[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer
[A/N] My little story here is coming to an end. I had fun with this project and want to thank those of you, who decided to give this a try. Maybe I'll see you on one of my other Bellice stories in the future. Thank you for reading and reviewing. Your support means everything to me.
**36**
"Can you take another picture, Bella?" Edward asked her before he placed the camera in her hands. "Just one more,"
"Edward, I think it's enough now. How many pictures of bringing Nessie home with us do we need?" Jake stated.
"Nessie? What kind of stupid nickname is that supposed to be?" Edward asked him before he leaned down to caress the little girl's head with his fingertip.
"Daddy J thinks you're a little monster, princess."
"Smile guys." Bella commanded, taking several snapshots. This is right, she told herself. It felt right to her. At first Vicky hadn't liked Bella's suggestion about giving the baby to Edward and Jake. Two men raising a little kid; how was this supposed to work? In the end she had agreed to sign the adoption papers. Baby Vanessa had lost her mother and gained two overly caring fathers instead.
"Can we drop you off, Bells? Jake asked her. "We could show Ne- Vanessa where we are going to live in a few weeks."
Bella shook her head. "Alice is going to pick me up. You should try to get home before the baby wakes up and starts crying."
"Yes, we should do that." Edward mumbled. "Thank you for everything, Bella. We will never forget that."
"You're most welcome. Was Aro very angry when you quit your job? That must be difficult for him to lose two employees at the same time."
"He wasn't too pleased but I don't really care about that. I hated working for that asshole anyway."
"Don't say words like this when the baby can hear you." Jake criticized him. Then he hugged Bella and told her goodbye. She forced her lips into a brave smile and waved her hand at them when they drove off.
This is right, she reminded herself. This is the right decision. You're not ready to love another child.
"Hey, Bella, have I kept you waiting?" Alice greeted her breathlessly. She wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and pressed her lips against Bella's collarbone.
"Did everything go okay?" she asked, hugging Bella tightly.
"Yes," Bella whispered. "I think so."
"You sound sad. Are you r-r-regretting that you didn't adopt the baby y-y-yourself? I know you've thought about it."
"It wouldn't be fair. I'm still…I can't imagine having a child now. My therapist says I still need to do a lot of work to handle Marissa's death."
Alice nodded. "I know. You can talk to me if you want to. I will always listen."
"You are cute. I'm glad to have you. Can we go home now? I'm a bit tired and we still need to do so much packing."
"Esme is going to help us tomorrow. That way we can get everything ready before the movers are coming."
During the last few weeks Alice and her stepmother had slowly started warming up towards each other. Carlisle still wasn't too thrilled about his daughter's relationship with his wife's best friend but they were quite sure he would get used to the thought over time. The two of them were good for each other. Anyone could see that.
Bella sat down on the passenger's seat of the car and sighed. "I don't like moving, but I look forward to living with you. It's going to be wonderful."
"It will be." Alice agreed. "I'm just a bit nervous about starting College and everything. What if I'm like really bad?"
"If pre-school teaching is not the right thing for you, we'll find something else."
She placed her hand on Alice's thigh and started drawing invisible hearts over the naked skin. So tempting, Bella thought. She's so fucking beautiful.
Back at her house, they tripped over the countless boxes that were standing around the living room.
"How much crap can one person have?" Bella muttered, packing some books into an empty box next to her. "This is a bottomless pit."
"You need a break. We can finish the rest tomorrow. Esme is good at sorting out stuff. There won't be enough room for all these things in our apartment."
Bella nodded in agreement. "There is one thing though I need to do. I need to get the stuff from Marissa's room."
Alice kneeled down next to Bella on the couch. "You don't have to do this. Esme and I can take care of everything. I know how difficult this is for you."
"Alice, I need to do this myself. She was my child."
It wasn't easy to get the door to Marissa's room open after it had stayed closed for over three years. There was the faint scent of dust in the air when Bella finally managed to open the door.
Her heart felt as if it was bleeding. This was going to kill her. She knew it was. Tears streamed down her face when she carefully folded the clothes into neat piles before she placed them in a box on the ground.
"Bella, honey, you don't h-h-have to do this. I c-c-can't endure s-s-seeing you so sad. Let me do it. Please."
"No. No one is touching her clothes apart from me. Can you just hold me for a minute? I need you to be here."
"I will always be there for you." Alice stated. She pulled out a tissue and held it gently over Bella's nose. "Blow like a good girl."
"You'll be great with handling kids. I know, you will."
Alice wiped the smeared mascara from under Bella's eyes and kissed the moist skin on her girlfriend's cheek.
"I love you. You are the bravest person I've met in my life."
"I love you too, sweet girl. I will always love you. You give me hope that life is going to be kind to me again. That's not something I expected to happen."
She kissed Alice's mouth and breathed in the sweet warmth that was radiating from the soft lips against her own.
"There is something we need to remember doing before Esme shows up here tomorrow morning." Alice told Bella between breathless kisses. "We need to hide the box with the sex toys somewhere. I don't want my stepmother to accidentally find it."