Author's Note: Welcome to Don't Go. Please excuse any grammatical errors.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Forks, Washington

Five Years Ago

EPOV

"Please," she whispered against the flesh of my outer ear.

"Don't," I begged of her with my voice harsher than I meant it to sound. Her soft hands pushed against my bare chest and I sighed as I rolled away from her. In one swift movement I was standing at the foot of her twin sized bed pulling my boxers on.

Where the fuck is my phone?

"Fuck," I spat into the quietness of the room. "What do you want from me, Bella? You think I'm supposed to call this whole thing off because you have some bullshit feeling? That's not how this works. "

Bella gasped incredulously as an eyebrow lifted. "Bullshit feeling? Edward, as your girlfriend of two fucking years, who has never asked you for a goddamn thing, why can't you listen to me? Just this once. Don't. Go."

My eyes scanned the floor as I started to speak but all I managed to find was one of my boots and I reached down to shove it on. I avoided eye contact when I straightened out again but noticed Bella was propping herself up on the bed with her elbows behind her. "It's been the same shit for two weeks now. I'm going. There's nothing you can say to stop me."

Bella shifted and crossed her legs, pulling on the thin white cotton sheet to wrap it around her torso. I paused for a moment and stared at her as she dropped her head into her palm in frustration. Bella is without a doubt the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. Her long brown hair curled effortlessly down past her shoulders, slightly tousled from rolling around in bed, and her pale skin glowed elegantly in the moonlight. I knew there was no one in the world I would have rather been with in that moment. Before I lost my nerve, I kneeled at the edge of the bed and took her face into my hands. I placed a kiss on her forehead and breathed her name against her lips, willing her to look at me with a tickle on the tip of her nose with my own. That made her full pink lips finally lift up into a smile.

Hesitantly, she climbed up the length of my body and wrapped her arms around my neck with her knees still digging into the mattress. For the first time since we started dating, I let her cling to me without protest. I wasn't the type of boyfriend who held hands, wrote love notes, or stole kisses. Honestly, I wasn't sure why Bella put up with me at all, but you wouldn't hear me complaining. It was never called into question that she was always too good for me.

She nuzzled into my neck and kissed my collarbone sweetly. "I'm scared."

With my arms holding her close, I mumbled to her, "You shouldn't be."

"Would you rather I not give a fuck?" She scoffed sarcastically against my neck.

I pressed a kiss against the top of her head and gently pried her away from me until her eyes met mine. "No, but you should know that I'm always going to be okay. I know how to watch my own back, no matter what. You worrying is completely unnecessary."

After an eye roll, she sat back down onto the bed, pressing her back against the headboard. "Then go. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting."

Sucking my teeth, I frowned at her before glancing at my watch. "Don't be like that." Unfortunately, she reminded me of how much time I had left with her for the night. With only twenty minutes until 1 AM I had to leave soon if I was going to make it to the cliffs of La Push by the designated time.

"Reassure me, please. Before I lose my mind."

"We've gone through the plan already, sweetheart. More than once."

"Just do it," she looked up at me and her eyes were wide, begging me not to deny her. And who was I kidding? I could never deny Bella. Except when it came to my job. No one got in the way of business.

"Fine," I growled. "Stand up. Come here."

I grabbed her hand and pulled her up so that we were standing by the side of her bed. Somewhere throughout our conversation I managed to get fully dressed yet she remained naked underneath the sheet that was now discarded along her hardwood floor. "Don't forget about how many times I've done this okay? It's second nature to me now."

With a shaky nod from her, I hoped she wasn't about to start crying. That was the last thing I needed. Her gaze was glued to the floor as I went into detail about the job. "There's only going to be three of us this time. We don't want too many people. The less bodies to keep track of, the better. Jacob Black is surveillance. He's been staking the place out for the past three weeks. At this point he's familiar with the family's pattern and aside from that they're on vacation in Miami. Are you following?"

Bella nodded again, her eyes slowly making their way up to my face.

"Good. Now Eric is in charge of the alarm system. His part is important because, why?"

"He's going to deactivate any alarms that could alert the police." Bella recounted with uncertainty.

It sounded strange to hear a sentence involving criminal activity in Bella's sweet voice but I chose not to dwell on it and grinned at her with encouragement. "What's next?"

"You're going in to make sure there's no one in the house?"

"Exactly," I rubbed her bare shoulders in what I could only hope was a soothing motion as we continued to discuss the next step. "How many times have I snuck in here without your dad ever noticing? I'm the sneakiest son of a bitch you could ever meet and I can move through a hall full of people and no one would remember ever seeing my face. Trust me when I say that I can do this. If for whatever reason there is someone in the house, I'll be out of there in a heartbeat."

"Then," Bella choked on her words and I pinched her chin gently with my thumb and forefinger. I kissed her lips once and reassured her with the confidence written on my face.

"Then," I finished for her, "Jacob and I go in to get what we can and get out of there as fast as possible. Eric stays on the roof as a lookout. The second we're all out of there he reactivates the alarm. Wouldn't want anyone to know we were there before we needed them to."

"Explain that part to me again."

"If the alarm doesn't start back up again within the hour the security company would notify the police to get someone down there to check it out. Random power outages are normal with the storms that we get out here. I'd rather they found out they've been robbed in two weeks when their stuff is long gone."

"Right," she pressed her lips together and her eyes welled up with tears.

Fuck, way to go, Cullen. You just love to make your girl cry, don't you?

Shut it, bitch.

Oh, perfect! Now you're insulting yourself. Moron.

I shook my head to clear it of my own stupidities and told her I had to go. Turning to open the window closest to her bed, I thanked God that I always reminded myself to grease the damn thing every once and a while or her old man would hear it screeching in protest every night. I turned around for one last look at her and what I saw almost made me say fuck it and stay with her for the rest of the night. Almost.

The sweetest girl in town was standing tall, wiping away any remnants of tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and raw confidence excluding from every pore of her body. All it took was an exhale and she released all of her worries and fears. Now that was the side of Bella I fell in love with. Not the Chief of Police's daughter or the mother's beauty pageant winner, but the Bella that skipped school to go to a concert in Port Angeles and ran into a guy that wouldn't let her out of his sight from that day forward.

"Look at you," I jutted my chin and tried to fight the smirk that was tugging at my lips. "When did you become such a hard ass, huh?"

"I guess I have to be in certain situations. Being Edward Cullen's girl and all," was her slick reply. This was the Bella that didn't take shit from anyone. The side of her that doesn't let other people's expectations dictate her life; that was feisty and sarcastic, fun and adventurous.

"I know I don't say this shit often, Bella, but you're my entire world. You know that don't you?" I crossed the small space between us and leaned my forehead against hers as my hand came up to cup the side of her face, my thumb tracing a path along her cheekbone.

"Ditto, babe."

Did I mention I love this side of Bella? Before I lost the ability to leave, I gave her a kiss and jumped out of her window and scaled down the old tree. I ran to the end of the street where I parked my car and started the engine as soon as I was inside. I honked the horn twice, which I knew she could hear, and drove as fast as I could to the cliffs without bringing any unwanted attention to myself.

I never should have left.

Sorry for the unnecessary update of this chapter but I just corrected some grammatical errors here and there that were bothering me. Thank you very much for reading, everyone.