Chapter 2 – Bella

When Bella tells Emmett

"Isabella Marie Swan! If you don't move your ass and come down stairs then I cannot be held responsible for what I do to you." Rosalie screamed up the stairs. I heard her through my closed solid door. The woman had lungs.

"Better listen to her Bells." Called a cheerful Emmett. Sighing I covered my face with a pillow and screamed.

I had been doing that a lot lately, sighing and screaming into pillows, into shoulders, into my own hands, into empty dark rooms. Finding the energy to fall out of bed I shuffled along the floor in my fluffy bed socks. It took all of my energy to stand up straight, never mind actually bend my knees and lift my feet properly. The pregnancy can't be sapping my energy to this extent already, I didn't know what was causing this.

Wrenching my door open, the smell of pancakes and bacon assaulted my nose. My stomach actually screamed at me to move faster. With one hand on my wall I let it guide me along the hall to the top of the stairs. I could hear Rosalie and Emmett moving around in my kitchen. I had to remember to take my keys back from them to negate the risk of any further screaming wake up calls.

After stumbling down the stairs without removing my hand from the wall I made the turn into the kitchen where Emmett immediately scooped me into a bear hug as a greeting.

"Oooof." I hit his giant bicep pathetically to make him let me go, when in actual fact I always loved my Emmett bear hugs.

"I know, I know. I always take your breath away." He snickered, setting my feet gently back onto the floor.

"Morning." I grinned and rolled my eyes.

"Finally, she arises from the crypt." Rosalie huffed at me, throwing me a smile to let me know she was teasing. "Sit your pretty ass down and eat." Her hand gestured to the table where my eyes danced from plate to plate, trying to comprehend the absolute feast that was in front of me.

"You guys did this?"

"No, the breakfast fairies did this." Rosalie's fingers stroked gently through my hair as she passed to put another plate full of food on the table.

"Jesus, I didn't realise how domesticated living with Emmett had made you."

"Yeah, well, if you live with a man incapable of realising there are methods of cooking other than pouring boiling water into a plastic container or throwing something in the microwave you get to the learning pretty fast." Her tone was all Rosalie, but her eyes crinkled at the sides and a smirk ghosted over her lips.

We had been roommates since college. Hers was the first new face I encountered when I moved into the dorm at the University of Washington, granted it wasn't the most welcoming of faces but it had certainly been the most beautiful. She looked like Giselle Bundchen even on her very worst day. As sickening as this fact is I couldn't help but love her when she revealed a bag full of cookies, a bottle of wine and a box full of DVDs for us to bond over on day four of our co-habitation.

"I've been a heinous bitch to you Bella Swan, and I'm sorry." She had told me, throwing over a cookie and putting a DVD on. "I've been scared, this is all so new, and you've been nothing but lovely. My go to emotion is bitch when I'm scared." She had shrugged, tucking her long golden legs under herself as we curled up onto the couch.

"Apology accepted." I had mumbled through a mouthful of cookie and that was that. Friends.

My stomach growled loudly at me so I ripped a pancake in half with my fingers and threw it into my mouth. The subtle taste of cinnamon tickled my taste buds and it was just too good to have only half in my mouth at a time. After stuffing the remaining half into my mouth I groaned at how good they were.

"Hungry?"

"Eating for two here, don't you judge me." Emmett's eyebrows almost flew entirely off his face as his mouth dropped open in shock. "Oops, Rose didn't tell you?"

"No, she didn't." He glared at his fiancé for a second before turning back to me. "What the fuck?"

"Emmett." Rosalie growled in warning.

"No, Bella is my family, Rose. She's practically my sister." His searching eyes never left my face. "How the hell did this happen? You haven't gotten laid in years!"

"Bloody hell, Emmett." I shook my head. "You remember when we all went out last month? You and Rose were pretty distracted by each other and I met a guy. I bet you didn't even realise I had left."

"Well, no, I didn't realise, but if I had known some guy was hitting on you I would have had a word with him."

I knew what Emmett meant by "having a word" with someone and it usually resulted in men sprinting in the opposite direction with faces covered in their own tears. He was a hulking great brute of a man. He was a quarterback for the Seahawks. Men quivered when he walked past them, let alone when he has a word with them.

"You're almost twenty eight years old, have you never heard of condoms?"

"I'm not retarded, or irresponsible. Neither is he. We used protection, but it's only effective 99% of the time."

"Really?" His face was a picture, and if it hadn't been for the fact that this was a serious matter I would have dissolved in giggles. As it was I had trouble keeping the smirk off my face. "Did you know this?" He looked at Rosalie wide eyed and she snickered.

"Yes, honey, I did. That's why I'm on the pill." Rolling her eyes she went back to the cooker, concentrating a little too hard on the scrambled eggs, with her shoulders shaking slightly.

"Don't think you're off the hook for not telling me." He narrowed his eyes half heartedly at her back before his head cocked and he looked at her jean clad ass for a second before returning his attention to me.

I had to admit, I was shocked that she hadn't told him either. How she had managed to get him over to my house at this time of the morning to cook me breakfast without knowing the reason I would never know. No, correction, I would never want to know. Once, she had started to tell me about the ways she gets him to do stuff for her and it took me months to forget that she had revealed my childhood friend could bend like that.

Rosalie had spent the whole day with me on P-Day. Immediately leaving work and tearing over to me in her cherry red BMW, narrowly avoiding a speeding ticket and stopping to buy eleven pregnancy tests on the way. She held my hand, stroked my hair and smoothed my worried forehead as I lamented my own stupidity.

She had reassured me that this kind of thing happened. That we were careful and there is no blame to be placed. She would have held that stick under my stream of pee if I had needed her to, not that I would ever have asked, because she was my best friend and that's what best friends do.

Emmett took my plate from the table and started to heap food onto it, bacon was joined by another bundle of pancakes which was accompanied by a couple of sausages which was hidden under a giant mound of scrambled eggs. Food was threatening to topple off the sides of the plate before he placed it back in front of me.

"Eat."

"I'm eating for two, not an army."

"If you think Uncle Emmett is going to let Baby starve, you are sadly mistaken." Then he winked at me.

Then I cried.

Then Rosalie shouted at Emmett.

Then I cried again.

Then, finally, I was calm enough to call in sick to work.

I slept on the couch after breakfast, curled up into Emmett's side with his arm wrapped protectively around me. Ever since we were kids he was my protector. My Mom had left and Dad worked so much, I was always at his house, always by his side. There was only a year between us but he called me his baby sister and I liked it. It made me feel loved. Not that there was ever any doubt that my Dad loved me, but Mom leaving us without looking back had left a gaping wound in my heart and Emmett tried every single day to make it better.

When he had left for college I was heartbroken. He only went to Seattle but it felt like he had fallen off the face of the earth. I was trapped in Forks with no friends because the only people I hung out with were Emmett and his senior classmates. I had even dated a few of them. But then graduation came and I was left alone.

We were finally reunited the summer after I graduated and I had happily waved my acceptance to UW in his beaming face. I introduced him to Rose early in out freshman year and then we were three. Rose and I had moved into the house I inherited from my Grandmother and Emmett had been happy to remain with his college buddies not too far away until a few months ago when he had finally proposed and they moved in together. Leaving me to rattle about in my big house, which I actually really didn't mind.

Rosalie wasn't there to yell at me when I left my shoes at the front door, or to moan at me because I used all the pots cooking a meal for us and then didn't clean them up. Apparently she had never heard of the old adage of whoever cooks doesn't clean. She bought a dishwasher after I recited it to her a couple of times.

The television hummed softly in the background when I slowly came back to consciousness, Emmett and Rosalie mumbling softly over the top of my head. Rosalie had curled herself into my other side, her hands resting on my flat stomach. I brought my hands down to cover hers and smiled.

No matter how this ends up, Baby will be loved. About that I had no doubt.

"When are you meeting Edward, Bella?"

"Tomorrow, I invited him here, discussing this over brunch somewhere just seemed a bit..." I couldn't finish the sentence because I didn't know what it was. Was it unseemly? Inappropriate? Uncouth? Improper? Indecorous? Unbecoming? Tasteless? All of the above?

"Edward, huh?" Emmett said, trying to convey no emotion.

"Emmett McCarty, don't you even think about being here tomorrow." I warned him, pushing my hand against his side to lever myself up to look him straight in the face so he knew I was serious.

"Fine." He huffed. "But, you call me the second you need me, understand?"

I nodded.

Then I cried again because he unconditionally loved me so much.

"Stop making the girl cry." Rosalie muttered, her hand wrapping around my head to press into her shoulder.

"Have you thought about...y'know...your options?" Emmett was never one to flinch from the questions that needed asked. There would be no point being a mind reader around Emmett, because he usually just said whatever was in his head, at the very moment he thought it.

"That's between me and the Daddy, don't you think?"

"It's just better to have thought about it before hand, Bella. You don't know what he's coming here to say to you, if his mind is already made up. I'm just saying."

"I know." I sighed into Rosalie's shoulder. "I know."

I went to bed early, almost immediately after coming home from the doctor. Doing almost nothing can truly be exhausting. I allowed my bed to swallow me completely. As soon as I had received my first wage from my first honest to goodness grown up job I went straight out and bought the most decadent mattress, topper, duvet and pillows I could afford. There is nothing better than sinking deep into bed and feeling like it is giving you a hug hello. It's probably because I've been single for so long, that I craved that goodnight hug from something, anything, even if it was a topper and duvet.

My dreams were blank. I don't mean I didn't dream. I did. They were just blank. I could hear something working, some kind of machinery that wasn't quite able to maintain momentum, but I could see nothing. I couldn't see my hand as I waved it in front of my dream face.

Rosalie screaming at me didn't wake me the next morning and for that I was thankful. I stretched out like a cat, groaning at the movements and the release they offered my tense limbs.

Today was the day Edward was coming round. We were going to talk about our baby. I was struggling with it, to be honest. I really tried to not think about it. I've never been able to tackle problems head on. In actuality, I wasn't sure Baby was actually a problem in the strictest sense of the word. Sure, he or she had come along at a not ideal time but when exactly was ideal? Being perpetually single doesn't exactly lead to marriage and family.

Sometimes life throws things at you, but never more than you can handle. I was strong enough for this, of that I was certain. The thought of abortion had entered my mind, it would have been remiss of me to not at least think the word. I wasn't opposed to the idea, I didn't judge those people who did it.

But it wasn't for me.

Once again I stumbled down to the kitchen by guiding myself with a hand against the wall. It was just so hard to keep upright. I felt like I actually had the weight of the world resting on my shoulders. After telling Emmett yesterday I felt a little lighter, maybe once everyone knew about Baby I would feel a release and be able to hold my head up without needing to nap straight after.

Rosalie and Emmett had stayed after I had gone to sleep and done some housework for me. That was unexpected and unexpected niceness had been making me tear up the past week. Tears pricked my eyes but I swiped them away and slumped down into the nearest chair. The wood felt cool under my cheek as I rested my head down onto it. The little wood grain heart was there, my fingers traced along the slightly bumpy outline until I resolved to fix myself some breakfast.

I padded over to the fridge to find a note held in place by my Seahawks magnet.

Pastries are in the oven.

Turn it on.

Leave it for 20 minutes.

Consume.

We love you, R+E

I was going to have to get used to being looked after it seemed. The tears would definitely have to stop.

After eating something like a croissant with chocolate in the middle that left my face covered in the sticky sauce, I felt a little better. I allowed myself to remember that Edward was coming over in a couple of hours and I felt the butterflies in my stomach. The little fluttering buggers that served to remind me that he had made me feel like I was going to see stars for months after he touched me. That was just his kiss, just his lips that made me feel like that. I was in distinct danger of swooning yet again.

Making myself presentable was easier than I expected, luckily my notoriously sketchy balance held up and I made it out of the shower in one piece. Dragging a comb through my thick brown hair I looked in the mirror. Scrunching up my face I turned to the side and dropped my towel. My body looked no different. My breasts remained handful sized, my stomach remained flat. I searched my eyes for a sign of difference. I was sure there should be some outward sign already but there was nothing. Except for the slight dark circles around my eyes, but they could be hidden by the makeup Rosalie insisted I buy in the gold tube that clicked on the bottom.

Yanking on a pair of jeans, I considered my clothing options. This was a serious talk to be had. But, there was part of me that just wanted Edward to really, really fancy me, as unlikely as that seemed. I'm pretty sure that night had been a pity fuck, or a really-drunk-no-other-options-fuck. My pride was at stake here.

Settling on a t-shirt with Iron Man printed on the front I made my way back down the stairs feeling a little sprightlier. I had abandoned the making Edward fancy me plan because, let's face it, he's a god and I'm a mortal.

At a little past ten there was a knock on my front door. With trepidation I opened the door and tried to smile. My heart skipped a beat when I looked up at his face. My mind went blank and I uttered the first thing that came into my head.

"I forgot you looked like a lion." He shook his head in confusion and laughed softly.

"What?"

"You, with your hair and your...you-ness." His soft smile grew into a smirk that lifted higher on the left side of his face. His hand reached up and softly brushed some hair away from my eyes, making my breathing stutter slightly.

"May I come in? You and I have to talk about our cub."

A/N: Anybody still with me?

If so, hello *waves* leave me review if you're that way inclined :D