Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I am just using the names that she created for her wonderful story.

This story was pre-read and beta'd by the wonderful X-NessieCullen-X. Special thanks to you, my dear, for making this not so pretty story of mine a little more shiny ;)

Chapter 29

Father Meets Father

After they finally had everything loaded in the car, they began their trip with a stop at his parents' to drop off Tommy and tell them goodbye before stopping at the cemetery. Bella knew it was hard on him, seeing the fresh tombstone with his baby sister's name carved into it. After this last goodbye, they headed solemnly to the airport-where they were immediately cheered up by an amusing toddler who was hamming it up for the strangers who were waiting in line to get their luggage checked in. The child's parents looked exhausted but Bella could tell they couldn't help but laugh along with everyone else.

With a lighter heart, Edward held Bella's hand and promised her that she could have his 'nuts' when the flight attendant who was passing out the peanuts obviously pissed her off by checking out Edward right in front of her. This caused Bella to nearly choke on her apple juice and look at him in exasperation. "So, what's the battle plan?" she asked, now serious .

"I meant the peanuts, Bella. I mean, unless you want to join me in the tiny bathroom back there..."

"Would you stop?" she laughed. "I mean about my parents. Do we want to tell them right away?"

"I think we should," Edward nodded, getting serious again.

"Maybe we should just do it at the airport when they pick us up. He's less likely to commit murder in public."

"Would you stop?" Edward asked her this time. "You didn't go through all that crap in your past only to fall in love with me and then have me die at the hands of your father because I unknowingly knocked you up..."

He said it loudly and sarcastically, which caused the person beside Bella turn bright red. "Sorry," Bella muttered to the white-haired elderly woman. They both seemed to decide to drop the topic altogether. He did put his arm around her then and kissed her cheek. Without it needing to be suggested, Bella snuggled into his side and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Bella spotted Charlie before she spotted her mom, probably because she was more nervous about seeing him. Edward was currently pulling their luggage from a conveyer belt and trying to hold the others that they'd already brought as carry-ons. Even though they hadn't needed the carry-ons it was cheaper for them to just keep them with them than have them loaded with the rest of the luggage. Bella felt bad for him but he wouldn't let her carry any of it.

"Bella!" Renee's voice broke through as she lunged around an obese man and nearly collided with a lanky teenager so that she could get to her daughter.

Laughing at the spectacle her mother had just made, she hugged her back and wanted to cry from joy. It was really hard being away from her mom and the more time Bella spent with her, the harder it was to want to leave. When Edward finally had all four of the bags and was making his way towards them, Bella wiped away her tears and beamed. "Mom, this is Edward Cullen. Edward, this is my mom, Renee Swan."

Renee smiled and pulled him in for an unexpected hug as well, causing luggage to go rolling and nearly taking out a fake tree. "Alright, Renee, before you break the airport..." Charlie's voice halted when his eyes fell on the man behind his daughter.

"Dad, this is Edward Cullen..." Bella began to repeat the introductions when Charlie interrupted her.

"I figured," he said dryly, hugging his daughter and completely ignoring Edward. After a long, awkward moment of silence, Renee told Charlie to help Edward with the bags through her fake, awkward smile and Bella watched Edward swallow hard as Charlie stepped towards him and took the bag that had fallen. Bella wanted to die. This was exactly what she was worried about. It was like her dad was blaming Edward for what had happened to his daughter before the two of them had even met. It wasn't fair.

The car ride was pretty much silent with Charlie driving and Renee turned in her seat, staring at Charlie as if silently willing him to be nice-and to let him know she wasn't too happy with him. Bella looked to Edward in an 'I-told-you-so' kind of way and Edward looked like he wished he was in an ejector seat. It was now Saturday morning and traffic wasn't too bad so they made it home fairly quick. Renee and Bella could have easily gone into the house to start lunch while the guys carried everything in but it was like neither of them wanted to leave the guys alone.

While Charlie got comfortable on the couch, completely ignoring all three of them and watching some sports show, everyone else went into the kitchen. The atmosphere brightened instantly. "Edward, it's so nice to finally meet you! You're all that Bella has talked about in the couple of times she's come back to visit us. Oh, dear, I'm sorry. Edward, I'm sorry about your sister! Bella's been keeping me updated and I've been praying...I mean, you never know...I prayed and prayed for Bella to come back to us and she did..."

"Thank you," Edward said with a smile but Bella could tell he was getting a little upset. She felt bad enough already for the way her other parent was acting, she didn't need him to feel uncomfortable with Renee. Steering them away from conversation and into the task of making lunch, Bella diffused the situation and everyone worked cheerfully until it was ready and they had to face Charlie. Before they could do so, Bella went upstairs to where Edward was in the bathroom and waited for him to come out.

"So, you still want to just tell him and get it over with?" she asked sarcastically.

"No. I changed my mind..." Edward said, almost saddened by his admission.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure he'll come around."

"Yeah. Well, it doesn't change anything. It's going to take a lot more than a cranky cop to scare me away. I'm not going anywhere, Bella."

Edward kissed Bella quickly before following her back downstairs and taking a seat between Renee and Charlie, Bella sat on the other side of him at the square table. Bella wished she could be beside him, he needed the support. He looked so defeated. "So, dad," Bella began, trying to lighten him up, "what's been new down at the station?"

"Not much of anything except that we're swamped. You can't get good police officers anymore. No one wants the late hours and with budget cuts we can't really afford to hire anyone."

"It's like that with a lot of places, Dad. The economy kind of sucks."

"What do you do, Edward?" Charlie asked, almost as if he expected it to be something unimpressive before Edward even spoke.

"I help my brother run a night club in the city."

"A night club?" Charlie scoffed. Bella cringed.

"Yes," Edward responded, obviously a little hurt by the reaction.

"It doesn't bother you, Bells? Him being away all night..."

"Dad!" Bella exclaimed, royally pissed

"Actually, sir," Edward said as calmly and respectfully as possible, "I do the accounting side of it and keep the finances. I usually work during the day and help prep for the night. My brother and his fiance run it at night."

"Is that the life you want for my daughter?" Charlie asked, sounding extremely rude.

With her food completely untouched, Bella threw her fork down-something she picked up from her mother, and clenched her fists. "Enough! Dad, I don't know what the hell your problem is with him but I very well could be dead without him! You should have seen where I was living before he met me! It was this ridiculously unsafe apartment in a ridiculously unsafe neighborhood! I got all that money I showed up with because I was working in a strip club! Yes! A strip club! He was there to help me, Dad. He's a lot of the reason that I found the strength to come back home!

"He knows about my past and he still loves me! He knows that I'll never be normal and he doesn't care!I agreed to letting him come with me because he wanted to come. He wanted to meet you. His little sister died a few days ago and he's here with me because there's something happening that you should know about and now I don't even want you to know! He's doing everything in his power to take care of me...and I'm really going to need him because...I'm...I'm pregnant! Go ahead and scream and yell at both of us...it doesn't matter! I wasn't supposed to be able to have a baby and, now that I am, you sure as hell will not be the reason I'm unhappy about it!"

Everyone seemed to be in shock and Bella stood. "Edward, we can go for a walk if you don't feel comfortable here."

"No. Why don't you go calm down? It's not good for you to get this upset. Baby or no baby. I'm sure your father has a few things to say to me." Bella was now speechless but she felt her mother take her by the arm and grab her water glass off the table. Allowing Renee to lead her up to her bedroom, Bella began to cry.

Edward sat staring at his food, unsure of what to do. When Charlie finally cleared his voice, Edward decided to just let him say what he needed to. It was obvious the man hated him but they would both have to suck it up and deal with each other. He'd been serious early. He wasn't leaving Bella over anything; sure as hell not over this. "Is everything she said true?"

"Yes."

"Edward, I owe you an apology." Feeling like he was really in the Twilight zone now, Edward opened his mouth to say something but Charlie cut him off. "I guess it's just hard for me to process everything. I mean, to not have anyone to blame for what happened to my daughter and then all of the sudden she shows up but leaves again because of this new man in her life...and in my eyes...she's still that little girl that was getting ready for college..."

"Charlie, I would never hurt her the way those men did. I love her. I met her at the strip club when I was there for my brother's bachelor party. I knew then that she didn't belong there and it took a while before I convinced her to quit. I had to convince her of a lot: that it wasn't okay to not eat, that it wasn't okay to only have spoiled milk in her refrigerator, that it wasn't okay to live somewhere so unsafe, that it wasn't okay to keep twenty-thousand dollars in a drawer in that unsafe place. She became my world and I tried so hard to save her.

"I didn't even know her story. Not until the day she left me to come here. It was supposed to be permanent and I couldn't bring myself to stop her because I knew it was best for her but it nearly killed me. I would have come here to see her but my sister was dying and I couldn't leave my family. I had no idea that Bella was pregnant at that point and we would have been a lot more careful about things had we known it could even happen.

"I want this baby too but I'm young and neither of us is in the most stable place to raise a kid but I won't take this from her. Hell, I'm in love with the kid already as well. She came back to me and I have another chance with her and it's scary but I want this, Charlie. So you can hate me but I'm not walking away from her unless she asks me to herself. I'm here to stay."

"Are you planning to marry her?"

"Absolutely. I just don't know when. I don't want her to feel like she has to because of the baby." Charlie just nodded but before he could comment, Edward decided to just get on with it. There was something he needed to ask Charlie and he needed to do it soon. He couldn't keep things from Bella to save his life and knew he couldn't hide this forever. "I need to talk to you about something else."

Charlie raised an eyebrow, "You just met me, told me you impregnated my daughter, and that you wanted to marry her. What more do you have to tell me?"

"I actually have a question for you."

"Okay..."

"I want to get into becoming a police officer. I want to become someone who can truly protect Bella. I want to help find men who do the shit that was done to her."

"That's a big commitment. You'll have to go back to school or at least get into the academy...I mean it's a lot of work."

"I have to do something that will help me be better support my family. I also don't feel right keeping Bella with me all of the time hours away from you and her mom. Especially with her being pregnant, she'll need Renee. I want to move her back out here to stay permanently; I was hoping maybe you could point me in the direction of some houses that you know are for sale. I'm not familiar with the area."

"Really? You'd be willing to move all the way back here, away from your family, so that she can be near her mother and I?"

"Yes."

"Even after the way I treated you?"

"You apologized," shrugged Edward. "Besides, she's been away from her parents for long enough."

"Do you plan to eat any of this?" Charlie asked, looking at the food that no one ate on the table.

"I don't have much of an appetite, sir. I haven't since my sister passed away."

"I'm truly sorry about what happened with Alice," Charlie remarked, causing Edward to be a little surprise with how casually Charlie used his sister's name. "Come on, I'm not hungry either and I have some places in mind already. I think the two of us could use some time away from the girls. In fact, I'm a little scared of them..."

Edward chuckled and followed Charlie out of the house. Surprisingly, they didn't get into a car but they set out on foot. Edward absently wondered if Charlie was leading him away to kill him so that Bella wouldn't see it. "Is there anything in particular that you're looking for in a house? I mean, there's been a lot of foreclosures lately around here. Four in this neighborhood alone."

"Well, I know they can make a place pricey but it's important to me that the home Bella and I choose has a pool...or at least a big enough piece of property to put one in. I want her to have the things she wanted before everything happened."

Charlie stopped walking and smiled a tearful smile. Then he led Edward across the street and down another block. Finally, they came to a small, white house. It almost reminded Edward of a large cottage from its rounded shape but Charlie explained that he used to know the people that lived there and had been inside before. "There are three bedrooms on the top floor and then a kitchen, living room and bathroom. It's really not a huge place and all of the rooms are kind of small but there is plenty of room in the yard for a swing-set and a sandbox."

"Honestly, a big place would probably be a bit intimidating to Bella. She gets scared so easily. Smaller is always better with her it seems."

"Well, she'll love this place then. Follow me."

Leading Edward around to the back of the house, Charlie's face broke into a smile. Edward gasped when he saw it. Directly behind the house, in a nice, fenced-in area, was a huge in-ground swimming pool. It came complete with a slide and small diving board. There was plenty of room on the deck for lounge chairs and pool toys and a hot tub even sat covered a few feet away, enclosed by an even higher privacy gate. "This is perfect. My God, this is it."

"I could call the old owners now. They were just going to advertise it in the papers next week."

"No...as much as I think this is perfect for her, I need Bella's approval. I don't want to ever force her into doing something she doesn't want to do."

"Well, with that said, I want to know your opinion. Would it be alright if I tell Renee about the marriage thing? I swear to you I'll make sure she doesn't breathe a word to Bella. There's just something we've talked about before and I think you'll want to know about it..."

Edward was confused about what he was saying but he just shrugged. "Um, sure. Just, yeah, please don't let it get back to Bells. I'm not sure that this is what she really wants and I'm not rushing her into it."

"Bella, baby...I can't even..."

Bella watched as her mother broke down for the first time since she'd been home. Of course there were tears of relief since she'd gotten her daughter back but never did she break into sobs quite like this. Bella felt awful for upsetting her so much. She'd never meant to flip out on her father and she definitely never wanted to tell her kind mother that she was going to be a grandmother in that way.

"I'm sorry. I know that we've all been through so much," Bella whispered, tears of her own running down her cheeks.

"Sweetie, there's going to be a little baby!" Renee smiled through her tears. "I just never dreamed that you would come home and now that you're here I get the chance to see my daughter become a mother and..."

"Mom? You're happy," Bella smiled, then started laughing, relieved that she had made the wrong assumptions.

"Of course I'm happy! Oh, honey, tell me. Was it planned? Are you happy? What did Edward think? What did he say? Was he happy or did he panic? Is he still panicked?" Renee's eyes grew wider with each question and Bella found herself unable to answer all of her questions right away. Instead, she pulled her mom in for a hug and gave up trying to stop the tears.

When she finally calmed down, she pulled away. "It wasn't planned. I didn't think I could get pregnant. I'm ecstatic. Edward's a little scared but he tells me all the time how much he loves me and the baby."

"Your dad will accept this. I promise you. I'll make him. Besides, your dad," Renee leaned in as she began to tell her secret, "is a total sucker for babies. He freaking loves them."

Bella laughed, but then her smile faded and her mom gave her a questioning look. "I don't want my baby's father to die at the hands of my father before he does accept it. I don't want you to take this the wrong way but he is everything to me. I can't live without him. I know that sounds melodramatic but I know what it feels like when you have had your entire life stripped away from you. I was lost and scared and then I met him, Mom. He showed me that it was okay to let go of my past and live for my future. He never gave me a choice. I had to let go of my past to be with him and I was so in love with him..."

"Oh, Bells," her mom sighed, taking her hand.

Bella couldn't help the wide grin that was on her face. She loved him. She unconditionally loved Edward Cullen. It was irrevocable and strong and it made her sick to even consider a life without him. She wanted it all and for the first time she felt she could have it. They could have a home, she could become a mother, he could be her husband, and they both had the perfect families to go to for support. She wanted to marry him.

"Mom, we need to go downstairs so I can apologize to dad and talk to Edward. Actually, I need to apologize to him, too. He flew here with me so that we could tell you two together and the way I did it wasn't fair to him."

"Let's go. I'll talk to your father. We'll work everything out!"

Still all smiles, they headed down towards the dining room but stopped in their tracks to find it was empty. "Charlie?" Renee called out, striding over to the kitchen and peering in. "Where the hell..."

"I'll call Edward," Bella breathed out. She had been joking about her father murdering him but this wasn't okay. As Renee checked the porch and then yelled in that there were no missing vehicles, Bella heard Edward's phone ringing from in the kitchen. It had been abandoned on the counter.

"They're not outside," Renee said, breathlessly, coming back in.

"Should we go look for them? Maybe they just went for a walk or..."

"Let's just wait. I'm sure Edward isn't in any...physical...danger. Your father never takes his damn phone with him..."

So the girls sat and waited. Then they paced and waited. It was almost a half hour before Renee turned to Bella and smiled. "There they are!"

Relief flooded her and she ran off the porch towards them but then stopped suddenly when she saw the strangest sight. They were talking and even laughing, it was like the two guys were old friends. This was insane. "Edward, dad, what..."

"I'm sorry to scare you, baby. Your father and I wanted to go for a walk. He showed me the neighborhood."

Bella was surprised even more when Edward pulled away and her father actually hugged her. "I'm sorry, kiddo. That was just a lot to take in. I like this guy, though. I guess I'll get over it. Come on, Renee. Let's give them some time to talk."

Bella looked at her mother and that back towards Edward. He took her hand and swung it happily. "Take a walk with me?"

"Okay," Bella agreed slowly, as if still in shock.

"I talked to your dad...a lot. I think he likes me. He also mentioned something about naming the baby after him..."

Bella laughed and shook her head. "I thought he really killed you. Like, really killed you. You left your cell behind by the way."

"Sorry again, Bells."

"Where are we going?" Bella asked as they headed across the street.

"Just for a walk...I think your parents needs some space."

"What are we going to do? I'm happy to stay at the apartment but the baby needs a room and..." she began to gush out.

"We'll figure it out, Bella. We just got here today and I think we have plenty of time to figure it out. I promise you things will work out. I told you I was working on something for us. Trust me."

"I always trust you," smiled Bella.

"Good."

"So, um, have you talked to Esme about Thanksgiving? I kind of forgot about it until I saw an advertisement at the airport..."

"Yeah, I did want to talk to you about that. I think we should just stay here this week. We can celebrate with your parents and then head back on Monday when the traffic dies down a little."

"Really? Do you think it's a good idea to not be with your parents right now? They have to be hurting..."

"Mom and dad need time. I think it's best that they stay together and enjoy each other. It'll work out."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" laughed Bella.

"Trust in all of us. We only want what's best for you, love." Edward smiled, kissing her cheek and guided her up the stairs to her childhood home. As he breathed a sigh of relief that this was definitely something that would make her happy, he knew she was right. They should be worried. They needed to figure out a plan.

As Bella kissed his cheek and said she was going to up to the bathroom, Renee pulled him into a hug and whispered to him that he needed to meet her on the porch later after Bella went to bed. He had actually planned to call his parents and everyone back home to set things into action but this seemed important. Nodding with concern, he followed after Bella and wondered what her mother had to say to him that Bella couldn't hear.

As always, huge thanks to those who show their undying support every week! I love you guys so much! Please review. LP xx