Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
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Chapter Twenty-four: Stolen
(BPOV)
"Bella?" Someone nudged my arm with their elbow, jerking me out of my little doze.
I sat up straight in the chair, rubbing my eyes. "Hmm?"
Edward chuckled next to me. "You fell asleep, love."
"I wasn't sleeping – I was just dozing off a little, that's all," I mumbled sleepily. I didn't want to admit that I had fallen asleep while we were waiting, but only for a moment; I guess I was really tired.
We were in the waiting room at the hospital, waiting for the nurse to call us in. We were there for my four month check up. Today, we would be able to see the baby for the first time since our first appointment with Carlisle, and we would be able to find out what we were having! Edward's excitement about finding out was beginning to rub off on me; I was beginning to get a little excited myself, though Edward was much more enthusiastic about this.
"Are you okay to drive home?" Edward asked, a crooked, amused grin appearing on his lips.
I slapped his arm lightly with the back of my hand, smiling a bit. "I'm perfectly fine, Edward. I'm just a bit tired." The morning sickness had stopped earlier that week, but I was still not sleeping too well. Of course, I hadn't been sleeping well anyways, so that wasn't exactly a surprise.
"But it's pouring out," he said. "You could skid off the road if you unexpectedly fall asleep."
I rolled my eyes, running a hand through my hair tiredly. "I'm not going to fall asleep. And I've driven through pouring rain about a million times ever since I moved to Forks. I think I'm all set."
Before Edward could respond, a nurse called out my name and we followed the nurse to the examination room. A few minutes later, there was a knock of the closed door and Carlisle walked in, pushing in front of him an Ultrasound machine.
"Hello, Bella, Edward. How are we doing today?" he asked in his British accent.
Just then, I remembered the time six years ago, when I found out I was having a girl….
Carlisle began moving the Doppler stick around my tummy. The three of us looked at the ultrasound machine, and there, in a mixture of gray and black was my baby. It had grown since my three month checkup, but it was still small. It was visible and almost had the shape of a human being.
"Hey, Carlisle, why is it so tiny?" Edward asked. I looked up at him before looking back at the screen where my baby was shown. His eyes were glued to the screen, and his eyes held…love.
Carlisle looked at him briefly before looking back at the screen. "The baby is growing at the normal rate of a baby, but it's small because it probably has inherited Bella's smallness. I have no doubt that when she's older, she'll have a small frame."
To my embarrassment, I felt tears come to my eyes as I looked at the screen. A little baby girl. I was having a girl! From what I could see on the screen, she was sucking on her tiny thumb.
"Congratulations, Bella," Carlisle said.
Smiling, I said, "I'm having a girl."
"Alice is going to be thrilled," Edward said, and I could hear the grin on his voice.
Carlisle went through the normal procedure, asking me questions, that sort of stuff. When he finished, he said, "Alright, are you ready to find out what you're having?"
Edward nodded his head enthusiastically and Carlisle chuckled, "I figured you would be."
As he began hooking up the Ultrasound machine, Carlisle instructed me to lie back on the examination table and lift up my shirt so that just my belly was exposed. The bump on my stomach was small, hardly any bigger than it was at three months, but you could definitely see that there was a bump there.
Carlisle applied the cool gel and then began moving the Doppler stick around my belly. The screen was fuzzy for a few seconds then cleared up to reveal a moving black and white picture. Carlisle pointed to the screen with his index finger. "There is your baby."
It was hard to see, because the baby was still really small, but you could tell that the baby had actually begun to take form. From what the three of us could see, the baby was sucking on its thumb, like Elizabeth had been. And then there was a slight thumping noise coming from the ultrasound machine speakers – the baby's heartbeat.
It was so…so precious, so beautiful.
"Would you like to know the baby's gender?" Carlisle asked. Edward and I nodded, and Carlisle chuckled.
He moved the Doppler stick around for a minute, studying the screen. Finally – with the slightest hint of a smile – he said, "Congratulations you two, it's a boy!"
Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared at the screen. I was having a boy! I looked up at Edward, who was looking at the screen with a goofy grin on his face. He looked down at me and kissed my hair.
"We're having a boy!" I said as a tear rolled slowly down my cheek.
(EPOV)
It was an indescribable feeling, seeing your child on the Ultrasound machine, no matter if you saw it before. But the baby had grown since the last time we had seen it, at the two month check up. It looked more like a baby now, but it was still very small; no doubt he had Bella's smallness.
"I think he looks like you, Edward," Bella said after a second of looking at the screen.
I squinted and looked closer. You could kind of tell…. I shrugged, smiling. "Eh, you can kind of tell."
And then Bella gasped, and both Carlisle and I looked down at her, worried that something was wrong. Across Bella's face, a smile was forming, and she grabbed my hand. "The baby's kicking," she said, placing my hand on her belly.
Underneath my hand, I could feel a strong flutter. I looked at the screen. The little baby boy reached his little foot out and kicked again, making Bella giggle. "Do you feel it?" Bella whispered. She, too, was watching the screen, watching our son kick his little foot.
I nodded. "I feel it."
Carlisle chuckled. "Maybe he will be into soccer."
00
(BPOV)
I walked up the path leading up to the doorway of Alex's house, on my way to pick Elizabeth up; I had called Alex's mother that morning, asking if she wouldn't mind watching Elizabeth for the afternoon while I went to the doctor's appointment and ran a couple errands. I pressed the doorbell and waited for someone to answer the door.
The door opened a moment later to reveal Alex's mother. "Hi, Bella, come on in," she said, smiling warmly as she stood aside to let me in. "They're upstairs, playing a game that Elizabeth taught Alex earlier. I think it involves the El Chupacabras and the Amazon." I laughed slightly as she led me up the stairs.
"So she was good?" I asked.
Alex's mother nodded. "She was perfectly well behaved."
Elizabeth and Alex were playing in the middle of Alex's bedroom, pretending they were in the middle of the Amazon, hunting El Chupacabras. As soon as she spotted me, Elizabeth grinned and got up from the floor.
"Mommy!' she said, wrapping her arms around my legs.
"Hi sweetie, are you ready to go?" I asked, brushing her hair away from her eyes.
"Yeah!" she said.
Eighteen minutes later, we arrived at the Cullen's. As I pulled into the clearing in front of the Cullen's house, I saw Edward's silver Volvo parked on the side of the driveway, parked behind Alice's yellow Porsche. I couldn't help the smile that crept onto my face; Edward would be able to protect me from Alice ambushing me, which I was sure she would do, since she knew that we were going to find out the sex of the baby that afternoon.
Just like I predicted, as soon as Elizabeth and I were on the porch, the door flung open and we were pulled into the house and into the kitchen. The little baby boy inside me kicked at the movement.
"Okay…that has got to be getting old sometime soon," I muttered as I was sat down at the Island by Alice, who giggled at my statement. Jasper laughed slightly and Edward kissed my cheek in greeting. "Hey."
"Hello, dear," she replied.
"Okay, you guys have got to tell me," Alice said as Edward pulled Elizabeth onto his lap. "Did you guys find out what you're having?"
Edward and I smiled at each other. "Yes," Edward said. "We did…." Jasper, Alice, and Esme leaned forward just a bit, obviously intent on finding out.
"..But we're not telling," I finished. "Not until everybody's here, at least."
"Aww, man," Alice said. "You at least did bring pictures right?"
Edward and I rolled our eyes, laughing. "We did get pictures, Alice," I said, taking the two Ultrasound photos out of my coat pocket and placing them on the Island top for everyone to see. One of them showed him sucking his thumb, and the other one showed him laying there, his arms floating just above his tiny stomach.
"Aww! That is so adorable!" Esme and Alice cooed as they looked at the pictures.
Jasper looked at the one where the baby was sucking his thumb and laughed, saying, "That baby is so cute. Looks like you, Edward, seriously."
"That's what I said," I said, smiling at Edward.
"Okay, now you have to tell me because I am dying to know here!" Alice said.
Emmett and Rosalie walked into the kitchen then, followed closely by Carlisle, who was holding Angie in his arms.
Jasper, holding up the picture where the baby was sucking his thumb to Emmett, asked, "Emmett, don't you agree that Edward and Bella's baby looks like Edward?"
The man in question looked at the Ultrasound photo, tilting his head sideways for a moment. "Yeah, the baby looks like you, Edward. It's cute, too."
"Okay, come on, tell us – boy or girl?" Rosalie asked.
Edward and I looked at each other. The goofy grin that was on his face that afternoon was forming again. I nudged him slightly with my elbow and jerked my head toward the people in the kitchen, giving him a slightly pointed look.
His grin got wider and he said, "It's a boy."
Alice, Esme and Rosalie squealed and hugged me and Edward excitedly. Emmett and Jasper clapped Edward on the back and gave me hug. Carlisle, who had already known what we were having, just stood there, a grin on his face as Esme planted a big kiss on his cheek. After the excitement wound down, Emmett held out his hand to Jasper, who moaned when he noticed Emmett's hand.
"Pay up, brother," Emmett said.
Grumbling, Jasper stuffed his hand in his pocket and pulled out two five dollar bills.
"Oh, don't tell me you placed a bet on Bella and Edward's baby," Alice and Esme said, giving them incredulous looks.
Emmett and Jasper ducked their heads, fighting massive grins. "Sorry, mom."
00
"That was an interesting night," Edward said as we walked up the side stairs to the kitchen later that night.
I laughed tiredly. "Yeah, interesting night it was. But might I remind you that you joined in on the fun?"
Emmett, Jasper, and Edward had taken it upon themselves during dinner to make the world's largest list on boy names. I shook my head as I remembered a couple of the names they had suggested…. Some of them the rest of us had nearly choked on our food when we heard them. It was quiet entertaining.
Edward laughed as I unlocked the door. He was carrying Elizabeth, who was falling asleep. "But you do know that I would never name any child of ours any of those names, right?"
I giggled. "I know, honey. Shall we look through a baby name book and find some sensible sounding names that don't make me choke whenever I hear it?"
Edward grinned. "Absolutely."
"Okay, I'll go get the book from downstairs. I'll be right back," I said as I placed my coat across the back of a chair at the kitchen table.
I turned the light on in the stairway leading downstairs so I wouldn't trip. Unfortunately, that didn't work and I slipped down the last step, slamming into the door. "Oww.." I said, rubbing my belly where the little boy was kicking in protest. Sorry, baby, I thought to myself.
"Bella? Are you alright? What happened?" Edward called down, poking his head around the edge of the door frame.
"I'm fine. I slipped on the last step and banged into the door. I'm okay," I said. The baby kicked again and I giggled. "The baby's okay, too."
I went into the backroom and flipped on the light. The baby name book was sitting on the desk; I had been looking through it this morning, and I had left the book on the desk. I had circled a couple names that I liked…but, unfortunately, they were girl names, since I had been looking through it before I had found out that I was having a boy.
Before I was two steps away from the desk, I got this feeling in my stomach. It was like something was off…like something really important was missing.
Just out of habit, I grabbed the keys to the bottom drawer of the desk and unlocked it. I had to make sure; I had a feeling something wasn't right. I pulled the drawer open. Just as I expected, the single hanging folder was in there. I opened it, expecting to find the papers in there.
They weren't.
My heart dropped down to my stomach as I searched through the whole drawer, hoping that it had somehow fallen out.
It hadn't. And I was sure of that. I hadn't touched the papers ever since I had moved in.
They had been stolen, I was sure of it.
"No!" I moaned. I closed the drawer and bolted as fast as I could out of the room and back upstairs.
I burst through the door into the living room and went straight to Edward's and mine bedroom, straight past Edward, who was sitting on the couch. I shut the door – a little too hard unintentionally – and went to the closet door and began banging my head against it.
There was a soft knock on the door before it opened and I heard Edward ask, "Bella? Are you okay?"
I stopped banging my head and turned around and slid down the closet door, moaning "Just perfect" before beginning to bang my head again, not caring that it was making my head hurt.
Edward leaned down in front of me and grabbed my shoulders. "Whoa, Bella, slow down! What are you doing?" he asked.
"I am such an idiot!" I said, tears burning in my eyes. "They're gone, Edward! How could I have been so stupid?"
"What's gone?" he asked, looking into my eyes. "What happened?"
"I might as well move myself and Elizabeth to Canada and change my names to Schnucklefritz!" I cried, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand.
Edward chuckled. "I think that we would miss you two. Bella, what happened? Take a deep breath and tell me what happened. You were fine when you went downstairs."
Tears began streaming down my face again as I pulled out of Edward's grasp and stood up to sit down on the bed. He sat down next to me. "What happened, Bella?" he asked again, beginning to look slightly worried.
I groaned and fell backward on the bed and covered my face with my hands. "The custody papers, Edward. The custody papers are gone!"
My worst nightmare had come true.
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Author's Note:
Okay, before I continue: PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!! I beg you. Because then I wouldn't be able to finish the story. I am SO sorry for the cliffhanger. I told you the drama was coming back. What will happen, now that Bella knows the custody papers are gone?
Next Chapter: Bella has a mental/emotional breakdown. A bit of Edward and Bella fluff, maybe. Until Next Time: NerdyGuRu2 (P.S. - Remember to Review!)
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Spoiler for FUTURE chapter:
(You CANNOT ask me about it)
"Where the heck are they?" I asked, walking back and forth across the kicthen, unable to sit down and not move.
"Bella, re--." Alice cut off just as the door opened and the four men in question stumbled through the door. "What the heck happened to you guys?"