Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and situations are the property of Stephanie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N: Thanks go to Maria Vilson and Sarah Teague for being the awesomest beta and prereader around. I've decided I will be doing some outtakes from Quil's POV, ya'll have most definitely spoken, so once I finish up the final two or three chaps of Marked, I'm going to start with his POV of their first time and what's been going on in his life over the last month.

The Public Lovin' Contest is now open for voting, if you haven't checked out my fic Desecrate Me and the other wonderful entries, you should do that in the near future and cast your vote for most scandalous location.

Thanks for all the lovely reviews and PMs, I'm so excited you guys are enjoying this story, and your insightful words push me to write faster :)


"40 Weeks"

Chapter 4: Week 6 "Congratulations, You're Gonna be a Daddy"

The next day Angela found me at lunch. All it took was a slight nod for her to understand. Yup. I was pregnant. She left it alone while others were around, offering me a sympathetic smile, but she caught me on my way out the door toward my truck.

"Do you want to go get a cup of coffee?"

I really did. "Sure. I'll meet you at the diner?"

She agreed and moved off toward her little Honda. I kept my head down in the parking lot, and the luck fairy must have been on my side for once, because I managed to avoid a run in with Mike or the harpies. Five minutes later, I pulled into Forks's one and only diner and joined Angela in a booth toward the back.

We both ordered coffee and then stared at each other awkwardly.

"So..." I had no idea what I was supposed to say in this situation.

"Oh, Bella. What are you going to do?"

I sighed and took a sip of my coffee before wrinkling my nose at the gray sludge in my chipped mug. Seriously unappetizing. "I'm not completely sure, but I guess I need to tell the, um, the father and set up a doctor's appointment to confirm. Or do I confirm first? Ugh, this is so confusing."

She nodded, before looking down and fiddling with the sugar packets in front of her. "Can I ask...is it Jacob's? I know you've been spending a lot of time with him recently. He seemed really good for you, actually. Although, isn't he kind of young?"

Her eyes met mine once again when a small noise escaped my throat. I shook my head. "No, it's not Jacob's." No need to tell her my baby daddy (could this situation get any more Springerish?) was the same age as Jacob.

"I see. Do you think he'll support you?"

"Who, Jake?"

Angela let out a startled laugh and shifted in her seat. "I meant the father."

"Oh. Um, I think so?" Shaking my head at the lack of conviction in my voice I tried again. "We're not in a relationship or anything, but he's a really good guy. I've known him since I was a kid and I can't imagine him not stepping up."

God, I hoped I was right. What if he didn't want this? Who am I kidding; what teenager in their right mind would actually want this? Would he send me packing? Now I felt like I was going to hurl all over the table. "But he is a teenage boy. Crap, I just don't know Ange. I guess I'll just have to tell him and see."

"Well, I'll be here. I hope you know that."

"I do, Ange. And I should probably apologize for being such a shitty friend for the last while. I was so sucked in to my relationship with Ed—Edward, and after, well after I just wasn't home for a while."

She patted my hand and smiled. "It's fine Bella. I understand what it's like to fall in love for the first time, and how much it hurts to have your heart broken for the first time."

"So," she shot me a cheeky grin, "do you think it's a boy or a girl?"

I laughed. "I have no idea, but I think I'm rooting for a boy. At least a boy can't show up pregnant one day."

"Nope, he'll just be knocking the local ladies up."

We burst into peals of laughter that had me clutching my stomach and wiping the tears from my eyes. It wasn't really that funny, but my hysteria and her sympathy came together in a giggle fit that relieved at least a bit of the tension riding me. "Thanks, I needed that."

"Any time."

The waitress came over to pick up the check, and I tossed a few dollars on the table for a tip before walking out the door with my arm looped through Angela's.

"When do you think you'll do it?" she asked as we came to my truck.

I took a deep breath and said, "Now. I'll do it now before I lose my nerve."

"Good luck. And Bella?"

"Yeah?"

"Call me. Anytime."

"Thanks." I leaned in for a one-armed hug and hoisted myself into my truck to head to La Push. Please be okay about this, Quil.

I didn't know if I could do this by myself.

I pushed the beast to its limit and made it to his house in just under thirty minutes. I could do this. Breathe in.

He met me at the door, a half-hearted smile on his face, and jeez, how much can you grow in a month? "Quil?"

"Hey, Bella. What are you doing here?"

There was an odd undertone in his voice, but I pushed it aside, needing to just tell him and get it over with. "Um, do you have a sec?"

He glanced over his shoulder before turning back to me and nodding. "Yeah, sure." Stepping through the door, he came to stand beside me on the small front porch and stuck his hands in the pockets of his cut offs. "So, what's up?"

It took me a second to answer since I'd become completely distracted by the large expanse of bare skin he was showing off. Reddish-brown skin stretched tight over thick muscle and an eight-pack that was just...beautiful. I shook my head to prevent a dreamy sigh. "You're not wearing a shirt."

He barked a laugh and it was as if some tension eased from his stance at my words. "No, I'm not. Like what you see?"

There was the charmer I'd gotten to know in Jake's garage. Before the sex and the confusion and those stupid blue lines.

"You might want to sit down."

His body tensed at the seriousness in my voice, and I heard rustling from inside the house. "Is someone else here?"

"You should probably just spit it out. You're making me nervous."

Right, spit it out. "I'm pregnant." I blurted, and then the quiet yard exploded.

"What?"

He didn't have a chance to say anything else before the yard filled up with a pack of half-naked Quileute boys in matching cutoffs. One of them grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him around the back of the house before I could figure out what was going on. I moved to follow before I realized that one of the muscle-bound bodies was Jake. "Jake?"

"You need to leave, Bells." There was a hard cast to his face that I'd never seen before.

"Um, actually, I need to talk to Quil. We were kind of in the middle of a conversation."

"Yeah, I heard. Congratulations on the baby, Bella." I couldn't look at him now; his tone made me feel dirty, like I'd done something wrong. "You still need to leave. Now."

"But—"

"Yo, preggo," one of the other guys shouted. "He said leave. Bye now."

The sudden shot of testosterone had me uncomfortable and a little frightened, so I began edging toward my truck. "Oh—okay, could you maybe tell Quil to give me a call when he's ready to talk?"

I left then, holding back tears I refused to let fall. What the fuck was that?

The drive home happened in one long blink of the eye. I was in such a daze, I looked up from the road only to realize I was already home. Luckily, Charlie seemed to still be at work, so I wouldn't have to explain my zombie imitation.

What had happened to sweet, goofy Quil? And Jake, my sunny, happy Jake had actually scared me. When I'd headed out to La Push, I'd expected an unpleasant conversation, but the scene I was met with defied the powers of my imagination. Did that actually happen? Are they on steroids?

I was so lost in shock that I almost missed it, a flash of silver dancing in the shadows along the treeline. A trick, I thought at first, but then the flash morphed into fur and I caught a glimpse of bone white—teeth.

Slipping slowly out of the car, I walked toward what I could only think to be an animal. All the while, a soundtrack ran through my head as I silently berated myself for behaving like the dumb bimbo I always yelled at in horror movies. My lack of self-preservation was a long acknowledged personality trait though.

It's probably just a stray dog, I told myself. "Here puppy. Nice puppy."

A low growl, followed by what appeared to be an incredulous chuffing noise, echoed across the yard before the thing stepped out into the light.

"It's a...you're a...ohmygod I think I might've peed myself." I stood face to chest with a wolf the size of a pick-up truck. "Um, please don't eat me."

That's when it hit me. Stories told by a sunny boy at the edge of a blue bonfire.

"Cold ones."

The beast growled, the sound shaking the ground at its feet.

"If those are real...then..."

I stared in astonishment at the freakin' werewolf that was quite possibly a boy I knew. A big, strong, overheated boy I knew.

"Son of a bitch! This is what all that crap was about. Isn't it?"

I didn't stop to be confused by the fact that the giant, mythical boy/beast seemed a little intimidated by little old, rapidly descending into hysterics, me.

"Boys," I told him, with a completely serious face, "are stupid."

If it were possible for a mutant wolf to laugh, he was doing it. Reaching out without thinking, I popped him on the snout and asked, "So, which one are you? Quil?" I hoped it was Quil. Please give a shit.

He shook his head.

"Jake?"

No, not Jake. "Can't you just, you know, poof back to human so we can have an actual conversation?"

Apparently the answer was no, because between one breath and the next, he was gone. That was just fine. I marched right back around the house and climbed back into my truck. Somebody was gonna start talking.

Thirty minutes later, I was right back where I'd started, standing in Quil's front yard surrounded by half-naked man candy. Angry looking man candy.

"Bells?" Quil shifted toward me, his whole body seemed to be straining in my direction.

I was grateful that he seemed to care. "So, which wolf did I meet today?" I asked nonchalantly.

Silence reigned.

"C'mon boys, it was obviously one of you. Unless you know of another pack of shape shifters roaming around Forks?"

"Jake," Sam ground out. Ah, so I guess that's why he's considered the local gang leader. He's the top dog, so to speak.

"It wasn't me; I was here the whole time," Jake sputtered, looking a cross between pissed off and freaked out.

"Then who...?"

All eyes seemed to focus in on two boys standing in the far corner of the yard. One was Embry, who I thought was a good contender for spiller of secrets, the other was the ass who'd called me "preggo" earlier.

"I didn't do anything," Embry muttered.

"It obviously wasn't Paul," Sam said.

Did it really matter who spilled the damn beans? "Look, it doesn't matter which one it was because I already knew the legends. They just helped me figure out that they were real."

"Um, yeah," Jake mumbled, a sheepish look crossing his face, "that one was me."

"Idiot." Sam smacked him upside his head. "Billy's going to chew your ass out."

"Look, can I just talk to Quil? Now that the big, scary secret is out in the open, I've got more important things to worry about at the moment."

"No."

"Excuse me? Look, Sam, I get that you're apparently in charge of the puppy fest here, but since it's obviously not your sperm floating around in my uterus, this has nothing to do with you."

Whoops, I'd apparently pushed one button too many, because the now furious behemoth took a menacing step toward me.

Then, thank God, Quil spoke for the first time. "Sam."

"You're too volatile right now."

"I'd say you're a little too volatile right now."

"Son of a bitch," he growled. I was pretty sure I hadn't made a new BFF. "Stay human." There was a timber to those words that shook me straight to my core. I kind of wanted to roll belly up and bare my throat.

Sam ghosted out of the yard and the other boys followed, even Jake, though he lingered for a moment, casting a pained glance in my direction. The silence was heavy as my gaze finally met Quil's.

"C'mere." He hooked his hands around my waist and hauled me into him.

That was all it took. I burst into, well-deserved, tears.

He held me the whole time, running a soothing hand up and down my spine and whispering nonsensical words into my hair. This was all I needed, someone to hold me while I fell apart.

"I'm sorry." I sniffled and wiped my damp face across his chest. He made no comment about the fact that he was most likely now wearing my snot. "I didn't mean to break down all over you."

"You know you don't have to be scared of me, right?" He tugged my chin up, gently, to get me to look at him.

"I know. It's not that." I ghosted a hand down my still flat stomach. "It's this. I'm...scared."

"Yeah," he sighed. "Me too."

"I haven't even graduated yet," I wailed, hiccuping at the tail end of it. "And you're only sixteen, still a baby."

He raised his eyebrows and gave a lecherous grin. "You didn't think I was a baby that night. And I'm seventeen."

"Huh?"

"I got held back after I missed almost all of ninth grade thanks to an unfortunate case of mono."

"Really?"

He laughed and squeezed me. "Really. I'll be eighteen in three months. And I passed my GED last semester. No more high school for me."

"Oh, good. I feel less like a creepy cradle robber now."

Guiding me with a hand at the small of my back, he led me over to the porch steps and settled me between his legs, my back cuddled to his front. "Is everything okay? You know, with the baby?"

I sighed in contentment, he was so warm. "Well, I haven't been to the doctor yet or anything, but so far no bad symptoms. I think my boobs grew though. And they're kinda sore."

"They did."

"What?"

"Your boobs. They grew."

"Perv." I reached back to smack him, pretending like I wasn't smiling.

He wrapped his arms around me, one large hand rubbing small circles on my stomach. "It'll be okay you know."

I was starting to think he was right.

P.S: Quil says, "You didn't really think I'd be an asshole about this, did ya? I mean, holy shit, that's my puppy. Puppies. Ohmygod, what if it is a puppy. *runs in circles* How would that even work, anyway? That's just...a lot of limbs, and Bella's really, um, tiny.

Christ on a crustacean, I'm gonna have to talk pussy with the Elders...and let's not forget her Dad's a cop. My ass is too pretty to be shot. Are you praying for me yet? Any great words of wisdom?"