Chapter 29: Lives

EPOV

I walked down the pathway with Bella's hand in mine. It was a little chilly out today, but it wasn't too bad. It was comfortable. I could hear the leaves crunching under both of our feet but that was the only sound that could be heard. It was silent and calm here, it usually is silent and calm in a cemetery.

I led Bella to where I knew he was. I have only been here three times. It's sad really, how many times I have been to visit my big brother in the four years he has been gone. It was hard for me to even step foot here for the first time I saw him. The first time I came to see him was the night Avery was born. I tried once to come and see him before that, and it was at his funeral. I tried but I was escorted out of the cemetery. My parents made sure I wasn't there.

Anyways, the first time I came, was the night Avery was born and I decided to come on my way home from the hospital for the night. I wanted to stay at the hospital with my baby, but I also had another baby that I had to worry about. I decided to visit him as I was driving home, I wasn't planning on it, but he was there when Harper was born and it felt I should go see him after his other niece was born.

I brought Harper with me to the grave but she slept the whole time. It was late for her and the poor thing was stuck at the hospital all day long. I remember gently sitting down right in front of him with Harper close to me. I squeezed her close, because she was what was holding me to the ground. I expected to break down once I got there, but I didn't at first. I just held my baby close and told Jack about my new baby. I told him about the worry I had the whole time Heidi was pregnant, I told him about the relief I got when I saw how perfect and beautiful my baby was, I told him about my eternal and all consuming love I felt for the small little person that he will never meet.

I stayed there talking to him about everything that has been going on for two hours. It was the perfect weather outside for the nighttime and Harper slept the whole time securely in my arms. I only started crying when I knew I would have to leave. I cried for so many reasons that night because a lot went on. But I think it was then that it hit me that my brother was truly gone. That was when it hit me that no matter how long I talked to him, he would never answer.

That was when it hit me that he would never meet Avery; he would never hold her, or play with her. That was when it hit me that my brother wouldn't be there for me when I was lost or confused. I would never get to wrestle with him like we always used to and he would sometimes let me win. I would never get to tell my brother thank you for all he did for me and I could never repay him. In that moment I just wanted to see him one more time and just tell him how much I loved him and appreciated every little thing he did for me with no complaint.

The second time I came to see him was two weeks ago after me and Bella had our first fight. I only left the house because I knew I was being irrational, and I didn't want to say anything that would hurt Bella more than I already have. When I got in the car I just kind of drove around aimlessly and my mind really wasn't on where I was going. But somehow I ended up parked outside of the cemetery where my big brother rests.

That time I didn't cry at all. I felt so calm and safe that time with my big brother. As soon as I got there I knelt down in front of his grave and just stared at his gravestone. The words on it were true, but not the whole story.

Jackson Alexander Cullen

June 12, 1977-June 20, 2006

Beloved son and friend

But what they missed, and I am sure it was on purpose, was brother. Sure he was a good son, and a good friend, but he was the best brother in the world. So I stood kneeling in front of my brother and I felt so much better. I felt all of my muscles loosen and felt my head clear out. I could breath right again and everything was right with the world. I liked to think that my brother was kneeling next to me, and had his arm wrapped around my neck like he always used to do. I liked to think that the calm feeling I was feeling was my brother sitting there with me and telling me everything would be okay and he is always there for me.

The whole time I was there, I didn't say anything until I left. I was forced to leave when I felt rain drops falling around me. I reluctantly got up from my knees and bent down to place a kiss on the top of the gravestone.

"Thank you." Was all I said before I left. My head was clear and on the ride home I realized what an ass I was being to Bella. Thankfully my Bella is a forgiving person because she forgave me right away and I spent the rest of the night holding the woman I loved.

So that was the second time I went, and the third was last week when Bella had to cancel our lunch date when she was called into work. I really wasn't that hungry, so I drove down to see Jack, and this time I talked. I told him all about my new friends, my babies, and Bella. I only stayed there for a half an hour because I had work to get back to, but it felt good.

Now I was bringing Bella with me to see Jack. I needed for her to meet him, and for him to meet her. She needs to meet the man who is the reason I am where I am today and he needs to meet the woman who has completed me and is going to be here for me for the rest of my life.

We finally made it to where Jack was and I stopped in front of him. Bella held onto my hand tighter and rested her head on my arm. I looked over to look at her beautiful face and noticed she had tears in her eyes. I gave her a soft reassuring smile. She will be okay, Jack is here.

I sat down in front of him with my knees slightly bent and pulled Bella down with me. I scooted her so she was sitting between my legs and I wrapped my arms around her. I held onto her and closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I opened my eyes and kissed the side of Bella's head before looking at the gravestone.

"Hey, Jack." I said softly but it still caused Bella to jump a little bit. "This is my Bella." I said and kissed her on the side of her head again. "This is the Bella I was talking to you about." I said and I felt a soft breeze.

"Hi, Jack." Bella said softly and her voice cracked. I craned my head more and saw that she was crying. I lifted my hand to wipe away her tears.

"Don't cry, love." I felt her head nod against mine and I held her tighter. "Isn't she beautiful, Jack?"

Bella turned her head and kissed my cheek. "Your brother sure is the charmer." She said while looking at Jack.

"Well he taught me everything I know, Bella. He was even cornier than I am."

"Doubt it." She said while laughing and I laughed along with her. I am sure Jack joined us.

"Well I just figured I would introduce you to my Bella. I just wanted you to see that I am okay now. Actually I have always been okay, and that is because of my daughters, but now I am complete. She has saved me. She is amazing, Jack. She really is the love of my life and she is going to take care of me, and I am going to do the same for her. I am going to do all that I can for her. I'm just sorry I didn't do all I could for you." My voice cracked at the end and I cleared my throat. I have no reason to cry.

I took another deep breath and Bella began talking. "I've got him now, Jack. I will do all of the things that you wanted to do for him. I will love him, I will protect him, I will support him, and I will pick him up when he is feeling down. He says I have saved him, but I think it is the other way around. I guess we saved each other. We saved each other from turning into people that weren't us."

I kissed her temple. "We are getting married. I liked it so I went and put a ring on it."

Bella laughed. "You did not just take a line from a Beyonce song." She said between her laughs in a disbelieving tone.

"Yes I did. That is a very beautiful song." I said stubbornly which only made her laugh harder.

"I can't believe I am marrying such a nerd." She said while wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Well you could always back out if my nerdiness is too much for you."

"Never. I wouldn't trade your nerdiness for anything in the world." She said and then turned her head to kiss me on the lips once. As we pulled away I could hear Bella's phone ringing. She took it out of her pocket and saw that it was a text message. She read it and I just stared at Jack's gravestone. I wish I could see him instead.

I was pulled out of my staring by the phone in front of my face. I read the message and smiled.

Hry up lovebirds, these little girls want their mom and dad and their candy!

Bella pulled the phone away when she saw I read it. I guess we have to go now. "Alright, Jack. We have to go now. It is Halloween tonight and the girls are a little anxious, even though it is only 10 in the morning." Bella got up off of the ground and I got up with her. "I will be back to see you again. I will be coming by more often. I think I will bring Harper with me one of these days. She remembers you, you know. I know you must miss her, so I will bring her. And I will bring Avery sometime soon, but I just think she is kind of young to explain this whole thing to her."

Bella wrapped her arms around my middle and rested her head on my chest and looked in the direction of the gravestone. "Bye Jack, thank you for taking care of him for me." She said softly and I kissed the top of her head.

"Bye, big brother. I love you. Thank you for helping become the man I am today, and making me worthy of this woman."


"How the fuck did we get stuck doing this?" I asked Carlisle as I finished filling probably the 30th candy bag of the past hour. I put it in the laundry basket where Bella told us to put all of them and then took a sip from my water.

"I think it is because we are defenseless against the women in our lives."

"That is true." I said while tipping the bottle toward him and then putting it back on the coffee table and grabbing another baggy to fill. "You know, we are both pretty whipped, it is kind of emasculating."

"Yeah, but do you really care?" He asked as he opened one of the lollipops and stuck it in his mouth.

"Fuck no." I said and he laughed and agreed with me. "So do you know when they will be back?" I asked.

"Esme said around four, so in about a half an hour I guess." I nodded my head and we continued filling up the bags with candy. Bella, Esme, and all the little ones were out having a girl's afternoon. According to Bella, this will include shopping, manicures, pedicures, and lunch at Taco Bell.

I couldn't wait for them to get home though because I was missing them all like crazy. They all left at around 11 and it has been far too long to go without seeing all of my girls. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with Carlisle, but it wasn't the same. And I am sure Carlisle felt the same way. Abbey has turned into quite the little Daddy's girl and Carlisle loved every minute of it.

"So how is the college thing going, Edward?" Carlisle asked.

"I sent in my applications to six of them last week so I guess I will just have to wait and see."

"That's great, I am sure you will get accepted to one, if not all of them."

"Yeah, we'll see." I finished with the last bag and pumped my fist in excitement that that shit was finally over. Carlisle laughed at my antics and I got up to stretch out my limbs from sitting on the floor for so long. As I was stretching I heard the key in the front door and smiled because they were early and I can't wait to see them.

The door flung open and hit the wall behind it and I saw a very excited and smiley Avery running towards me. "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" She called as she ran to me.

"Avery! Avery! Avery!" I said while laughing and picking her up and she hugged me quickly before pulling away.

"Guess what! Guess what! Guess what!" She said while jumping in my arms.

"What! What! What!" I replied with the same excitement and smiled at my adorable baby.

"My fwend is coming twick or tweating wif us!" She said and clapped her hands together.

"Really? That's great baby! What is her name?"

"Silly Daddy, it's not a girl. It's a boy and his name is Spencer." Littlegirlsaywhat?

The smile on my face immediately went away and I saw Avery's face fall from my reaction. Why does it have to be a boy? Bella came over to me and pinched me on the arm to get me out of my daze. "That is great, baby." I said with the fakest smile. She seemed to buy it though and kissed my cheek.

"I know!" She said and then squirmed out of my arms to go run to her room. Bella came to stand in front of me and she had an amused expression on her face.

"Please tell me I didn't just hear what I think I just heard." I said.

"I can't say that, because what you heard is true."

"You got to be fucking kidding me! There is a boy coming to this house for Avery?" I asked and I could feel my face get hot and my hands get sweaty. I knew this was coming but I didn't know it would be this fast.

Bella just laughed at me. "Oh Edward get over it, he is only four years old."

"He is older than her!"

She laughed again. "Edward. She is three, and is going to be four in a couple of months." I just shook my head. She chuckled at me again and wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me on the forehead. "Sorry Edward, you got to face the facts; you are getting old and Avery is also getting older."

"I don't like this, Bella. How do I know how this kid is like, what if he is a bad influence?"

"Oh yeah babe, I am sure he is quite the bad boy. You better watch out because he might just have her sneaking out of the house and taking her away on his toy jeep and sipping apple juice all night long."

"Ha, Ha." I said sarcastically. She smiled again and then lifted up on her tip toes and kissed my lips.

"Everything will be fine, his mother just called me to see if I would bring him with us because she was called into work. She sounded really upset about it. But I told her it would be no problem."

"Well when will he be here?" I asked and then, speak of the devil, the doorbell rang. Avery ran from upstairs and ran straight to the door. She looked behind her to make sure me and Bella were in sight before opening the door. She squealed and ran to hug the little boy at the door. My whole body tensed and Bella laughed again and rubbed my arm.

After she pulled away I was finally able to see the little boy. He was taller than Avery and he had on what looked like a Navy costume. I could see he had dark hair under his hat, but it was cut short. He had glasses on and his face was flushed and he had a big smile while looking at my daughter. You better watch it, kid. That is my baby.

"Nerd." I muttered in Bella's ear, referring to the little boy. That earned me a very hard smack to the back of the head by Bella and that shit hurt. She walked away from me to greet the kid and his mother. She had jet black hair and was dressed in a business suit and she looked really tired.

"Hey Bella, thank you so much for doing this, you don't know how much this means to me." She said sincerely once she saw Bella.

"Oh Angela, please, it is nothing I am glad we can help." Bella said just as sincerely. Then she turned to look at me and coaxed me over with her hand. I walked up to where she was standing with Angela. "Angela, this is my fiancé, Edward. Edward this is Angela, Spencer's mom."

I stuck my hand out to be polite and she shook it back. "Nice to meet you, Edward. Thank you for taking Spencer with you guys."

"It's no problem." I said and then she bent down to Spencer's level and kissed his cheek and told him goodbye and that she loved him. That left me, Bella, Avery, and the kid standing in the foyer. But Avery cut the silence right away.

"Spencer!" She said and dragged him over to where I was. "Dis is my Daddy and he is the coolest person in the world!" Take that nerd child.

Spencer took his hat off, stuck his hand out to me, and looked really nervous. "Hello, Edward. My name is Spencer William Cheney."

I shook his hand quickly and muttered a "Hi."

"Alright, Avery come on upstairs so we can get ready." Bella said and Avery ran up to Bella and they went upstairs together, which left me in the foyer standing awkwardly with the kid.

I cleared my throat. "Why don't we go sit in the living room?" I said and showed him the way. He followed after me and he sat down on the couch. I sat down next to him on the far end. He glanced at me from the side every once in a while but mostly just swung his legs and didn't look at me. "So what are your intentions with my daughter?" I asked.

My voice caused him to jump and he looked at me. "I don't know what that means, sir." He said nervously. Yeah, sure he doesn't.

"Hm. Well why did you want to be a Navy seal for Halloween?" His face lit up and he had a big smile on his face to show off his crooked teeth.

"My Dad is in the navy." He said proudly. Well shit, now I feel like an asshole. The poor kid's father was probably out over seas and that is why his mother couldn't take him trick or treating tonight because she needs to work in order to support herself and her son while his dad was gone. I know how that feels.

"That is pretty cool." I said trying to sound nicer. I have to try not to be too nice though, I don't want him to think he can walk all over me. Because if he messes with my daughter. I will mess him up.

"Yeah but he has to go away a lot of the times." He said sadly. "But he always brings me cool stuff."

"That's great." I said and he just nodded his head and went back to staring at the wall in front of him and kicking his feet. "So how did you become friends with Avery?" I asked. If he said something like he kissed her or something I was going to flip.

He smiled fondly. "Well," He said and looked up at me and pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger. "There is this boy in our class and his name is Adam, and he is a big bully. One day, he was picking on me and making fun of my glasses and throwing pieces of paper at me." Kids can really be so cruel sometimes. "And then Avery came over and called them meanie poopy heads and told them they were all ugly and have no friends." Whoa, my daughter is bad ass. "Then she asked me if I wanted to play with her and she is my only friend. And Adam doesn't pick on me anymore."

I didn't think it was possible for me to love my daughter more, but I was wrong. "Well, I am glad she was there to help you. You really shouldn't listen to what other people say about you, Spence. All that matters is what you think of yourself."

"I know, that is what Avery told me." He said. I smiled and then we started talking about random stuff. He told me about his Hot Wheels cars and his book about bugs. He was an alright kid and I have to admit it was kind of nice to have another boy to talk to. I am constantly surrounded by girls.

We stopped talking when we heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Carlisle appeared first and Abbey was after him. She looked cute in her witch outfit. She wasn't a scary witch though, she looked like a little fairy witch type of thing, she had the witch hat too.

"Wow, Abbey you look great!" I said and she twirled around.

"Thank you, Uncle Edward!" She exclaimed and I looked at Carlisle and Esme and saw they were looking at her with so much love. I could tell it meant a lot to them to experience their first Halloween with their daughter.

Next to come down was Bella with Avery close behind her. My beautiful girl was a ladybug and she was the cutest fucking lady bug that this world has ever seen. She had a red dress on that was decorated like a lady bug and black tights on. She had lady bug wings and a head band that gave her a lady bug antenna.

She skipped over to me and picked her up as soon as she got to me. I scattered butterfly kisses all over her face causing her to giggle and lighting up my world. "You look adorable, my baby." I said and she kissed my cheek.

"Thank you, Daddy." She said and then squirmed down to stand with Spencer. I looked toward the stairs waiting for my other girl to come down but then I felt a little hand tug on my shirt. I whipped around and saw that Harper was already standing behind me and looking so beautiful.

She decided to be Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, for Halloween. Her and Bella have been reading Greek myths and she was fascinated by them and became sort of obsessed. She was wearing a flowing dress that was white on the top but then turned into purplish pink color on the bottom. Her hair was curled to perfection and she had a little band around her head. I got a little teary eyed looking at my beautiful daughter.

I bent down so I was eye-to-eye with her. I ran the back of my hand over her cheek and she smiled. "You look so beautiful, my love." I said and her smile got wider.

"Thank you, Daddy." I grabbed her face and kissed her forehead and hugged her close to me. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, honey." I let go of her and stood up. She grabbed my hand and I looked to see everyone waiting in the foyer. Bella was looking toward us with a smile and we walked up to her. She leaned over and kissed me on the lips.

"Mommy and Daddy can you pwease top kissin awready? I wanna go get some candy!" Avery said causing everyone to laugh.

Me and Bella pulled away and she grabbed my hand. Harper ran off to stay with Abbey, and Avery and Spencer stood walking in front of us. I kept an eye on Spencer though; need to make sure he keeps his hands to himself.

We had a great night, going trick-or-treating as a family for the first time. It felt so great to be doing these firsts as a family and I can't wait to have a lot more firsts in our life together.

It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
We're alive for the first time
It's hard to remember were alive for the last time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
To live before you die
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
That our lives are such a short time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
When it takes such a long time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember

Lives, by Modest Mouse


I know it may sound like the end, but it is not. Although we are getting close, sadly. This is just a guestimation, but I would say there are roughly 4-5 chapters left. It may be less or it may be more but it is close to that. But there will be a nice epilogue and I am thinking about writing some outtakes.

Here's the deal, I have an idea for another story in my head, but I am not ready to start it yet because I just need to sort it out in my head more, I guess. I don't know how to explain it but I just need more time. But, if you guys like the idea, I could make a new story that will just be little snippets of the future for the characters in this story. The story is almost over, but I don't want to leave these characters. So let me know if that would be a good idea because I would love to write about them more.

Pics of costumes, Abbey, and Spencer on my profile.

Thanks for all the reviews last chapter and keep them coming!

Review Please!