Chapter 25: To Term

After I'd texted Edward, he called to find out where I was and then he called Angela and sent her in to sit with me. Mike followed quickly on her heels, apparently having had enough of his father's ranting.

One, two, three…. How many people could we fit in the bathroom?

My head was still pounding, but my breathing was beginning to slow as Angela held cold, damp paper towels to my forehead and spoke soothingly.

What was taking Edward so long? I knew it had only been a few minutes since I'd texted him, but I wanted him. I needed him here. My entire body was trembling; I was terrified of what was happening. I didn't want to believe that something could be wrong with my baby, so my mind scrambled to come up with excuses for my current state. Maybe I hadn't eaten enough or slept enough, or maybe it was because I'd been so stressed out preparing for the meeting. Of course, Jack's unexpected revelations could have had something to do with it, too. The possibilities were endless, and the only thing keeping me from going completely crazy was the knowledge that Edward was on his way.

I closed my eyes and waited, listening to Angela's softly spoken assurances and Mike's mutterings about how he would hold his father responsible if anything happened to me or the baby. I couldn't help but smile at his ramblings.

And then, Edward appeared.

From the very moment he entered the bathroom, I began to calm, and I felt more at ease.

Edward was here, and everything was going to be okay.

The moment he heard about how badly my head was hurting, he scooped me up in his arms and announced that we were going to the hospital. My throbbing head lolled against Edward's shoulder as we walked past the conference room, Mike and Angela following behind us. I vaguely heard the door open and then Mike arguing with his father, but I couldn't make out the words. Edward clenched his jaw and increased his pace to get us out to the car quickly.

He drove me to the hospital, insisting on carrying me through a side entrance; while I did everything I could to remain calm. At the first sign of a wheelchair, he set me in it and thenproceeded to take me directly to the Labor & Delivery unit, commanding the clerk to allow us through the doors where he told her to point him to the first empty room. He turned in the direction she indicated and quickly wheeled me inside the room. Suddenly, we were surrounded, the room swarming with people. He spoke with a nurse who had a phone out and was calling my obstetrician, while two other nurses helped me to use the bathroom and then change into a hospital gown. After that, they poked and prodded me, checking vital signs and stabbing me with a needle to draw blood and start and IV line. I dazedly answered questions while the people around me seemed to be running around as if this were an emergency. I wanted nothing more than to tell them that they were all being ridiculous, but one glance at Edward's worried face while he talked into the nurse's phone told me that this was far more serious than any of the other times he'd expressed concern.

Edward handed the phone back to the nurse. She held it to her ear and then wrote notes frantically on a clipboard. Edward came over and sat down in the chair next to the bed, holding my hand while one of the nurses adjusted the monitoring belts on my stomach so the baby's heartbeat could be heard.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, my eyes taking in the worry lines still etched on his face, it was far easier to focus my energy on worrying about him than it was to even come close to acknowledging how confused and frightened I was.

Edward snorted but then shook his head and cracked a small smile. "That's what I should be asking you, but I'll be fine." He brushed his hand along my cheek to my forehead. "You seem calmer. Are you feeling better?"

"I—" I shook my head, feeling the swell of another panic attack the moment I started to think about what was going on around me. So, I did what I did best and avoided his question. "What's going on?"

"They're running some tests. When the blood work comes back, we'll decide what to do. Do you still have a headache?"

"Yeah. It's not quite so bad anymore, but it's still there."

He nodded. "Do you remember when I asked Maggie to run a bunch of tests at your appointment two weeks ago?"

"Yes."

"It was because of your headaches and your blood pressure was slightly elevated. You were tested for preeclampsia."

"The tests came back negative," I reminded him. I was vaguely aware of what preeclampsia was—it was one of the complications I'd read about in all of those pregnancy books I'd bought a few weeks ago.

Edward sighed and then looked around the room at the monitoring equipment. "It's something that can pop up rather suddenly. So just because the tests were negative two weeks ago, doesn't mean that they'd be negative now. Your elevated blood pressure, your headache, your nausea… all of those things can be symptoms of it. Add in the panic attack you just had and the one you had on Saturday, and I think that Maggie is going to want to induce labor."

His words caused my heart rate to instantly increase. "Now? It's too soon."

He nervously ran his hands through his hair, increasing my own sense of fear. "It's earlier than we'd want, but it's not too bad. There's a good chance that he won't even have to go to the NICU. It's all going to be okay." His words were spoken in a quiet, soothing manner that helped to calm my racing heart and slightly ease the bundle of nerves in the pit of my stomach. I felt tears prick at the corner of my eyes as I took in what he'd said. "Shh," he hushed, leaning forward so his elbows were resting on the bed and his face was close to mine, "you are both going to be fine, I promise."

Just as he'd predicted, my doctor appeared twenty minutes later with my lab results in hand. Most of what she said went over my head, but Edward followed along and asked questions while I mostly nodded my head as if I understood. I caught the gist, however; the tests showed that my levels were elevated and creeping into the danger zone. Therefore, they decided that I did have preeclampsia just as Edward suspected, and though it wasn't bad yet, I heard the words "severe features" thrown in there. Both Edward and Dr. Swanson felt it would be best if I had the baby now before things got any worse.

My doctor talked about statistics and probabilities for complications. She said at 36 ½ weeks, the baby should be fine, but the hospital had a Level IV NICU just in case there were any problems.

That knowledge really only made me even more nervous. Sure, it was great that my baby would get whatever care he needed, but on the flipside, it also meant that I suddenly had to think of my son as a separate entity. When I'd been thinking about holding him the night before as I'd rocked in the chair in his bedroom, I'd really thought I had a little bit more time to wrap my head around things.

Apparently, that wasn't going to happen.

Dr. Swanson was talking about induction methods and how she thought that this could take a couple of days, because apparently my body wasn't all that ready to deliver yet. She did discuss cesarean, saying that she could possibly make a case for it, but she felt at this time it was safer to have a vaginal delivery. Even contemplating the idea of major surgery on top of everything else was something I didn't want to even think about. I didn't want to consider anything even more horrifying than labor. It wasn't her or Edward's first choice either. They both said they'd prefer to try an induction before going the surgical route. Dr. Swanson was going to give me blood pressure medications to try to help keep my numbers down and mentioned something about possibly using something else to prevent seizures if necessary, but she said she wanted to hold off if possible. She wanted me to stay in bed and stay as calm as I was able. Then I heard her say something to Edward about limiting visitors if necessary.

And with that, I signed the consent forms, and with the help of the nurse, my doctor did the first steps to get my labor started.

Edward had stepped out to call the head of his department and inform him of what was going on and then went about rearranging his schedule. When he left the room, he apparently went out to the waiting room and sent Angela and Mike to come in to sit with me. They'd followed us from the office and had wanted to wait to hear what was going on before they left.

"So, you're going to have the baby?" Angela asked when they came in. I could see the mixture of worry and excitement on her face as she came over and sat in the chair that Edward had occupied.

"Yeah, I'm really going to have him."

"Are you excited?"

"Um. Scared half out of my mind, actually. Does that count?"

She laughed and squeezed my hand. Then she looked around the room. "So, what are they doing to you?"

I cringed. "The doctor put a balloon in and they are going to give me a pill to take. The pill does something along the lines of softening or ripening… I don't know how it works."

"A balloon?"

My eyes snapped up to Mike's. His eyes were darting around the room nervously, and he was fidgeting. I had to fight back a laugh. "You're lucky you haven't been forced into one of these rooms sooner," I joked with him.

His eyes widened, and he shook his head. I smiled in response.

After another minute, a smile took over his baby face and he seemed to relax slightly. "Look, Bella," he said after another moment, "I need to apologize for what happened earlier."

"It's not your—"

Mike held up a hand. "Let me finish."

I nodded.

He took another breath. "I can't believe I was wrong last week. Well, I was right, but… I just never thought my dad would go to such extremes. He's clearly delusional at this point. I'm so sorry. I can't believe he even went so far as to tell you to have the baby now so you could move down to Phoenix at his whim."

The door shutting caught my attention from Mike, and I looked to see Edward was back. His eyes shot between Mike and me before he zeroed back in on me and asked in what sounded like a forced calm, "You're moving back to Phoenix?"

"I think we'll be going," Angela rushed to say. She stood up from the chair and grabbed Mike's arm to pull him from the room. "Do you need me to call your families?" she asked once they reached the door. Edward shook his head no without taking his eyes from me. "Okay. Call if you guys need anything."

"Thanks, Ang," I said, and she and Mike gave a brief wave before they both hurried out of the room.

Edward took three more steps towards me. "You're moving back to Phoenix?" he repeated, only this time the false calm had chipped away. I'd expected him to be angry or to lash out. However, what I saw on his face could be described as nothing less than pain.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but he walked the rest of the way to the bed, sitting on the edge. He rested his hand on my belly before turning his attention back to me. "It's okay if you want to go, Bella. Whatever it is you want to do," he said softly.

The tears welled in my eyes as he spoke. It felt like being rejected all over again. He wanted me to go. I hadn't even been considering moving back to Phoenix. After my discussion with Edward over the weekend, I was either expecting to be terminated or to tender my resignation. When Jack had announced that he wanted to pull me back to Phoenix, I'd felt like he was punishing me, treating me like a child and expecting me to fall into line. There was no way I was going to allow him to treat me that way. I wasn't a pawn that was easily manipulated, no matter what delusions the man currently had.

But here, now, I couldn't help but think that Edward was finding a way to easily be rid of me.

"Hey," he said, brushing his fingers along my cheek and wiping the tears that had fallen. "Don't cry. We'll make it work. I promise you. I'll just need to make some calls, see what I need to do to transfer to another hospital."

"Transfer?" I asked, a small bubble of hope forming in my chest.

He gave me a small smile. "Wherever you go, I will follow."

I sniffed loudly, cursing the stupid tears that continued to fall, only adding to the feeling that my life was so out of control. "You don't have to do that."

"Bella, I am not about to watch you go fifteen hundred miles away and not go with you."

"I'm not going fifteen hundred miles away. I never said I was." I began picking at the small bits of fuzz on the blanket covering me in order to distract myself from seeing the emotions swimming behind his eyes.

"You're not going?"

"We talked about me taking a few months off after he was born. Wasn't that the whole point behind me agreeing to move in with you?"

"We discussed it, but that was two days ago, and I didn't want to assume anything. You've been under a lot of pressure. I'd been thinking since that conversation that there was a chance that you'd change your mind if your boss didn't fire you today. I don't want you to feel pressured to do anything that you don't want to do. What happened at your meeting today?"

I swallowed hard and took a deep breath in an effort to remain calm before looking up at Edward. Just thinking about everything that Jack had said was causing me to become stressed. I swore I could literally feel my blood pressure increase by the pounding in my head. "He didn't fire me. He announced that he's closing down the office and that Mike and I are to be back in Phoenix by the end of the month." I shook my head. "I'm not going."

"That's…. Really?"

"He acted as if we were disobedient children who needed to sit in the corner. And though he didn't say it, I think he meant for Mike and I to be sitting in the corner together."

Edward clenched his teeth for a moment before he relaxed his jaw and asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Quit. You're right, it has discrimination lawsuit written all over it. And there is no way I'm uprooting my newborn son to take him away from his family."

Edward exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath, awaiting my response. "I really would follow you, you know."

I looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity swimming in the green depths. "You'd move for me."

He chuckled. "Bella, that very first night, I remember thinking that I would've moved right then and there in order to stay with you."

"I never apologized to you for that," I replied after a moment.

"Apologized for what? If I recall, I was the one who needed to apologize for leaving like I did."

"And for the note," I added for him.

"And the condom."

I smiled. "But I was the one who insisted on keeping things on a first name only basis. And I didn't want to talk about anything too personal. Things would've been so much easier if I'd kept your note, or known your last name, or what you specialized in, or which hospital you worked for."

He sat back and nodded his head but said nothing as he brushed some stray strands of hair from my face.

Edward leaned down and kissed me softly before sitting up again and moving back to the chair. Once he was seated, he took my hand in his again.

"I called Alice and my mom. I expect you to be bombarded with visitors soon."

I nodded, completely unsurprised by this news. They'd all want to be here. Plus my mom was here, too. I sighed. "This is going to sound horribly selfish, but…"

"But what?"

"I don't mind people coming by to visit, but could you please make sure they aren't here too long? I don't think I want a whole group of people here watching me like I'm some source of entertainment."

He laughed. "I really don't think any of them will find any entertainment in staring at you. They just want to show their support and keep you company. But if you give me a signal, I'll clear the room out for you whenever you want."

"Thank you, Edward."

"Anytime, love."

~X~

My mom, Phil, and Brett were the first to visit, followed by Esme and Alice.

"I have it all planned out," Alice said as she and her mom walked over to me. She then produced a notepad with what appeared to be a schedule. Times were in one column and names in another. She'd even color-coded it. "Edward, here is when you can leave to go home and shower, eat, change clothes. And are you sleeping here? I wasn't sure."

"I'm not leaving, Alice."

"You will need to get cleaned up at some point. Especially if this going to be taking a couple of days."

"I have a locker with a change of clothes downstairs. I can shower there, and I'll probably just change back into a pair of scrubs anyway."

"You'll need to eat."

"I'll eat with Bella."

"Well, you'll need to call and check in with your office."

"Already did it. Dr. Williams isn't expecting to hear from me until the baby is born."

"But that's not fair," she exclaimed.

I leaned forward, snatching the notepad out of her hands to see if I could figure out what her problem was, and then shook my head. Alice had scheduled every minute of the next thirty-six hours. She'd written in frequent—very frequent—breaks for Edward with various activities, including everything from checking his email to taking a trip to the nearby Starbucks to get coffee for himself. Each and every time she scheduled for Edward to be out of the room, she had written her name to stay with me along with a variety of activities. Card games, a pedicure, a movie, girl-talk, word search puzzles… the list went on and on. I didn't know whether to laugh or groan in irritation. I knew she meant well, but…

Sigh.

"No," Edward said. I looked up to see that he had risen to stand next to me so he could see the pages in my hands.

"But I want—"

"No," he said more firmly.

Alice crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at her brother. He met her gaze with just as much intensity. Finally, after several minutes of their staring contest, Alice huffed loudly and dropped her arms to her side. "Fine. Have it your way."

Edward couldn't have looked any smugger if he'd just discovered the cure for cancer.

My hero.

~X~

There was a steady stream of visitors throughout the afternoon and evening. Esme left for a bit and returned with dinner, proclaiming that Edward and I both needed to eat something better than the food available from the hospital kitchens. Renee and Phil returned in the evening, as did Angela, who surprisingly had Mike in tow with her again. Kate and Tanya stopped by for a moment, too. The most surprising to me had been when Emmett and Rosalie showed up. They only stayed less than five minutes, but Emmett was his funny and jovial self, cracking jokes at Edward's expense, and just before they left, Rosalie paused for a moment beside the bed and cracked the faintest smile. "Good luck," she said, and then they were gone, leaving me feeling as if she might not hate me as much as I'd originally thought.

The rest of the evening was shockingly uneventful. At nine, my nurse came in with a sleeping pill and told me that the real work would start in the morning. Earlier in the evening, I'd had a bit of cramping that was uncomfortable, but nothing too serious. It scared me to think that it was only going to get worse.

Edward had changed into a pair of scrubs and grabbed a pillow and a blanket, laying it out on the recliner next to him.

"Are you going to be able to sleep?" I asked, yawning and beginning to feel drowsy already.

"I'll be fine, Bella. Just get some rest. Maggie will be back in the morning."

I must've fallen asleep because the next time I awoke, the room was mostly black except for the glow of the lights coming from some of the machines I was still hooked up to and the computer monitor that was now on. My nurse was standing in front of the computer typing. She must have heard me move because I saw her turn her head, barely making out the shadow of a smile as my eyes adjusted to the dim light. She asked me several questions about how I was feeling, focusing most of her inquiries on the symptoms I'd been admitted with—the headaches, blurred vision, nausea, and a whole list of other things I was too tired to think about. However, at that point, other than still being terribly tired, I felt fine. Even my headache was gone. She typed my answers on her computer and then shut the monitor off before leaving again.

The moment she left the room, Edward moved in his makeshift bed, and I could see the silhouette of his body as he propped himself up on his arm. "You're not sleeping?" I asked.

"I've tried."

"That can't be very comfortable."

He chuckled. "I've slept on worse, but usually I'm exhausted before I can manage it."

"And you're not exhausted now."

"No."

My eyes went from his makeshift bed to the space behind me on mine. It wasn't that much more comfortable. "You can…. Would you like to come lay down with me?" I asked him, scooting over to the edge of the small bed.

"I…" he paused. "Are you sure?"

"It's not comfortable or anything, but it's got to be better than that thing."

He kicked the footrest down from the chair and stood up. Grabbing his pillow, he walked over to the other side of the bed and set the pillow down next to mine. It was a tight fit on the bed, but Edward pulled me tightly into his chest, draping his arm over my stomach when we were lying flush against each other.

"Is this okay?" he whispered in my ear.

"Yes," I managed to say. Despite the fact that the bed was obviously only made for one person, it felt comfortable and… right to lay there in his arms.

He kissed my neck, and I shivered at the contact. "Get some sleep, Bella. Good night."

"G'night," I mumbled, closing my eyes and realizing exactly how tired I still was.

~X~

Tuesday began well enough, but it didn't take long for me to learn why women had horror stories about their labors.

The day started with a new nurse and my doctor waking me up from a dead sleep at seven a.m. Edward, it seemed, had been awake for a while and had already been downstairs to the locker rooms to shower and change into a clean set of scrubs. It was disgusting how cheery he seemed after only a few hours of sleep. My doctor checked everything, gave a tug on the balloon thing and it came out with a plop. She then decided to skip Step Two of the plan she'd outlined for us the day before, saying she didn't think it'd be necessary, so we were moving right on to Step Three.

Apparently, Step Three meant giving me the most vile and evil drug ever created. The nurse lovingly called it a "Pit Drip." Tanya later said she believed the nurses called it that because it slowly drags a woman down a winding path into the deepest pits of hell. I was starting to really like Tanya.

As time passed, the medication was slowly increased. By 9:30, I was getting pretty uncomfortable. By noon, I felt like I had the worst menstrual cramps of my life. And when I asked my nurse, a crotchety woman who looked like she was in her seventies, she just told me to calm down and I shouldn't have any pain medication until I was actually "in labor".

I wanted to throttle her.

Edward… well, he was a saint. He was sweet and doting, and by the time my doctor returned during her lunch hour to check on my progress, I was feeling horrible that he was stuck with me. He didn't complain though. He did however, glare at the nurse who sat in my room, reading a book and rolling her eyes every time I uttered a sound during a contraction.

And just as I had been the day before, I was certain the fucking door had a revolving mechanism on it. From bright and early that morning, people had been coming in and out of my room. At first I didn't mind so much. But as my day progressed, I grew irritated and annoyed with how fucking cheerful and excited everyone was. Logically, I knew that people were only trying to be supportive, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I had to entertain them or something.

It was after three that afternoon when Charlie arrived with Sue.

"That waiting room is packed full out there, Bells," he said when he sat down.

"I'm sure a lot of people are having babies," I answered. I knew there were a lot of patients on the unit; I'd heard my nurse talking to someone else right outside my room about needing more staff to take care of everyone.

Charlie chuckled. "I think that over two-thirds of the people out there are waiting to hear about you."

Talk about pressure.

At four, my doctor came back and broke my water. Holy fucking shit! And I'd thought it'd been bad before. The pain of the contractions increased ten-fold almost instantly after the fluid flooded the bed.

By seven, I was starting to feel marginally better, but I think that had more to do with the fact that crotchety, bitchy old nurse finally went home and the young gal who replaced her seemed like nothing less than a godsend. The first comment out of her mouth was, "Well, Nancy said she didn't think you were doing much. What can I do to help?"

"Like hell I'm not," I snapped.

Lo and behold, it took very little for Godsend Nurse to be convinced that things were indeed progressing along, and within thirty minutes, I had an epidural and actually began to feel human again.

I loved Godsend Nurse. I was going to name my first daughter after her. Hell, I might name my son after her.

It was a quarter to nine when my nurse told me that I could start pushing. At my request, the only people allowed in the room, aside from the hospital staff, were Edward, Renee, and Esme. In between contractions, Edward would immediately walk over to the monitor strip and study the lines. He'd run his fingers through his hair, take a breath, and come back to the bed and smile. "He's doing fine," he'd reassure me.

I was quite certain that if at any point the baby wasn't doing okay, the nurse would say something or she'd call the doctor. However, I couldn't deny that it was almost endearing to watch Edward as he fretted. As time grew on, and I slowly became more and more worn out, he began to whisper encouraging words into my ear.

"Bella, you are doing better than I could ever dream of doing myself," he said quietly after I had started to tell the nurse that I couldn't do it anymore. Edward brushed his fingers across my forehead and smiled. "You can do it."

And so I went on. Not like I'd truly had a choice, but Edward was solid, supportive—he was exactly what I needed.

At 10:22 in the evening, on Tuesday, January 20th, my son Jeremy Charles was born.

There was nothing beautiful or amazing about it. It was messy, and even with an epidural, it was painful. By the time it was over, my face was sweaty, and my hair, which had long since escaped from my ponytail, was sticking to the sides of my face. I felt as if I'd run a marathon without actually getting anywhere. But the moment my doctor put the squirming little being on my stomach, I no longer cared.

Newborn babies are not cute. He was grayish-white, his head was pointed, he was caked in white goo, his face was scrunched, and he looked very unhappy to be there. But looking at him as the nurse continued to wipe him down, encouraging him to cry, I thought he was easily the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Edward cut the cord and then followed the nurse as she took the baby to go examine him. She said she "needed to make him cry and perk up just a little bit".

Renee scurried to follow them, snapping pictures the entire time. Within another few moments, my son was crying loudly.

Esme squeezed my hand, and I looked up to see her tear-streaked face and a bright smile. "Thank you for letting me be in here with you both," she said.

I smiled back at her. "You're welcome. I'm glad you're here."

My doctor finished dealing with me at the same time the nurse finished with the baby. But it wasn't the nurse who carried a tightly swaddled infant back to me—it was Edward. There was no way he could have contained his broad smile even if he'd tried. And once he placed the tiny bundle into my arms, I finally felt as if my world was at long last in harmony.

~X~

As soon as my doctor left and the nurse finished cleaning things up, everyone who had been camped out in the waiting room since Monday afternoon filtered in to see the baby. Renee kissed my cheek and told me she was going to get back to the hotel with Phil and Brett, who had fallen asleep in the waiting room, and she didn't think it'd be fair for everyone to have to listen to my little sister throw a temper tantrum. They'd be back to see us in the morning, and I was more than fine with that.

My dad teared up when we told him the name. He held little Jeremy Charles in his arms and began to talk to him about all of the fishing trips he was planning on taking him on the moment that he was old enough to hold a pole. Charlie said that Jacob had been sitting with him and Sue, keeping them company, but he didn't want to intrude right after the baby had been born, so he'd chosen to go home instead. Jacob had apparently said he'd be back by sometime on Wednesday to see the baby and offer his congratulations.

Mike and Angela came over, too, but they only stayed a few minutes, saying they both needed to be up early for work. They oohed and ahhed over the baby, congratulating both Edward and me before they left. It didn't miss my attention, however, that they left the room holding hands. I smiled at their retreating forms and I couldn't help but wonder exactly what had gone on between them while they were out in the waiting room.

Rosalie didn't say anything to me, but as she held Jeremy in her arms and whispered to him, I saw tears well in her eyes. She and Emmett didn't stay long, but Rosalie did give me a small smile and a nod before she left with her husband, and I had a feeling that she was finally warming up to me.

Alice pouted dramatically that she hadn't been allowed in the room for the birth, but the wicked little grin on her face told me she was only teasing. She gave me a hug and cooed over her nephew. "How did you come up with Jeremy?"

My eyes glanced over at Edward who was standing off to the side talking animatedly with Carlisle and Jasper. "Do you know why Edward left me that night?" I asked her in response, assuming she would know which night I was talking about.

"No," she replied, with a cautious hint to her tone.

"A former patient of his was dying. He went to go sit with him and his wife as he passed. The man's name was Jeremiah." Alice narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, and I felt the need to continue, "Maybe that sounds morbid, but the man was important to Edward. I've thought long and hard about things these last few weeks, and I know that if even one thing had been different, then things wouldn't have turned out the way they have. I think…" I paused to collect my thoughts for a moment. "I think that it had to go this way. There were so many things that we both needed to deal with personally— to come to terms with—and we were able to do that because of the way things happened and… I don't know… I think that was necessary if there's to be any hope for us later on. You know?"

"I know exactly what you mean." Alice smiled. "I never would've gone away and found myself, learned what I was capable of, had Jasper not rejected me or gone off with Maria."

I nodded, remembering the story Alice had told me about how she and Jasper had finally come together.

"Jeremy fits," Alice said, brushing her finger along his cheek and causing him to open his mouth, his head moving towards her. She smiled even bigger and then leaned down and kissed his forehead.

It was nearly two hours later when we were moved to another room, everyone else finally having left for the night.

"He's beautiful, Bella," Edward said as he put the freshly cleaned sleeping baby back in my arms. I moved to give him more room, allowing him to sit back with us, and Edward pulled me to lean against his chest and held me close. "Thank you," he said.

I didn't say anything, simply nodded my head against him, my eyes growing heavy from the events of the long day.

He reached up and pulled the elastic out of my hair, then proceeded to run his fingers through the tangled strands. "I owe you everything. The fact that you decided to keep him, that you even attempted to find me, and that even after I was so horrible to you, you managed to still take the time to get to know my family. For letting them help you and letting me help you. For forgiving me and giving me the opportunity to be here with you."

"You don't—" I began, only to be cut off.

"You gave me a son, Bella. For that, I owe you my life. Thank you."

I turned my head so I could face him and stare into his eyes. "You believe he's yours?" I asked in an effort to lighten the mood, his hefty, sincere words causing me to feel slightly uncomfortable. Not in a bad way, but in the sense that I knew I wasn't quite ready to deal with the strong emotions I felt behind his statement.

Edward rolled his eyes at my lame attempt at humor but smiled nonetheless. "I haven't doubted that fact for a very long time, but the reddish hair is a dead giveaway," he said as he moved his hand and touched Jeremy's fine hair.

I grinned back as Edward leaned down and kissed me chastely.

The baby let out a quiet sigh, and I snuggled him closer to my chest as Edward brought his arm securely around both of us. We were a family, and at last I had found the safety and security I'd always needed but never thought I'd wanted.

A/N: Yeah, I said I wasn't going to edit anymore. Total lie. Things have changed over the last decade about common labor induction methods. The crotchety old nurse… yeah, I had her with my first. That was back before central monitoring. She sat in the room and rolled her eyes at me all day. I wasn't allowed anything until I was 4cm and she wouldn't check me because my contractions weren't impressive enough. I still see my Godsend nurse on occasion. She doesn't remember me, of course, but I've told her the story a time or two. ;) In this case, Bella was already 4-5cm when the balloon came out, but she wasn't in actual labor yet.

And see? I told you I wouldn't keep you waiting too long!