A/N: Thanks so much for all your wonderful thoughts.

Happy 2020 everyone! I hope the decade has started out well for all of you. :)

So, those of you who've read me a bit know that I am, in all honesty, a wordy bitch. Especially when I'm trying to end a story. In my mind, I think everything I want to say will fit in one chapter...but then it doesn't.

So, Part II of this will post shortly. :)

Most characters belong to S. Meyer. The rest belong to me. All mistakes are mine as well.

Broken – Chapter 40

Part I: Life - It Isn't Always Fair…

Eight years after That Day:

The bathroom door opened and out unfurled a cloud of gauzy steam that billowed into the bedroom like theatrical smoke heralding the evening's performance. Just as in such a performance, when the cloud cleared and dispersed, it revealed a gorgeous woman - wearing a towel around her head.

But she also wore a pair of black silk shorts and a tiny, matching tank top she tended to favor around the summer months. She usually wore this specific set once we were alone, with no company, with no one running underfoot, and when we were ready for more than sleep...because the shorts were short.

My eyebrows quirked upward.

Pretending to ignore me, Bella made her way to the dresser. She stood in front of the mirror, and when she pulled off the towel, out tumbled one of the best heads of dark hair - one of my favorite dark heads of hair - in existence. The long, dark and damp strands cascaded loosely down her back, water droplets trickling and skimming the swells of her ass before splattering onto the wooden floorboards. She shuddered; wet hair on her bare back was a sensation she abhorred, as I'd learned in the six years that we'd been together.

Six years. Damn. Hard to believe sometimes.

Then, she leaned sideways and proceeded to dry her hair, humming to herself, wringing out the strands with the towel while watching her progress through the dresser mirror. With hair that long and thick, it was an involved process. She kneaded the ends, then patted the roots before skimming the towel along the length. She did this over and over. All the while, I laid on our bed in my boxers with arms folded behind my head and fingers weaved together under the pillow, enjoying the show.

When her eyes, as equally dark and shiny as her hair, suddenly met mine through the mirror, I grinned.

"You sure stare at me a lot, Stranger."

I crossed my legs at the ankles. "I do."

Bella offered me a sultry smirk. "You'd better be careful. The last stranger who watched me that intently ended up with a broken nose."

I snorted to myself. Strange how some memories, once so acerbic that the mere hint of them made you flinch and grimace, took on a more bittersweet taste with the passage of time. In such cases, it was never the memory itself that changed. Instead, it usually meant that the person doing the remembering had either altered the memory in his or her mind...or the person had undergone such a massive transformation that it rendered the dark memory powerless.

"If I recall correctly, the stranger in question ended up with a broken nose for doing more than just watching you. Besides, I'm not worried."

"No? You're a brave stranger." She quirked a teasing eyebrow.

"I don't know about that, but I've already lived through a broken nose, and I've discovered that it's a small price to pay for some privileges."

"Is it now?" Head tilted sideways, she stopped drying her hair and held my gaze, smiling softly. "Privileges such as?"

Now, that right there was the million dollar question. Exactly what privileges had my fascination with the one-time Isabella Hale earned me?

There was a time when I hid my fascination with Bella from her...when I hid a whole lot from her. At the time, I told myself I was doing so because after how we'd initially met - for lack of a better word - giving her the truth of who I was would've made it impossible for her to trust me. Those lies by omission didn't work out well. What's more, it took a while for me to realize that it was my distrust, a distrust that had sprouted when I was very young, which led me down that road toward deceiving the person I loved most in the world. As for Bella, at the time, she'd had her own demons to exorcise. With the foresight that comes with hindsight, it was easy to see now how our initial encounters were doomed toward chaos.

We were Chaos.

We were star-crossed.

But sometimes, there's self-organization to chaos. A meaning took root behind the seemingly meaningless; the random and tumultuous events which occurred not only in the first couple of years of Bella's and my relationship but in our separate lives before we even met turned out to be not so random. When we were both ready to trust, a butterfly flapped its wings. Chaos morphed into beauty.

It morphed into our son, Masen.

Though, one can argue that the chaos remained. At five-years-old, Masen Edward Cullen was a handful…and a blessing we gave thanks for every day. No, our lives weren't smooth-sailing perfection. As I'd learned throughout the years, Life wasn't always fair.

But I'd also learned that Life wasn't always unfair.

For example, tonight was a common enough scene in our bedroom. Some might've even called it a random, mundane moment; nothing worth studying, becoming ruminative or grinning stupidly about. After all, what was the big deal with watching the woman you'd loved for eight years emerge from the bathroom on a Wednesday night, in her – and your – favorite pajamas, the ones where the back of the shorts rode over her ass cheeks and the tank top rode over her navel, drying her long, silky hair while the rest of the house slept peacefully, safely, and soundly?

It was the biggest of deals.

"Come here, Miss Swan."

Bella's eyes flashed to me, and though she shot me a wry, amused grin, it was those eyes that got to me.

"Miss Swan?" she echoed.

"Aren't we role-playing? Apparently, I'm The Stranger again."

She chuckled, her eyes sparkling with mirth, and damn. Those eyes had gotten to me from Day One; so dark they were fathomless, with no end and no beginning, yet so profound that they were my haven. They were where I went whenever I needed to center myself, when I needed to find my way. Bella laughed whenever I said that as good-looking a boy as our son Masen was growing into, he'd gotten the royal shaft when he hadn't inherited her eyes.

'Why would you say that?' she'd asked the first time I'd noted our son's misfortune.

'Because those dark, hypnotic eyes can ask for the world on a platter from me and would likely receive it.'

'And how do you think I feel about your translucently green eyes?'

And that...right there...was another prime example of how Life wasn't either all fair or unfair.

Right now, it was being more than fair to me as Bella slowly sauntered my way in those two flimsy pieces of material which honestly couldn't even be termed pajamas.

"That depends, Mr. Cullen. Are you or aren't you going to tell me what privileges a broken nose earned you?"

She kept me locked in her bewitching gaze, a gaze which overflowed with life, with passion, and with so much damn strength it was awe-inspiring. And for the handful of seconds it took her to reach the bed, I saw all those privileges - and the past few years of supposedly random, mundane, some good, some not-so-good, and some bittersweet moments - reflected in their bottomless depths.

OOOOO

Four and a half years earlier:

"Are the boys in bed already?"

I nodded languidly as I leaned against the door frame to the Chicago hotel suite's large and luxurious bathroom, enjoying the sight of Bella relaxing in the jetted tub after a long day of book readings and signings. Foamy water bubbled and fizzed around her shoulders and knee caps, the spuming suds hiding everything else from the shoulders down from my sight. But I knew what awaited below, and it made me smile in anticipation.

It had been a long day in Chicago, with two separate and successful book promotion events that day alone. And while packed rooms and long lines of eager fans waiting hours upon hours to get their signed copies of Bella's latest book in her World War Two trilogy was a good thing, it also meant she was exhausted by the time it was over.

Nonetheless, after her workday was done, Bella was always eager for time with our family.

Our family.

At the time, 'our family' was a difficult term to accurately define. In our hearts, and in increasing practice if not by law, three-year-old Jay and eight-month-old Masen were both ours – being raised more like brothers than cousins.

But the fact was, they weren't both ours.

And it was tough for us to reconcile with the fact that our increasing time with Jay came at the further deterioration of his home life with his parents. I hadn't seen Jasper again since the day a couple of months earlier when we'd argued heatedly at my parents' fortieth-anniversary party. After what Alice had overheard him say, she'd told him to get the fuck out of her apartment, and my parents had banned him from their apartment.

Unfortunately, a few weeks later, he'd been back at Alice's with his sorry-ass tail between his legs, with his miserable excuses and doe-eyed lies and bullshit promises at the ready, and Alice...took him back.

'Why the hell does she continuously take him back?' I'd wondered, pacing back and forth and outraged on my nephew's behalf, who deserved so much better.

'She's dug in her heels, Edward, and only Alice knows why,' Bella replied, 'and only Alice can decide when and if it'll ever end. All we can do is be there for Jay.'

Because we'd both learned over the years that yes, a child was worth so many sacrifices.

Alice's compounding misery and her unwillingness to put an end to the mind-fuckery once and for all meant that whenever I asked to take Jay for the day…for the weekend…to Chicago with us for the week…Alice acquiesced with an impassivity that simultaneously relieved and infuriated me. So, he was with us in Chicago. I'd taken the week off, and we'd decided to turn the event into a mini family vacation.

"The boys were having a ball looking down at Millenium Park through the hotel windows, but yeah, they're in bed now."

Bella chuckled softly, languidly swatting a piece of foam over her leg. "You'd think we didn't just spend hours with them down there. But those are my boys – forever distracted by the views through windows."

I snorted as I made my way to her. "Jay was yelling in excitement, watching people splash around the fountain. And you should've seen Masen, eyes all round and curious." I took a seat on the tub's ledge, slid a hand over the water's surface to measure its warmth...and kept it there. "He kept jumping on my leg, reaching for the fountain through the windows, talking his gibberish, and looking back and forth between me and the fountain."

"He was asking you to take them back down."

"I know."

"How could you resist him?"

"Had his eyes been dark brown like yours, I probably wouldn't have been able to."

When Bella flung a handful of bubbles at me, I jerked back and chuckled.

"Ass. I love that he's the spitting image of you."

I loved it too, and Bella knew I did. But I enjoyed teasing her about it.

Leaning forward again, I pushed a damp tendril of hair, which had come loose from the bun she'd made to keep her hair up, behind her ear. And as I continued, my fingers remained in her hair and my eyes on the way the damp strands caught the light in the bathroom.

"Meanwhile, Jay kept asking me about The Bean, what it's made of, what it means, asking me all sort of questions about the rest of the Chicago skyline."

Bella grinned. "He sure loves tall structures. Remember yesterday's fascination when I bought that framed picture at the garage sale, the one with the quote about not being afraid to climb mountains because of the beauty of the meadow on the other side?"

"He spent the next hour quizzing us on mountains."

We both chuckled quietly. Then Bella sighed. "After a whole week with him, Masen's going to have a hard time understanding why Jay isn't around all the time anymore once we get home."

I watched her silently, still playing with her hair. "And you're going to have a hard time, too."

She swallowed hard and whispered. "Yeah."

"I am too, baby. Sometimes I can't help wondering if we're making things worse for him, and for ourselves and Masen...and for Alice for that matter by taking him for longer and longer periods of time. I mean..." - exhaling a long breath, I pulled back and raked a hand through my hair - "by finally talking about it with you and with a therapist, I've realized that the way my parents handled the entire situation with Alice was...fucked up, in more than one way. But are we doing things right for Jay now?"

She didn't answer right away. When she did, she took my hand and weaved her wet, soapy fingers through mine. "I don't know, Edward. I honestly don't."

We were both quiet for a long moment. The thick gauzy bubbles fizzled and popped around her.

"By the way, speaking of that old, beat-up frame, you're not actually considering hanging it up in our apartment...are you?"

This time, I received two handfuls of suds flung at my crotch. I roared with laughter, and when the laughter died down, I patted off the excess suds from my pants.

"I'm only forgiving you for that one because you got the boys in bed nice and early."

"Mm." Yes, we'd changed the subject, but it was a subject which, at that moment, had no clear answer. "And do I get a reward now?"

"You know what they say, Edward. Goodness is its own reward."

"Ahh, I see. In that case, I'll just go watch some TV until-"

"Get in here, Stranger."

She fisted my shirt and pulled me into the tub so quickly that half of the tub's water spilled out with a loud splash while Bella and I laughed hard...and kissed harder.

OOOOO

A couple of months later:

"Mack and Emmett looked great at the engagement party tonight, didn't they?"

Bella's voice was full of excitement for two of the most deserving and important people in our world. Yet even her happy thoughts couldn't completely disguise the note of anxiety in her voice tonight.

"They sure did."

"Mack was beaming, and Emmett was so thrilled, he only told one, maybe two stories all night."

"Of course he's thrilled. Mack's finally making an honest man out of him."

When Bella turned her head and offered me a smirk over her shoulder, I snickered and gave her a wink. We were laying on the couch, with the lights off, the TV on low, and Bella propped between my legs while we relaxed after a long, loud, boisterous, and enjoyable engagement party.

When she turned back around, she continued the conversation in a teasing tone.

"You should feel sorry for Emmett, Edward. There goes his freedom. He's gonna have the old ball-and-chain holding him down now."

"The old ball-and-chain, huh? We're talking about Mack, right?"

"You don't know her the way I know her," she said in mock seriousness. "That title's going to go straight to her head. There go the boys-nights-out, the poker nights, the let's-go-grab-a-beer-after-work nights."

I nodded with the same bogus severity. "Hmm. All because Mack's going from being his girlfriend to being his wife. And poker nights – did you just get that from the movie we're watching?"

"The point is, within a year of their wedding, Mack 'll be hinting to Emmett that it's time he got rid of that man-bun because it doesn't suit a married man. And those stories he tells? She loves them now, but mark my words; soon, she'll find them too immature for a married man."

"Wow. I never realized Mack was so devious."

When she turned again, I could tell she was trying hard not to laugh.

"Obviously, it's not Mack, per se, Edward. It's the whole marriage thing. Watch; soon you'll be thanking your lucky stars that you've got a girlfriend as opposed to a wife."

"I see. Because I'll get to keep my nonexistent man-bun and continue attending nonexistent poker nights with the boys."

"Exactly."

"Exactly."

She shrieked when I hit her with a couch pillow. But when I flung the pillow to the floor and leaned in closer, she moved in quickly and pressed her lips to mine, hard...and apologetic.

"Edward, you know I love you with my entire being, right?"

At the time, we both knew I would've happily given Bella the one title that encompassed all other titles: girlfriend, mother of my son, lover, best friend, companion, partner, etc. But we'd both been children of bad marriages. We'd both heard and seen things no child should ever hear or see between their parents' love triangles. In my case, what I'd seen had kept me at arm's length of anything approximating a true relationship for a long time. In Bella's case, she'd grown up and married into an even worse marriage than that of her parents'.

So I understood why she wasn't ready, and why, perhaps, she'd never be ready. And yes, though it made some moments bittersweet, such as attending Emmett and Mack's engagement party, I knew Bella's difficulties with the concept of marriage had nothing to do with her love for me. And it wasn't as if it was keeping us from moving forward.

"I do happen to know that. Which is why I keep you around as my girlfriend, as the mother of my son," – flipping us over so that her back was on the long end of the couch and I hovered above her, I punctuated each title with a kiss – "as my lover, as my best friend, as my companion and partner in all things, etcetera, etcetera."

She chuckled softly. "Thanks for keeping me."

"Any time. And by the way, meeting Brady tonight was also interesting."

Bella pursed her lips. "Was it? It couldn't have been as interesting as meeting your ex-girlfriend, Katie-"

"Kate," I chuckled, correcting her and feeling my face heat because I'd only ever called her Katie during our more...intimate moments.

"Whatever -when I was seven months pregnant, on a hot, summer day when we were running errands, and I hadn't even changed out of my ratty shorts and tee-shirt from the night before. And by the way, thanks again for introducing us when I looked about as swollen as a beach ball."

I threw back my head and laughed heartily. "First, how was I supposed to know we were going to bump into her? Second, you looked as amazing as you always do, and Kate was thrilled to meet you, as evidenced by the autograph she hinted for, which by the way, she never received."

I quirked a brow, and Bella snorted. "It's her own fault she didn't get an autograph - for ogling you so openly."

"Unlike Brady," I grinned, "who worked so hard to keep his eyes off of you tonight it was almost comical, especially since he shot me some serious evil eye all night."

Bella's back arched from the force of her chortles. Shoulders still shaking with mirth, she grinned up at me.

"Edward, the reason Brady wasn't looking at me is because he's moved on. He's married again, and now he's just another guy tied down by another ball-and-chain."

"These balls and chains are everywhere."

"Bet you Katie was one."

"Kate. And you're bad."

"Whatever." She snorted. "And if Brady was giving you any sort of evil eye, it was more likely because he was envious of how amazingly good-looking you are since you aren't cursed with a wife."

"Is that what it was? Because I'm man enough to admit he's not a bad-looking guy himself."

Bella turned over and straddled me, while I slid my arms around her hips.

"Brady may be good-looking," she shrugged, "but he doesn't have this head of copper hair that I love pulling." Leaning closer, she raked a hand through my hair and fisted it at the crown, and yeah, every nerve-ending in my body came alive – some nerve-endings more alive than others. "And he doesn't have these translucently green eyes I adore and that I thank God Masen inherited." Her lips brushed one eye, then the other before they skimmed down to my nose…to the bump I'd had for a few years by then. "And unluckily for Brady," she breathed, "he doesn't have this perfectly imperfect, character-building nose that means the world to me for all it represents."

I quirked a brow as she pulled away and held my gaze.

"But what Brady always lacked the most, Edward, was your ability to get me, to know exactly what I need, and when I need it. You weren't really jealous of Brady, were you?"

"Who, me? No. No. Of course not. Not at all." I smirked, but then I cradled her face, while the city lights streamed in through the windows, their reflection dancing in her dark eyes, and I pulled her closer, brushing my lips back and forth against hers.

"Are we done with the distractions?" I murmured. "Calmed down a bit?"

She smiled softly.

"See? You knew the entire time I was talking nonsense because I'm nervous."

"You always talk nonsense when you're nervous."

"Ass."

I chuckled. But no, it wasn't a mundane moment at all.

"Edward…baby, are we…are we really going to try this tonight?"

"Only if you're sure."

She nodded, completely solemn eyes on mine. "I'm ovulating…"

"And we're on our couch."

"We're practically halfway there."

We both chuckled nervously then held one another's gaze. "Bella, if it doesn't work, don't forget what we've discussed about other options."

She slipped her hands through my hair and gripped the short ones at my nape, locking me in her gaze. The moment stretched out between us, one of those butterfly moments, though we still didn't know where it would take us. I pushed a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. When she spoke, the adrenaline now coursing through her made her whispered words shaky and uneven. Yet the conviction in them was loud and indisputable.

"Masen was a miracle, I know, and if it doesn't happen again this way…" she smiled broadly, "we have options…and we have him…and we have one another…Now, Mr. Cullen," she breathed against my mouth, "spill those great, fucking swimmers inside me."

I grinned. "Like you said, we're practically halfway there."

OOOOO

A few months later:

"Ready?"

We leaned side by side on the edge of the bathroom sink. Bella met my eyes with a look of hopeful anticipation made all the more intense by the past few months. My heart raced, and as soon as I nodded, Bella drew in a deep breath, grinned, and picked up the peed-on stick which awaited like an unpinned grenade. When the grin slowly faded and was replaced by a look of utter disillusionment that deepened with every passing month, my racing heart came to a sudden stop.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against my chest. "Bella."

For a long while, we stood silently, gathering strength and support from one another, until Masen's fourteen-month-old gibberish filled the monitor.

"Mama! Dada!"

Bella pulled back and tossed the test into the garbage bin, but I held on to her shoulders.

"Edward, Masen's awake."

"I know, but Bella, maybe we should discuss-"

"Mama!"

Her eyes remained stoically on my chest, her words quick and uncharacteristically curt. "Masen needs his dinner, Edward. Then he needs some playtime so he won't be overexcited or overtired for tonight's book event."

She pulled away and turned toward the bathroom door, and I reached for her hand, sliding my fingers through hers. Gently yet firmly, I tugged her back toward me.

"Bella, stop."

"Edward, you stop."

She shook her head, eyes still on my chest, and when I placed two fingers under her chin, I met a pair of glassy eyes and a quivering bottom lip that made my heart clench.

"Babe…maybe we should start considering our other options."

"Edward…" she choked, "I know this is my fault. I know I've failed you and let you down-"

"What?" I spat, my eyes bulging.

"Dada!"

She blurted the rest in a long, powerful string of words, which even as I tried to interrupt, just kept coming and coming as if the words and the negative emotions attached to them had simply become too much for her to bear. And I was so damn glad she let it out.

"I'm the one with the problem; you're the one with the great fucking swimmers, so it's obviously all me. Plus, I was asking for too much and getting my hopes up too high-"

"Bella-"

"-and after all, we already have Masen, who's the biggest gift we could've ever received-"

"Bella-"

"-and Jay is more like our son than our nephew, and we have one another, and our careers, and-"

"Mama!"

"Bella, stop."

"-and I know I was asking for too much from Life because our lives are amazing as they are. I mean, why was I being greedy and hoping for another-"

"Bella, damn it, stop." I hissed the words fiercely and caged her face firmly between my hands so that her mouth was forced to stop moving, all the while commanding myself to continue this in an even tone, not to lose my head over all the...nonsense she'd just spewed, to think reasonably despite the pain in her eyes and the agony that pain caused me.

"Listen to me. First, you haven't let me down at all. I feel like I'm the one failing you because yeah, with my supposedly great fucking swimmers, I should've been able to get you pregnant by now."

"What? Edward, what kind of convoluted reasoning-"

"Mama! Dada!"

Through the monitor we had in the bathroom, we could hear and see Masen, who was now sitting up in his crib, talking to himself and entertaining himself by exploring his chunky fingers and toes.

"Bella, obviously, you and I have been misunderstanding one..ahh, Jesus." I leaned against the wall and pulled Bella along with me, chest against chest. "Baby, do you remember the day in the coffee shop, before you were a world-famous author," I smiled softly, "when you first told me about your agent, Jessica Stanley, and how she'd arranged a meeting for you with some publishers, but you had no idea who those publishers were?"

Bella nodded slowly. "I remember that day more as the day you and I finally began working things out, when you confessed you'd fallen in love with me That Day in the lobby."

"Yeah," I breathed. "There was that too. But do you remember what else I told you?"

Her brow furrowed, and she shook her head.

"You said you had no idea where it would all lead, but you didn't want to get your hopes up too much…" I swallowed, "because you weren't the type of person who dealt well with disappointment."

"And you asked me if I planned to go through the rest of my life without getting my hopes up too high…"

"Because that wasn't the Bella Swan I'd come to know and love. The Bella Swan who'd faced and overcome so many obstacles. Bella, we're not asking for too much, and neither of us has failed the other. Matter of fact, why do we have to see this as a failure? Maybe it's just a small obstacle to our end goal."

"A hill to scale."

"Exactly," I smiled. "Maybe...we've just become tunnel-visioned in the way we're going about this, but that doesn't mean we should stop hoping, ever," I stressed. "I just don't want the stress of this to begin affecting our health or our relationship."

She held my gaze silently...and nodded.

"I think we've both forgotten that this is just one avenue, my love, one chapter as you've told me a brilliant psychologist once told you. We have other avenues, other options, and so many more chapters before us, and…I think you've forgotten that I'm here with you as your partner to explore them all, no matter where those avenues or chapters lead."

For a few seconds, Bella studied me intently. Then, she reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck, molding her entire body against mine.

"This time is different because I'm not alone, am I?"

Holding her against me, I breathed into her hair. "No, Bella. You're not alone at all."

"Mama! Dada!"

Our titles were followed by more unintelligible gibberish that we couldn't understand but which obviously meant something serious to Masen. When he stood in his crib and began banging on the railing, Bella and I chuckled and straightened.

"I think we've just been violently cursed out," I smirked.

"I think so too." She drew in a deep breath, released it, and smiled, her eyes no longer full of so quite so much disappointment. "We'll figure it out Edward, both of us together. But for now, we'd better go get our son before he calls us more names in his gibberish."

OOOOO

A few weeks later:

"All right, guys, I have good things to report, so we'll go through this part quickly. Edward, the results of your Semen Analysis confirm that you have impressive sperm."

"Oh, brother." Bella chuckled, but I could hear the relief in her voice even as it flooded through me.

Bella and I sat across from Doctor Laurent, our fertility specialist. We held hands and practically vibrated with the anxiety we'd admittedly been feeling since I'd ejaculated into a cup - and to some great mental images of Bella riding me hard.

"You have a very high sperm count," Doctor Laurent continued, professionally unfazed by Bella's aside, "over three hundred million sperm per milliliter, and while a high sperm count doesn't necessarily signal a high chance of fertility, it can't hurt." She snickered before clearing her throat and continuing in a much more clinical manner. "The liquefaction factor of your semen was also very good, as it changed from a gel to a liquid in under fifteen minutes. The morphology of the semen was low, also a good indicator. The motility and velocity of the sperm were admirable."

"Admirable sperm," Bella nodded. "Guess that goes right along with great fucking swimmers," Bella muttered. But she was grinning broadly…and somewhat smugly.

"What was that?" Doctor Laurent asked.

"Nothing, Doctor," I replied, straight-faced, but I may have squared my shoulders just a bit. "Please. Continue. You were up to admirable sperm."

"Yes. The pH balance is within normal limits, and your total semen value, which is the amount of semen a person ejaculates at a time, is at the higher range of normal." Doctor Laurent shut her laptop and knit her hands together over her desk.

"All in all, guys, these are wonderful indicators, and not completely unexpected based on the history you've shared. Isabella, your ex-husband and you tried to have a child for a couple of years, both normally and through intrauterine insemination, correct?"

"Yes, Doctor. We received infertility counseling, where it was discovered that I had abnormally hard-shelled eggs. But my ex-husband's sperm was normal, so we attempted IUI for six cycles, and then we stopped because the cost became prohibitive, and my ex-husband lost interest."

Doctor Laurent nodded, and while the reminder of Jasper Hale and his unending acts of selfishness made my nostrils flare, I reminded myself that had they succeeded, Bella and I would likely not be here. And neither would Masen...or the future child we were hoping for.

"And when you and Edward became sexually involved," the doctor continued, "you had intercourse for one cycle before you became pregnant with your son. Correct?"

"Correct, Doctor," I said. This time, I may have puffed out my chest a couple of inches.

Doctor Laurent watched me, her lips twitching before she cleared her throat yet again and turned her attention to Bella.

"The fact is, Isabella, your condition will always make conception difficult."

When I felt Bella stiffen at my side, I squeezed her hand hard, while all my self-satisfaction from a moment earlier disintegrated.

"Then we'll adopt," I said simply.

But Doctor Laurent put a hand up, palm out. "Let me finish, guys, because you two couldn't have met a more perfect partner with whom to attempt conception. Isabella, from the records that were sent over, I see that your ex-husband's sperm was within the lower range of normal limits. Combined with your fertility difficulties and with the clinical depression you suffered at the time, which affected both your mental and physical health, it meant that his sperm simply wasn't strong enough to overcome all those obstacles. Whereas now, you're in a strong, stable relationship, you're in good physical and mental health, and your partner's sperm is basically the Hercules of sperm."

Though the doctor finished straight-faced, when I looked over at Bella, I couldn't even fight the smug grin. "The Hercules of sperm. Wait 'til I tell Emmett that one."

Bella rolled her eyes. "I'll never hear the end of it."

Even the doctor laughed. "So here's what I recommend," she said once sobered. "You can continue trying to conceive normally. Edward's sperm is fast and strong, and it could happen, as evidenced by your son."

"But?" Bella asked.

"But lightning doesn't tend to strike the same place twice, not even the strongest lightning. And to be perfectly honest, even the fact that it struck that once is pretty amazing. Providence must've been smiling down hard on both of you; the stars were in the right alignment; everything added up perfectly; the egg you ovulated was just ripe for fertilization; your sperm was in fighting mood that month-"

"A butterfly flapped its wings," I grinned.

"Exactly," Doctor Laurent nodded. "And physiologically, Isabella, though you're in great health, you're just at that cut-off age where conception simply becomes more difficult by nature. In my professional opinion, I wouldn't recommend leaving it to chance."

"So, what would you recommend, Doctor?" Bella asked eagerly. "IUI again?"

"Well, we can always try IUI again, which means we'd insert Edward's sperm directly into your uterus. But that procedure is recommended more in cases where the sperm needs help getting to the eggs. In your ex-husband's case, the extra help was justified. In Edward's case, the sperm would almost definitely reach the eggs with no problem."

"It's breaking through the outer shell that's the problem," Bella said.

"Exactly."

I gave Bella's hand another squeeze.

"Though Edward's sperm penetrated one of your eggs, as I said before, it must've fought hard. So, I suggest we make things a bit easier by injecting the sperm directly into your eggs."

"You mean in-vitro?" I asked.

Doctor Laurent nodded. "Yes. In-vitro. It's a more invasive form of fertility treatment."

"Would it be safe for Bella and her eggs?" I asked.

Doctor Laurent nodded. "It's a safe procedure, and the success rate is double that of IUI, and with a little luck, her eggs and your sperm will form a viable embryo."

"It's also much more expensive than IUI," Bella pointed out. "Plus the medications and the monitoring…at the time, I was only able to afford one cycle."

"It can be cost-prohibitive," Doctor Laurent acknowledged, "especially if it doesn't take on the first cycle. Unfortunately, life isn't always fair."

I swept my eyes to Bella. "But neither is it unfair."

Bella drew in a deep breath and offered me a tentative smile. "No. It's not."

"We're lucky, Bella."

"We are."

After a few moments, the doctor clapped her hands and reclaimed our attention.

"All right, guys. Let's schedule you in and see what happens!"

A/N: Thoughts?

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