Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, I just use their creations to have my wicked way with them. No copyright infringement is intended.


Many thanks to Jadsmama and Ladysharkey1, my amazing beta team for this story. You ladies rock!


26.

The home stretch.

A few days later.

"Don't stop." Her voice was breathy and thick with desire, the sound of it only spurring him on as his fingers hovered over the thin fabric of her panties.

"Are you sure?" he asked, swallowing hard as he forced his eyes up to hers instead of on the enticing sight of her body covered in so little that she was almost naked. He took his hand away, earning a small dissatisfied whimper from her. "You don't have to-"

"I want to." Her voice was sure if not a little desperate as her hand closed around his, putting it back where she wanted it.

It was all he needed to hear to make the small semblance of control he'd fought to hold on to slip, igniting a fire in his hands, his lips, his bones as he kissed her deeply, his fingers stroking her over the thin strip of fabric separating him from her before slipping under to find her wet and ready for him.

"Fuck!" he hissed, squeezing his eyes shut as his index finger moved to the top of her slit, the contrast between the soft yielding wetness and the course curls surrounding it as Isabella's gasp of pleasure filled the air almost too much for him to absorb. "You feel so good, baby…I can't wait…"

"I…I…Oh God!" Her voice trailed off into a whimper as he rubbed her, the sensation of his skin touching hers without a barrier to numb the effect taking her to places she'd never imagined seeing in this life.

"That's right, angel," he hummed, kissing her red hot cheek as his thumb took over for his index finger, allowing him to tease her opening before slipping inside, a moan escaping his throat as she welcomed him. So warm. So wet. "Let go."

"I don't…" she panted uncertainly, through as unknowledgeable as her mind was, her body seemed to know just what to do as it squirmed under his touch, her back arching, driving his finger even deeper inside of her as he continued his ministrations, completely in awe of the sight of her. So beautiful.

"You do, angel." He chuckled, his eyes closing with a deep groan as he kissed a hot trail from her lips down to her chest, taking one pebbled nipple between his lips as he slid another finger inside of her. So tight.

He couldn't wait until it was his cock inside her, his impatient side whispering at him to just forget about taking it easy and bury himself to the hilt inside her wet heat with every thrust of his fingers, but yet again, there was the cautious side of him that knew the importance of waiting for her to be ready to take that next step; the side that was as nervous for it to happen as he had been when he lost his virginity. The only thing he could do was hope he'd last longer.

Not a lot of thoughts were wasted on the subject, though, as his favorite sight in the whole world was gearing up to make a reappearance as he felt Isabella's body tense up underneath him, a deep, sultry moan pouring from her lips as she came.

What a sight. He was hard as a rock in his pants, his dick throbbing as he drank in the vision that was Isabella; her usual control slipping as her back curled and her heels dug into the mattress in an attempt to find purpose as her body rocked with the intensity of her orgasm until she fell back; eyes shiny and cheeks rosy as her body flopped almost bonelessly against the mattress.

He would never get enough of her.

"Thank you," she whispered, her slightly parted lips begging to be kissed.

So he did, his hips moving of their own accord as her naked body stretched out along his almost fully clothed one. "My pleasure," he muttered, her skin breaking out in goose bumps as his hand slid from the back of her neck down her arm to land on her ass. "You're so beautiful."

She smirked as if she didn't believe him before her face turned serious again, his frown matching hers as he picked up on the shift in atmosphere. "What?"

"Let me give you pleasure too," she blurted out, blushing furiously at the words falling from her lips; words she was still so new to using.

"Isabella, I-," he started to say, only to be interrupted almost immediately.

"You always tell me no," she pouted, "but then it hardly seems fair to be the only one being able to feel all of this…this amazingness."

"I do feel it," he was quick to assure her, adding a little lie for her benefit, "and giving such pleasure to you is more than enough for me." It wasn't that he didn't want her to reciprocate, hell, part of him could think of nothing but what it would feel like to have her lips wrapped around his cock or her little hands pumping him, but he just didn't think she was ready for it. Not yet. He didn't want to push her into doing things she wasn't ready for…and she was so, so innocent where it came to men and sex. He'd wait…even if it killed him.

"But then why deny me that same enjoyment?" she countered, the smartness of her reply making Edward smirk. She had him there. "I want to learn about your body as much as you've learned about mine. I want to please you, and I'm not just talking about the happiness you get from watching me."

He sighed, closing his eyes, his voice probably unlike any other man's had ever been at the prospect of an imminent handjob - or even better. "Alright, as long as you think you're ready." There was something in her eyes that told him that, contrary to what he may have thought a minute or so ago, she was ready now. God help him.

His eyes opened just soon enough to watch her swallow thickly, though her eyes were shining with triumph as her lips pursed in quiet contemplation. "I'm ready."

"Okay." His voice was awfully high and thin, his heart throbbing with anticipation as he watched her fingers set to work, releasing button after button of his dress shirt before discarding it on the floor, her hands running a trail of discovery along his chest as she took her time to explore all of the new skin she uncovered.

"Does this feel the same as it feels for me?" she asked, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bashful as she ran the tips of her fingers over his nipples and further down the hard planes of his chest.

"I couldn't tell you," he forced the words out, his mind almost mad with desire, "but it sure feels damn good."

She nodded, obviously mulling over his words, as one of her hands trailed lower, setting to work on the clasp of his belt as her other hand started to become less determined in its ministrations. She was nervous, that much he could tell. "Can you…" she looked at him and then at the still zipped fly of his pants as if some monster was about to crawl out. "How? I mean… What?"

"Just relax," he breathed, trying to assume some sort of rational command over his mind. "Just follow your instincts." It had served her so far so good, so why not assume it would turn out to be a great tactic to play in the sack. Right?

"Holy…fuck!" he gasped, his hands balling into fists by his sides as her hands traced the hard line of his erection through his pants as she went about unzipping them. This was going to be over before he knew it. Edward could just tell. It had been too long…so long, since he'd been with a woman.

"Am I hurting you?" her panicked voice barely registered above his lust-filled thoughts.

"Nope," he somehow managed to wheeze. "You're doing just fine."

"Good," she muttered, his eyes squeezed firmly shut as he obediently lifted his hips, helping her discard his pants and boxer briefs.

He knew that if he looked at her, it would all be over before it even began. God, he was feeling like a teenager again!

It was when nothing happened afterwards that forced him to open one of his eyes to see what the hell was going on - or not going on - to have made her stop. If he hadn't been so pent up, the look on her face would have been amusing as she stared at his erect cock as if it was an alien life form. As it was, though, he was all but struggling to keep himself from shouting directions. Her inaction was almost killing him with impatience.

Her eyes were half panic, half eager anticipation as she looked at him, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. "W-what do I do now?"

"Wet your hands," he ordered, having learned the hard way years ago that dry hands made for awkward and painful situations. "Now wrap them around me."

She hesitated for a slight moment, her fingers hovering above his cock as it twitched, before finally wrapping around him, the deep, rolling groan rumbling from his chest immediately making her pull back as if his cock were made of fire. "What? Am I doing it wrong?"

"Don't stop!" he growled, needing to feel her hands back on him, his head only falling back against the pillow again as her small hands wrapped around him once more, her instinct taking over as they started to move, his body already so strung out on lust that he could feel himself careening headfirst into his orgasm after only a few passes of her hands up and down his shaft.

Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet, he chanted to himself.

Emboldened by his sounds, Isabella's movements started getting more certain, her hand wrapping a little tighter around his shaft as she pumped him, making it even harder for Edward to hold on.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on, he begged his body to slow down his release, not wanting this to end so quickly.

Every muscle in his body was tense as he held on by sheer force of will for a little while longer, the ministrations of her moist, little hands too good to make him last any longer than what he deemed enough to at least save face.

So fucking good.

A string of barely muffled curses fell from his lips as he let himself go, his eyes squeezed shut as he spurted all over his stomach in thick waves until he was utterly spent, his smile apologetic even though he knew she had no source of reverence when it came to embarrassingly quick orgasms as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Was it…was I any good?" Isabella asked hesitantly, the way she was nervously biting her bottom making him want to be hard again. Hard and inside her.

"Bella, that was…amazing," he reassured her, his lazy grin telling her everything she needed to know as she lay back, tenderly brushing a few sweat-slicked strands of hair out of his face. Understatement of the fucking year. It was the best he'd ever had.

"I can see why you like doing that to me now," she remarked after a while. "I liked doing it…watching you."

"Good," he groaned, his self-control hanging on by a thread with her talking like that, "because now that you've got me going, I don't think I'm ever going to want to stop."

"No more talking?" she teased, the devious, satisfied smile on her lips telling him she was as happy about the turn of events as he was.

He fake-huffed, beaming back at her as he playfully laced her fingers with his. "Talking's overrated."

Taking his own advice to heart, he just lay there, after finding something to clean himself up with, on that small bed inside the tiny cottage with the wind sweeping around the wooden walls and the comforter he'd grabbed from his sister's linen closet pulled tight around their naked bodies to keep away the cold.

He felt closer to her than he ever had, and it wasn't just from the lack of clothing separating his skin from hers. It was because as much as he liked talking to her and exploring that extraordinary mind of hers, they didn't need those words to let the other know how they were feeling. They just knew.

"Do you think it would be like this if we managed to get away?" Isabella's voice finally broke the silence.

"It will be," he spoke with a certainty he didn't really have. He sighed as, as if on cue, the alarm on his phone went off. "It will be so amazing when we get to have this all the time; when we won't have to say goodbye anymore…just 'see ya later'." As reluctantly as he'd gotten used to it, it still stung every time he had to watch her walk away from him, knowing he couldn't follow her or even be sure she was doing okay.

He knew she was still editing, the lies not coming as easily to her as she may have thought them to come as she talked about the situation at the house. What he did know for certain, though, was that James' condition was rapidly deteriorating and that his worsening health was affecting Isabella more than she was letting on. Much more.

And he couldn't blame her. As much as he had wanted to kill the man for hurting her, he had been the one who literally raised her from the gutter when she had nowhere to go but to an even deeper circle of hell than the one she was already in. He didn't trust the man one bit, but he accepted the fact that she owed a lot to him and that some sort of bond had been established between the two of them over the years.

It hurt to see her in so much pain, though, especially since she wouldn't let him help her. Stubborn, insufferable angel girl.

"Call me if something happens, okay?" he narrowed his eyes, wanting her to know he wasn't kidding, as he lowered his lips to hers for a goodbye kiss. "Or just…call me. Period." There was nothing that could get him through the long shift ahead of him quite like hearing her voice at some time throughout his day.

"I'll see if I can distract James for long enough to slip away upstairs," she nodded hesitantly. "But don't worry about me if I can't call."

"Too late, because I already do." He smiled wryly, pulling the thick coat a little higher around her neck to protect her from the blisteringly cold wind as they stood outside the little cabin saying their goodbyes.

"Silly man!" she fake huffed, her gloved fingers brushing against his as she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him. "You know I always survive."

Her answer reminded him of many a conversation he had with Carmen, back when he was little and taking too many risks climbing trees and roughhousing with other boys in the park. His answer to her was the same one he always got. "But even a cat only has nine lives."

"As long as I can still outrun him, I know I'm safe," she shrugged, his frustration high, as always, when she downplayed the danger she was in, living with a man who by any means could be described as 'unstable'. "But I'll call you as soon as I suspect something's up."

"Be safe, Bella," he begged her, kissing her one last time before letting go. "Please? It's not just your heart you're taking care of here."

"Same thing goes for you," she muttered, biting her lip as she took a small step backward. "Be careful around the turns as you drive down the mountain. The road may be slippery from yesterday's snow."

He kept her words in mind as he carefully navigated down the mountain, as the tires barely kept their track on the road and the ice reflecting in the headlights making him have to keep every ounce of attention on what he was doing as opposed to his usual absentmindedness as he made the same journey back to town.

The slippery roads also made for a busy workday, the early birds already trickling into the ER as he came in but cases stacking up as more people were forced to exchange the safety and warmth of their homes for the icy conditions on their way to where they'd been headed. He spent the majority of his day ruling out concussions and spinal injuries without ever once seeing the inside of an OR. If he'd had time to think about it, he would have been utterly frustrated.

Maggie was looking as worn out as he was as she joined him at the nurse's desk, scribbling something on one chart before grabbing another, her concentration making place for a teasing smile as she grinned at him. "Well, if it isn't Doctor Spectacular. Enjoying your final couple of weeks in the outback?"

"I am," he admitted, even though at the moment he would murder for a good neuro-procedure coming his way. "And you know me better by now than to assume I can't wait to get out of here."

"You're right," Maggie answered with her usual irony. "I've heard you've become quite…attached to the area."

"It has its charms," Edward joked along with her. "And I believe even you admitted a long time ago that I wasn't so bad." Over the past couple of months he'd not only rediscovered his own strength and confidence on the floor but also his joy in practicing medicine again. He had always known that being a surgeon was what he'd wanted to do with his life, but the passion? It was back now and he couldn't wait until he really got to hone his skills in Chicago and show his bosses and peers that he was made of the good stuff after all.

He was up to the challenge now.

"Not so bad for a young doctor whose head is still a few sizes too big for his shoulders, you mean?" Maggie countered; whatever she had wanted to add dying on her lips as Carlisle joined them, looking rather worse for wear.

"Do you have a minute?"

Edward looked up from the chart he had been updating as Maggie happened upon him, his hand hovering just above the paper as he took in Carlisle's haggard appearance.

"Of course." He knew inwardly something was wrong; the defeated look in his brother-in-law's eyes making his heart beat in his throat as his mind immediately jumped to the one thing in life that mattered to him.

Isabella's health and safety.

"Is everything okay?" he breathed as soon as they were out of earshot from the other hospital staff. "Isabella? Is she-"

"Oh, yes, she's perfectly fine, I think," Carlisle muttered absentmindedly, "but I assume you saw her since the last time I went up there to pay James a visit, so I should probably be asking you that question."

"This isn't about Isabella?" Edward frowned, the whole thing not making sense to him. Why the hell was Carlisle so upset if it didn't have anything to do with his one and only patient.

"Is Esme alright? The kids?"

"They are fine, Edward, don't worry," Carlisle sighed. "It's Daisy…Daisy Brown?"

No. He breathed out a defeated sigh, remembering the old lady slowly succumbing to cancer in one of the rooms upstairs who'd made him laugh so many times during rounds. "She passed away?"

"Early this morning," Carlisle nodded. "She was one of my first patients when I started working here. Did you know that?"

"No, she never told me," Edward answered, his voice as unsteady as his brother-in-law's as flashed of their last conversation played out in his mind. She'd been so weak and in so much pain but, still, she'd managed to crack a joke about how delectable his ass looked in his scrubs.

"She came in with what she told me was a sore leg, which later turned out to be a tib-fib fracture." Carlisle shook his head, laughing slightly even in spite of his obvious grief. "It was just like her to play it all down like it was no big matter just so that the people around her weren't upset."

"I know," Edward chimed in. "She tried to do the same thing when she was in here." It had been many times that he walked past her room, seeing her in so much pain that it tore at him not to be able to do something – anything – to help her. The second she spotted him, though, she somehow managed to put on the mask, trying to act as if she was merely waking up from a small nap even though the gray, pallor of her face and the deep pain lines that marked it spoke differently.

"I was the one she came to when she first suspected something was wrong," Carlisle continued, his body slumped in defeat on his chair as he rubbed his face. "I knew it as soon as I ran her blood count and I think she did, too, since both her father and her brother died of cancer as well. " He shook his head again. "I think she knew it even before she came over here."

"She's in a better place now," Edward muttered, knowing his words to be as lame as he felt them to be, even if it was the only thing he could think of to say. "I think she will have been relieved to reach the end of her pain."

"I know." Carlisle let out a long breath again, his chair turning so that he could see the rising sun through his window. "It's just…it feels like my whole life is slipping through my fingers and I can't do a damn thing to stop it."

"You mean with Rosalie…" Edward didn't need to finish the sentence, the underlying meaning so clear to both men the words had simply become superfluous.

"I hear she's been talking to you?" The bitterness was thick in Carlisle's voice as he swiveled his chair, not looking at the man in front of him for confirmation of something he already knew to be a fact. "It's good that she has someone to talk to. I just wish…"

"I think every parent in this situation would wish that," Edward answered, ill at ease but determined to keep it together for Carlisle's sake. "But I think for Rosalie it was easier to talk to someone she didn't have as strong a bond with as she has with you."

"Then there's the silver lining for you!" Carlisle chuckled, sarcasm clear in his every movement. "All these years I thought my job had left me unable to bond with my children and then, just as my total failure as a parent and protector is complete, it seems I have managed to do at least something right. Not that it's doing me much good right now."

"You did a whole lot more good than you give yourself credit for," Edward muttered, not quite knowing what to do with this version of his boss and brother-in-law. It unnerved him to see his confidence so shaken and the man so…brittle. It was as if the life had drained out of him. "As awkward as I know it's going to be, I think you and Rosalie should talk. She has a higher opinion of you as parent than you may think."

"I just wish I knew what to talk about," Carlisle admitted, tapping his fingers against the polished wood of his desk as his lips pressed into a hard line. "It feels like I've lost my connection to both of my kids along the way."

"Then try to get it back," Edward urged him. "Work for it. Fight for it, if you have to. If I've learned anything from my time here in Forks, it's that some things are worth fighting for and that nothing is impossible as long as you keep on doing just that."

"That's what you want to do?" Carlisle's face turned inquisitive as he gazed at Edward. "Fight for Isabella?"

"With all the means that I have," Edward admitted immediately. "Hell, I'll fight as dirty as I have to if it means I get to keep her in my life."

"Then you should probably know that early this morning I called James' daughter, as per his instructions." Carlisle's voice was cool and controlled with his mind back in doctor-mode as he spoke, but Edward could hear the undercurrent of tension in his voice. And he didn't like it one bit. "She's flying in tomorrow."

"As per his instructions?" Edward frowned, trying to put two and two together. "You mean he told you to do it the last time you visited with him?"

Carlisle shook his head. "He'd already informed me of his wishes back in the early days when he had just become my patient. He told me he wanted his daughter to be there when he died." Carlisle let out a deep breath, the one that told Edward how difficult it was for his colleague to accept that his patients' days were numbered and severely dwindling even though they'd known it would come to this all along. It didn't make it any easier, though, to watch a patient you'd cared about for years – even if the patient wasn't a very amiable man at times – die. "Yesterday when I went over there for my usual checkup I told him that, if he still wished me to do so, I thought the time to contact her had come."

"So he's dying?" Edward confirmed, waiting for the other man to nod before he let out his own sigh, the many pleasant moments chatting with what had once been a brilliant and very erudite man for a moment overpowering the hatred he'd come to feel for James as he learned more about the man's treatment of Isabella. "Wow."

"Yeah, I know." Carlisle nodded gravely. "I knew it would come and I've spent hours trying to prepare myself, and James, for the inevitable, but now that the time is here…" He shook his head as his voice trailed off, the sadness in his eyes telling Edward more than words ever could.

"I hadn't realized his condition had deteriorated so much," Edward admitted, not without shame. Should he have been more mindful of his former patients' wellbeing? He still spent almost every day in the company of the woman – the beautiful, sweet woman – who cared for him. Even though his time with her was so precious that it would almost feel like a minute spent discussing James when he should be kissing her, touching her, or loving her was a waste of time, he couldn't help but feel guilty.

That and slightly hurt. Why hadn't Isabella confided in him? She must have known James was dying all along. Why didn't she say something?

"I mean," he went on, scrambling to remember what Bella had told him the last time they discussed the old man, "she told me she worried about what would happen now that the book's finished but I never realized…"

"You never realized she was telling the truth, huh?" Carlisle finished for him, his voice amused. "It's amazing sometimes how reluctant our professional arrogance sometimes makes us to accept the observations of others."

"It seems like it, yeah." Edward scratched the back of his head. "So it really went the way she said it did?"

Carlisle took a few moments to think his words through before speaking. "His condition had already started deteriorating severely after he took a tumble in his own home and, even more so, when he found out about Isabella and you but yes, as soon as he finished his novel, I could see he was giving up; his reason to live no longer there for him to try and hold on for."

"But why his daughter?" Edward asked, only now feeling like he was master of the situation enough to ask the one question that had been preying on his mind ever since Carlisle had made his announcement. "Why not his wife or his other kid. I believe he has two, doesn't he?"

"He does," Carlisle nodded, "but I believe his relationship with his son has been very bad ever since James made the announcement about his disease to his children. From what I gather from the bits and pieces he's told me over the years, they were both devastated but where Jane sort of embraced her fate and got tested to find out she wasn't a carrier of the FFI-gene, Alec took the news a lot harder. I think that to this day he blames his father for the possible death sentence he had been handed and the effects it has on his life."

"Then why not get himself tested?" Edward frowned, trying to see the reason in Alec's behavior. "If he got tested he would know one way or another. It would mean that he could have a normal, long life, and even a couple of kids, if he wanted to."

"Because ignorance is bliss?" Carlisle offered. "As long as he doesn't get tested, both options are still open, where as soon as he has his results in his hands, there will only be one truth available to him: life or death."

"I'd still want to know, I think," Edward spoke, unable to imagine living in limbo for so long.

"I think I would too," Carlisle answered, "but who's to say what any of us do if we were ever in his shoes? It's always easy to talk when you don't face the challenges they do." He waited for Edward to react before he continued. "Anyway, from what I've heard, relations with his wife have been strained as well ever since James decided to live out the rest of his days on the other end of the country and, from what his daughter told me on the phone, I gathered that she, too, hasn't been in the best of health either so she'd probably be unable to fly out even if she wanted to."

"What a family!" Edward sighed, for once feeling like his messed up family wasn't that bad after all. It was a fleeting thought, though, as he immediately remembered all the very sad and colorful events which shaped his family.

"I'd say!" Carlisle chuckled. "Anyway, she will be arriving in Forks late tomorrow night, which I thought you may want to know considering your…erm…nocturnal visits with Isabella."

Edward chuckled at Carlisle's discomfort, though underneath his humor raged a deep concern for Isabella as well as for himself. "What do you make of her?" He wanted to know what Bella and he were up against; the change in the situation creating all sorts of insecurities where he preferred fact and safety.

And Isabella.

"It's hard to say, really," Carlisle mused. "She seemed nice enough on the phone."

Edward hummed, not at all satisfied by his brother-in-law's reply. "Does Bella know she's coming?"

"Bella?" Carlisle seemed genuinely surprised by Edward's usage of a nickname for Isabella, a slight twinkle of something appearing in his eyes when Edward shrugged, trying to hide his faint blush by studying the cuffs of his almost pristine Oxford. "She knows. I informed her of the fact that she would be entertaining a visitor as soon as I'd checked in with James. She seemed about as enthusiastic about it as you are, though I guess given the state her uncle's in, it's not altogether surprising."

He nodded, his mind already running a mile a minute trying to come up with possible scenarios for the future. All he knew was that, no matter what the outcome would be, or what kind of person this Jane might turn out to be, the bubble he and his Bella had created around their stolen moments would be burst.

Their Eden would be invaded by an unknown and unwanted stranger.


Thoughts?