Disclaimer: I own nothing; this is all Stephanie's genius.
I'm sooo sorry that it's even shorter than my normal extremely-short chapters, but I thought it was a good place to end. Plus, I'm putting it all out at the same time so you can just move on to the next chapter, so it's not like your getting less. :/
"Alice and Jasper?!" Bella guessed, smiling. "I thought they lived further up north then this!" She squealed.
I laughed at her excitement. "Yes, but they still don't know we're married, or that we're expecting," I warned her. Bella was silent for a minute.
"True, but once we tell them everything, they will understand."
She said it so quietly, I almost didn't hear. Truthfully, I had forgotten about it. My back was hurting most of the time, but I had gotten some pain meds before leaving the hospital for Bella's last check-up. I read about it, and that's one of the symptoms. Next is yellowing eyes and skin, a.k.a jaundice. But I wasn't supposed to get that until the end. Right now my symptoms should be limited to fatigue, backaches, and maybe weight loss. I've only gotten fatigue and backache, so I know I'm about half way there.
It's a little unnerving to think about, but when I'm with Bella and we are joking or with people we love, or even just talking about the baby, I forget. And just like that, I'm an average married man who is expecting a child. I just forget.
"Bella! Edward!" Alice squealed, running towards us as we stepped through the front door that Jasper had just opened for us.
"Alice!" Bella squealed back, holding her arms out in front of her. Alice had launched herself at Bella, never pausing to see the large bump on her stomach. As if on cue, right as they wrapped their arms around each other, Alice jerked back, a hand on Bella's stomach.
"Oh. My. God!" Alice said in a low voice, bending down to inspect the baby bump.
"I'm expecting!" Bella said, waving her hands in the air, hoping the enthusiasm would be transferred to Alice's blank expression.
Alice was silent for a minute, and it seemed everyone in the room was holding their breath. Suddenly Alice squealed and jumped up and down, a big smile on her face. "Yay! We're going to have mini-Bella and mini-Edwards running around!"
I let off a shaky laugh and saw relief flood over Bella's worried features. Jasper was suddenly in front of me, I had forgotten he was even in the room, shaking my hand. I smiled and Jasper smiled back at me, his approval and happiness clear.
"So when is it due?" Alice asked, pulling Bella's right hand towards the kitchen. I smiled as we all sat down around the table.
"It's not an 'it' Alice," Bella scolded. "He is due in around four months, I forget the actual due date because it seems I get a new one, it seems, every time I go to the doctor's office."
"It is a she," I corrected. Bella glared at me.
"Oh, so we don't really know the sex?" Jasper asked. I shook my head.
"Yes, we do. I know it's going to be a boy," Bella said calmly, rubbing a hand over her belly.
"And I know it's going to be a girl," I said. I smiled at Bella and she smiled back. We have had the same conversation about a thousand times now. Alice and Jasper just nodded and giggled at us.
"So are you going to get married after the baby is born, or are you going modern and not getting married? I think Brad and Angelina are doing that and they seem so happy-" Alice started, but I cut her off.
"No, we are already married," I said firmly. I grabbed Bella's left hand and held up her ring. Alice seemed to freeze over, going as stiff as a board. "Bella and I found out about four months ago that she was pregnant and we just decided that we wanted to get married, so we did in Louisiana."
Alice took a deep breath in and Jasper rubbed up and down her back. "So are you going to have another wedding?" she asked, looking at the table. I sighed and looked at Bella, hoping to get the strength I needed from her, but before I could even look in her eyes, she was talking.
"Yes, of course. We just didn't want to bring a baby into the world without being married. Very old fashioned, I know, but that's us," she smiled. I felt my face crumble but I quickly recovered and nodded.
"Great! We should get started now! Obviously we can't get a dress or anything but I think it would be great to get a date set, colors, flowers, food, music," Alice smiled, looking very happy in her element.
"Alice-" I started, but Bella was talking again.
"I don't think we should be planning already, I mean, I'm still pregnant and chances are I'm going to hate what I pick out now in a year."
I sighed and squeezed Bella's hand under the table.
"Yes, yes of course," Alice nodded. "How long are you guys going to stay in town?"
"Ummm, I think we are staying for about a week, if that's okay," I said. Alice smiled and nodded, jumping up from the table and taking Bella's hand, leading her to the guest room. I could hear Alice prattling on to Bella about shopping for baby clothes, but I stopped listening and directed my attention to Jasper who was sitting quietly at the table still.
He stared at me, as if I were a puzzle. "What's wrong?" I asked. He shook his head and pushed his chair back slowly and got up.
"Let's go get your luggage," he said as he walked past me. I just nodded and followed behind him.
"We got so much stuff!" Bella complained as she threw herself on the bed beside me. We had been at Alice's place for a total of 20 hours, 12 of those we were sleeping, and she had already insisted she take Bella shopping.
"I'm sure it will all be useful," I said absently, reading the paper on our bed.
"What's wrong?" she said immediately. I sighed.
"We didn't tell them the truth," I said. Bella nodded.
"They just heard that we are married, and expecting our first child, do they really need to hear that you've got cancer, too?" She said, leaning against the headboard. Her voice was detached, and an odd sound to her normal voice.
"No, but we still shouldn't have lied to them," I said. "It makes telling them now that much harder."
I saw her eyes well up with tears and I put my paper down to comfort her. I wrapped both my arms around her and kissed her forehead. She was trying to hold it back, but I could feel the moisture on my shirt anyway.
"Shh," I soothed. "Everything will be okay. Alice and Jasper might be hurt, but they will help you when I'm gone. Everyone will help, even if you yell at all of them, or never go shopping with Alice again, they will still help you raise this baby," I told her, running a hand softly over her belly, making circles around her growing middle.
"Our baby," she whispered, placing her hand on mine. I wanted to tell her it really wouldn't be my baby: he or she wouldn't even know what they were missing until they were old enough. The thing that stopped me was that look Bella gets when I mention I'm not going to be there. It's a frightened look or disbelief that I know all to well.
Reviews are better than shopping with Alice's no-limit credit card.
