Author's Note: This is my first fan fictionattempt so pardon me if it's a little rough. I'm just beginning my foray back into creative writing. That being said, this is the first chapter of Edward's Breaking Dawn. I find him to be one of the most fascinating characters I've ever come across in literature and always wondered what he would be thinking through each of the books. This is just my humble attempt at capturing some of what I always wanted to read. Please enjoy... and Please review! Honest feedback is greatly appreciated!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything unfortunately, but have borrowed the lovely Stephanie Meyer's characters and story for this little endeavor. All dialog and storylines from Breaking Dawn belong to her and no copyright infringement is intended.

Edward's Breaking Dawn

Chapter One: Engaged

I leaned lazily against a large redwood as I watched Emmett play with his food. Typically he went for grizzlies but they had been hard pressed to find on this trip. Instead he was toying with an angry buck with a large and impressive set of antlers. Hardly a challenge but Emmett was like a five year old who enjoyed the activities leading up to lunch time almost as much as the actual feeding time. I had been lucky and downed a large mountain lion and added a couple of deer along with him for good measure. I could never be too full around Bella even if deer weren't particularly appetizing.

"Emmett, must you play with your food?" I asked in exasperation. He flashed his boyish grin in reply.

Chill out Edward… just having a little fun. You've been too preoccupied lately to be interested in any wrestling so let me play a little.

I thought idly about how angry Emmett must have made the buck in order for it to actually turn and fight. Usually the predatory vibe we gave off was more than enough to scare away even the fiercest of bucks. There was a loud crack as Emmett met the animal's charge with only half his strength. I sighed… this was going to take awhile. I let my thoughts drift to the more pleasant subject of my sweet Bella.

I had left her early this morning with a kiss and a promise to return to her later this evening. It tore at me to leave her so soon but thought it best to be gone before Charlie could discover his only daughter wrapped tightly in my arms. Even with his grudging acceptance and blessing of our engagement, his patience was not to be tested now with the wedding so close. I chuckled softly as I recalled the memory of Charlie receiving the news…

****

I waited in the living room listening closely as I heard Charlie turn onto the street, it would only be a few minutes now. I glanced down at the lovely little hand that rested in mine and felt a surge of pride and joy come over me as the light sparkled off my mother's ring almost winking at me. It had been a perfect fit and I had taken it as a good sign. A sign that maybe, just maybe I was worthy of the love that the beautiful creature beside me had graced me with. As the sound of Charlie's cruiser alerted Bella to his return she began to twitch her hand and bounce her leg nervously. I grinned inwardly; she looked so guilty as if she's done something wrong. This was something I knew she had not been looking forward to, but could she really be that anxious? Surely she knew that everyone around us could see the intense love we shared. Even Charlie knew that this was going to be coming, though admittedly he hadn't thought it would happen this soon. I heard snippets of his thoughts as he saw my car already parked in front of the house.

Of course… he's always…play nice…for Bella.

His thoughts were not clear as other people, but the irritation was quite evident. Beside me Bella continued to shake out a beat resembling William Tell's 'Overture' with her leg.

"Stop fidgeting, Bella. Please try to remember that you're not confessing to a murder here."

I carefully gripped her hand firmly trying to reassure her; also to keep her from shoving her hand in her pocket, and in the process trying to hide the ring.

"Easy for you to say," she tensely replied.

Her heart rate picked up it's pace beating wildly as she listened to Charlie approaching the house and maneuvering to open the door. I looked at her with concern, she really needed to calm down; her blood pressure was getting far too high for my liking.

"Calm down, Bella," I whispered reassuringly.

The door hit the wall with a bang as Charlie came into the house and Bella nearly leaped off her seat. I suppressed a chuckle at her jumpiness. Into the lion's den we go, I thought to myself.

"Hey Charlie," I called genially, as there was no sense in putting it off. At the sound of my voice, his irritation grew more pronounced.

"No!" Bella protested quietly but with fervor.

"What?" I whispered back.

"Wait till he hangs his gun up!"

This time I could not suppress a chuckle as I thought about Charlie actually taking a shot at me. It was one of the more tame things he had thought about me from time to time. Of course the bullet would incur more damage than I, but it would be hard to explain to Charlie why his bullet bounced off my skin.

"Hey, kids. What's up?" he asked with forced friendliness.

"We'd like to talk to you," I said calmly. "We have some good news."

Good news hardly seemed to be the appropriate term. This was joyous and glorious news! I could barely contain the grin that wanted to plaster itself all over my face as I thought of the fact that Bella, my beautiful Bella, had agreed to marry me. Instantly his thoughts switched from irritation to suspicion and anger. I could hear his heart rate increase tenfold until it matched Bella's.

"Good news?" he growled staring straight at Bella.

"Have a seat, Dad."

He eyed Bella with one brow raised and stalked over to a recliner and sat rigidly. His thoughts began to race and I could catch no more than a few words and images, none of them were making any sense.

"Don't get all worked up, Dad," Bella implored after a moment of tense silence. "Everything is okay."

I furrowed my brow at the way she had phrased it. 'Okay' did not began to express how things were, but I knew Charlie required sensitive handling at this moment and bit back the words I wanted to say. He was becoming increasingly agitated and I could now clearly see the veins in his throat pounding furiously. One didn't have to have Jasper's ability to see that Charlie was very close to cracking. His thoughts continued to race but I could hear the words more clearly as they seemed to be screaming through his mind. I focused so intensely on discerning the thoughts that were now so close in my grasp that I lost track of the conversation. I felt a sharp increase in heat as Bella leaned into me and then suddenly like a curtain being opened to let in streaming light, Charlie's thoughts suddenly sharpened and clarified.

PREGNANT!!! HE GOT HER PREGNANT!! I'LL KILL THE COCKY SON OF……

"You're pregnant!" he shouted. His explosion interrupted the stream of thoughts from his mind. He had turned his glare to me as more images of violence poured through his head, most of them involving myself, a body bag, and a very deep ditch.

"No! Of course I'm not!" Bella shouted back indignantly.

His thoughts immediately became more calm and reasonable but I knew that we were not out of the woods.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Apology accepted."

I gave an internal sigh. This was not how I had wanted to approach this. Ideally I would have gone to Charlie first to request the honor of Bella's hand. If I was being honest with myself I would have done right after Alice's first visions of a wedding, but circumstances had not allowed for that course of action. I railed at the thought that I had been less than a gentleman in this regard, but these were different times, and perhaps he wouldn't think me too much of a cad for neglecting to secure his permission first. I looked to my Bella and smiled at her loss of words, this was taking quite a toll on her. My poor angel, I couldn't stand to have her in this much discomfort any longer. I turned to Charlie and locked my eyes onto his and spoke in the most reassuring and sincere voice I could muster,

"Charlie, I realize that I've gone about this out of order. Traditionally, I should have asked you first. I mean no disrespect, but since Bella has already said yes and I don't want to diminish her choice in the matter, instead of asking you for her hand, I'm asking you for your blessing. We're getting married, Charlie. I love her more than anything in the world, more than my own life, and – by some miracle – she loves me that way, too. Will you give us your blessing?"

I had to marvel at the truth of my words as I spoke them. Bella's love for me truly matched my own for her and it seemed impossible that this unique and lovely woman beside me could love such a thing as myself. It seemed impossible that she had chosen me over all others and was going to forsake a human existence to remain at my side forever. And yet the trials we had passed through to get to this point were proof of our commitment to each other… proof that nothing, not even death or my own stupidity would ever wrench us apart again.

I watched Charlie carefully as he broke our eye contact and stared at the ring glinting on Bella's perfect hand. His thoughts raged inside my head becoming crystal clear again, though slightly incoherent as he processed the information.

MARRIED! TO HIM! BUT…NOT GOOD ENOUGH… NO ONE GOOD ENOUGH! SHE'S TOO YOUNG! SHE'LL END UP LIKE ME AND RENEE! TOO YOUNG!!!

I felt Bella shift to stand up as Charlie's skin ran the color spectrum. I gripped her hand firmly and quietly requested she "Give him a minute." His thoughts were already calming and he knew that exploding in rage would do nothing but drive his beloved only daughter away. I grimaced at his thought, I knew that she was going to be taken away from him soon anyways but quickly brushed it aside so I could focus on his mind more clearly. He looked up from the ring to stare as the two of us and I placed my other hand over Bella's as if to reassure him of my words again.

SO young… and did it have to be him? HE'S HURT HER BEFORE! SHE WAS IN SO MUCH PAIN! But how could I keep them apart knowing what being without him will do to her? He seems to be sincere, I know he loves her… and she loves him. She's such a constant little thing. Not like Renee at all. She's young but has always been so mature. I suppose he could take care of her… comes from a good family at least. Maybe… maybe it can work… couldn't they have waited….

"Guess I'm not that surprised," he finally acquiesced breaking through his internal argument. "Knew I'd have to deal with something like this soon enough."

I felt Bella give a huge sigh of relief.

"You're sure about this?" he demanded, not completely satisfied and requiring more reassurance.

"I'm one hundred percent sure of Edward," she replied without hesitation. I felt a warm glow of love at her words, though I hadn't missed the fact that she'd omitted words about the actual act of marriage. Charlie didn't miss it either and his suspicious mind reared again.

"Getting married, though? What's the rush?" he pressed.

Charlie knew as well as I did of Bella's aversion to marriage. I knew Bella would have difficultly defending the choice of marriage when she had spent so much time and energy trying to convince me that she didn't need a wedding to be sure of our bond… I however, positively craved to call her my wife. Every time I thought of her as my fiancée and had to restrain myself from jumping up and proclaiming to the world my happiness and love. And Bella in her selfless way was indulging me by binding herself to me in the most basic and human way possible. Of course it would be very difficult to explain to Charlie that the depths of my love for his daughter knew no bound and I couldn't bear to wait much longer to make the link between us official. I instead opted for an explanation that was logical and hard for him to contradict.

"We're going away to Dartmouth together in the fall, Charlie. I'd like to do that, well, the right way. It's how I was raised," I told him as I shrugged my shoulders. It was the truth I thought to myself. I was taught to respect and honor a lady and living in sin with one was certainly conduct unbecoming of a gentlemen. He could hardly argue with that.

"Knew this was coming," he muttered. He withdrew into himself and thought hard about the situation he'd been handed.

Damn… I guess there was nothing I could do to prevent this. She's made up her mind and Lord knows you can't change it. Hmm… she's still got to tell Renee… and we all know how Renee feels about young marriages. And marriages in general for that matter! Ha, I can be the good guy on this one and be the supportive loving Dad! Renee will be the one to burst the bubble!!! She'll be the bad cop on this one! HA!

"Ha! Ha, ha, ha!" his laughter roared from his thoughts causing Bella to jump in surprise at this most unexpected reaction.

I felt my face tighten as I struggled to maintain my composure though the threat of laughing continued to grow as his thoughts ran through my mind. Charlie was pinning the hopes of censure on Renee! I, as it so happened, knew for a fact that Renee was already expecting the news. Her thoughts were crystal clear during our trip to Florida and I knew that she had already decided to support Bella. In fact… she thought me to be "quite a find" as her mind had put it. I felt peals of laughter breaking in me as I thought of how sorely disappointed Charlie would be at Renee's reaction. Bella looked to me for explanation but I couldn't say anything at the risk of exploding with laughter myself.

"Okay fine. Get married," he spluttered out and shook with laughter again. "But…."

"But what?" Bella demanded.

I finally had to grin a little as Charlie pulled out what he thought was his ace in the hole.

"But you have to tell your mom! I'm not saying one word to Renee! That's all yours!"

And he once again dissolved into an uproarious laugh. My, but he was going to be disappointed and furious!

***

My thoughts were rudely interrupted as I instinctually ducked when a large boulder went sailing over my head and gouged out a large chunk of the tree trunk I was leaning against. I crouched low and immediately found Emmett shaking with laughter 50 yards away, apparently he had finished lunch. Without wasting a second I launched myself and as I crashed into him I caught his pleased thoughts that he'd finally provoked me into a match.

We had rolled around in the forest muck for awhile until I was finally able to pin him.

"That's 10 seconds, Emmett. He got you!" called a steady voice with a slight southern twang to it. Jasper had finished his hunt as well and caught the back end of our wrestling match.

I released Emmett from the hold and smirked at the annoyance that spread all over his face.

"No way was that 10 seconds, Jasper! You counted too fast and Edward cheated!"

"Come on Emmett… its okay that you were bested by your baby brother!" Jasper teased clearly enjoying Emmett's defeat.

"Two against one, big brother. It seems you're overruled!" I taunted joining Jasper on the ledge he was perched on.

Emmett's thoughts roiled with chagrin and he considered taking both of us on but relented promising himself to get us back later.

"You know whatever plan you cook up, Alice will see," I provoked.

We'll see little brother… we'll see.

I laughed quietly and glanced at my watch hoping that time had passed quickly during our shenanigans. I groaned loudly as I noted only 15 minutes had passed. This day was going to be torturous. I wasn't going to see my lovely Bella until later tonight. I couldn't help but worry when I was away from her. Although Alice had reassured me with a solid vision this morning of nothing worse than Bella being annoyed with Alice and wedding business, I still was unable to completely quell the concern I felt

Jasper sighed as he fell the anxiety roll off me in waves.

Relax Edward… it's only day. She'll be fine.

"You know her Jasper… she's a magnet for trouble. With her luck she'd crash her car into a tree." But even as I replied I could feel the calm spread through me. I looked at Jasper and he dipped his head slightly in acknowledgment.

"Come on, Edward. Be realistic," Emmett scoffed as he heard my reply to Jasper. "She's in 'The Tank'. Even if she did crash, the tree would sustain a lot more damage than her or the car!"

He seemed to grin at the thought before he laughed out loud. To my surprise I heard Jasper began to chuckle along with Emmett, both of them thinking about Bella in the car I had acquired for her and the events that had taken place in order for it to happen.

As luck would have it, not long after Bella and I made our compromise, her relic of a truck shuddered to a standstill. She was immediately suspicious of the timing and had questioned whether I had any involvement in its demise. I assured her that I did not, and technically I didn't. It had been Rosalie who had sent the old Chevy to its grave. She'd come back to the house one evening covered in grime and holding various innards of the truck and made no attempt to shield her thoughts from me.

If she's going to be a Cullen she should at least drive a better car. I simply can't have people associating that dumpy truck with us.

Despite Rosalie's reasoning, I knew she was trying her best to accept Bella into the family and this was her way of showing it. Regardless of the circumstances, I was more than willing to take advantage of her agreement in allowing me to replace the car when the time came. She had never explicitly stated that I couldn't get her two cars so she really had no grounds to be angry with me when I told her about the 'before' car and the 'after' car. The latter she was not allowed to see until after the change. But until she was more durable I could hardly be blamed for wanting to ensure her safety as much as possible and with Bella's luck and coordination, every precaution must be taken. The head of the private security agency assured me that The Guardian Mercedes was more than up to the task. He had wondered why such a car would be needed in Forks, Washington, but knew that Cullen's were the kind of high paying clients one doesn't ask questions of. Jasper and Emmett had been quite amused when they saw The Guardian for the first time. Emmett had immediately dubbed it 'The Tank' and had laughed for nearly an hour straight as he thought of Bella roaming around the small town in enough steel to take out…well pretty much anything that stood in her path.

Bella, of course, had not been too pleased when she'd seen the car. She was even less pleased to accept the black American Express card. I'd reasoned with her that the Mercedes required a high grade fuel that was more expensive and it was only fair that I pay for it. I had practically glowed with satisfaction seeing her take the card with her soon to be legal name: Isabella Marie Cullen.

"Edward! Snap out of it!" Emmett shouted drawing my attention back to the present.

Good Lord he's always daydreaming now. Hope it stops after the wedding! It's getting to be really annoying.

"Come on, race you gents back to the house," Emmett challenged.

"Emmett," Jasper sighed. "You know no one ever beats Edward."

"That's only because I've been holding back. Come on… last one has to go shopping with the girls next time!"

I smiled slightly at Emmett's competitive nature; everything had to be a competition with him. But racing back sounded good. I grinned at my brothers as we all instantly shot off into the forest. I was racing back to Bella. Yes… that was worth racing for.