A/N: I'm still not SM so I don't own Twilight. This is the last regular chapter. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 46 - Walsh's Hornpipe (The Chieftains)

"I'm in a store and I'm singing, I'M IN A STORE AND I'M SINGING!" Seth sang (loudly) as he jumped up and down in front of the dressing-room mirrors while he and Edward waited outside the dressing room at the maternity store where I tried on tents ... err… I mean clothes.

I couldn't help but chuckle while listening to the chaos, also known as Seth, wondering how many new-moms he would terrify as they watched him bounce off the walls – making them hope their baby would be a girl.

One of the other new traditions we'd adopted as a family was Friday night movie night. We ordered pizza and wore our jammies as we ate in the living room while watching a movie together, allowing each person to take a turn picking which movie we watched. Of course in the weeks leading up to Christmas we'd watched seasonal movies, with "Elf" being the one we'd watched most often.

We were at the maternity store because I couldn't zip my pants any more and I needed some decent clothes that fit. Edward had insisted upon coming with me as had Emily, which meant Seth was stuck tagging along. Seth absolutely loved Buddy the Elf, I'd caught him answering the house phone, "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?" and now he was driving his daddy crazy with his manic energy and enthusiasm for all things Buddy. I laughed again as I heard my husband mutter something about needing "syrup" in his coffee. Emily looked up from the bench inside the dressing room where I was changing, shooting me a weird look as if to ask if I'm going crazy because I was standing there giggling to myself. I winked at her then pointed out to where Seth was goofing off and she giggled too.

The low-rise jeans I'd tried on were great so I decided to buy them in every color available in my size. I also picked a few cute tops and sweaters even though I wasn't huge, I'd get there sooner enough. Though maternity clothes had come a long way, there was still plenty of room for improvement. I could see Eclectic taking a bite out of that niche as well as lingerie and kids' clothing. Why not? We certainly had the talent and it would help keep our sewing centers busy.

Edward gave me a wolf whistle as I walked out of the dressing room to check the outfit in the mirror. I grinned at him. He loved my new curves, which was good because he's the reason I had them to begin with! I loved them too, though I could've done without the new double-d breasts! My girls had grown considerably - they were super sensitive and starting to weigh down my neck. I wondered what size they'd be when it came time to nurse; I'd heard they could go up as many as three cup sizes and that worried me while it thrilled my husband. Well a thrilled husband might be worth wearing a literal over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder… maybe.

He was all hands as I walked by to change again. I handed the outfit to the cashier so she could remove the tags and safety devices as I'd be wearing that one out of the store. I had cried earlier when I couldn't zip my jeans, something that made Edward panic. Tanya had put him through the ringer with her body issues so he wanted to be sure I was okay with my pregnant body. Plus he really did love my emerging curves. He talked to my little bump all the time; it was so sweet it made me afraid I'd wake up and this would've all been a dream. I thanked God every day for sending me my new family, they made me so happy, even when they were embarrassingly loud in the mall, I snorted as I listened to Seth continue his monologue of Buddy-isms like "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear."

Emily had planted herself in Edward's lap while I was out of the dressing room, and I could hear her listing all the things she hoped Santa would bring for her. I melted a little, listening to their exchange. I rolled my eyes at myself, lurking like a creeper rather than hurrying so I could go out there and be with them. I changed clothes more quickly to speed the process along. I found a cute sweater dress but the materials were synthetic and a bit uncomfortable. I tended to get warm since I'd been pregnant and figured I wasn't alone, I would definitely include more natural fibers if I designed a maternity line. I'd also include plus-sized maternity designs because those poor women had like three racks of clothing in the whole store and most of it was really ugly.

I huffed and changed again, there was no way I'd wear that itchy polyester sweater dress. I'd rather stretch out one of the ones I had at home! I was losing patience fast. I had a few basics and that would be enough for the meantime. The lady had returned the other outfit so I put it back on and collected my purchases so I could get my family out of the mall and on with our plans.

Edward had been very surprised when I refused to set up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Apparently the Cullens always did it then, which was why Esme had wanted Seth and Emily with her that weekend. I appreciated that, and we were happy to share. I, however, wanted to anticipate having it there and enjoy the season of Advent a little longer. We put up a little ceramic tree that had been Edward's grandmother's and decorated the rest of the house. We bought a beautiful advent wreath and compromised that we would put up the tree a week before Christmas. I'd have done it Christmas Eve but Edward wanted it to be something special we did as a family - just our family. That made me absolutely giddy, I loved that we had our own family.

In the meantime, we'd done a few craft nights together making ornaments for our tree, and for the kids to give as gifts for the adults in their lives. Seth had gone bonkers over making salt dough ornaments. The kid was pretty talented with sculpting. It really surprised me. He made little three-dimensional figurines of everyone. His Emmett was hysterical, he'd included his dimples and a huge grin, and his ornament was easily twice the size of the Rosalie ornament. He put his Carlisle ornament in a doctor's jacket and scrubs, Esme's wore a flowered dress, and Alice's looked like a little fairy, something that would earn him a tickle torture - he had a huge not-so-secret crush on Alice. His Jasper was funny – he put him in a cowboy hat and boots, something that would please Jasper greatly. Rosalie's was in Air Force fatigues. He made one for Sue and made a Charlie one that looked like an angel and made me a little weepy. I loved that Seth remembered my dad as he thought of the adults in his life.

Emily wasn't so great at sculpting or painting so she used cookie cutters and rolled her dough out like play dough then used a bamboo skewer to make a hole for ornament ties before baking. After they cooled she had fun painting them in wild combinations.

Another night we used pipe cleaners and beads to make various ornaments. Mostly it was Edward and me making them with the kids handing the beads they wanted us to use. The style of ornament had been a bit advanced for them. They enjoyed twisting multiple pipe cleaners together and bending them to make candy canes and wreaths. Even the ones that weren't as successful were a big hit with the kids and we all had fun creating together.

I got tapped to help with costumes for the church's nativity play so I didn't have time to make our family pajamas. Instead I hired one of our sample makers to make them in her off time. I picked out a plus flannel that was red with various sized white snowflakes all over it. I couldn't see Edward and Carlisle wearing juvenile prints or the kids in stuffy adult prints. This was a nice compromise. Also, I had her make only bottoms for the boys and for the girls. I got plain white Ts for the guys to wear since none of them are fond of wearing pajama shirts. I couldn't wait to get a picture of all of us wearing our pajamas together. I would ask Rose to hang back after everyone goes and snap the picture for us. She was very good with a camera and lived a block away from the lake house.

I paid a couple of the warehouse guys to come pack up the library at the lake house to make room for a set of bunk beds. The books were all in the downstairs bedroom awaiting a more permanent setup, and we hadn't repainted that room yet, but it would do for the time being. Esme and Carlisle could take the guest room and the kids could sleep in the bunks in the library.

Another tradition I couldn't wait to continue was St. Nicholas Day - I put chocolate-filled gold coins in everyone's shoes before they woke up. Edward hadn't done that before, and I remembered Charlie going crazy with it for me, even as recently as last year! He must've gotten a huge bag of them because he'd fill all my shoes to overflowing! It was exciting as a kid and fun as a teen and adult. I didn't go as crazy as he did; I just filled each person's main favorite pairs. But it gave me a thrill to carry on that tradition.

By the time we decorated the tree with so many of our own ornaments and a few cherished keepsakes, the house looked gorgeous! Then we realized we should've put the tree up at the lake house! We all face-palmed then proceeded to remove all the trimmings and take them, along with the tree, to the other house only to redo everything. It wasn't difficult; we got to leave the lights on the tree at least. We all agreed to buy another (pre-lit fake) tree for our house and raided Esme's leftover ornaments and the ones we hadn't used from Charlie's as well as more of my own stash from years past. We were all beat but had a good laugh over our mistake. Both houses looked beautiful in the end, and I was dog-tired.

Edward put the kids to bed and rubbed my feet as we sipped cocoa and sat in the dim room, lit only by the Christmas tree lights. It was a beautiful moment, made even better when he made love to me there on the couch - after making doubly sure the kids were asleep!

I had never been so busy during the holiday season but it thrilled me to no end! I'd also never been more ready or eager for Christmas to arrive! I couldn't wait to see their Christmas pageant or to watch them open their gifts.

Sadly, as is often the case, the holiday was so busy and such a blur it seemed to be over as soon as it started! The play was adorable and really helped remind us all about why we celebrate Christmas. It also made my kids so hyper; they were pinging around the house during the after party! When it was jammy time, the adults were still partying so everyone who was staying overnight changed into their special pajamas, too, for picture time. It was so cute to watch Alice and Emmett pout over not having their own jammies so I made a mental note to include everyone in "jammy time" next year. Now THAT would be a fun picture! And by then we'd have two more babies to dress, a thought that made me grin even more.

It took forever for the kids to fall asleep and the adults to leave before Santa and Mrs. Claus could get to work! It was a very good thing that the kids never go into the garage and Mrs. Claus had been very organized and busy ahead of time! I had even bought special "Santa" wrapping paper and ribbons - the paper was a fancy gold with glitter design and the ribbons were real, wire-edged ribbons with beautiful bows tied in them!

Edward set up the train around the base of the tree. Of course since the man doesn't do anything halfway, he bought extra tracks and it took him half an hour just to design and set up the thing as it reached halfway around the room by the time he was done. We hadn't put any of our gifts under the tree so by the time we put the ones from Mom and Dad as well as the Santa gifts, along with the train; it truly looked like Santa had been there.

And in the wee hours of the morning, long before sun-up, Emily let fly the squeal heard 'round the world, waking the entire house! We quickly ran to check on her only to find she'd been in the living room and had seen all Santa (a word she said with a sigh as if madly in love with him) had brought. After our heart rates had returned to normal we could appreciate the humor - and coffee thanks to my coffee maker set to brew nice and early for the day.

We all gathered around the tree and Edward said, "Let the wild rumpus start!" We all giggled because "Where the Wild Things Are" is a favorite bedtime story in our home, and because it really was a wild rumpus as wrapping paper flew around the room!

Seth was thrilled by the train and everyone loved their gifts. My favorite part was watching how excited the kids would get whenever they gave one of the gifts they made. Everyone absolutely loved their gifts, especially the ones the kids made.

Esme had made Edward a scrapbook of all his pictures from before he moved to Algonquin. I loved looking at the pictures of the kids when they were little and hearing them tell me all about their life from before. Esme made another scrapbook for us including pictures of us all together. It was full of great memories - seemingly too many for such a short time, and yet it was perfect. It had shots I'd taken on our "date" at Millennium Park and Navy Pier, of us fishing on Father's Day, of our sailing adventures, of camping, of our wedding, our barbecues, Sunday brunches and especially our Family Day outings. That was one jam-packed album and it hadn't been a year yet, heck it wasn't even nine months! I wept a little looking at all the memories we'd made with the kids and looked forward to the life we were building together.

Everyone had adored the Irish woolens and other gifts we brought from our honeymoon. I had honestly forgotten just how much I'd gotten because I wrapped them as soon as we unpacked them, so it was a gift to me to see what they opened, too! Edward surprised me with gorgeous diamond earrings from the kids, and a mother's pendant with our birth stones at the top, with a line descending adorned with the kids' birth stones. He said once "Peanut" was born the jeweler would add another link and stone, he didn't want to jinx us by adding it early and risk it being wrong.

Edward adored his gift, as did Carlisle and the other guys. They would have fun on their ski weekend and we girls would have a sleepover to play on our own, while they were gone. The ski gear looked great on him, too – I'd chosen a dark green parka that really made his eyes pop.

My wonderful mother-in-love spoiled us all by making a wonderful feast of home-made cinnamon buns with crispy bacon and eggs. It was even more delicious because she would not let me lift a finger to help. I voted for that to become a new tradition as well, something Esme was sweet enough to second. Hallelujah and pass the hot, gooey cinnamon buns!

I had done most of the dinner prep work ahead of time so dinner was a breeze – roast chicken; spiral-cut honey ham; potatoes au gratin, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes and gravy; cranberry sauce; Carlisle's broccoli salad; and other goodies loaded down the table as our friends/extended family gathered around to say Grace and enjoy the feast. Pretty much everyone who had been there the night before joined us again. Only Kate and Jake were missing as they both had to work.

I felt the sting of missing Charlie but being surrounded by the rest of my family helped me a whole lot.

The days after Christmas were agony. We were all feeling over-stimulated and lacking in rest. The kids were super hyper from so much sugar and frankly from being spoiled rotten by everyone! Edward finally snapped and yelled at them. It wasn't pretty but they did calm down a bit. We decided they probably had cabin fever, so we took them out bowling. It was cute to see Emily with a hot pink sparkly ball and Seth found one that was "snot green" his words, not mine (such a boy!). Edward also took them roller-skating another day, something I wasn't able to do, but did a great job wearing them out.

We opted for a quiet evening at home for New Year's Eve and were super grateful to Esme for asking if she could keep her grand babies for the night. Not that we don't love the kids dearly, but it was nice to get the chance to miss them after so much togetherness. We stayed at the lake house and finally got to test out the enormous bathtub...

By the time school and work started again in the New Year we were very ready to get back into the daily grind. The court date loomed large just a week away! To counter the intimidating feeling, I worked on maternity clothing. I needed clothes and the world needed more fun maternity clothes!

Alice was all over that one with me. We worked together to draft dresses, blouses, sweaters, jeans and skirts that could all mix and match to be a full wardrobe and had our samples made in our sizes to try them out. We used as many natural fibers as possible and the results were phenomenal! We had clothes that made us feel beautiful and comfortable. We had no doubts these would do well in the market and immediately had the patterns graded (drafted in different sizes) to include all sizes for manufacturing including plus sizes, and started shopping our suppliers for fabric options.

We decided the under armor collection would take a back burner for the time being. We'd keep sketching our ideas but focus on our fall line as well as getting the maternity line into production and finding buyers. Alice had "accidentally" let slip our plans for a maternity line and the Target rep immediately showed a great interest, as did our contacts at Von Maur, we'd have to make them different via complexity of design and quality of material, but there was a lot of potential for both places. Since our existing line was a huge hit, they were all over anything we offered up. That was a very gratifying experience, to say the least.

After what seemed like forever the trial finally started - and finished! The feds absolutely bowled over the defense with an open-and-shut case that was chock full of solid evidence.

"I can't believe they bothered to have you sequestered without calling you to the stands," Rose said emphatically. "It's a relief and annoyance at the same time!"

"I know, right?" I said. "After all the worry and fuss and Victoria's murder, it feels a little like an empty victory or a fizzle to not get my time on the stand." Because they sequestered me I didn't even get to watch thtrial.

"It sure didn't take long for the DA to rest," Emmett chimed in. We were all out to dinner celebrating the win. Rose suggested a high-visibility restaurant like Frontera Grill, which is where we were eating Rick Bayless' fabulous Mexican food. This allowed the press to get shots (and later some quotes as we left) of us enjoying the victory - it should keep them off our backs in the long run. "I still can't believe that cheating prick brought them all down like dominoes!" He added with a laugh.

It turns out the case was open and shut thanks to James Smith's inability to remain monogamous in his long-time relationship with Victoria Miller. When the press reported on Victoria's murder, James' other girlfriend Senna Avila wasn't too pleased to learn he had been unfaithful to her. She turned evidence and helped the Feds gather some pretty damning evidence and was even bold enough to wear a wire for them.

"I guess it's true that 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,'" Edward said with a laugh. The jury barely took any time to deliver a guilty charge and the judge handed down a pretty severe penalty to the defendants Cais, Marcus and Laurent Volturi, who had been our lawyers; Gianna Tucci who ran the temp agency where I had hired Victoria; Aro Andersen, the man who built the now infamous accountancy firm; and James Smith, who had been our accountant at the firm, were all sent away for conspiracy, theft and a laundry list of other criminal charges. "Soon they'll all stand trial for manslaughter and conspiring to murder Victoria," He added. "If it all sticks they'll go away for a long, long time."

"Well I'm just glad we got the money and don't have to go through a civil suit to get our money back," Emmett said. The judge ordered them to pay reparations to all the companies. Our cut of the final payout was $1.5 million. "By the way, Bella, I love your idea about using the extra money to help the villages."

I shrugged then said, "It just seems wrong to keep it," Since we'd already paid our workers their missing money, minus expenses we incurred thanks to the mess the Volturi had made, we decided to use the surplus money to reinvest in the impacted communities by providing grants to their schools for books and other supplies. "Especially with how much the company has grown since the story broke. And Emmett, fyi, I'll never, ever forget the look on your face when you stormed into my office last May demanding answers!" We all laughed then I gasped as I felt the baby start kicking me.

Jasper piped up, "You sure stuck your nose in a hornets nest with that audit, huh?" We laughed at the mental image he painted. "I bet they'll be telling your story in college textbooks to remind business students about how important audits are and to always follow your gut." Emmett thought the numbers seemed low on the contracts and followed the money, as they say. He not only saved my business, but also several others in and around Chicagoland. He proved the old saying, "The devil is in the details."

It had been nine months since Emmett had unearthed the discrepancies in the books and so much had changed that it was hard to recognize my own life sometimes. The only thing I'd change would be to have Charlie back with us - with all his faculties, that is. But that simply wasn't meant to be. I still miss him every single day, but it got easier as time passed. He certainly left me in great company.

The last ten months was a really wild ride! From Emmett's discovery to finally meeting Esme and Carlisle's gorgeous son and grand kids, then Edward finding Charlie *ahem* indisposed in broad daylight; from falling in love to losing my dad; from marrying my Edward to adopting Seth and Emily; launching successful clothing lines and merging our friends/families while having to write off my poor-excuse-of-a-mother, Renee; and then being thrilled to find out I was carrying Edward's baby; it certainly had been an eclectic and beautiful year!

A/N: Thanks for sticking with me.