Disclaimer to Stephenie Meyer.

Just don't give up, I am working it out

"Oh God, oh God, oh God."

"It's going to be okay," I said to the figure who was holding my arm as if they let go they would die. It was a white lie but I didn't know how it was going to plan out so what else could I tell her? It wasn't as if I was in the situation she is in and by the way she was half-screaming, I doubt I would actually be in the situation.

Sorry but you are screwed for the next...I don't know how many hours...?

Way to go Bella. That is why lying was invented.

"Oh God..."

I looked at the hair that was sticking to her sweaty face as she panted and rubbed her swollen belly. Thank God I didn't have to push her in that wheelchair.

"Leah, you're going to be fine," I kept my tone serious to soothe her. There was no way I was going to tell her she was going to have to push a baby out of her... I wasn't even going to attempt to go there.

Urgh. Where was Jacob when I needed him? His girlfriend was in labour and where was he? He better not be watching the stupid plasma so loud he can't hear the screams of his girlfriend as the contractions came. Seriously. He was going to witness his baby giving birth, or else. Jacob had to hear the screams that were deafening me at the moment. Jacob had to realise what he had done, the severity of what happens when you forget those crucial things.

I sighed. It wasn't as if I was here out of real choice. At 11.50pm, I got the call from Leah to go pick her up as she had been driving when her water broke. She couldn't get to Jacob and she didn't know what to do. Naturally I aborted any mission I had to go help her. I wasn't going to say, "Sorry Leah, can you wait ten minutes so I can see if Edward, my love, shows up?"

No one did that to a pregnant girl. No one. I did the right thing. I left. Plus, I had sat there in the cafeteria since 9am in the morning. I had spent nearly 15 hours of sitting in the same seat and looking like a total plank. Every time I heard footsteps approach the cafeteria, I felt my heart start to pound violently, as if it was him. It didn't register that I'd heard those same footsteps before and it was the janitor checking how I was. I felt such an idiot when I saw that he wasn't coming at all. He was never going to come. The janitor left after 6pm and that was when all footsteps ceased. That was the good thing about him leaving. I didn't get my hopes up when I heard footsteps mainly because there were none.

So when 11.50pm rolled around and when Leah called me, I had abandoned all hope. There was no way he was going to show in the next ten minutes, so why even try and pretend that I was going to wait? He obviously didn't want me anymore, he had his new girlfriend. I guess that's who he spent the entire day with. I bet he hadn't even seen what I done and therefore didn't know that I had literally given him everything that he wanted on a silver platter. I suppose I was the only one that was stupid enough to believe everything that he said, or even stupid enough to delude myself that he was going to run away with me if I did what he wanted.

Instead of getting him, at the end of the day, I looked like a total idiot.

"Where. Is. Jacob?" Leah whispered through gritted teeth. I wringed my hands and stared sympathetically at her.

"Let me call him," I told her and she let go of my arm.

I felt the life gush back into my dead arm. I watched as she was pushed away from me into a room by an orderly. I pulled my phone out of my pocket ready to call Jacob and give him hell.

Speak of the devil.

"Jacob? Where the fuck are you? Your girlfriend is giving birth to your baby," I hissed as soon as I picked up. There was a pause.

I waited.

I could hear the truck rumble in the background.

"You're at the hospital?"

He finally says something.

"What part of 'giving birth to your baby' did you not understand? Oh course I'm at the hospital, where do you think Leah was going to give birth? In her car?" My voice was getting louder and louder and starting to attract attention from patients passing behind me. Some had stopped and stared at me.

"You're not at the Forks cafeteria?"

"JACOB! I AM AT THE HOSPITAL, NOW YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS HERE BEFORE I KICK IT HERE."

With that, I hung up and pinched my nose. I took a few deep breaths. I didn't need Jacob to be an ass about everything right now. He needed to be here, not asking pointless questions about my whereabouts. Why did it matter to him, anyway? His main priority was to be at Leah's side. Until then, I would have to be at her side...and possibly had to watch the birthing. Oh, I just wished Jacob would come faster, the kumquat. I turned around to walk back to Leah who was probably wondering where I was.

That was a problem at the moment as people had crowded around me.

"Um, excuse me," I said as politely as I could.

No one moved.

"Are you Peyton Steele?" someone asked. It was someone near the back.

"No." I was short and snappy. If these people didn't move they would face the true wrath that I had. I was already pissed off with Jacob and Mr. No-show, I didn't need to have people look at me and piss me off even more. Plus, since they knew that I was a headcase anyway, I may just put on a little show. Let them know I was as volatile as the papers made it out to be, that I needed therapy, that I was a loose cannon that will punch innocent photographers that tried to sell a picture of my ass to a second-rate ass-rating website.

"Are you Bella Swan?" it was someone closer to the front this time. I could lie. They wouldn't believe me. But I could still lie.

Nah, what use did that have now?

"Yes, now could you please excuse me?"

They didn't budge. I didn't really expect them too. Yet I didn't expect them to surge towards me like one big wave. They clamoured forwards. They all moved towards me in order to touch me or demand something in return. Damn, why hadn't I worn a wig to disguise myself from this? This was why I loved my anonymity, this was why I never told the world who I really was. Because of situations like these. I couldn't be normal here. I could never be normal again. People would look deeper into my face as they knew I changed my hair colour to hide my identity.

This was all because I met and fell in love with Edward Cullen.

Didn't I tell myself nearly every day that I needed him like a fish needs a bicycle? Apparently not.

Fitz had taught me how to deal in these situations, when there was a crowd of people and no bodyguard to protect me. I ducked and fell onto my knees. I crawled as quickly as I could through the legs. Most people didn't notice anyway because they were too busy surging forwards to care that they were walking into something. After all, it could be one of their fallen who couldn't reach the intended target. That was one less opposition for them in their opinion so they didn't have to stop. It did mean I got kicked in the face a lot but that wasn't the problem at the moment. The issue was moving away before people noticed that I was no longer there. People were going to notice they were clinging on someone who wasn't me and they were going to notice that in the eye of the hurricane of people, there was no Bella Swan or Peyton Steele. I moved on ahead, ignoring the shame and humiliation of finally being noticed and being attacked as Bella, something I had never wanted.

Why was I so stupid?

After what seemed like ages, I knew that I was on the fringe of the crowd. This was the harder part. How could I run away and seem like I wasn't a suspicious character? The last thing I needed was for a crowd of people to chase me through a hospital. Urgh, if only I had a wig or a hoodie to hide myself.

I was there, on the edge. I could walk away with my hair covering my face.

I was there. On the edge. There was only one pair of legs that she had to crawl around.

Except, this pair of legs weren't moving at all. There was just an immobile pair of legs in black pants. The legs to who it belonged to didn't want to get involved with the large crowd. I tried to crawl around them but they moved in front of me, blocking from moving away from the crowd. I had to pretend that I wasn't the person they were looking for, I had to pretend to be different, as if I had been injured and I was just trying to get away. I couldn't look up at all, in case that my plan fell apart. I gritted my teeth and crawled across but the legs followed me.

"What is your problem?" I growled before looking up. This time I was sure this person was playing around and I had no other choice. My heart stopped when I recognised the person that was there, staring down at me.

"Put this on," I heard him say and something fell on my head and covered my vision. A hoodie. I grabbed at it as if I was on the brink of starvation and pulled it around me immediately before covering my head with the hood. Heh, sometimes when I ask for something, I get it, even if it's from the person I wanted to see the least but wanted the most. I stood up, unnoticed by the fighting people and he put his arm around me to lead me away from the chaos. The crowd itself wasn't suspicious of a couple simply walking away from them. He led me across several corridors, turning right and left and left again, so many times, I felt as if I was in a labyrinth. After a while he stopped and looked left and right for anyone that could pass us and catch us. Seeing no one, as smoothly as he could, he opened a door, pushed me through and locked it.

He had led me to an unused private room and I was alone with him.

Awkward much?

"What are you doing here?" I glared at the person who was pacing in front of the door.

"What are you doing here?" he shot back tersely, "You said until 12.00am, I had until 12 in the morning!"

I stood up with my fists were clenched, ready to knock some sense into him.

"Oh sorry, if I waited for nearly 15 hours for you to show! Do you realise that I waited that long? Every time I heard someone coming I thought it was you, but it wasn't, do you even understand how hurt I am? When did you get there, 11.59pm?"

My tone was hysterical by the time I had gotten to the end of my tirade. He had tensed when I told him my assumption. He looked at me painfully.

He had gone at 11.59pm.

What kind of a douchebag did that? If he wanted a chance he would have gone the second I had announced it. If anything, he if loved me the way that he said he loved Peyton... if I knew the Edward Cullen who had cried when Peyton broke up with him, he would have been there before I was even there. I half expected him to be sat there, but it didn't bother me when he wasn't. I waited hours. And hours.

And he showed up at the last minute, when I was driving my friend to the hospital as she gave birth. I was already gone.

A sob worked its way up my throat and I turned around so if I started crying he wouldn't be able to see. I was never going to cry in front of him. Never.

"Bells..."

"No one but my friends can call me Bells," I spat angrily without even looking at him. I had used words that he had used before and I was turning the tables back onto him. Without any prompting I felt arms encircle me and press me against a hard body. That was when it was all over. That's when my heart made its decision. The tears I had been holding in came pouring out. One by one, my pain came out in the form of tears.

"You were supposed to be there," I whispered. The arms tightened.

"I know, I'm such an idiot."

"You came at the last minute," I sniffed.

"I should have gone earlier."

"I've already closed my heart to you," I said pointlessly and it was a complete lie. The arms released their grip and I felt my body spin. Edward Cullen's fingers ghosts my neck and he pulled my face up to look at his. My breath caught.

His green eyes were full of repentance and were glistening as if he would start crying. His hair lay matted around his face. Even in his dishevelled state he still managed to look good.

"I can't change what you want, but I can try."

"How?"

He didn't say a word. He just lowered his face and brushed his lips against mine, reviving my frozen heart slightly. It didn't mean anything. He was just doing something.

"No, Edward..." I moaned and pulled my away from him. His hands moved from my waist towards my hair. His long fingers knotted in my hair and pulled my face towards his again. His lips were on my cheek.

"I love you, Bella Swan... in a way, I always have."

His words hit me like a soft cloud and my heart beat a little in hope. He kissed me from my cheek, closer and closer to my lips, stopping at the corner of my mouth/

"You hated Bella," I said truthfully before he could plant a kiss on it. Thanks mouth. Now my heart hit the last nail in its coffin and refused to beat anymore. Thanks for ruining a potentially great kiss. He pulled away from my and his hands fell limp beside him and looked at me with earnest.

"Before you came to Forks, it was this boring dump where girls would pick me up and use me like I was a tissue, except that day when I told you to push the door at the office, I wanted to meet you again. Despite the fact that I had never tried to talk to a person before, I wanted to try. I desperately wanted to see you again."

"You did."

He chuckled but it didn't reach his eyes, "I really wanted to apologise when I broke your bag, no offense but that was intentional. I wanted to find a way to speak to you and I really didn't think it was designer because if it was, there was a chance that Alice would have it."

"She does now."

He chuckled again, "Well, when I heard you call me a wanker, I was mad. Really mad. I suppose I'm arrogant in the sense that I can't be disliked. I just didn't know why you would label me and be there for only one day."

"So why did you do all those things?"

I looked up at him specifically for that question and he squirmed much to my delight.

"Maybe in my twisted mind, I believed the meaner I was to you, the more you would want me."

"That is twisted."

"Then, Peyton Steele came along and it just made me happy to realise how angry I was making you when I talked about her to you but then I realised I was actually in love with Peyton as well."

"But, I'm Bella."

"I know that, Bella. I love you, God, you thinking I'm a wanker is damn straight."

I didn't know what to say. I had given up on him, wholly, completely but he had come back, he had forced his way into my life again.

"Are you serious?" I asked, my voice barely a raspy sound.

"Deadly."

His response made me lunge forward and hold him as hard as I could. The tears slowly became heaving sobs. It was really unattractive but if he loved me as much as he said he did he wouldn't care.

I thought I was imagining it but I felt his chest vibrate too. His arms reached around me and he grabbed me so tightly that I could feel as if he didn't want to let me go, that he didn't want to lose me again. I could feel him shaking. He was crying with me. His head was buried into my shoulder and I could feel something wet. He was actually crying.

He was crying with Bella Swan, for Bella Swan. For me, the real me. Not Peyton. Me.

It was wrong to wish a boy to start crying but I couldn't help the feeling of ecstasy rush through me as I realised this.

After a while, when we had both calmed down, he sat on the chair beside the door and I was sitting cross-legged on the bed, we started talking again. Just chatty banter that we had done when we were Peyton and Edward. It was finally a relief to be Bella and Edward. The three words sent an indescribable tingle down my spine. We were finally Bella and Edward. Edward and Bella. Either way that I could say it, we would be still be connected.

"Marmite, hate it or love it?" he asked me with a smile. I smirked.

"Still haven't tried it."

"What? You've had 7 months to try it!"

"Well sorry, if I want to go to college next year and didn't have a second to even go out and buy Marmite."

He had frozen when I had told him I wanted to go to college.

"You're going to college?"

"Yup. I graduated high school already, so I can go to college."

"Don't tell me, you're going to major in English Literature," he said slowly and meeting my eyes carefully.

"How did y-?"

"...Because I was going to major in English Literature and I suppose in some strange way, we are kind of made for each other," he cut me off with a huge goofy grin which grew bigger as the sentence wore on.

"Huh, maybe there is fate," I muttered.

He gave me a look to continue.

"Edward, I was never going to close my heart to you, I-I can't, not even when you walked out in Chicago or did that interview, I was never capable of completely shutting you out... but hypothetically, if we ended up at the same college and doing the exact same thing, then it would have been highly likely that I would have gone for you again, despite saying that I had closed my heart to you."

His goofy grin turned menacing and he leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs forward. He stretched in front of me and then rested the back of his head on his open palms.

"...So I didn't have to come here, after all."

That remark made me choke. I narrowed my eyes at him and threw a pillow at him. He caught it swiftly so it wouldn't even touch the intended target. Good job there was another pillow if I ever needed to use it.

"How did you even get here?" I asked him, yawning and lying down on the bed, "...and if you say car, this pillow is going to hit your face regardless of your reflexes."

"Jacob drove me here."

That explained the weird phone call asking where I was. I mean, Jacob...oh, shit. Jacob. Leah.

I rolled off the bed whilst using my best Mission Impossible impersonation. When I actually collided with the ground I heard an amused laugh. I rolled my eyes as I pulled myself up and gave the person who had laughed a venomous glare. He did a charade that mocked my dagger stare. This led me to roll my eyes before pulling myself to my feet. Grabbing the bed for support I managed to stand on my own two feet despite the fact that a pair of emerald eyes was inspecting me, turning them into jelly.

Sometimes I like to wonder to myself whether his eyes had superpowers.

"My eyes don't have superpowers," I heard him say randomly.

Damn it. I did that stupid speaking aloud thing again.

"I meant, hypothetically, if they did...what one would they have?" I tried to cover up what I had said with a question so I didn't sound bizarre.

Without a shadow of a doubt he answered immediately with, "X-Ray vision."

This deserved one of the dirtiest looks from me. I stormed past him towards the door of the private room and made a disgusted sound.

He stood up from his chair and took my hand by the wrist and bent down so his mouth was inches from my ear, "On only you."

This caused my cheeks to flame up and redden like a tomato. My hands grew sweaty and shaky, so I couldn't undo the lock on the door. Edward looked away from me for a moment and looked at what I was doing. Using only his index finger, he flicked the lock easily and smirked at me.

Giving him another dirty look, I opened the door and flicked the hood over my head. I walked out of the dark room and let my eyes adjust to the sudden light. I felt Edward sneak his hand around my waist as we walked out together.

Without warning, he kissed me on my head sending butterflies in my stomach haywire.

If I had ever thought that this was a dream I was wrong. This couldn't ever be a dream because my mind wasn't that sadistic to begin with. This wasn't a dream, it was my reality. The signs of him were all there. There was a newfound spring in my step. My cheeks ached from smiling too much. An immobile lump in my throat...all signs of the changes that he had brought to me. Proof that he was mine, finally mine.

Not Peyton's as I so believed before. He was Bella's or in other words... mine.

Since I had no idea where I was going and Edward clearly did, I let him lead me around to where Leah was probably giving birth. Or waiting to give birth... I wasn't exactly familiar with childbirth but I was sure that she was going to need moral support. Edward's hand moved from my hand and took my hand instead. He looked at me before muttering in my ear, "I love you, Bella Swan."

Then I think my world tilted on its axis and everything was righted. He'd said it a million times before but never with the intensity that he just had. I turned to face him, my eyes locked onto his and smiled.

"I love you too, Edward Cullen."

x-x-x-x-x

After 10 gruelling hours in labour, Aylen Sarah Black was born into the world.

Alice appeared in the waiting area around 5 hours into labour. She had heard from Edward where we were and since this was one of the first births that she could be around for, she was going to hang around and see what happened. She had extended the carpool to Rosalie, but Rosalie would rather break her ankle than confront someone giving birth. She wasn't ready for that kind of exposure yet.

Guess who is the godmother of the cutest little girl in the world? You see, Alice wanted it, a lot, because she just wanted to be a godmother. However, even she couldn't deny the fact that I was Jacob's best friend, and even though I would not be into the girly stuff like Alice was, I deserved the role more. Despite this, I appointed Alice had deputy godmother, just to humour her.

It was Quil and Embry who spent an hour arguing who would be the kid's godfather. Edward suggested that they fight it out on the parking lot and this suggestion was taken seriously until Jacob stopped the pair from even leaving the hospital room. There was to be no bloodshed between his two best friends on the happiest day of his life. Edward tried to not look too disappointed, as he was a little disappointed because his idea was immediately shot down, but he understood Jacob's reasoning.

The matter was quickly solved over a Pokémon battle as suggested by an exhausted Leah. Both whipped their Nintendo's out and played each other to the death, metaphorically. After implementing a 'no-swapping' Pokémon rule after 15 minutes of stalemate gameplay (since they knew the weakness of the other's Pokémon and had a Pokémon that could easily defeat said Pokémon) it was clear that Embry spent most of his time raising his Pokémon and training them to a level that Quil couldn't quite reach. Of course, Embry was accused of cheating, but fair was fair. Embry was Aylen's godfather. Quil was his deputy, again just to humour Quil. (And Embry didn't want Quil to feel like a complete loser).

As appointed godparents and deputy godparents, Embry, Alice, Quil and I were in charge of setting up the cottage for Leah and Jacob when they brought Aylen home. Alice and I made sure there were the baby essentials and Quil and Embry were going to get the car that I was going to insist that Jacob had, for the baby.

Edward was going to break the news to Tanya, that he was no longer dating her and didn't want anything to do with her anymore. Despite the fact that Edward had come clean and admitted that he had just stopped short of sleeping with every girl in Forks, I was glad that he came clean about what happened and he was honest about what he did.

I suppose I would have been mad. Except, that was a long time before we got back together. I was so done with the teenage angst and holding everything in the past. Everyone deserved a clean slate. Sometimes even Tanya and James. That didn't mean that I was going to beg for them to keep in contact. There was no way that I was going to let James Port ever call me 'PeyPey'. I could never forgive him for coining that nickname that Tanya adores. At least she was no longer my best friend, so her calling me other than 'Bella' wasn't tolerable anymore.

Finally, I had made her so mad that she didn't want to acknowledge me or even call me. Finally, the nasal voice of a stereotypical blonde was gone. No more stupid questions that required stupid answers. No more F full stop R full stop I full stop E full stop N full stop D full stop S full stop.

"Do you remember when you asked me if you were going to be happy?" Alice looked at me over the plumped-up pillows in the living room of the cottage. We were awaiting the arrival of Jacob, Leah and Aylen as well as Quil and Embry who were still gone from getting the car in Seattle. Other people had yet to arrive for the small welcome party that Alice had organised to military precision.

"Uh-huh."

"Well, I lied...or rather, didn't tell you the entire truth," she confessed quietly.

"You've said that before," I said, paying no real attention, "you were right, I'm happy as Bella."

"Yeah. I suppose," Alice said loftily, her voice trailing off. She looked at me and laughed awkwardly.

"What?" A nervous involuntary smile was on my face.

"I did see you happy as Bella," Alice muttered, "but in regards to Edward, I only saw Edward with you."

"Peyton or Bella?" I asked before gasping for dramatic effect, "or Francis?"

Alice gave me a look that described exactly what she thought of my redheaded with electric-blue highlights, blue-glasses wearing, red-contacts using friend.

"Francis, definitely."

I sniggered, "Dang it. I think I may have to stay Francis."

The mere idea made Alice pale. I rolled my eyes and told her I was joking. My assurance that I would never become Francis ever again brought colour back into her cheeks. I think she even started to breathe properly again.

"Well, it was Bella, actually," she finally explained. I sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Come on, you were too happy being Peyton to care," Alice justified perfectly.

"I suppose I pretended to care about Edward as Peyton but you have to admit, he said that he pretended to be in love with Peyton at first."

Alice laughed, "I knew that he always had a crush on you, he was always over-concerned about outdoing you distract himself from believing that he had a little crush on you."

I rolled my eyes at her, "You're Alice. You're psychic. You're probably going to tell me every single detail of what is going to happen in the next...two or three years."

Alice winked at me before saying,

"Of course, Bella Swan."

Bear hugs to all those who were waiting for this chapter like hungry piranhas. This was one of the hardest chapters I've ever written so, it took longer than I expected.

Okay, so I decided that I was going to finish the story now, technically this is the penultimate chapter with an epilogue coming shortly, but this was it. There wasn't going to be another arc in the story. Everything that I wanted in the beginning when I first wrote this has happened. What else can happen? Bella's finally herself. She has Edward. Leah has had her daughter and Jacob. Tanya has... well, what is left of her pride and dignity.

(Btw, for people who are confused about Leah's sudden labour, I have mentioned in the last chapter that she was due in the upcoming months. However, there are those sudden pregnancies where someone is incredibly early (like my sister in real life who's early birth caused my uncle to speed and therefore get a speeding ticket for trying to get my screaming mother to the hospital).

Song title reference, Adam Lambert – What do you want from me?

Okay, the epilogue is underway and I most definitely have the time to get it written in the next two days, depending how I feel.

Love, bexx.