DISCLAIMER: The characters do not belong to me…they are all the creation of the wonderful Stephenie Meyer.

Bella-Free Day – Part 2

Edward's POV

"Edward, slow it down. We're still in the city limits," Jasper warned.

"I know what I'm doing," I told him, switching lanes once again. Why the hell was there so much traffic on a Sunday night?

"Someone's anxious to see his wife," Jasper chuckled.

"You think?" Emmett snorted. "Hey, I missed my wife and my princess, but you don't see me wigging out about it."

"'Wigging out'?" Jasper laughed. "Is your vocabulary lost in the '80's tonight, Em?"

"Yep. Just like your haircut," Emmett shot back.

"Not everyone loves the rejected marine look," Jasper replied, not even pausing to think about his reply. These two had gotten into so many insult contests that it was amazing they weren't repeating the material.

"Being rejected is better than not even being considered, string-bean," Emmett told him.

"Why would I settle for being a marine when I could be an air force pilot and actually do something that requires the use of my strongest muscle?" Jasper asked.

"Really?" Emmett snorted. "Your hand is that strong? When did Alice cut you off?"

"I was talking about my brain, you jerk," Jasper said, punching the back of Emmett's seat.

"Hey! Take it out on him, not my Volvo," I warned.

"Sorry," they both said.

I finally made it outside of the city limits and was able to let out the car, taking her up to eighty in no time at all. Just ten more minutes at this speed and I would be home with Bella. The radar detector chirped and I growled as I slowed the car down to the sixty mile per hour speed limit. Why the limit had to be so low on this road, I would never understand. It wasn't like there was that much traffic on it and it was a fairly straight shot with only a few curves.

The detector started chirping faster and I finally spotted the cop, sitting on my left and tagging cars going in the opposite direction. As soon as I was out of his line of sight, I took the car back up to eighty and cruised the rest of the way home without interruption.

All the lights in the house seemed to be on as we pulled into the driveway. I didn't even bother with the garage, just wanting to get inside and see Bella.

"Where's the fire, Edward?" Jasper laughed as I quickly headed toward the front door. I didn't bother answering him.

"How much you want to bet he takes Bella away and we don't see either of them for dinner?" Emmett asked loudly, probably hoping to annoy me.

I ignored them both and went into the house, closing and the locking the door just to annoy them. "Bella?"

"She's upstairs," my mother called out from the kitchen.

"Thanks, Mom."

"It's nice to see you, too," she laughed.

"When I come back down," I promised, already taking the stairs two at a time. I was almost to the third floor landing when I started to hear their voices.

"We probably should have left this for them to do," Bella said.

"Don't you remember what happened with Lily's crib?" Alice asked. "They got into that huge argument about how to do it right and the three of them didn't talk to each other until we made them all apologize."

"Emmett still thinks he put it together," Rosalie laughed. "I'll never tell him I had to take it apart and put it back together the correct way."

I did my best to cover up how much I wanted to laugh as I walked into the one room with an open door—the girls were across the hall from my bedroom. "What's going on in here?" I asked.

"Edward!" Bella squealed, holding her hands up and shaking them at me.

I lifted her onto her feet and pulled her into a hug. "Hello, Love."

"I missed you," she sighed, snuggling her face into my chest so that there was hardly any space between us. "I'm so glad you're home."

"Look what Bella found today, Little Brother," Alice chirped.

I lifted my head up and found Rosalie putting together a blue crib with Alice's help. "You bought a crib?" I asked, looking down at Bella. I felt a little stupid for asking the question, but then again, Bella rarely ever bought anything.

Bella pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and nodded slightly.

"Why are you nervous?" I asked, prying her lip away with my thumb.

"It's the first thing we bought for the baby and you weren't there, and I know I said I wouldn't buy anything until the doctor—"

I put my finger on her lips, stilling her rant. "It's beautiful, Bella." I put my hand on her baby bump and smiled at her. "And if by some weird quirk, this is a girl, I'll paint it pink myself."

"So you really like it?" she asked, her brown eyes pleading for confirmation.

"I love it. It's perfect."

Bella smiled and threw her arms around my neck, hugging me tightly. "I love you."

I laughed and kissed her forehead. "I love you, too."

"So tell me about your day! I want to hear all of it," she said.

"It's going to have to wait," Alice announced, reminding me there were other people in the room. "We have to head downstairs for dinner."

"And rescue Esme from Lily," Rose chuckled.

"Lily's here?" I asked, not expecting that.

"Yeah. I missed her too much so we stopped on the way home and picked her up from the babysitter," Rose said as we all headed down the stairs."

"And she's been asking for her daddy and her 'Eee' ever since," Bella giggled.

"Eee!" Lily yelled from somewhere downstairs.

"Right on cue," Rose laughed. "That girl of mine has impeccable timing."

"Of course she does," Alice chirped. "She takes after her mother and her Aunt Alice. I'd toss your name in, Bella, but we all know it would only be for effect."

"Thanks for the love, Alice," Bella chuckled, pushing on my sister's shoulder. "Don't be so considerate of my feelings next time."

"Oh, like you were earlier when you made fun of Patrick, the frog prince," Alice replied.

"Patrick?" I asked, vaguely recalling the name.

"Yeah, the frog Alice used to kiss goodnight when she was a kid," Rose chuckled.

"Patrick," I laughed. "I remember him. I remember when Alice got into Mom's lipstick and put a big red kiss mark right on Patrick's froggy cheek."

"Do you remember your own friend, little brother?" Alice asked, grinning at me.

I smiled, thinking about how I used to take that silly thing everywhere with me. "My lion."

"I swear you thought you were a lion, too," Alice chuckled. "He went all over with you until you lost him."

"If I remember correctly, you were the one who lost him," I said, pointing a finger at my sister. "You wanted to play hide and seek with him at the park, but you forgot where you hid him."

"Alice, you lost your little brother's favorite friend?" Bella gasped. "What a mean big sister you were!"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Alice huffed. "I was only nine at the time."

"And she did offer to give me Patrick to make up for it," I said, defending my big sister. "She wasn't always mean to me."

"Could you guys hurry it up?" Emmett asked. "I'm starving!"

"Eee!" Lily cried, opening and closing her little hands at me.

I helped Bella into her chair and then went over to Lily, scooping her out of her high chair. "Hi, Sweetheart," I said, kissing her cheek.

Lily pointed toward the front of the house and her baby speech poured out of her mouth. She finished speaking and just looked at me with her big blue eyes, waiting for me to understand what she wanted.

"I don't know what you want, Honey. I'm sorry," I told her.

Lily sniffled and poked out her bottom lip, pointing toward the front of the house again.

I turned and looked at my sister-in-law. "Rose, help me out?"

"What did she do?" Rose asked.

"She's pointing toward the front and she gave me a whole lecture in her baby talk," I explained.

"She's still boycotting television, so she doesn't want the living room," Rose said. "We're all in here, so she's not looking for anyone. What is else is over there?"

"The piano," Bella replied. "I bet she wants you to play with her like you did on Tuesday."

"Just put her back in her chair, Edward. She'll cry a little and then be fine," Rose said. "I'm sure you're just as hungry as the rest of us."

I couldn't imagine making Lily cry, much less just sitting around and watching her cry. "No, it's okay. I'll take her to play a few notes and we'll be right back."

"My girl has every member of this family wrapped around those little fingers of hers," Rose chuckled as I left the room with Lily.

Luckily, the laughter coming from the dining room helped Lily to loose interest in the piano fairly quickly. After only a handful of disjointed notes, she was asking for her mommy and pointing toward the dining room. I chuckled and kissed her cheek as I carried her back into the room and set her down in her high chair.

"That was quick," Emmett chuckled.

"She could hear all of you and wanted to be a part of the conversation," I said, taking my seat next to Bella. She immediately leaned over and kissed my cheek. "What was that for?" I asked.

"For being so sweet to Lily."

"So what did you boys do today?" my dad asked as he passed the rolls to Jasper.

"We started out renting an Aston Martin," Jasper replied, wearing that same grin he'd had when we'd picked up the car.

"It was a 2004 Vanquish S V-12, Dad," I told him. "It was a sleek black with red and black leather interior. And talk about a smooth ride."

"I bet," my dad chuckled. "I should have come along with you three instead of losing another golf game to Jack."

"Did you three just drive around in a car all day?" Rose asked.

"Nope," Emmett said proudly. "We also rented those Kawasaki bikes I showed you in that motorcycle magazine a couple of weeks ago."

"You were on a motorcycle?" Bella asked, looking up at me.

"Yeah. They were really nice. We took them on this trail so we wouldn't be in regular traffic," I told her.

"Jazz wasn't feeling brave enough to chance riding on the scary streets of Seattle," Emmett said, winking at Jasper.

"I've only rode two other times," Jasper defended. "Sorry that I'm not insane enough to believe playing a motorcycle video game means I can drive a bike in the real world. Or should I just say I'm sorry I'm not you?"

"They've been like this all day," I whispered to Bella.

"You know, I think Jasper and Emmett should have married each other," Bella announced, causing the entire room to fall silent. "They've fought like an old married couple from day one."

The silence remained for a few more seconds before Alice snorted and set off a round of laughter and clapping.

"We deserved that," Jasper said, nodding his head and smiling.

"Yeah," Emmett agreed.

"What else did you do today?" Bella asked, her cheeks pink from all of her laughing.

"That surprise I mentioned on the phone? They took me to the batting cages," I replied.

"You must have loved that," Bella said excitedly.

"I did," I chuckled. "My shoulder's probably going to be sore for a few days, but I enjoyed it nonetheless."

"Yeah, Squirt. If we can get you to agree to let us have him, we want to make it a monthly thing to head down to the cages," Emmett said.

"But not for the whole day again. A few hours here or there, but that's it," I said.

"Definitely," Bella sighed, resting her head on my shoulder.

After dinner was done, we said our goodbyes to Emmett, Rosalie, Lily, Alice and Jasper. Em and Rose wanted to get Lily home and into bed since it was already past her normal bedtime. As for Alice and Jasper, they had plans to finish celebrating the good news Jasper had shared with us all—he'd gotten the promotion at his job. It meant he would have better working hours and much better pay; he would also have a new office and would be working with some of the highest profile clients that used the firm.

I sat down on the end of the sofa and Bella stretched out across it, laying her head in my lap. She'd been yawning non-stop for the last twenty minutes and I doubted she would be up much longer. I started stroking her hair to help relax her completely.

My parents cuddled together on the loveseat next to us. "So, Bella, I hear you found a crib you just had to have," my father said, smiling at my wife.

Bella covered her mouth as another yawn escaped her. "Yes, I did. Rosalie put it together for us."

"Carlisle, wait until you see it," my mother said. "It's the softest blue and it's the kind that changes into a toddler bed later on. It's just perfect."

I ran my hands through Bella's hair, just as I'd been doing for the last few minutes, but suddenly stopped cold. "Where's the rest of your hair?" I asked, shocked that I hadn't noticed earlier.

Bella started giggling and turning red while my mother laughed from behind her hand.

"Son, are you okay over there?" my father asked.

"I was stroking her hair and I realized it wasn't all here," I told him. "Sit up, Bella. Let me see it."

"Okay," she giggled. She sat up and smoothed her hair into place, smiling at me. "Do you like it?"

"Why did you cut it?" I asked, checking out the new length.

She shrugged. "I wanted something easy to mess with in the mornings. I'm not in the mood to deal with lots of hair and tangles, so I got it cut. Why? Do you hate it?" she asked, pouting at me.

"No, I don't hate it," I chuckled, wrapping my arms around her. "It's just going to take some getting used to, that's all."

"Can we get used to it tomorrow? I'm too tired tonight," Bella yawned.

"Alright," I said, helping her to stand. "Night, Mom and Dad. We'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Edward. Sleep well, Bella," my mother replied.

"Goodnight, kids," my dad called as we started up the stairs.

"I want to wipe my face down with a warm towel, get into my flannel pajamas, and sleep for a week," Bella sighed, leaning most of her weight against me.

"It was definitely a long day," I agreed. "I'm glad to be home with you."

"I'm glad you had a fun day. When you talked about it during dinner, you sounded like you really enjoyed it."

"I did. But I still missed you."

"Same here. It was so weird with the crib thing, Edward," Bella said, suddenly standing up straighter and looking more alert. "One minute, I'm wondering how I'll ever get Alice out of the store without buying anything, and the next, I'm walking out with a crib and two outfits."

"Outfits?"

"Oops," Bella giggled. "Those were supposed to stay a secret until the baby shower."

"I'll forget you mentioned them at all," I assured her, pushing our bedroom door open for her.

"Edward, I need to tell you something, but you have to promise to stay calm and not freak out."

"I'll do my best."

"I don't feel well."

"You're going to need to be a lot more descriptive than that, Love," I said, sitting her down on the bed.

"I feel achy and yucky, like I have a fever."

"Have you checked your temperature?"

"No. It started toward the end of dinner but I thought it might just be that I didn't care for the food."

"I noticed you didn't eat much."

"It all tasted funny to me."

"Well, let's just see if you have a fever first and go from there. Go check your temperature in the bathroom and I'll get your pajamas."

"Okay," she said, giving me a little smile.

"I'll be right in," I said, kissing her forehead and helping her to stand. She went into the bathroom and I stepped into our closet, looking for her pajamas. I found them on the second shelf I checked and grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt for myself.

Bella was reading the thermometer when I walked into the bathroom. "Normal," she said, holding it out to me. "Guess I'm just that tired."

I took the thermometer, checked the readout, and then put it onto the counter. "Stay home tomorrow."

"Edward, I'm not running a fever so I doubt I'm sick. I'll take things extra slow and easy and I'll be fine."

I wrung most of the water from the washcloth and then started wiping down her face. "You haven't missed a day since you started teaching. You can call in sick, Bella."

"I don't know," she sighed.

"Do you have any tests or quizzes planned? Or papers due?"

"No."

"Then your students will be happy to have a free period."

Bella remained quiet, thinking over her options while she changed out of her clothes and into her pajamas. She stayed silent until we were lying in the bed together, watching the moon peek out from behind the clouds. "I think I will stay home tomorrow," she whispered.

I smiled and kissed her temple, happy to have her taking a break. "I'll let your department know, that way, you don't even have to get up to call."

"Thank you."

"Thank you. It's nice to see you putting yourself first."

"I told you I would," she yawned.

"I know, but I also know how important your job is to you."

"Our baby is more important than anything else."

"You are what's important," I corrected. "Take care of yourself first and foremost."

Bella put her hand against my cheek, smiling at me. "That's exactly what I'm doing, Tutor-boy, so calm down and take a breath."

"I thought that was the point of my banishment today," I chuckled, kissing her forehead.

"If you had just agreed without a fuss, you wouldn't have had to be banished," she mumbled.

"Go to sleep, Love," I whispered into her ear, tucking the blanket tighter around her. I set the alarm on my phone and made sure the actual clock next to Bella was turned off. With any luck, she'd sleep straight through my phone alarm and me getting ready for work.

The second I registered my phone's alarm going off, I reached out and grabbed it, turning it off. I looked down, glad to see Bella was still fast asleep on my chest. She'd either gotten cold in the night or she'd a bad dream because she was completely on top of me. I wrapped my arms around her and carefully rolled her onto her pillow.

I laid with her for a few moments, making sure she would stay asleep, and then kissed her and the baby goodbye. I quickly dressed and left the room, not wanting to chance waking her. The smell of fresh coffee hit me as soon as I stepped into the hallway and I inhaled the scent deeply. I'd never gotten my coffee yesterday, so I would just get some this morning.

"Morning," I greeted, kissing my mother's cheek.

"Would you like a cup?" she asked, pouring her own.

"Please," I said, handing her a cup for me.

"Where's Bella?" my dad asked, looking toward the kitchen door.

"She's taking the day off," I replied. "She's feeling tired."

"She's not sick, is she?" my mother asked.

"We checked her temperature last night and she was fine. She didn't seem overly warm or cold when I kissed her forehead this morning either. She probably just overdid it yesterday and needs a little extra sleep," I told them.

"I'll check on her in a couple of hours," my mom said, handing me a cup of coffee.

"Keep an eye on what she eats today, if you think about it," I said. "She said the food tasted funny to her last night and she really didn't eat very much."

"Maybe the red gravy on the meatloaf gave her heartburn," my dad suggested.

"Or it might have been the pizza bagel bites she snacked on while waiting for dinner," my mother added.

"More likely the pizza bagels then," I replied. They were another food item Bella had developed a taste for in the past couple of months. I pulled out my phone and called the school, letting them know Bella wouldn't be in today.

"It's good she's taking a day for herself," my mother said, patting my hand. "I'm sure you're relieved to see her relaxing without a fuss."

"Very," I agreed. "She's finally stopped being stubborn."

"Now we just need you to stop being overprotective," my dad chuckled.

"I'm working on it," I told him. I glanced at my watch and then stood up. "For now, I have to work on getting to the school." I shook my father's hand and then kissed my mother's cheek. "See you both this afternoon."

I left the house and got into my car, missing Bella's presence just a little. At least today wouldn't be nearly as long of a separation as yesterday. Bella would get some rest today and she'd be fine by tonight when I got home. And then she could show me the crib she'd fallen so in love with—I'd only gotten a quick glimpse yesterday.

I pulled into the school parking lot and was greeted by the last thing I wanted to see…James was sitting on a bench, right next to where I usually parked my car. I took my time gathering up my briefcase, hoping he would wander off to some other part of the school before I got out.

But as I opened the car door, I quickly saw I wouldn't be that lucky. James had moved off of the bench and closer to my car. "Morning, Professor Cullen."

"Hello, James."

"Is Professor Cullen okay?"

"She's fine."

"I saw a note on her door saying she would be out today."

"That's correct. She's home resting."

"Will she be back tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure. What does it matter? You don't have class with her tomorrow."

"Oh, I know," he said, pushing his glasses up nose. "I just…I was just curious."

"Well, if she's rested enough, you'll see her on Wednesday when it's time for your class," I said, hoping he would get the hint. He didn't need to be anywhere near my wife outside of class.

"Oh, okay. Hope she's better soon then. Bye, Professor Cullen," he said, already turning to walk away.

I shook my head at his retreating figure, hoping this might be the end of things. He was a nice guy and I probably shouldn't feel so annoyed with him, but there was just something about him that set me on edge. Bella would tell me I was just being jealous, but I wasn't so sure about that. I would just need to wait and see if James backed off, or continued to be a fly.

Thanks to George for her help. She has been highly instrumental in helping to rid me of that crazy little stint of writer's block. We should even be able to have two chapters for you guys next weekend. Woot. I had a ton of fun making Emmett and Jasper fight some more, especially since it's all for fun. And none of the girls' won the bet about Edward noticing Bella's hair. He took forever, too distracted with everything else going on. LOL!

This chapter is dedicated to Bulls in Brooklyn who is teaching me about Australia and the difference between our countries. Poor girl doesn't even get Halloween. Hope this makes your day, Bulls!