AN: Only 2 more chapters after this one! And yes that means that our sweet couple is going to consummate their relationship soon :)
I originally started this story for Mommyofboth, who won me in the Support Stacie auction. Stacie is a wonderful woman laid low by a nasty cancer. Help her out by bidding for me and you could win a story just like this one! Details on my profile.
EPOV
For the last 17 years, I'd lived a fairly charmed life. I'd never struggled with making friends, though I had been forced to live without my best friend for the last five years. I was considered good-looking and charming. I was undeniably athletic. And I'd lived in Forks for my whole life without getting into any major scrapes—with the incident in the tree being the exception to that particular rule.
Unfortunately, this catastrophe had that so far eclipsed I could barely even force the thoughts through my sluggish, panicked brain. I could feel Bella scrambling off me, almost kneeing me in the junk, but I didn't even jerk back instinctively. If she'd hit me, I would have taken suffered through the pain prosaically.
Karma, after all, was a bitch.
The only time I looked away from the beam of the approaching flashlight was to make sure that Bella had managed to recover her shirt. Confirming that she had, I just stared right into the light, not flinching once, ready to take the blame for everything that I'd done.
The flashing beams drew closer, and I could hear Bella still panting a little next to me, whether out of residual arousal or just plain fear, I wasn't sure. As for me, I was pretty calm. Kind of like the eye of the storm.
"Edward." Carlisle shined the light directly in my eyes and I didn't even blink. I could feel Charlie wrapping an arm around Bella and helping her to her feet.
As Carlisle grabbed me rather roughly by the arm and dragged me to my feet, I knew I was going to die. It wasn't really a question of if, it was more a question of when.
Nobody said a word as our fathers schlepped us towards the house. Even though it must have easily 1 AM, the porch light was blazing, and I could see that several other rooms were also brightly lit. Everyone, I realized with an inward groan, was up and everyone was going to witness the forthcoming scene.
Esme and Renee were waiting up in the kitchen. Esme was clutching a chipped mug full of tea, and though her expression was rather stern, I could see a faraway twinkle in her eye. Renee wasn't even bothering to hide her amusement.
"Going to lock him up in the dungeon, Carlisle?" She asked rather irreverently, indicating the rough grip my dad had on my arm with a nod of her head.
"He deserves it," Carlisle grumbled and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.
"He does not," Bella spoke up, her voice surprisingly strong. "He hasn't done anything wrong."
I heard Carlisle murmur under his breath, "as far as you know," and I was so glad that I had decided to confess all to Bella before this moment, because it sure as hell looked like more than one skeleton was going to be unearthed from the closet tonight.
"Esme," Carlisle spoke up, "go get Jasper and Emmett out of bed. And your daughters, too."
"We're up ," Alice said, with a way too perky voice. She sashayed into the room, with a brightly pattern silk robe tied tightly around her waist. Rose followed close behind her, a scowl on her beautiful face.
"And why do you need Emmett?" she whined. "He's been in bed this whole time. Unlike Eddie here, he didn't sneak out."
For half a second, I considered opening my trap and protesting this strongly. After all, I had a pretty damn good idea what Rosalie and Emmett got up to, and they were way ahead of Bella and I on the learning I had a feeling, from the way that Jasper had been mooning after my dark-haired sister, that Alice wasn't going to be that far behind Rose.
But before I could say anything to defend this completely untrue accusation, my dad spoke up again. "I don't care," he bit off, clearly annoyed. "We're having a family meeting in the living room. Cullens and Swans. Right Charlie?"
From Charlie's expression, he was definitely backing this plan 100%. And I would not have been surprised if the majority of this "Family Meeting" consisted of me staring down the barrel of Charlie's shotgun.
"So does that mean that Jasper and Emmett are exempt?" Alice asked again, her voice hopeful.
Carlisle wheeled around and faced her. I'd never seen him so close to losing his temper. "No. If Jasper or Emmett are interested in dating either a Cullen or a Swan, that means their presence is also required."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Alice scoffed. "Who says that Jasper is interested in dating anyone?"
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Alice's protestations. It was abundantly clear to everyone in the house that not only was Jasper interested in dating, he was very interested in dating her. Apparently Carlisle actually agreed with me, because he held up a hand to stop her whining. "I don't want to hear it, Alice. Let's not play games."
Then, Carlisle turned towards me, as if I was going to try to protest again that nothing was going on between Bella and I, and I just shrugged. I was hardly going to deny that I cared about her and wanted to be with her anymore, especially after getting caught making out in the sand dunes. Besides, over the last few weeks, I'd decided that if Bella and I were going to make whatever this was between us work, then we needed to go public with it. No more hiding.
And ten minutes later, as I faced down my two dads, I knew without a doubt that it was the right decision. It just wasn't the easy decision. But then, the only easy part about Bella had been falling in love with her.
Whoa. Just . . .whoa.
I thought Charlie might be talking to me, but I couldn't even fucking hear him because the roaring in my head was suddenly catastrophically loud. I was in love with Bella?
Panic welled inside me, and I gripped the side of the couch so hard that when I glanced down, my knuckles were so white they were almost bluish. Yes, I thought with a calmness bordering on absolute lunacy, of course I'm in love with Bella.
"Edward? Edward." Carlisle barked at me, and I snapped my head back up to look at him.
"Could you, I don't know, pay attention? Considering that you're the reason this meeting was called in the first place?" I'd never seen Carlisle look so put out, or me care so little. Every single brain cell I had was busy trying to process the realization that I'd just had. Love. Bella. Swan.
I nodded mutely, the echo of my realization still thrumming in my head. I loved Bella Swan. I loved Bella. Edward Cullen loves Bella Swan. Forever.
It was a testament to how much the fact that loving Bella threw me that I didn't even bat an eye at the "forever" part--after all, I'd always known, somehow, that Bella was it for me. She was my end point, my stopping place, and even if I'd known her my entire life, I didn't ever want to not know her.
"Dude, you should pay attention, before Charlie decides to use his shotgun to get it," Emmett cackled loudly, clearly totally unconcerned about this whole "meeting" we were having.
"Dude," Charlie said, his face totally impassive except for the corner of his mouth, which was definitely twitching, "I wouldn't put it past that guy."
"Enough joking," Carlisle's voice, unusually stern, broke through the suddenly jovial atmosphere, and I looked at him. His lips were tightly compressed together and he appeared to be anything but amused. "Edward, I told you six years ago to stay away from Bella. . ."
Carlisle barely got those words out before someone cleared their throat in the doorway. I looked up from my seat on the loveseat. Carlisle and Charlie looked up from their position opposite me, on the couch, and even Jasper and Emmett, currently sprawled on the ground and half-asleep, swiveled their heads.
It was Bella. She looked young and small and vulnerable, clad only in her t-shirt and boxer shorts, but there was a steely determination that I'd never seen in her gaze before. And instead of cowering at Charlie's pointed look, she marched into the room and stood between me and the two men most likely to perform a castration.
"No. No." Her voice trembled a bit at the beginning, but she cleared her throat and re-emphasized. "No. You had no right to do that. If Edward and I want to be together, there's no earthly reason why you should stop him. He's a good man. He'll treat me right."
The room went so quiet that I could hear Bella breathing in front of me. I could see that her hand was trembling a little, and she clenched it into a fist, probably so that her dad or Carlisle wouldn't see how hard it was for her to confront them and fight for what she wanted.
And what was it that finally got Bella to stop being an observer in her own life and take control and fight?
Me.
If I hadn't already realized that I loved this girl with every god damned breath I took, this moment would have been it. The way she was facing down her dad and mine was quite possibly the bravest, the best, the hottest thing I had ever seen Bella Swan did--and that was saying something because I'd been pretty much sexually obsessed with Bella from the age of eleven.
"Bella, are you sure?" Carlisle asked, so quietly that I almost missed it in my exultation.
Was she sure? I couldn't believe that my own father had questioned Bella's certainty that I was a good man and that I'd take care of her.
I didn't think; I didn't contemplate--I just jumped to my feet, wrapping one arm around Bella's waist and pulling her close. In front of God and Charlie Swan and Dr. Carlisle Cullen.
"What are you trying to say?" I growled. "That I won't take good care of Bella? Because I fucking wouldn't stand for anything else. She deserves the best. Maybe even better than me. But I can't go another day without claiming her as mine."
Carlisle's eyebrows inched upwards, and I continued, my voice growing louder, trying to keep up with the temper that was exploding exponentially inside my chest. "I'm sick and fucking tired of being told that I shouldn't have Bella and she shouldn't have me. No more."
Bella moved even closer to me, and Charlie's eyes narrowed, but she didn't move back. We stood there, in front of the two men who'd done everything in their power to prevent us from ever being together, and we fought for what we wanted most: each other.
"Bella," Carlisle said again, his voice deceptively quiet, belying the steel behind it, "answer the question."
I looked down at her as she glanced up at me from under her lashes. We smiled, and I knew then that this girl was the one person who would always be on my side, no matter what. She would be on my side, I was sure, even when I was convinced she was fighting against me. She cared that much.
"I've never been so sure of anything," she said softly. "I love him."
My arm tightened on her waist at her words. Even though I'd been fairly Bella had strong feelings for me, there was nothing on earth like hearing her announcing to my father that she loved me.
Emmett gave a pseudo-groan on the ground and hissed, "I can nearly feel my balls shrinking just by being in the room while you four have this bonding moment. Please can I go?"
"No," Carlisle barked, barely even sparing Emmett a glance. "If Bella is sure that Edward is what she wants, then we need to talk about some. . .limits. And nobody needs to hear more about limits than you, Emmett."
"I agree," Charlie drawled, eying first the arm I had wrapped around his daughter, and then patting his holstered handgun. "Bella, go to bed. It's late."
I moved to detach her from me, as I didn't want to cross Charlie's first request of us as a sanctioned couple, but Bella held firm. "I'm staying," she said stubbornly, facing down her father again.
"It's late, Bells. Go to bed," he sighed. "Edward isn't going to evaporate overnight, and I promise not to hurt him. At least too badly, anyway."
Carlisle chuckled at this and I glared at him. "Very funny," I said, not amused. "If you're trying to put her at ease, you're failing."
"Oh, Bella knows I wouldn't hurt you. Because then she'd have my neck." Charlie winked at Bella, and her arm loosed around me. She turned towards me and even though we were in front of both of our fathers, her small hands grasped my neck and pulled me down towards her for a kiss.
Now, I had every intention of making it a quick, "Charlie, please don't kill me," kiss, but Bella, that stubborn girl, clearly had other ideas. She was deceptively strong for her size and she held me to her, turning our brief brush of lips into something else altogether.
She pulled away at the sound of her dad clearing his throat. "Goodnight, Edward," she said, flashing me a flirtatious smile before walking out of the room.
"Emmett," Carlisle said, gesturing to the heap of sleeping Texan on the floor, "now that we've settled Romeo and Juliet, wake up Jasper there, and we'll have a friendly little chat about our daughters."
I sat back down on the sofa gratefully as Emmett shook Jasper awake. "Get up, fool. If you ever want to even be in the same room as Alice, you'd better listen to this."
Jasper rose, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. "What did I miss?"
"So far, this punk kid kiss my daughter," Charlie chortled. "And a rather impassioned declaration of love, as well." Charlie eyed me suspiciously and I thought he must think I was a total loser for listening to Bella's confession of love and saying nothing in return. Little did he know, I thought smugly, I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell her. After an interrogation by our dads, with all these people watching us, wasn't exactly the romantic moment I'd envisioned.
"Sit down, boys, and listen up," Carlisle said, as Emmett and Jasper shuffled over to where I was sitting. It was a bit cramped, with three full grown boys jostling for position, but finally we settled down. "Charlie and I have talked about this, and we think you need to be aware of how special our daughters are."
Emmett raised his hand like he was in class and wanted to be called on to answer a question. "Yes, Emmett?" Carlisle asked with a straight face, but Charlie was already chuckling.
"I think I speak for all of us when I say that trust me, we know how special the girls are."
"Yeah," I inserted, "as if Rose would stand for you not knowing."
Jasper laughed at this, and Emmett glared. "Dude, I'm trying to help you out here."
"Thanks, but no thanks," I chortled. "I don't know if I want your help. I think I'm doing okay on my own."
Emmett looked at me in surprise. "Well, I suppose so. At least you've finally got that Tanya chick off your tail."
Uh oh. I could already see that Charlie's interest was piqued, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at me. "Tanya?"
"An. . .ex," I said lamely, not sure that Tanya was what I'd call an ex, but I couldn't very well explain to my new girlfriend's father that she was just some girl who'd wanted to screw me.
"Ah," Charlie replied, and there was a wealth of meaning in that one drawn out syllable. The good news was that Bella could hardly be unaware of Tanya's existence. If Charlie told her about this, she wouldn't exactly be hearing about Tanya for the first time.
"And that's part of what we need to discuss," Carlisle broke in. "My daughters--Bella included--deserve the very best. They deserve respect and love."
Emmett was nodding now, his eyes never leaving my dad's face. Clearly he was trying to impress on Carlisle that he was capable of both respect and love, though I wasn't so sure about the latter. But then, I didn't know if Rose was either, so maybe it was alright.
"And if either of us finds out that you aren't treating our daughters with respect and love, then well. . ." Charlie tapped his sidearm again, and from the way that all three of us tensed, I knew we got the message loud and clear.
"Now," Carlisle said, a smile on his face for the first time since he'd caught Bella and I, "go to bed. It's late."
Jasper and Emmett raced out the room so fast that I was surprised that Charlie wasn't clocking their speed like he liked to do at football practices--but he wasn't because he was hanging back, obviously waiting for me.
Great. How much abuse was I going to be subjected to in one evening?
"Edward," Charlie said conversationally, slinging an arm around my shoulder, "you know I think of you like a son, right?"
I really hoped this was not going to be a treatise on how my burgeoning relationship with Bella was incestuous, but I nodded anyway.
"I've been waiting for you to grow up and be a man with Bella . . .well. . .for awhile now. I just want to let you know I'm proud of you--as long as you treat my daughter right, that is." He smiled, and I found myself floundering as to the meaning of this confession. What did he mean, he'd been waiting awhile?
"You mean, sir. . .that you aren't mad that we're together now?"
He shook his head and laughed. "I was mad that you wanted to sneak around and ignore her and not treat her right. Left her miserable and sad and lonely. But you're going to make it right now. At least you better." He punched me playfully on the arm, but instead, I felt like I'd just been punched in the gut.
But I still wasn't sure I had this straight. "You mean, you've been waiting for me to stand up to you and my dad?"
"Yep."
And didn't that just say it all.
