Well, I apologize for how long it took to get this chapter done! But it's finally here so yay!

A huge thank you goes out to Midnight Cougar for getting Delay of Game on The Lemonade Stand. A lot of you mentioned that's how you found the story. I was shocked and blown away by the increased interest! Thank you!

Another thank you to beachcomberlc. She has worked very hard to edit the entire story these past few days! She's amazing.

Now, on with the story!


Delay of Game

Chapter 9: Full Strength

Full Strength: When both teams have five skaters and one goaltender on the ice

After discovering that Rosalie was indeed very close to my office, I hung up the phone and made my way to my desk. Just as I was sitting down Rose came staggering, dramatically, into my office.

"What man?" I asked as I settled into my seat.

"I don't even know his name, Bella. I heard someone yell 'Emmett'. Who knows if they were trying to get his attention or not? But he always leaves the gym at the same time everyday. He's all huge muscles and tall. Everything I look for in a man," Rosalie said in one breath. She was starting to sound like Alice.

Was it a coincidence or not that this man's name might be Emmett? Edward's brother's name was Emmett. There's no way the world could be that small though.

"What's that face for?" Rose asked while I was deep in thought.

"Oh, Edward's brother's name is Emmett," I said.

"Does everything in your mind go toward making some connection to Edward?"

"What? No I just-" but I was interrupted by my cell phone ringing. Edward. Rose was going to love this.

"It's him, isn't it? Go ahead," she said, waving her hand. I flipped her off in response.

"Hello? Are you alright?" I asked. He must have already been released from the hospital so I was a little worried something went wrong.

"Save me," Edward groaned.

"What's going on?"

"I can't stand my sister anymore. I haven't spent this much time with her in years. I need to work my way up to this many hours of her nonstop talking and gossiping," Edward whined.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I work until five so you'll just have to deal with it," I responded as if I was talking to a five year old.

"Oh dear lord, you sound like a mom already."

"I'll take that as a compliment. I'll call you when I'm done working," I didn't wait for a reply and hung up. I looked up to see Rose smiling at me.

"This boy looks good on you. I approve," Rose said as she stood up. "Try to find a picture of Edward's brother, because if it's my gym guy then I'm going to need you to get me the hookup."

"Of course. Now, I really need to get back to work," I said, motioning towards the door. She rolled her eyes but left without saying another word.

Time dragged by and I was feeling more exhausted than normal. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep. But as soon as my clock turned 5 o'clock, my cell phone was ringing.

"Hello?" I answered, not looking to see who was calling.

"Please come over," Edward whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" I whispered back, feeling ridiculous. Why was I whispering? I shook my head at myself.

"I told Alice I was going to sleep. At this point I'm about to call Jasper to come and take her out just so she'll leave."

"Jasper?" The name sounded familiar but I couldn't remember where I heard it.

"New guy Alice has already claimed. I'm at the Westin off Michigan Avenue, just please, I need you," Edward continued to whisper pathetically.

"Fine. I'll be there soon. Text me the room number."

"See you soon, beautiful."

Oh that man sure did know how to make me smile. I rushed to get ready to leave. I had one hot man waiting impatiently for me and I didn't want to waste anymore time.

After a quick inner dialogue about how promiscuous I would appear if I brought a change of clothes and toiletries I decided since we'd already had casual sex we were past the point of judging. My trip home didn't last very long, and soon I was trying to find this hotel. Oh, the memories of hotels with Edward.

Riding up the elevator had me reliving our encounter a few months ago. What surprised me was that these memories didn't have me feeling down about myself. I could actually look back fondly and remember that Edward and I had a good time, even if it produced something unexpected and unwanted at the time.

I knocked on his door and didn't have to wait long before Alice was opening it.

"Oh, thank god you're here. He's driving me crazy!" Alice exclaimed as she pulled me into the room.

His room was amazing. It was light and very spacious. He had a small kitchenette and his own living room. Clearly he had a suite, and a very nice one at that.

Alice was already packing up her stuff to leave. So this is what I missed out on from being an only child.

"He's in the bedroom 'sleeping'," she added air quotes. "The dummy thought I couldn't hear him talking to you."

She gave me a quick hug and left without looking back.

"Hello to you too, Alice," I mumbled under my breath.

I made my way to what I assumed to be the bedroom door. I pushed it open and saw that the lights were out and it looked as though Edward had thrown the covers over his face.

"Is she gone?" He whispered. I let out a laugh.

"Yes, so you can stop hiding now," I continued to laugh as I made my way to the bed. I sat on the edge and pulled the blanket down so I could see his face. His soft smile made my heart melt.

"Hello, beautiful. How are you feeling?" Edward asked as he sat up. His hand cupped my cheek and before I could respond he was pulling me in for a kiss. I pulled away before things got too heated. He was recovering from a concussion; someone needed to stop.

"I should be asking you that! But I'm fine," I said as Edward continued to caress my cheek.

"I'm just tired and have a headache that won't go away. How's my boy?" Edward moved his hand from my cheek to my very slight baby bump. The look of joy on his face almost brought tears to my eyes.

"I can't wait until we find out it's a girl so I can see how much you freak out," I laughed. His head snapped up to my face and he pouted.

"That's not very nice, Bella," Edward mumbled. He wrapped his arms behind my back and gently pulled me down so I was lying next to him. I wasted no time cuddling up to him. "So you want to find out what we're having?"

I thought about that carefully. Surprises did suck and if I found out, then picking out things for the nursery would be easier.

"Yeah, I do want to know. Do you?" I asked, looking at his face as his hand went back to my stomach. My heart was swelling at how gently he was tracing invisible patterns. I knew that look of awe he had on his face well. I did that often when I thought about the fact I was growing a human being inside of me.

"I was thinking I wanted it to be a surprise," Edward answered. He slowly looked to my face. I just rolled my eyes at him. Well, I guess I could find out and just not tell him.

"So how long are you going to be living in a hotel?" I wondered. He had it made though; room service and someone to come make his bed everyday? Yeah, he was living the life.

"I'm looking for a place now. Hopefully I'll be out of here in two weeks," he said as he reached for the TV remote. "Have you thought about living arrangements once the baby's here?"

Pretty sure my heart stuttered with that statement. I took a deep breath before answering.

"Honestly, I haven't. I've been taking it day by day because thinking too far into the future has me worried. I don't really know how to handle that and what the best situation would be."

I heard Edward let out a breath. "We still have time to figure it out."

I nodded my head against his chest. He didn't hesitate to turn on a hockey game, ending our rather deep conversation for the moment.

"Hockey? You can't be serious. Don't you ever get sick of it?"

"You're joking right? I live for hockey," he said with a laugh. "Are you hungry? I can order some room service."

An hour later we were still sitting in his bed, but I was satisfied with my cheeseburger and ready to pass out.

"I need a picture of your brother," I said after I had taken our dishes and put them in the hallway. Edward protested me doing this, but I just ignored him.

"Because that's not weird at all," he said, looking at me funny. I rolled my eyes at him.

"It's a long story, but it's not for me. It's for Rosalie," I explained. Did he really think I would be interested in his brother? Talk about family drama. Just imagine how fun family dinners and holidays would be.

Without another word he pulled out his phone and let out a sigh.

"What's wrong?"

"I guess I shouldn't be annoyed, but my teammates and some other buddies around the league have been texting me all day. I just want to look at my phone for five minutes without getting interrupted by a text," he took another deep breath. "Here's one of all of us."

"I think it's sweet that people care about you," I said as I looked at the picture Edward sent me. It looked like a candid shot of the three siblings. Poor Alice, it appeared they were playing monkey in the middle with her shoe. Boy, did Edward look good when he was so carefree and happy.

"James Smith, the guy who hit me, texted me. I'm debating on if I should respond or not."

"Do you think he did it on purpose?" I was curious. What had Edward done to this James character to deserve that?

"I don't know if he was aiming for it to be me, but he's not the most stand up guy in the league. This isn't the first time he's hit high and he doesn't have the best rep in the league," Edward said not looking away from his phone.

"Well, in that case I don't like him," I said as I sent the picture to Rose. If I was being honest it would be pretty awesome if Rose's mystery man ended up being Edward's brother.

"He'll get what he deserves shortly," Edward replied cryptically. I stopped looking at my phone to look at his face. His expression was really devoid of anything as he continued to read texts.

"What is that suppose to mean?"

"Hockey players have an unwritten code. I know my teammates don't like the hit so they'll make sure next time we play Smith, he'll think twice before coming after one of us again."

"Do you mean someone 's going to fight him?" I was kind of shocked. I knew hockey was a little on the violent side, but I never really thought they would pick fights over things that happened previously.

"I would do it myself, but my coaches don't really want me in the penalty box. That's not my job and if I'm in the box that puts my team in a bad spot. We have a few tough guys who have made it their job to protect us," he answered honestly.

The more I thought about it the more I didn't like the idea of Edward fighting. Seeing him get checked was hard enough, I couldn't imagine watching him willingly swap punches with another man.

"Have you gotten into many fights?" Now I was just curious.

"No," he laughed. "I'm not very good at it. Plus, the guys who are good at it get mad because I'm taking their job. It's just the way hockey works, Bella."

"Well, I'm going to need you to warn me before you decide to fight because I'd rather not see that," I shuddered.

"Yes, dear," he chuckled.

We continued to watch the rest of whatever hockey game was happening at the moment. At least I knew we weren't watching the Hawks.

My phone chimed, indicating I'd just received a text.

BELLA! THAT'S HIM! –Rose

Just as I was typing out a response to her, she called me.

"Hel-" but she cut me off before I could even get out my greeting.

"Give the phone to Edward," she demanded.

"What?"

"Bella, this is vital. Just pass him the phone."

Silently I handed the phone to an amused looking Edward.

"Hello, Rosalie," Edward said. I leaned in closer so I could hear what she was saying.

"So you and Bella are going to have to invite your brother to dinner or something and I'll just happen to be there as well. He's the only member of your family who hasn't met Bella yet."

"I feel like I should warn you, Rose. He's loud and crass. He's not much of a gentleman."

"I don't care about that! I just have an extreme urge to ride this man for all he's worth."

Edward shuddered and I laughed. Typical Rosalie.

"As long as you promise never to say that to me again I'll get him to go out to dinner so you guys can meet."

"Deal."

And just like that Rosalie hung up. I'm sure she was on cloud nine at the moment. Rosalie had a very specific taste in men as well as high standards. It meant she was often single, but she always said she would never settle for anything other than the best.

"I think those two might actually be perfect for each other. I'm almost positive I've heard that same sentence come out of Emmett's mouth."

"Your brother likes to ride men? That's probably something you should've warned Rose about," I joked.

"Ha-ha," Edward muttered sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "You look exhausted."

"That's just what every girl wants to hear. A nicer way of saying you've looked better," I said.

Edward playfully glared at me as he lightly pushed me from the bed. "Just go get ready for bed."

Just the way he said it felt so natural, but at the same time my heart sank. I quickly bolted for the bathroom hoping I would make it before I puked all over the room. It was hard to describe the feeling, but I just felt like we had done this a million times and in reality this would be the first time we would just sleep in the same bed. The hospital didn't really count considering Edward wasn't all there. Maybe I was just being crazy, but how right it all felt had me panicking.

I was confident I had every reason to be wary of Edward. Was it possible I trusted too fast? Did I forgive too easily? As much as I knew this baby needed a father in his life, why was I so ready to throw myself at Edward? There was still so much to discuss. If I wasn't careful, all these conflicting emotions would make me sick again.

I felt Edward behind me just as I was done spewing my insides out. He sat on the floor behind me and I leaned back against him. He handed me a washcloth, which I gratefully took.

"You okay?" he asked, his voice full of concern. His first experience with the uglier side of pregnancy.

"I'm fine now," I paused.

Just blame the hormones for being all over the map emotionally.

"Why does this all seem so easy?" I whispered.

"Pregnancy doesn't seem easy from this viewpoint," Edward muttered.

"Not that. I mean us," I emphasized. No past relationship, even in the high points, was this natural. We meshed too well for having only known each other for a few months.

"Would you rather it wasn't? I can't answer that. At the risk of losing my man card, maybe you and I were just meant to be together," he said softly with a kiss on my forehead. Well, that sure did get the tears started.

"How do you know?" I whispered.

"I don't. But, Bella, we'll make this work. I promise."

And just like that, as we were sitting on the bathroom floor, I knew life was going to be okay. I had Edward and no one in the world was as lucky as I was.


As always, thoughts are welcomed so please leave a review!

~Audrey