A/N: So this is the second to last chapter. I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: Twilight and its characters are owned by Stephenie Meyer. I also do not own 80 pop icon Rick Astley or any of his songs OR anything connected to the Big Bang Theory but I do love Sheldon Cooper. No beta so all mistakes are mine. Kindly, let me know if you find any. No copyright infringement is intended with the posting of this story.
Chapter 46 "No More Looking for Love"
EPoV
"Hyperhidrosis, check . . . Tachycardia, check . . . throbbing in temporal region, check . . . pulsatile tinnitus, check . . . Blepharospasm, check . . . it is official, I'm dying. Despite his medical condition, I am one hundred percent certain that Chief Swan is going to murder me." I mumble to myself. I don' know why I am so nervous about? This is a good thing. Bella and I are getting married and having a baby; we are going to be a family. Okay, so maybe it's not quite the way I had planned my life but . . . I glance over at my glowing Bella and am certain I wouldn't have had it any other way. So why am I so nervous? From my peripheral, I notice Bella now giving me a questioning look.
"What are mumbling about Sheldon?" She slides an arm around my waist pulling me closer to her. "Stop worrying so much. You look like you're about to pass out. Good thing we're in front of a medical facility," she smirks. "I promise everything is going to fine."
Doubt spreads across my face; I let out a weak laugh. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one that has to tell your father that I knocked you up and we're getting married . . . in that order."
Shaking her head side to side, she groans at my words. Even before she speaks, I know I will hear irritation in her voice. "For the last time Edward, you did not knock me up," she waves her index finger between the two of us. "We got pregnant. No, it wasn't a planned pregnancy . . . things happen . . . but, correct me, if I'm wrong, we are both over-the-moon ecstatic about this baby." Bella rubs her small. "Am I right?" She huffs, "I repeat, am I right?"
I nod mumbling, "Yes, you're right but. . ."
"No buts Edward." She releases another frustrated breath. "Granted, we have a lot to think about . . . where we're going to live . . . and you know no matter where we decide to live I . . . we need to carefully consider my dad's needs too . . . I won't leave him on his own . . . and the fact that you are taking such wonderful care of him . . . by the way, have I told you how much I love you for everything you've done . . . are doing for him . . . anyway," she shakes her head, "I just can't leave him alone in rehab center. I don't care how hard it's going to be caring for my dad and a newborn. I just won't . . . and, this whole marriage thing . . . are we going to get married before or after the baby is born?" The confidence in her voice begins to waver.
But now it's my turn to interrupt her dwindling tirade, "we are getting married as soon as humanly possible. That, Ms. Swan soon-to-be Mrs. Cullen, is non-negotiable." Now I wrap my arm around her waist pulling her closer to me. "I thought I made that point crystal clear during our last fight . . . I mean discussion." I clear my throat. "I told you I'm an old fashion traditional guy and we will be married long before my baby is born. Besides the fact that I am unconditionally, irrevocably, hopelessly, insanely, crazy in love with you . . . and our little baby . . . and the simple logistics . . . I need to get you on my medical insurance ASAP."
"Um excuse me bossy . . . I think you mean before our baby is born . . . and I want to get married as soon as possible too 'cause I'm unconditionally, irrevocably, hopelessly, insanely, crazy in love with you too Dr. Cullen." She lets out another ragged breath as a new batch of hormone- induce tears begin to fall.
"Oh baby, come here," I look around spotting a wooden bench near a bare red maple tree. I lead her toward the bench. I sit pulling her onto my lap. Instinctively, she rests her head against my chest grabbing onto my shirt. I hold her in my arms as she cries. I murmur into her hair, "Oh babe, don't cry. I know everything is going to work out. What happened to my strong confident woman?" And then I simply hold onto her letting her know how much I love her and our baby. We sit together until her cries soften.
When her cries subside she hiccups for air. She wipes away the remnants of her little outburst. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me these days. One minute I'm fine and the next I turn into a puddle of tears. I can't seem to control myself." She takes a soothing breath. "Please tell me these crying fits aren't going to last my entire pregnancy. I can't handle this emotional rollercoaster," a tiny smile finally reappearing.
"Medically speaking, every woman is different. I can't tell you if crying is going to be an ongoing occurrence or not. Either way, it doesn't matter. Anytime you feel like crying, cry right here." I pat my leg. "I love you and I love that you are having our baby, tears or no tears." I kiss her the top of her head. "All better?" I check as she nods against my chest. "Come on. Let's go face the firing squad . . . I mean let's go talk to your dad," I tease.
She lifts her face and captures my lips pulling me into her. I forget we are sitting on a bench in front of the rehab center . . . in front of strangers . . . I forget about everything when her hands grab hold of my hair and her breathing becomes labored. We finally pull away resting forehead to forehead eyes sparkling, hearts pounding. "Yup, much better," I breathe and she sighs.
I lead Bella to a waiting room near the chief's room, "Now, let me go in first and talk to him as we agreed. There are some things I would like to say to him . . . you know . . . man to man. Then, you will talk to him before we join forces so to speak. And Bella," I caution, "remember I don't know how much, of what we tell him, he will understand or even be able to process or remember. Yes, he is demonstrating some improvement but he still has a very long recovery ahead of him. Don't expect too much of a reaction. I don't want you to be hurt or disappointed if he doesn't show signs or acknowledge what we are telling him."
Anxiously, Bella takes a chair in the waiting room. I give her a quick kiss on the lips before facing the chief. She offers me words of encouragement, "Go get 'em tiger." I turn back giving her two weak thumbs up as she winks back at me shaking her head side to side.
"Good morning Chief Swan. It's me Dr. Cullen . . . um Edward, Bella's boyfriend." Making sure I sit on his unaffected side, I grab a nearby chair positioning it so we are face to face . . . man to man. I take his hand in mine before speaking in hopes of getting some type of response confirming he is aware of my presence, aware of what I am about to say. I give his hand a slight squeeze and wait but get no response, disappointed but not surprised. Physically, he has shown some minor improvement but, other than some indecipherable sounds, his speech has not returned yet. Never letting go of his hand, I take a deep nervous breathe not sure where to begin. So I begin with what is most important in the world to me.
"Chief Swan, I am in love with your daughter," and suddenly the words are easy, "I love her more than my own life . . . she is my heart . . . she is my soul," my heart races acknowledging what she truly means to me . . . saying these words aloud . . . acknowledging them to her father, "she is my other half. I'm not complete without her." Inexplicably, I recall a story from an undergraduate English course. "Did you know in Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces? Anyway, Zeus was afraid of the power these creatures possessed so he decided to split them in half condemning them to spend the rest of their lives in search of their other half." I search his eyes praying he hears my words, understands them. "Well, I don't need to search any longer. I've found my other half. I knew the first time our fingers touched she . . . Bella was my other half. We complete each other." Without hesitation, I continue, "I've asked Bella to be my wife and she has accepted. I promise to love her and take care of her every single day of our lives . . . forever." All my nervous jitters are gone and, for the first time, a glorious smile spreads across my face. "I had planned to talk to sooner but," I pause, ". . . but rest assured you are the first to know of our engagement. I needed you to know of my intentions."
We sit in silence; our hands still connected. I allow him time to process my declaration . . . my words. Startled, I gasp breaking our silence as I feel the slightest of movement in his hand. As quickly as it moves, just as quickly it seizes but I am filled with hope that he has understood my words and intentions. My eyes glisten with tears. I must have caught something from Bella. I blink and they escape down my face. Before continuing, I wipe away my tears. No matter the circumstances, this is the scary part. My heart races with fear. Loudly, I clear my throat.
"Bella and I have agree to marry as soon as possible . . . because . . . well, um because we love each other and . . . I'm basically an old fashion traditional sort of man and . . . um, well you see Chief Swan," I rub my neck for no good reason at all, "well Bella and I are going to have a baby." There, I said it. But I still stutter my next words, "Please, please believe that I had every intention of asking Bella to marry me long before we found out she was pregnant. I don't want you to think that I'm only marrying Bella because she's pregnant. That's the furthest from the truth. I am in love with Bella and she is in love with me. Our baby is just an added bonus," I proudly smile thinking of our child. "As soon as Bella left for Alaskan trip, I had a jeweler begin work on her engagement ring. He has assured me that the ring will finally be ready in a couple of days." I add as proof that this wasn't a shotgun wedding before pausing again allowing this new bit of news to be processed.
Once more, I am greeted with the slightest of movement in his hand. I take that movement as acknowledgement of my words and, once more, am hopeful. I place my other hand over our connected hands, "I promise with all my heart everything is going to be fine. I promise and I am a man of my word. So, um Bella's waiting in the other room. She wants to talk to you alone for a few minutes. I'll just go get her."
At my appearance at the doorway, Bella's eyes widen. "How'd it go?"
"I think it went as well as can be expected. Go on, he's waiting for you." I tilt my head in the direction of the chief's room.
BPoV
The chief's eyes meet mine the moment I enter the room. I kiss him on the forehead before taking a seat near his bed. Despite the fact that I am an adult, a college graduate, and have been caring for myself almost my entire life, I suddenly feel like the proverbial child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. I take his hand in mine giving it two tight squeezes before talking. Come on Bella, just rip off the band aid with one quick tug. "So yeah, um Edward and I are planning on getting married and we're going to have a baby but I guess you already know that part of it." There, I said it relieved no bolts of lightning struck me down. There was really nothing to be afraid of and now that I have opened the floodgates, I can't stop. "You know me dad. I never thought about settling down and getting married or having a baby," I snort. "All I ever talked about was traveling and seeing the world and going from one new adventure to another. No settling down for this girl, no sir. In high school, boys never interested me. Hell, I never even dated until I got to college and, even then, it was only an occasional date now and then. No one captured my heart and soul until I met Edward. I think I fell in love with him." I pause inhaling a breath of air. "No, I know I fell in love with him the moment our fingers touched. I felt this crazy electric cosmic connection . . . I can't explain it . . . but that touch . . . that connection it brought me to life . . . I knew instantly that that man was . . . is my other half . . . my soul mate. Edward is my adventure . . . I can't live without him and our baby," my eyes well up as I fight back my tears, "our baby is going to be one of my greatest adventures ever. And you better hurry up and get better." My tears fall and, this time, I don't fight them back. "You better hurry up and get better because Edward doesn't know a thing about fishing. You are going to have to teach my kid how to fish . . ." I leap out of my chair and rest my head against my father's chest. "Please dad," I whisper, "please get better. I don't think I could bare it if you aren't a part of your grandbaby's life. Please dad."
With my head resting against his chest, I feel my dad's heartbeat begin to race and I know he understands what I am saying. Not wanting to cause him any unnecessary stress, I stand, grab a tissue from the box on the side table and wipe my tears away. "Um, yeah this whole pregnancy thing has turned me into such crybaby. I seem to cry at the drop of hat these days."
Sometime later, Edward lightly taps on the door, "knock, knock . . . can I come in?"
I reach out for him and together we talk to the chief about everything. I help feed him as we continue to talk. When he falls asleep, I motion to Edward it's time to leave. I kiss him goodbye, tuck in his blanket and quilt, and turn off the light before slipping out. I look over my shoulder and smile content confident that everything is going to work out . . . going to be perfect actually.
Edward tangles his fingers with mine as we silently walk to the car. "What are you smiling about Bella?" Edward asks after about his third questioning glance at me.
"Mmmmm . . . I'm smiling because I know my dad is going to be fine . . . I know he understood what we talked about . . . I even think he is happy about the baby . . . I could tell by the way his heart beat faster and don't even try to example that with any of your medical mumbo jumbo," I scold. "Let me have this okay. I just know it. Everything is going to perfect." I inhale deeply and smile as I enjoy the passing Seattle scenery until another thought pops into my head. I turn and face my fiancé, "and I didn't have morning sickness today." I lift my hand, "high five."
Pulling into the driveway, Edward releases a long drawn out yawn. "If you don't mind, I think I'm going go up and take a nap. My adrenal has finally dropped, I'm exhausted."
I giggle knowing he was so anxious about his looming talk with the chief.
Wrapped in one of her quilts and holding a cup of coffee, Esme eyes Edward as he trudges up the stairs as I follow behind him. "So how did it go kids?"
I pat Edward on the back and lay big fat wet kiss on his cheek. "It went fine, perfect actually. Everything is perfect. Now go take your nap baby boy. You've had a rough day."
A sleepy Edward mumbles something incoherent as he heads up the stairs to crash while I head for the kitchen. I must have jinxed myself because suddenly my stomach is doing somersaults so I boil some water for a cup of tea and grab a few crackers.
Once my tea is ready, I join Esme outside on the bench. She opens her quilt to me as her motherly warmth welcomes me. I treasure how her simplest of acts makes me feel so loved. "You look so pensive sitting out here all alone. Aren't you cold? It's freezing today." I sip my tea.
"No matter the weather, well, of course, not when it's raining, I love sitting out here . . . I do some of my best thinking sitting right in this exact spot. For some inexplicable reason, the cold air seems to clear my head. Besides I'm wearing my Christmas slippers with double knee socks, so I'm good." Esme stretches her feet out from under the blanket to show off her fuzzy slippers. "See?"
I look down at the wide eyes on her slippers. "So, what are you thinking about?" I look back into her serious eyes.
She sighs, "I've been thinking about this house and my husband and all my children," she nudges my shoulder, "and your father and, of course, the most important person in the world, my grandbaby."
"Well, that sure is a lot to think about . . . care to be more specific," I urge.
She seems to look beyond her front yard . . . beyond the present. Sipping her coffee, she speaks. I hear the seriousness of her thoughts in her voice. "I'm thinking everything is changing." I want to interrupt but she continues, "Everything is changing but in a good way, don't worry. With the birth of my first grandbaby, The Cullen family will be welcoming a new generation. Carlisle and I are going to be grandparents. Oh, I can't wait to get my hands on my grandbaby." In anticipation of holding, her first grandchild, she shivers. "Alice is going to be an aunt . . . and you and Edward . . . well, you will be the parents now. Get it? All of our roles are shifting. Everything is going to be different." She takes another sip of her coffee. "So, have you and Edward come to any definitive decisions as far as where you are going to live?" She pauses looking around, "and you know, when you are going to get married."
"No, other than no matter what we decide it will include my father."
Esme nods, "Of course, that's a given sweetie. How's he doing today?"
"He was very responsive given his condition. I know he understood us. I know he is happy for us. I have to believe it . . . I just have to," my voice fades.
"You know, with some minor remodeling we could convert my workroom into a rather comfortable bedroom. It has easy access to the bathroom. And, it would be so easy to add a ramp . . ."
"Wait, what are you talking about? I can't let you . . ."
Esme holds up her hand, "Let me explain. I told you I've been doing a lot of thinking. There is a brain under all this ageless beauty," she chuckles. "I'm thinking of giving you and Edward this house. It's just too big for Carlisle and me."
"No! Wait, what about Alice?"
"What about Alice? Oh, don't worry about her. Pish, posh . . . if you haven't noticed yet she's more the Escala type. And yes, I've been reading Edward's book when you're not here," Esme gives me a wicked wink, "and when Alice is ready to settle down, of course, we will help her too." She looks around, "but this house . . . this house has you and Edward written all over it. The three of you will make this a home, the kind of home you have always wanted. Besides, I have an ulterior motive. There are quite a few rooms in this house and I expect them all to be filled," she demands.
I gasp then let out a snort, "Please grandma bear one kid at a time." I rub my growing baby pouch. "And, if Edward and I accept your kind offer, we will buy the house from you."
Esme harrumphs dismissing my offer with a wave of her hand, "We'll see about that," she sings.
For the next few hours, we talk about her grandbaby. Apparently, she doesn't care if the baby is a boy or girl since I am expected to fill all the rooms with babies. We semi-plan a couple of possible wedding scenarios, and cry happy tears about the future until Esme brings up the topic of Renee. "So when was the last time you spoke to your mother?"
Childishly, I cringe rolling my eyes at her question.
"Don't make that face young lady. Whether you like it or not she is your mother," she momentarily hesitates, "Look around. You have everything you have ever dreamed of here. You have an amazingly wonderful man who loves you more than anything in the world . . . who has proven he will do anything for you. You've stopped searching for your adventure but, for whatever reason, she hasn't, maybe she never will. Who knows?" She shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know but I would like to think that, by this time in her life, she knows she's made some mistakes in her life one being that she may not have been the best mother to you."
My tears flow freely as I listen to Esme's wise advice.
"Like I said, I'm not all beauty." She taps her temple, "Where do you think my baby boy got his smart," she laughs out loud wrapping her arm around my shoulder pulling me into her warmth.
A few minutes later, Alice's pulls into the driveway and Esme gives me a knowing nudge. "Watch this." She calls out to her daughter, "I'm glad you're here sweetie. Your dad and I are thinking of moving to a smaller place when he retires and are thinking of giving . . ."
"Stop right there woman," Alice commands. "You know I love this house and love to visit but don't you dare try to pawn this off on me. Mother, really, I am offended. I thought you knew me better than that. Once I get my business going and become fabulously wealthy, I'm buying an apartment in the middle of downtown Seattle." She lets out a dreamy sigh, "maybe the penthouse at Escala." Coming out of her Escala daydream, Alice scolds, "really, mother I'm offended."
Once Alice is out of earshot, we break out into loud snorts of laughter. With a smug smile on her face, Esme winks, "Told you so."
A/N: So one more chapter and an epilogue. I may also do a short New Year's Eve outtake with Tanya and Alistair to see how they got together. If the feeling moves you, let me know what you think.
