ch 9 EPOV

The rage I felt when Bella told me that my mother knew about my child consumed me and before I knew it, I was sitting in the restaurant tapping my fingers impatiently waiting for my mom to arrive. I was constantly battling with the combined want and need to get back to Bella, but I had to find out why my mother would keep something so precious and dear to herself. This wasn't something I could just sit back and take I watned answers.

If I would have known Bella was carrying my child, I am the first to admit I wouldn't have sat idly by waiting for her to come back to me. No, I would be on Charlie's doorstep begging for her to forgive me, that I was wrong and needed her as much as I needed air to breath.

I had so many things to apologize to Bella for. From what she had said the town of Forks had put her through hell and I wanted to know every nitty gritty detail of what happened to her. I was going to make this rightif it was the last thing I did. And my mother was going to tell me everything I wanted to know before I said my peace and went back to find my love.

Come hell or high water I was getting my Bella back. She, myself and our child were going to be a family and I would work long and hard to make her forgive me. I could tell by the way she had kissed me and held me that she had missed me just as much as I missed her, if not more. I had missed so much already and I didn't want to miss anymore time with her whether it be holding her or caring for her.

My stomach hurt every time I thought about her having to wake up alone. Every time she had to go into town to pick up something simple she had to do it alone. Every doctors appointment. I knew the town of Forks, the reason why we left after high school was because the entire town was too old fashioned. They were stuck in the times when you had to be married to live together, that sex before marriage was frowned upon. And that babies out of wedlock were something to be ashamed of.

What had they put her through to cause her to look so completely broken when she came back to me today?

"Edward." My mother greeted as she sat across from me.

She sat her back down asking me how I was today before looking me in the eye and stopping midsentence.

"What's wrong?" she asked taking her gloves off and folding it away with her scarf.

"How long have you known?" I asked, my voice as cold as my heart felt at the moment for my mother.

"Known what?" Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"How long have you known that I was going to be a father?"

I watched as all of the color drained out of my mother's face.

"I don't know what you're talking about Edward." she answered looking everywhere but my face.

"Bella came to the house." I replied.

My mother sat in silence.

"I can't believe you would keep something like this from me." I growled.

"Edward she told me the baby wasn't yours. I knew it was a lie but I wanted her to tell you on her own time." She tried to explain, her voice wavering and her eyes brimming with tears. "It wasn't my place to tell you it was her choice entirely."

"I'm going to be a father and no one told me anything. Do you know what I've been going through?" I demanded. "I wanted nothing more than to go after her. But Alice kept telling me that I needed to give her time."

Did Alice know about the baby?

Has my whole family completely set out to destroy my life? My happiness?

"Well, Alice was right honey." My mother reached out but I pulled away, I wanted nothing to do with her at this point but I needed my answers. "Bella did need some time; we all thought that maybe she would come around and decide to tell you because it's hers and only her place to give you that information Edward. You broke up with her from what Alice said. You're the one that would have to live with the consequences of your actions."

The consequences of my actions. I would be living with them for a long time.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and breathed deeply. "I will have to work forever to make up for the mistake I made. I get that. But Bella is pregnant with my baby and was subjected to everything that Forks put her through. Tell me how bad it was for her."

"Edward." My mother sighed.

"I mean it. I want to know." I demanded raising my voice at my mother for the first time in my life.

"Well, apart from the rumors that she cheated on you which caused you to kick her out and send her back to Charlies'." I gasped, how could they think of Bella that way? She would have never cheated of me.

"Then her car was vandalized while she was at a doctor's appointment. Charlie tried to find the culprit but it was a dead end. I think that it was one of her little friends in highschool. You know the ones that always bothered you two?" I blanched. They destroyed her car?

"Then-"

"What do you mean then? There's more?" How could a town possibly be that cruel?

"Yes, the Crowely brothers egged Charlie's house while Bella was home alone. Charlie arrested them but they are minors. I think the last I heard was that Jessica sent them to do it."

Jessica Stanley, apparently Crowely now. She tried everything in her power to break Bella and I up after we started dating, it was always something. She even went so far as to try to set Bella up in a compromising position at a party with Mike Newton. Too bad we all knew before Mike did that, he was gay. Her plan failed miserably but it didn't stop her from trying over and over again.

"And you did nothing to help her?" I asked breathing as calmly as I could.

"Edward, she told me that the baby wasn't yours. I figured she wanted me to keep my distance. I am pretty sure she was afraid I would tell you but it wasn't my place." My mother cried. "I'm sorry for keeping it from you. The only thing that would have happened if I told you would be you going back to Bella and you both going into things just for that baby and it's wrong Edward. You took your time and see how it worked out? Bella came back."

And then it hit me.

Bella came back.

And I left.

Again.

I must have made my inner turmoil audible because my mother reached over and grabbed my face. "Edward are you alright?"

"I left her again. She came and I was so pissed off at you that I left without saying a damn thing to her. I have to go." I said in a hurry I pulled out my wallet and left a few bills on the table before rushing out of the restaurant.

Only to stop short as I saw her.

Bella was walking somewhat wobbly I could see Charlie staring at her with a worried expression from the booth in the corner. Her hair was pulled up and I could see perspiration on her back making her shirt stick to her skin and her face was extremely pale.

She opened her mouth and gasped for her father before she crumpled, her knees hit the floor and she curled into herself holding her stomach. I could hear her breathing coming out in small pants as she whimpered and groaned in pain or discomfort all before Charlie could squeeze out of the booth.

Immediately the doctor in me kicked in and I ran to her pushing over a waitress in my haste.

"Bella." Charlie cried as he rushed over.

I kneeled down next to her without touching her because I didn't want to startle her.

I called her name once very calmly to try to calm her down but she was hyperventilating. One of the waiters had already called 9-1-1 and I could hear the sirens but my focus remained on the love of my life whimpering in pain on the floor as she gasped for air.

I gently placed my hands on her face as her eyes rolled in the back of her head.

"BELLA." I yelled lightly tapping her cheeks in an effort to keep her coherent.

I could hear my mom sobbing from one side of the restaurant as Charlie yelled at me to help his baby girl.

I'm a doctor after all. And there wasn't a damn thing I could do for Bella before the ambulance got here but make sure she was breathing and she still had a pulse. I cried as the paramedics made their way into the restaurant and past the throng of nosy ass people watching the show. The quickly had her hooked up to oxygen and an IV before strapping her to a board and hauling her away to the nearest hospital.

My hospital.

They refused to allow me into the ambulance.

"But I'm a doctor at Seattle." I fought.

"That doesn't matter. There's nothing you can do for her that we can't already do, so you will just take up space." Nahuel one of the paramedics explained. "Now we have to go now."

"But that's my baby." I cried.

Nahuel opened his mouth again but Charlie cut him off.

"Don't worry son. Just get my baby to the hospital and take care of her. I'll be right behind the ambulance. Edward you can ride with me." he took my arm and roughly dragged me to the car.

"Charlie I can help her." I sobbed.

"No, stop it." Charlie yelled. "Get your ass in the car so that we can get there. Your crying won't help us get there."

I got in the passenger side of Bella's prius and was assaulted by her scent. The ambulance drove quickly the entire drive, the sirens, the lights they all mocked me, as if they could sense my desperation to be with her.

Guilt struck me two miles from the hospital.

Stress was bad for both the fetus and the mother. Bella could miscarry and it would be my entire fault. If I wasn't such a dick to her she wouldn't have ran. The people of Forks wouldn't have been such assholes to her. She wouldn't have been so stressed out.

It was all my fault.

"No it's not son." Charlie said softly as he turned quickly to keep up with the ambulance.

"Yes it is. I didn't give her the time she needed to tell me about the baby. If I would have, we wouldn't have been in this predicament." I cried.

"Bella is the one that decided to leave Seattle and go to Forks. Yes your part of the blame. But whatever happens to my grandbaby today is what's supposed to happen. You need to realize that there is no going back. Mistakes are made because they are meant to be made. The world isn't perfect and neither are you or my daughter. Now stop acting like this and pray to god everything is going to be okay with the both of them."

It's the most Charlie has ever spoken to me. If his daughter wasn't in the ambulance in front of me and for all I know fighting for both her and the baby's lives I would have been grateful. I would have felt worthy. Instead I kept my focus on the Hospital building we were pulling up to and before Charlie could put the car in park I was out the door and running inside.

Aro was at the nurses' station.

"Edward how are yah my boy?" he asked cheerfully.

I rambled everything to him and begged him to let me see Bella but he couldn't pull any strings. Bella was taken up to Labor and Delivery due to the fact that she was so far along, her condition called for specialists.

Charlie and I sat together in the waiting room and my mother showed up twenty minutes later extremely distraught with an equally distraught Alice in her quake. I thought for a second she was going to slap me but instead she put her arms around me and sobbed into my neck.

"Is she going to be okay? She has to be okay?" she rambled.

"I don't know." I cried.

Four hours later a doctor finally came out to speak with immediate family. Charlie was taken into the hallway by the doctor so that they could explain everything and after he told me he would be right back to fill me in, I sat impatiently beside my mother.

"I'll never forgive myself is something happens to either of them." I said.

"Stop it Edward. Everything will be fine." Alice said calmly. "It has to be. It's Bella we're talking about."

I watched through the glass of the window as the doctor explained to Charlie what was going on. His face fell for a second and my stomach dropped. The doctor clapped him on the back and gave him a sad smile before walking down the hallway.

I was gripping the arm rests of the chair so hard I'm sure my short nails were going to leave marks. Charlie's head hung before he took a calming breath and walked back into the waiting room. Alice, my mother and I were all three on the edges of our seats as he came back in.

"She's going to be tired for a little while." Charlie breathed. "The doctors have put her on partial bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy."

"So the baby is okay?" I asked standing up.

"It's fine. A little stressed out so Bella's going to need to take it extremely easy for the next few months. That means no fighting, or working." He turned to Alice. "Sorry tater tot. That means no editing for your magazine."

"Are you kidding me?" Alice stood up and wrapped her tiny frame around Charlie. "So long as she is okay who gives a shit about the magazine. We have back up articles anyways."

"Edward I'm going to visit with her for a little bit. They are only allowing one visitor at a time so I'll come get you when she wants to see you." Charlie squeezed my shoulder before walking out of the room.

If she wants to see me.