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Chapter 10, Almost Christmas

Jessica Stanley could talk, Bella thought. She was babbling in the cubicle next to Bella, talking to someone on her cell phone. Something about what someone did at the company holiday party. Bella had been invited, but she didn't go. She'd been working as a temp at the company Jasper and Ben worked for only a week before the party, so she felt weird going. Jessica went, and was clearly catching someone up on everything that had happened. If there was a gold medal for mindless gossip, it would be awarded to Miss Jessica Stanley. Bella could almost picture it, Jessica standing on a podium, bending forward making sure whoever was giving her the medal got a good eyeful of the double d implants she'd had done as a twenty-first birthday present from her mother. The gold medal bouncing on her perky bust, her bleached blonde hair poofed eight inches from her scalp, tight little red dress…

"Bella, did you hear what I said?" Miss Gossip Girl herself was speaking to her. "I said, one of the bosses, Mr. Cullen, is going to be here today. He is what you'd call a "tragic figure". He lost his wife, his pregnant wife," Jessica's eyes swept over Bella's rounded belly in an accusatory manner, "six weeks ago. Seeing you might trigger something. So if he walks through here, don't get up. 'Kay?"

Bella went back to her work, checking insurance payments against coding. It was a bit mind numbing, which Bella figured was good for Jessica because she certainly couldn't use too much of her mind for work, that would cut down on her gossiping.

She'd seen Mr. Cullen's office, but not the man himself. He was the Chief Financial Officer, but Jasper said he was really a jack of all trades; in charge of all the buildings North Jersey Medical Corp owned, investments, purchasing new equipment, billing, human resources and advertising. He was the only one in his family who worked the business side. His parents; Dr's. Esme and Carlisle Cullen were a pediatrician and an internist, his stepbrother, Emmett, and his wife Rosalie, orthopedic surgeons. The other partners in the group, the Denali's, were radiologists.

Jasper actually admired the man. "The doctors get the glory, but he keeps the place running. A lot of doctors joined NJMC because they don't want to deal with the financial end of being a doctor. They don't want to deal with the paperwork, politics, landlords, negotiating with insurance companies. That's where we come in."

Bella wished she'd been paying more attention to what Jasper and Ben had said when they talked about their work at the company. At the time she was just happy for the cozy sweatshirt; she never imagined she'd be working here.

She needed to work over the school break, and the company needed temporary workers to fill in for vacationing staff. Her nursing background gave her an edge, and she moved from answering the phones to this position quickly. With Jasper giving her a ride to work, she was really socking away some money. She'd been in touch with Jacob by email, and he'd promised her at least $75 a week, which wasn't much, but was enough to at least cover diapers and formula. She couldn't see herself pumping between classes, even though breast feeding would save her a lot of money. A lactation expert had come in to do a guest lecture for one of her classes. The woman pretty much equated women who didn't breast feed with people who abused their children. If only that expert could tell her where she could get the time to express milk while doing clinical rounds in the hospital or in the middle of a three hour lecture, or how she was supposed to find a refrigerator to keep the milk in between classes. Lactation expert; she should be called a guilt expert. Focus Bella, fix this code, worry about baby bottles when the baby is here.

Her stomach growled. Quiet missy! When she and Alice went for the ultrasound, Alice had texted Angela the results. So afterwards, when they got back to the apartment, Jasper, Ben and Angela were there with pink streamers hung from the windows and pink lemonade. Every day Alice haunted her for a name, but she wasn't ready for that. She wasn't ready for Alice's new passion; teeny tiny baby dresses, shoes and frilly tights, so Bella made Alice take some back. But she was convinced Alice hadn't returned the cute outfits, rather she had hidden them in her own room.

Every time she talked to Sue she felt guilty. This was the kind of thing a girl wanted to share with her mother. Alice and Ange were beyond wonderful, but they weren't her mom. And now she was lying to everyone. Sue and Charlie thought she was going to stay with Alice for Christmas. She told Alice and Ange that her family was coming to her on Christmas Day. They'd been happy that she was finally going to tell her parents that they were going to be grandparents.

Alice had said, "I have a great idea. Let's make a little pink Christmas stocking with the baby's name on it, and wrap it up and give it to Sue and Charlie as a gift. They'll be so surprised! Give me the name and I'll get right on it."

Bella replied, "I told you, I don't know the name yet. And I don't think they will be entirely surprised."

Angela had snorted in agreement. Bella's larger profile gave her away now. She was living in a few different pairs of black yoga pants and big t-shirts now. She didn't want to spend her money on maternity clothes if she could get away with it. Alice and her sewing machine had altered a few choice tops for her, and a number of Ben and Jasper's button down shirts had been pilfered for the cause.

Another stomach grumble. She'd never skipped breakfast before, but between dropping off Alice and Jasper at the airport, and the traffic on the turnpike, she hadn't had time to grab something. A sandwich truck stopped outside the office at twelve-thirty, so she'd just have to wait until then.

The coffee machine was working just fine anyway. Someone had brewed a fresh pot, and the scent of the roasted beans called to her. Of course, Jessica walked right past her with a cup.

Focus on codes, Bella, not taking down Jessica for her coffee.

Suddenly, the background voices stopped, and she looked up. The beautiful man from the airport, the same man from the picnic, was walking with a group of men and women, chattering as they moved towards his office. The bronze hair was a little shorter, and he looked a little paler , but he was still looking fine in that suit. His hands were cutting through the air as he spoke, but Bella had no idea what he was saying because a chorus of angels was singing in her ears. She needed to see if there was some way she could assist this beautiful man, in any way he needed.

She started to rise from her chair, when, with surprising strength, Jessica pushed her back down. "What did I tell you?" she hissed. "That's Edward Cullen. Dead wife, stay in your seat, remember?"

Bella shrank back down, but she could still see his very fine form go into the conference room next to his office. It figured. She would have the hots for a man who was deep in mourning, and was her boss' boss.

…

Tyler asked no one in particular, "Where the hell is the roach coach? I'm starving."

The sandwich truck was late. Of all the days, Bella thought, it's late the day I missed breakfast and didn't pack lunch. She dug around in the bottom of her bag, hoping for some gum or a mint. She remembered that Angela had stashed an emergency protein bar in there, then she remembered she already ate it Monday. She was going to buy at least two sandwiches and orange juice when this truck came, maybe even a hot cocoa.

Jessica was dawdling around Bella's desk, and you didn't have to be a genius to find her motivation. Bella's cubical had the best view to the conference room and Mr. Cullen's office. So much for Jessica's humanitarian wish to spare Mr. Cullen's feelings. Jessica just wanted to be first in line when he started looking for a new Mrs. Cullen.

Bella considered her own motivation. She'd been attracted to him by virtue of his beauty. How sexist of her. She didn't even know him. She'd always criticized people who dated based on superficial factors like looks or what car the person drove, and here she was doing the same thing. And he was in mourning and certainly not looking for an unmarried, pregnant 21 year old to rebuild his life. Face it, Bella; you need a Mr. Right Now. Quil would certainly do the job, if she wanted to hate herself for the rest of her life. She needed to adjust her expectations. She was now at the very bottom of the dating pool.

Maybe Mike was available.

Jessica had another fresh cup of coffee, by Bella's count that made number four. Did she have a hollow leg? Bella would have been in the bathroom fifty times if she'd consumed as much caffeine as Jessica had this morning. That's weird, she thought, I haven't been to the bathroom since I got here. Usually she was in and out at least three times by now.

The conference room door opened, and it seemed like the group was coming out in slow motion, in twos and threes. And then there he was, and her good intentions flew out the window. He ran his hand through that crazy hair and she wanted to do it for him. His tie looked a little looser. She wanted to take it off him and tie his…

It all happened at once.

Tyler running down the aisle shouting, "The roach coach is here, and I'm first in line."

Jessica moving backwards to avoid him, dropping her whole cup of hot coffee in Bella's lap.

Bella jumping up suddenly, but then her head was spinning, and everything blurring. As she was going down, the last thing she saw before she blacked out was the beautiful man running towards her.

Another crazy dream, Bella thought. In this one she thought she'd been in an ambulance; that Edward Cullen had carried her to his office and laid her down on the couch. But instead of taking her clothes off, he'd propped her feet up on a pillow and covered her with his jacket. What kind of sucky dream had no nudity? Even her dream self couldn't get lucky.

She must have forgotten to close the blinds the night before, the room was so bright. Nothing made sense when she finally opened her eyes. That elephant, Horton, from 'Horton Hears a Who' was painted on the wall, surrounded by Lorax trees. She never agreed to a Dr. Seuss nursery. When did Alice have time to do this? She was supposed to be in Louisiana with Jasper.

But then she saw the IV pole, hung with a slack bag of clear fluid. Something was strapped around her waist, and there was a white blanket was over her shoulders. She moved her hand to take the plastic cannula out of her nose when a nurse came in.

"Hold on, honey. Let's not pull out your tubes. I'm your nurse, Zafrina. Let's check you out."

She was a tall black woman with neat braids crossing her head. She pulled out a thermometer and said, "Open up."

While the thermometer was in her mouth, a cuff around her arm started to inflate. Zafrina nodded at the numbers. "Your blood pressure's still high, little mama, but it's coming down. We're loading you up with some glucose, since you were dehydrated, and your blood sugar was low. Did you forget to eat?"

Bella nodded guiltily.

"We'll fix you right up, sweetheart. You're in the maternity ward at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. We need to monitor your baby for twenty-four hours to make sure there's no fetal distress, and since you're a package deal, you'll need to stay with us too."

Bella nodded again, but then her lip began to tremble. The nurse laid her hand on her arm. "You'll be fine. Is there someone we can call? We had an Alice Brandon as your contact, but there was no answer."

"No, no one. Alice is away. Is it still December twenty-third?"

"Yes ma'am. I'm going to go find you something to eat."

Zafrina left, but a few beats later a man in a white lab coat peered in. "Knock, knock, can I come in?"

Bella nodded. He was tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked familiar. She glanced at the name stitched over his chest, Dr. Carlisle Cullen. "Isabella?"

"Just Bella."

"I'm sorry, Bella. There was a time when I knew the name of every person that worked for NJMC, their kids, their pets. I don't believe we've ever met."

"No, I just started."

"They're not working you to death, are they? That's no way to retain good employees."

She laughed, and he smiled back. "That's better. I didn't look at your chart since I'm here as your employer, not your doctor, but the EMT's told me it looked like you were dehydrated. How are you feeling now?"

"Stupid," she answered. "I'm a nursing student, I know better. I was just too busy this morning."

He looked over at the set of monitors on her left. "Sorry, I can't help but check your numbers. That's what doctors do. And your little one looks good too."

"Dr. Cullen, I don't know if I was dreaming, but did someone catch me?"

He nodded his whole upper body. "That would be Edward. He used to play soccer—he was the goalie; pretty fast reflexes. Of course, he is in charge of building maintenance as well. He may have wanted to avoid blood stains on the carpet."

She giggled and he patted her hand, sitting a business card on the table. "If you need to call me, if they're not treating you right, you call me. I do have some pull around here."

"I think I'm just going to go to sleep."

Dr. Cullen left, closing the door behind him.

She drifted off and dreamed she had had another visitor; that Edward Cullen sat in the chair next to her bed and stroked her hand while she slept.