Heyy there.

So this is happening.

Summary: Edward and Bella both decide that they want a child. The only problem is, neither feel that they would be comfortable raising a child with anyone they know. They are both too busy to commit to any sort of relationship, but the desire to have a child is still there. So, who better to raise a child with than your best friend?

Disclaimer: SM owns these beautiful bastards. I just like to fuck with their heads.

PROLOGUE

Bella

"Oh my god," I felt my throat go dry as I stared down at the sweet powder-scented bundle of squealing joy below me. "She's so—"

"Fucking perfect," Edward finished.

Beside me, Edward, heavily coated for New York's brutal winters, hovered over the infant with a wide, curious, grin stretched across his face. He reached towards her scrunched face, watching her eyes as she became entranced by his long, pale, fingers. She made a high pitched squeak as Edward caressed her cheek. "You're just the sweetest thing in the world. Don't mind aunt Bella, she stares at me all the time."

I rolled my eyes. "Asshole."

"Hey!" My brother, Jasper, scolded me with a swift smack on my forearm.

I yelped aloud and turned to glare at him. "Is that really necessary? You're a father now, we're not in middle school anymore, asshole."

He conceded with a cocky, "Watch your mouth in front of the baby." I knew even Edward was rolling his eyes at this one. My brother was a bit of an overtly cautious, narcissistic ass.

The kid was cute though, I had to give Jasper that much. Although no doubt, it was Edward's sister who provided her with that attribute. Alice was stunning, though a little on the shorter side, but stunning nonetheless. Edward and her both shared the same dazzling shade of auburn hair, which Alice seemed to have passed down to my niece as well.

Although Jasper was still staring at her as though she were a shooting star, Alice did not look so stunning that evening. Her face was oily and unwashed, stress lines clearly visible along her sunken eyes. Her hair was a disarray, though she's attempted to hold it back with a ponytail, which was barely clinging onto three idle strands of hair on her left shoulder. I thought about telling her it was there, but thought better of it. She was easily stressed, and I didn't want to contribute to a new mother's frustration.

Instead, I settled for lithely lifting the pony tail and breaking off the strands of hair that clung to it before tossing the it to the side (it probably landed somewhere behind the changing table, I'm sure). My actions did not go unnoticed by either Edward or Jasper.

Edward chortled, while Jasper threw me an appreciating nod over Alice's shoulder.

Alice cooed down at my niece and Jasper gingerly placed his hand against his wife's shoulder before leaning in to kiss her temple. "She's so beautiful," he repeated, for the ten-millionth time that week. He gazed into her eyes lovingly and I felt bile rise in my throat, so I turned my attention back to the baby.

A small squeal echoed through the room, and Edward leaned down to pick up the baby from her crib. It was kind of silly looking, him like a beast holding a delicate, breakable, too-small-for-his-arms baby. He was so large, and the baby was like a small package on his right arm. I only imagined what his brother, Emmett, would look like holding his niece.

I was completely enraptured by the concept of this little hopeless, needy and greedy human being. She was so sweet and filled with innocence.

What she must have been thinking, I couldn't fathom. She's at the least complex point in her life; subdued by her own ignorance, I thought to myself.

I clearly had not been around many children in my life.

Edward smiled at me knowingly. He knew how I felt about this, we'd discussed our reluctance about meeting her on the plane ride home. We were both thrilled by the concept of having a niece, but we were very unfamiliar with children in retrospect.

"She's your niece, Bella. You can stop being such a bitch and hold her now."

I scowled and watched Jasper's fingers clench around the railing on the crib. I imagined it was taking everything in his power to keep from slapping Edward on the back of his head with the baby in his hands.

His sister, however, had other plans.

Alice's hand flew out to smack Edward's forearm, the one adjacent to that holding that which held the child. He yelped out in surprise, but almost immediately rebutted. "Christ, you are so dramatic, Alice. Will you get over yourself? She isn't going to start saying 'fuck you' while she's fresh out of the womb."

I could barely contain my smirk, and I definitely couldn't contain my curiosity any further. So I reached out and took the baby out of Edward's arms while he was too busy glaring at his sister to notice.

My world lit up.

Ava, they had named her. I had never seen so much potential in another human being as I had when I first lain eyes on her. It fascinated me that this girl had what we all craved: a new beginning, a clean slate, and a whirlwind of possibilities for her future. It wasn't only fascination that I'd felt, but… love, too. Undoubtedly wholehearted love.

I smiled as the tiny creature nestled her cheek to my chest, right near where I felt my heart begin to swell.

"Hello," I whispered softly. I reached out to touch her, running my fingers feather-lightly over her soft cheeks, her nose, across her plump lips. "I'm your aunt Bella. I know we've had a lot of conversations before this, but those were kind of one sided with you in your mother's womb and all…"

It was only then that I realized everyone had gone quiet. I looked up to see them watching me, Edward with an unreadable expression and Alice and Jasper more subdued.

Ava stretched against my arms, but it was barely enough movement to rustle around her swaddling blanket.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come see you in person earlier, I wanted to meet you first," I slipped my finger over the soft back of her hand and watched as she folded her fingers over my own. "But you surprised us when you came early. Edward and I have been planning this trip to St. Louis for a while."

"Yes, Ava." Edward appeared beside me. "We're going to take you to the Arch one day, you'll love it! St. Louis is absolutely stunning… in the right weather, sort of. The Arch is. The rest of St. Louis, eh."

"Maybe for her thirtieth birthday," Jasper growled, but Edward ignored him and leaned down to kiss the top of the baby's head.

"Don't listen to daddy," Edward shook his head, shaking her little hand in his. "He didn't know he'd move to New York, but then he met your mom and here he his… I'm going to spoil the crap out of you…"

"She already has an army of people ready to spoil the crap out of her, Edward. Can't you be the protective uncle or something? I think this is getting really…" Alice yawned. She craned her neck to Jasper, and widened her eyes as though it were the first time seeing him. "Hey babe," she spoke as though he had just entered the room. "I'm hungry."

Jasper smiled in an attempt not to laugh. "I'll make you something, come on."

"What about the baby?" Alice asked, looking around as if she'd forgotten we were here.

"Really? I'm not completely inept." I tightened my arms around Ava, purposefully stepping away from Edward. "She's our niece, she's safe with us."

"Ugh," she groaned, placing her palm over her stomach where her child was just growing. "Why does it make my stomach hurt when you say that?"

"Because Bella is a creep," Edward said with an eye roll. I couldn't flip him off at the moment, so I settled for sticking my tongue out him. "How sophisticated of you."

She took one last concerned look at me and the baby before tearing her attention from me to the door. Jasper pulled her from the room, leaving Edward and I alone with Ava.

"Edward, quit breathing on her!" I playfully back-handed his shoulder and took a step backwards. Edward raised an eyebrow, challenging me with a look. I tore my eyes away from his sparkling emeralds and looked down at the child. "I won't make you endure that, little Ava. I know his breath smells like corn nuts and ketchup."

"They were pistachios, you imbecile," he growled. "Now hand her over. This is my first time meeting her!"

"It's mine too, you selfish prick-" I stopped as my brother appeared in the doorway, glaring at me. "el. Prickle."

He stared hard for a moment before turning around and retreating into the next room.

"Oh! Bella said a bad word," and before I could protest, Edward had the infant out of my arms and nestled in his own. Not wanting to play tug-of-war with a newborn, I settled for crossing my arms over my chest and pouting. "Your baby holding privileges are now revoked."

"That's hardly fair, Edward," I said with the flip of my hand. "Only three minutes ago, you were being reprimanded for your incessant vocabulary. You are so goddamn-"

"She's asleep," he frowned, ignoring what I had just said. "Wake her up, Bella, I want her to look at me."

"No," I hissed, trying not to laugh at his idiocy. "Let her sleep."

Edward scowled at me as he stepped forward to lay Ava down inside of the crib. He took a step back, staring down at her with some sort of awe-stricken expression. "She is…"

"She's cute," I nodded my head in approval. "And cuddly."

"You guys are the perfect godparents!" Alice's giggle came from behind us and we turned to look at her with a puzzled look on our face. She had a slice of cheese in her hand, and she looked kind of drunk. Or maybe parenting just did that to her, and that's what she was going to look like for the next eighteen years.

"Cute," Jasper stood beside her, eating a grilled cheese with a grin on his face. "You guys are going to be good parents one day."

I stared at my brother, wondering if it was possible that he could be delirious from his one hundred and sixty odd hours of parenthood.

But then, something happened. Something crazy… but really, it was not. I imagined my own little Ava. My own daughter, with my DNA and biological build-up.

I felt my heart tug at the thought.

I'd never been particularly against the idea of being a mother, but seeing Ava made me yearn for something entirely new to me, a desire so strange in my mind that it left me completely bewildered. Then, my mind drifted to my unhappily divorced parents and I shuddered at the thought; pushing it far into the back of my brain.

It was this reason that Edward and I were both still single, and living together in a small apartment just outside of Washington Square Park. We were single, striving towards wealthy, and we both seemed to struggle with the same level of problems surrounding our ability to commit to others, our families, and our professional success driven which by an overwhelming urge to have power. We didn't commit to others, we committed to our friendship.

Of course, there were some things that were unavoidable... sex, really. But we had that when we needed it too.

If we needed sex, I called Jake and he called Tanya.

But, when I felt lonely and needed someone to cuddle next to, I called Edward. If I needed someone to bitch to about work, I sat next to Edward and ranted for hours on end as he graded papers. Our friendship was so perfect, the imperfections were deemed unimportant.

That is, of course, if you take away the desire. I have narrowed this down to the fact that Edward is a man, and I am only human.

I was sure he caught me ogling him on multiple occasions. Once, I remembered, him stepping out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, watching the steam rising from his overheated skin. I felt my jaw drop, and my mind reeled with fantasies of licking the beads of cooling water off of chest—feeling his pectoral muscles tensing under my tongue.

I had picked my drooling jaw off of the floor as Edward smirked at me with that cocky fuck-me-now, winning grin of his.

Yes, I had the mind of a dirty whore with a masters degree.

However, despite those strong waves of desire that came and passed between us, we were as perfect as friends could be. We truly had the ideal understanding, we respected the value of what friendship means without having sex to complicate us.

I, and Edward would feel the same, was not willing to compromise our friendship over sex. No, I wouldn't. Even if he begged (not that he would), I wouldn't have. Although my mind drifted to the bigger possibilities, I was much smarter than that.

Desires are short-lived and surpassing, but friendship is timeless and invaluable.

People wondered about us-even our own parents questioned the status of our relationship. But, as always, we'd answer: "We're friends."

Even now, as Edward hugged me close to his side with his sister and my brother as an audience; I wondered if they bought it. It was the truth, but I was sure even our most trusted confidants did not believe us when we had told them we weren't together.

I had known Edward for ten wonderful years. We ran into each other during our freshman orientation at NYU, and we had been inseparable ever since. Jasper, my younger brother, was only visiting me at college when he met Alice, my roommate at the time. He moved to New York only a year later, and they married just months after that. Their brother, Emmett, and my sophomore year roommate, Rosalie, met and married soon after as well.

In a way, we were truly like our own little family. We'd created our home away from home in the heart of New York.

And then there were seven us…

"We're um," Jasper paused, as if he was thinking about what he was going to say. "We're just going to go to bed… so, if you want to just let yourself out…"

We didn't get a chance to respond before their backs were turned to us, and they were retreated into their own room. I snickered and Edward rolled his eyes before looking down at me with a smile. He wrapped his arm around me and squashed my head into an awkward hug. "It's Friday."

I shoved him away from me to flatten out my hair. "It is."

Edward held his arm out to me. "Let's go get a beer."

I looked back once at Ava, not wanting to leave her side.

I couldn't believe myself, how quickly I'd grown so protective over some child that wasn't even mine. Or maybe it was that… yearning, hollowness inside of me, which I seldom paid any attention to, that made me feel so disheartened in that moment.

I quickly dismissed the thought. No, Bella.

I laced my arm with Edward's, turning my back to Ava's room. "Let's go."

AN: hello again :) Please, please leave me your thoughts. I know there wasn't much dialogue yet, but I wanted to clear a few things up before we begin the first chapter.