Chapter 45: Are We Married Yet?
My unconscious beauty was lifeless in my car I pulled in front of my house. This was my wedding day. I rested my head on my steering wheel. "Why couldn't things just be easy?" I tilted my head and glanced at her once more. I was a little concerned that she hadn't begun to stir yet. Even though I knew that her mind was still alert and that she remembered me. I slowly got out of the car and lifted my Leah into my arms. Carlisle opened the door and was immediately concerned. Sue and Seth were the only ones who stayed after all of the afternoon's drama.
"My baby! Who's done this to her?" Sue cried as her trembling hands gripped Leah's lifeless hands.
"It was Jacob and Bella. I don't understand why she won't leave us alone." I rocked Leah back in forth like a baby, like the baby she was carrying that she'd kept secret from me.
"Let me take her son and check her over and make sure she's okay." He reached for her and I clutched her tighter.
"She's fine she just needs to wake up." As if on command Leah began to stir. She groaned and held her head.
"Eddie?" She peaked at me threw groggy eyes. "Are we married yet?" I snickered as she ran her fingers along my cheek.
"No my love, we've had a slight detour but we'll be married soon. Are you okay? Do you think you can stand?" She nodded and I placed her feet gently on the ground. She wobbled and fell back into my arms.
"Maybe I should sit," she murmured as she walked to one of the vacant chairs in the living room. "What happened Eddie? One minute I was getting ready for my wedding the next I'm in your arms. My head really hurts and I too confused for words." I squatted in front of Leah and grabbed her hands.
"Jacob knocked you out and kidnapped you and took you to Bella. I rescued you … like I always do." She rolled her eyes at me and snickered.
"My hero." She planted a sweet kiss on my lips. I smiled and squeezed her hands and then took a deep breath.
"I need to ask you something Leah. I need to ask you something … in private." All of the others frowned and Sue shook her head.
"No, anything that you need to say you can be said in front of all of us we are family now." Sue protested and Leah's face grew weary with concern.
"What's wrong Eddie?" I looked around at all of the worried faces gather around us. Part of me wished I had waited until we were alone to ask her about the baby but the whole thing had me so wound up. I couldn't let it go.
"When you were unconscious you admitted something to me that we need to talk about." I blurted it out before I could punk out of getting the confession I deserved. She gasped and horror colored her face making her look as if she'd seen a ghost.
The baby! She thought.
"What did I say?" She asked as if she didn't know. She was lying to me again!
"You know what you said Leah or is there more than one thing that you're lying to me about?" I said softly I couldn't look her in the eyes. I studied our hands together. Some of the others in the room wondered what I was talking about.
"The baby is the only thing that I kept from you … and I wasn't keeping it from you!" She talked to our fingers as well.
"Yes you were, you had to be knocked unconscious for me to find out about it! How could you not tell me about this? I thought it was a big deal to you that we were honest with each other. Hell, you broke up with me because I hadn't told you what you were and then you keep something like this from me. Can't you see how hypocritical that is Leah?" She frowned and took her hands out of mine.
"It's not the same thing, Edward!" Oh God, she was using my full name this was becoming an argument. I didn't want an argument I just wanted answered.
"I'm not mad Leah, and I don't want you to be. I just want to know why you told members of my family before telling me. Did you think I'd be angry that you were pregnant?"
"No," she sighed as tears ran down her face. "I wanted to tell you as soon as I found out but there were too many uncertainties. I found out that I was pregnant about two weeks ago. There was this lump in my stomach, it was so tiny and it moved around I didn't know what to think of it. I confided in Rose first because I didn't want to alarm you … you tend to freak out really easily. When she had no idea what was going on we went to Carlisle and that's how I found out I was pregnant." She looked at Carlisle and he stepped up.
"Leah, was also worried because she didn't think she could get pregnant and because of how her body is now that the baby wouldn't survive." Carlisle said assisting in her explanation. "Since Leah is a shapeshifter her body is frozen in time and is supposed to be stuck the way it appeared when she first phased."
"I wasn't pregnant when I phased, I thought I was going to lose the baby. I didn't want you to go through that hurt." She wrapped her arms around herself.
"And then after a week Leah's stomach started to expand and she began to feel really drained that's when we realized she needed to drink blood and that's what I'd been helping her with. We were making sure she was healthy and stable before we got anyone's hopes up." Rose stood on the other side of Leah.
"So you did all this to protect my feelings?" She nodded and then shrugged.
"Well, I was being selfish too. I wanted one thing in our relationship to go right Eddie. I wanted to get married and then tell you we were having a baby … you know, first come love, then come marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage. I know it's stupid." She laughed a little and finally looked me in the eyes. I offered her a small smile.
"So when were you going to tell me?"
"Actually I'd put a little gift together and I was going to give it you tonight at the start of our honeymoon. I didn't want to keep it from you Eddie, I swear."
"I believe you." I grabbed her right hand and kissed it. She smiled and tears started to flow. "I said I believe what's wrong?"
"Everything is so jacked up! Nothing ever goes as planned nobody's here and we aren't married and look." She points to the window. "Night has fallen on the day that was supposed to be the best day of my life!" She began to sob. I grabbed Leah and she began to sob.
"The night's not over yet honey," Sue offered. "All of your family is here you can still have a small wedding. I know I'm still in the mood to see my beautiful daughter get hitched."
"Me too, it's not like any of us have to sleep or anything." Alice offered.
"And technically you two are already married since you've both signed the license so this is just a formality, but a very beautiful that we were all very excited about." Esme smiled at us both. Carlisle smiled and stood at the front of the room were the ceremony was to be held. Everyone else took their seats.
"You ready?" I asked my tear stained bride to be as I offered her my hand.
"Yeah … let's do this thing." She took my hand as we walked up to Carlisle. We took our place, the place it hadn't taken us so long to get to, and Carlisle began to speak.
"Tonight we have gathered together to witness the eternal union of Edward Anthony Masen Cullen and Leah Brooke Clearwater. They've prepared their own vows, you go first …"
Author's Note: I just wanted to tell all of you how much you rock. This story which I started as a game has become my highest reviewed story. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading! I know I've left you with a cliff hanger … don't hate me. I just wanted to title the next chapter "The Vows"
The next chapter I put out on FF will be for this story I won't leave you hanging that way.
As always please read and review … and no flame!
