A/N: So, it's almost Monday... I'm sorry, I meant to update yesterday, but I got caught up in RL stuff. Thanks for all of the reviews for chapter 9. Hopefully everyone received their teaser. Some of you have some very interesting theories on where this story is going. :)

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 10: The Idea of You

"I fall so hard inside the idea of you

That's why with you can't say what I mean

Wanna stay but I think I'm getting' outta here

I fall so hard inside the idea of you."

Edward eyed the clock that hung on the wall behind a metal cage in the common room. Even the clock here was confined. Just like him. He tapped his foot nervously as he ran his fingers over the carvings that had been made on the table. Years of past inmates had gouged messages or even just their initials in the once smooth wood. He wondered what they had used, but even his short time behind bars had taught him that inmates in prison could be incredibly resourceful when they needed to be.

How many days into his sentence was he now? Already he was losing track it seemed. He thought back to movies he'd seen where prisoners had carved marks into the walls of their cells to mark the passage of time. At the time it had seemed comical to him, but now he could see the logic behind the action.

It was almost his designated visiting hour. He tried to fight down the hope which had begun to rise up. The last visitor he'd had was Bella, and that had been three days ago. She'd left with the promise that she'd send Jasper so that Edward could try and talk some sense into him, but what if she'd failed? Or what if she had changed her mind and just taken off? She had said she wasn't meeting Jessica for a week, but plans could change.

The helplessness he felt from being completely clueless on the inside without any way to get information was killing him. He could handle the monotonous days; he could handle the rotten food; he could even handle the threatening looks he received from his fellow inmates in an attempt to intimidate him. But he could not handle the not knowing.

The designated hour came and slipped past. Edward felt hopelessness bubbling up inside him, threatening to drag him down. Each day he made an effort to venture out of his cell whenever he was allowed. He sat in the common area, he went outside to the rec yard whenever possible, all in an effort to maintain some sort of a routine and schedule. It would be easy for him to just lie in his cell and stare at the ceiling for days at a time. He'd seen it before. He'd walked past the cells of men who sat listlessly, eyes unseeing as they hopelessly awaited the inevitable passage of time. Edward had vowed not to become one of those men, but already the despair was threatening to pull him under.

A guard entered the room, and Edward took almost no notice. He rested his chin on his hand and stared at the small rectangular windows that ran along the top of the massive common room wall. He could just make out a sliver of blue sky through the window, and the sight made him yearn for more. How was he going to make it through the next three years?

Something drew his attention, and Edward realized the guard was signaling him. Puzzled, he sat up and looked at the guard. "Cullen? Inmate number 663238?" the guard asked as he approached Edward, clipboard in hand.

Edward swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. "That's me," he managed.

"We've been calling you from the control room for five minutes," the guard said, exasperation clear in his voice. "You've got a visitor."

If the table hadn't been bolted to the floor, Edward was pretty sure he would have upended it in his rush to stand. The guard, a seasoned professional, took a step back, his hand moving to the belt at his waist that housed his artillery of inmate containment weapons. "Easy, son," he said.

"Sorry," Edward mumbled. "I just haven't had a visitor in a while." He smiled a little sheepishly at the guard. The guard looked him over, and obviously determining Edward was not an immediate threat, he smiled back.

"Cuff up," he said, holding out the cuffs for Edward's wrists. Edward held his hands out obediently, and soon he was being escorted down the hallway to the visitors' section. The guard let him into the room, uncuffing him before leaving him alone. Jasper was sitting at the table, phone receiver already to his ear as he waited for Edward to arrive.

"I didn't think anyone would come today," Edward admitted as he sat down.

Jasper shrugged. "Sorry. Traffic."

Edward wanted to say something sarcastic about him being stuck in traffic for days, but he decided against it. Given what he had to propose to his brother, he didn't want to start their visit off on a contentious note.

"So how are things in the clink?" Jasper asked, smirking.

Edward rolled his eyes. "Oh, just great. I'm really looking forward to next week. They said if I continue to behave, I'll get to be on laundry duty. It's almost more than I can hope for."

Jasper grinned, and for a moment it felt like old times. But then Edward remembered the glass partition that separated them and the guard that was waiting for him just outside the door. No, it definitely wasn't like old times. Somehow he knew that things would never be the same again.

"So Bella said that you really needed to talk to me," Jasper said, face growing serious again.

Edward nodded and took a deep breath. A pit of fear began to form in his stomach as he realized for the first time that he was completely powerless in this situation. He could ask, he could beg, he could even threaten, but in the end, if Jasper decided to go his own way, there'd be nothing Edward could do about it. He gulped, trying to push the fear down, and continued.

"Well, Bella told me that you two are planning to part ways in a few days," Edward began.

Jasper nodded and rolled his eyes. "I know what you're going to say, Edward, but I already told you, I can't babysit her for you while you're in here."

Edward shook his head. "No, just hear me out. I don't want you to babysit her. I know I may have given you that impression the last time, but that's not what I want. Besides," he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as he said the next few words. "-Bella is quite capable of taking care of herself. I'm sure she'd resent the idea of being babysat."

Jasper smiled in spite of himself and nodded. "Okay, so what then?" he asked.

"Well, I've been thinking. Maybe things don't have to change that much."

"How do you mean?" Jasper asked, eyebrow raised skeptically.

"Well, hear me out, okay?" Edward held his hand up to his brother, already anticipating Jasper's objections. "What if we continued to work together? You two would work on the outside just like we used to, and of course I'd be in here, but I could sort of organize everything and mastermind the whole thing." Edward glanced around at the empty room, never quite sure if his conversations were being overheard or not.

The laugh that escaped Jasper was short and harsh. "I don't think so."

Edward bristled. "So that's it? You don't even want to hear some of the ideas I've had? Or was it the term 'mastermind' that has you upset? I know that you think you've always been the brains of our operation, but I've had some good ideas too."

Jasper smiled a small smile. "I know you have. Look, I understand what you're saying, Edward, I do. I just don't see how it's ever going to work," he said as he leaned back, crossing his arms and propping the telephone receiver on his shoulder.

"Of course it will work. It worked before." Edward paused and looked at his brother. "Look, as much as you're irritated by Bella, you have to admit that the past three months, up until I got arrested, were our best months."

Jasper's ankle bobbed up and down from where it was resting on his knee. He stared at his brother skeptically for a moment. "Alright, I admit we did really well," Jasper said finally. Edward raised an eyebrow at him, waiting. "Alright, we did better than we ever did before!" Jasper admitted, throwing his hands up in the air. "But that was before, Edward. I don't see how we can do nearly as well with you sitting in here!" Jasper cried, gesturing to the room they were in.

"I know it's going to be different, but trust me, I've got nothing but time on my hands now. I've already come up with some really good ideas of…things we haven't done yet that you and Bella can do in a heartbeat." The excitement in Edward's voice was evident.

Jasper continued to stare skeptically at his brother. "I don't know," he said stubbornly.

"Come on, Jasper. What the hell else are you going to do? Go off on your own? You know that'll never work. At least give this a shot." Edward was beginning to lose patience with his brother's stubbornness.

Jasper clenched his jaw. "I guarantee I'll do better on my own than wasting time babysitting your little girlfriend," he spat angrily at Edward.

Edward took a deep breath in through his nose and gripped the receiver. "Don't do that!" he roared into the phone. "Don't trivialize her like that. You've never given her a fair shot. All she's ever tried to do was please you and stay out of your way, and all you've ever done is show her how much you can't stand her!" Edward shouted. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, rubbing them with the heel of his hand. After a moment he continued. This time his voice was a little calmer. "Look, Jasper, I don't expect you to understand. You've never felt this way about anyone. But I hope someday you will, and when you do, I'd like to think that I'd do everything in my power to take care of them when you couldn't." His eyes bore into Jasper's as he finished speaking. He knew he was laying on the guilt pretty thick, but he felt desperate. He couldn't let Bella be out there on her own, without him. The helplessness he'd felt before reared its head and threatened to take him down. "Please do this for me," he whispered.

Jasper's jaw twitched for a moment as he stared at his brother. "Fine," he hissed. "But I'm telling you, the minute she screws something up, I'm out."

Edward nodded, relief flooding him. "Thank you. I promise you won't regret this!" he cried, wishing he could hug his brother.

"Yeah, yeah," Jasper grumbled. "Alright, do you need anything?" he asked. Edward shook his head. "Okay, well I'm going to go break the good news to Bella, then," Jasper said sarcastically.

Edward nodded. "Okay, and when you come back tomorrow, we'll discuss our plans."

Jasper nodded and the brothers hung up. Jasper was up and out of the room before Edward could even stand. Having been alerted to Edward's visitor's departure, the guard stepped back into the room, cuffs in hand. Edward hardly noticed the restraints that bound him now, though.

The old guard eyed him skeptically for a moment. "You get good news or something?" he asked as they made their way back to Edward's cell.

"You have no idea," Edward answered, holding his wrists out to be freed once he had been secured in his cell. "Do you think I could get some paper and a pencil?" he asked, rubbing his wrists reflexively.

"I'll see what I can do," he answered. "I'm sure I can find you something."

Edward sat down on his cot, ideas swirling in his head. He needed to get them out and down on paper before he lost them all. Luckily, a short time later, the guard returned with a small notepad and pencil. The notepad was a composition book. The type held together with glue rather than a metal spiral that could potentially be used as a weapon. The pencil was the kind that you would find on a golf course. Edward supposed the warden deemed those pencils small enough to be reasonably safe in the hands of inmates. He chuckled a little to himself as he thought of all the ways he'd already seen inmates turn the most basic items into improvised weapons. He doubted anyone would have much of a challenge with something like a pencil.

He spent the next few hours hastily jotting down notes. He knew better than to list names, so instead he came up with what he felt was a complex code system so that if his notes fell into the wrong hands, they couldn't provide anyone with any information that could be detrimental to the three of them.

He hardly noticed the hour until the guard slid the tray of food through the specially designed trap in his door. Only then did he feel his stomach rumble with hunger.

Edward carefully stowed the notebook and pencil under his mattress and picked up the tray of food. None of the food in prison was particularly appetizing, but tonight he ate with relish as the ideas and plans continued to flood his brain.

For the first time in a long time, Edward actually fell asleep with a smile on his face that night. He couldn't wait for his visit with Bella the next day when he'd begin to share some of the plans he'd outlined with her.

Morning came, and Edward spent his designated hour in the rec yard. The sun was bright and warm, and he stripped down to his tank top as he played a game of three-on-three with some other inmates from his floor. By the time his hour was up, he was hot and sweaty and invigorated. Before heading to the shower, he checked with the guards to make sure his visiting hour had not been changed. It hadn't, so he showered and dressed in a clean jumpsuit before sitting down in the common room to wait.

It felt like an eternity before the caged clock finally dragged its sluggish hands to the appropriate hour. This time, Edward would be waiting when the guard announced the arrival of his visitor. Again the hour came and went, but Edward reminded himself that Jasper had been late the day before. The next hour came and went also, and Edward panicked for a moment when he realized that maybe the guards weren't able to locate him in the common room. Hurriedly, he rose and rushed to the window separating the inmate's common room and the guard's control room. He rapped on the glass. A guard glared at him before turning on the speaker.

"Yes?" he asked, clearly annoyed. It was not the same guard who had been almost kind to him the day before.

"Sorry to bother you," Edward said. "I was just making sure…I'm supposed to have a visit today, but no one's called my name yet."

The guard rolled his eyes. "Well, if no one's called your name yet, then you don't have a visitor."

Edward grimaced and tried to control the surge of temper he felt. It would not benefit him to get himself into an altercation with a guard. "I understand. Is there any way you could just check anyway?"

The guard sighed and closed his magazine as he picked up a clipboard. "What's your name?"

"Cullen, Edward Cullen. Inmate number 663238."

The guard scanned his clipboard quickly. "Nope. You haven't had a visitor today. Sorry." Without even bothering to look in Edward's direction, the guard tossed the clipboard aside and went back to perusing his magazine.

Edward furrowed his brow. "Okay, so what happens if my visitor comes later today, after my visiting hour?"

The guard, having lost what little patience he had with what he considered ridiculous interruptions, sighed and glared at Edward. "Look, if your visitor comes today and it's past your designated visiting hour, they'll be turned away. They'll have to come back tomorrow. We can't just have people coming to visit at all hours, now can we?"

Edward clenched his jaw and muttered a hurried "thank you" before shuffling back to the table. He sunk down, completely deflated. What could have kept Bella from visiting him? Surely Jasper had talked to her and filled her in on their plan? Dread filled Edward as another possibility occurred to him. Bella had made it seem as though it was all Jasper's idea for the two of them to part ways, but what if she'd only done that to spare Edward's feelings? What if she really didn't want to stick around either? Would she tell him?

Visions of Bella and Jasper discussing their mutual disregard for Edward's plan filled Edward's head. Would they even tell him if they decided to completely forgo his plan and go off on their own? Again the helplessness of his situation overwhelmed him, and Edward pressed his forehead to the table as a crippling dizziness came over him.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when the guard came over the intercom to announce the nightly lock down. Numbly, Edward rose from the table and shuffled back to his cell. The guard secured his cell door, and the sounds of the prison at night settled over him. Edward lay down on his cot, but sleep evaded him. He considered retrieving the notebook from under his mattress, but what was the point? All of his plans, all of his designs, the very things that were going to help Edward maintain his sanity for the next three years were probably all for naught at this point.

Five more days passed just like the one before, and Edward felt himself sinking deeper into depression. He had been in prison for almost a month at this point, but for the first time, he truly felt trapped. The walls of his cell seemed to be closing in on him each night. He spent as much time as he could out in the common area to avoid the debilitating claustrophobia that overtook him several times a day. The hour he was allowed in the rec yard was never enough, and Edward found himself trying to gulp down as many breaths of fresh air as possible as he was shuffled back inside each day.

Finally, his name was called. He'd lost track of the time, and didn't bother looking at the clock as he half heartedly raised his hand.

"Visitor," the voice on the intercom said.

Sure that he'd misheard, he tilted his head to the side, staring at the faceless speaker box above him.

"Cullen, visitor," the voice repeated.

Edward's heart leapt. Once again, he sprung up from the table and met the guard halfway across the room in his enthusiasm, eagerly holding his wrists out to be restrained.

He nearly wept at the sight of her sitting there, receiver in hand, waiting for him. He tripped to his seat, fumbling with the phone, nearly dropping it in his haste.

"Oh, Bella, why didn't you come?" he choked, the tears threatening to spill from his eyes as he greedily took her in.

She smiled, and it was then that he realized something was wrong. He smile was tight, her face was paler than usual, and the fingers of her free hand didn't seem to be able to stop fidgeting with her shirt.

"What's wrong?" he asked, fear gripping him.

She took a deep breath and then her face contorted as if she were in pain. She looked desperately around the room, her eyes settling on the trash bin in the corner. She dove for it and Edward watched helplessly as she heaved into the basket, his heart clenching in terror. What news could she possibly have that she was so afraid to tell him it made her violently ill?

Shaking, she set the bin back on the floor and wiped her mouth with a shaky hand. She sat back down and turned toward him, her face covered with a thin sheen of sweat. She closed her eyes for a moment and took several deep breaths before picking the phone back up.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Bella, what's wrong? What's happened?" Edward asked, desperate for information. "Is it Jasper? Has something happened to Jasper?" Terror gripped Edward's heart and squeezed.

Eyes closed, Bella shook her head. "No, Jasper's fine, I promise. I just…" She trailed off and dropped her eyes to the table.

Edward pressed his hand against the glass, willing it to disappear so he could scoop her into his arms. What could possibly have her so distressed?

"Bella, please tell me. If you and Jasper have changed your minds about our plan, just tell me. I'm sure we can work everything out; I just need to know. You can't know how crazy I've been going in here not knowing what's been going on—"

Bella held up a trembling hand to stop him, and Edward realized he'd been rambling. His mouth snapped closed, and he took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down as he waited for her to speak.

"Edward, I'm pregnant," Bella said, finally meeting his eyes.

A/N: Did you guess it? Let me know what you think. :)

Love you all! Thanks for reading!