THE HER AGENCY

Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.

The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.

Esme, especially, thought that was a good idea and asked to help with the project. And, Charlie, without knowing what Bella and Edward had decided to do about Alice, suggested to put Alice's talents towards helping with the project as well.

CHAPTER 41: TIME MOVES ON

(TIME JUMPS THROUGHOUT THE CHAPTER)

Alice had taken the news fairly well when Bella and Edward had told her that she could plan the baby shower, but to keep her hands off planning their wedding or anything else unless she was asked to help. However, when she was told about Bella's plans for the furniture and how she wanted to use Herndon House, Alice started bouncing like the energizer bunny gone crazy.

She begged to be allowed to handle turning the furniture over to a good auction house and converting the house into what Bella had envisioned the house to be and wanted. But to teach her beloved sister a lesson, Bella left not telling Alice her decision about Esme and Alice working together in converting the house.

Alice kept nagging and nagging until Bella told her to shut the hell up or she wouldn't even be able to plan the baby shower when it was time. That threat did finally get through to dear Alice. After that threat she left Bella along unless it had to do with any necessary decision concerning the baby shower. But, once again Bella reminded Alice that the baby shower was still a few months away and not everything had to be decided all at one time.

"But, Bella, you know that I like to have everything all planned out so there are no last-minute surprises. Or, at least, we have time to make any unexpected changes if it becomes necessary." Alice couldn't help to mention her opinion.

However, Bella's only comment was, "there was plenty of time for everything to fall into place."

After that little bit of conversation, the subject wasn't broached again, and everyone continued with their normal activities. Rosalie continued with her modeling career, Alice spread her time between her designing business, and the trips she made to Paris. Then after Bella had informed Alice that she would be dealing with the auctioning of the furniture left behind and helping Esme with the remodeling of the Herndon House after Bella had moved into Edward's home. With that news Alice was floating on cloud nine and full of all kinds of plans and designs. It was to the extent that Bella felt she had to warn Esme about how excessive Alice could get.

Emmett returned to his normal business of dealing with his enterprise of the gyms he owned through the country. Since he no longer had to pretend to be Edward's agent, Emmett felt a lot freer returning to the life he was the most comfortable. Then he and Rosalie were together a lot more in their spare time.

Edward did another movie project, but it didn't involve any location work this time. He wanted to stay close to Bella since she was blossoming even though she was continuing to work. However, as she did get further along in her pregnancy, she did have to start delegating the trips more since she was told flying was becoming less of an option for her.

Bella and Edward were busy trying to find a house that they both wanted. In their minds it had to be just right for the raising of a family that gave the peace and quiet that they needed away from the rest of the world so they could be normal individuals.

At first, Alice did try to help with suggestions, but was quickly stopped by Jasper before she had a chance of upsetting Bella or Edward. He lovingly reminded Alice about what Bella and Edward had said about her trying to do anything else other than what had been agreed upon unless she was asked to help with more.

Of course, Alice wasn't happy about the situation, but knew that she couldn't do anything about it. That she had to accept the limitations that had been placed upon her or she would lose whatever small part she had. And, it was during this time that Jasper gave his Alice something else to think about; he proposed to her and she accepted. So, she had her own wedding to plan as well as continuing with everything else that she had been allowed to be involved in.

After asking Alice to marry him, Jasper took a couple of days off to make a trip, unbeknownst to anyone, especially Alice, to speak with Charlie. He wanted to ask properly for Charlie's blessing to marry Alice, and at the same time to reassure Charlie that he would be taking good care of Alice. No one else had been told of the upcoming marriage as yet and Jasper wanted Alice to keep it that way for the moment.

Charlie told Jasper, "Son, you don't need my blessing to marry our Alice, but you'll have it as long as you love and cherish her as she deserves. Now, I'm not stupid enough to think that she won't try to lead you around by the nose if she gets the chance. And, I'm not going to tell you how to conduct your lives. However, I am going to tell you to always be a man and to let Alice be the woman she is meant to be." And, with that said Charlie shook Jasper's hand and the two men sat and talked into the wee hours of the morning about everything they could think of.

XXXXXX

Alice threw the biggest dinner party that she could for all of her family, friends and associates to announce her upcoming marriage. In a way the news came as a surprise, but only because of the suddenness of it and the fact that Alice wasn't planning to have a long, drawn-out engagement before getting married. She wanted the event to take place within two weeks of the party and all that attended the dinner party were also the invited guests for the wedding.

Then it was announced that after Alice and Jasper returned from their honeymoon that Bella's baby shower was going to be held. All the weeks of planning were finally going to be completed even though Edward and Bella hadn't found a house that seemed to suit what they both wanted. Alice knew that both Edward and Bella would make things work in the end. She had faith in that fact.

Bella, Edward, Rosalie and Emmett wasted no time telling the newly engaged couple how happy they were for them. Best wishes were offered and then Bella and Rosalie offered their assistance in helping Alice arrange her wedding. But the offer was refused since Alice let them know that she had the event planned and that she had had it planned since she was nine years old.

She went even further to explain that she has had her wedding dress ready since first meeting Jasper in Seattle and her return at that time to L. A. That in fact she had the invitations and everything else printed and ready. "That is why I'm able to go ahead and have the wedding take place in such a short period of time. The only thing that I couldn't do was book the venue."

"Damn, Alice! I don't know what else to say. You've surprised me. You were that sure of a relationship developing between you and Jasper?" Bella asked of her sister.

"You betcha! I knew the moment I saw him in the hotel in Seattle." Alice responded with delight and excitement.

The party was a success, and everyone was happy for Alice and Jasper. All of the guests made sure to let the newly engaged couple know that they would definitely be attending the upcoming ceremony for the couple. That is as soon as the venue had been decided upon.

XXXXXX

Edward and Bella were on the way home from the engagement party with a comfortable silence existing between them at that moment when suddenly Bella screamed. Poor Edward immediately slammed on the brakes hard enough that both he and Bella would have pitched into the windshield if it hadn't been for the fact that both were wearing their seatbelts.

"What's wrong? Something wrong with the baby? Bella what happened? What caused you to yell like that?" Edward had been so frightened that he didn't realize that he kept firing question after question toward Bella without giving her a chance to answer. Another thing Edward had forgotten about due to the fright he had just received was the fact that he was still buckled in his seat and that was why he wasn't able to reach Bella at the moment.

And, Bella, after the initial shock of being almost thrown through the windshield had begun to wear off, she started out giggling at first, but it didn't take long before she was in full-blown laughter. She was in a bit of a state of shock herself due to Edward's reactions that she was incapable for the moment to do anything else but laugh. And, she began to laugh even harder as she observed Edward fighting to get his seatbelt unfastened so he could get over to Bella.

Finally, Bella began to gain control enough to ask, "What is wrong with you? You could have killed us hitting the brakes so hard as you did. It could have sent the car into a spin which could have led into us crashing into another vehicle or a solid object." She started berating him due to the stress caused by Edward's unexpected actions.

"Sweetheart, your sudden scream scared me. In fact, I still don't know why you screamed. Are you in pain? Do I need to take you to the hospital?" And, as Edward began his questioning once more, Bella was beginning to shake her head no in answer to each question he was starting to ask. It was those movements of hers that caught his attention and halted all of the other questions he was about to continue asking. "Okay. I'll stop asking questions, but please tell me why you screamed like you did?"

"Edward, I didn't scream in pain, but in surprise. The house that we've commented on several times is now up for sale. I want to see it."

Edward looked at Bella like she had lost her mind but knew the house she had mentioned and thought that, indeed, it was worth looking in to. So, he made a mental note to self to call their realtor in the morning so a viewing could be arranged.

XXXXXX

Bella was now eight months pregnant and along with Edward, they were both looking forward to the birth of the baby. She and Edward had decided not to find out the sex of their baby and wanted it to be a surprise. So, they had a name picked out for a boy and a girl.

Jasper and Alice did have their wedding and honeymoon without a single hitch and then true to her promise, the baby shower happened. Everything that a child could need or want was gifted to Bella and Edward. Even, people that weren't invited to the shower sent gifts for the baby. Bella spent time in her evenings writing 'thank you' notes. And, as it turned out, some of Edward's fans sent baby gifts. Bella took the time to send a message to those people and had Edward to add a small personal note as well just to let the fan feel a bit special for their thoughtfulness.

Bella still went into the office and kept in constant contact with Mr. Babcock at The Male Agency. Business was moving along smoothly at each agency and Bella was delegating even more to her staff the closer she got to her due date. And, traveling was totally out of the question until after the baby was born.

The house that Bella saw the night of Alice's and Jasper's engagement party turned out to be everything that both Bella and Edward wanted. So, they made an offer quickly and it was accepted without hesitation. Of course, it needed some work done before they could move in, but while that was being attended to Edward put his house on the market which was sold quickly. However, Edward made it part of the sale that his house wouldn't be available immediately; not until the new house was ready for a move in.

XXXXXX

Once Alice had returned from her honeymoon, she had gotten together with Esme to sit up a time to be able to go through Herndon House to do an inventory of the furniture and get ideas of how to remodel the house for the purpose that Bella wanted done.

But first the baby shower had to take place along with getting Bella ready to move into Edward's house. The move in with Edward didn't take place immediately since both Bella and Edward had to clear their schedules to be able to get the move done. However, it did take place with no problems and everyone made sure that Bella had very little to do during the move. She did what she did best and that was to give orders of what went, what stayed and then at Edward's place of where she wanted everything placed.

Bella didn't like that very much, but Edward did get her to comply. Everyone was making sure that she was going to take things with as little stress as possible.

Then when the new house was ready the same sort of thing applied. Bella gave the orders and others carried out the instructions. She wasn't allowed to lift or move anything other than herself.

Two nights after moving into their new home, Bella woke Edward up in the middle of the night telling him about her aching back and the tight cramps around her mid-section. He called his dad and then got dressed to take Bella to the hospital. It was too early for the baby to be born so they needed to find out what the problem might be.

During the time that Edward was making his phone call and getting dressed, Bella had gone to the bathroom to get ready. So, after he was dressed, he assumed that Bella had gone downstairs and was waiting for him.

He grabbed her packed bag, rushed down the stairs to look for her, but not finding her he went out to the car. Still no Bella. That was when panic sat in and he knew he needed to find her. So, Edward rushed back into the house to begin a search of both the lower floor and then the upper. That was when he found her sitting on the side of the bed waiting for him to appear.

Once they were on the way to the hospital the pains increased in intensity, but as they arrived at the hospital a nurse with a wheelchair was waiting to take Bella inside. Carlisle had called ahead, and everyone had been alerted to be on standby.

Six hours late Bella and Edward welcome their newborn into the world.

A/N: Sorry it has taken me longer than usual to get this chapter posted. Any guesses as to what gender the baby is?

Reviews and comments are always welcome and hope you'll take the time to let me know what you think. We have just the epi left to say goodbye to this story.