EPOV:

Stay.

She wanted me to stay.

God, how I wanted to stay.

I yearned to hold her close to me like I had at the hospital, my heart had nearly exploded in my chest when I heard her ask me to lay with her. I wanted to fall asleep with her in my arms and wake up comfortable with her next to me every morning for the rest of our lives. I wanted and my body physically needed to stay with her. She had wanted me too and in my selfishness I should have taken advantage of that and stayed.

But I knew I couldn't. The look on her face when she snapped at me at the hospital told me that we needed to talk and soon. She still held all of her anger inside and I couldn't stay and let her battle everything internally until she exploded like she had at the hospital. It wasn't healthy for her or for the baby to have all of those raw emotions bottled up inside waiting for something to happen to trigger something.

"I don't think that's such a good idea baby." I explained watching her face fall and her shoulders slump. "I think that I should head over to my parent's house and get settled for my stay. You need to relax. I'll call you tomorrow and if you feel up to it, we will sit down and talk."

I'm sure that she could detect the anguish in my words. Each word was forced when I wanted nothing more than to sit with her, to lay with her. I had to keep reminding myself that it was for the best. That until we talked about everything, it would always be a problem. As much as it hurt to leave her I knew it was for the best.

"Then I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow." She said sadly.

"Please Bella." I grabbed her face tenderly. "It's for the best. Once you've layed down for bed tonight you'll see that I'm right."

"Okay." She smiled sadly her eyes brimming with tears. "But how can you expect me to relax or sleep when you're not here. Before that night in the hospital, I hadn't had a peaceful night of sleep since the night before I left."

"I know baby. It was the same for me." I kissed her lips. "Call me if you need anything even if it's just to talk."

"I'm kind of tired so I think once I eat I'll just lay down. Call me bright and early tomorrow please." Bella said kissing me back.

"I'll call you as soon as I wake up." I lied knowing all too well that I would be up far earlier than she would.

The cruiser pulled into the driveway just as I was walking out the front door. Bella and I had already said our good nights so I figured it would be easy to do what I had to without her knowing.

"Edward." Charlie grumbled. "Heading out so soon." His voice had an underlining of accusation but I ignored it.

"Yeah, I need to head over to my parent's house and get settled for the night. I'm going to call Bella tomorrow so that we can talk." I shifted awkwardly.

"I agree that you two need to talk but Edward." Charlie looked at me seriously. "Don't do anything to upset her please. These past few months have been really hard on her and I."

"She wanted me to stay Charlie." I sighed. "The only reason why I didn't agree was because I knew that she needed to relax. She already got upset at the hospital before we left and I think that we need to clear the air before we move any further because she's already proved to me that things can't be forgotten."

"She's right son. These sorts of things will never be forgotten, the key is to forgive, not to forget. You need to prove to her that you're not going to make those mistakes again. You two need to talk about everything so just have Bella give me the heads up and I'll go down to La Push." Charlie grumbled. "To give you two some privacy."

"Thank you Charlie. I was actually hoping that you would call me when she woke up. I don't want to wake her up if she sleeps in or not call and make her upset." I rambled.

"I'll call you when she wakes up." Charlie agreed shifting the bags of take out. "I better get in there and feed our girl."

Our girl. The words struck a cord.

"She's always been yours Edward. I know I was against your relationship back then and hell I was ready to get my gun and hunt you down when I saw her standing in my front yard in the pouring rain after not seeing her for a couple of years but she told me the truth about what happened." Charlie explained sadly. "I wanted her to tell you. Your deserved the right to know about the baby, to be in it's life. I missed out on a lot when Renee left me and I didn't want to see history repeating itself with Bella."

"Thank you Charlie." I whispered.

"Don't mention it." He smiled but it was forced. "But if you ever hurt her again don't you forget that I have friends in high places."

"If I ever hurt her again, it wouldn't be a problem trying to come find me. I'll come willingly." I answered truthfully. "You better get in there before she falls asleep. Tell her I'll call her tomorrow."

"Alright." He grumbled turning away and walking up the front steps.

I waited until he disappeared behind the door before getting in my car and heading to the secluded woods that my parent's house resided in. The only lights that were on was the den as I grabbed my bag and headed inside. I could hear the nightly news playing in the living room and the sounds of something mechanical working rather quickly.

I sat my bag by the door and walked towards where all the sounds were coming from. I found my mother diligently working away at a sewing machine sitting on top of a TV tray in front of her chair. There was a twenty five foot extinction cord plugged in next to the TV and a bottle of wine sitting on the floor next to an iced tea glass that was half full.

Anyone that ever met my mother walking down the street would think that Esme Cullen was a five star restaurant eating, martini sipping rich bitch. Yes my mother enjoyed the finer things in life being a stay at home mom before she and my father even thought about having me. She went to college for philosophy not caring that it was impossible to get a job with that sort of degree.

She loved the lavish life that my father's occupation allowed her to live but she would trade everything, the money, our expensive house and even the spot at the Port Angeles country club for her family. I could understand that she had treated Bella badly, thinking that Bella had lied to me. My mother could be a bitch, when it came to her family.

To know the down to earth woman that was Esmeralda Cullen was a joy though. She wore her heart on her sleeve most of the time and never felt the need to press the fact that she was well off.

I watched as she pushed two pieces of fabric threw the sewing machine and curse loudly.

"Esme Cullen." She jumped up and screamed bloody murder knocking over the glass of wine. "How dare you use that language." I scolded.

"Edward Anthony you scared the he-heck out of me." she chided clutching her heart. "I didn't think you would be here so soon."

"Yeah Bella was tired and hungry and I wanted to get settled in here before I started working at the hospital." I explained laughing as she bent down and used a peice of scrap fabric to sop up the wine.

"Yeah but that won't be for a week or two Edward." She said knowingly. "So you thought you would give Bella some time to rest and come home and scare your dear old mom half to death."

"Sounds like it." I laughed walking into the room and hugging her.

"It's good to see you baby boy."

"It's good to see you too old woman." I chuckled earning a slap.

"Edward Cullen, a woman's age must never be brought up. I thought I raised you better." She sighed.

"Sorry mom. You don't look a day past eighty five." I joked again earning a harsh slap to the face.

"You know for a fact that I am forty seven." She yelled.

"I'm sorry mom." I looked past her and toward her chair. "So what are you doing in here that caused you to curse like a sailor?"

"Pshh, sailor. I decided that since I was becoming a grandmother at my young age." She sighed dramatically. "That I would start doing the grandmotherly things."

"Like?" I dragged.

"Like needlepoint but that ended badly." She held up her hand covered with tiny beige bandaids. "I don't have the patience to learn to knit or crochet, so I decided to try my hand at sewing all while watching the late night news, did you know it was so dreadfully boring?"

"Yes mother." I laughed. "So what are you sewing other than your fingers together here?" I asked walking over to the contraption.

"It was supposed to be a baby blanket but." She trailed off. "I can't figure it out so I guess it's a bunch of rags sewn together."

I lifted up the article in question and saw that it in fact looked like a bunch of rags sewn together.

"It's not that bad ma." I chuckled. "You'll get the hang of it. You have months to practice."

"It would really help if I knew if it was a boy or girl." She commented.

"Well you will see when we see. Bella decided she wanted it to be a surprise and I like the idea of it." I explained rubbing the back of my head.

"That's wonderful Edward." My mother cried. "I wanted to do that with you but your dad was doing his interning in the maternity ward and started crying 'my son my son' during the sonogram. Shall we say that the surprise was ruined?"

"Well I would know whether it was a girl or a boy by looking at the sonogram but Bella took a permanent marker and covered the gender." I chuckled.

"She's a smart girl." My mom giggled as she sat back down at the sewing machine and proceeded to cut the stitches out.

After a lot of encouraging I had a drink with my mother while watching the latest episode of Adult Swim. We laughed until our stomachs hurt and I started yawning.

"Oh honey you haven't slept in a bed in a week." My mother sighed.

I didn't correct her. I had slept in Bella's hospital bed but no one had to know of that fact. Instead I kissed her cheek and bid her a goodnight before grabbing my bag and walking up the stairs to my old bedroom.

Opening the door I smiled. My mother had left my room the exact way I had left it in my younger years. The dark blue sheets had been freshly washed and the floor had been recently vacuumed. My posters still hung on the walls and the picture of Bella and I the night of Prom still sat on my nightstand.

We had been dating for close to two years when we attended prom, it was the total cliché from the corsage to the cabin by the beach of La Push that a group of us had chipped in to rent for the weekend covertly lieing to one another's parents about our whereabouts. Alice was at Bella's, Bella at Alice's. Jasper at mine, and me at Jasper's.

Our first time was awkward and over nearly almost as soon as it began. Bella cried for hours afterwards because of the pain she went through and I cried because she was crying. That night we slept in each other's arms crying for our reasons. Bella told me she loved me for the first time the next morning.

We didn't try again for a long time after that, my mother and father had gone out of town for a conference that weekend. I was a nervous wreck the entire week as I planned for our weekend alone. Alice had agreed to lie for us and say that Bella was staying the weekend with her.

I made dinner.

I lit candles.

I danced with Bella.

And then I took her upstairs to my bedroom, this bedroom and we made love for the second time. It was simple. We only made love that one time during our weekend alone. Instead we cuddled on the couch and watched movies.

Sex didn't rule our lives, there were times when we craved it, when we felt like it and others when we just wanted to sneak away and hold each other.

As teenagers that probably would look to someone on the outside as unhealthy for being that way at such a young age. We didn't allow hormones to rule our brains instead we followed our hearts. My mother told me once that I was what she liked to call an old soul and that Bella was definitely another old soul. She found it remarkable that we had found each other so early but she always told us that we would last until we were old and grey.

I just hoped that after this conversation we were going to have tomorrow that my mother was correct in her beliefs