A/N SHOCKER! I went back to give you another chapter w/in a few days! I actually had a little extra time so I got some writing done! Hope you enjoy! R&R
I don't own it!
I was so fucking excited. My life could not get any better than it was right now. My film finally wrapped up without any problems. I officially had the summer off for the most part. I didn't start my next film until the fall. And best of all I convinced Bella to go with me to my family's home for Easter weekend. I was so happy that she agreed to go.
My mom had been bugging me since Christmas to come home for Easter since I didn't make it home for any holidays for awhile. And once it was official that Bella and I were together mom's calls got more frequent for us to come.
So now here we were driving in our rental car towards my parent's house. I reached over and squeezed her hand. I could tell she was nervous but I knew there was no reason to because they were going to love her.
"I promise you it's going to be ok babe. They will love you," I tried to assure her.
"I know. It's just that I never really had to meet parents before. I already knew Laurent's mom and after him there was never anyone serious enough to get to that point. What if they don't like me? What if they can't deal with Malik? Do they know about Malik's food choices? What if he has a meltdown?"
"Bella! Baby! Calm down. First of all, I know they will love you because I love you. Second of all, my dad is a top pediatrician so Malik won't be the first autistic child he has met. And my mom has been doing research about autism every since I told her about him. If I know my mom she probably knows almost as much as you by now about it. They have always done lots of things for charities that deal with handicapped kids so I'm sure they've done things for autism too. And yes, she is aware of what he will eat and I'm sure she has stocked up on plenty of Hot Pockets. And if he has a meltdown then he does. We will just deal with it then, believe me it won't bother my parents."
"Alright. I believe you. Damn, you make these people out to be saints or something. Just please if I ask at any point during this stay to leave and go to a hotel then you let me with no questions ask," she asked.
"I promise you but believe me you won't need it."
"Ok, I think I'm better now. Ready as I'm ever going to be," she said as I pulled up to my parent's drive. I looked in the backseat and noticed Malik was still watching his Toy Story DVD on his portable DVD player. He had been watching it since we got on the private plane Bella had reserved for us.
At first I wondered if we really needed the private plane since it was just us. But Bella explained that Malik didn't fly well on commercial due to his sensory issues so whenever she had to fly with him, she always rented the plane.
BPOV
"Well, here goes nothing," he said. We got out of the car and I opened Malik's door. One good thing about Malik is that he is ok with new places. As long as it's not too loud he is ok anywhere. So he got out and started walking towards the door where Edward's parents were standing.
"Malik," I said and on instinct he walked back to were I was and took hold of my hand still while clutching his DVD player. He never looked up from his screen when Edward's parents started speaking.
"Hello Bella, Edward. Hi Malik!" his mother said with energy. Score one point for her. I loved when people spoke directly to Malik. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people ignored him like he wasn't there.
"Hello Mrs. Cullen," I answered as Edward took my other hand.
"Please call me Esme," she said as she walked down the few stairs and gave me a hug. Wow, was surprised by that one.
"And please call me Carlisle," his father said as he came down and stood next to his wife and shook my hand.
"Hi mom, dad," Edward said as he release my hand and gave his mom a hug and shook his dad's hand.
"Well come on inside you three," Esme said. When we walked in I was amazed by how beautiful the house was. Edward had told me before that even before he became famous his parents had money. Both his mom and dad came from old money but they both were successful in their own careers also. His father was a top pediatrician at one of the top hospitals and his mother ran her own design firm.
She lead us into the living room and walked over to a hutch that held their TV. She turned it on and walked over to Malik and handed the remote to Malik. Score another point for Esme. I guess Edward informed his mom of Malik's love for the TV.
After Malik tuned the TV to Nick Jr all of us settled in to get to know each other. After the way they had already treated Malik I was a lot less nervous about talking with them. So much so that I was the one that began talking first.
"It's great to finally meet you both. Edward has said such good things about you. And thanks for inviting me and Malik into your home," I said.
"Bella, Edward has said such great things about you also and we have noticed such a change in him when he calls so we know you are making him happy. I will admit that when Edward told me about Malik's autism I didn't know a whole lot about it but I did some research and talked a lot with Carlisle about it. I know each autistic child is a little different but we are willing to learn everything we can about Malik. We are happy to get to know both of you if you will let us," Esme said.
"We would like that, thank you," I replied. I looked over to Edward and I could see that he had a huge smile on his face. Happy that the people that he loved were getting along I guess.
EPOV
This was actually turning out better than I hoped. In the time leading up to this visit my mother had called me many times asking questions about Malik. I tried to answer as many as I could. She just wanted to make him feel ok in her house while we were there.
When mom mentioned that we were ready for lunch I saw a worried look on Bella's face. Even though I told her that I told mom about what Malik would eat, she was still probably worried about what mom would have for lunch for him. I smiled when we walked into the kitchen as mom was pulling a Hot Pocket from her microwave. This was probably the first time her microwave had ever even been used.
Malik followed us in the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table waiting for his food. I loved that mom was treating this visit as a non formal affair and letting us eat in the little area attached to the kitchen and not having us eat in the large dining room. Mom put his food on a plate and sat it in front of him. I could see a big smile on her face. She loved kids and was always after me to have some of my own. I could almost see those wheels turning on in her damn head. I almost made a joke about Malik being mom's first grandchild but she would just be so heartbroken if it didn't work out between me and Bella.
Bella excused herself to go to the restroom to wash up and my mom was talking to Malik. She didn't seem to mind that he was only focused on his Hot Pocket and not answering her back.
"So, Bella seems nice," dad said once we were pretty much alone.
"Yeah, she is," I answered. "I really like her dad. I don't think I've ever felt like this before."
He patted my hand like he understood completely. "Its Ok son, just be careful. I don't want you to get to attached in case this doesn't work out. Bella and Malik are great and I really hope it does work out though," he said.
After lunch mom took Malik back into the living room to watch TV while I took Bella on a tour of our house.
This was actually the first time that I had ever brought a girl to the house, so I'm sure that's the main reason that mom and dad were so welcoming to Bella.
After showing her the family rooms, the guest rooms, and even my bedroom I stood outside the last door. I was nervous about showing her this room. It was so embarrassing. I took a big deep breath and opened the door.
I opened the door and stepped aside and let her walk in. I could see her eyes go wide as she walked in. She turned around and looked me in the eyes. Then she burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she had to sit in the floor holding her side.
"Oh. My. God. My side hurts," she said.
"I don't know what's so funny," I said trying to look mad.
"Edward. This is some funny shit. You have to admit that." I looked around the room and took in everything she saw. My mom used this room as a shrine to my career. She had full size movie posters of all my movies. My various awards were on the shelves along with all of my movie character paraphernalia, including Barbie doll sized dolls of me, buttons, games, notepads, even coloring books. I have always told my mom it was creepy but she wouldn't listen to me.
"Ok. Maybe a little," I said. She stared me down again. "Alright. It's the craziest thing my mom has ever done. I've begged her to stop but she won't. I laugh at her every time she calls me to tell me she bought the new Teen Bop magazine because my picture was in it. I can't even imaging the cashier's face when she is buying these magazines," I admitted.
Finally she calmed down long enough to get up and walk around the room looking at everything. I couldn't wait to get out of that room.
We walked back downstairs and stopped at the doorway to the living room. I saw a smile on Bella's face as she watched my mom just sitting next to Malik watching his cartoons. I saw tears in her eyes as she watched them.
"What's wrong babe?" I whispered to her.
"I'm sorry, it's just that Malik has never had grandparents and seeing your mom with him makes me wish for the first time ever that he did have grandparents." I gathered her into my arms and hugged her.
"Bella, my parents have wanted grandkids for a long time. I know we aren't married yet but I truly believe that one day we will be. I was afraid of scaring you away earlier by saying this but I know my mom wants to be his grandma if you will let her."
She smiled at me, wiped her tears with the back of her hand and walked in the room. She sat next to Malik on the sofa and I sat in the chair. My mom winked at me from where she was sitting.
"What are you doing Malik? Are you watching Fresh Beat Band with grandma Esme?" she said to Malik. I looked at my mom when she said this and she was grinning ear to ear. She quickly got up and went into the kitchen. I got up and followed her.
When I walked into the kitchen I saw mom dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
"Mom, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Oh baby, nothing is wrong. Nothing at all. You just don't even know how much it means to me to hear her say those words to me. You know that your father and I always wanted a bunch of kids running around and then after you were born we were so sad to know we wouldn't be able to have anymore. But you were more than we could ever hope for. Then as you got older we turned our hopes on grandkids, so to hear Bella call me Malik's grandma means more to me than you both know," she said. Just then Bella walked in with a worried expression.
"Esme, I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't have said that. It's just that Edward and I were talking and," she said.
"Bella, dear. It's ok. It's more than ok actually. Just ignore me. I'm just an emotion old lady. Like I was just telling Edward here, I'm so happy that you said that. I didn't want to be pushy with it but Carlisle and I both want to and will be proud to be Malik's grandparents. But I should warn you that we have a lot of time to make up for so you should know that we will be spoiling him!" she said as she reached over and hugged Bella. I know I had thought about it a lot but it was right then that I decided that she was for sure the woman I was going to marry. And the sooner the better.
A/N I sure wish all people were so welcoming to autistic children and adults!