Hey there! Sorry this is a little late in the day, I
was at a Dalmatian rally today with my spotty boy and...
my word, was it mayhem! 22 nutty Dalmatians makes
for a hectic walk, let me tell you!

Anyways...if you haven't already, check back and make
sure you've read the last two chapters. FF alerts
have been spotty the last few weeks, so just check
that you haven't missed anything :)

As always, huge thank yous go to annaharding and
SunflowerFran for all their hard work! You ladies rock!

And thank you to all of you for reading and reviewing!
I've been trying to get to as many as possible to reply
but if I missed you, I'm so sorry!

Okay, so...here we go. Enjoy!

~ oOo ~

All the familiar characters, of course, belong to
Stephenie Meyer. The originals are all mine.

~ oOo ~

Summary: Happily Ever After; it's a lovely concept. Bella
is ready to embrace it after twelve years in captivity. Finally
home with her family, she wants to live a quiet life with the
ones she loves most, but they're not alone looking for happy
endings in the wake of her captor's demise. Big questions still
go unanswered. The past may be behind them, but that doesn't
mean it can't catch up.

Promises to Keep

Chapter Ten

Christmas was over all-too-quickly.

Before Bella could blink, she and Alice were loading the children into the car to drive them to their first day back at school, their two weeks without classes having flown by. Edward, Archie, Charlie, Peter, and Emmett were all hard at work on a new project, so Alice had volunteered to drive Bella and Marley to school while Esme kidnapped Bodhi for a morning at the farm.

"Well, damn. That was short-lived, huh?" Alice huffed as Bella climbed into the car with a sigh and a nod. Marley clambered into the back with Dave and Clarke, the latter of which had his headphones on and turned up so loud that Bella could hear the heavy beat from the front seat.

"Definitely. I know most parents love it when the kids go back to school, but I've been dreading it. The older they get, the more I love having them home with me."

Alice hummed in agreement. "Do you know, I often wonder if I could manage homeschooling the boys. I just feel like we could have so much fun together, and I wouldn't have to cart them off to school all day, every day."

For the rest of the journey, they talked about the pros and cons of home-schooling. Bella had considered it, too, back when Marley first started school. She'd loathed the idea of her baby girl being somewhere with strangers for seven hours a day, five days a week. The only thing that had stopped her was the knowledge that the biggest benefit of Marley going to school was the opportunities for her to socialize and play with other children her age. It was the one main thing she'd missed out on for the first seven years of her life; now she had that chance, and Bella hadn't been able to withhold it from her.

Over a year on, Bella knew she'd made the right choice for Marley. She'd thrived and gone from strength to strength, her confidence and intelligence astounding everyone who'd known her as the silent, shy girl who'd been found at the medical centre back in Montana; Bella's last-ditch attempt at getting Marley to freedom. Looking at her now, chatting away to Dave with a beaming smile on her face, Bella was confident regular schooling had been for the best.

But she also agreed with Alice. Homeschooling would afford her the chance to do a lot more with her children and spend so much more time with them. It hurt to think that she only had another year and a half with Bodhi before he'd join Marley at Hampden Park Academy – only he'd be in the infants, while she was in the juniors.

"See you later, handsome. Be good, okay? And remember to hand that science thing in! I love you!"

Clarke flushed beet red, hissing, "Mum!" as he speed-walked away from a cackling Alice and all-but jogged into his secondary school across the street.

"You love embarrassing him, don't you?" Bella laughed, rubbing her bump as her son kicked just above her belly button; Marley and Dave climbed out of the car giggling and watching a video of a grumpy cat on Dave's tablet.

"Oh, I live for it," Alice admitted gleefully, locking the car and gently removing the tablet from her son's grasp.

"But, Mum—"

"No! No, but, Mums. You can't take it to class with you. Miss Hennessy would have a fit."

Dave scowled, but Marley quickly distracted him, and he'd forgotten all about it by the time they made it to their classroom.

Bella had been relieved when they'd been told that the classes would stay the same each year, so Marley would get to keep her friends. When they made it to the classroom, Marley and Dave excitedly greeted their little friend gang, as Edward had dubbed them.

Matthew, twins Amun and Tia, Hayley, Maggie, Jacob, and Bree pulled Marley and Dave into their circle, the giggles and squeals bringing smiles to the faces of the parents loitering around.

"All right, you giggly lot," Miss Hennessy, their teacher, laughed as she arrived in the hall, clapping her hands to get their attention. "Have you all had a good two weeks off?"

"Yes, Miss Hennessy!" they trilled.

She smiled at them, her ice blue eyes bright and happy. "Good! Now – are we ready for a day of learning?"

"Yes, Miss Hennessy!"

"Perfect! Well, then, say 'goodbye' and let's get started!"

The kids called their 'goodbyes' before filing into their classroom, patting the large stuffed deer in the doorway on their way past – their mascot was a deer, rather than the snowy owl from last year.

Bella and Alice, along with all the other parents, meandered out of the school toward their cars. Bella fell into the seat with a huff, her back and hips already aching something fierce despite it being only nine a.m.

"Little boy causing trouble?" Alice murmured knowingly, her half-smile sympathetic as she reached over to squeeze Bella's hand.

"Yeah," Bella breathed. "I swear, this boy is going to be just as big as his dad. My back is just killing me."

"I was the same with Clarke. Dave was fine, he barely weighed six pounds, but Clarke was my whopper – ten pounds, eleven ounces. And that was two weeks early, too."

Bella gritted her teeth at the thought of an almost eleven-pound baby – though it was looking increasingly likely she'd be facing that scenario if her unborn boy continued to grow at the rate of knots. He already measured a couple of weeks ahead.

"I hate to say it, but have you considered the idea you're doing a little too much?"

A lump settled in the pit of Bella's stomach. "Yeah, I have," she admitted, "but I don't have a choice. Edward is working so hard, all the guys are, and we've got so much going on."

With Paul's, weekly Wednesday visit and every-other-weekly weekend trip down to Eastbourne to play at the park, plus the stress of keeping his relationship to Marley a secret, Bella barely had time to slow down. Marley had joined a couple of after-school clubs, and in an attempt to keep busy and entertain Bodhi, Bella had been spending as much time at the farm with Esme as possible. Now they had the Remi Wilson situation to deal with on top of all that, as well as the rapidly growing baby boy sapping Bella of all her energy.

Christmas had been a welcome break from all the stress. But with Marley back at school now and Bodhi having a date with Mimi, Bella was well-aware she'd probably spend the entire day worrying about what they were going to do with regards to going to meet Remi and thinking about her near-miss with revealing Marley's true parentage last week.

As Alice drove them toward home, Bella gazed out of the window and mentally cursed herself for her slip-up.

"Little guy is getting big, huh?"

Bella turned to look at Paul. They were sitting on the swings, watching Marley and Bodhi running around the playground. It was too cold to be out there, really, but the children had insisted, so Bella had wrapped them up in their warmest clothes and chosen to leave this battle; it wasn't worth the inevitable tantrums.

Paul's eyes darted down to her prominent belly, then back up to her face as he grinned. "I swear you've grown a bit more every week."

Huffing, Bella patted her coat-covered bump. "You're not wrong. I swear, I grow a bit more every minute."

"He's getting Edward's genes, then. God knows, he's no midget like his mom."

"Hey!" She gently thumped his arm, shaking her head and laughing when he pretended he'd barely felt it and commented on the sudden breeze, shooting her a wink.

"It's funny how genes work," he murmured after a few minutes, his face pensive as he watched Bodhi run around the merry-go-round to spin Marley. "I mean, apart from the shape of Bodhi's eyes, it's like I wasn't even involved. And Marley…from her hair to her eyes to her teeny, tiny little frame, she's your clone."

Bella smiled; he'd obviously forgotten that she'd originally had blonde hair. After all, he'd first known her back on the ranch, way before she'd chosen to dye her hair its current chocolate brown. "My hair is actually that colour, don't you remember?" she said, pointing at Bodhi's mop of strawberry tinted gold curls. A frown stole over her face as she fought a shiver, a brief flash of Marcus' face flitting through her mind. "I dye mine, but her dark hair is all Ma—"

Without thinking, Bella had almost said 'Marcus.'

~ oOo ~

Hours later, as she sat at the breakfast bar with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands as she watched the dogs wander around the garden, Bella's mind was still on Paul and her near-miss.

Not telling Paul about Marcus being Marley's biological father hadn't been a conscious decision – well, it had at first, but they'd always planned to tell him at some point.

Bella just wasn't sure when that point would be.

In the weeks since Paul began visitation with Bodhi, they'd bonded. Bodhi adored Paul, although he still had flickers of mistrust when he remembered the man's no-show before Christmas. For the most part though, all was forgiven in Bodhi's little world.

When Bella had almost slipped up last week, she'd stuttered over a rambled apology and made up an excuse for wanting to leave early. When Rosalie and Emmett had returned from the café a minute later, they'd been the perfect distraction, and Bella had rounded up her children and huffed a sigh of relief as soon as she was away from Paul.

But it was bound to once more. He hadn't seemed to notice the slip last time, but she couldn't be sure it wouldn't happen again and if it did, that she'd be able to cover it up.

Her skin crawled at the merest thoughts surrounding her rape, though thankfully, time and therapy had helped her to deal with the aftermath. The idea of having to tell Marcus' brother what he'd done, and that Marley was technically Paul's niece, made Bella all kinds of uncomfortable – and she already knew it would drive Edward crazy.

He'd gotten better at being around Paul in the last couple of weeks, but that didn't mean he liked the man – or the situation. And Paul's repeated mention of his parents wanting to meet Bodhi hadn't helped.

According to Paul, his parents, Aro and Josephine, were desperate to meet their only grandchild. They'd even offered to fly Bella's entire family out to their home on Long Island, but had changed that offer once Bella's pregnancy was announced. Paul's apartment was big enough to house him and his parents, should Bella and Edward agree to let them visit Bodhi. The company jet was waiting patiently, ready to go at a moment's notice. All Bella and Edward needed to do was say 'yes.'

Until now, they'd held off, but as she thought back over all of Paul's visits, Bella sighed and rubbed her belly, admitting to herself that there was no real reason to continue putting off Aro and Josephine's visit. Apart from the one blip, Paul had proven himself reliable, and they had no reason to suspect his parents would be anything but the same.

~ oOo ~

By the time Edward and Charlie returned from work that evening, Bella had made up her mind.

They needed to tell Paul, and soon. Especially as Riley had expressed his hope that Paul would travel with the family to see Remi Wilson. His explanation was that his presence might stir something in Remi, or vice versa, and they might be able to get more information about Smith. He may be dead, but Riley was certain there was a multitude of people out there who'd assisted him with his crimes. If this Wilson could help them with any identities or details they'd missed, it could only be a good thing.

"Daddy!" Marley and Bodhi cried, leaping down from the dining table to greet Edward in the doorway.

"Hey, piccoli tesori," Edward said, hugging his 'little treasures' before planting a kiss on each of their heads. "How are you?"

"G-good, Daddy," Bodhi chirped, darting back to resume eating his pizza. Marley followed him, allowing Edward to cross the kitchen.

"Hey, mi amore," he murmured, catching her lips in a kiss. She sighed against him, all the stress of the day chased away by his woodsy, purely Edward scent. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," she breathed, stretching onto her tiptoes for one more kiss before turning to load the dishwasher. A quick glance at the children reassured her that they were engrossed with their dinner, so she looked up at Edward's concerned face and admitted, "We need to think about telling Paul what Marcus is to Marley."

The fierce scowl that spread over Edward's face was expected. The ensuing grimace and nod of acceptance wasn't.

"You're agreeing?"

Edward huffed a soft laugh at her incredulous tone, reaching up to cup her face. His hands smelled faintly of wood and paint; it was a familiar, comforting mixture. "We've talked about this before, haven't we? It was always going to happen. I don't like it, but it has to be done at some point, right?"

Bella sighed, inordinately grateful for his easy acceptance as she leaned her face into his touch and nodded. "Yeah. I think…I think we should just tell him this weekend. He keeps asking about his parents meeting Bodhi, so it should be before that happens."

At that, Edward frowned. "You think he's ready? Bodhi, I mean – to meet Paul's parents."

Glancing around him at their boy, Bella shrugged. "I think so. He's comfortable with Paul now, and I think if we just set it up like before, with them being 'friends,' he'll be fine."

With a long sigh, Edward leaned forward and touched their foreheads together. Like he'd said, he didn't like this situation at all, but it was necessary going forward. They couldn't keep Paul's parents from Bodhi forever, any more than they could keep Marley's sperm donor a secret for the rest of their lives.

"Whatever you think, mi amore. But we're taking Em and Chuck on Saturday, if that's when we're telling him."

Nodding, Bella murmured her agreement. It was definitely sensible to take two of the stronger men in the family, just in case tempers flared. Charlie appeared in the doorway then, rubbing his moustache as he looked between his daughter and Edward.

"Taking me where? And what are we telling 'him,' whoever 'he' is?"

Bella bit her lip, not knowing how her protective father would react. "Dad...we're going to tell—"

"Pawpaw! L-look! I e-eated all my p-p-pizza!" Bodhi sputtered triumphantly, holding up his now-empty plate for inspection.

Charlie chuckled and joined him at the table, ruffling his hair, then Marley's. "Well done, buddy. Good job. And you, Mars? Have you finished?"

Marley beamed, nodding. "Yep, yep, yep! All done, Pawpaw."

"Good, 'cause I brought home a surprise for you…" He quickly dove back out into the hall, returning with a familiar brown paper bag decorated with a yellow 'M.' "Now…who wants a McFlurry?"

Bella rolled her eyes and shelved the Paul conversation for now, watching her kids scrambling over each other to get to their ice creams. "You spoil them, Dad."

Charlie shrugged, a gleeful grin on his face. "That's what Pawpaws are for, right?"

"R-right," Bodhi agreed, already sporting a spot of ice cream on the end of his nose thanks to his impatience and unwillingness to wait for the spoon Charlie was pulling from the bottom of the bag.

"Right, Pawpaw," Marley nodded happily, tucking into her Rolo-topped ice cream with a happy little smile.

Edward tucked an arm around Bella, both watching with joy in their eyes as Charlie shed his boss-man exterior to become just 'Pawpaw.'

When Marley and Bodhi were done with their unexpected treats, Bella clapped her hands together with a smile. "All right, time for baths, then bed."

"Aw, Mamma…" Marley whined.

"Nope. Not going to work, little sweet," Edward laughed, taking Bella's side. "It's already past bedtime. Mamma kept you up so you could see Pawpaw and me, but you've got school tomorrow, and Bodhi's almost falling asleep at the table."

"A-am n-not, D-Daddy," Bodhi protested, yawning widely.

Edward's crooked grin popped with a dimple as he scooped Bodhi from his seat, peppering his cheeks with kisses until Bodhi was a panting, giggling, red-faced mess. "C'mon, Beesy. I'll give you a bath and read you two stories, okay?"

"All r-right, Daddy," Bodhi finally agreed after thinking it over for a moment.

As Bella watched Marley trail after her dad and brother, she smiled to herself, knowing Edward had only promised two stories because he knew Bodhi would be asleep before he'd even started the first.

"So," Charlie huffed pointedly, patting the seat beside him. Bella sighed and joined him at the table, feeling like a teenager in trouble for fibbing. "What's going on this Saturday?"

"We're telling Paul about Marley. It's…it's time, Dad. We can't put it off forever."

Charlie frowned. "This is about what Riley said, isn't it? That he wants Paul to come with us when we go to America."

"Yes, and no." Bella sighed, twining a lock of her hair around her finger. "If we do go to America and Paul comes with us, it'll be impossible to keep the truth from him. But to be honest, I really just want to tell him because I'm sick of lying. I'm so tired of having to bite my tongue all the time to stop myself from accidentally blurting it out. I almost dropped myself in it the other day, at the park."

Charlie winced, rubbing his moustache as his brows drew inward. "And Edward agrees?"

"I think he's trying to be okay with it for my sake," she admitted.

Contemplative silence blanketed the duo as they listened to the muffled voices from upstairs, the squeals and giggles of the children splashing in the bath, then their groans when Edward told them it was time to get out.

"I agree with you, Bells, about being honest. But promise me something. Promise you'll speak to the lawyer before you do anything."

A rush of relief flooded Bella's veins, her baby boy giving a solid kick as she sighed and relaxed; Bella hadn't realised how much her dad's acceptance would mean to her. "I promise, Dad. I think Edward has already texted him, anyway."

With a final nod, Charlie stood and pulled Bella into his chest for a firm hug, laughing when his unborn grandson delivered a flurry of firm kicks hard enough for him to feel through Bella's jumper and his padded coat.

"He's gonna be a footballer, mark my words," Charlie chuckled, resting his palm over the spot rippling with his grandson's movements.

"You might be right," Bella agreed softly, her smile a mile wide. Neither of her first two children had been particularly active in the womb; their little brother was the complete opposite. He barely stopped moving – especially in the evenings. Marley had used that knowledge to her advantage a few nights previous, informing her amused parents that her baby brother was mad that she and Bodhi were being sent to bed. She'd tried to use it as an excuse to stay up later, and only sulked for a short while when Edward and Bella laughed off her attempt.

"All right, I'm going for a shower."

"You should," Bella teased, smiling impishly at her dad's back as he left the room and called out, "you stink." Charlie's chuckles snuck back into the room even as his heavy footsteps made their way up the stairs.

As Bella let the dogs out for their last ablutions before calling them in and locking the door, she sighed and tried to block thoughts of telling Paul about his brother's transgressions from her mind. It may be the right decision, but that didn't mean it would be easy.

She consoled herself with the knowledge that she had Edward and Charlie's support – as well as that of the rest of her family, because they'd never been anything but supportive – and wore a smile by the time she leaned in the doorway of her children's bedroom.

Edward was sitting on the floor beside Marley's bed, both children curled around one another with their stuffed animals between them. Marley and Bodhi were fast asleep, their soft snores echoing in the room. Edward was reading softly, the low cadence of his warm voice having lulled them to sleep before the end of the first chapter; The Little Engine That Could, Bodhi's favourite book, had been read so many times that Bella and Edward could recite it from memory.

"Hubs…are you coming to bed?"

Edward's head snapped up. He blinked hard, glancing between Bella's amused smirk and his children's sleeping faces. "Oh. I didn't realise…Yeah, I'm coming."

Bella watched him set the book on the nightstand, making sure to dim the nightlight before kissing Marley's forehead, then Bodhi's. He tugged the covers up to make sure they wouldn't get cold, whispering his 'I love yous' so softly that Bella only knew he'd said them because she saw his lips move.

When he reached her in the doorway, one hand joined hers on her bump, the other reaching up to cup her face. He stroked the apple of her cheek with his thumb, his emerald eyes soft and searching as he gazed into the depths of her soul. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just love you."

Flutters spread through her stomach as Edward's smile widened, his dimples popping in unison to frame that perfectly crooked smile she loved so much. She still remembered the first time she saw it after her escape. That devastatingly disarming grin.

"Mommy!"

All eyes swivelled in synchronisation to the little girl scrambling down from Edward's hip to charge across the space separating her and her mother. She flung herself into Scarlett's lap, sobbing big, heaving but silent cries that broke the hearts of everybody in the room. For the longest time, Scarlett didn't even move, only muscle memory pushing her arms around Marley to hold her close, even as she stared in wonder at the little girl's shaking body.

"Did she…? Did you…did you just, speak?"

Marley peered up at her mother from beneath long, wet lashes. The warm weight of her on Scarlett's lap brought forth a smile as Marley threw herself back against her mother's chest, snuggling in with a quiet hum.

Scarlett looked at Charlie, Peter, then Edward, finally noticing the wide, proud grin on his face. "What? Has she done that before?"

Edward shook his head, unable to stop himself from laughing. The sound drew Marley's attention. She twisted, lips spreading into a tremulous smile when she found Edward grinning at her. "No. No, she hasn't spoken, not since we got her."

He'd been beaming at Marley's first word; his smile so, so wide.

Even then, he'd been all about the sweet little girl who'd wrapped him around her pinky finger within a matter of days.

It was odd to think of those early days now, when she had Edward's eyes and hands on her and his baby growing within her womb.

As Edward led her to bed, wrapping himself around her as they burrowed into the covers and exchanged hot kisses that set her skin on fire just as much as his roaming hands, Bella couldn't help but forget all about her earlier worries.

They'd gone from strength to strength, and she had evolved from a scared, silent young woman to a loved, healthy, happy mother and fiancée.

Marley had grown into a bright, intelligent, loving little girl, shedding her silence and embracing the love showered upon her by all who met her.

Bodhi was happy, adored, and would never know the horrors of his origin.

And Edward…

Edward had gone from a childhood friend to a saviour and her biggest champion; he was her hero, in every definition of the word.

So, no, she wasn't worried anymore.

Once, a long time ago, she'd read a passage from a poem, and it was this she thought of when she was tumbling into slumber later that night, sated and wrapped in the warm arms of her beloved.

The Devil whispered in my ear, "You're not strong enough to withstand the storm."

Today I whispered in the Devil's ear, "I am the storm."

She couldn't remember who it was written by, but it was incredibly apt. When they, as a family, had already beaten so much to get to where they were today, what was one more trial?

They'd get through it together, just like they always had.

So, I can't quite believe it, but Pinky Promises has made it to Round 2 of the voting in the TwiFic Fandom Awards, Favourite MY EMOTIONS Fic category! GAH! You guys are just...the absolute best. I've also gone through to round two as a nominee for Favourite Newbie Author which just boggles my mind.

Anyway, if you'd like to jump over to the TwiFic Fandom Awards website and vote, I'd be super grateful. You can vote for your favourites once every 24 hours so don't waste your votes :)

Also...my Christmas story Will You Love Me Tomorrow is up for Top Ten Fics Completed in January on the TwifanfictionRecs website, and Pinky Promises is up for Top Ten Stories Completed in 2017. Again, I'd be immensely grateful if you'd vote for them there. And again, you can vote once every 24 hours.

Thank you, everyone! And happy Sunday! xo