Disclaimer: I own nothing Twilight. I merely play with the characters for entertainment. No copyright infringement intended.
Bella
Sometimes You Have To Go Off The Deep End
Taking care of someone else's child was proving to be more time-consuming than I'd anticipated. At this rate, I might as well have been raising my own kid, which was the last thing I wanted.
Take for example my working on my supposed day off. Saturday was the only day of the week I had off and though I'd only been here a couple of weeks, I'd ended up working every day.
It would go like this: Edward Cullen would tell me last minute that he had important business matters come up that he had to attend to on Saturday, the day he was supposed to spend with Emmett. He would ask me to work, and essentially fill-in for him, bribing me with overtime and an extra vacation day. He would see my peeved expression and ask me if I had plans I couldn't cancel. And under his piercing glare, I could not get myself to lie.
So, here I was, poolside with my best friends… and a ball and chain named Emmett.
I had taken it upon myself (since I was being put upon myself) to invite Eric and Angela over, with Sue's permission. She told me I didn't need her permission, but I felt like I needed somebody's since I hadn't bothered asking Cullen's.
And forget asking the kid. He was in a foul mood. I didn't know if it was because I had invited outsiders over or because we were hanging out by the pool. But he seemed to dislike both ideas, though he was particularly reluctant to wear his swim trunks and join us by the pool. I had to practically drag him. And he was cross-armed and pouting on one of the luxurious poolside lounge chairs.
It was true it was usually just the two of us together; even with Seth and all his tutors around, it kind of did feel like I was solely responsible for him. Perhaps that was why the kid was not welcoming to my friends.
"Why the gloom and doom, little man? It's a beautiful day," Eric tried to converse with Emmett. "Around here, you've got to enjoy it like you've earned it."
I was lying comfortably but I turned my head to see the kid's reaction. He was glaring in our direction. "Ignore him," I instructed Emmett. "I do."
"Ignore me, huh?" Eric said from my other side. "Ignore this!" He slipped his arms under my back and legs and scooped me up. I gave a short yelp, and he walked me over the few steps and tossed me into the pool.
The shock came from being suddenly submerged in water, not from the cold since the temperature was mild. Apparently, the pool was heated.
I broke the surface of the water and saw Eric standing poolside with a smile. I saw Angela and Emmett with worried looks. And Angela had a right to be worried because Eric came for her next.
I paddled my way over to the side as Angela screamed for Eric to get away from her. Angela put up more of a struggle than me, but she too was propelled into the pool behind me.
Eric and I were laughing and I looked to see fear on Emmett's face. He was holding tight onto the cushions of the lounge chair. I could see he was afraid he would be next.
I grabbed Eric's ankle and said, "Pull me out, jerk." He tried to walk away but I wouldn't let him go. So whether he decided to pull me out or try to pry my grip from him, he leaned down. By then, Angela had swum over to us and as I grabbed his left arm, she grabbed his right and we teamed up to tug him into the water.
In contrast to the big splash he made going in, his head surfaced stealthily and he squirted water from his mouth. "Mm, warm," he said with a lascivious smile.
Ang and I splashed water in his face, and he returned in kind.
I broke away from the water fight and swam to the side near where Emmett was still sitting. I crossed my arms over the ledge of the pool. "Why don't you come in for a swim?" I invited him. He shook his head. I decided to ask what I suspected. "Do you know how to swim?"
He pouted more angrily, his little dark brows furrowing even more.
"We'll teach ya!" Eric cheered happily. He and Angela had stopped their quarrel and made their way to my sides.
"Yeah, we can teach you," I told the kid. He shook his head. "Oh, come on. You have this nice, big pool. Don't you want to use it? Come join us."
He looked conflicted. Emmett didn't want to be left alone outside the fun, but he obviously had some fear of the water since he didn't know how to swim.
I decided to take the choice from him. "Pretty, pretty please," I said clearly.
The kid's eyes grew wide and dark. I smiled. Since the kid had made me waste one 'pretty please' on that game of hide-and-seek, this was a sort of payback. Besides, it would be good for the kid. I was surprised he didn't already know how to swim.
His breathing became deeper, and I was afraid for a second that he was going to start crying or run away. But I had to hand it to the kid, if he was feeling any fear or anxiety on the inside he was hardly showing it on the outside.
After a few seconds, he stood up and tentatively walked his way over to the pool. Then he sucked in a deep breath and took a leap and jumped over our heads. He landed with a splash behind us.
Eric chuckled. "Weird kid," he said.
We turned back to see the ripples spread out from where he went in, but didn't come out.
"Um," said Angela with apt worry in her voice, "does he or doesn't he know how to swim?" Bubbles broke the surface of the water as if in answer.
I dove under the water and found him about halfway down the pool depths. His cheeks were puffed out with air and his limbs were listlessly around him. He didn't struggle, he didn't even try to swim, and when he saw me, he didn't react but just floated there waiting for me. I paddled to him and pulled him up. We came up gasping for air. He had managed to hold his breath till then but he swallowed some water when we broke the surface. Emmett was coughing and choking as I swam with him to the side of the pool where Eric and Angela were waiting.
When his coughing eased up, I asked him if he was all right. He nodded, still a little red in the face. "Do you know how to swim?" I asked. I still wasn't sure if this was yet another prank to make me use my 'pretty pleases.' He shook his head.
"What are you doing jumping in then? You could've drowned!" Angela said shocked.
Emmett let out another cough and said, "If you let me drown, my brother would fire you."
"You got that right," Eric mumbled.
I scoffed. "Was that an actual joke? I don't know if I should be more surprised you tried to drown yourself or that you made a joke."
"The drowning," Angela answered, "definitely the drowning." She was not used to the kid's antics and obviously more shook up by the incident than Eric or me.
"Well, since you're in the water now, how about that lesson?" I offered.
"Yes, please," Angie added. "Let's not give me a heart attack."
Angela started us off by teaching Emmett breathing techniques so he'd get comfortable holding his breath, although he seemed to do that pretty well already. Then Eric managed to get him to doggie-paddle. And then I was left to teach him some proper swimming techniques.
Emmett had been learning to swim for a while, and doing quite well, and even with the three of us splitting the work, I was beginning to tire while the kid was not.
I was beginning to envy my friends who were not saddled with the kid. Eric was lounging on a pool chair in the water, while Angela was relaxing in the hot tub. Me, I was holding up Emmett who was floating on his back.
"I'm glad I learned to swim," he said to me. Our faces were pretty close to each other because I was above his head in his lying position. Eric and the pool chair lazily drifted by us.
"I'm surprised you didn't know already. You have a tutor for everything."
"That's because Edward promised to teach me, but he's always busy."
"What?" I balked and my hands slipped away from Emmett's back. He dipped under enough to submerge his face. I pushed him back up, but not before he got a noseful of water and started coughing.
Eric, who had been floating nearby enough to hear us, stealthily slipped off the pool chair and joined Angela in the hot tub avoiding any sort of responsibility.
I apologized and asked the kid if he was all right.
"It stings!" he said of the chlorine in his nasal passage and lungs.
"I know. But why didn't you tell me your brother was supposed to teach you to swim! Why do you keep doing this to me?"
"So you try to drown me!" he argued back. He coughed again. "I didn't do anything to you. I told you, I was tired of waiting for Edward."
"You could've told me that before."
"But then you wouldn't have helped me."
The kid was right. And again, I couldn't help feeling duped. I was constantly being outwitted by a 6-year-old.
"Can we just pretend you didn't learn to swim today?" I tried bargaining.
He shrugged in response and his tiny shoulders bobbed above the waterline. "We never go swimming together anyway."
"Yes, but that was because you didn't know how to swim before! And now you do! Do you see the problem there?"
He shrugged again as carefree as only a child can be. I sighed. "Forget it," I said. It was useless. It was inevitable Cullen would find out anyway, I was sure of it. "Come on, let's get out of here. I can't have you being excellent at everything."
"Why not? I want to be excellent at everything."
"Because you'll make me jealous," I said helping him out of the pool.
"I don't mind," he said.
"Of course you don't," I muttered. I wrapped the brat up in a big fluffy towel.
Later, after we had washed up and Eric and Angela had left, Emmett and I winded down in the living room watching television. He was quite energetic before, but it had certainly taken its toll. He dozed off leaning on my arm. I decided to let him nap before I woke him to take him to bed.
I stirred awake from a touch on my outer thigh. I lifted my eyelids and my head to stare at Cullen's face. If I had forgotten how handsome he was, I was reminded with a jolt that came from being closer to him than ever.
My surroundings came into focus and I realized I was on the couch where I had fallen asleep with the kid resting with his head on my lap. Cullen was leaning over with his arms under his little brother's knees and neck. The arm under his neck was gently brushing up against my thigh.
Cullen saw me wake up but soon went back to concentrating on his task. Quietly and gently, he lifted the still slumbering Emmett and smoothly walked away. I sleepily followed a few steps behind.
I yawned at Emmett's doorway as I watched Cullen tuck in his kid brother. I felt my senses waking up more, and I couldn't help noticing how gentle and sweet Edward Cullen was with him. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. Perhaps I wasn't as alert as I thought I was but my brain was having trouble reconciling what I was seeing with what I knew about Cullen.
The kid stirred as his older brother was pulling his blanket over him. "I learned to swim," he said groggily with sleep.
I softly banged my forehead against the doorframe. So much for pretending.
Cullen sat on the edge of the kid's bed. "You did?" he whispered.
"Bella and her friends taught me," he said.
"And how did they get you in the water? They didn't throw you in, did they? I remember Dad threw me in when I first learned to swim."
Cullen's back obscured my view of Emmett's face from where I was standing, but I heard a slight rustle of sheets and I thought he shook his head in response.
"Bella asked 'pretty, pretty please,'" the kid said. He conveniently left out the part where he jumped in himself and nearly gave us heart attacks.
"She did, did she? Hmm, I'll have to try that."
"It won't work with you," the kid said in a teasing tone, sounding more awake now.
"And why is that?"
There was a brief pause before he answered, "I don't want to say."
"Ah, I see. Working out deals with your nanny?" Cullen deduced. How did he do that? I supposed he was a businessman, after all. "You don't need me to broker your deals, do you?" I heard another rustling sound. "All right then. Remember to keep your negotiating skills sharp."
They bid each other good night, and then Cullen playfully mussed up Emmett's dark hair.
This was too much for me to bear. It was like Edward Cullen was almost… a human being. I considered the possibility that I was still sleeping and dreaming. And I felt, a little late, that this was way too intimate a moment for me to be intruding.
I tried to quickly turn around and make my escape from the doorway before Cullen got a chance to catch me still standing there eavesdropping when my feet got twisted and I went down.
I got back up quickly, but not fast enough when I heard the click of the door closing right behind me. I grimaced at the sound. I composed myself and spun around to face Cullen and all that he might say. I expected him to lecture me in his prim and proper way about not eavesdropping or hijacking someone else's brother's swim lessons.
But he simply said, "Good night, Ms. Swan."
"Uh, good night," I responded, "Mr. Cullen."
I watched him walk away down the hall towards his bedroom.
Maybe it was because of the nap I had taken earlier, but I awoke from my sleep in the middle of the night. In the dead quiet of the seclusion of the house, I heard a faint but consistent noise. I got up from bed to investigate to find it was coming from outside the house. I went to the window nook and opened the window. I could hear the sound clearer, though it was still low and originating somewhere far and away from where my window faced the side of the house.
I left my bedroom quietly in the dark and walked down the hallway. I walked to the adjacent side of the house facing the back and opened the glass French doors to the balcony. I walked barefoot across the cold, stone floor to the thick stone rail. From here, I could see down at an angle to the beautifully illuminated pool where I had been hours earlier and where now a figure appeared to be swimming laps back and forth.
Though I was still some distance away, I knew it was Edward Cullen.
I stood there leaning on the cold, stone ledge for several minutes watching him swim. He didn't stop, he didn't rest, and he didn't slow down. There was an intensity to his exercise, a determination, that I found almost hypnotic. I wondered how long he had been at it before I had come out into the night air.
I gave up before he did. When I left that balcony that chilly night, Cullen was still going.
