Disclaimer: I own naught but the plot.

Into the darkness we dance, we linger, we play. Take me from this darkness, take me far away.

The rest of the weekend wasn't as interesting as Friday night. It felt drawn out. Long. I actually began to crave going back to work, just so I could have something to fill the time. Both my brother and my friend were absent from my world, tending to the women at their feet. I was beginning to feel alone. It was a bit surprising how quickly Jasper had taken to Alice. I was under threat of losing my best friend to a girl, and the thought irked me a little.

'Friday night' I thought to myself, shaking my head. The rest of the evening had been enjoyable somewhat. We had returned to the table, where Alice and Jasper were all but dry humping each other. Thankfully they settled down a bit when they noticed they had company, and conversation began to flow in our direction. I initially had doubted that they had noticed us arriving back at the same time, but when Jasper caught me laughing at something Bella had said, he eyed me suspiciously. You would think that the guy had never seen me laugh in my life. He had tried to ambush me on the way home, but I steered the conversation towards his public indiscretions with Alice. That shut him up fairly quickly. I had told him there was nothing to it anyhow, she just happened to be someone I could talk to, who was female as well. I had mainly made the effort to prove that I could be social, and she just couldn't help but analyse every word and action of mine. She never said anything out loud, but I could see it in her eyes every time she peered in my direction. It was fucking unnerving, and yet still slightly flattering that someone would even bother to pay me that kind of attention. Too bad that would most likely be the last time I saw her.

Monday rolled around soon enough and I fell back into the unease of going to work. As I came into the office, four of my other colleagues were there; everyone minus my manager. I ignored them as they did me. All of us were considered to be computer technicians; at least that's what our job title stated, although there was hardly a need for so many of us. Ours was just a lowly insurance company. Most of the time we had nothing to do, and considering that the computers themselves were virtually prehistoric, there was generally not much we could do with them. But, hell, it wasn't like I was becoming a millionaire by working here; it was more of a measly sum, which was probably why they could afford so many of us.

As always, my desk was flooded with paper, added now with the apple that I had forgotten to eat on Friday, which was started to decompose. Most of the paperwork which littered my work area was write-ups of jobs completed, service records and the like. No one had ever asked for these in the fourteen months that I had worked here, so I didn't bother with them any more.

I tossed the apple, threw my jacket over my chair, picked up my last job sheets which were those from Friday. Not feeling particularly enthused by installing software updates again, I chose to attend to the job, which was the computer with the freezing issue. Half my luck it would be fixed already and I wouldn't have to deal with a more-than-likely irritated employee. As tempted as I was to just sit at my desk for a few hours, I knew I should do some of the work required of me. After all, I had spent the entire weekend wanting to be here.

I took the stairs to the first floor and walked over to the computer terminal marked 'forty-eight'; it was in the customer service section. There was nobody at the computer when I reached it, so I decided to just still down and find out what the hell was wrong with it instead of waiting for them to come back. It would ease a lot of unnecessary talk about what the problem was, and also the annoying polite conversation that would follow, just because they didn't want to look like they were just standing there, doing nothing. The people that irritated me the most were the ones who liked to pretend they knew what they were doing, and knew what was wrong, but they thought they should check with the expert 'just in case', when in actual fact they didn't know a motherboard from a monitor, and were usually just wankers to boot. I got rid of the windows screensaver and checked the CPU statistics before running a virus scan. The program ran slowly, as everything did on these computers, so I leant back into the chair and placed my hands on my head. I closed my eyes and began to hum to myself softly in an attempt to drown out all of the noise surrounding me: the computers whirring; people talking; keyboards clacking. It wasn't long before I was lost in my own thoughts. I was actually at the point of drifting off when I was brought back to reality by someone calling my name.

"Edward?" Asked a vaguely familiar voice.

I spun the chair around quickly, nearly toppling out of it, and was met by a pair of warm, brown eyes. My face mirrored her confusion.

"Bella? What are you doing here?" I questioned, furrowing my brow.

"Well I was going to ask the same thing of you, especially why you're sitting at my desk."

'Her desk,' I thought. She was standing in before me, with a cup of coffee in hand and a quizzical look in her eye. It took a moment to dawn on me that she must work here. What were the odds?

I scrambled for a reply. "I'm here to fix the computer," I said, gesturing towards the screen.

"Oh," she replied, peering at the monitor. "I don't know that much about computers. It just stops working all of a sudden when I'm trying to type something up."

Frustration crossed her face as she pulled the chair from the empty desk next to hers and proceeded to sit down next to me. My eyes didn't leave her the entire time, and when she noticed, her face fell a little.

"Do you want me to leave?" She seemed concerned that I would disapprove of her being there.

"No, it's fine. It is your computer after all." It was Friday night all over again with me telling her she could stay.

I attempted to smile as relief flooded her face. It intrigued me how I had never seen her here before, but I put it down to my sullenness and ability to miss the little things that occurred right under my nose. I turned back to the computer only to find that the virus scan was still running, although it seemed to be detecting a few trojans and spyware on the hard drive. Bella came closer to me, leaning in towards the screen and asked what I was doing.

Trying to ignore how close she was, I answered, "I'm just attempting to find out whether the problem lies with malicious software first before I take a closer look at the system."

She nodded, but didn't seem incredibly aware of what I was telling her. "How do I do that?" She asked.

I explained to her what to do, and she informed me that she wanted to know so that she would know what to do if it happened again. I told her hopefully it wouldn't happen again if I was able to fix it now. The virus scan ended, and I scrolled through the list of unwanted software that it had detected, raising my eyebrows as I looked through it thoroughly. Bella noticed my change in facial expression and questioned me.

"What's wrong with it?"

"It seems that someone has been looking at pornography sites," I answered with a smirk.

There were familiar names and sources for the viruses and trojans as I attempted to remove them from the hard drive. I had seen them before on Emmett's computer when he had asked me to help fix his. I told him to stop looking at free porn sites as downloads were usually riddled with nasty software. Apparently he had applied for platinum membership to a popular site after that, and I refused to touch his computer again. It was hard to believe that Bella would look at such websites, and the blush that crept onto her cheeks with embarrassment told me I was right in my assessment.

"Don't worry," I chuckled, "I don't think that you were looking at porn. It was most likely on here from someone else using the computer."

"I don't know who used it before me, I've only been here a week." She replied frowning at the computer again.

So that could be why I hadn't noticed her before, she hadn't worked here long. I assessed her facial expression and said, "Pornography isn't that bad. It's a natural human instinct to be curious about sex."

She raised her eyebrows at me. "I never said it was bad. I'm just not fond of the depiction of women in the majority of it. I find it hard to believe that women can enjoy sex that much." Her voice was incredibly serious.

I was taken aback by her statement, and was instantly intrigued at the same time. Was she telling me that she watches pornography? Most women in my experience who had spoken freely about sex or even about watching porn generally did so because they were attempting to get laid, not because they really meant or felt it. Nothing in her expression or voice told me that this was the case.

She appraised the astounded look on my face and smirked. "Just because I'm female doesn't mean that I can't have that curiosity, I am human after all," she said, pointing out my previous statement. "But it still wasn't me who was looking at work. I have more intelligence than that."

I laughed and proceeded in my attempts to rid the computer of the malicious software. She sipped her coffee, and alternated between looking at my face and the computer screen. I began to feel like she was analysing me again, which made me slightly nervous. Why she would even be interested astounded me, and I began to wonder if she did this to everyone or just me.

"You don't sleep much do you?" She asked suddenly.

I frowned and narrowed my eyes at her. "What makes you say that?" I was right, she had been analysing me.

"Your eyes," she stated matter-of-factly, pointing to the black circles that lined the bases of my eyes.

I snorted and turned back to the computer feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"Sorry," she apologised.

Damn it, couldn't she stop assessing me for one moment!

I glanced back at her and saw the apology in her large brown eyes, which softened me a little. I attempted to smile at her in an effort to let her know I wasn't that offended by her question. I just wasn't used to anyone but Jasper and Emmett paying me attention, at least not lately that is. She seemed satisfied with my non-verbal response and began to sip her coffee again. It took me about ten more minutes to finish, all the while we both sat there in silence with me clicking and typing away, and her watching everything I did. I began to feel surprisingly at ease with her there, even though neither of us spoke. I appreciated that I didn't have to make inane chatter with her, that I didn't have to try to think of something to fill the quiet that came with the end of a conversation. The last thing I did before standing up was to reboot the computer and tell her to let me know if there were any more problems. She thanked me and gave me a brilliant smile before I strode away.

I stopped in the stairwell, not quite wanting to go back to my desk just yet, and thought about what had just happened in the last half an hour. Bella worked here, not only that, but she was actually an interesting person; and brutally honest as well. I guess that's what she meant the other night about people being fake; she was upfront with her opinions, not hiding them fors fear of reprisal. Well at least that was what I could gather from the short amount of time I had spent with her. She was certainly something else.

I worked on the software updates that I had started on Friday until lunchtime, and then I stole away to the rooftop. I had been holding out for a cigarette for most of the morning as my head had been clouded with thoughts. I had been thinking about the peculiarity of Bella, and most unfortunately, I had been thinking of Tanya. It was always the way, when I thought of another woman I would end up thinking about my ex-wife. The process that my brain worked through irritated me, and left me with the anger and anxiety all over again. As I lit my cigarette up, I noticed my hands were shaking and I mentally kicked myself for allowing these things to work me up so much. There was no breeze where I stood today, but in the distance I could see the forest performing its ritualistic dance. I watched as a flock of birds swooped around the tips of the trees, diving down out of view and then ascending once more. I could imagine that they were part of the performance, daring themselves to travel as far as they could into the sea of trees before racing out again. My anxiety began to calm as I watched nature's recital, and I began to lose the need for the cigarette, so I stubbed it out. Concentrating on the images in front of me allowed me to clear my mind of the unwanted thoughts that had plagued me for most of the day, and I intended to stay out here as long as I could. I heard the familiar creak of the door behind me, announcing someone's arrival to the rooftop. Instead of ignoring them as I had last time, curiosity got the better of me so I peeked over my shoulder to see who had come to disrupt the one peaceful moment I had. I was momentarily surprised as I watched the figure stride across the paved ground to the railing. It was Bella. We held each other's gaze as she walked, and part of me wondered if it was her who had kept me company last time.

"Hi," she said quietly, waving in my direction.

"Hey," I answered, my voice was gruff from not speaking to anyone since our conversation that morning.

She reached into the bag that was wrapped around her tiny body, produced an apple and began to eat it. My stomach grumbled and I resented throwing mine out as I had forgotten to bring lunch. I would have to stop at one of the vending machines later. I didn't mean to stare at her, but it was slowly becoming a habit. I guess I was trying to figure her out as much as she much as she tried to decipher me. She bit into the apple again and looked in my direction.

"What?" She asked, stopping mid-bite. "Is there something on my face?"

I smirked and shook my head. "No, there's nothing on your face. I just found it interesting that someone else would bother coming out here is all."

She raised an eyebrow in question. "Doesn't anyone else ever come out here?"

"Not in all the time I've been here. Well, besides one instance last week that is."

"Oh." She frowned in thought. "That was you out here last week, wasn't it?" Realisation spread across her face.

I nodded and saw her lean closer to me, as if she was examining my face. It wouldn't have made much of a difference considered we were at least ten metres apart.

"I guess that's why..." She began before trailing off. She pursed her lips and lifted a finger to them. "Hrmm."

I waited for her to continue her thought, but she seemed to want to keep it inside her head.

"Care to elaborate?" I asked.

She shook her head. "It's nothing really; I just thought I had recognised you for a moment last Friday night when we were at the pub. It just suddenly made sense why."

I raised my eyebrows. Had she been watching me that day too? Suddenly I wished I hadn't extinguished my cigarette, as another wave of anxiety washed over me. I took a deep breath and worked to suppress the emotion. It wasn't worth getting worked up over. So far I had seen no reason other than pure curiosity behind her actions, and I wasn't about to jump the gun and assume she had some ulterior motive. I had to remind myself that not all women were as malicious as Tanya.

I leant on the metal railing in front of me, which was attached to a brick wall approximately thirty centimetres beneath it. The railing was high enough that I could rest on it easily; reaching up towards my abdomen. It would probably be chest level for Bella. The obvious reason for the railing was safety, but considering that it had a tendency to move minutely whenever I placed enough weight on it, it was hardly secure. More than likely I should inform someone of the issue, but I figured nothing would be done about it since next to no one visited the rooftop, and I wasn't an important enough employee who could make sufficient noise about it. Besides, arse-kissing was generally a factor in matters such as these and I was certainly not going to involve myself in such business fiascos.

I attempted to centre my attention on the forest once again. Unfortunately, the sound of Bella crunching on her apple made focusing near impossible to do. Eventually I just closed my eyes and waited for her to finish. Her eating noises ceased after a short while, so I opened my eyes and turned my attention towards her, wondering if she would leave now. She was leaning on the railing as well, her shoulders hunched over as she stared towards the ground three storeys below. I suddenly sensed a frailty about her, as if she wasn't in fact as strong as she seemed. I refused to allow the thought to linger further though; I didn't know Bella and I wasn't about to pry. There was still the desire to find out why she came out to the rooftop however, so I asked her.

"I come out here for the freedom." She answered. "To escape from the people who pretend to like you, or want to get to know you, but always have some other intention behind their actions. I guess in my experience people always want something. So I just prefer to avoid people."

I stared studiously at her as she spoke, watching her body language. She shifted her arms closer to her body, as if they could form a protective barrier for her. I understood what she meant, it was difficult to take people at face value; because once you let those barriers down and when you least expect it, the people who you trust and care about most can throw all of that back in your face.

She continued without me prompting her. "Especially people here at work. I mean, on my first day here and I have one girl come up to me and tell me that she has to absolutely get to know me, which means she wants any gossip she can on me since I'm the new person; someone else engages me in conversation and then proceeds in attempting to get me to do their work; and then there's the guy who was extremely friendly but I can tell that all he wants to know is if I am an easy fuck, you know?"

A smile danced across my lips as I listened to her, trying to imagine exactly who it was she was talking about.

She sighed, "I don't believe everyone is like that, it's just easier not to try; to stick with who you know, that way you're not disappointed."

"Must be frustrating that you can't seem to avoid me," I said. It was more of a statement than a question.

She crinkled her nose and forehead. "You're not exactly like most people, I can tell. So I don't mind being around you."

I barely caught the last words she spoke, as a breeze suddenly picked up and her voice trailed away, so I decided that she couldn't have said what I thought she had. Nobody enjoyed being in my company. When I didn't respond to her, she threw the same question I asked her back at me.

"So, Edward, why do you come out here?"

"I come out here for the scenery." I didn't elaborate and divulge my need for distractions; that was a conversation I wasn't willing to have.

She looked down towards the concrete and pillars beneath us, confused. When her eyes met mine again, I pointed towards the distance, where the trees were dancing as always. She glanced upwards and stared in the direction that my finger showed. She watched for a moment and then shot her eyes back towards me, questioning me.

"The trees?"

"Just watch," I said simply.

I checked to see if the birds were still flying about, which they were, but didn't continue to look at them. Instead I chose to gaze at her face, waiting for a reaction. I watched as her eyes seemed to sway as the forest did, taking in all of the view that was in front of her. I took the opportunity to study her other features, such as her small, rounded nose, and her long dark eyelashes. She was beautiful; there was no doubt about it, which was more than likely the reason why she received attention from so many people when she started working here. The girls would have wanted to know if she was a threat in any way to her, and the men, as she so succinctly said it, would have wanted to know if they could get in her pants.

It didn't take long before a smile began twitching at the sides of her mouth, and I smiled myself.

"Wow," she whispered. "It's so… calming. I never would have thought to watch the forest like that."

I nodded and checked my watch. It was time for me to return to the mundaneness that waited below. I stepped back from the rail and motioned to turn around. She followed my movements and I told her I had to get back to work. She half-nodded and continued to watch me walk back to the door. Just as my hand was about to grasp the handle, she called to me.

"Edward."

I peered over my shoulder towards her. "Yeah?"

"Will you be out here tomorrow?"

I blinked. Her question was completely unexpected, and I considered telling her 'no' for a split second. I couldn't say yes, I was averse to committing to any plans, so I decided to play it safe and stick with the middle ground.

"Maybe," I said quickly and left without waiting for a response.

She was too inviting, and it frightened a part of me. She shouldn't want to spend time with me; it wouldn't bode well for either of us, and I was probably going to have to just avoid her from now on.

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