Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters. They all belong to Stephenie Meyer.

A/N: I want to thank Vere for her help with the title of this story. I came up with nothing, and she helped come up with a few choices. I know these first few chapters are going to be kinda short but I am trying to establish a history of the characters.

BPOV

"I'll have a Grande white chocolate mocha, a grande skinny vanilla latte and a grande peppermint mocha twist.," I told the barista, "And let me get a dozen or so of those pastries too." She fixed my order and called my name to pick it up. I grabbed the items and made my way out into the cool Seattle air. I loved living here. It wasn't too busy, yet not completely boring. I had moved from Forks, Washington a few years back. I just needed a change, big time.

I own and run a local non-profit organization that helps battered women. It is my passion. My best friends also work with me. Alice Whitlock is what some may call a fashionista. She absolutely loves fashion and design. She is who we send the ladies to when they need to get a makeover, whether it be for a job interview they have or just to boost their self esteem. Rosalie Hale handles all the legal matters for us. Whether it be suing the hell out of a husband that just doesn't want to let his wife go or helping out a woman who is having her children taken away from her, we send them to Rose.

I don't really have a special skill for our set up. I am just the one who decided to get this place up and running. You see, I have personally dealt with battered and abused. My older sister, Tanya, was abused. Her husband had beaten her so bad that she went into a coma and died. I hadn't really been that close to Tanya since she was 8 years older than me, but seeing her die at the hands of that vile and cruel man named Laurent, who was supposed to love her and treat her with respect, just broke me.

So that is when I decided to open these offices up. Right now, that is all it is, offices. We are currently constructing a battered women's shelter right next door. That is what I have always dreamed we would have and now it is finally coming true. If only my sister had somewhere she could have escaped to, she might would still be alive today. She wouldn't come to my dad, Charlie, for help because he was a cop. She didn't want Laurent to get into trouble because, like the typical abused woman, she still loved him. It nearly killed my dad when he got the call about Tanya being in the hospital. He had no clue that it was going on. I did. Tanya had confided in me and I kept it a secret. That is another reason I opened this place. I am what you may call a confidant to these women. They come in, tell me their story in confidence and I help them with whatever they need.

I had now walked the few blocks from the coffee shop to our offices and was nearing the construction site. I liked to check on the progress myself every morning. Here we go again I thought to myself as the whistles and catcalls began. I had gotten used to this. It had started as soon as I started coming in and checking on the place. I was used to it though. The guys were just joking around. Like anyone could ever find me, plain old Bella Swan, "hot" and "sexy" like some of the guys liked to yell out to me.

"Alright, alright guys", I said smiling, "that is quite enough." I sat the pastries down on the fold out table up front and went to walk around the empty space. It was coming along nicely I have to say. With that, I waved to the guys whose mouths were now stuffed with pastries and made my way to our offices next door.

I walked into the huge lobby of our place and greeted our receptionist Angela. She was a former client here. She had been abused by her fiance and came here for our help 6 months ago. Angela had come a long way and we offered her this position with us, after Rose and Alice, along with myself, had grown very close to her. I stepped into the elevator and made my way to the 2nd floor. This building only had two stories, and my office, along with Rose and Alice's, were on the 2nd floor. I stepped out of the elevator and made my way to Alice's office.

"Good Morning Bella," Alice said as I handed her the coffee. I knew Alice needed some sort of caffeine to get going in the morning so that was my usual first stop. "I need to get to work Alice," I said walking towards the door, "call me if you need anything." She smiled and sipped her coffee.

I walked out and stepped across the hall to Rose's office. She was on the phone so I placed her coffee on her desk. She smiled and gave me a thumbs up. I snickered and walked out, making my way to my office.