Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to another...I own too many trainers and an excessive credit card bill.

Chapter 10 – Bella

When Bella Shows Edward a Scar

Whispers fought to get through my dream and wake me up. Jason Statham was saving the world from marauding dolphins as I looked on dressed inappropriately like a whore with an inflated rack that would make Pamela Anderson jealous. To be perfectly honest I didn't want to wake up, I was mere minutes away from indulging in some serious victorious fornication with the sexy Englishman.

I hate waking up before getting to the good stuff.

"Happy birthday, beautiful." A face nuzzled into my neck, two days worth of scruff scratched my skin and I hummed with happiness. I could feel arms and hands and lips on me, trying valiantly to bring me back to the real world.

"Mmmm, Jason." I sighed. The hands, lips and arms stopped all movement.

It was then that I realised that the body wrapped around me belonged to Edward and I was no longer in my dream world. I was thankful for that because dolphins had always freaked me out, so many people revered them and wanted to swim with them. Fuck. That.

Without opening my eyes I turned my body around to wrap around Edward.

"Who the fuck is Jason?"

"He's the defender of the earth against dolphins." I whispered close to his ear, my chin resting on his shoulder.

"I don't think I could compete with that."

"Luckily, you don't have to." Until the dolphins actually do try to take over the world, in which case Edward better have some mad skills or he is being abandoned for the nearest action hero with little to no hair.

"Now that you're actually awake I can tell you properly." He kissed along my shoulder. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you." I wanted to kiss the face off him but remembered morning breath issues just in time. "Waking up with you in my bed has already made this the best birthday ever." I sighed and swooned a little at the reality of it.

"If I had known you were this easily pleased I wouldn't have bothered with your present."

"I already told you, very seriously, that I didn't want a present."

"Tough." He could be so stubborn on some issues I had noticed. Most of the time he was happy to indulge me but there were some issues I couldn't budge him on. Like the whole cheese puff is a food group thing. I had resorted to having a stash at work due to all of the time we were spending together.

Ever since the day I found him asleep on my doorstep and skipped out on work early to seduce him we had spent every spare moment together. With the amount of time we each spent at work this didn't actually amount to much over the past week but we knew without saying that each second of leisure time was allocated to the other. It was kind of awesome having someone like me that much. No one ever had before.

Yet, with all the time spent with him, we still had not had our elusive third date.

This meant that there had been no penis entering the vagina fun.

But there had been lots of rounding the bases fun. That boy was all sorts of King with the bases. It was a wonder I could walk straight.

"What did you get me?" I may have told him no presents but that didn't mean I wasn't keen on finding out what it was.

"You'll find out later." He smiled against my neck where he had been kissing, nipping and sucking. I dug my nails into his back to show my displeasure, not expecting the sexy growl that would spring forth from him.

"Like that do you?" I muttered before doing it again, this time his hips pushed forward and his teeth nipped my skin harder which caused me to hitch my leg up over his hip. I crushed myself against the unyielding solidness of his body. There were parts of him that felt and looked like they had been chiselled out of marble but when I was pressed close to his body being held in his arms there was a hidden softness that comforted me.

There was nothing soft about the part of him pressing between my legs.

We writhed against each other, kissing the parts that we could reach. Edward's hands were tangled in my hair and he tugged my head gently back until he could kiss me properly, though I resisted because I was still in the try-not-to-make-him-throw-up phase of the relationship and was pretty sure that my morning breath was going to break that rule.

"Morning breath." I mumbled through lips that were clamped shut tighter than the cookie jar at fat camp.

"I don't care. Kiss me." His mouth wrapped around my earlobe, his hand splayed across my bare back to bring me half a millimetre closer. Any closer and I we were going to merge into one another.

If we started at the groin then it would be an incredibly happy merge.

Edward tried like a trooper to kiss me deeply, his soft lips curving against my hard lines. His tongue glanced across my mouth but I shook my head, our eyes locked with a look of frustration forming in the shape of a crease on his forehead.

"Love, please." One thing I learned over the past week was that whenever he said please I acquiesced. The sneaky little motherfudger must have picked up on it too. He smirked when he saw his victory in my eyes and his mouth closed over mine less than a second later.

His tongue was minty, making me realise that he must have been up longer than I thought. It slid against mine while he pushed against me until my back was flush with the mattress and he settled between my legs. Thin scraps of material were all that stood between that final merging but I knew better than to push it and, to be honest, I was getting off on the dry humping.

In more ways than one.

My heart raced and blood pulsed around my head. Erratic thumping was all I could hear and it took me only a second to discern a distinct difference in the noises. Edward caught the dawning look of horror on my face but he didn't understand it. The thumping continued and he finally heard it as I scrambled to get out from under him and cover my almost naked body before my door burst open and a body flew at the bed.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" The figure yelled.

"BABY!" I screamed back, laughing as Emmett seemed to change direction mid air and land on Edward instead of me.

"FUCK!" Edward yelled.

"I tried to stop him." Rosalie laughed, walking in and collapsing on the bed to wrap her arms around me. We held each other and laughed until we cried at the sight of Emmett lying haphazardly on top of a mostly naked and confused as hell Edward.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Edward mumbled, trying to extract himself from under Emmett. When he realised Emmett wasn't budging he looked at me for help.

"Every year, since I was 8, Emmett has greeted me with the Typewriter on the morning of my birth." I explained.

"What's the Typewriter?"

"Dude, wrong question." Rosalie groaned before we exploded in giggles again.

"You don't know the Typewriter?" Emmett shifted slightly to look at Edward who shook his head. "Let me show you." He snickered and Edward looked panicked, as he should because shit was about to get surreal for him.

In a flash Emmett had Edward's arms pinned under his knees and was pounding his chest with his fingers, pretending to type out a message as he said it. Every time he reached the end of a line he would slap Edward in the face.

"Happy birthday Bella." Slap. "Today is your final birthday as just awesome you." Slap. "Next year you'll have a baby." Slap. "A little baby Bella to make us all proud." Slap. "We love you more than Templeton Peck loves the ladies." Slap.

Emmett let Edward go, his left cheek red with the imprint of a massive hand and his eyes a little dazed as Emmett helped him up.

"That, my friend, is the Typewriter."

He hurried around to me and pressed himself into my side. I kissed his bright red cheek.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked sympathetically. We had both fallen victim to Emmett's Typewriter in the past but he had obviously not been rough, just playful. I suspected that he had taken out some of his latent annoyance with Edward getting me pregnant on his face and chest.

"Yeah. That was kinda cool." He bounced a little on the bed like he had just been initiated into a secret club.

"Edward, this is Rosalie." I finally introduced them, slightly wary of how things would go.

"That's the initiation taken care of." She joked. "Sorry you got cock blocked by the walking child over there."

"Don't worry about it." He smiled at her, relief obvious on his face and mine too I was sure. She nudged me gently with her elbow and quirked an eyebrow.

"Don't look so surprised, I'm not always an asshole." She huffed jokily at me before standing and pulling Emmett out of the room with a bright smile. "Breakfast in twenty minutes. Why don't you two lovebirds shower the smell of lust off and join us."

X~X~X

Over the years we had developed a few birthday traditions for each of us. Emmett always greeted us with the Typewriter, Rosalie always cooked breakfast and I was in charge of the cake. These things varied with each person, for example I didn't make my own cake but Emmett did. This always guaranteed a hilarious few hours in the kitchen where he would wear an apron, get covered in flour, panic and I would have to rescue the situation. We also indulged him with breakfast duties on Rosalie's birthday but the same rule applied of me having to take over to ensure our respective houses didn't burn to the foundations.

Every year since I left home Charlie would call me at twenty-six minutes past two, the moment he first held me in his arms, and sing happy birthday gruffly to me. Emotional outpourings were something of a rarity for him so I knew how much it took for him to sing that and for him to tell me he loved me, of which I never had any doubt.

Emmett and I would always take off for a couple of hours alone. We would go to the batting cages where he would laugh as I missed almost every hit and I would roll my eyes and wait patiently when someone inevitably recognised him and ask for his autograph or a picture. It was difficult sometimes, when people assumed they owned a part of him just because he was a football player. People believed a lot about him without thinking that maybe the papers had him wrong. Everyone knew he had a gorgeous blonde fiancé, so when we were followed by photographers and our pictures were taken when Rose was out of town it was splashed across the weekly rags that he was cheating on her with me.

Ridiculous.

"Bells, I booked up the usual for a couple of hours." Emmett talked around the food he had stuffed in his mouth.

"Sweet." I grinned in response, registering Edward's fleeting frown. "Emmett and I are going out for a few hours. You're welcome to stay here with Rose." I told him.

"Yeah, you can help me prepare to feed the five thousand." She mumbled and I rolled my eyes.

"It's us plus Alice and Jasper, it isn't a monumental feat of engineering to throw together some finger food suitable for an A-Team marathon."

Yes, another of my birthday rituals is an A-Team marathon.

"I'm beginning to hate that fucking show."

"Blasphemer!" Emmett shouted, leaping from his chair and pointing an accusing finger at her. He grabbed a slice of toast and held it aloft. "It's nutritious and delicious!" He yelled, much to my amusement, Edward's confusion and Rosalie's bemusement.

"When are you going out?" She asked ever so hopefully while Emmett checked his watch and motioned for me to get ready.

"Soon, my beloved, soon."

X~X~X

Edward followed me up to my room, sitting silently on the edge of the bed as I pulled on an Edward Scissorhands t-shirt with Johnny Depp's handsome face emblazoned on it with the words Team Edward framing him and a pair of jeans.

"Are they always like that?"

"Yeah, pretty much. It's just how they roll." I walked past him and he hooked his fingers into the belt loops of my jeans to pull me into him. His hands rested on my hips and he pressed his cheek against my stomach with a look of concentration. "What's Simba saying?" My hands massaged through his thick hair and I closed my eyes.

"He says happy birthday to Mommy." He kissed my stomach through the material of my t-shirt. "Team Edward, huh?"

"Like there was any doubt?" We grinned at each other like a couple of lovesick fools before I forced myself away from his touch. "Emmett and I always go to the batting cages for a couple of hours. Are you staying here?"

"I should probably go home and change into some clean clothes." He picked up a block of post-its that I kept by the side of my bed and tossed it in the air.

God, if I could hug the person who invented those I would. Every day. For at least five minutes a time.

"I was thinking." This was a lie, the thought I was about to vocalise had only just occurred to me. "Why don't you start keeping some clothes here? Like, have a drawer or something?" I hugged my arms around my torso, the words rushing out, making me too self conscious to even look at him.

"Really?" I tried to gauge his reaction from his tone. He sounded pleased, but I was sometimes completely off when it came to tone.

"If you want, I mean, you don't have to, it was just a thought. I know it's really early in our relationship, if that's what we have, if you want to call it that." I rambled until he covered my mouth with his hand and stood up.

"Do you want me to have a drawer?" I nodded.

"Do you want to see anyone else?" My eyes widened as he searched them with his own and I shook my head vigorously to be met with a grin.

"Can I be your boyfriend?"

If I could have captured this question in a glass jar, poked holes in the lid so that it wouldn't die and keep it forever I would have. He felt my smile against the hand he was still holding against my mouth.

I nodded.

He kissed me.

"Best birthday present ever."

"Hey, you know that an Edward is for life and not just for birthdays, right?"

"I think I'm realising that."

"Good." He graced me with another kiss and I floated off to the batting cages with Emmett.

X~X~X

Our yearly trip to the batting cages guaranteed two things. One, my helmet would be too big and it would impede my vision resulting in me trying to use it as an excuse for my poor performance. Two, at some point during the two hours I would lose the bat and almost always hit Emmett in the balls. While I never meant it in the strictest sense he would invariably wind me up to the point where even I wondered whether it was on purpose.

This year, he told me in the car, he was wearing a cup.

"So, B, how are things with Eddie?" I stuck my ass out, my legs apart and the bat positioned just above my shoulder for optimum hitting. I winced when Emmett called Edward Eddie.

"Wow, I really don't like him being called that."

"That doesn't answer my question. Is he treating you like you deserve?"

"Better." I swung at a ball and missed, managing to spin my entire body around.

"Bella, you deserve someone who would invent a new stationery item and name it after you." Emmett knew me so well.

"He isn't putting out." Emmett guffawed. "He thinks that we should be going slow, three date rule and all of that other chivalrous nice stuff."

"Irony, thy name is Edward."

"Seriously though, no one has ever made me feel so liked." I admitted quietly, unsure whether Emmett could hear me above the people around us and the machinery.

"Plenty of people like you."

"Not in this way, Em'. I don't think anyone has liked me the way he does."

"Are you worried it's just because of the baby?"

"No."

"Good, because baby or not you deserve this." I managed a watery smile in his direction as I missed another ball. "I mean it Bella, you offer everything to the people in your life, it's about time someone offered you something back."

"Are you actually trying to make the pregnant woman cry?" He bounded over to me, ignoring the machine projecting baseballs and bundled me up into his arms.

"Come here, you big softy."

"You and Rose offer me loads back." I sniffed. We walked to the side of the cage, ignoring a guy insisting we give it up if we weren't actually using it.

"We give you back what we can, but nothing compares to what a partner can give you." His big paw circled my back as I corralled my emotions back under control.

"Hey! Hey buddy! You and your girlfriend want to let someone else have a go?"

"Listen dude, this is a privately booked cage, take it up with the manager." He told the guy in a scarily even voice.

Emmett rarely loses his cool but when he does it's seldom on his own behalf. The only trouble he ever got in at school was in freshman year when a senior thought he would have a good time bullying a friend of his. The bullying stopped when Emmett invited the guy for a "meeting" during lunch. Of course the knucklehead was caught by a teacher but word soon spread that you didn't want to be invited to a McCarty Meeting.

"I think I will…hey…you're Emmett McCarty!" Emmett froze for a second before sighing deeply.

"I'm sorry, Bells. You going to be alright?" I sniffed and nodded, knowing that he was going to have to play the part of gregarious football player because he hated coming off like an asshole to people who gave a damn about the team. He released me and I went back to trying to hit the balls as he talked to the obnoxious time intruder.

It took Emmett twenty minutes to get rid of the guy and his friends who kept giving me little waves as I missed ball after ball. I saw him tell them off for checking me out but didn't hear the words. It could sometimes take him much longer to get rid of the people who crowded around him because the crowd always grew from natural curiosity. I couldn't understand how Rosalie could stand it, I knew it irritated me so it must have caused her serious heart burn.

We spent another half hour at the cages with Emmett trying his hardest to teach me how to hit the ball. It was the only source of discontent in our friendship, my inability to play sports. He took it as a personal slight, like I was completely fail on purpose. The only vaguely sporty thing I was ever good at was running. I was on the track team in senior year of high school because I had nothing better to do seeing as basically all of my friends had graduated and moved away.

So, yeah, I can run really fast in a straight line…this is not good enough for Emmett.

I rubbed my hands over my stomach and hoped that Edward was sporty and that Simba would inherit it so that Uncle Emmett wouldn't be devastated.

We drove back to my house after our time was up and talked, as we always did, about our childhoods. Some years we skirted around the issue of my Mom and her amazing disappearing trick but Emmett was already wary about making me cry because of the tears from earlier.

"Do you ever wonder what our lives would have been like if we had worked out?" He asked me, referring to the summer we tried to be together because we figured we already loved each other so it wouldn't take much to make it work. The reality of it was that we could barely stand to touch each other because it felt too damn incestuous.

"No." I smiled and shook my head as he copied my motion.

"Me neither."

"I wouldn't have coped with all the attention you get. I get pissed off enough with people encroaching on my time with my best friend as it is. I can't even imagine how Rosalie must feel when she's trying to spend some quality time with her betrothed."

"She's solid, don't you worry. I tell that woman every day that I worship her."

"You're such a romantic." I grinned. "It makes me sick."

X~X~X

At exactly twenty six minutes past two Charlie called.

"Hey Dad." I smiled. I didn't talk to him as much as I should. It was easy to forget I wasn't the only one Mom left behind. Fundamentally I had done exactly the same thing to him. I left for college and not once did I think about going back to Forks except to visit him. There was an element of comfort in pretending that he filled his weeks with visits to friends and hanging out with his buds at a bar but that was a lie I told myself to make it easier to sleep at night.

"Happy birthday to you…" He sang, not exactly badly but he wasn't going to be setting the world alight with his crooning skills. I let him finish while I curled myself into Edward's side and smiled against his chest with my Dad singing in my ear. Edward's fingers rubbed softly across my stomach in protective circles. I still wasn't showing, my stomach still flat and no other discernable differences in my body. I was looking forward to the changes, it would make it tangible.

"You've been practicing, haven't you?" I joked when Charlie had finished the song.

"Only the best for my girl." He said with slight amusement. "I miss you, Tink." I smiled at my childhood nickname.

"I miss you too Dad." It hit me like a truck, the realisation that I carried his absence more closely than I expected. It left me breathless. "I'm going to come see you in a couple of weeks." I looked up at Edward who was watching me carefully. "I'm going to bring someone?" The question was aimed at them both, Edward nodded down at me with a smile and I waited for Charlie's response.

"Was that a question?"

"If it's ok with you, I want you to meet someone."

"Someone?" He thought it over. "A boyfriend?" My heart gave a little patter at the word.

"Yes. A boyfriend."

"Alright then." He sounded a little cautious but pleased too. He was probably beginning to think about throwing me in a convent due to the lack of people I've introduced him to in the past. "Emmett like him?"

"Yes, he is Emmett approved."

"I'll give him a chance then."

"Thanks Dad." I laughed with relief. We chatted about nothing much for a while. He told me about the new flat screen he bolted the wall of his living room unsuccessfully and then he told me about the replacement he bought after the first one had shattered on impact when it fell. He let me know how Billy, his best friend, had looked into some experimental procedures that could maybe help him walk again after the devastating accident that happened when I was little. Then he mentioned Jacob, Billy's son, and I lost interest because I had long since stopped caring about what was happening in his life.

"Anyway, I'm sure Emmett needs some help with the cake by now. I'll see you in a couple of weeks?"

"I'll call you when I know what day I can drive through, I'll stay a few nights. I miss you."

"Miss you too. I love you, kid."

"Love you too." We hung up and I hugged into Edward's side tighter to try to alleviate the emptiness. His fingers continued to rub across my stomach and he dropped kisses onto the top of my head. I loved how he could sit with me in silence and not push for the details. He didn't need to know everything about me as soon as it occurred because he already knew that when I was ready I would tell him.

"I think Emmett is burning something." He laughed into my hair.

"Oh god." Taking a deep breath I smelled the acrid air and winced.

True to form Emmett was covered in flour, panicking and burning something in the oven while Rosalie was doubled over from laughing at his expression. He clasped my shoulders in his hands and shook me gently, pleading me with his eyes to help him.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if you locked Emmett in a house where he has to fend for himself. There would have to an ambulance on standby but it would be worth it. Throw some cameras in there and it would win an Emmy.

I rescued the cake and turned it out. He watched on with obvious interest as I cut off the black edges and checked that it was still edible before I smothered it in icing and put it to the side. I couldn't help myself from checking over the things that Rosalie had prepared and found myself impressed with her handiwork. Living with Emmett had definitely improved her food preparation skills. She saw me nosing at the food and graced me with the bitch brow.

"Sorry." I mumbled. She opened her mouth to reprimand me but I was saved by the bell. Well, the knocker on my front door but the sentiment applies.

Alice and Jasper were almost completely hidden by the bags and parcels they held in their hands. Jasper looked particularly unimpressed with being loaded up like a pack mule but he beamed at me when the door opened while Alice dumped the bags she was holding in my hallway and threw herself into my arms.

"Happy birthday!" There was no need for Alice to yell but she did and my eardrum almost exploded from the volume.

"Thanks." I laughed, stumbling backwards under her assault. She let me go with a sheepish smile to unload her husband. When his arms were free he pulled me into a tight hug, my feet left the floor and he swung me gently.

"Happy birthday." I couldn't help but relax in his arms, I loved the feeling of comfort he afforded. "Why so sad, brown eyes?" He whispered and placed me softly back on the floor. I shook my head slightly but he took my hand with a smile and I couldn't help the smile I gave him in response.

"So not cool Jasper. I think we should ban magic on my birthday." He grinned cheekily but dropped my hand to raise his in surrender.

This was the moment of truth. Would Edward's world and mine mix or implode?

I don't even know why I was worried. If I had put a little more thought into it I would have realised that they are essentially the same. Rosalie and Jasper were the smart asses with hearts as big as their personalities while Alice and Emmett were the hearts of our individual units. Bring them together, add in cake and the A-Team and you've got yourself a party.

Jasper immediately cornered Emmett and asked him about football, Edward gravitated toward that conversation which left Alice and Rose to get to know each other while I was ready to mediate if it got a bit sticky. Rosalie was all set to be snarky, she was threatened by the speed with which I allowed Alice in my life when I usually took a while to let people in. After giving her a very obvious look up and down she cracked and almost blinded Alice with a smile.

"You own my favourite boutique." Rosalie informed Alice.

"I do?" Alice asked, cocking her head and smiling.

"I'm only in there every week. The manager in there is seriously fucking cute. If I didn't have Emmett I would be trying to convert that man back to pussy ASAP." I gaped at Rose but Alice giggled.

"I know, right? Riley is divine, also, not gay."

"Hot damn." Rosalie glanced at Emmett. "Oh well, I'm good with what I have." She smiled.

Relieved that World War Three wasn't about to kick off I left them to talk shoes and designers I didn't have any opinion on. I knew I liked what turned up on my doorstep after a Rosalie spree but without her I would live in t-shirts with cartoon and comic book characters on the front and jeans so I couldn't actually contribute anything to the conversation.

Emmett had brought in my mail and left it on the old console table that sat in the hall. Scooping it up I folded my legs under me and sat on the couch in the living room, listening to the faint trails of conversation and laughter bleeding through from the kitchen. My birthday mail delivery consisted of a credit card bill, I really should remember to go paperless, three new menus for takeaway places just opening up in the area, a letter from work regarding share options, seven birthday cards, a letter and, rather bizarrely, a kitten starter pack.

I tossed everything but the cards and letter aside. Giving a further confused look to the kitten starter pack I tore open the cards. Emmett's parents had sent me one with an awesome hamster poem on it that made me giggle, I loved those guys. Charlie managed to send me a card that arrived on time this year. The last time he managed to do that was four years ago. Billy sent me one signed from him and Jacob. There were a few from friends dotted around the world and the last one was a generic card from work signed by the CEO.

Edward's laughter echoed through the room and I smiled automatically. Everyone filed into the room and the unopened letter was ignored as presents were pressed into my hands. Alice had ordered in maternity wear which explained what was in the many and varied bags she had loaded Jasper up with.

"You can tell me whether it's worth ordering the whole line for next season." She said to appease me and nip my protests at the sheer volume of the gifts in the bud.

Rose and Emmett handed me a business card.

"It's for a carpenter." Emmett beamed at me. I continued to look at him confused.

"He designs and makes furniture." Rosalie expanded and I looked around at my furniture feeling slightly judged.

"We have commissioned him to build a crib, sweets. You and Edward will design it with him and he will build it and we will pay."

"That's amazing." I jumped up and hugged them both tightly, grateful that it was a gift for the baby more than me.

"My turn." Edward cleared his throat to get my attention. Turning to him with a smile I accepted the offered card and tore it open. The card contained a brochure for an obscure restaurant situated between Seattle and Port Angeles. I had never heard of it but Alice and Rosalie gasped little puffs of air in recognition when they read it standing either side of me. There was a date written on the card and despite not knowing why he had chosen this place it still meant something important.

"Our third date?" I grinned shyly at him.

"Our third date." He repeated softly.

For my twenty-eighth birthday Edward Cullen gave me the promise of penetrative sex.

X~X~X

Alice and Rosalie cornered me in the kitchen as I was about to shove a cracker loaded with pâté in my mouth. It was unceremoniously ripped from my hands and thrown down on to the plate I picked it up from.

"What the…?"

"You aren't allowed pâté, it says so in the books Emmett bought you." Rosalie told me and I felt reprimanded like a student who didn't do their homework.

"I can't eat pâté? Fuck my life." I pouted. "You read those books?"

"Well, obviously."

"I love you." I hugged her round the waist and she batted me off gently.

"Edward will have to tell Laurent before they go for their third date." Alice said obliquely. Though Rosalie understood her immediately.

"Uh, go slow for the impaired here. Tell who-what-now?"

"Laurent owns the Victoria Restaurant. It's the most exclusive restaurant in Washington. You have to book years ahead, they only seat two parties a night and that's in two different dining rooms, it's expensive and exclusive and everyone wants to be able to say they dined there. They turned away the Obamas last time they were in the area because they didn't book in advance…how Edward got a table I'll never know." Alice was talking a mile a minute, pacing back and forward in a tight line that I worried would wear a hole in the wood.

"Right."

"I don't think you are getting it." Rosalie spoke slowly. "This. Is. Huge."

"I know! Third date!" I grinned and they rolled their eyes. "I would have been happy with a footlong from Subway."

"I bet you would." Snickered Rosalie and Alice joined in.

"I don't like you two together." I mumbled, taking my favourite seat and tracing the heart outline in the wood of the table.

"Better get used to it." Alice grinned and I knew I had created a two headed fashion obsessed monster.

"I do not agree to being ganged up on. I'm just putting that out there."

"The beauty of ganging up on someone is that agreement is usually not a prerequisite." I flicked my gaze between their faces and sighed the deep sigh of the damned.

"Fuck my life."

X~X~X

It was just before ten when everybody made their excuses and left. There was a good five minutes of hugs and laughter before I managed to shut the door and lean against it to listen to the silence. Edward watched me for a second before running his fingers across my cheek as he passed me on his way back into the living room. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the wood. I had loved every second of the day but exhaustion was descending fast.

I could hear Edward moving around in the other room, the muted clinks of glasses and plates being gathered broke me out of my almost nap like haze.

"Edward?" I called, collecting a few plates on my way to the kitchen. "You really don't have to help me tidy up." He was elbow deep in bubbles when I got to the kitchen. "Also, let me introduce to the wonders of modern technology." I opened the dishwasher with a flourish and let my jaw drop in astonishment at the machine.

"I didn't think you would want the long stem wine glasses in there." He rolled his eyes at my display and continued soaping up the glasses. After dropping the plates in the dishwasher I walked over to him, letting my hands slide around his waist I hugged him from behind. My cheek rested between his shoulder blades and I allowed myself the indulgence of basking in his relaxing smell and the heat radiating from his body.

"Thank you." I spoke into his shirt.

"It isn't a big deal, just a few glasses." He shrugged despite me being a hindrance and I shook my head.

"I meant for today, for the present, for being here."

"There honestly isn't anywhere else I would rather be." I felt like the Grinch when his heart swelled at Christmas. It felt like my heart was about to burst out of my chest.

I couldn't think of anything to say. Even though there were a million things flying around my head I couldn't find the right words. Everything I thought of felt wrong on my tongue, so in the end I said nothing. I pressed in tight to his back, feeling the muscles in his body move under his skin as he finished cleaning the glasses. I felt him pull the plug out and heard the water begin to empty out of the sink.

After drying his hands he turned and hugged me back, his nose buried into the hair on my crown and I felt him drop sporadic kisses there as we rocked in the silence that said more than either of us could. I yawned and sighed, unwilling to suggest we move because I was enjoying it so much. Edward dropped his embrace, unlatched my arms from around his waist to take my hand and lead me through to the sofa where we collapsed against each other without saying a word.

His shirt had ridden up to uncover a sliver of skin across his stomach, I immediately put my fingers there and played with the soft dark hair that covered his belly. For once it wasn't my hands in his hair, his fingers ran through my hair gently until he they caught in a tug and my head was jerked back violently.

"Ow!"

"Shit, sorry." He laughed and I straddled him, pinning his arms with my knees.

"Don't laugh, that hurt." I clamped my lips together to hide my own smile,

"You know I didn't mean it." He cocked his head to the side and unleashed a pout of such adorability that I almost fell over.

"Yeah, ok." He pulled his hands easily from under my knees and lifted my shirt. "Hey!"

"Are you really going to tell me off for lifting your shirt?" I pretended to think for all of five seconds before shaking my head. "Besides, I wasn't about to do anything untoward." His hands splayed out across my stomach before he lifted me slightly to push me back with him hovering above me. He kissed my stomach and started mumbling words that I couldn't quite hear.

My hands ended up raking through his hair, massaging his scalp as he spoke words I couldn't hear to my stomach. I wondered if there was ever going to be a time when I could hear Simba's heart beat in rhythm with my own as I cocooned him from the world in my body. I focused on hearing my own heart beat when words began to drift through to me from Edward.

"…love…can't wait…Mommy…birthday…music…hats…cigars…Auntie Alice…Mommy…love." I heard love a lot, it was the overwhelming message. That Edward was already in love with Simba I knew without a shadow of a doubt.

The realisation that I was falling in love with Edward, however, sent shivers through my body.

"Are you cold, love?" His head popped up, my eyes locking onto his deep forest green as I shook my head with a smile and closed my eyes to revel in the feeling of falling in love.

Twenty minutes passed as Edward told our baby about his life. He covered being a doctor and that he wouldn't be around as much as he would like to be for the first few months of his life, but that he would make it up to him. It was a promise, he said, and he never broke a promise. He pretended to pinkie promise through my belly button and I giggled until tears streamed down my face.

"Quit your laughing, you're ruining a perfectly good bonding moment." Edward's fingers tickled my ribs, making me squirm and laugh harder. "Hey, what's this?" I looked at Edward, he was reading the envelope I had tossed to the side earlier in the day.

"I don't know. Gimme." I held my hand out, waggling my fingers until I felt the paper.

"Who sends proper letters anymore?"

"I don't know." I repeated, curiosity finally getting the better of me. I looked at the hand written address and though the writing looked vaguely familiar I couldn't place it. Edward settled his cheek back on my stomach and resumed talking to Simba while I ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter.

Dear Bella,

This letter is late. So very, very late. It wouldn't surprise me if you were to toss it in the fire as soon as you realise that it is from me, your Mother.

I dropped it like it had burned me. All the air from my lungs rushed out and I struggled to bring more in. It took me a second to get upright, fighting against the added weight of Edward as I did so. When he realised I needed up he pulled away from me and helped me, his hand on my back as my head hovered between my knees.

"Bella?"

"Just give me a minute." I gasped, fighting the tears in my eyes and questioning my ridiculous reaction. Why couldn't I have reacted like a normal person to this? I wanted to be the kind of woman who wouldn't have some sort of panic attack to a letter. In front of Edward, this was humiliating.

"Do you need anything?" I shook my head.

"No, sorry." I heard him move and when I looked up he had the letter in his hand. "Are you reading it?"

"No. I would never…I was just picking it up, I was worried you were going to stand on it." He looked insulted that I even suggested he was reading it. I wouldn't have cared. Whether I read it or burn it he would end up knowing everything anyway. "Who is it from?"

"My Mother." I whispered, finally sitting up straight and dominating my stupid need to cry.

"Oh." He said nothing else, he waited for me to control the conversation and it reinforced the fact that I was falling in love with him. A fact that calmed me instead of sending the shivers through me again. Falling in love is terrifying, but with him I knew that not falling in love with him would be ten thousand times worse.

"So, you know she left us…me." He nodded, set the letter on the table before sitting back on the couch and turning off the only remaining light in the room with the exception of the fire we had built because the weather was turning cold already. He knew without me ever having to say a word that though I would happily say this stuff in the light, it was easier for me to reveal hidden hurts and scars in the dark. He would still see me clearly and without judgement in the dark and that meant the world to me.

"Come here." His fingers tugged on my arm and I lay my head on his lap, staring into the fire as he brushed the hair away from my face.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." He kissed my temple and waited patiently for me to continue.

"I was seven when she left. I was old enough to remember her quirks and her laugh, I was old enough to miss her every day until I started to hate her." I began, not sure when I would finish.

She never seemed happy, when I let myself remember the times that I thought were good she was never purely happy. Her laughs were always diluted by something I couldn't understand. She was four years younger than Charlie and only nineteen when they married. From what I could gather they were young and passionately in love. I was born ten months after they married and I can only guess that it was too soon for her.

Charlie loved Forks, growing up with him there I knew he would never leave but I don't think she realised that when she fell in love with him. She probably assumed he would follow wherever she lead but when that didn't become a reality she was angry and trapped in a town she hated.

Edward continued to caress my face with one hand while the other was low on my back, almost on my ass in fact but I didn't mind. I was still in my right mind and Edward's hand almost on my ass was a good distraction from the black hole of hurt I was allowing myself to remember.

It was three days after I got in trouble at school that she left. Weeks prior I had heard the phrase "need their heads knocked together" and I had put this phrase to practical use when Emmett and Jessica were arguing in the playground. Their faces were about an inch apart and they were screaming at each other over the stupidest thing so I knocked their heads together. Jessica's forehead held a perfect circle of a bruise almost immediately and she ran to tell on me.

For almost the entirety of grade school I blamed my actions on that day for her leaving.

"You were a kid, Bella, and if that had happened at any other time this would be a funny story to regale instead of a source of hurt." Edward told me.

"I know that now." I whispered. "But back then, I would have built a time machine out of twigs and gum to change it."

I walked home with Emmett, I told him, and we came inside to grab a snack before heading out to play. Usually she was home but this time I came home to a silent house with sandwiches and glasses of milk on the kitchen table with a letters propped up against them. She left one for Emmett too, all it said was look after her like your life depends on it. I never read Charlie's, he burned it as I watched the tears slide down his cheeks and disappear into his moustache.

Emmett got more words than I did.

"That's fucked up." I winced slightly at his words, hoping he wouldn't feel it, but he did. "Sorry."

Charlie started working a little more, taking shifts that he wouldn't normally and volunteering to work some holidays. I knew it was his way of coping but it pushed me away. Mentally I'm Charlie but physically I was her and I don't think he could stand to look at me for a while. That's when Emmett's Mom and Dad practically adopted me. It took a couple of years but Charlie finally realised he had been hurting me and we rebuilt our relationship. He still worked long hours and I still worried that some errant vagabond was going to wander through Forks and kill him but we muddled through and over time the wounds scarred over and we lived like she never existed.

"You know that her leaving isn't your fault though, right?" I nodded, noticing that I had managed to silently cry through most of the conversation and Edward had a soggy leg.

"I don't understand how she could have left me, I don't think I ever will." We fell into silence and I tried to soak up some of my tears from his leg with my shirt.

"I think, that if you ever wanted to understand then this letter could be the first step." He spoke gently but stammered slightly, unsure of whether he was stepping over some invisible line.

"You're right. Read it to me?" I asked and waited, worried that I had asked too much.

"Ok." I reached over to the table, grabbed the letter and handed it to him. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." He cleared his throat before he began.

Dear Bella,

This letter is late. So very, very late. It wouldn't surprise me if you were to toss it in the fire as soon as you realise that it is from me, your Mother. There are a hundred ways for me to apologise to you for leaving but I have been too cowardly to do any of them. To leave you behind was unforgiveable. To allow myself to lose contact with you was monstrous.

I hope this letter finds you well and in time for your birthday. Happy birthday. Twenty-eight years old and, I have no doubt, every bit as beautiful as you were when you were born.

There is so much to make up to you, Bella, and I understand that there is much to explain. There is too much for a letter, I would love to be able to tell you everything in person. You should know that I loved you but I fell in love with another man and found myself pregnant with your sister. I could not stay but I knew I could not take you from your father.

Please reply to me. Every imaginable way to contact me is written below should you find it in you to want to reply.

Your Mother,

Renée

"I have a sister?"

"It appears so." Edward tossed the letter onto the table and wrapped his arms around my shaking body. I didn't even realise I had been shaking but he must have felt the tremors as he read.

"I like being an only child." I muttered petulantly.

"It has been a long day, let's go to bed." He scooped me up easily and walked us up the stairs. Unwilling to think anymore of past hurt and late letters I allowed him to cradle me against his chest. Sometimes it was nice to be carried.

"You won't be able to do this for long." I joked, my hand placed protectively across my stomach.

"I'm stronger than I look." He smiled as I nuzzled my face into his neck.

"I don't care what happens in my life, I would never ever be able to leave Simba behind, it would destroy me." I blurted."And if you ever tried to leave him behind I would have you tracked and killed."

"I would never leave him." The intensity of his gaze burned me. "You don't get rid of me easily."

"That's good, because I was beginning to think about keeping you." He kissed me without warning, his tongue exploring my mouth even though it knew every single part, and I returned it eagerly. It felt like we were sealing a pact, making a promise and, I have to say, kissing is a much better way to make a promise than using a pinkie. "Just drop me at the bathroom." I instructed him when he stopped using the wall to support me as we tongued the life out of each other and started onwards to the bedroom.

I staggered a little when he set me down, light headed from his kisses. I locked the door behind me. I always locked the bathroom door, even when I was in the house by myself. There would be no accidently walking in on me peeing. Ever. It's a line that should never be crossed.

I grabbed my toothbrush out of the drawer, covered it in toothpaste, shoved it in my mouth and glanced in the mirror, fully prepared to wince when I saw the mess I was after crying. What I saw wasn't the mascara streaks across my cheeks or the redness of my eyes or the bags underneath them. What I saw was a bright yellow post-it stuck dead centre with neat writing across it. Curious I peeled it away from the mirror and read the writing.

Bella rocks my world

My stomach lurched when I realised that I wasn't falling in love with Edward after all.

I was already there.

X~X~X

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the latest update, if you did why not pimp it to your friends and neighbours?

Again, my infinite thanks are awarded to my pre-reader ladyeire3 who is all sorts of awesome.

Reviews will be rewarded with the hamster poem on Bella's birthday card from Emmett's parents...be warned it's a little mental and most likely won't hit everyones funny bone like it did mine. Oh, and you'll get a little teaser too :D

Be good kids, see you on the other side xx