Eddie
Summary: Its common knowledge that Edward hates his nickname, but nobody really understands why. It's just an unspoken fact about him. But Bella's curious; there should be no secrets between a couple, right?
A/N:Something that just happened. It made me incredibly happy to write an angst-riddled once-shot and I have never seen this done before, so maybe, possibly, this is a first.
I've also been strictly instructed by the ever-fabulous (and scarily pushy) Jacquie Whitlock to add this to my authors note when I couldn't edit the story: "BTW, the fiancé is Jackson Rathbone, and he is wearing cowboy boots even though he's in the hospital, and the girl it Jacquie Whitlock, and she is a luscious brunette, who likes long walks on beaches (at sunset preferably)"
I promise that I quote her directly, and that those words aren't my own in any way.
If anyone here is following my Alice & Jasper story 'In the Dark', I promise the last chapter will be up soon!
Enjoy!
They laid on her bed, with Bella resting her head on Edward's chest as he fiddled with her hair gently, careful not to remove a handful of her hair while he fiddled. She was just so breakable. Like the fragile glass contraptions one would find in a fine china store. Only Bella wasn't aware of how delicate she seemed.
He looked down at her face and saw her bite her plush pink lip, seemingly anxious. Her heartbeat picked up it's pace with nervousness and she squirmed in his arms to look up at him with her large doe eyes that sparkled with life.
"Edward?" She asked hesitantly. He smiled at her lazily, trying to calm her down with his ease. He hadn't felt so comfortable in a long time. Victoria and her children were ashes, the Volturi were still content and forgetful of Bella's presence, and the love of his life had agreed to marry him. All of the little problems didn't matter right now. In this moment, they were Edward and Bella, just two people in love, and he had never felt so at ease.
"Yes, love?" He asked and she clamped down on her bottom lip again, her smooth brow creasing under the pressure of some unseen stress.
"I was just wondering…" She swallowed, looking for the courage to continue. He lightly took her hand and squeezed gently, trying not to liquefy her bones with the movement. "Why do you dislike the name Eddie so much?"
He stiffened for mere milli-seconds before he forced himself to relax again, but Bella noticed the difference as only she could. Perceptive little human.
"You don't need to tell me, I was just curious." She buried her head in his chest and he could feel the burn of her blush through his shirt. He looked up at the ceiling, his brain flying at high velocities, trying to come up with an answer to her inquiry.
"Back when I was human, I knew another child my age who shared my name, but he preferred Eddie to Edward. He was one of the first casualties of the Spanish Influenza. When someone calls me Eddie, I think of him and it still hurts." A half-truth. Less then a half-truth.
Bella looked up and smiled gratefully, making him squirm internally. He hated lying to her.
"Thank you, Edward. I was just confused. You reacted so violently when Emmett called you that today." Of course she had noticed Emmett's taunts, and then Edward's less then peaceful retaliation. He would have to thank Emmett for bringing the topic up later. Sometime when Bella wouldn't notice the less then civil meeting.
Edward continued to stroke Bella's hair until he heard her heartbeat even out of the erratic rhythm it went into while he was around. Her blush ebbed away and her tense figure relaxed against him body.
The house was as silent as it could ever be. There was a steady drip coming from the kitchen sink, and Charlie muttered incoherently in his sleep – he was where Bella got her sleep talking from.
No matter how long he focused on the tempo of the water slapping onto the metal sink, or how deeply he followed Charlie's twisted and incoherent dreams, he couldn't keep his mind of the question Bella asked. He couldn't remove himself from the shame of lying to her.
He hadn't grown up with another boy named Eddie. The name had no connection to his human life at all. That was the first lie. The second and biggest was the Spanish Influenza wasn't the one that killed a man named Eddie; it was Edward that had ended his life.
.
It was his second year away from Carlisle and Esme; one full year into his diet experimentation.
He prowled the side-streets and alley-ways of Vancouver under the cover of the rich black night. He was listening intently to the thoughts of the men and women that wandered down the main streets, waiting for one of them to reveal their cruel intentions to him so he could pounce, but none did. Every person he crossed paths with that night had nothing nefarious on their mind.
He was getting frustrated, which made him short-tempered and too quick to act. The pale pink sunrise began to penetrate the midnight black sky and he knew he would have to retreat back to his current living quarters and wait for another night.
He was moving towards the west end of the city when he saw it, the weak light aiding his eyesight to watch a young woman enter into a side-street, her mind filled with a to-do list a mile long, fretting about her fiancée, who has sick in the local hospital, and the baby she was six months pregnant with.
Not one minute later, a man in his late thirties entered after her, his mind shrouded with an alcohol-induced haze. Two things ran through his mind and twisted together into plan of sorts. First was a picture of the woman that was a good twenty feet from the man, and the second was a wallet with an embroidered rose on the front. Her wallet. The man was hunched over an object, most likely a gun, but the man's thoughts didn't allude to what it was. All that he focused on was her, and the wallet.
The young woman looked back and noticed the man with a sickening jolt of fear. He could hear her panicked thoughts whiz through her head. She looked around quickly, searching for an escape, but there was only one exit, and she knew she wasn't fast enough with her baby.
Her breathing swallowed, and her arms constricted protectively around her swollen belly, hugging the baby closer to her, if possible. Her purse hung on her shoulder, but she wouldn't let it go until necessary. It held the money to pay for her fiancés medical bill.
Edward acted quickly and without hesitation, appearing behind the man in an instant and snapping his neck almost soundlessly. The woman's eyes widened and she let out a strangled scream, running as fast as she could away from him, the murderer. At least she was safe now, Edward thought.
He looked down at the man he had killed with disdain, to notice what the dead man had been hunched over. There wasn't a gun, or an object that implied violence. Much to Edward's self-disgust; the man was holding a woman's wallet, with a red rose stitched into the front. The woman's wallet. He had been wrong. He had killed someone that didn't deserve to die – a good citizen trying to do the right thing.
Edward bent down slowly, his morbid curiosity demanding that he identify the man he unrightfully took life from.
A quick search brought Edward the mans wallet, which was in his coat pocket. Inside was an identification card naming the man Edward (Eddie) O'Connell.
He disposed of the body, refusing to drink from the innocent, and dropped the woman's lost wallet at the hospital, where her fiancée was staying, and then he left. He went south to Iowa where he re-started his master plan on killing the criminals of the world.
.
He sighed and let his head fall back onto Bella's wooden headboard and heard the distressing crunch of wood splintering. He sighed, and decided to replace it, which meant Alice would already be on the computer, scouting for a new headboard for Bella.
He looked at the restful human in his arms and tightened his hold on her marginally, making sure not to burst any blood vessels in her arms or torso. He wouldn't be responsible for shedding human blood anymore. Especially the innocent ones. He wouldn't be a monster anymore.
So he settled in for a far too short night, his relaxed disposition thoroughly shattered, dreading the day he would have to take another innocent human's life and make the beautiful, wonderful girl in his arms just like him.
I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading, and I would appreciate reviews!
-Maggie