Disclaimer: SM owns everything
Emmett and I made sure that we filled out all the paper work for the camping trip. They gave us a whole packet full of questions that needed to be answered about us and our sons. We filled out the last page two days before the trip. Normally I would have gone to turn them in except that Renesmee came down with a stomach virus and my doctor/father instincts took over to take care of her. Emmett was free and said that he would take care of everything and turn in both of our paper work.
He forgot.
I'd already told Anthony about the trip. He actually seemed to be excited about it. The day of our adventure I had both of us ready and dressed. We were just waiting for Emmett to come by and pick us up. When I answered the door, he stood before me like a child waiting to be sent into the principles office.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I answered the door.
"Um... this morning I was cleaning out my jeep, getting ready for the trip..." he began.
"And?" I said. I wasn't liking where our conversation was going.
"AndIfoundourtripforms" he spit out. He smiled. "I'm glad I got that off my chest!"
I pinched the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. "Emmett! You told me you had everything taken care of" I snapped. "Anthony was actually excited about the trip. Do you have any idea hold crushed he's going to be when he finds out we're not going?" I looked behind me at Anthony who was sitting on one of the stairs playing his Nintendo DSi.
"Rose already yelled at me, but don't worry, I talked to dad about and he said we can have a camp out in the backyard tonight, plus he said he wants to come, Jasper too. Ty's already there."
Our parents estate was enormous. They lived outside of the Forks city limits. Their backyard was one hundred and five acres of pure forest, the next best place to have a camping trip. Complete with a stream, three ponds, and a meadow, it was one of the most beautiful places in all of Forks. It was fun growing up with a yard that big. I remember Carlisle would play hide and seek with us for hours out there.
"Fine" I said. "Just let me tell Bella."
I moved aside and Emmett came barreling in, scratching Mozart behind the ear as he came. I left him downstairs with Anthony and Mozart. They chattered about the game Anthony was playing a I walked up the stairs to the bedroom.
Bella was propped up against two pillows watching tv. Renesmee was laying against her. Her small head was in Bella's lap as Bella stroked her hair. Even though Renesmee was feeling better, she always had an excuse to get in our bed.
Bella looked up as I approached. "Are you leaving now?"
"Yep, but not to the camping grounds."
"Why not?" she asked confused.
"Emmett forgot to turn in our paper work, so we're not aloud to go. So Carlisle and Esme offered to let us camp out in their backyard for tonight" I explained.
"That sucks. I know Anthony was really excited about going on a real camping trip. Have you told him yet?"
"No, but Emmett's downstairs with him now. He might have told him already" I sighed. "But my parents yard might as well be a camping ground so I think we'll still have a lot of fun. Plus I feel a little but better knowing I'm going to be closer to you and Renesmee." Our daughter was half asleep and didn't even acknowledge me when I spoke her name. I'd given her some benadryl earlier and it had been making her sleepy.
"We'll be fine. Alice said she be by later to help plan the nursery. She want a baby blue color, and clouds."
"Isn't earlier for that. Neither one of you are even four months yet. We don't even know what we are having" We hadn't talked about the nursery yet. I thought it was still to earlier, thought Bella thought we should plan ahead and try to get the twins use to everything.
Before Bella could answer, Emmett came stomping in, waking up Renesmee as he did.
"Come on lil' bro. We got's to go" he said playfully punching me on the shoulder.
"We can talk about this later" Bella called as Emmett practically dragged me out the door.
"Are you ready dad?" Anthony asked me excitedly as we packed the things in Emmett's jeep.
"I am, but you do know that we are going camping at Grandpa Carlisle's right?"
"Yep! That just makes it even more fun!" he said happily as he climbed into the backseat on the jeep.
~O~
Esme greeted us at the door with a loving smile and a plate of cookies. "I know my boys must be hungry" she said warmly.
"Hi Nana!" Anthony said enveloping her in a hug. "We're camping at your house."
"I know" she nodded. "Your grandfather is already out back setting up the tents. I think Ty and Jasper are out there too."
"I'll go help him" Emmett offered after kissing our mother on the cheek. Anthony followed.
"So Edward" my mom began after we were alone. "How's everything going? I heard Renesmee was sick."
"Yeah, she's got some type of stomach virus. I gave her some medicine and it seems to be helping. She's been clinging to Bella a lot lately. I don't think Bella minds that much because usually it's the exact opposite. Anthony sticks to her and Renesmee sticks to me."
"You and Alice were like that. You were and still are a mama's boy all the way. I wouldn't worry to much about it though. Once they become teenagers, they won't want anything to do with you" she chuckled as she walked towards the kitchen. I smiled and followed her. "How about you and Bella?"
"We're fine. We have been talking a lot more since our big argument. Neither one of us want to sink that low again" I answered quietly.
"Good. I don't want you to either" my mother answered as she busied herself by slicing up some fruit. "I really think this pregnancy is going to be different for the both of you. With you being a full time daddy now and already having two kids who crave attention, you and Bella are going to have to work together. I don't want you upsetting Bella by saying something disrespectful and unnecessary."
"Yes ma'am" I agreed.
"Have you picked out any names?" she changed the subject to something lighter.
"Yep. Masen if it's a boy, and Carlie if it's a girl" I answered proudly as I leaned against the counter.
"I like them" my mom smiled. "Alice has already picked out names too. Either Sophia or Connor. I think both Alice and Jasper are really hoping to have a girl."
"Well, I don't mind what we have as long as it has ten finger and ten toes" I smiled.
"Good for you Edward."
"Uncle Edward, come on!" Ty came running into the kitchen. "Everything is set up and we were waiting for you!"
"Okay. I'm coming" I said as I pushed myself away from the counter. I kissed my mother on the cheek and walked out the side door to the patio.
"Well, nice of you to join us Edward" my dad greeted as I walked towards the four tents he had set up. They were the same tents we used when we were younger.
"Yeah, we've just been waiting since forever" Emmett let out an overly exaggerated sigh. "I thought I was going to start menopause."
"Whatever Emmett. You were just talking about how how hungry you were not ten seconds ago" Jasper shot at him. "Not to mention that you didn't help set up anything."
"I handed you the hammered when you were setting up the tent, so ha!" my older brother stuck his tongue out. I seriously didn't think that he would ever grow up.
"Enough you two. It's time to get started" Carlisle hushed them. "I thought we would start out with-"
"A game of hide and seek!" Emmett interuppted him eagerly.
"I like that idea" Anthony agreed, nodding his head.
"Well" my father began. "I was going to say we could have taken the four wheelers out for a spin, but if hide and seek is what everyone wants to do then it's fine with me."
"NO!" we all screamed in unison.
There were three four wheelers. Each one could seat two people, so naturally Emmett and I paired up with our sons and Jasper rode with Carlisle. Jasper didn't mind though, he wanted some parenting tips. Jasper and Rose's father died when they were two. He was an alcoholic and was in a drunk driving accident. Growing up Carlisle was their father figure.
"We'll meet back here in an hour. That will give us all plenty of time to see everything" Carlisle instructed over the roar of his engine before he and Jasper sped off. After Emmett finished helping Ty with his helmet, they went off in the opposite direction leaving Anthony and I at the tents.
"Why aren't we going daddy?" Anthony looked over at me. The helmet looked huge on top of his small head. He was to cute for words.
"Because I didn't want the others to follow us. I want to show you a special place I found when I was about your age" I smiled looking down at him. He nodded and tried to get comfortable in his seat belt.
When I was sure neither my dad nor Emmett was around, Anthony and I sped north through the wooded area. I was sure that we were going to end up walking part of the way there. I wasn't completely sure of how far we could go to get to the place on a four wheeler.
As Anthony and I rode, I pointed out all the different types of trees we passed. He watched in fascination at all of the animals we passed. Some of the more bold dear ran beside the four wheel, following us in our journey. My son giggled at them and I couldn't help but join in.
We were about half a mile away when the trees began to get to thick for me to drive through.
"Are we there already?" Anthony asked as we came to a stop.
"Not quite" I said unsnapping his helmet before unsnapping my own.
"Oh, well I have to pee."
"There are plenty of trees around" I answer as we climbed out of the four wheeler.
"You mean I have to pee outside?" he asked in horror.
"It's okay, we're men. We don't always need to have a bathroom to pee."
Anthony made no attempt on moving. "I'd rather pee in my pants" he said crossing his arms.
"That's what you're going to be doing if you don't go" I warned him. We stood there, just looking at each other for a moment. I sighed knowing that Anthony was just as stubborn as his mother. "If you're nervous, I will do it with you" I offered.
"Okay" he said hesitantly.
We walked over to the nearest tree. Anthony watched me, waiting for me to make the first move. I unzipped my pants and pulled my manhood though. Anthony was wearing sweat pants, so he pulled his pants all the way down to his ankles. "We don't need to pull our pants down that far. We just need enough space for our penis' to have room" I informed him. He nodded. I started first, and I guess it gave him the courage to do it too.
I really didn't need to go because I went before we left the house. Anthony was done within a few minutes after me. He smiled at me when he was done. "I feel better now" he sighed happily rubbing his abdomen. I pulled out some hand sanitizers from my pocket and squirted some on both of our hands. When we were done, we started off in the direction of my secret place.
"Anthony" I said as we walked. "I want to talk to you about the baby."
His brow furrowed. "What about it? Is there something wrong with him?"
"No" I assured him. "I just want to know how you feel about being an older brother."
"I'm think I'm going to like it" he smiled but he seemed sad "But that means you won't be around any more."
"Why do you think that?" I asked him as I helped him over a over turned log.
"Because all you and mommy are going to think about is the baby. You might play with Nessie some days, but you aren't going to have any time for me" he said softly. Anthony and I never had the father son bond that I had with my dad. Renesmee was always stuck to my hip at home, but Anthony was always stuck on Bella's. It never dawned on me that Anthony felt left out even though I always tried to include him. Starting today that was all going to change.
I stopped him and kneeled down so that I was eye level with him. "Anthony, I am your father. I want you to feel safe and loved at all time when you're with me. When ever you feel like you want to talk, you can come to me. I'm going to be around a lot more now, and I want to spend more time with you too." I hugged him. "When the baby comes somethings might be a little different. Your mother and I might not be available at all time, but we will both always love you and Renesmee."
I held my son tight, hoping I could send him all my love though our hug.
"I love you daddy" Anthony murmured against my chest.
"I love you too buddy" I smiled.
Anthony seemed to open up with me more after our conversation. In fact he didn't stop talking the entire walk to our destination. He told me his favorite color: Brown. His favorite animal: Snow leopard, and all of his favorite cartoons: Mario, Spongebob, Bob the Builder, and Hey Arnold. By the time we finished our walk, I had to have known about sixty new facts about him. I was glad he was opening up to me. The only thing that did stop him from chattering is the view he saw when I pulled back a branch revealing my meadow.
I was lucky that Emmett was to lazy to follow the stream until it ended, because when it did, it feel down a beautiful waterfall. The soft sound of tricking water was very relaxing to me. I'd only shown two other person this place and that was my mother and Bella. I'd proposed to her here right after our freshman year of college. I was going to have to bring Renesmee here one day when she was feeling better.
"What is this place?" Anthony asked as near gently stroked the petal to one of the flowers growing beside him.
"This is my meadow. It's a special place to me, but it is also a secret" I told him.
"I like it here."
"I do too. This is where I asked your mother to marry me" I told him.
"And she said yes?"
"Well not at first. She thought that we were to young to truly be in love."
"I believe young people can be in love, just like I believe in Santa and the tooth fairy" Anthony smiled.
Anthony and I stayed at the meadow for until the shy began to darken. We watched the small frogs and fish swimming in the stream and climbed some of the trees whose branches were low enough and watched the sunset. It was an enjoyable evening. It was exactly type of bonding time I wanted to spend with my son.
I was laying on my back with my arms behind my head. Anthony lay beside me, resting his head on my chest. We were watching the stars in the sky. It wasn't until I felt my pants vibrating that I remembered the time.
I pulled my phone out of my left pocket and opened it to see that I had missed seven calls, along with an unread text. Thankfully none of them were from Bella, I didn't want her to be in trouble, or panicking trying to reach me. They were all from Emmett, Jasper, and Carlisle. I opened my message.
U were suppose to be back two hours ago! If I dont hear back from you within the next 30mins Im going to assume something is wrong and we r going to come look for you
-Dad
Shit! I had completely forgotten. Luckily the message had only been sent ten minutes ago. I quickly text back.
Sorry. Lost track of time. On our way now
-E
"Come on Anthony" I said sitting up. "We have to go. Everyone is waiting on us."
He groaned. "I'm to tired to walk" he complained as he stood up.
"I'll carry you" I said as I lift him into my arms. I was glad that he was a little lighter than average, or else carrying him half a mile would have been difficult. I walked swiftly and all that could be heard were my foot steps and the chirping crickets. Suddenly an incredible howl filled the air. From the sound of it, it wasn't any where close by, but since Anthony and had been sitting in silence for the past few hours it scared us both.
"What was that?" Anthony shot up.
"A wolf" I answered walking fast.
"Uncle Jacob says that his tribe came from wolves. Some of the elders can even change into them. Maybe it's one of them trying to say hello to us!" he said trying to look around the darkening forest.
"I don't think anyone from his tribe will want to say hello to me" I scuffed.
"Why not?"
"Because we just don't get along" I told. I didn't want to get into to much detail about this, because no matter how much I despised Jacob Black, he meant something to my children. As much as I hated it, he was like an uncle to them. Jacob had been best friends with Bella since they were practically born. When we had the twins he never held a grudge or mistreated them. I couldn't let our past mess up my kids relationship with him.
We arrived at the four wheeler minutes later. I fix Anthony's helmet on and strapped him into his seat belt. I got my helmet on too and we drove off. If was a was twenty minute drive back and it was dark by the time we got back to the clear part of my parents yard. I could see the lights from the house on as we approached.
"Where on earth were you two?" Carlisle asked anxiously as he came from the house. I could see the worry wrinkles across his forehead. They were his only signs of ageing. Anthony stayed quite, not wanting to reveal the secret of the meadow.
"We were sight seeing and we lost track of time" I lied. "I'm sorry dad. I didn't mean to worry you guys."
"Moms freaking out" Emmett said as he too came out of the kitchens back door. "You might want to go tell her you and Anthony are okay. Jasper's inside trying to calm her down."
"I will" I nodded.
I left Anthony with his grandfather and uncle and came inside. My mother was sitting at the kitchen table fiddling with her fingers. Jasper was sitting beside her, reassuring her that Anthony and I would be here any minute. Ty wasn't paying them any attention. Instead he was making it his goal to eat as many cookies as he could before he got caught.
"Mom."
"Oh Edward!" my mother rushed over to me and wrapped her arms tightly around me. "You had me so worried. You know how much I hate you anyone going into that amazon. Don't you ever do that to me again!"
I'd gotten lost out there for two days when I was six. I was just being a curious little and was following a baby rabbit when I realized that I had no idea where I was. Esme was the one who found me in the meadow, but she now had hated anybody else going out there ever since. The only reason she didn't cut all the trees down was because of all the animals who would lose their homes.
"I'm sorry mom. I just lost track of time" I apologized.
"What in the hell were you going that would make you late by two hours Edward?" she snapped.
"I was showing Anthony something" I mumbled.
"You went to that place didn't you?" she looked up knowingly. "I knew it."
"What place?" Jasper asked as he stood up from his seat.
" It's just a little waterfall that takes some time to find" I lied once again. My mother knew I was lying and my eyes begged her not to call me out.
"Oh" he said bored as he turned to Ty. "Come on cookie monster. If you eat anymore of those, you won't have any room for the hot-dogs we're suppose to be roast outside."
As they left my attention was turned back to my mom.
"I really am sorry, but Anthony and I were perfectly safe."
She sighed deeply. "I'll never understand you Edward" she said walking over to the oven and pulling out a casserole.
"I thought we were eating hot-dogs?" I said as I watched her. The smell of her food was mouth watering.
"You are. This is for me. You boys don't expect me to eat hot-dogs for dinner now do you?"
I chuckled. "I guess not" I said as I joined the other out side.
~O~
We roasted two packages of hot-dogs and three whole bags of marshmallows. Anthony had no problem eating junk food. After both Ty and and Anthony had finished their third s'more, they were having miniature sugar rushes. Ty couldn't stay still for the life of him. We let the kids run around and play tag with Jasper while we cleaned everything up.
"How about some ghost stories?" Carlisle offered. Our father was a pro at telling ghost stories. I remembered being terrified of staying in my own sleeping bag when we went camping and always sneaking into his.
"Nothing to scary... for the kids" Emmett said nervously.
"Sure thing" Carlisle smiled.
After cleaning up and a bathroom break, everyone was seated around the portable fire pit. Soon after we began. "Okay" Carlisle began. "This story is about the Bear Lake Monster."
"This isn't going to be too scary is it?" Anthony asked his grandfather, holding on tightly to my arm.
"It shouldn't be" Carlisle assured him. "But if you travel to Bear Lake in Utah on a quiet day, you just might catch a glimpse of the Bear Lake Monster. The monster looks like a huge brown snake and is nearly 90 feet long. It has ears that stick out from the side of its skinny head and a mouth big enough to eat a man. According to some, it has small legs and it kind of scurries when it ventures out on land. But in the water - watch out! It can swim faster than a horse can gallop - makes a mile a minute on a good day. Sometimes the monster likes to sneak up on unwary swimmers and blow water at them. The ones it doesn't carry off to eat, that is."
"I don't wanna hear this" Anthony said getting up and scurrying over to out tent. I followed suit, not wanting him to be alone and scared.
"We hadn't even gotten to the good part yet Anthony" I said as I climbed into the tent beside him.
"I don't like scary things. I would rather you tell me a bedtime story."
"Umm... what type of bedtime story?" I didn't think to bring any of his books with us to read, and I could never remember which character went with which story. I always got everything mixed up.
"Just tell me one" Anthony rolled his eyes as he snuggled into his sleeping bag.
"Okay..." I began trying to think of how these stories began. "Once upon a time a little girl named Goldie Locks was walking in the forest. She found a hole in the ground and fell in. Inside the hole was a rabbit who told her she was in Wonderland."
"Daddy that Alice in Wonderland, not Goldie Locks!"
"Just go along with it. I might end up making a cooler bed time story than all of the other one you've heard."
"Whatever" he mumbled.
"So in Wonderland there was this really tall man named Paul Bunyan. Paul and Goldie Locks met the Three Little Pigs and went out to and had a picnic. They fell asleep in Rapunzel's castle, but there was a tomato under the frogs mattress so he couldn't sleep. The End" I smiled proudly.
Thankfully Anthony was already pretty tried and didn't fight me when I tucked him into his sleeping bag. I kissed him goodnight and told him again how much I loved him again before I too decided to call it a night. It was already ten thirty. I contemplated calling Bella and checking up on everything at home, but I knew she was probably already asleep. I didn't want to wake up either of my girls.
I crawled into my sleeping bag which was right next Anthony's. As I lay there half asleep my mind was at ease. My family was alive and well, and money wasn't an issue for us. I now had more free time to spend with my kids and my marriage was on the right track again . I felt as if everything was exactly the way it was suppose to be.
I know I haven't updated lately, and I'm sorry. I want to get this up before Christmas and was determined to get it up today.
I'm trying to move this story along, so next chapter Bella will be either 5 or 6 months along. The twins will be back in school and Edward will be experiencing what it feels like to be a full time dad. I still need more votes for the gender of the baby. I'm pretty much tied.
FanFic Rec: How to Paint a House- Bella Swan is a naive fifteen year old, set to spend another kiss-less summer alone. Edward is new to town, and doesn't know a soul. Watch an unlikely friendship blossom over the simple task of painting a house. But for these two, nothing is simple. (Maggie's Gutter)
Happy Holidays