Thanks for the reviews!!!

This chapter gave me some issues. I've had the BPOV written for about three weeks--I've always known it was going to go this way, I just had to get it here. Add Edward's damn 'I have to propose to Bella now' shit, and I struggled a bit to get it right.

LEMON AHEAD.......

*~*

Chapter 25

Edward

"She doesn't know, does she, Edward?" Alice asked me for the millionth time.

"No!" I shouted, scrubbing my face with my hand. "But she's going to figure it out if you don't stop fucking calling me."

I was beginning to wish I hadn't included her in my little 'surprise'.

"Fine," she huffed. "I'll talk to you later."

I sighed heavily and hung up the phone.

Last week, I had gotten together with Alice and Rosalie to talk about trying to replace some of Bella's destroyed pictures. I called Charlie, Jacob, and Angela and asked them to make copies of anything Bella might have had at her town house. We'd gotten the last of them, from Charlie, in the mail yesterday and had gone through them while Bella was at work. Including the copies of pictures that Esme, Alice, and I had taken, I could only think of two that were missing out of the hundreds she had in frames and albums around her house.

I was pretty fucking pleased with the result.

I'd told Alice which one's Bella had in frames around her living room so that she could go out and buy new frames for them. The plan was that when Bella went to work this evening, I would clear the shelves in my living room off and put all the pictures up so that she could be surprised when she got home. The rest were put into chronological order in the multiple albums that Rosalie had bought.

I changed out of my scrubs and got in the car, hoping to catch Bella before she had to leave for work. I'd had to remove a tumor in a patient's liver that had taken an hour longer than expected.

I finally made my way through rush hour traffic and pulled into the garage, expecting to see Bella's Fusion missing from its usual spot and was surprised to see it still here.

I got out of the car and grabbed all my shit from the passenger's seat and took it into the house, causing the alarm to go off.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" I shouted, jumping at the loud noise that blared through the house.

I threw everything down on the floor and turned around to punch in the key code before the police came to the house.

"Bella?" I called out to the seemingly empty house.

I got no response so I quickly picked up my scrubs and threw them in the laundry room before walking around the house to look for her. I peeked in our bedroom and didn't see her, so I went into the living room. Nothing. I went upstairs and looked in Eli's room and all the extra bedrooms before checking the bonus room.

Still nothing.

I tugged at my hair, as I walked back downstairs. I knew Eli was with Jacob. But where the hell was Bella?

I went back to to see if maybe I was going nuts and only imagined her car in the garage. I opened the door and the navy blue car stared me in the face.

Fuck.

I could feel my heart clinch in my chest as I began to panic. What if something happened to her? I quickly went through the house, pulling out my phone to see if maybe she was with Rosalie, when I heard a noise coming from our bedroom.

I spun around and went into our room and peered around the dresser to see the bathroom door shut and the light seeping through the crack at the bottom.

The relief the flooded my veins nearly knocked me off my feet. I felt the smile start to spread across my face and heard the sound of someone retching in the toilet, causing my smile to immediately turn into a frown.

I opened the door and saw Bella bent over the toilet, panting heavily. I got a washcloth wet with cold water and went over to her, running it across the back of her neck.

"Hey, baby," I soothed. "How long have you been like this?"

"All day," she answered breathlessly. "I got home from taking Eli to school and it just hit me. I've been in here all afternoon."

"What the fuck, Bella? Why didn't you call me?" I crouched down and pushed her hair back behind her ear. "I would have had someone take my cases and come home."

"I know."

Resigned that she wasn't going to give me a better answer, I gently scooped her up and carried her to the bed. I laid the washcloth on her forehead and went into the kitchen to get some Phenergan out of my bag. I grabbed a bottle of water on my way back to the bedroom and made her swallow the pill down.

"This will help with the nausea. It'll make you sleepy, but I'm only going to let you sleep for a couple of hours so that you can try to eat something." I covered her shaking body up and started to walk away, but she grabbed my hand.

"Lay with me?" she pleaded.

I ran my free hand down her face and smiled down at her. "You bet."

*********************************

Bella spent three days running from our bed to the toilet with the fucking flu bug she'd picked up. I was on edge, ready to send her to the hospital at a moment's notice, but she insisted she stay home and take the medicine I had in my bag to help alleviate her symptoms. She was able to keep chicken broth and Jell-O down for the most part, but on the third day, I was determined that if she woke up still sick, I was dragging her ass to the ER so they could stick an IV in her arm to help with the dehydration.

Lucky for her, she woke up feeling much better.

I heard the shower running as I came back in from getting the paper and practically ran to the bathroom. I threw the door open and smiled broadly at the picture in front of me. Not only was Bella standing in front of me, naked with water dripping down her gorgeous body but she was up and moving around--not heading directly for the toilet.

She looked over at me and grinned. "Hi!"

"Feeling better?" I asked, leaning against the doorway.

"I will in a minute." She grabbed my t-shirt in her hand and pulled me into the shower with her.

I looked down at her, smirking, as gently stroked her thigh. "You could have just asked."

"Takes too long," she pouted, stripping my shirt off me.

She ran her hands down my chest and bit her lip as she pushed my boxers down my legs. She looked up at me and I watched her eyes darken instantly, making my dick twitch against her stomach. She pushed me against the wall, attacking my mouth with hers as our hands roamed over each other's body feverishly.

I had every intention of taking it easy on her but as soon as I tasted her and felt her against me, I lost all control and could think of nothing else but fucking her senseless against the wall. I spun her around and pushed her body into the wall with mine, leaving no space between us.

She broke away when she ran out of air and I ran my tongue over her neck before biting down, hard. She arched her body into me and gasped, pulling my face back to hers and kissing me forcibly again. I cupped her breast in my hand, kneading roughly before I took her nipple between my fingers and pinched it.

I moved my mouth down to her breast, sucking her other nipple before I bit down gently and moved my hand to her slit, plunging my fingers inside her and pumping quickly. I got down on my knees and hitched her leg around my shoulder, as I continued to move my fingers in and out of her. I heard her whimper softly as I flicked her clit with my tongue. I took my fingers out of her and replaced them with my tongue, humming slightly as I lapped up her sweet juices.

I came back up to her clit and pushed my fingers back inside her, curling them inward as I sucked down on her clit, feeling her muscles clench around my fingers.

I looked up at her and our eyes met . "Come on, baby. I want to taste it when you come," I said, grinning wickedly before I started sucking down on her clit again.

She moaned and closed her eyes, throwing her head back as I felt her muscles explode around my fingers. I slowly pulled my fingers out of her and ran them up her slit before bringing them to my mouth, sucking on them and groaning as I came back up to her face.

"Want a taste?" I asked dangerously.

She bit her lip and I heard a soft mewl escape from her throat. I brought my mouth to hers and slowly slid my tongue across hers, lingering for a moment before pulling back and grabbing her hips and picking her up so that her entrance was lined up against my now aching dick.

"What do you want me to do to you, Isabella?" I asked lowly.

"Fuck me," she whispered.

"What?" I pushed the tip of my dick in her.

"Fuck me," she repeated, a little louder.

I thrust into her, pushing her against the wall, and groaned at the feel of her body wrapped around me.

"Four days is too long," I grunted as I came back out and slammed back into her again.

I continued to thrust into her forcefully, listening to our bodies connect fully with a satisfying slap as I kept her pinned against the wall. I licked and nipped every part of her body I could reach as I felt myself getting closer and closer.

I put her down and turned her around so that she was facing the other wall and bent her over the tile seat in the corner so that her elbows rested on it and her ass was right in line with my dick. I spread her legs apart with my knee and thrust back into her, listening to my name echo in the shower as she cried out.

I rammed my dick into her and watched her ass jiggle each time I did. Her entire body rocked in time with my thrusts and I could no longer hold on.

"Fuck, Bella. I'm coming," I yelled, shifting slightly as I concentrated on continuing my thrusts.

I felt my orgasm uncoil and I shot into her, feeling her walls ripple around me in response, milking me as she came hard, screaming and twitching underneath me.

I groaned as I pulled out of her and helped her up before spinning her around and kissing her softly.

"Are you sure you're all right? I feel pretty shitty that I didn't take it easy on you since you've been so sick."

She laughed. "I'm fine. I think I needed that just as much as you did."

I smiled down at her and slapped her ass. "Now that we got that out of the way, want to get cleaned up?"

She nodded her head and bent over to pick up my now soaking wet boxers and t-shirt. "I think I should get rid of these first, though. Don't you think?"

******************************

Alice and Rosalie sat on the stairs, waiting for Bella and Eli to come in the door. I watched them whisper excitedly together and rolled my eyes.

"You two are fucking idiots," I stage whispered back.

Alice opened her mouth angrily. "Am not! You're just as excited as we are, Cullen! Admit it!"

I moved my head around indecisively and smiled. "Maybe."

Eli came running in the room, yelling for me. "Edward!" he squealed when he saw me.

I beamed in response and grabbed him for a hug, squeezing him against my chest tightly. He'd been over at Jacob's the entire time Bella had been sick and I had no idea how much I'd missed him until I saw his little russet-colored face light up at the sight of me.

"Hey, buddy! I missed you!" I put him down so that I could talk to him. "Did you have fun at Dad's?"

"Yeah." He looked around the room and I watched his eyes bug out. "Momma! Momma! Come here!" he shouted.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she laughed, walking through the hall into the living room.

She took one look at all the pictures of her family, friends, and us and sobbed. I quickly crossed the room and pulled her into my arms, unsure if this was a good reaction or not.

"How did you...when did you..." She pushed away from me and wiped her eyes.

"Should I not have done it?" I asked uncertainly.

"Oh, God, Edward. Of course you should have done it! How did you get all these?" She looked around the room wildly and finally spotted Alice and Rosalie. "You!" she said with a laugh as she wiped her nose.

"Edward called Charlie, Jacob, and Angela and had them send copies of all the pictures they had of you and Eli to him. Jacob even called Billy to have him look for any old ones of Eli that you might not have had. Rosie and I went through our pictures with Mom and made copies of ours, too," Alice answered her excitedly.

"And then Edward got some of his pictures of you guys and added them in with it. He remembered the ones that were framed and had Alice buy new frames for them and I put all the extras in these." Rosalie held out the albums to Bella.

Bella took the albums from Rosalie and threw them on the couch before she pulled her in a tight hug. After she was finished, she grabbed Alice and hugged her.

She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. "You guys are..." Her voice got caught in her throat. "You guys are the best friends I could have ever asked for. Thank you."

"Aw, Bella! We love you, too!" Alice trilled.

They hugged each other again before Bella walked over to me. She wrapped her arms around me and stood on her toes to kiss me.

"Since when did you become so sappy, Edward Cullen?" she asked, cocking her brow.

I shrugged. "I thought you deserved something special after all of this."

"Thank you."

I looked around the room at the pictures of my family and took a deep breath, savoring the feel of my heart thumping loudly in my chest with my love for them.

I grinned crookedly at her. "So I did good?"

"You did better than good, baby." She pulled me down so that my ear was next to her mouth. "I'll show you just how good you did later."

I shivered with the feel of her hot breath on my neck and kissed her deeply.

"Go home," I growled at Alice and Rosalie.

They laughed at me and walked out the door without another word. As soon as I heard the door click, I crushed my mouth against Bella's again, only to have her pull back.

"Eli," she said giggling.

"Oh. Right. Damn it." I ran my hand through my hair. "Later," I promised.

"Later."

*****************************

Bella

I let Alice and Rosalie take me shopping again to spend some of the insurance money by buying Eli and myself a ton of clothes. I needed the girl time so much, that I never once cared that I spent an entire day at a mall trying on clothes and buying things Alice insisted on--even though I knew I'd never wear them.

I had a meeting scheduled with Alistair next week and couldn't wait to get started planning a menu and trying everything out at home with Edward. Just the thought of the two of us starting our own restaurant together made me feel light--free. I wasn't going to be dependent on someone else for the money I made or do someone else's work, while they got the credit. Everything would be reflected on me, on Edward. On the decisions we made together.

I couldn't wait.

After we were finished, we left the mall and went to get some pizza. We talked and laughed while we waited for our pizza to come. The waitress finally brought it over and refilled our drinks. After getting Eli situated, I took a bite of mine and Alice started waving her hands in front of her, getting Rosalie's and my attention immediately.

"I forgot to tell you!" She started giggling. "Okay. So the other day I was using one of those white strips on my teeth and I sat down to watch TV with Jasper when I sneezed. I kept on watching TV but noticed something on the ground. It was a full five minutes before I realized I'd sneezed the top white strip right off my teeth. Jasper laughed at me for hours!"

We all cracked up. The visual of one of those teeth whitening strips flying out of Alice's mouth was hysterically funny.

"Okay, I've got to pee!" I said, still laughing.

"Momma! I'm done. Can I go play the games now?"

I looked at his plate and noticed all his pizza was gone. "Sure."

I handed him some money and he took off towards the video games while I went to the bathroom.

I came out of the bathroom and looked for Eli. He was nowhere to be found.

"Guys? Where's Eli?" I asked as I walked back up to the table.

Rose whipped her head around. "He was just here!"

I could feel the panic bubbling in my chest. "Okay. Let's spread out and look for him. He couldn't have gone far."

We split up and started looking around for him. I raced around the restaurant before meeting up with Rose and Alice at the table.

"No sign of him." Rosalie looked around with a worried expression on her face.

"I'll go outside. Rose, you keep looking in here. Alice, go up front and tell them that he's missing. If I don't find him outside, I'm calling the police.

They nodded and took off in different directions. I went outside and looked around frantically, seeing no one.

I could feel the tears stinging my eyes and took a deep breath to try to stay calm, but it was no use. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown thinking of all the things that could have happened.

He could be lost, wandering around the city with no clue of how to get home. Chicago was so much bigger than Forks, he wouldn't know who to go to for help like he did back in Washington. I whimpered and felt a tear roll down my cheek as I thought about my baby walking down the street alone.

Even worse, he could have been kidnapped. He's such a friendly and outgoing kid, it wouldn't have been hard for someone to take off with him quietly. What if I never got him back? Or what if I got him back but he was broken and damaged, never returning to the happy little boy he was before. What if...

Jane.

What if her plan was to get me away from Edward and take my son? What would she do to him? Would she keep him safe? Or...

I pictured him lying still and cold in the morgue.

I stopped short and fought with the pain that ripped through my chest. He would be fine. He had to be.

I got myself together enough to race around the cars to see if he was behind any of them. After I searched the entire parking lot, I pulled out my phone and called the police.

"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?"

I took a shaky breath. "My son is missing," I choked out.

She took my information and asked me for a description of Eli. She then told me a squad car would be sent my way and to keep looking for him.

I followed her instructions, looking through the cars again as I dialed the number Aro had given me. He answered immediately.

"Bella? What can I help you with today?" he asked pleasantly.

"Aro? Eli's gone. I can't find him anywhere," I sobbed.

"Okay. Take a deep breath. Where are you?" I took a deep breath and told him. "Have you looked behind the building yet?" I could hear him put his keys in the ignition of his car and start it up.

"No." I saw the dumpster around the side of the building and jogged over to check behind it. "Hang on."

There, walking behind the dumpster, was Eli with whom I could only assume was Jane. She was tugging on his hand and dragging him over to a car, where a man sat in the driver's seat, waiting for them.

"Oh, God," I whispered.

"Bella?" Aro asked in alarm.

"I think it's Jane," I whispered again, continuously walking towards them.

"Don't move! I'll be right there!" I heard the click as he hung up and threw the phone on the ground.

The relief I felt was overwhelming. There wasn't a scratch on my son; not a hair out of place.

"Eli!" I called out, ignoring my fear and running over to them. "This is my son," I told her, pointing down at Eli.

She matched Edward's description perfectly. She was beautiful with dark brown hair cut short, making her look a bit androgynous. Her big, brown eyes bore into mine and I had to fight my reaction to flinch with her gaze.

I watched her closely, trying figure out why I had this nagging feeling that I knew her from someplace. I quickly stopped trying to place her face and focused on getting my son back. I could figure it out later.

I smiled brightly, keeping the recognition of the person next to my son off my face and out of my voice.

My hand flew up to my chest as I looked at Eli. "There you are! Why didn't you stay at the video games?"

He shrugged and looked down. "I dunno."

He knew he wasn't supposed to go anywhere alone or talk to strangers and I saw the guilty look cross his face as he kicked at the pebbles by his feet. I wanted to scoop him in my arms and kiss the hell out of him, but I knew I couldn't. Not yet.

Jane spoke. "I found him out here roaming around by himself." She smiled sweetly at me. "You know, you really should keep a better eye on him. Someone could have taken him. Or worse."

The threat did not go unnoticed by me.

I swallowed the bile that rose in the back of my throat and gave her a smile back, nodding. "Thank you so much. How can I ever repay you..."

"Anna."

I swallowed convulsively, trying to keep the nausea at bay again. "Anna. I'm Bella and this is Eli." I extended my hand to her.

She slowly took it, seemingly pleased with herself for some reason. I kept my expression even as she shook my hand. I knew I needed to try to keep her here until Aro got here, but inside I was screaming to run--run as fast as I could with Eli and never look back.

My fear won out. I could be brave some other day when I didn't have my son next to me. My main concern was to get him safely inside.

"Again, thank you so much." I held my hand out to Eli, who took it eagerly. "We should probably go tell Alice and Rosie that you're okay. You gave us quite a scare, baby."

"Sorry," he mumbled. His chin trembled and I heard his breath hitch.

I turned away and walked to the entrance. When I was nearly there, I heard a piercing scream and a string of profanities come from behind the building, but I never looked back. The fear that crept over my shoulder was like running away from the Bogey Man. As long as you didn't look behind you, he didn't exist.

We got inside and my strong facade finally cracked.

I crouched down and pulled Eli in my arms and cried.

"Thank God!" Alice came running over to us, motioning to Rosalie as she did.

"Baby, why did you do that?" My voice trembled.

"This man said he had puppies outside that I could look at. He told me they were by the trash, but when we got there, there weren't any puppies. Only that lady. She was making me go to her car with them. I tried to leave, but she caught me." He was crying now. "Mommy, I'm so sorry!"

I hugged him tightly against my chest and ran my fingers through his hair, kissing every bit of his skin I could find. "It's okay now. Just please. Don't ever do anything like that again. Come and ask me first, all right?"

He nodded and I looked up at Alice and Rosalie who were hovering over us with pained expressions on their face. Rosalie wiped a tear from her eye and gave me a tight lipped smile.

"What happened?" Alice asked.

I shook my head and mouthed 'Jane', making both of their eyes widen dramatically. The thought of that woman touching my son made a wave of nausea crash through my body so severe, I bolted to the bathroom.

"Watch him!" I yelled on my way.

I heaved my dinner into the toilet violently, over and over again until I had nothing left in my stomach. My stomach was still pretty weak from being sick a few days ago. Apparently, it couldn't handle any more.

I rinsed out my mouth and went back to where Alice and Rosalie were now talking to Aro.

We gave him the story and tried to get Eli to give him a description of the man, but he could only remember that he had a Cubs hat on, like Edward's.

I picked Eli up and held him on my hip, not letting him go the entire time we were there. He must've needed it too, because he rested his head on my shoulder and squeezed me tightly. After waiting for Aro's team to finish investigating the exterior, we were finally allowed to leave and were told that Aro would be contacting me soon to go over the details with me again and check on Eli.

"Ms. Swan?" the officer asked me. I just stared blankly at him. "I'm under orders to follow you to your home and keep watch for the rest of my shift."

"All right." I pointed to Rosalie's BMW. "We're in that car there."

I had Rosalie take Eli and me home, where I immediately locked the doors and set the alarm behind us after thanking the police officer that now sat on the street outside my home.

Alice and Rosalie insisted they stay with me, even though I told them I needed some time alone to think, which I did none of while we waited for Edward. Maybe it was some sort of defense mechanism, but I was completely numb inside. They played hide and seek with Eli and left me alone the entire time.

I heard the garage door open with Edward's arrival an hour later. I weakly walked into the kitchen and leaned against the island, waiting for him to come through the door. He came in and quickly punched the code on the alarm before turning around towards me. His eyes finally met mine and I felt my lip quiver and my chest started heaving uncontrollably. I couldn't breathe. I felt my knees buckle and I gripped onto the counter, trying to keep upright.

I was vaguely aware that Alice and Rosalie were now behind me, holding me up, but I couldn't take my eyes off Edward. I heard the sob rip from my chest and he ran over to me and pulled me up, crushing me against his chest.

"What the fuck happened?!" he yelled at Alice.

I was sobbing loudly and was in no condition to answer him.

"Baby? Baby are you okay?" he asked fearfully, running his hand through my hair.

"Edward." He looked at Alice. "Jane got Eli to go outside without us and took him to the side of the building when we were eating."

I felt his arms tighten around me as his entire body went rigid. "WHAT?" he roared.

"She didn't hurt him, but she threatened Bella with him." She looked at me. "I should let Bella explain it after she calms down." She turned and went with Rosalie back into the living room.

I was still in his arms when he collapsed on the floor, pulling me down with him. I buried my face in his chest and continued to sob.

"He's okay?" he asked, needing reassurance.

"He...he's fine. He was upset at f...first, but he's fine now that we're h...ho...home."

"Thank God. What are we going to do?" I could hear the tears in his voice.

I looked up at him and saw his cheeks were wet and his beautiful face was contorted in pain. I didn't have an answer for him.

"I..I was so sc...sc...scared," I hiccupped. "I thought he was g...g...gone!" I cried.

"What happened?"

I told him, down to every last detail as well as I could. I still hadn't controlled my breathing.

"I've seen her before, Edward. But I can't remember where."

"If anything happened to you two, I could never live with myself." He took an uneven breath. "You shouldn't be near me. It's my fault she went after you. I didn't think..." He swallowed hard. "Bella. You shouldn't be with me. She's just going to continue to go after us if we stay together. I don't want to lose you--I can't imagine being without you--but I can't let you get hurt. I think it's best if we-"

I cut him off. I couldn't bear to hear the words. "Stop it. I'm not leaving you and you're not leaving me. So find another option," I said fiercely.

"Are you sure?"

"Very," I said sternly.

He nodded. "You're not going anywhere without me until I know you're safe. I will not let you or Eli out of my sight."

"What about school? We can't watch Eli while he's at school. Or at Jacob's. And we have to work, Edward."

"I'll figure something out," he stated confidently. He scooted back over and kissed me passionately. "I love you, so much. I'll never let her near you two again."

His voice was so full of conviction, I couldn't help but smile at him. "I love you, too."

"Are you all right now?" he asked, looking me over carefully.

I sniffled and gave him a watery smile. "I'll be okay. What about you?"

"I'll be better when I get done talking to Aro."