Emmett's POV

"I'm...Sorry."

Dial tone.

Fuck.

I could still hear those two broken words that she'd spoken before hanging up.

"Fuck," I finally voiced aloud, while Rose sat on the other side of the room, ignoring me as she looked out the window.

She was pissed off at me, and this time I couldn't say it was the pregnancy hormones.

"Please, baby, just look at me. Yell at me. Throw something at me. Anything but this," I begged pathetically.

She stood up, not once glancing my way, and walked toward the bathroom. Her face was permanently marred by her frown, and had been for the past two hours since I'd gotten off the phone with Bella.

I stood to follow her into the bathroom, but she locked the door behind her. I listened, standing by helplessly, as she wretched. She wouldn't even allow me to comfort or help her, choosing misery over my company.

You do deserve it.

I know I was wrong, but can anyone blame me?

I'd been scared. I'd called her again and again for over sixteen hours. At first it was ringing and then it went to voicemail. After a little while, it just went straight to voicemail. I'd been afraid. Scared shitless. What if something had happened to her? What if she'd needed me? And here I was in Paris, enjoying my secret honeymoon with my pregnant wife, while my little sister could be off in Chicago, kidnapped or some shit.

I'd flipped. I'd worried and worried and paced a hole in the rug at the beautiful little bed and breakfast we were staying in. And when I'd finally gotten her on the phone, she'd sounded fine in her greeting. Perfectly fucking fine. So I'd screamed and yelled at her, because she'd frightened me and Emmett Swan and Scared do not mix happily. They never had, and they certainly never would.

If she'd seemed fine before, then she wasn't anymore.

I'd managed to hit on every fear I'd ever known her to have, and the worst part was that I'd spouted off so much that I hadn't meant, that wasn't true. Lies, and she'd probably believed every word.

Way to fucking go, Swan. Let's see Edward undo that shit. You'd need to be a master inTae Bella Do to unravel all the shit that just came from my mouth.

If anyone can do it, Edward can, I reminded myself. Plus, you never said a word to her about anything... Wedding? Baby? Ring a bell? Because you've thus far left your sister out of two of the BIGGEST things that will ever happen in your life. Imagine how she'll feel--

The lock on the bathroom door finally turned, and Rose came back out, pushing me to the side and heading straight for the bed. She laid down and dug out her cell phone, while I looked at the clock to see that it was pretty fucking late here, but about evening in Chicago.

"Babe, you should go to sleep," I suggested to her.

She ignored me, putting her phone on speaker as a ringing began to resonate through the cozy room.

I watched as she unknowingly spun her wedding ring around her finger in irritation. I was just glad it still resided there, and she hadn't thrown it at me, declaring she already wanted a divorce and never wanted to see me again.

I'd never been on the side of her silent treatments. We'd fought, a ton, and yelled and screamed and then screwed like rabbits once we'd made up, but never ever had I upset her enough that I got the cold shoulder. That was the worst kind of anger one could evoke in my Rosalie, and I knew I was doomed to suffer for my actions.

"Hello?" Jasper's voice asked, coming through loudly and clearly.

I swallowed. What was she doing? Was she calling to say she was going to Chicago and that she'd need someone to pick her up? Did she not want to be here with me anymore?

"Hey, what are you up to?"

"Not much, just heading over to the Cullen's with Alice. We went shopping today," he answered her, chuckling. "How's Paris?"

"It's been lovely. Listen, how's Bella? Have you heard from her at all?"

"Not since she and Edward left last night. Why? You haven't talked to her?"

"We did...but we hadn't been able to get in touch with her until about two hours ago, and we'd been calling all night. The conversation got a little...heated on Emmett's side and she was never given the chance to explain why she was out of contact in the first place. I tried calling her after they hung up, but she wouldn't answer my calls, so I was wondering..."

"Like I said, I haven't seen her since last night. Hold on..." By the sounds of it, he must have covered the mouth piece, and his voice was muffled as he asked Alice to phone Edward.

"Yeah, we all had dinner at my house last night, but she and Edward left on the earlier side. It was late when Carlisle and Esme left, almost abruptly, and told us it was probably better if we just spent one more night at my parents' place since the weather wasn't great. Man, the roads have been a mess and phone and electrical lines are down all over with the snow and wind just taking them all out... Wait, what?...Ali, calm down...Sweetie, pull the car over..." I could hear Alice speaking rapidly and frantically, but not what she was saying.

"Look, Rosie, I'm going to have to call you back, alright? Alice is freaking."

He hung up without Rose's response and we just sat in agonizing silence for a half hour before we finally got a call back from Jasper.

"Rose, I gotta say Bella had a pretty good reason not to be answering the phone last night. She and Edward got into a minor car accident last night on the way home from our--"

"THEY WHAT?!" I roared, moving forward.

"Oh, hey Emmett. Didn't know you were there."

"Who was driving? What the fuck happened?"

Fucking asshole. She was in a fucking car accident and you called her a fucking slut because she was too busy screwing around to care about how you felt???!!!!

"Edward was driving, but it wasn't his fault. Another car hit a patch of ice and lost control. Bella came out with hardly a scratch. Edward, apparently, is pretty bruised up, has a nice sized gash in his forehead, and has a minor concussion, but he'll be out of the hospital tomorrow morning. He didn't wake up until right around dawn, and Bella didn't leave his side until lunch time, at which point Carlisle dragged her away reluctantly so she could completely break down without Edward witnessing."

Rosalie finally looked at me, for the very first time, and the look in her eyes was a punch in the gut. She had tears on her cheeks, and I waited for her to tell me to leave, but she never did.

"Thanks Jazz. Are you heading over there now?" she asked instead, turning back away from me as though she couldn't even stand to look at me.

"Yeah, we're just pulling into a nearby lot now."

"Tell Bella that everything Emmett said, he didn't mean, and then when she feels up to it, he'd like to spend a few hundred hours on his knees groveling for her forgiveness."

Jasper chuckled awkwardly. "Okay, I will. Anything else, darlin'?"

"Yeah, tell her I love her." Rose's voice was soft and sad.

"I will. You alright?"

"Will be. Love ya, Jazz."

"You too, Cuz."

And then that click that meant he'd hung up.

"Are you happy?" she asked me, but there was no malice or venom behind it. Just sadness. Resignation.

"I think I might be spending a few hundred hours on my knees groveling for your forgiveness, too," I muttered, moving to do just that on the floor beside the bed.

"Yeah, you will."

I took her left hand between both of mine and brought it to my lips, kissing the wedding ring where it still sat in its rightful place.

"I'm so, so sorry."

~*~

Edward's POV

Bella was awfully quiet as she sat in the plastic chair next to my bed. Her head stayed in my lap, and I stroked my fingers through her hair. I hadn't missed the fresh tear streaks that fell down her cheeks, but it was obvious she wasn't up to talking about them. Mom stayed on my other side, and the both of us played a game of Crazy Eights, which we hadn't played together since I was nine.

Alice and Jasper had burst into my room earlier, and when Alice finally calmed down enough to realize that I was okay, she berated us for not calling her sooner only to realize she'd, as usual, forgotten her cell phone in her haste to go shopping and it wasn't imperative that she be sitting at the hospital all day. Jasper leaned into Bella, saying something in her ear, while Alice kept most of the attention on her.

My girl fell asleep at some point, and mumbled over and over about Emmett and some guy named Calvin, but I couldn't make out enough to really understand her dreams. Sometimes she said cute little things that made Mom and I laugh at her adorableness. Alice and Jasper left to sleep at home, and eventually Mom and Dad followed, leaving Bella and me by ourselves.

"Nice nap?" I asked when she awoke around ten PM.

She sighed. "Pleasant enough."

Something was troubling her. "Love, please tell me what's wrong."

I twisted my finger around a mahogany tendril which frame her face. She lifted her head from my lap and toyed with her hands.

"Emmett was really upset with me, that's all."

Her voice was quiet, hurt, like that of a little girl being told her father didn't want her any longer.

"I don't really want to talk about it anymore, please. I'm tired."

I thought for a second before deciding to respect her wishes. I recalled the look on her face darkening just a bit after Jasper had whispered to her. Clearly, he'd spoken with Rose about whatever had been said between the two quarreling siblings. At the end, she'd had a moment where a small smile had graced her lips, before her mood became withdrawn and quiet once again, like it'd been before Jasper had spoken.

I knew it was probably more than she'd let on, but I wasn't going to force her to speak. I was pretty sure that she was still trying to process, so I simply scooted my body over on the bed and patted the space next to me.

She carefully climbed up and snuggled into my side, falling asleep almost instantly.

I allowed her inane chatter to lull me into my own slumber.

~*~

A/n: so, who's confused?

The back story that I don't think ANYONE will ever find out if they don't read this note...

Emmett asked Rosalie to marry him after Thanksgiving. They didn't want to wait - who WANTS to wait when they could be Emmett Swan's wifey?? - so they decided to have a secret ceremony (they wanted something special for just them) and chose to have a small reception for their families during Spring Break. So, they planned Paris as their little honeymoon, not that anyone knew it would be anything more than a romantic trip. (BTW - No one knew they were engaged, but Emmett HAD asked Rose's dad for his blessing.) They got married and then flew off to Paris. Meanwhile, Rose hadn't been feeling too great. When in Paris, she took a few pregnancy tests. Le gasp! They were positive! She cleaned them off - hello, who wants pee? - and then wrapped them up for Emmett to open Christmas morning. So, he opens the tests, flips, makes a shit load of love to Rose, and chats up her still flat belly, wasting away the entire day, which is why he forgets to call Bella until WAY WAY WAY late for them. When he does, the day had just been overwhelming. I mean, he'd just gotten married a week before, and then all of a sudden he's going to be a dad. Oh, and don't forget that you can't reach your baby sister, who you still feel the need to protect, and who you haven't really talked to other than the short conversation during which she informed him that she'd be going to Chicago - a strange city, house, family, etc. - with her lover - who Emmett trusts explicitly but still has a lot to learn about what it means (in Emmett's head at least) to take care of Bella - and so now he's panicking, and this day is just getting more and more overwhelming and emotional. And he worries and worries and tries not to think of the worst - she's hurting or dead or something like that - by thinking of the best possible cases for why she isn't answering and he finally comes to convince himself that she isn't answering because she's spending her day after Christmas doing what he spent HIS Christmas day doing. And that just pisses him off, on top of everything else, especially because then she'd made big, tough guy Emmett AFRAID. And Emmett doesn't do Scared. So he flips his shit on Bella when he knows she's safe, and he lets what he's convinced himself seep in and just goes off on her. He doesn't think. Just acts. And that brings you to the opening of this chapter.

Now, if you have any more questions just lemme know. Sorry this was such a short chappie but it just was. This totally wasn't even where I'd planned on this story going so...

Rose's ring will be on my website.

I have no school this week! Take that fuckers!

We placed on Saturday, me and my cheer team! 5th out of 10 teams!!!!!! We leave for Nationals in Atlantic City!!!! We are going to kick ASS!!!

Tired. Very tired. Want to sleep.

Everyone needs to sign that petition that's going around. I don't know what the web address is but please go and find it. For those of you who haven't heard, stories are getting deleted because we aren't following the rating rules. AMAZING STORIES. My favorites are going, and if FanFiction doesn't allow a MA or NC-17 rating, then there are going to be a lot more stories getting deleted, possibly even both of my own!!!! Scary?? Yeah, it is. Chances are, I'll be posting on Writers Coffee Shop or something. I'll let you all know when it does happen...I'll figure it out. Check my twitter or my FB page or my website, if something does happen, and I'll be sure to have something posted up there to redirect you all. HELP! WE NEED HELP! WE NEED TO STOP THIS NONSENSE!!!!