed the moment our bodies hit the king sized bed in my room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Wake up asshole, you can sleep when you're
dead," a loud voice boomed through my door followed by three loud thumps.
I groaned and rolled out of Bella's embrace, her small
snores making me chuckle lightly to myself as I all but staggered to the door.
"Shut the fuck up Emmett," I hissed as I
opened the door to the grinning face of my ape like friend, "Bella needs
her sleep, you'll wake her if you keep this shit up doofus."
"Sorry bro, but we need to bring you up to speed,
and figured that Bella needs filling in too," Emmett responded quietly
looking ashamed, damn I've not seen that look for a while.
"No worries, give us ten minutes okay, and maybe
get some coffee going I have a feeling there's a lot we all have to
share," I said shrugging slightly before looking back at Bella who
remained sleeping soundly.
"Gotcha, we'll be in the basement when you're ready
bro, soz about the noise," Emmett state wryly.
I patted his shoulder and nodded in response, before
shutting the door and turning back to the bed. Bella lay cocooned in the large
duvet, her hair a wild mess and her denim clad leg poking out from beneath the
cover, she still looked so tired, but I knew we both needed to be debriefed and
re briefed on everything that was going on, time was moving on and neither of
us knew what the guys had been doing in our absence. I slowly approached the
bed and knelt beside her, my face hovered just beside her ear as she slept on,
oblivious to everything. I wished I didn't have to wake her, but knew that
Bella would be pissed at being left out of the loop.
"Bella," I whispered lowly into her ear
blowing lightly as I called her, "Bella baby, wake up," she moaned
tiredly in response and I chuckled to myself as I gently stroked her arm
beneath the cover. "Come on baby, we've got things to do, people to kill,
coffee to drink," I hummed in her ear, only just dodging the hand that
flicked at me like I was a fly to be swatted. She eventually sat up groggily,
her eyes hooded with tiredness, her lips set in a petulant pout at being woken.
She was a glorious mess, and never looked so beautiful to me.
"Where's the fire?" she asked huskily.
"The guys are in the basement waiting for us, it's
time to get back in the game baby," I replied quietly.
"Oh, OH! Give me two minutes Edward, Christ I can't
believe I've slept the day away, you should've woken me earlier, shit!"
she mumbled as she flew from the bed to the adjoined bathroom.
I snickered to myself before responding. "I've been
awake all of five minutes baby, I'm surprised you didn't hear Emmett’s wake up
call, I'm pretty sure there's a village in South America that heard him."
She laughed from the bathroom and moments later appeared
looking slightly less dishevelled. "Let's do this!" she stated.
I grabbed her hand as we walked from the room; we're in
this together, no matter what.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The following hours were filled with talking, planning
and gasps of shock from all parties, both Bella and I were surprised to find
that Lauren Mallory had been feeding intel to the Volturi, although it didn't
sit well with Bella, she said there was something off about that, which earned
shrugs from everyone but Jasper, who sat back in his place on one of the large
couches that dominated a small area of my fathers commandeered basement.
"Bro, you're not looking overly shocked at Bella's
theory," I asked, breaking the contemplative silence that had fallen over
the room.
"That's because I'm not, I'm in complete agreement,
Mallory is the fall guy, there's someone else in on this, the intel she was
sharing and apparently planting was not on her level of security, while I'm
sure she did do what she said, I think her involvement was primarily centred
around you and Bella," he stated leaning forward, his arms draped across
his knees.
"Okay, so you feel like sharing?" I asked.
"Well, it’s pretty obvious when you think about it,
she's an assistant, an admin, PA or whatever you want to call it, sure she has
access to sensitive intel being that the DO is her boss, but even in her
misguided actions I don't think she would completely sell out her own country,
a person sure, anyone is fair game, but to actually sell out the country, I
don't think she has the balls for it, let alone the connections to pull it off.
No she's a scapegoat, there's a bigger fish at play in this, which is why we're
camping here in your dads basement instead of the crew room at NAB, there are
too many damn ears pressed up against doors and the loop is too big for my
liking," he finished with a huff.
"Who do you think it could be?" Bella asked.
"That one has me stumped, right now the people I
trust are sitting in this room, everyone else is fair game," Jasper
replied.
"I guess I should do some digging huh?" Bella
stated moving towards the bank of computers.
Jasper smiled at her and nodded in agreement,
"Yeah, I'd like our trip to the Smithsonian to go better than our previous
outings. We don't seem to do so well without you watching our backs, Little
Bird."
Bella grinned at his using her SOCOM call sign and clasped
her hands together cracking her fingers in readiness of tackling the mass of
data that resided within her reach. I shook my head silently chuckling to myself;
she was always so eager to do her part and had been eyeing those computers like
a fat kid in a cake shop ever since we descended the stairs hours ago.
While Bella attacked the computers, I settled in with
the guys and we spent the time reviewing the plans Jasper had already made with
the other teams, we decided that for now I would not be part of the main group
at the Smithsonian, but would be in a holding pattern nearby as a secondary
backup, Bella would remain here on comms with our team, but we would be a
silent party as far as the other teams were concerned, the less they knew about
us, the better.
Around dawn my mom called down the basement stairs,
offering baked goods and fresh coffee, it was like a stampede as the guys all
but fought their way up the stairs to see what treats she had for them. Only
Bella and I remained in our positions, me on the couch, Bella glued to her wall
of terminals. She'd been running a background check on everyone she could think
of that we had come in contact with over the last few months, I watched in awe
as her fingers sped across multiple keyboards as she shuffled her chair from
one terminal to the next. She amazed me, frequently, but right now she never
looked better, clearly in her element, fingers in constant action, hair in a
sloppy knot at the back of her head and a look of absolute concentration on her
face, how could I not love her.
"You should eat baby," I said softly.
"Yeah, uhuh, in a minute," she responded noncommittally.
I smiled to myself, so focused that food was but an afterthought.
I stood from my seat on the coach and headed upstairs to grab us some food, the
guys had descended on my mom like a pack of ravenous wolves and she looked as
if she loved every minute of it judging by the wistful smile that graced her
face. I approached slowly until I caught her eye, she cocked her head towards
the counter, she'd obviously foreseen that Bella and I may not get a look in
against a pack of burly men and put two plates aside for us. I pecked her cheek
as I grabbed both plates and nodded in thanks before heading back down to the
basement. Bella was still hard at work moving between terminals and didn't
acknowledge my presence until I was practically standing over her and pushing
her plate onto the desk in front of her.
"Eat," I spoke softly into her ear.
She slumped in her chair and looked up at me, a gentle
smile gracing her face, before nodding and taking a muffin from the pile of
pastries that sat in front of her.
"Sorry, I just get a little involved when I have
something to work towards, I tend to forget the important things, like eating
and sleeping," she said shyly.
"Good thing you have me to remind you then
baby," I replied nuzzling her cheek.
"Mhm, just promise you'll be careful when all this
kicks off, I have a bad feeling about this one," she spoke quietly into my
ear. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, hoping to enforce my love for her
through touch alone.
"I'm going to do everything I can baby, everything
I can to make sure we all come back to you in one piece, I promise, I'll always
find a way back to you," I whispered determinedly to her.
"That's all I ask," she replied sounding
choked up.
"I love you," I said equally as roughly.
"I love you too."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The following days were filled with hours and hours of
planning and reviewing of intel, the guys would disappear at times to walk
through their floor plan back on NAB and attend briefings at CIA HQ. Bella and
I remained interred in our bubbled in my father’s basement; only seeing
daylight as it filtered through a small window on the far wall and only then it
did we see a small patch of grass through the large rosebush that covered it
from view outside. Carmen and El hung around for a few days before they had to
head off home, it wasn't unusual for helo's to be 'parked' near to the kill
house at NAB, but it was getting harder to maintain some cover with it being
there. The morning of September 4th they flew out under cover of early dawn,
having ensured their 'party favours' were safely hidden. We couldn't thank them
enough.
Bella continued her hunt on the data channels, as well
as sifting through endless amounts of background on everyone she had also been
keeping a keen eye on the movements of the Volturi and had secured a listening
line through a friend at SOCOM to enable her to be on the loop when it all went
down. I was both pleased and nervous about this, pleased that she would at
least know what was going on and be able to guide my guys, but concerned at her
investment, she was putting so many hours into this that she looked exhausted,
she was paler than normal and had massive dark rings around her eyes from the
time she spent at her post. When I mentioned it, she said she needed to do this
for her guys, it was her way of doing her bit for the team, I fell in love with
her all over again at this, she'd been our guardian angel on so many missions,
that having her voice in our ears for this was the best thing ever, it gave us
a sense of hope, hope that we may just walk away unscathed.
The one thing that kept us all on edge, well one of two
really was firstly who this new threat was and where is that damn nuke? Bella
was coming up with little to nothing on her record checks and the frustration
was getting to her. In a bid to give her a break and reconnect I pulled her
from her terminal and escorted her back to our room. Bella protested much of
the way, stating that she might miss something important, I silenced her with a
kiss, it seemed like the only option I had left. She soon caught on and kissed
me back as we stumbled across the room together.
"I have something for you," I panted in her
ear as I righted us on the bed.
"I have you, that's more than enough for me,"
she responded pecking at my lips.
"Humour me love," I said quietly.
"Okay," she sighed looking up at me from under
her eyelashes.
I pulled a small box out of my pocket and pulled open
the latch; inside sat a small silver chain with three charms, a crystal heart,
an oval frame with a tiny picture of us and a small trident. Bella gasped as
she fingered the charms, as she looked at me with tearful eyes. I coughed
lightly before explaining, "The heart is because I love you, the picture
is so that you'll carry me with you and the trident is because as a seal I
promise, no matter what I'll always fight to come back to you. There's
something else, me and the guys will have tracking dots on our kit, I've had
one inserted into the picture, that way I'll always be able to find you baby.
Until I know we're safe call it me being over protective, possessive, whatever
you like, but I want it as piece of mind that no matter what I'll always find
you."
"I love you," she replied tearfully and nodded
for me to put it around her neck.
"One day baby, someday soon, I'll put the matching
ring on this finger, when all this is over we'll get married for real, you and
me forever baby," I said earnestly.
"Someday soon Edward Cullen, I'll say yes,"
she replied crashing her lips to mine.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
6th September 2010
"Be safe Mom, Dad, give my love to everyone, we'll
call you when this is over and you can come back," I said as I watched
them from the foyer as they walked to my father’s Mercedes.
They were heading to the airport where Alice, Rose and
Leah were meeting them in order to fly out to Colorado to stay with El and Car.
We'd had numerous discussions over the last few days and it finally came to a
head when Bella mentioned feeling guilty about being here and putting them in
danger and suggested perhaps moving to CIA HQ or NAB while everything went
down. This was the second option, stay put, stay in hiding but send the
civilians out of town so that they don't get caught up in the mess.
My mother was less than thrilled about being sent away,
she wanted to stay and look after Bella, Carlisle wanted to stay because my mom
wanted to stay. Eventually some straight talking from El and Car during a tense
phone call lead to them agreeing to fly out and stay out of the way until we
called and gave the all clear. The one thing I didn't like was that Bella would
be here alone during the probable battle that we were heading to. Her response
made total sense of course, but didn't make me feel any better. No one knew we
were here, that made me feel a little secure, not a lot mind you. Bella however
was adamant, she had everything she needed here and we were out of time anyway,
in mere hours the guys would be heading out and I wouldn't be far behind. My
new target was to work out where the nuke was, we'd drawn many blanks over the
days, Bella considered them false trails placed to intentionally throw us off
track, yet we still had to follow every one of them. The latest bit of intel
suggested the use of a military transport, so Bella was checking aircraft records
intently, I knew we were on the right track as I watched her get edgy reading
flight plans through a connection via the FAA.
As 5pm arrived it was my turn to move out, Bella clung
to me tightly as I zipped up my black bullet proof vest and clipped on my
throat mic. Once I was kitted up I wrapped my arms around her and checked my
comm at her insistence.
"Good to go Master Chief, be safe, I love
you," she said cupping my jaw and running her thumb across my cheek.
"I love you, lock yourself in when I leave the
basement, take no risks baby, I don't like leaving you here, something feels
off," I replied tightening my grip around her waist.
She fingered her necklace as she pecked my chin before
stepping back with a nod. "Kick some ass baby, then come back and love
me," she said moving towards the door.
I took this as my cue to head out, I didn't like it, but
this is what we were here for, the end game was upon us and right now it could
go either way. With one last kiss I left, not looking back for fear I might
just turn around, grab her and run. My gut was telling me this was wrong,
something was very wrong, but we had a plan and I had to have faith in that. I
climbed into the black SUV that Jasper had left for me and drove from the
house, speeding off into the early evening traffic.
Constitution Avenue was awash with security as I pulled
into the designated rally point. I bleeped my throat mic twice, checking in
with the guys as I moved into the back of my vehicle to remain out of sight.
Comm chatter was kept to a minimum as 7.30pm came and the presidents’ cavalcade
drew up in front of the large building ahead of me. I watched in silence as the
sea of secret service men surrounded and flooded into the Smithsonian, the
President hidden in amongst the throng of dark suited men.
"GO, GO, GO!"
The sound of heavy breathing and quiet calls of clear
could be heard as the guys began the search and clear aspect of the mission. It
was Emmett that stopped us in our tracks. I grabbed the headrest of the seat in
front of me as I heard him say the words.
"Got one, Binary liquid with a unexpected trigger,
step slow guys, if they're all like this we need to step slow, it's wired to
the fire alarm, we need to make sure that no one pulls it to evacuate the
civilians, the Volturi are relying on that in order to set this off, crafty
scheming bastards!"
"Can you kill it Em?" I said breaking my radio
silence.
"Yep, I'm on it," he responded.
"Little bird, can you hack the Smithsonian security
and disable the fire alarm from there?" I asked crossing my fingers.
"On it!" she replied.
The quiet was broken moments later to the sound of
breaking glass and thunderous crashes.
"What the hell was that? Everyone call in!"
Jazz called.
I listened in silence as the guys checked in one by one,
followed by the other teams, the feeling in my gut that something was wrong
growing exponentially. Once they had all done so I waited with bated breath for
Bella, I felt the colour drain from my face as I heard the sound of skin
beating skin and loud female scream.
"Miss Swan, I think you should come with me,"
a familiar voice sounded through the open comm.
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