Chapter 38

Time seemed to stop, and everything in my peripheral vision went blurry. Edward and I were locked in some intense stand still, and I had no idea what to do.

Suddenly, he broke. "You're pre-pregnant?" he stuttered.

I nodded slightly timid. "I just found out a few days ago."

He swallowed hard as if he had something large lodged in his throat. "We're you planning on telling me?"

I let go of the breath I had been unconsciously holding. "Yes, of course I was going to tell you. I just wanted to give you space to work on your issues before I dumped this on you."

"Dumped it on me? How is telling me we're going to have a baby dumping something on me?" he asked slowly.

I sighed. "I hadn't heard from you in a while, so I figured you were busy trying to get better, and then I found out and the next day you were texting me about starting Jasper's program again. I was just trying to give you a little more time."

"How much time?" he asked quietly.

I bit my bottom lip and thought about it before answering him. "Uh...a couple weeks."

"A couple weeks," he repeated with a slight nod and an introspective glazed over look. When he refocused on me I wasn't sure what he was going to say so I tensed, but then – "So….You weren't going to make me miss it?"

His question just about broke my heart. He honestly thought I was planning to go through the majority of my pregnancy without telling him? I didn't care how fucked up he was emotionally, keeping him in the dark for an extended amount of time would have been far more fucked up.

"Oh…baby, of course I wouldn't make you miss it," I told him emotionally.

He nodded again, and then he smiled at me. "We're really going to have a baby?"

I smiled back. "Yes, we are."

And then I was in his arms and he was squeezing tightly while we both broke out in a mix of laughter and crying. It was an emotional outburst of the best possible kind, and in an instant we became a true united family of four. There were no more questions, no more doubts. We were going to stay together, and there was nothing that could ever break us apart.

After a few minutes Edward pulled away from me enough to look in my face. "You know what this means, right?"

"That we're officially a family?" I said with a huge cheesy grin.

"Well, that too, but now that we're bringing a human being into the world, we'll always have to be together. Even if years down the road you come to hate me and end up marrying someone else, we'll always be connected because of this kid. Birthdays, graduation, grandkids…you'll never be able to fully get rid of me."

"Lucky me," I said sincerely. "But you really need to stop worrying about us being separated."

He smiled widely, and then quickly fought it away so he could be serious. "Okay, I'll stop worrying but you have to do something for me first."

"What?" I asked with a giddy grin.

"Marry me….Like right now. Let's go to city hall and get official."

If it was possible for my smile to get even larger, it definitely did. "There's no rush," I told him before weaving my fingers through his. "We have all the time in the world to get married."

"We have a lifetime's worth of time," he agreed confidently. "But I'm ready to start that life time now."

I bit my bottom lip, and nodded. "I am too… Let's go get married."

But then he got serious again. "We're not our parents, Bella; I only want to get married once."

"Me too," I said doubtlessly.

"So…if you want a big wedding…"

"I'm the last person to want a big thing…As long as you're the one I'm marrying I honestly don't care how it happens."

He leaned in and kissed me for what had to be one of the most incredible kisses yet, but when we finally pulled apart to leave we noticed Bree looking slightly upset.

"What's wrong, honey?" I asked her concerned.

"You guys can't get married right now," she said, almost in tears.

My heart sank; having her upset about it was definitely unexpected and disheartening. "Why not?"

"Because if you don't have a real wedding, I can't be the flower girl."

I immediately felt better; she didn't have any objections to us getting married, she just wanted a bigger role in it, and that was understandable coming from a six year old. "What if I gave you some flowers to hold?" I asked her.

"It's not the same," she pouted.

I turned to Edward. "Maybe we should…"

He put up his finger to stop me. "You know Bree, the sooner Bella and I get married, the sooner we'll officially become a family."

In our minds we were already a family, but Bree seemed to like his logic. "Really? Okay…I'll just have to be a flower girl in Alice's wedding."

"Perfect, right?" Edward said enthusiastically. "Now, let's go."

But of course it couldn't be that easy, and I had to prepare myself for the few bumps in the road that were sure to be in store of us…Less than a minute later we hit the first one - Edward didn't have his birth certificate, which was vital for obtaining a marriage license.

"So we drive to Forks to get it," he said, refusing to let anything get him down at the moment, and I had to admit, it was a nice change in him and reminded me of his ethereal self.

"And then we drive all the way back?" I asked. "It's three hours each way." I didn't mean to be the pessimist in the situation, but by the time we got back and got the license it would probably be too late to actually get married.

He shrugged. "Well, we'll just get married at Forks City Hall then. We can spend the night at my apartment tonight; I need to resign from my job in the morning anyway. Can you get someone to cover for you at work?"

I smiled again. "Of course. This is really going to happen today, isn't it?" I asked, allowing myself to get excited again.

"Hell yes it's going to happen!"

So I grabbed my birth certificate, packed a small bag of clothes and such, called Angela to cover for me at the bookstore, and then we were off towards Forks. We spent the next three hours on the road making plans. Edward already had a contact for an EMT job in Seattle, so his career would be absolutely fine, and right around the corner from my apartment was one of the best schools in the city, so Bree would be taken care of as well. Besides Edward's continued disbelief in anything intangible, everything was falling into place perfectly, except…

"Shit," Edward said quietly as he pulled up in front on his apartment.

"What?" I asked concerned.

"I just remembered that I don't have my birth certificate here…it's at my dad's."

"He's probably at work, right?" I asked hopefully.

Edward shook his head. "He and Esme are freaking out because I took Bree away in the middle of the night without any explanation, and I haven't contacted them since. They've been calling and texting nonstop."

"They know Kate passed, right?" I whispered, not wanting to upset Bree.

"Yeah, that's probably what's worrying them. They think I acted irrationally by leaving right away. I bet they're at home hoping I'd show up there."

My stomach flipped. I was hoping to actually be married before dealing with our families' reactions to our relationship, but it seemed we weren't going to be so lucky. "So…a quick in and out isn't going to be possible?"

"I'm ninety percent sure we'll get the third degree."

I took a deep breath and then squeezed his hand. "We can handle it… We can handle anything."

"Together?"

"Exactly!"