Chapter 4

That night, we all fell asleep in Rosalie's room. None of us wanted to leave her side.

I woke up and rolled over to grab my phone, looking at the time on the screen. It was 3:00am. Why am I up so early?

I sat up and looked around the room, Rose was laying in her bed beside me, and Alice was curled up on the other side of Rose. Jasper was stretched out across the bottom of the bed, sleeping by our feet. Emmett was laying on the futon under the windows, his arm wrapped in a cast and laying on his stomach. I looked down at the floor where Edward had been sleeping on an air mattress but saw the mattress was empty.

Where did Edward go?

Right as the thought crossed my mind, I heard yelling from downstairs. Who's yelling this early in the morning?

"You are NOT taking her from us!" Edward yelled, "Don't you think you've done enough already!"

"Edward, son," Carlisle said, "I get your upset, but you need to stop. Your mother and I will take care of this." Then I heard the backdoor open before slam shut.

I looked around the room, making sure no one had woken up, and saw everyone was still sleeping. I slowly, and quietly, got out of bed and left the room, quietly closing the door behind me. I went and headed to the stairs, I was half way down when I heard, "Some son you have there." Is that Royce? Why the fuck is he here?

I froze, trying not to be seen. "He's worried about his sister," Esme said.

"She's not his sister," Royce said.

"Yes, she is, and Rose is our daughter. We take care of her and love her like our own," Carlisle said.

"Well, like I said earlier, my wife isn't giving up custody," Royce said.

"That's fine, we'll take her to court then," Esme said nonchalantly.

"You'd really do that to your best friend?" Royce asked.

"I'd do anything for my kids," Esme said, "And that woman is not the girl I became friends with. My friend would never let a man rape her daughter."

There was silence before I heard Lauren, Rose and Jasper's mom say, "If I give you guys complete guardianship of Rosalie and Jasper, do you promise that you wont press charges against Royce."

"We promise we won't report you from child neglect. But if Rose chooses to press charges against your piece of shit husband, then we will stand by her," Carlisle said. I've never heard Carlisle curse before.

I heard silence and then a quiet, "Okay," from Lauren.

I took a step closer to hear better, but, of course, I stumbled, reaching out to grab the railing. Everyone turned toward the stairs and saw me.

Carlisle was standing face to face with Royce, Lauren was right beside him, of course. Esme was sitting on the couch with my mom beside her holding her hand for support. I didn't even know she was here. "Bella?" my mom said, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, did we wake you?"

I shook my head, "No," I said, coming down the stairs the rest of the way. "I was just going to go look for Edward." I walked over to the coat rack, grabbing both mine and his coats. It wasn't exactly a lie, that was what I had came down here for in the first place.

When I turned back to everyone, Esme was smiling almost a smug smile. She turned and looked at my mom and they gave each other a look. What's that about? I thought. "Okay," Esme said, "Thank you."

I smiled back, walking through the living room and straight to the back door, without looking at anyone. I closed the back door behind me, and looked to the side of the deck, where I saw Edward sitting on the swing. I didn't say anything at first, sometimes I just get distracted by how gorgeous he is and became lost for words. Stop it, Bella.

"I'm sorry I disrespectful, Mom," Edward said with a sigh, "It won't happen again."

I laughed, "I personally think you should do it again," I said.

His head snapped to the side to look at me, "Bella," he said, surprised, "What are you doing our here?"

"Thought you might need this," I said, dangling his jacket from my finger.

He smiled and got up to walk over to me, taking the jacket from me, his hand gently brushing against mine. There's that shock again. "Thanks," he said, "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No," I said. He raised a questioning eyebrow. "Okay. Maybe a little."

He laughed, "I'm sorry," he said.

"It's fine," I said, "It's not every day I get to witness an Edward break down."

We both laughed before and he looked out toward the words before looking back at me. "Do you wanna take a walk with me?" he asked.

I smiled at him, "Sure," I said. We turned and headed toward the woods. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"It's a special place I like to go when I want to get away from it all," he said.

I nodded, and we continued to walk in a comfortable silence, both of us just thinking about the events from the day. Finally, we ended up in a beautiful field full of flowers. "Oh my god, Edward," I said quietly, "This place is beautiful."

"I know it is," he said. I turned and looked at him, he was staring at me with a weird look. Then he shook his head, as if to pull him from a daze, "I know. I love it here. I come out here to get away from everything."

I walked out to the middle of the field and sat down, looking at the flowers around me. "Jessica must love it here too," I said. Did I really just say that? I looked at him and he was just staring at me, "I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that. It's none of my business."

He shook his head and walked over to me, sitting down on the ground in front of me. "It's okay," he said, "You can always ask me anything. To answer you question though, I've never brought her here. I'm never brought anyone here.

I looked at him in shock, "Not even Ali?" I asked. He shook his head. "Why not?"

He shrugged, "I don't know," he said, "I guess it's just personal."

"Then why me?" I asked.

He stared at me in silence before he finally said, "I don't know." I just nodded looking around some more at all the flowers, this place really was beautiful.

When I looked back at him, he was staring down at his hands, pulling at the grass underneath us. "Wanna talk about it?" I asked, knowing exactly what he was thinking about.

He sighed before looking up to me. "I just feel like I failed her," he said, "I think of Rose as my sister, you know? And I just feel like I should've been able to do something."

I shook my head, "There's no one you could've known," I said.

"I keep telling myself that," he said, "And I know it's true, I just feel so guilty."

"You know she doesn't blame you," I said, "She knows you would've helped her if you could."

He nodded and looked back to his hands. "I just can't believe that Lauren didn't do anything to help her."

I nodded, that was exactly what I was thinking. "After you left, your dad talked Lauren into giving them legal guardianship of Rose and Jasper."

His head shot up to me and he looked at me in shock, "Really?" I nodded. "How?"

"Your parents told her that they wouldn't report her for child neglect if she willingly gave them guardianship."

He nodded, "That's good, I guess."

We sat in that comfortable silence again for a few minutes before Edward said, "It's pretty cold out here."

"Wanna head back and I'll make you my famous hot chocolate?" I asked.

He looked at me, eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas. "With extra chocolate?"

I rolled my eyes. "Duh," I laughed.

He jumped to his feet, putting his hand out for mine, "Come on, let's go!" he said. I laughed, taking his hand, and letting him pull me to my feet.

If only we were like this every day…


We quietly walked back into the, now silent, house. It looked like Lauren and Royce had left and mom had gone back home.

I headed into the kitchen and began making the hot chocolate for Edward and me, while he hung our jackets back up in the front room. I made sure to put extra chocolate in Edward's, before handing it to him, and the two of us headed downstairs to the game room.

We sat on the coach and Edward sat sideways, facing me. "What about you?" he asked.

"What about me?" I asked, setting my cup on the coffee table, and turned sideways to face him as well.

"I know you're thinking about all this too, Bella," he said.

I looked down at my heads in my lap, "I just feel like I should've know," I said, "She's my best friend. I talk to her every single day."

"There's no way you could've known something was wrong," he said.

I looked back up at him, tears streaming down my face, "But I did," I said, "I did know something was wrong. I asked her almost every day, and she kept lying to me, saying she was fine, but I knew, Edward. I knew it was a lie. I should've pushed her to tell me. I should've insisted she tell me. I-"

Edward suddenly pulled me into his arms, "It's not your fault," he said softly, "She didn't want anyone to know, that's way she didn't tell you. It's not your fault." I laughed a little, "What's so funny?"

"Maybe we should both take out own advice," I said, causing us both to laugh.

"Yeah," he said, "Probably." Then I felt his arms tighten around me, and I moved closer into his embrace.

Like I said, I wish things could be like this every day.

EPOV

I woke up in the morning to a flash of light. I groaned and rubbed my hand across my face, feeling something move closer to me. What the fuck?

I heard, what sounded like, Emmett and Jasper laughing. I opened my eyes and saw Bella's brown hair laying across my chest, her head rested on me as she was slept peacefully. I felt my heart speed up a bit as I stared at her, remembering the quality time we spent with each other yesterday. I don't even remember falling asleep like this, But I wished every night was just like this. Then I suddenly remembered that Emmett and Jasper were nearby.

I looked to the side and saw Emmett and Jasper staring at us, both with a smirk on their face, Emmett had an eyebrow raised. I slowly slid out from under Bella, covering her up before turning to the guys. "It's not what you think," I whispered, "We woke up in the middle of the night and sat up talking about everything with Rose. We must've feel asleep while talking, nothing happened."

Jasper rolled his eyes, "Mhm, yeah sure," he joked.

"Jasper!" I hissed.

He laughed, "I'm kidding," he said, "We know you're not the kind of guy to cheat, no matter how much you might want to."

"Jazz!" I hissed again.

"We came down because we had some ideas for a song about Rose and wanted your help," Emmett said, changing the subject.

I nodded, "Okay," I said.

Emmett turned to head to the music room, and Jasper and I followed behind. Emmett suddenly stopped and looked at me, "By the way," he said, "If you have feelings for my sister, I'm cool with it, just don't hurt her." Then he continued into the room.

BPOV

I woke up on the couch in the game room to the sound of music. It didn't sound like the stuff that the guys usually play; Edward's piano was playing softly, his beautiful voice singing along.

I got up and walked over to the door, slowly pushing it open. The music immediately stopped, and they turned to look at me, "Sorry," I said, "I heard you guys playing and wanted to see what you were up to. I can leave though."

"No!" Edward said, a little too fast, I saw Emmett look at him funny, raising an eyebrow. "It's okay, we were just working on a new song."

I walked toward where he was at the piano. "What's it about?" I asked. I always loved to hear their new music.

"Rose," Jasper said, "We wrote two songs actually, we just can't seem to get the second one perfect."

"Can I hear?" I asked.

They all looked each other, Edward and Jasper shrugging. "I'll play the one we're working on now for you," Emmett said, "We really wanted to leave it as a surprise for our show, but maybe you can help us. We feel like it's missing something."

"I thought your show was at a bar," I said.

"It is," Edward said, "We wanted you guys there though, so the owner said as long as you guys came with your mom or our parents then it was okay."

"Really!" I asked excitedly, "That's great!" I didn't want to miss their first show. "Let me hear the song then!"

Emmett walked over to the recording booth to pay the song for me. The recording booth was pretty new, it was a Christmas gift to Jasper, Edward, and Emmett from Carlisle and Esme. They'd been recording each song they'd created, trying to get an EP together.

Emmett hit play, the soft piano started playing through the speaker and then Edward's voice began singing. Then I heard Jasper start rapping. I was surprised, I didn't know Jasper could rap, and this was definitely different then anything they usually came up with. Then I heard Emmett start to rap as well. It was different, but I liked it.

I could tell that the song was not just an apology to Rose for not protecting her, but it was also like Jasper's response to his mother for not being there for Rose. He was basically saying he was done with her and wanted nothing to do with her.

When the music stopped, they all looked at me, "What do you think?" Edward asked, nervously.

"It's different," I said, "But I like it. I do think it's missing something though."

Jasper nodded, "That's what we think too," he said, "We just can't figure out what."

I was quiet for a moment before saying, "Can I try something?"

"Of course," Edward said with a nod.

I walked over to the recording booth and stepped inside, the guys all coming up and watching me, looking a little confused. "Play the track," I said, grabbing the headphones, and putting them on so I could hear the music.

Edward hit a button and the track began to play, the recording light coming on. I began singing along, harmonizing with the recording of Edward. When I was done, and had played through the whole song, I stepped out and they played the new recording back. "If you don't like it you can delete it," I said, "I was just trying to-"

Emmett grabbed me and pulled me into a hug, "It's perfect!" he said.

"He's right," Jasper said, "You have to preform it with us!"

"No!" I said, "I can't. Just-just play the track of me singing in the background or something."

"Bella," Emmett said, reaching toward me, "There's nothing to be afraid of. We'll all be there."

I shook my head, "Em," I said, "I can't."

"It's okay," Edward said, I turned to look at him, "We'll play the track in the background. You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Thank you," I said.

Edward smiled, "Maybe one day you'll preform with us," he said.

I smiled back, "Maybe."

"When we become famous you can make a music video with us," Jasper said.

At that, I rolled my eyes, laughing, before walking out and going upstairs.


AN:

I just want you say thank you to those of you who have favorited, followed, or reviewed this story, it really means a lot to me!

Please review!

Love,

Nykiddo