***A/N:This is an alternate version of my story Always for Chapter 41 and beyond. The reason I chose to separate it is because this goes a little farther into fantasy and it may be hard for some to accept/enjoy. I actually got this idea from a couple different reader's reviews, so thanks if you're one of the few who suggested it. I'm excited to explore this version and see where it goes. I'm not planning on there being very many chapters left, but we'll see.
If you've read the other version of Chapter 41, this starts out the exact same way but has a very different ending.
If you're new to this story, please read chapters 1-40 under my story 'Always'
Chapter 41
After a perfect night of making love, the morning started out just as perfect. Bree was up before us and immediately started in on packing all her toys in her room, so Edward and I giggled and joined her. The three of us sat on the floor in her little room and did more playing then actual packing.
"So…when did this room get painted pink, wasn't it a dark gray or something?" I asked, just curious as to what he'd say.
"How'd you know that?" he asked surprised.
"Most of these bachelor pads in this complex are all grays and beiges," I played it off.
"Oh, yeah…well, it was gray, but someone came in and painted it when I was in the hospital. No one will own up to it, but I'm fairly certain it was the same person who took my cat."
"Aww, where is Fluffy anyway? We should take him to Seattle with us."
"Alice has him. I was supposed to get him back but I think she's grown a little attached; she keeps giving me excuses as to why she can't bring him."
"I think Fluffy should stay with Alice," Bree declared. "I want a puppy, and everyone knows dogs eat cats."
Edward glanced at me horrified. "Uh…apartments aren't great for dogs," he said in a panic. "How about a fish?"
Bree giggled. "Fish aren't cuddly. How about a snake?"
"How is a snake cuddly?" I asked her, a little disturbed.
"They give the best hugs," Bree said casually.
Edward and I just stared at her for a moment, and then he grabbed her and squeezed her tightly. "Who gives the best hugs?" he asked as he tickled her.
She laughed so hard I worried she'd throw up. "You do!"
"That's right, and don't you forget it."
A little while later, Alice arrived to take Bree to breakfast…
"Don't get her all sugared up," Edward warned as Alice was walking out of the door holding Bree's hand.
"Don't worry, I'll only let her have a little whip cream on her chocolate chip pancakes," Alice said with an innocent smile. "But there's no controlling that girl when it comes to syrup."
"I love syrup!" Bree said excitedly.
"Come on Alice, don't let her have too much, she'll never make it to City Hall later," Edward pleaded her.
"Okay, okay," Alice said while waving goodbye.
When Edward and I were alone, he looked at me and took a deep breath. "Well, you ready for this?"
"Of course," I said confidently.
He smiled at me and then wrapped his arms around my stomach from behind. "Wow, already got a little pooch there, huh?" he said teasingly.
"I do not!" I cried while rubbing my flat stomach - or at least I thought it was flat. "I'm just…bloated," I said defensively.
Edward smiled. "Aww baby, it's only a matter of time."
"When I am fat, you're not going to be so excited about it," I pouted.
"I'm beyond excited to see you fat," he said playfully while rubbing circles on my abdomen. "You have no idea how amazing it is for me to know you have my baby growing inside of you right now…It's surreal. I can't even believe it's really happening. Bree is the only person I've ever seen who has a genetic connection to me, and now this little guy…" he let his sentence trail off as he got choked up.
"Little guy? I thought you didn't believe Alice?" I said with a smile while trying to fight off my sudden bout of tears.
"I don't believe her, but it still has a fifty percent chance of being a boy…Besides, 'guy' works for both sexes."
"Oh it does?" I said playfully sarcastic.
"Yeah, lots of people call groups of girls 'guys'."
"True," I said with a giggle. "Now let's go to the doctor to see how this little guy is doing."
It was strange how nervous I was for the appointment, but I suppose most people felt a little apprehensive about their first prenatal visit. Edward sensed my anxiety, and he reached out and grabbed my hand as he drove. "It's all going to be perfect, you'll see," he murmured supportively.
"Wow, now who's the optimistic one?" I said with a big smile.
"That's what we need to do, right?…When one is scared or worried about something, the other needs to step up."
I bit my lip and nodded. "Exactly. And we'll always do that for each other."
"For sure."
It was an amazing change to see Edward so confident, it was almost like seeing his ethereal self again, but the more excited and certain he was, the more nervous I became. What if the doctor found something wrong with the baby? How would we ever get past it?
"Doctor Kebi, thank you so much for squeezing me in," I said to the obstetrician once she entered the examination room. I was already in one of those horrible paper robes with my feet in stirrups, which was a position that no one wanted to be in, and having Edward standing next to me strangely just made me that much more uneasy.
"I'm glad we could find the space for you," Dr. Kebi replied. "You've been my patient since you were sixteen, I was sad to have you move away to Phoenix."
"Yeah, well I was hoping you could now give me a recommendation for a doctor in Seattle now."
"Of course, but let's check you out first…So, when was your last period?"
"Uh…" Shoot, when was my last period? "I've been pretty distracted lately…I'd say, five weeks ago."
"Well, we'll do a vaginal ultrasound to figure out exactly how far you are."
"Okay, great."
The ultrasound wand going into my body was more than a little uncomfortable, but having Edward snickering like a twelve year old in Sex Ed class only made it that much worse; he even mentioned the word "dildo" under his breath, and I seriously hoped the doctor didn't hear it.
"And there it is," Dr. Kebi announced, drawing Edward's and my complete attention to the little computer screen. I couldn't believe we were actually looking at our baby; it was incredible, and amazing, and every other word that described something magical. "There's the head, and the arm…It's definitely active."
She continued to talk, but I immediately found myself lost in the little blinking spot in the middle of the screen. Our baby's heartbeat. It was truly an astonishing thing. It was surreal, and yet it was the most real thing that ever happened. We were having a baby. We were actually having a baby.
I was so stuck in my awed haze that didn't notice her removing the stick thing from me, but after a few minutes she told me I could sit up and get dressed, so I figured we were just about done.
"Dr. Amun is great, and he's located on Main Street in Seattle."
I nodded. "Okay, thank you."
"I'll send over your files."
I nodded again and then wiped tears from my eyes before even knowing I was crying. But when I happened to glance over at Edward, he was obviously experiencing extremely different emotions.
"What's wrong?" I asked him slowly.
"She just said its twelve weeks," he said evenly.
"Oh, is that how far I am?" I asked without really thinking. And then it hit me, and everything abruptly changed. "Wait a minute….Twelve weeks? How could I be twelve weeks?"
"That's what the baby is measuring," Dr. Kebi replied casually. "It's a bit farther than what I was expecting, but everything is fine so far, we just need to make sure you're getting all your vitamins and you're eating healthily…"
I took a deep breath, and then I exploded. "I can't be twelve weeks!" I yelled at her, hoping she'd shut the hell up and stop with the nonsense. "I just had my period like a month ago. I may have been a little distracted lately, but I sure as hell didn't miss three periods."
"Spotting is normal in the first trimester," she tried to calm me.
"No!" I said quickly before looking at Edward. "She's making a mistake, this isn't right."
"Bella, she didn't measure it wrong," Edward said quietly…before getting up and walking out of the room.
My breathing hiked and my chest constricted, and all I could think of was chasing after him and somehow making him believe me. I dressed quicker than I ever thought possible, and then I rushed out to find him. I had no idea where he would have gone after a bombshell like that, but I was scared to death of what it was doing to his mental state. Thankfully I spotted him right away – he was sitting on a bench by the parking lot, with his head dropped in his hands.
"Edward, she's wrong; I'm going to get a second opinion."
"She's not wrong Bella!" Edward shouted at me unexpectedly. "I saw the sonogram. I know enough to know she wasn't wrong. You're twelve weeks…And the fact remains, twelve weeks ago I was in a coma."
I shook my head absently. "Maybe…Maybe it wasn't actually my ultrasound, maybe the wires were crossed with someone in the next room…" – Okay, so it was a long shot, but I was desperate and my brain wasn't functioning correctly.
He stared at me, shocked by my stupidity, and then he subtly shook his head no.
I sighed. "Edward, look, I have no idea what happened in there, but I know I can't be twelve weeks. I wasn't with anyone anywhere close to then."
"Well, conception dates can be miscalculated...but the earliest you and I were together is seven weeks ago, and there is no way she's that far off. A twelve week fetus is completely different than a seven week one."
"I wasn't with anyone else," I repeated.
"What about your ex-boyfriend?" he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
"We broke up five months ago, and we hadn't been physical for months before that."
"Well…what about when he came here to see you?"
I scrunched my face. "What are you talking about?"
"He was here when I was in a coma; you must have gotten pregnant then."
"How did you know he was here?" I asked baffled.
"Your mom told me," he said slowly. "I called her the other night because I had no idea what your address was in Seattle. In the two minutes I was on the phone with her she told me all about how upset you were when I was in the hospital and that not even your boyfriend visiting made you feel better."
I hardly even remembered he came, but Mike's momentary presence in Forks certainly didn't get me pregnant. "We didn't have sex. We went to dinner, and then he fell in love with our waitress. That was the end of it. Edward, I'm not lying. I wouldn't do that to you. I swear, I haven't been with anyone else in a long time."
Edward scratched his hand roughly through his hair, and then pulled it up away from his scalp while squeezing his eyelids shut as if he was trying to stick them together permanently. "I'm not calling you a liar… If you say you didn't sleep with your ex when he was here, then I believe you…But we can't ignore the facts. You're twelve weeks, so that makes it impossible for it to be mine."
"So….you believe me, but the facts say otherwise. What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know…You worked at the diner around then, right?…Sometimes late at night? What if someone slipped you something…"
"No…Edward, I would know something like that," I said frustrated.
"Maybe you wouldn't."
"I haven't been with anyone but you!" I said angrily with hot tears streaming down my face. I wasn't mad at Edward, I understood what he was saying, but I knew with everything inside of me that he was the father, and I was so beyond upset that fate could be so cruel to mess with us like that. I didn't understand what was going on, but I refused to give in to it.
Edward clinched his jaw, and for a moment it looked like he stopped breathing, but then he huffed. "So…what then? You weren't with anyone else, but you weren't with me, so how did you get pregnant? Immaculate Conception?"
I gasped as his words threw me so far back that I nearly fell over from their impact. It wasn't possible. It was so far-fetched that my mind refused to even consider it…but my heart was already convinced. I was no Virgin Mary, but perhaps something otherworldly was responsible for my pregnancy.
But how was I going to make Edward understand if I couldn't even comprehend it myself? "Y-You…have to l-l-let me explain," I said with a shaky voice, in fact my entire body was trembling.
"Bella look, I just need a little time to process all of this," he cut me off, suddenly sounding broken and lost. "I need to clear my head." He reached in his pocket and pulled out his keys, and then tossed them to me. I caught them reflexively, but had no intentions of taking the car anywhere. I just stood there paralyzed as I watched him turn away from me and walk away...
***A/N: So I figured, if a vampire can impregnate Bella, then why not a spirit? LOL. Anyone interested in this version, please let me know.
