A/N: Trouble and Oblvious are being stubborn, so I let Nightmare talk to me. I think it's ready to be done. This is the last full chapter, folks. Let's meet our baby.

Bella gripped the edge of the counter, staring at her mostly naked body in the mirror, struck by the image. From crown to ankles, her skin was sprinkled with bruises from her fall.

This was what she'd imagined a battered woman looked like. She'd never looked like this after Mike hit her. That was part of what kept her complacent and sure that she was overreacting. It was only after everything, after she was in therapy, that she began to accept she'd been a victim. By that time, she had changed so much she could almost believe it was an entirely other person who had been Mike's victim. She could believe she was learning her lesson vicariously.

It was hard to swallow around the painful lump in her throat as she traced her fingers over the scars from her first fall. The truth was written on her skin. She had been a battered woman. Today she looked the part. Today she couldn't pretend it hadn't been her.

Her fingers followed the hard line of her belly, and the tightness in her throat loosened considerably. She traced the dark stretch marks that made her skin look cracked. She knew some women hated these marks, but they fascinated her. She didn't mind having this truth written on her skin.

Some foolish choices were better than others.

There was a soft knock on the bathroom door. "Bella?"

Bella looked around and cursed when she couldn't find her robe. Then she rolled her eyes. It wasn't as though he hadn't seen her wearing much less. "Come in."

He poked his head around the door, his arm out, and she saw he had her robe draped across it. "Looking for this?"

"I was, actually."

Edward walked to her and put the robe over her shoulders. He stepped up behind her, letting his fingertips skim down her sides. He wrapped his arms around her waist, his hands coming around to cup her big belly. "Are you okay?"

She leaned back into his embrace, a feeling of contentment coming over her. "You know what I was thinking?"

"What's that?" he asked, kissing the side of her hair.

Closing her eyes, she put her hands over his. "It's different now."

"What do you mean? What's different?"

"Before, I was scared of you even when I didn't want to be. Even though I always knew better." So many times she'd flinched away from him, or awoken in the middle of the night momentarily certain he was going to pin her down. "When I fell, that was the worst. It's never been like that before-hard to tell the difference between reality and a flashback. I wasn't thinking at all, just reacting, but I wasn't afraid of you. I didn't want to run from you; I needed you."

She turned in his arms, still not opening her eyes, because this was a difficult thing to admit. She was scared to trust, but that didn't matter. Scared or not, like it or not, she trusted him more than anyone else in the world. "You make me feel safe," she said, ducking against his chest, shy.

He cupped her cheek and tilted her head up. "You make me feel alive."

~Thanksgiving Day~

"Okay. Why didn't someone tell me I'm only eating for two, not eleven?"

Edward leaned his head on his fist, chuckling at Bella's groaning along with the majority of the table. He reached over and rubbed her back.

"Amateur," Aiden said, patting his now-slightly rounded belly. "There's still pie."

Bella's eyebrows shot up. "Pie? There's no pie. There's no way there's pie."

"Of course there's pie," Emmett said. He threw his arm around his mother. "Specifically, there's Mom's egg custard pie...plus some store-bought crap that the twins brought. But really, it's all about the egg custard."

A memory hit Edward then, and his grin fell.

He remembered Emmett had been holding Xavier, trying to convince him to try a bite of egg custard pie. Not much tasted good to Xavier in those days, but he'd humored his uncle. To everyone's surprise, his eyes lit up with that one bite, and he made the cutest little "mmm" sound.

Kate had looked at Edward and squeezed his hand. "Maybe we'll get Christmas after all," she'd said.

Edward shook his head hard. The memory was surreal. It had happened here at this table eleven years before. But that was then and this was now.

Now, he watched Aiden wave a plate of pie temptingly in front of Bella's nose. She looked dubious, but then she reached for the fork. "Give it," she said, prompting hoots and hollers from Emmett and his boys.

Another hour later, after Bella had finally given in to the inevitable food coma and gone to lie down in one of the guest rooms, Edward found himself wedged between his big brother and his mother. Emmett gave him a sideways grin and then hooked his arm around Edward's neck, pulling his head down to give him a noogie. Edward smacked at his chest. They called out threats and growled at each other until their mother called, "Boys!" as though they were teenagers again.

Emmett let Edward go, and they straightened up, still laughing at each other.

"Dad?" Aiden popped his head into the room. "Grandpa is kicking Bryce's ass at pool. You have to see this."

"No, Dad, you have to beat him. You're the only one who can," Brent said, appearing over Aiden's shoulder.

Edward watched Emmett disappear with his sons, only turning when his mother took his hands. He smiled at her, and she reached up to smooth his hair back with a tender touch.

"How are you?" she asked.

He didn't bother to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about. After Thanksgiving, eleven years ago, Xavier's decline began in earnest. They spent more days in the hospital than out of it until they took him home for the last time.

"I miss him," he said, his voice quiet.

Esme sighed, running her fingers through his hair. "I do, too." She tilted her head, studying him. "Every holiday, I look around my full table, and I know someone's missing. It will always be like that. There will always be that moment of confusion where I look for the boy who should be with us before I remember he's gone." Her smile was sad as she patted his cheek. "But I'm glad you're back in your place."

"And Bella?"

"I love Bella. I'm very happy to have her here, changing the shape of our family again. You know I think you're good for each other."

"I think you, all of you, are good for her." Edward huffed. "God knows her own mother is useless. I'm glad she's had you and Alice especially, but I think all of you have helped. Her dad tries. I know that, but I think Forks was too oppressive for him to ever really help her. She needed to be away from that place, and she needed a family."

"And you needed her." Esme cupped his cheek. "And we needed her to bring you back to us."

Edward rested his head against hers, letting his mother's touch comfort him. "I can't remember when the boys grew up or April." He looked over to where Emmett's baby was talking with Alice. "I can hardly remember her childhood. She was a toddler and now she's a teenager I don't even know. How did that happen?"

"Time has a funny habit of speeding by." She moved her hand to his back, scratchin between his shoulders like she used to when he was a small boy. "Don't dwell, sweetheart. You've spent enough time dwelling. Make some new, happy memories."

Edward hugged her to him, thinking of Bella's grin an hour before when Aiden bowed his head in defeat, naming her Thanksgiving champion. It was such a happy, silly thing. It had been so long since Edward had been happy and silly. He thought of Emmett's grown sons, and the hope that one day, it would be his children looking to him. He could still have all of that-a hope for future happiness.

He wondered if maybe, just maybe, he would come to enjoy Christmas again. Once upon a time, watching his son's suffering come to a head had killed his previously overdone Christmas spirit. Vibrant Christmas decorations in hospital corridors were profane, Edward had long ago decided.

Time, he supposed, would tell.

~December 24 - Then~

The family had all said their goodbyes, and on Christmas Eve, Edward, Kate, and Xavier were alone in their house. There was no Christmas tree, no lights, no smell of gingerbread. Everyone else was at the big house-it wasn't fair to the other kids to disrupt their Christmas. Carlisle and Esme told them to call, but Edward and Kate didn't.

For the most part, Xavier slept. He'd been sleeping almost all day every day for a week now. But as Christmas Eve night wore on, his breathing pattern became more erratic.

At ten-thirty, Kate got out of bed and gathered Xavier into her arms. She kissed his forehead and his nose and held him close, tears running down her nose to splash on his cheek. She raised her head to meet Edward's eyes, the expression he saw there broken.

"Sweetheart, I think it's time."

~December 24 - Now~

Eleven years.

Edward put his car in park and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply through his nose. For minutes, he simply let his memories and emotions have him. There was no choice, really. Not today. The last few months had done wonders to make this pain bearable, but it would never be completely gone. There would always be an Xavier-shaped hole in his heart.

He opened his eyes again when he heard the rumble of another car and the slight vibration as it pulled up behind his. Even though he was almost sure he knew who it was, he checked the rearview mirror anyway. Sure enough, he could see Kate in the driver's seat.

On Christmas Eve morning, the cemetery was almost always quiet. Families, when they did come, often came toward the afternoon. But Kate had a two hour drive and children who expected her home to join in the excitement.

Edward got out of his car, greeting his ex-wife with a small smile. She was, he reflected, still a very beautiful woman. Her figure was somewhat fuller than it had been when they were together. That was to be expected of course. She'd had two children and a whole life in the eleven years since their son's death. Like him, she was a different person than she had been, changed by what they'd gone through.

He'd never resented her for moving on. He'd loved her enough, even then, to want her to be happy even if he had no desire to be happy himself.

Still, today, as it had been every year, they were a unit. They'd been the ones who sparked their beautiful boy into being, had wished for him, planned for him, and been there the day he was born. They'd taken care of him every day, and they'd been the ones holding him when he died. No one else in the world could share that journey. No one else could possibly love Xavier the way they did.

They met in the middle, each wrapping their arms around the other. Edward felt the shudder of her slight shoulders. He rocked her, sharing her wordless grief.

After a minute, Kate sniffled and stepped back, though she kept hold of his hand. "Ready?" she asked, voice shaking.

Edward shook his head. He never was, but he started walking anyway. The frozen grass crunched beneath his boots. It had snowed the night before-a light dusting that decorated rather than covered the ground. He welcomed the bite of cold in the air.

"It's so pretty today," Kate said, looking around.

It was. The deep green of the Ponderosa pines went well with the stark white highlights of snow. The sky was blue, the sun bright. Maybe they were in the middle of a cemetery, but it was idyllic.

"It snowed the day he died. Remember?" Edward said, and he was surprised the words didn't hurt. It was more of feeling of nostalgia. Despite living in the mountains, more often than not, Christmas in Flagstaff wasn't white. The snow hit hardest in January and February.

Kate squeezed his hand. "I remember."

They knelt together at their son's grave, and Edward brushed the snow away.

Xavier Kieran Cullen

Beloved Son

That was all he'd ever had the chance to be-their beloved son.

Kate reached into her bag, and together, they laid out a few of the toys she'd brought-cars and figurines. As they worked, she chanced a glance up at him.

"Will you tell me about Bella?"

Despite the fact his heart ached, badly, Edward found the sound of Bella's name tugged at his lips. A number of times in the last few months, he'd thought about calling Kate, but he never could figure out how to start this conversation. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at his ex-wife. "Hasn't Mom told you everything?"

She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and sat back on her haunches. "Of course she has, but I want to hear it from you."

He felt he owed it to her, so he told her everything. He told her about watching Bella perform, how her words had touched him in a way nothing else in a decade had. He told her about the feeling he had-that he simply knew she had been hurt, that she had a wound on her soul as deep and profound as his, even if it wasn't for the same reason. It was the kind of connection that went deep enough that nothing else mattered-not their age difference or the fact they were total strangers.

He told her about Bella finding him again and his panic, his despair. How he'd had to be dragged back to life kicking and screaming and scared out of his mind. He was still scared but happy.

Oh, god he was so happy.

"I'm so glad, Edward," Kate said, grasping his hand.

He studied her face. She meant it. She was smiling, and her eyes were clear. "Why?" he asked, curious and more than a little guilty. "You of all people have the right to be pissed off." He swallowed hard, looking away from her to run his hand over the epitaph below his son's name that spoke of innocence and loss. "I couldn't get better for you, my wife, the mother of my son. Why her? Why a girl almost half my age? A stranger who I never should have seen?"

"Honey." She put her arm around him, resting her head against his shoulder. "I figured out when Xavier was dying that 'why' is the most maddening question in human existence. There's no why, Edward. Why him? Why some stupid, random disease? Why did he only get the life he got? Why did he die like that-in pain, slowly?" She cut off with a small gasp and had to swallow hard before she could continue. "Why did I get to move on? Was it that I somehow loved him less?"

"Kate-"

"I know it's not true, but that's my point. There aren't any answers to these questions. Why couldn't we make it? I don't know. I loved you. I still love you, but I love my life, too. I have a beautiful life, Edward. I love my husband and my babies." She squeezed him. "But my heart has always hurt for you, because I couldn't help you. I'm not mad. I'm too relieved to be mad. I can't be bitter that she helped you. I just want you to be happy."

He wrapped his arm around her, overcome with emotion. He didn't know until that moment how badly he'd needed to hear those words from her. They were as close as he could get to knowing with certainty that his son would forgive him for moving on, for being overjoyed he was going to be a father to another child. "Thank you," he said, his voice rough with tears.

"I'd like to meet her someday," Kate said after a few minutes. "Your Bella… and your daughter."

In spite of himself, Edward gave a short laugh. He rubbed his eyes, thinking about that. "My daughter."

"Bella's overdue, isn't she?"

He hummed. "Only a few days. She was scared she wasn't going to make it through finals, but now she's eager to be not-pregnant."

Kate snorted. "I remember that. Obviously, your daughter takes after your son that way. Tanya and Irina were both early."

It was like walking on a sore muscle to talk about their children, Xavier's sisters, at his grave. It ached, but it wasn't crippling.

Kate found his hand and twined their fingers together. "Do you think it's some kind of fate that we have all girls? Like Xavier was meant to be our only boy?"

Edward closed his eyes briefly, remembering how numb he felt that day he went in with Bella for the sonogram. It had been during that time when he was coming to terms with the idea of letting Xavier go, letting himself begin to heal.

He remembered the moment of utter panic right before the doctor had said the magic words.

It's a girl.

"I don't know," Edward said, answering Kate's question. "I was glad, though. I was glad the baby wasn't a boy."

"I was too. I was glad that you're not having a boy, and I was glad that Tanya and Irina weren't boys." Kate sniffled, pushing one of the toy cars across the bottom of the gravestone. "It's stupid, isn't it? In a way? It's not like any baby would be a replacement. Even another boy couldn't be a replacement."

A fierce love, tinged around the edges with the ever-present grief, gripped his heart. "No. Never."

Another few minutes of companionable silence went by before Kate spoke again. "It's getting harder to come on Christmas Eve," she said slowly. "Do you think… would you understand if I had to make it the 23rd or the 26th next year?"

He wouldn't have before. If she had asked him last year, he would have been pissed as hell. "Yeah, I'd understand."

Before either of them could say anything else, Edward's phone chimed. He reached for it, then he nearly dropped it.

"Edward?" Kate said, her brows furrowed in concern. "Is everything okay?"

When he didn't answer, she took the phone from him and read the text message. "Oh. Bella's in labor?"

"That's impossible," he muttered. Today? Why…

Kate shocked the hell out of him by laughing. "Well, what are you doing? Go on. Go." She bumped his side, putting his phone back in his hand.

Edward got to his feet mechanically. His heart was pounding hard. He turned toward the car, but then turned back. His mind was stunned, and he couldn't tell which was right. He was supposed to be here honoring his son, but he needed to be with Bella to meet their daughter. And what if… what if...

"Edward."

He raised his eyes, finding Kate was standing beside him again. She gripped his shoulders and smiled gently. "It's going to be fine. Go on."

He clutched her to him in a tight, brief hug. "I love you," he said to her and to their son and to the life they'd once had together.

Then he turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could toward Bella, his daughter, and his new life.

~December 25th~

"Look, baby girl. Sunrise on your very first Christmas. Maybe we can catch a glimpse of Santa before he heads back to the North Pole, hmm?"

Edward stood at the window watching the sun come up, brilliant over the snow-capped mountains. He looked only briefly before returning his eyes to the tiny bundle in his arms. He was tired, but he wasn't about to go to sleep. No, if he could swing it, he would be awake for every single moment of his daughter's life until the day he died. He knew from experience all the moments a life could offer wouldn't ever be enough.

He loved her; this tiny, perfect creature.

The baby didn't seem to share his views on wakefulness though and, at seven and a half hours old, she was far too young to be excited about Christmas. Since her eyes couldn't focus, he'd taken it upon himself to describe everything about the room, including the miniature Christmas tree someone had been kind enough to bring.

It was, apparently, never too late to get excited about Christmas, especially when he'd been given such a wonderful gift. His daughter had been born at exactly 12:01 AM on Christmas Day, eleven years and two minutes after his son's untimely death.

Seven months ago, he'd been bitter about the possibility. Now, it seemed right somehow. It was like she was giving him permission to enjoy Christmas again, to have something to think about other than Xavier's descent toward the inevitable. With her first cry, she'd replaced his nightmare with a dream. Not a fantasy. Not perfection. Simply a dream—confusing and happy, sweet with the sour. He lowered his head to kiss his daughter's crown and wondered how he'd ever been unsure he wanted this.

"Edward?"

He turned toward the groggy voice and smiled yet again. "I'm right here, sweetheart," he said, going to sit on the edge of the bed. He shifted his daughter to the crook of his arm, so he could reach out to caress Bella's cheek. She looked exhausted, poor thing. He could hardly blame her. It had been a long labor. "Go back to sleep, love."

She blinked, obviously not quite awake, but she drew her fingertips down their daughter's chubby arm. "Oh, hey. That did happen," she whispered.

Edward laughed and leaned down to kiss her crown as he had the baby just a minute before. "It did. She's asleep. You should sleep too."

"And you?"

He just shook his head. "Not yet. I want to sit here and admire my beautiful girls a while longer."

She huffed, but her eyelids were already closing. "Creeper," she mumbled, teasing him. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Bella."

~0~

"You two are driving me nuts," Alice complained. "Why haven't you told us her name yet?"

Edward and Bella shared a glance, both of them smiling. Alice had been bugging them for weeks to settle on a name. They had a list of names they liked, but they'd wanted to meet their daughter before they chose one for certain.

The baby was eighteen hours old now. "We thought we'd give it a couple of weeks...see what sticks," he said, teasing his sister as he put the baby in Charlie's arms.

Alice's face fell. "No. You can't do that! As it is, it's going to be a pain in the ass to put a banner together now. It's Christmas day. You people have the worst sense of timing."

"She can't read," Bella said, playing along.

"Ugh!" Alice crossed her arms and sat down in one of the chairs in a huff.

"Okay, okay," Esme said, giving Edward an amused look. "Stop torturing your sister. You know you signed the baby's birth certificate an hour ago."

Alice looked at him, exasperated, and Edward snickered. He sat down on the edge of the bed beside Bella. "You want to tell her?"

"Emilia," Bella said, her smile soft as her eyes found her daughter across the room. "Emilia Bailey Cullen."

Edward took her hand and brought it to his lips, so in love with this woman and their baby he could hardly take it. She smiled back at him, her eyes tired but shining. They were two wounded souls who'd found shelter in each other's arms. That something so joyful could come out of two very different kinds of heartbreaks, well…

Life was strange, and horrible, and wonderful.

He was glad to be alive.

A/N: There will be an epilogue (and possibly a post-take) but our tale is done for all intents and purposes.

The baby was lovingly named by Packy 2.0. So much love for her and my girls, songster, barburella, myonlyheroin, and jessypt.

Thank you for coming with me on this tale. See you soon for the epilogue!