Chapter 36 – Whatever It Takes

Bella

I had no idea how long I actually slept for, but it wasn't nearly long enough. The only thing that could have ever made me wake up that soon, and actually get out of bed at all, was knowing that my daughter was right in the next room.

"She's still sleeping," Edward mumbled as I pulled on my shirt.

"How do you know?" I asked while looking over at the clock. It was eight thirty AM, and with her going to bed so early the night before, there was no way she was still sleeping.

"Because she's being quiet. She's never quiet in the mornings," he explained groggily.

He was lying on his stomach with his head turned towards me, but his eyes remained closed and he hadn't moved through our entire micro-conversation.

I leaned down to stroke his hair and kiss his temple. "I honestly don't know how I'm ever going to leave here," I whispered, mostly to myself.

"Then don't," he said simply.

God, he was beautiful. Everything about him – his face, his hair, his body, even his voice was just perfect. I wanted nothing more than to just melt into him and never be separated from him, but we did have some important things to discuss, and taking advantage of Bree's stillness was necessary.

"Edward, why were you so distant yesterday?" I asked hesitantly, and felt stupid about the question the moment it escaped my lips. We had only met once before, over a decade prior; it was ridiculous for me to think he'd just want to act like a couple right away. But the question was already out there and I had no idea how to take it back.

He rolled onto his back and finally opened his eyes to look at me, and then he smiled crookedly. "How else could we have made it through the day? If I got too close, I'd want to kiss you, and do you honestly think that if I kissed you again I would've been able to stop?"

I giggled and immediately felt worlds better. "I suppose not."

"Besides," he continued, but paused briefly to rub and kiss my leg which was right by his face. "I wasn't about to assume you were unattached and wanting more. I practically forced myself on you yesterday morning; you could have been with someone for all I knew."

"You did not force yourself on me. That kiss," I leaned over to kiss his lips tenderly. "Was unexpected, but definitely welcomed."

"So, you're not married, or engaged, or otherwise dating anyone in anyway?" he asked while caressing his hand upwards towards my thigh.

I giggled again, and then shook my head no. "How about you?"

He shrugged.

"Is that a yes?" I asked incredulously. "You have a girlfriend?"

"I don't know, will you be my girlfriend?" he asked unexpectedly.

I smiled widely. "Aren't we rushing this again? We should probably go on a date before we commit to titles like girlfriend and boyfriend," I joked.

"I completely disagree. Getting married this morning would be rushing things… But, maybe rushing things isn't such a bad idea."

"Because it worked so well for us the last time."

"It actually did. Bree's perfect."

"True," I agreed. "Well, then I suppose the place we went wrong was ever separating at all."

"At least we both know where each other lives now, and we have a daughter to share, so we're pretty much stuck in each other's lives for now on. You can't escape me again," he said playfully. "I've been to war since the last time you got away; my stalking skills have definitely improved."

His tone was light, but his words made my heart ache. "I read about your deployment in some magazine. That must have been terrifying," I said to him quietly.

"It wasn't the worst thing I ever experienced."

"It wasn't?" I asked surprised.

"Nah…" He scooted even closer to me so he could rest his head in my lap, and then he hugged my torso and kissed my stomach before looking back up at me. "I went there to hide from the pain of losing you. It never worked."

My breath caught. Had he really joined the military because of me? I never felt so guilty of anything in all my life, and yet, it somehow just made me trust in our connection even more. "We still don't know each other," I whispered.

"It doesn't matter," he said unfazed. "Nothing could ever make me not love you. Even for the brief moment when I thought you were a wretched greedy bitch that didn't give a shit about our baby, I still loved you."

I raised my brows and laughed once. I doubted there was another man on the planet that could use the words 'wretched' and 'bitch' and still be that dazzling. Even his casual use of the L word felt exactly right. We didn't need some dramatic speech about love to say it for the first time. Like everything else with us, it just flowed out like a natural part of our existence.

"Well, I'd love you even if you had a lavish amount of disgusting STDs that you got from your hundreds of groupies," I told him.

He looked at me with mock offense. "I do not have hundreds of groupies… I have thousands."

"Okay, I'm going to need all of their names and numbers so I can tell them to go fuck around with some other rock star then, because you belong to me now."

He shook his head. "Baby, I've belonged to you since the first moment I ever saw you. I've been celibate for eleven years as I've waited for you to return to me, so you can trust me when I tell you that other women will never be a problem for us."

I bit my bottom lip and tried to keep myself from blushing, but it was of no use. Edward had been waiting for me all along, and despite his superstar status and being surrounded by the most beautiful women in the world, he only wanted me. It was definitely surrealistic in the best possible way. "Well, up until last night, I had only ever had sex one time, so you are literally the only person I have ever been with."

He raised his brows in surprise. "I found you once...years ago. You were working in a different cafe, but by the time I went back to ask about you, they said you were away with your boyfriend."

"I've made so many horrible mistakes," I mumbled while shaking my head. "I've never had a boyfriend. They were talking about my old roommate, Jacob. He's gay, but he never told his family so I sort of posed as his girlfriend for a while. If I never did that, maybe we would have found each other sooner. If I only met you that day at the park, none of this would have happened. Bree would have never suffered," I said emotionally. I didn't want to focus on the pains of our history when I was so blissfully happy in the present, but my guilt was like a volcano, and sometimes it just needed to erupt.

"Hey," he murmured while sitting up so he could wrap his arms around me. "Everyone makes mistakes. You were young and you believed your father. None of that matters anymore and I know for a fact that Bree doesn't want to dwell on the past either. What matters now is that we are together, and we are going to do whatever it takes to stay that way."

I let him hold me for a while, but then a playful thought came to me. "Maybe we shouldn't risk it then. I mean, what's the point of waiting when we've already been waiting for so long? Let's just throw caution to the wind and get married today." I meant it as a joke – sort of –but he didn't seem to take it as one.

"Okay. Let's get Bree ready and head down to the courthouse before the lines get too long."

I had no idea how serious he was, but I was going to go with it for as long as he was. "Alright, I'm going to get dressed."

"Okay," he said with a grin. A grin that I still didn't know well enough to tell if it was serious or the joking kind.

When we were both dressed, in our very non-formal /non-wedding-ish attire, we went to peek in on Bree, but she wasn't in her room.

As a new mother, my first thought was to panic. Edward, on the other hand, was cool as a cucumber. He just walked straight into the kitchen and there she was, covered in flour.

"You're awake!" she said excitedly. "I was just making breakfast."

I was immediately flooded with relief, and then I got excited too. I had cooked with my mom when I was little, and I couldn't wait to cook with my daughter.

Edward must have realized, or perhaps even remembered, just how important it was for me to have that bonding experience with her, so he basically took a step back and let us have that time.

It looked as though they had just made pancakes the morning before, but Bree insisted it was her favorite breakfast so that's what we made. She was so excited to learn new ways of cooking them and all the various toppings that I liked to use, and then the three of us sat and ate our first meal at home together.

"Are you going to live here with us now?" Bree asked me as we were finishing up.

"Uh…"

"Yes, she is," Edward answered for me.

"Are you going to get married?" she asked eagerly.

"Yep," Edward answered immediately. "In about an hour," he said without a trace of humor.

"Really?" she shouted. "We're really going to be a real real family?"

"Yeah, so go get ready to go," Edward told her. She jumped right up and then ran to her room, and Edward used her absence to grin at me. "I really hope you weren't joking before, because now she's all excited."

I giggled. "I guess we have to do it then. I mean, what kind of parents would we be if we disappointed her so soon after getting her back."

"You know, I don't believe in divorce either," he told me straight faced. "It's all or nothing."

I bit my bottom lip. "Well, I guess we should go for the 'all' then."

So that was exactly what we did. As soon as Bree was ready, we headed down to the courthouse. Luckily, we were able to get our marriage license and actually get married the same day, and less than two hours later, we were official.

It all happened so fast that I wasn't even sure if I believed it, but the three of us were beyond thrilled, and the fairy tale wasn't anywhere near over. After the documents were all signed making us legally married, we stopped by a jewelry store and Edward insisted that I pick out a wedding set. At first I wanted something small, but he wasn't really happy with my choice so Bree stepped in and picked one of the biggest rings there, which Edward readily agreed. And it was beautiful, just way more extravagant than I had ever imagined. Then again, with what he did for a living, I could see how his wife having a small ring would look odd. He also bought a matching band for himself, and a gorgeous necklace for Bree. Then the three of us went back home to celebrate privately.

Bree went and got her iPod, and she attached it to the speakers in the living room and made Edward and I have our first dance as husband and wife. Of course, it was our first dance with each other at all, and I learned that he was an amazing dancer at the same time he learned that I wasn't. But neither of us cared, we just laughed and kissed and were so in love that nothing was going to get us down. Edward also danced with Bree, and I danced with Bree, and the three of us danced together, and I could honestly say it was the best morning of my entire life. But then we had some unexpected wedding crashers…

"Sorry, no soliciting," Edward said when he opened the door, and then he shut the door in whoever's face that was there. But they obviously weren't happy about it because they came inside anyway.

"Where the hell have you been?" a man shouted at him. "We've been trying to get a hold of you for two days now. We thought you took off. What the hell happened with the hearing?"

I was sitting on the living room in a place where they couldn't see me, but Bree got up to happily greet them. "Hi Jasper. Hi Emmett!"

"Hey, munchkin! I thought you'd be with your mom," one of them said carefully.

"I am. She's here, and they just got married!" she told them excitedly.

There were a few beats of silence, so I decided it was best to join them and introduce myself. When they saw me, however, they stared like I had something on my face. "Um, hi. I'm…"

"Roof top girl," the bigger guy said strangely.

"Huh?" I asked confused, and turned to look at Edward just as he was punching him in the arm.

"So, what's going on?" the smaller of the two guys asked.

"Bella, is Bree's mother," Edward told them. "And I'm her father."

Both men's mouths fell open in shock.

"See, sometimes following your heart, even when it doesn't seem to make sense, isn't the wrong way to go," Edward told them smugly.

"And so… you just went out and got married?" the bigger guy asked slowly, still in shock.

"Acting impulsively seems to be our thing," Edward replied unapologetically. He looked at me and smiled, and I couldn't help but smile back at him. Acting impulsively was definitely our thing, I only hoped it was enough to truly last a lifetime.

"Um… Wow," the shorter guy said. "So… wow," he added, not knowing how else to respond.

"I'm Emmett, by the way," the bigger guy said while reaching his hand out towards me. "I think we met once briefly…very briefly. Hey, by the way, I still have that picture I took of you that night."

"Oh… cool. I'm Bella," I said while shaking his hand.

"And this is Jasper," Edward introduced the other guy.

He didn't offer his hand, but he forced out a somewhat friendly smile. "Nice to finally meet you."

"You too," I replied.

We all kind of stared at each other awkwardly for a moment, but then Emmett decided to express his shock of the event again. "Wow, so Bree is really your kid?"

Edward smiled and nodded, and then quickly explained how she ended up in the system, which only seemed to make Emmett even more astonished. "So, all this time, you were missing Bella, and Bella was missing Bree, and Bree was missing you – you know, because she liked the band so much and all."

"It's pretty incredible," Edward agreed.

"It's unbelievable," Jasper said, but his tone was definitely not a positive one. "Edward, can I speak to you in the other room please."

"Nope," Edward said quickly. "I already know what you're going to say, and just, no. You worry far too much, Jazz, and I appreciate it, but I don't need it this time. Everything will be fine."

"I just think you should have talked to Liam before signing a marriage contract," Jasper said under his breath. "I'll call him for you."

"Jasper, I said no. It's fine. We're going to be fine," Edward tried reassuring him.

"Listen, if this doesn't work out, I swear, I have no desire to go after his money," I told him. "And we'd make sure to find a way to share Bree."

Jasper sighed. "Well, for everyone's sake, I hope you're sincere."

"I am."

"Thanks for your concerns, but you both need to leave now," Edward told them. "It's our wedding day, and only immediate family is invited," he said while winking at Bree.

She smiled and winked back.

Jasper still seemed concerned, but he let it go, and both he and Emmett congratulated us before saying goodbye.

"Well, that went well," I sighed.

"Jasper is always concerned about legalities first," Edward explained dismissively as he came over to wrap his arms around me. "He'll get over it."

"I hope so. I don't want to cause a rift between you."

He chuckled once. "Too late for that."

"Huh?"

"It wasn't your fault, but I did quit the band because I couldn't deal after we parted."

I bit my lower lip and had to fight back my tears. "I'm so sorry. If I had just gotten out of that stupid cab that day…"

"Bella stop. There's nothing we can do to change it, so there's no point in beating yourself up over it. What matters is that we're together now."

I took a deep breath. "We're going to make this work, right?" I asked him emotionally.

"Whatever it takes," he said with conviction.