Stolen Dreams

Disclaimer: Sigh. I own a nifty lap desk from Brookstone. Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight.

A/N: Thank you for all of your kind words this week. It was very welcomed. Thank you to JenRar for her beta duties. She rocks.

I will say I've done my best with this chapter and the information contained therein. If you find glaring errors, let me know.

Chapter 18

Edward and I were quiet as we drove home the next day. After Ryan had opened all of his presents, Esme had brought us into the living room and handed over five albums of pictures. For the first time, I got to see my son as a newborn. Edward held me close to his side as both of us struggled to keep a lid on our emotions. The only problem with the pictures was the arms that held him—they weren't ours.

Each of Ryan's milestones was memorialized in those albums, and through them, we got to see when our son got his first tooth, took his first steps, and got his first haircut. He'd been an adorable baby and an even cuter toddler. Year by year, Esme had kept a careful record of her only child's life.

For hours once we'd gotten back to the hotel, I'd cried on Edward's shoulder as he'd held me. We'd lost so much time with our boy, and they were memories that we could never recreate. Never in my life had I hated someone as much as I did Bob Gerandy at that moment. I hoped that he paid in any conceivable way possible for stealing something so precious from us.

"Did Esme ever decide what to do about next weekend?" Edward asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the car.

"No." I shook my head. "She said he could go, but the rest of the details are still up in the air. She's supposed to call me mid-week to go over the plans."

"All right. I got an email from Maggie. She wants to show us some properties this week, too."

"Did you see any of them?" I asked wearily. I was so tired from having been up half the night in tears that any amount of anything made me want to hide away in my room and never come out.

"No, I just saw the email from her," he answered. He sounded just as tired as I felt. "I thought that might cheer you up a bit."

I gave him a strange look, wondering why looking at houses and adding one more thing to our plates was going to cheer me up.

Edward sighed. "It's our first home . . . together. And I want to have a room just for Ryan. I want him to be able to come up and spend a weekend with us once in a while until we can have him around all the time. I don't know; I thought you'd be more excited about that."

"Oh, I am," I assured him. "It's just so hard to see through all this crap right now, you know? He's a ten-year-old boy. We've missed his entire life so far, and all we can see of it is pictures. For us to spend any time with him, it has to be a big production. I'm just so tired, Edward."

"I know, baby." He gave me a sad smile and squeezed my hand where it rested on the console. "Let's get home and get some sleep."

It was still relatively early when we pulled into the parking lot of my apartment—not even dinner time. Edward let me out and told me he was going to check on his place and he'd be back later. I threw my bag into my room and wandered into the kitchen to see what we had in there.

All of the ingredients for my chicken pot pie were already stocked, so I pulled them out and started assembling the meal. I wasn't sure if Alice would be back for dinner or not, so I made enough for her and Jasper, as well. The repetitive motions of chopping the chicken breasts and rolling out the pie crust was just what I needed to calm the storm in my mind. It was soothing in a way nothing else could be.

I still had thirty minutes of baking time when I finally slid the pies into the oven, so I set the alarm on my phone, as well as the timer on the oven, and walked back to my bathroom, where I took a long shower to soothe my muscles. When I got out, I threw on some yoga pants and a t-shirt and returned to the kitchen to pull out the now golden brown pies.

The apartment was still empty, save for me, almost twenty minutes later. The pot pies had cooled beyond the point at which they wouldn't need to be reheated. I cut my own slice, popped it in the microwave, and ate alone in front of the television. I'd made it through two prime time dramas by the time I heard a key turn in the lock.

"Hey, baby," Edward said, walking across the room to kiss me. "Sorry it took so long. Things didn't go well this weekend, and I had to get an update from Jasper. Then I printed off the listings that Maggie sent over." He threw a stack of papers down on the table.

"That's okay." I yawned and stretched out. "Dinner's in the kitchen if you want some."

Edward bent over and kissed me lightly, before heading through the doorway. "You made pot pie?" he cried excitedly. "Hot damn." Within minutes, I could hear the hum of the microwave and tinkling of the flatware in the drawer.

Edward returned with a huge piece of pie on his plate and a grin on his face. "I'm sorry you had to eat it alone, but damn, this is good." One bite was already missing from the end.

I shrugged. "I figured you got held up with something, and I was hungry. I just watched some TV while I waited. Alice isn't home, either."

"No, she's over at Jasper's. I heard her when I called him about work. You can go ahead and look at the houses if you want. Some of them looked intriguing at first glance." Edward pushed the stack toward me with his foot.

He was right. There were several that did look rather impressive. "Edward, can we afford these?" I asked.

Edward snickered. "Yes. Bella, when I lived in Virginia, I lived in a one bedroom apartment a lot like the one I have now. Other than my computer equipment, I lived pretty simply. I have enough in savings alone to pay for some of those houses. The Army may not pay much according to some standards, but it was more than enough for me. Combine that with your income, and . . ."

"Okay, okay, I get your point," I muttered.

Edward and I had grown up differently, and our attitudes about money had been one of the few things we argued about when we were younger. He liked buying me presents, and I didn't like getting them, because I couldn't reciprocate. That led me to my own saving habits over the years, and if I considered what I had saved after I paid off my school loans, I wondered if we even needed a mortgage at all.

One house in particular caught my eye, and I set it to the side to look at more later. It was in foreclosure, but it had all the features we wanted even before we did the work it needed—and it did need some. From the information Maggie had supplied, it had been sitting empty for several months and the former owners weren't gentle when they left.

Three other properties interested me in the end.

"I liked those four, too," Edward commented with a mouth full of food. "And there was one more . . ." He rooted through the pile and came up with one that I'd dismissed at first glance. "I don't know, there's something about this one."

"Okay," I said simply. No one said that we had to like it when we saw it, and it wasn't like it would drag us across the country. Seeing it would only take a few minutes of our time.

Edward set his empty plate on the table and opened his arms to me. Quickly, I scooted backwards and snuggled into his chest.

"I missed you today," he whispered into my ear, placing a small kiss right below it.

"I missed you, too," I admitted. "It got lonely here after a while."

His arms tightened around me, pulling me even closer, if that was possible. "Someday soon, we'll have our place together, and we won't have to do this."

I leaned forward and twisted my head to look at him. "You don't want this just because of Ryan, do you?"

He shook his head and smiled at me. The love I saw in his eyes melted any doubts I could ever have. "No, baby. I wanted this the moment I took you to dinner for the first time. I didn't want to leave you here while I went home alone without you. I've told you—you're it for me."

"I love you," I whispered, before covering his mouth with mine.

The passion we both felt quickly escalated, and it wasn't long before my shirt and bra decorated the floor and his was thrown over the back of the couch like an oddly shaped throw.

"God, you're beautiful," he mumbled, taking one of my nipples into his mouth. I let out a low moan as he sucked and swirled his tongue around it. My hips rocked against his, the placard of his jeans over his erection doing little to stifle the need building inside me.

"Off," I grunted as I popped the button on Edward's jeans. They were halfway down his hips when we heard noise outside the door. Someone fumbled with the door knob, and I grabbed Edward's shirt to cover my chest. The next second, the door flew open, revealing Alice and Jasper on the other side.

"Uh . . ." Jasper said, his eyes going wide.

Edward tried to covertly pull his jeans back up, but he couldn't lift up without showing the couple at the door his bare ass.

Alice stifled a laugh, badly. "We're, uh, going to go into the kitchen . . ." She pointed at the doorway, and then darted across the room.

Jasper followed after shutting the door to the apartment, and seconds later, we both heard peals of laughter coming from the other room.

Edward banged his head against the arm rest. "We need our own place, like, yesterday."

I chuckled, though I was thoroughly embarrassed, and slipped my bra and shirt back on. "There's chicken pot pie in there," I called to the still amused couple in the kitchen. I figured we only had two choices: to pretend that they hadn't just walked in on us about to fuck on the couch or to face it head on. I was all for avoidance.

Edward tugged his shirt over his head and sauntered into the kitchen in front of me.

"Please tell me you weren't actually having sex on the couch," Alice pleaded.

"If you'd been about two minutes later, the show would've been a lot different," Edward quipped as he broke a piece of crust off and popped it in his mouth. He grinned wolfishly at her.

"Oh, ew!" she responded, shivering.

I turned another shade of red, and Edward shrugged, unconcerned. "I've had to look at Jasper's enough times over the years. Maybe it's time the favor was returned."

"True," Jasper said. "But I didn't care about you seeing any of the girls I was with, either."

Edward's face fell. "We'll keep it in the bedroom, at least until she moves out," he declared.

"Speaking of which," Alice said, wincing. "When might that be happening?"

I felt horrible. In all of our excitement, I'd forgotten again that I was deserting my best friend and that she would need to either find another roommate or somewhere else to live. "God, Ali, I'm sorry. We'll probably see a few houses this week. If we like one of those, I guess however long it takes to buy one. Maybe a month or two? Will that be enough time?"

She glanced at Jasper, and I saw him give her a tiny nod. "Yeah, that'll be fine. Jasper's lease will be up in a couple of months anyway, so that should be perfect timing."

Edward looked at Jasper appraisingly. "A little fast for you, don't you think?"

Jasper shrugged and took his pot pie out of the microwave. "When you know, you know."

I shot Alice a look, silently asking if they were truly that serious. She gave me a smile that lit up her whole face, and I knew that my best friend had found her happiness, as well. Instead of saying anything, though, I just gave her a hug and plopped into the chair beside her.

That's where I stayed the rest of the night, right by Alice's side. After giving them all of the details about Ryan's parties, all of us seemed loathe to separate. It had been so long since we'd spent any appreciable time together. So instead of going our separate ways, all four of us crowded onto the couch—with a few comments from Jasper—and watched a movie. It was nice to spend time with Alice again.

Edward made sure that we picked up where we'd left off as soon as we got back to my room. He didn't waste any time in getting me naked again and sheathing himself inside me. Our love was hard, fast, and just what we needed right then.

The next day, I got a text from Edward that said Maggie would be ready to show us our chosen houses the next night. It would have been that night, but he was going to have pull the graveyard shift. Fortunately, I had plenty of case work and journals to review.

Just before ten, I got an email from Alec Majors.

Bella,

Your father asked me to email you a status update on the case against Robert Gerandy. Given the nature of his offences and the crimes that he did not confess to, the prosecutor's office has rescinded their plea agreement. The one they offered in its place was declined by Dr. Gerandy and his council.

You should be prepared to testify at trial if an alternate agreement cannot be reached. Per Charlie's request, we will do our best to keep Ryan out of it, but you should also be prepared for additional attention by the media when the news is released.

Sincerely,

Agt. Alec Majors

I read through it twice, trying to make sense of what he was telling me. I knew how child kidnapping cases played in the media, and this one was sure to be extra explosive, given the circumstances. There was a good chance that some intrepid reporter would go snooping around Forks, and I wanted to keep Ryan as insulated as possible. I forwarded Alec's message, along with a note of explanation to Aron, and resolved to call Esme the following day. Then, exhausted, I went to bed.

Getting a full night's sleep didn't improve Tuesday any. What began with the auspicious email from Alec continued with a call from Aron.

He didn't waste any time on greetings. "I got your email last night. I have to tell you, it could make things more difficult for you if this goes to trial."

I groaned. "That's what I was afraid of. A judge can't hold Ryan's kidnapper's case against us, though, can he?"

"No," Aron reassured me. "We've been trying to keep this off the docket, though, if we can. So far, your good relationship with the Cullens has made things easier. If Ryan were to be threatened, that could change."

"I was planning to call Esme today and give her a heads up," I told him.

He chuckled. "Hmm, I'll be surprised if she hasn't called you by the end of the day anyway. I heard from DSHS this morning. The case worker that's been assigned to Ryan is Majorie Hollings. She's one of the best. Today, she's making the trip down to Forks to interview the Cullens and Ryan about your recent visits—which I told her about—and to get a better idea of how things are working now. You should expect to hear from her today or tomorrow. She will want to interview both you and Edward, as well."

My heart stilled, and I could barely breathe. "What exactly does that mean?"

"Based on what you all have agreed upon thus far, she will determine whether continued visitation is an option and when we can move forward with unsupervised visitation. From there, we'll continue to talk about custody and what will and won't be allowed," he informed me.

I took a few deep breaths, trying to absorb what he was saying. Did this mean that there was a chance the case against Dr. Gerandy could take away our ability to be with Ryan?

As if he could tell what I was thinking, Aron interrupted my musings. "I don't think you have anything to worry about. From what I've heard, both visits with Ryan went well, and he seems to be adjusting to having two sets of parents without difficulty. Lots of kids deal with split households, Bella, so the court isn't going to balk at that. As for the likely intrusion by the media, you didn't cause it, and you have no control over it."

"Thanks, Aron," I whispered, my heart pounding in my ears. "Let me know if you hear anything else."

"I will. You do the same." He hung up a few seconds later.

I called Edward and left him a voicemail to fill him in on both the email and the conversation with Aron, before I turned off my ringer and welcomed my first patient of the day.

Just when things seemed to be looking up, one of my patients called in for an emergency session during one of the only free moments I had in my day. I spent an hour listening to the autistic young man rant about how his peers couldn't follow the rules. For most people, the other student's infractions—sharpening their pencil during a test, speaking out of turn, and doing the wrong page in the workbook—would have been minor annoyances, but for a child being mainstreamed after years in the tightly controlled environment of a school specializing in his particular disorder, they were the epitome of what was wrong with the world.

By the end of the hour, he still wasn't reassured that nothing horrible would come from the minor rule-bending, but he was no longer near the edge of a complete breakdown. He would be able to return to his year-round classroom in the private school he attended the next day, anyway.

At six-thirty, I met Edward and Maggie at her office for our "tour of homes," as she put it. Only four of the houses we wanted to see were still available and she'd scheduled it so we could see them all in one evening. On our way to the first house, Maggie extolled its virtues to us. Closer inspection, however, revealed that much of what she was repeating was cleverly concealed "realtor speak." The walk-in pantry would only hold a two-year-old inside, the five large bedrooms would have been large if you didn't actually have to put beds in them, and the house took up most of the lot. While that eliminated the need for actually mowing the grass, it did put a damper on the outdoor activities we'd both envisioned for one day in the near future.

The second house lived up to its billing more, but I wasn't as impressed as I'd thought I'd be. It needed a lot of work to get it back up to livable shape. There were holes in several walls where people had tried to get to the copper pipes inside. The owners had been evicted when they failed to pay their mortgage for more than a year, and the neglect born of lack of funds was evident. It had been a beautiful home, and could be again, but neither Edward nor I had the inclination or time that was necessary to make it happen.

When we pulled up to the third house, I could immediately see that it was more along the lines of what we were looking for. The house was in good shape, and the yard had been meticulously maintained. There were five decently sized bedrooms, and the basement was finished as a rec room. The kitchen was well-kept, but the fixtures and appliances were outdated. I could see us there, though.

"What do you think?" Edward asked, coming up behind me and setting his hands on my waist as I looked out over the backyard.

"I like it," I said. The house was nice, and it fit all of our criteria. "The kitchen is going to need some work."

"Yeah. Keep it on the list?" he asked.

I nodded. "Let's see the last one for tonight, and we'll go from there."

So we did. The last house was by far my favorite, and Edward's, too. There were only four bedrooms, but the basement was finished in such a way that someone could easily sleep there. The bathrooms and kitchen were all up to date, and the den even had a padded seat in a bay window overlooking the backyard. It was quite a bit more expensive than the previous one, but Maggie thought the sellers might be willing to come down.

When Maggie dropped us back off, I asked for a couple of days to think about it, and she agreed to follow up on Friday afternoon. Edward followed me back to my apartment, and we collapsed on the sofa in exhaustion.

"Dear God, I'm tired," he muttered. His head was leaning on the back of the couch, and his eyes were closed.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" I asked as I ran my fingers through his hair.

He shook his head slightly. "I got about two hours worth this morning."

I stood and pulled on his hand. "It's already after nine. Let's go on to bed. I can read for a little while."

"You don't mind?" he asked skeptically.

"Not at all," I told him with a smile.

Once we got ready for bed, though, Edward seemed to have other ideas. Lying in bed with my back to his chest, his arm snaked underneath my shirt and up my stomach. It didn't take long for his attention to my nipples to spike my desire, and I shamelessly ground my ass against him.

He groaned and pulled me tighter to him. I could feel each and every hard inch of him. I turned my head, meeting his lips with my own. While we kissed, one of his hands drifted downward and hooked the waistband of my underwear. Before I could protest—even though it would have only been half-hearted—my underwear were around my knees. Edward's palm cupped me, and he slid two fingers into me. I was almost embarrassed at how wet I was, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Want you," I murmured as I pulled away from our kiss to breathe.

He grinned at me wickedly. "With pleasure." He yanked his shirt over his head and shimmied out of his boxers while I divested myself of my cami and panties. Edward tackled me to the mattress, holding me down on my stomach while he ran his lips up and down my upper back.

"Lean up on your elbows for me, baby," he whispered huskily.

As soon as I did as he suggested, Edward's hands cupped my breasts. I moaned and pushed my ass against him again.

"Oh, we'll get there, don't worry," he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

After a little more attention to my neck and shoulders with his mouth, Edward nudged my knees apart slightly, though he kept his own on the outside. I wasn't sure how this was going to work, but as Edward slid into me with a hiss, I could feel the extra tension this position provided.

It was heavenly. Every time Edward thrust into me, his balls would brush my clit, spiking my desire higher. His lips never stopped caressing whatever bit of skin he could reach, and one of his hands played with my nipple, pinching and pulling in time with his thrusts.

"Come with me," I begged, feeling my orgasm barreling toward me.

"Oh, God, baby," he grunted. "I can't . . . I'm . . ."

At my pleading, he lost whatever tenuous hold he had on himself. His erratic thrusts as he came hit me in just the right way, and I cried out as I fell over the edge. Edward collapsed against me, his weight and the feel of his rigid muscles delicious.

Placing one last, tired kiss to my neck, Edward rolled to the side and flopped onto the bed. "Christ, Bella, that was . . . fuck!"

I giggled. "I know. Where did you pick up that position?" I paused. "Or do I want to know?"

"Um . . ." He laughed, his face turning red. "Didn't we agree that anything we've done in the past only makes our sex life better?"

I slapped his shoulder. "Is there anything new left that you haven't already tried?"

His grin turned mischievous. "I'm sure we can work out a few things."

"Ass," I teased, rolling off the bed and picking up my clothes.

It wasn't the first time Edward and I had talked about our previous partners, and it really didn't bother me. Edward wasn't so keen hearing about Garrett or the one night stand I'd had, but his nameless, faceless women were meaningless, and we both knew it. Tanya was the only exception, and I knew that whatever feelings he had for her didn't even come close to what he felt for me. Besides, I was the one that would benefit from his expertise for the rest of our lives; I wasn't going to complain about that.

"What's the plan for the rest of the week?" Edward asked when he joined me in the bathroom.

I shrugged. "Aron seemed to think we'd be hearing from the case worker for interviews this week. She went to Forks today. Other than that, my week is fairly normal. You?"

"I agreed to pull the Friday night shift so Jasper and Ben could both go out. If everything goes according to plan, we'll have the rest of the weekend off. Since they're going to be out, do you want to spend the night with me? I can work from home."

I kissed him lightly. "That sounds like a good plan. You'll just need to get some rest. With any luck, you'll have a baseball game with a ten-year-old to go to Saturday afternoon."

"Do you think they'll let him come?" he asked, nerves making his voice shake slightly.

"I don't know. He was so excited, though, I think the worst case scenario is that I would have to entertain Carlisle and Esme while you boys have fun," I said wryly.

"Sucks to be you," he teased, slapping my ass on his way back into the bedroom.

I laughed and jumped on top of him as he crawled into the bed. Instead of fighting back like I'd expected him to, though, he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me tenderly.

"I love you, Bella. Thank you for . . . being with me. I will do my best to never take you for granted," he vowed, the love shining through his eyes.

"I love you, too."

I'd love to hear what you think. Leave me a note and let me know. I also have to start working on my next outtake this week and I need to know what you want to read. Tell me?