Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns these characters and the awesomeness that is Twilight! I'm just subjecting them to my fun little schemes.

~Please read the ridiculously long author's note at the bottom. I think it all needs to be said after this chapter, you'll see why. xx

Chapter 52

A morning routine had finally been worked out. Every morning, Bella would shower with Edward before he had to leave for work. She usually had to stop halfway through to throw up but it was getting a little easier to deal with. Alice, the poor thing, had started to get sick just as much. So, instead of her helping Bella, she was struggling with it herself. Edward had discussed it with Rosalie and now, if she needed someone to keep an eye on the kids while she was praying to the porcelain gods, all she had to do was call Aunt Rose. It was nice for the kids as well since they had Lily to play with while they were there.

This particular morning, Bella was a little more tired than normal. Edward had told her about a family with a small baby that he'd had to find a foster home for. Apparently, the mother was still being slapped around by her husband but with the baby out of the picture, he had no reason to check up on them. The woman had the ball in her court but he figured she wouldn't press charges. There had been many nights, both with the fire company and with work, that they had sat up and discussed what happened during the day. Just like she would tell him about the little boy who, in third grade, still couldn't write his name. They leaned on each other support.

The one thing the pretty little Dr. Kramer had always stressed to Edward was that he neede to be as open as possible with his wife. If he was having a bad day, tell her that. If he was feeling anxious, tell her why. In return, Edward said the doctor told him to always ask Bella how she was feeling...and to back off if she just simply wasn't in the mood to talk. Still, communication was key.

"Mommy, are we going to the station today?" her son asked, his eyes full of excitement at the idea.

"I don't know yet, baby. If not today, then I'm sure sometime soon." That had become apart of their routine as well. The guys had officially allowed Rosalie to take over things at the station. She checked equipment and supplies, played dispatcher for the guys, and always kept in touch with the wives and families while the guys were out on calls. A call would come in, Em would get the scoop from her—who would be contacted by James or sometimes the 911 dispatch—Em would call, pick up Edward, and Rosalie would drive her and Lily to the station by themselves. While school was out, it was easy to tote Lily around at night but when school would begin, she'd have all the calls directed to her home, setting up base there for the night.

Because she was trying to organize things that the guys had pretty much neglected over the past few years, Bella and Alice pitched in to help. The kids would go with her, as would Edward, but it was usually just the three families that hung out there. She had yet to meet the new rookies and she hadn't seen James since the beach trip. The one day that Bella and Edward would have seen everyone was at a cookout a few weeks after the first night they'd slept together since she knew she was pregnant. It was at the end of July and Bella had taken Kaley and Robby to Alice's for some swim time.

It was a Saturday and the guys were having a meeting about fund raising, which would be followed up by a cookout with the families. Alice was about a month further than Bella was, Alice was about four months and Bella was almost exactly three, though she was unsure of when they'd actually conceived. She was just going by what the doctor had decided. Anyway, they were swimming, though Bella mostly just stood in the water to cool off. She had her white cherry swimsuit on, something she wasn't afraid to wear around her best friend but would definitely be self conscious to wear around anyone other than Alice or Edward—she was grateful Jasper wasn't there.

When they got out of the pool, she couldn't help but notice Alice was staring at her butt. "Al, what's up?" Bella asked, having to laugh.

Her smiled faded when Alice said with an ashen face, "You have blood on your bikini bottoms."

Immediately, Bella ran to the little pool house and turned in front of the mirror, praying it was just the little cherries and that Alice had just seen it wrong. No such luck. She didn't know what to do, so she grabbed her cell phone and called her husband. Edward left the meeting the instant he was called and took her straight to the emergency room, Bella was very proud of him for not having a panic attack but he was definitely anxious. After running tests, doing an ultrasound, and taking blood work, they were told it was nothing serious and there was a good chance it was something external more than internal.

That Monday, they paid a visit to the OB and she went through another series of tests. "You seem fine and everything looks normal. I'm sure this was just a one time thing."

The doctors office was a place they were definitely becoming familiar with, besides that little hiccup, it was more for precautionary reasons. They were watching her blood sugar like a hawk and she was instructed to eat small snacks like apples and things between meals. In other words, her sugar was low but not low enough to panic anyone.

They had missed the cook out and thankfully, there hadn't been any reason for the guys to be sent out lately. Edward had mentioned trying to get another cook out together but she knew he was too busy to plan it. When he called her at lunchtime to ask if it was okay that he go with the guys to get a few beers after work, Bella told him to have fun. He told her they were going back to the station after if she wanted to meet him there. Of course, she willingly obliged.

She was tired enough from the night before that she decided to take a nap when the kids went down for theirs around three. Being that it was Friday, she didn't know if Edward had any plans for the night or not. At five, she woke up to a missed call from him. The voice mail explained that his mom wanted to take the kids for the evening, apparently his Aunt Liz was visiting. She agreed to drop them off and then meet him at the station. So, after dinner, she got the kids ready and headed out.

The guys had made it to the station earlier than expected and opened up one of the main bays to let a breeze in. Rosalie was already there, working upstairs in the office and Lily came running out to them shortly after they arrived. Emmett scooped her up and put her up on his shoulders as Edward high-fived the little girl. The two new rookies, Ryan and Cam, were talking amongst themselves. Tyler had quietly refrained from alcohol that evening. Edward had gone more to just eat and hang out. He was expecting Bella any minute and that's when he heard Cam say to Ryan, "Check out this little one coming up the sidewalk," as he craned his neck to see outside of the firehouse.

"Mmm, she's a cutie..."

Both guys got quiet as she walked right past them and headed towards Edward, Emmett and Jasper. James intercepted her though, "Hey, sweetheart!" he called.

Bella spun around and smiled as they hugged each other, "Long time no see, stranger. How have you been?"

"Great. How about you?" he asked, and Edward saw his eyes go down to her stomach.

"Great," she replied back, "everything's great."

While she talked away with James about Clair and the baby, Cam and Ryan joined their group. "Who is she?" Ryan asked.

Jasper glanced at Edward, fully prepared to break up a fight—especially after his reaction to Tyler. This was different, though. They didn't realize she was his wife and they weren't being disrespectful to her. He knew Bella was right, the jealousy thing needed to be brought down a few notches. "Why do you want to know?" he asked, pretending to be curious.

"She's really cute. Do you know if she's seeing someone?" Cam asked.

"Go ask her yourself," laughed Edward, curious to see their reactions.

Ryan hung back while Cameron walked over to her, completely interrupting Bella's conversation with James. Edward listened as he cleared his throat and held out his hand, "Hi, I'm Cameron. What's a lovely lady like you doing in a firehouse?"

Edward had already begun to laugh, while Bella wasn't exactly a feminist, that was certainly a sexist thing to have said—even if Cameron hadn't meant it that way. He turned to see Jazz and Em trying to cover up their laughter as well. Sure enough, his Bella turned so that she was facing Edward and Cam—though Cam had no idea he was watching. "Why wouldn't a lovely lady be in a firehouse?" Crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't mean...I just meant...you're really pretty. Maybe we could hang out sometime," Cam stammered, causing Edward to laugh again.

Bella looked past him to see who was laughing and when she saw that it was Edward, a look of knowing crossed her face. This was going to get interesting. "Well, Cameron, I hang around here quite often," Bella said, trying to sound seductive—to Edward's dismay she was pulling it off rather well. "In fact, I ended up pregnant with one of the guys's babies..."

Edward so wished he could see Cam's face but watching Bella's was even more humorous. Cam knew all the guys were either married...or in James's case widowed...besides he and Ryan. They also knew Tyler's story. They had temporarily had two other recruits but both had dropped out together after they finished school. "Well, are you pregnant now?" he asked, with absolutely no tact at all and Edward put his face in his hands. At this point, Bella was definitely fighting to keep a straight face. Stepping even closer to Cameron, Edward watched as she leaned forward and said into his ear, but loud enough for everyone to hear, "Three months and it's Cullen's."

Edward quickly quit smiling and acted like he was saying something to Jasper as Cam turned to look at him, shock clearly on his face. He waited for Cam to say something about her being his wife, at least acknowledging it, but the young guy turned back to Bella and said, "You do know he's married to someone else, though, right?"

Bella's eyes grew wide, feigning surprise. "Well, I would hope not, polygamy is illegal in the state of Washington. Cameron, it's interesting to meet you," she said, holding out a hand to him, "I'm Mrs. Isabella Cullen. Edward, over there, he's my husband."

At that point, James even began to laugh and Cam turned to Edward, who was walking towards them anyway. "You're an asshole, dude..." Cam said, shaking his head and laughing.

Bella wrapped her arms around Edward's waist and kissed his cheek. He couldn't help but smile and instinctively put a hand on their little bump. "I couldn't resist," he laughed.

Cam looked back and forth between the two of them, "How old are you?" he asked Bella.

"Alright, first you assume that since I'm a girl I can't be a firefighter, then you ask a girl how old she is? Have you ever even heard of manners?" she laughed, then got serious, "I'm twenty-five. How old are you? Eighteen?"

Cam looked slightly offended but recovered quickly, "I'm twenty-two."

"That's how old I was when I met this one," Bella smiled, looking up at her husband.

Edward smiled back and gestured to Ryan, who was watching as he leaned against an engine and tried to control his laughter, "This clown over here is our other new guy. Bells, this is Ryan."

"Nice to meet you," Bella called over.

"Likewise!" he said, obviously loving the exchange she and his friend had just had.

Bella headed upstairs to visit Rosalie and relay what had just happened. They had a good laugh over it and Bella set out to help her with an order she was putting in online. "Where are the kiddos?"

"Esme and Carlisle's. Liz is visiting."

"Aw, I miss her. I haven't seen her since the wedding..."

The station's phone began ringing. It only ever rang for one reason. Rosalie immediately grabbed it. "Station 88," she answered, hitting the button to set off the alarms. Bella ran downstairs to see the guys off. In all the years they had been together, she'd never been there when the guys were heading out. Usually, they grabbed Emmett and Edward's stuff and threw it in, knowing they'd get it at the scene. Today though, Bella watched in fearful amusement as the guys ran to their perspective lockers and pulled on their equipment. The alarm was almost deafening inside the building and Edward strode towards her before kissing her hard. "I love you, baby."

She heard Rosalie over the intercom explaining that it was a one car accident but the young woman was trapped in the car. They had to get her out...immediately...before it was too late. "I love you, too. Be careful!"

"Always am!" he kissed her again and jumped up into the engine. As soon as everyone was on board, they left and Bella went over to meet Rosalie. "Wow, that was intense!"

"I hate being here when they go out," Rose said, hugging Lily to her. "Come on. I just have get some things finished upstairs."After helping Rosalie, Bella made her way to pick up the kids and head home. It shouldn't be a late one tonight, they just had a woman to free from a car.

When they arrived at the scene, Jasper and Emmett jumped down after Edward, as they headed toward the flipped car. It was bad, there was gas leaking onto the road and Edward knew this could turn from bad to worse in seconds. The back of the car was facing them as ambulance EMT workers were knelt down beside her, trying to calm her down. Edward's heart stopped when he realized who it was. The car wasn't recognizable to him but the plate numbers were. They were the numbers he'd filled out many times on legal forms or things that had to be sent in to his insurance company. It was the same license plate that was put on when Tanya and him had bought their first car together.

He ran towards the car. As much as he hated her, he didn't want her to die. The car was crushed to the point that it looked like someone grabbed the top of the car and the bottom and smashed them together. He heard her cries but didn't see any blood. When the other guys realized who it was he heard them mutter expletives before James began to bark orders. The younger guys had no idea what was going on and Edward watched as Emmett and Jasper began shouting something to her inside but everything was shutting down on him. Finally, Emmett got his attention. "Wake the fuck up, Cullen!"

Edward immediately went into rescue mode, he barked orders right along with James and by the time crackling noises came from under the hood, he had her under the arms and was pulling her from the car. Since she was ground level already, he pulled and fell back with her. They both ended up on the road, him holding her to his chest, afraid to move her. "Edward..." she said, obviously confused and very disoriented.

"You're okay. The ambulance is right there..." he started sliding back, worried that if the car went up, so would they. Once they were a safe enough distance, he laid her out and let the ambulance workers do their job. They had her loaded in and looked at him. "Do you know her?"

"Yes."

"There's no I.D. on her..."

"Her name is Tanya Denali. She's my ex-wife."

"Do you know how we can get a hold of her family?"

"Yeah..." he said, reaching for his phone and calling her mother.

"It's Tanya...she was in an accident..." Edward said calmly after her mom picked up.

"Eli! Tanya's been in an accident!" he heard her yell out to Tanya's stepdad, Eleazer. Then to him, she asked, "Where is she? Is she okay?"

Edward gave them the road name as the other guys got to checking out the car to make sure it wasn't going to catch fire. "I'm assuming they're taking her to Forks General..." he looked to the driver for confirmation, the man nodded his head.

He hung up as they were putting a neck brace on her, she was bawling, obviously terrified. When she called out to him, he knew he was going to make a very bad decision. Stepping up into the ambulance he sat on the little stool beside her stretcher. She reached for him but he couldn't make contact, not again. That would be wrong. This is wrong! His subconscious was screaming at him. James came over then, as they were getting ready to pull away. It was like he understood where Edward was coming from. "You stay with her until they get her to the hospital. Do you want me to call Bella?"

"No. I'll call her after things calm down."

"What if she's at the station?"

"Then tell her the truth," Edward relented, knowing the man standing beside him wanted to shut the doors and leave. James just nodded and shut the doors himself.

When the doors closed the weight of the situation washed over him. He had just pulled his ex from a wrecked car, talked to her mother, and was now in an ambulance with her as she was trying to take his hand. Bella was going to fucking kill him. "Edward, I'm sorry."

That's when guilt slammed into him full force. He made bad decision number two by pulling out his phone and calling his wife from the ambulance. There was concern for her well being behind it, he didn't want her to see them arrive back to the station without him. She answered on the first ring and was obviously worried, she knew that no news was good news. In a life where they both worked full time and had two kids to keep track of, if they didn't hear from each throughout the day, that was usually a good sign. "Edward? Are you okay?"

He didn't know what to say, he wasn't okay, he'd done something stupid, on complete impulse. "Edward, who is that? Who are you talking to?" Tanya asked.

"Don't worry about it," he said it slightly harsher than he should have.

"Edward? Who's with you?" Bella was sounding more irritated with every word.

"Can you meet me at the hospital?"

"The hospital? What?"

"Please just meet me at Forks General."

"Is it you? Are you hurt?" he could hear her crying over the phone and it broke his heart.

"No, baby, I'm fine. Just meet me. I don't have a vehicle here."

If she was curious as to how he got to the hospital, she didn't let on, as if knowing he wasn't hurt was enough for her. He didn't know what to do. When Tanya cried out to him, he hadn't even thought about it. That scared him. It scared him to death. "Edward, look at me," Tanya was saying, and for a second, it made sense to him why he wanted to protect her. As long ago as it was, he had vowed to protect her. It had been him reacting to a situation...and he figured if he hadn't done it...he didn't know if he could live with himself. She was scared and at that moment, for the first time in a situation that had to do with the two of them, she had needed him. It was selfish of him, it was wrong of him to want to feel that from her, and he didn't want to think about what it said for his sanity but in a way, this was his way of telling her goodbye.

Goodbye was such an overused word. It could be goodbye until tomorrow, until you see someone next, until you met them in the afterlife...but sometimes goodbye was there purposely to cause hurt. It was there to cause heartache. It was there to rip out your soul and trample it. The problem was, not saying goodbye could hurt much, much worse. He had waited years to get his final farewell. He wasn't prepared for it before, even when Bella was already in his life, he kept letting himself go back to the idea that there might be a chance that Tanya could change.

It wasn't until after he committed to Bella, to love her for the rest of his life, that he knew any love he had felt for his ex was completely gone. He hated that it had to take so long, that her giving Kaley a sleeping pill wasn't enough to ruin all the love that he still felt for her. Funny thing about love, it went hand in hand with hate. You always hated the ones who hurt you the most, and most of the time, they were people you loved. Anyone else, you didn't give a shit about. You rolled your eyes and got on with your life.

Looking down at the woman in front of him, he realized a lot of things. The woman he married had died long ago and in her place this awful, hateful woman had shown up. That for once, she needed him but he couldn't find it in his heart to hate her enough to either let her suffer on her own or love her enough to truly do anything to help her. Lastly, and most importantly, he realized that instead of directing all the hard feelings towards himself, that it was okay to blame her. He thought he had come to those terms at the beach but with her in front of him, it solidified that knowledge.

She had left him when he needed her the most. She had turned her back on him and his child. She had walked away without so much as a backward glance—more than once. She had selfishly tried to come back and take what wasn't hers. Kaley Ann was never hers, she was Edward's. She may have kept his daughter alive for nine months but that was it. That was the extent of her involvement. Now, he watched as they lifted the stretcher, preparing to push her through the waiting Emergency Room doors.

"Edward," Tanya said quietly, tears running down her face. "thank you for staying with me. When my parents come, you can go. I understand..."

She was terrified of hospitals, something Edward had always known, and he suspected a big reason why she wanted the abortion, she didn't want to go through the labor. "No," he said, just as quietly, walking beside the rolling bed as they went into Forks General. "I'm not staying this time. This time it's my turn to leave. You're here, you're stable, and now you're going to be alone. I hope you have a good life. I hope you find what I've found with my Bella. There is nothing here for us. Not anymore."

As they wheeled her through the large double doors back to the emergency room, he stopped and watched until they rounded a corner and went out of his sight. He prayed that Bella would forgive him for this, whatever this was, and as he turned to go back outside and wait for her, he saw her sitting about ten feet away in the waiting room. She had seen who he was with and there were tears streaming down her face.

While he tried his damnedest to curse himself for what he had just done, for making the effort to ride to the hospital with his ex-wife, he couldn't do it. He would forever hate himself for upsetting his Bella, the love of his life, but this had to happen. After years of Tanya Denali and all her scheming bullshit, he had his closure. Though he knew she was more than likely in shock and may just have a few broken bones, Tanya Denali was dead to him. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to his wife, bracing himself though he had no idea what her reaction would be.

I know, I know, you all hate me. You're pissed at Edward and you hate what he did...and possibly him. I debated for many a moons over whether or not to write this and I was told by an avid reviewer that it's good to follow though with what I had intended to happen. Edward needed closure from Tanya and he finally got it. While I know some of you are seething and asking how in the world he still could have feelings for her, you just have to remember that Edward is Edward. He is a caring, loving person who believes that helping others is important above all else. This gave him the push that made him realize he really didn't hate her but he definitely no longer loved her.

Now, Bella's reaction will happen in the next chapter of course. Please stay tuned. I do want to say though that I have hit over 1000 reviews and I literally cried tears of joy. This is a huge deal and I have to thank everyone of you, reviewers, readers, recommenders...you are all the reason I am writing this story but remember that it is my story and I plan to execute the punches they way they were meant to be. Feedback is helpful, just please don't tears me apart. You will all forever be in my heart, and any newbie reviewers...welcome. You all mean the world to me! LP xxooxx