"Dear Lord, Bella!" Jane was standing at my office door, fanning herself with a chart. I smiled knowing whose chart it had to be. "How can you be around him all the time? Just a few seconds, and I thought I was going to turn into a pile of goo at his feet."

I giggled and stood up to take the chart from her. "It's not easy, but I find it completely worth it."

Jane shook her head and allowed me to walk ahead to the exam room where Jake was waiting for his PUP3. I spent a few minutes preparing the vaccines and then entered the room where I was nearly knocked over by an over excited Labradoodle.

"Well hello, Jake." I looked down at the chart and my eyes nearly bugged out. "My God, you've gotten big." The once five pound puppy was now verging on forty pounds.

As I lifted Jake up onto the table. I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. Edward lips pressed into my neck. "I've missed you."

Shoving back with my elbow, I giggled, "Edward, professional atmosphere." I chastised. "And stop dazzling my staff. They work with heavy equipment and live animals. I need them to be completely aware."

Undeterred by my lecture, Edward nuzzled into my neck. "I didn't dazzle anybody, and if you want me to keep my hands to myself, maybe you shouldn't look quite so tempting."

Rolling my eyes, I wiggled free and pointed to the bench on the other side of the table. "Sit," I pursed my lips as I watched him slump onto the bench. I looked around the room, realizing how empty it felt without Mason. "What time do you get Mason back?"

Edward's expression fell more. He hated when Tanya had Mason. Although I tried to distract him when she did, there were days like yesterday when he'd had to work at the hospital most of the night and I didn't get to see him. "Tanya wants to keep him another night. Apparently her sisters are in town and they aren't ready to say goodbye to him."

Forgetting about the dog on the table for a moment, I made my way to his side of the table and leaning down to press my lips to his in a comforting gesture. Pulling back, I ran my fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry, Baby. Did you take off work tonight to spend time with him?" He simply nodded, closing his eyes and leaning into my touch. I chewed on my lip, not wanting to seem like I was taking advantage of Mason's absence, but knowing that Edward shouldn't be alone tonight. "Would you like me to come over tonight? Maybe I could make you supper and we could watch a movie."

His eyes opened, and I could see the sadness still in them, but he nodded his head. "I think I'd like that."

I leaned down and pressed my lips to his again before moving back to Jake. The exam only took a few moments, then I sent Edward on his way. I would have liked to keep him around, but my staff really had a hard time concentrating when he was around. But I did worry about him. It wasn't like Tanya to ask for extra time with her son. She really didn't seem to like having him around that much. In fact, she usually kept him one night every other week. This would make three nights this week alone. Edward really wasn't handing the separation well.

Several hours later, I made a quick trip to the grocery store. Edward still hadn't learned to keep a stocked pantry and I wanted to make something that might lift his spirits. I was able to get all the ingredients for his favorite dish. Then I picked up a box of Oreos to eat during the movie.

When I got to the house, Edward was nowhere to be found. I let myself in and began working on dinner. I was nearly done when he finally walked in with a bag from blockbuster. Jake came bounding around the corner and tried to knock me over so that he could reach my face.

I scratched him behind the ear, but was too concerned by the look on Edward's face to really give him much attention. He looked like he was on the verge of a serious breakdown. Slowly, I approached him. "Baby, what's the matter? Where have you been?"

He shrugged, "I took Jake for a walk. We went to blockbuster."

My brow furrowed as I tried to place his mood. "Blockbuster is five miles away. You took Jake on a ten mile walk?"

"Yeah," he didn't say anything else. Just looked out the window above the sink.

"Edward," I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair. "Tell me what's bothering you. I can't stand to see you like this."

He didn't look down at me like I'd hoped he would. He kept his eyes trained on the same spot. "Nothing's wrong. I just miss Mason."

He was lying. I knew he missed Mason, but he refused to look at me. There was something bothering him and he didn't want me to know about it. I stepped away from him, unable to let this happen again. He wasn't going to shut me out of his life. I turned off the oven, took out the pan, and went into the living room to pick up my stuff.

The sound of my jingling keys must have broke Edward's daze. He was in the living room and at my side almost immediately. "What are you doing?"

"Leaving Edward," I turned up to look at him. I could see confusion in his eyes. "You are not shutting me out again. It destroyed us last time and I'm not going to stick around to watch you do it again."

"Wait!" Edward's hand wrapped around my upper and, and his hold was tight. Fear flashed through his eyes. "Please don't leave me."

I closed my eyes as tears tried to brim to the surface. "Edward, I love you. But how can I stay when you're holding me at arms length?"

His grip on my arm tightened, almost painfully. My eyes flashed to his to see that tears had formed there. Unable to stop myself, I reached up and brushed away a few tears. Edward held my hand to his face. He took a deep shaky breath and began to speak. "Tanya's threatening to hold Mason from me. She says that its inappropriate for me to bring women into his life." He took another deep breath and I stepped closer to him. "I don't know what to do."

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I realized what he was saying. Tanya was making him choose between me and his son. I opened my mouth, hoping that words would reach me, but they didn't so, after a few attempts, I closed it.

He sank down into the closest chair. Since his grip on me hadn't loosened, he brought me down with him. Once sure that I wasn't going to make a run for it, he buried his face in my neck. "Bella, I don't know what to do, because I'm not losing either of you."

We sat there for a few minutes in complete silence. I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that Tanya, the woman who had little to no maternal instinct, was threatening to take her child away from his father just to keep us apart. She couldn't handle Mason on a full time basis. I mean, she usually only saw him two times a month. This really made no sense.

Slowly, I tipped Edward's face so that he could look at me. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was splotchy. The picture was truly heartbreaking. He couldn't live without his son. "Edward, you know what you have to do."

He closed his eyes tight, pushing out another tear and shook his head. "Bella, I have no idea what to do. I think she's serious and that's scary. She could take my son away from me. The judges always favor the mother."

My bottom lip slipped between my teeth as I tried to hold it against the trembling. "You have to choose Mason. Edward, your son needs you, and you need him. I know you. It will kill you if you have to go without him. You get antsy during the one night that he's usually gone. Edward, I won't allow you to choose me."

He eyes hardened and he wrapped his arms around me tightly, caging me against his body. "Isabella. Marie. Swan. You are going nowhere. I'm not losing you to Tanya again."

I sunk into him slightly. "Edward, what about Mason? He'll know that you chose me over him. That is not something you want him to think."

"We're not going to lose him," Edward said roughly, emphasizing the word we. "And you aren't going to leave me here by myself." His eyes softened again, he leaned closer and brushed his lips across mine. "Baby, I need you here with me. We can figure this out. Just please, don't leave me."

My heart melted, and I let my lips settle against his for the first time that night. We only separated when we could taste the salt of my tears. "How can we get him back, Edward?"

"I don't know," He leaned his forehead against mine, "But we'll need help."

An hour later, the living room was crowded. Alice, Jasper, and Emmett, who I'd never met before, had been called instantly to try to find out how to get Mason back. And then Edward's lawyer, Jay Jenks, was called, who brought in a few people with him, though I was really too distracted to learn who they were. He brought three men, all rather geekish, and one bombshell blond who Emmett kept eying.

Jay brought with him a whole bunch of paper work. Some previously signed; divorce and custody papers, along with several large books. He spread them out across the coffee table and began to speak to Edward in words that I just didn't understand.

I got up and made coffee for everyone because it seemed like this was going to be a really long night. Jasper followed to help me, because Alice was enthralled with the conversation. I'd never seen her so angry as when Edward told her what Tanya was doing.

"Hey, how are you holdin' up?" Jasper asked as he pulled down as many mugs as possible.

I peeked out into the living room and watched Edward pull at the ends of his hair. "I'm not gonna lie, I've been better." I turned my attention back to Jasper. "He shouldn't be doing this. Mason needs him. And it's not fair to put him through this just so we can stay together."

Jasper placed a hand on my shoulder as my voice rose an octave or two. "Hey, hey. Relax, Bells." I tried to control my breathing, using Jasper to ground myself. "Bells, you are worth it."

Tears burned my eyes, "But I'm not." I shook my head furiously and the tears began to slip across my lids.

"Bells, look at me." My eyes met Jasper's clear blue ones and an eerie calm settled over me. "You are worth it. I haven't known Edward for very long, but during the few months that y'all weren't together, nobody but Mason could stand to be around him. He was always moody, and just didn't want to deal with anyone." He squeezed my shoulders to make sure that I was paying attention. "He's changed so much since you've come back into his life. He sees his family again, he's accepted me, and he actually smiles. Bella, I never saw a real smile on his face before you came along. He won't make it if you're not here anymore."

"But Mason," I whispered.

"Will be fine. We are not going to let Mason get taken away from us." He pulled me into his arms, squeezing me tightly. "You need to calm down, because Edward needs you right now. This could get messy."

I took a few deep calming breaths before pulling back and smiling up at him. "Thanks, I guess I'm a bit overwhelmed."

Smiling back, he began to help me get the coffee into different mugs and getting the condiments that people might need. We walked back into the living room and dolled out the mugs. I took my place on the arm of the couch next to Edward. He reached out and squeezed my calf gently, the only sign that he knew I was still there.

Jay looked up at me speculatively. I knew that look. He wasn't sure I was worth all this trouble either. "Edward, this isn't going to be easy. Since you and Tanya were so easy going about the custody to begin with, this sudden change is going to cause trouble."

Edward must have noticed the way he eyed me, because he reached out and tangled our fingers together. "I don't care what it takes. I want full custody. She can't do this to me, ever again."

"Okay," Jay seemed to get the message, because he began to gather up his stuff. "Well then I'll get this started. I'll get back to you tomorrow."

Of course Emmett took his chance to make his move. "Hey, Rosie." He walked right up to the blonde bombshell "What do you say we get together and go over this in private?"

The blonde just raised an eyebrow at him before saying. "The name is Rosalie." Then she turned and flipped her hair in his face as she turned to leave.

We all burst into laughter the moment that she was out of the house. Emmett just smiled as he watched her go. Clearly, he wasn't deterred.

"Okay," Alice dragged our attention away from the spectacle that had just been made. "So I think we're going to go home. There's really nothing else we can do until we hear from Jay." She leaned over and kissed her brother on the cheek. "I'm glad you're finally doing this."

He nodded and we slowly said our goodbyes to everyone. Soon, we were by ourselves again. We both slumped down on the couch. Exhaustion weighing down on us heavily, Edward pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. "I love you," was all he whispered before we both fell asleep.