A/N: How is it already SEPTEMBER?!

I love Cece. There's a wild Cecilia in my docs.

Esme Cullen was a physical kind of person. Bella had known that as long as she'd known the woman. The first day Alice dragged her home, Esme had hugged her as though she were another of her children.

Charlie wasn't a demonstrative person by nature. Add to that the fact his job took so much of his time, the only kind of parental affection Bella was used to was a distracted peck on the cheek; maybe a hair ruffle.

Still, as they sat around the Cullen's kitchen table—Bella, Edward, Esme, and Carlisle—Bella didn't pull away when Esme first reached out to press a hand to her shoulder. As they explained everything that had happened since the day they met, Esme began to stroke Bella's hair.

Though Bella tended to be suspicious of that kind of touch, feeling as though she were being pitied or placated, she couldn't doubt the sincerity of Esme's concern. Her touch was soft with genuine tenderness, and Bella found herself leaning into it rather than cringing away.

She was being mothered.

Giving in to an urge, Bella tilted her head tentatively and rested it on Esme's shoulder. She exhaled a long, slow breath, soothed.

Her eyes found Edward's. There was something inquisitive in his look. She thought the small purse of his lips seemed rueful somehow. She smiled, reflecting on the conversation they'd had once. She knew he found it as difficult as she did to accept affection like this. They were cut from the same cloth.

Soulmates.

He'd told her once that first day out of prison was the only time he could remember it being easy to let his mother pet him. Maybe one day it wouldn't take prison or the stress of being assaulted and jailed for either of them to enjoy tender, parental affection.

But then, Esme was the kind of person who should be anyone's exception. It was impossible to doubt the sincerity of her empathy. It was why Bella had felt comfortable with her within minutes of Alice introducing them years ago.

"What a perfect mess," Esme said with a sigh. "You know what they say about good intentions and the road to hell."

"Good intentions." Edward scoffed.

Esme frowned but it was Carlisle who answered, his hand on Edward's shoulder and his eyes on Bella. "You know your father better than I do, and it doesn't excuse that he did a terrible thing, but I don't think he did it out of maliciousness, a desire to hurt you or see you hurt."

Bella wrapped her arms around herself. "No, I don't think he was trying to hurt me. I don't think he was thinking about me at all. Having me as a daughter hasn't done him any favors politically. He's made that clear to me all my life. I think he was trying to save himself the political fallout of his daughter's soulmate being a reformed felon." As she spoke, she reached across the table, palm up. Edward's features had begun to tighten, but when he put his hand in hers, his posture eased.

"What he did was terrible," Esme said, again running her fingers through Bella's hair.

"But," Edward prompted.

Esme smiled at her son. "But, the soulmate sentence… It does a number on parents too." She laughed and shook her head. "You watch your children grow up knowing there are going to be people in their lives of course. But the soulmate thing is different. So real. So tangible. And yet not. It's a promise there's a person out there who's destined to have a huge impact on your child's life—good or bad. An inescapable someone.

"Emmett's soulmate sentence plagued me all his life." She laughed again, this one with much more mirth. "Let's fuck."

Bella balked. Not because she found the sentence so terrible but because she'd never heard Esme swear.

"I'm very much against sex shaming. There's nothing wrong with casual sex," Esme said. "But as the very first thing your soulmate says to you?"

"And I can guess having to explain that, tell a kid like Emmett what his soulmate sentence was when it was so X-rated, must have been fun," Edward said, smiling too.

"Well. There's part of my point. I did lie to Emmett when he was younger." She put a hand to her chest. "If someone had said that to my precious little boy…" She shook her head hard. "But you can see how easily a parent can justify deceiving their child."

"But you did tell him," Edward spoke again. "When he was still young. As soon as you reasonably could."

"Yes," Esme said the word slowly, drawing it out. She glanced at Carlisle. "But it was a near thing, and I didn't know for years if I'd made the right choice. Emmett was still so young. Teenagers and sex." She waved a hand in the air. "And Emmett being Emmett.

"I still don't know what happened when they met. And that's okay, of course. It's none of my business. But we're Emmett's parents. For the whole thirty some years before we knew for a fact everything worked out, this person was, at worst, a danger to our young son and at best a strong potential for heartbreak. It drives you crazy—the wondering."

"It's not to say your father was right," Carlisle said, his tone always gentle. "He was wrong to try to manipulate and control your life the way he did. And I'm sure the impact on his public image is a factor in what he did, but it's also possible he was trying to protect you on some level, wasn't it?"

Bella was quiet. Edward squeezed her hand in silent solidarity.

"In any event. You're together now." Esme patted their joined hands. "Everything else will work out with time."

~0~

Bella believed Esme when she said everything would work out. Mostly. She mostly believed that her lawyers and her father's influence would be enough to keep her out of prison. She was both innocent and privileged. That ought to be enough. With her luck…

But she couldn't do anything about that. Just one more thing out of her control. But whatever would be would be; it was out of her control.

Not that anything was in her control these days. No control over the fate of her freedom. No control over what the media said about her, and worse—the stories they were beginning to make up about why Edward was in a cast. As her father had predicted, she couldn't control the fact Edward was recently released from prison was making this story—already a clusterfuck of epic proportions—much bigger than it needed to be. She couldn't control that his employers were nervous. So far, the press and the public hadn't found out where he worked, but it was a matter of time.

Her father's political life was in a tailspin too. Bella was inclined not to care. He could take some of his own advice about not whining when it was a mess of his own making. Something might be said about the loss to his constituents, but Bella couldn't care about that either. She was more irritated that she was caught up in the narrative; Charlie's political life and the public statements he'd released inevitably invited more scrutiny on everyone else Bella loved—Edward, the rest of the Cullens.

It was all out of her control. Her life was a series of question marks.

Searching for something she could do, a problem she could fix, Bella decided to meddle. Which was how, while Edward was at work, she found herself in the Cullen's living room with Alice and Jasper as moral support.

"You're about to go out of your skin," Alice, sitting in a recliner, mostly on Jasper's lap, said. She shook her head. "What are you so worried about? It's just Emmett. You know Rosalie is the one with all the bite in that relationship."

"Rosalie," Bella muttered under her breath. "I'm trying to decide if I'm regressing."

"Regressing?"

"Jacob used to do this kind of thing." Bella brought her socked feet up onto the couch. "If some other asshole so much as looked at me wrong, he'd go to the guy's girlfriend and tell her she better rein her guy in before he had to kick some ass." Bella rolled her eyes.

"Are you going to threaten to kick Rosalie's ass?" Jasper grinned.

"Of course not." Bella pressed her lips together. "I just don't want to be who I was back then. That's all I've been trying to do for all these years. To grow past all that."

"There's a big difference between standing up for your man and being a possessive asshole," Alice said.

"Seems to me this is all more grown up than most grown ups." Jasper winked. They'd already talked about how awkward this all felt—confronting Emmett who was a full grown adult whereas they all still felt like kids at times. "People let things fester and build. Better to clear the air. All this tiptoeing around when none of us can avoid each other has been ridiculous."

"And I think it's fine that you're going to Emmett instead of Rosalie in this case," Alice said. "Rose has had an awful time with everything. What it took to have Henry. A difficult pregnancy. The trauma of his birth? And she's been off since then. PTSD maybe? You'd be the asshole if you went at her guns blazing. But it's not right that she's taking all her anger and fear out on Edward. He's an easy target for her."

"I think you and Emmett want the same thing," Jasper said. "You've been a part of this family for a while now. It's a good time, when everyone's getting along."

"It's hard for Emmett to be so serious all the time," Alice said with a laugh.

"Well, it's his wife who's making things all awkward." Bella crossed her arms over her chest. "Edward didn't do anything to anyone."

"Hey, she knows that."

Bella shot up straight at the sound of Emmett's booming voice, heart pounding, already on the defensive. But there was no anger in his voice or his face. He flopped down on the sofa like he was thirteen instead of nearing forty, little Henry cradled in his arms. He set the baby down on the cushion between them. The baby waved his arms in the air, bouncing. Emmett chuckled, giving his son's wispy hair a ruffle before he looked up at Bella. "This is on her. We both know that."

Bella opened her mouth, but every argument she had ready died on her lips when she realized he'd agreed with her right off. "Oh."

Emmett's grinned widened but then his expression grew more serious. "Honestly, B, I thought you of all people would understand."

"What do you mean?"

"We've talked about it before. Therapy." He rubbed the back of his neck and huffed. "The self-aware stuff is a bitch, right? Figuring out why we do the irrational things we do?'

"But it doesn't stop us from being irrational," Bella said. She remembered the conversation. It had been the first time she bonded with Alice's big brother. What a surprise it had been that he understood therapy; that it wasn't a cure but that it gave you the tools to cope.

"Rosie's self-centered. You don't have to tell me that. We all have our things." He shrugged. "Kind of ironic, really. She and Edward are so similar. They should get along so well." He looked at Bella again. "With the background Rose came from, it's hard for her to trust anyone. Not unlike Edward who still doesn't quite trust us, right? But anyway, it was hard to get her to trust me, to believe that maybe this whole soulmate thing meant enough for her to try getting close to someone. But, she took a chance on me. And then, I came with this package. I mean, just that pushy little freak over there." He winked at Alice who grinned back at her big brother.

"So it was a struggle." Emmett grimaced. "And then, we had… I mean, you guys knew we were trying to have a baby for a long time. That whole thing, infertility… It sucks, man. It just sucks. It does a number on your head. And we had a few losses early on."

"Oh," Bella said on a breath. "I'm sorry."

Emmett nodded. "It was hard. It is hard." He reached out and scooped his cooing little boy into his arms again, giving him a hug. "Then, it looked like this little guy was going to try to stick around. Our whole life, everything was wrapped around making this work. Every thought. Everything we did. That was hard too. Worrying and concentrating. Hoping.

"All of this is just bad timing. Things always have to hit all at once, don't they? Can't ever just deal with one thing at a time. Rosie wanted everyone's concentration, everyone's focus on Henry. Every hope. Every prayer. But then, Edward's parole hearing came up."

"Everyone's attention was split," Bella said, putting the pieces together.

"And Rose started having problems with the pregnancy right as everyone was planning for Edward to come home," Emmett said, nodding. "Being a mom is the only thing Rose always knew she wanted. Everything else she's accomplished… She'd have given all of it up to have a baby, and the way it went wasn't anything like she'd imagined all her life. She was angry. And scared. Edward was there. That's all it took."

"That sucks, Em. He's not a punching bag. He doesn't deserve that."

"That's what I'm saying. I agree. She agrees. We both know where her anger really comes from." He shrugged. "It'd be great if we could just shut it off, but that's not how it works."

"Your brother doesn't feel like he belongs here. He doesn't feel like he belongs with his own family, and Rose just reinforces that. We're all supposed to be okay with it because, deep down, Rose knows she's out of line? Some of the things she said to him, Em. He's never hurt her, but she gets to hurt him?"

To her annoyance, Emmett burst out laughing. She narrowed her eyes, but he held up a hand to stop her words. "Man, you don't know how glad I am this whole thing worked out between the two of you. I know you belonged to Alice first, but now we get you for holidays and everything." He laughed again. "It's good Edward has you to watch his back. A soulmate. That's what it takes for a guy like Edward to let someone take care of him. I'm telling you, he and Rose are so alike."

"Emmett—"

"I did call him, B. Or I tried. I texted too. He said it was fine." Emmett rolled his eyes. "It's not fine. The things she said weren't okay."

"But you never say that in the moment. You don't stand up for your brother."

"Yeah." Emmett bounced Henry on his knee, studying him a beat. "We've been over this, kid. She's my wife. I gotta be on her side first. It's not that she was right to hurt Edward. But she was scared. Rose is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. The idea after all the things she's been through, all the loss and the horrible things that have happened in her life, with her ex and with everything, she might be able to get her happily ever after?" He smirked and pointed at himself. "Hella hot husband who actually cares about her." He squeezed Henry. "And our cute kid, healthy and thriving now? She's terrified. She knows everything there is to know about things like SIDS; how we could put him to bed one night and he just doesn't wake up. Kids fall. Henry isn't the first baby to get dropped. Mostly, it's fine, but there's always that chance. The paranoia got the better of her, and yeah, that was more important to me than Edward's feelings the other day."

As he spoke, Emmett scooted closer on the couch. He set Henry in Bella's arms, chuckling at her startled expression. She adjusted her arms around the baby, and he flashed a miniature version of his father's grin at her—all dimples. She ran her fingers through the tangle of dark curls that had begun to pop up along his scalp, her spiky feelings gentling. He was precious.

"Your story, and Edward's, are pretty intense right now," Emmett said. "With everything going on with you and the press. Whatever that mess is all about. And Edward still trying to figure out how he fits in after being out of the world for the last six years? But this is our story. Mine and Rose's. The plot's a lot different, but it's still intense to us."

"I get that," Bella murmured, bouncing the baby in her arms. And she did. The fear for her child, the fear that something would go wrong, hadn't set in until the moment something had gone terribly, irrevocably wrong. In the hospital, she'd only had an hour of waiting for the other shoe to drop before it did. It had to be such a watered down echo compared to what they'd been through—years and losses and trauma.

And the anger. The anger that had nowhere to go.

She glanced at Emmett. "It's still not fair. And it's not an excuse."

Emmett nodded. "We're working on it." He huffed. "That's what we were doing here the other day. We wanted to be here to support both of you through whatever the hell this mess is." He patted Bella's shoulder. "She feels horrible about his wrist.

"Ya know, B, she's right about one thing. Edward's done his share of damage to this family. You weren't around when it was him who was so angry. And, come on, you want to talk about irrational behavior? How about embezzling from a well-paying job? He was going places. He doesn't exactly come from nothing." Emmett gestured around them.

"Anyway. Like I said, we're working on it. I'll keep talking Rosie through it, and you keep working on Edward. I'll bet we can convince them both they belong in this family, together, eventually." He chuckled. "We'll get them there."

"Deal."

~0~

Bella was going to combust.

No. Combust wasn't the right word. Combust was too quick. What she felt was no explosion. It was more like one of those mine-fires that would burn for years, decades. An underground fire, flames licking at the surface but contained by her skin.

She burned for Edward; was consumed by what she felt for him. But this—what he was doing to her right then, what they were doing together, was going to leave her in a pile of ash.

She'd found, shoved into his closet, a space-age looking chair that sat directly on the floor. It looked like it had been taken from a fighter jet, made to lounge back, slightly reclined. It was a gaming chair, Edward explained. He told her a sweet story about being a teenager with Emmett and how they would play video games together, razzing each other as they raced or battled or directed their pixelated sports teams.

Bella, however, could think of a few more uses for such a chair. She'd climbed on his lap and started kissing along his jaw. Thus had begun this slow burn. She sat backward on the chair, one knee on either side of him. His hands were under her shirt, his fingertips tracing across her skin leaving heat in their wake. His lips moved with hers, his tongue tracing the shape their mouths made together. He made tiny little noises—sighs and moans that threatened to send her out of her mind.

When she felt him harden beneath his jeans, she'd begun to move over him, bucking her hips up against his, moaning when he rose to meet her. Her fingers, tangled in his hair, gave it a little tug and he gasped into her mouth. The friction as she slid over him, against him, was so delicious; yet another fire waiting to be sparked.

He'd undone her bra, and the fingers of his good hand were teasing along the swell of her breasts when there was a knock at the door. "Edward? Bella?"

Breaking their kiss with a gasp, Bella swallowed hard, and Edward growled under his breath. They both panted a moment, foreheads pressed together, breathing in each other's air. "Just a…" Edward cleared his throat, trying to smooth the gravel in his voice no doubt. "What is it, Mom?" He sucked in a breath, grabbing her by one shoulder to stop her from wiggling.

Bella bit her lip, trying to keep from giggling. What a ridiculous situation to find themselves in. Were they teenagers again?

"There's someone here to see Bella."

That caught Bella's attention. She furrowed her brow.

"Who is it?" Edward called, as tense as she was.

"He says he's her public relations representative? Actually, he said he was here for both of you."

They stared at each other. "Charlie," Bella hissed under her breath. She scrambled off Edward's lap and offered him a hand to pull him to his feet. "Let's get this over with."

A/N: What NOW, Charlie?!

I'll see you guys as soon as I can.