Okay, so bear with me, because this I might have been smoking crack (or however crack in ingested) when I wrote this

Edward:

By late Sunday, the family still wasn't back. They had left in the middle of the day Saturday, they should be back by now. I kept trying to calculate and recalculate how long they would have had to drive up to the park, how long they'd stay there, and how long it would take to drive back. I couldn't imagine that they would stop much in either direction, for Bella's sake. I wished Alice were here. She could tell me when they would be back. I'd tried calling here, but service was spotty at best, and she hadn't gotten back to me.

What if something horrible had happened?

No, nothing horrible happened, I tried to assure myself. Carlisle, Alice, and both of my brothers could handle one shy, gentle newborn. They were fine.

Unless Bella escaped them.

No, Bella didn't escape them! I yelled at myself. I didn't know why I was so anxious about this. When Esme or Rosalie or Emmett were newborns, I never worried this much. Okay, maybe when Esme was, but then it was just Carlisle and me and we had so little knowledge of what we were doing. I couldn't imagine Carlisle having to deal with me all by himself. It's a wonder he managed at all.

How much longer could this torture go on?

I was too accustomed to Alice's powers. I was too used to knowing the answers. Just like how I couldn't understand Bella without the ability to read her mind (or fight her, as Jasper pointed out), I'd lost the ability to deal with anxiety without Alice.

Esme and I had installed the window when I got back last night, and while I was gone, she had taken care of most of the wall. Rosalie had said she would refuse to help on principle, but when I got back, she was holding the plywood while Esme hammered.

Rose and I finished the wall together this morning, while Esme shopped for a light beige-blue paint. I wasn't kidding when I said Esme would use any excuse to repaint a room. Since then, I've been sitting out front, 'brooding,' as Rose had put it. I just hated waiting.

I stood up from the porch and walked onto the driveway. The gravel crunched under my feet. I thought maybe if I closed my eyes and focused very hard on the sounds of the highway, I would hear Carlisle's car earlier.

Out of nowhere, I was suddenly soaked. I yelped and opened my eyes, and everything around me was light blue.

Oh my God! I can't believe I got you! Rose's mental voice was cheering. She was laughing, and I realized that she had snuck up on me and poured one of the leftover buckets of paint over my head.

I turned around expecting to be angry, but Rose was laughing behind me, her thoughts lighthearted and fun, and Esme was in the doorway– having heard me yelp – with an amused, trying-not-to-smile expression. Instead, I ran to Rosalie and embraced her, getting the blue paint all over her, too.

"No! No! I love this dress!" she yelled, but she was still laughing and I knew she wasn't angry with me. She shoved me off of her, and tried to wipe the paint off. She flashed me a wicked smirk and ran inside. Esme was laughing outright, now, and Rose reappeared with two buckets of the pink paint that we had from when Alice painted her room. She put one down and popped the lid off the other

"You wouldn't dare," I growled at her playfully.

She smiled, and she charged me with one of the buckets held over her head. I ran into the woods with Rose chasing me, and when I knew I was far enough away, I turned around. Rose almost ran right into me, and the paint went flying out of the bucket. I tried to tip it onto her head, but at the last minute, she sent it flying and it splashed all over both of us and several trees. With the bucket empty and other one back at the porch, there was a silent moment where we looked into each other's eyes, like duelers with their fingers on the triggers.

In the same instant, we both dropped the empty bucket and ran. I was faster than Rose, but the distance was so short it almost didn't matter. I broke through the trees and back onto the driveway only a fraction of a second before she did, and we were both immediately doused with paint.

Esme stood at the bottom of the steps with the half-empty bucket in her hands. Knowing we would run back, she had attacked us.

Rosalie and I both, shocked, broke into laughter. Esme laughed with us, and the second she let her guard down, we grabbed the bucket and emptied the rest of the contents of it onto her head.

She froze for a second, completely caught off guard, but fell back into laughter a second later.

This was how the family found us, covered in paint and falling to pieces laughing in the driveway.

Carlisle was the first out of the car– Alice was opting to hide behind the locked doors until she was sure she wouldn't get painted – and asked us, smiling as well, "What in the world are you doing?"

In answer, Rosalie laughed and charged into him, swinging her pink saturated hair and splatted paint onto him as well.

Carlisle looked utterly shocked. He would have guessed that his arrival would ruin any good mood of Rose's, and he was shocked now to see her laughing and embracing him, smearing paint on his vest.

Did I miss something? he asked me as he laughed along with Rosalie.

I shrugged. He'd probably hear from Esme about the talking to she'd given us, and honestly, I couldn't explain Rose's good humor.

Emmett got out of the car and lifted Rose into a spinning hug, which got paint in more places and all over himself. He didn't mind at all. They kissed each other, and then they headed inside to take a shower, he smiled at me too.

Whatever you guys did, thanks, he thought.

Jasper got out of the car next, and shot me a warning glare that clearly read, 'You'd better not,' and his thoughts matched the sentiment. He opened Alice's door for her, and, content that the future didn't hold paint for her, she got out too.

Alice smiled at me in greeting. I saw that Rose was going to cheer up, but I still can't place what did it, she thought. I think it was Esme reprimanding you. In the futures where she decided to just let you fight it out, none of this happened.

I hoped Alice would tell Esme that. She would be thrilled to hear that her parenting skills were sharp as ever.

She still isn't ever going to agree to babysitting, Alice added. I laughed.

Bella was the last person to get out of the car. She looked worried. Esme had gone inside with Carlisle– there was a shower in store for them too– and Alice and Jasper were just unpacking the trunk.

Seeing Bella again was like letting out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. I wanted to run up to her and embrace her and tell her I missed her, but I was covered in paint, and I could tell she didn't want to be from the way she was eying me warily. Instead I smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Did you have fun on your trip?" I asked her.

She shrugged, and I wondered what had happened. Maybe they hadn't managed to find her any large game.

"Did you have fun while we were gone?" she asked. "It looks like you did." She gestured to me, covered in blue and pink paint.

I shrugged too, and she smiled. She went inside, and I followed her. I wanted to sit with her on the sofa, but I needed to wash the paint off of me before it dried, so I found an empty bathroom and took care of that.

I feel like I should have written this from Rose's point of view. It might have made more sense. I guess it's too late now...

Sorry I got this up so late in the day! Gah, today was so busy! I'm lucky I managed to get a chapter posted at all!