DISCLAIMER: THE STORY DOESN'T BELONG TO ME; THE CHARACTERS ARE PROPERTY OF S. MEYER AND THE PLOT BELONGS TO DANNYSK.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LETTING ME SHARE YOUR STORY IN ENGLISH!

¡GRACIAS DANNY, POR DARME ESTA OPORTUNIDAD!

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The sliding glass doors of the clinic opened, and the same woman who always turned his world upside down finally emerged.

She was wearing her blue surgical scrubs, which clung to her amazing body. Instant lust set his loins on fire, and shit yeah, fuck the distances, she was exactly what he needed and wanted. That and to get that son of a bitch James out of their lives as soon as possible and forever... Shaking his head he saved his growl for later.

"Do I really want to know what you're doing here at this hour of the morning?" his wife murmured. Her tone, though harsh, was at least not bordering on anger.

Edward lifted a package of food he held in his hands, causing her to raise a dark, lined eyebrow.

"I brought dinner." He opened the bag and looked inside. "There's ribs, hamburgers, meatballs with a little spice..."

"Nothing light for dinner?" Edward smiled, pulling out a small box.

"Voila, nacho cheese fries." She rolled her eyes.

"As a nurse, I'm going to have to turn down dinner." Carefully brushing a strand of hair away from her face, she smiled at him for the first time in ages before taking a step in his direction and peering into the bag of food. "But since my shift is over, and I am but a mere hungry mortal, dare I ask if it will still be warm?"

He rolled a broad shoulder in a lazy shrug, trying to be as casual as he could.

"I don't know. Do you think we can eat it like this? I'd tell you to go to Emm's, but trust me, you don't want to hear the meowing your colleague does."

"R-Rosalie?" she half groaned, shuddering, and apparently hating the scene as much as he did.

"Same." Bella snorted, looking alternately from the food to him.

"So what are you suggesting?"

"What are you up to, Edward?"

"Dinner, we can do it in the car, if you like," he said with a frown, trying to look as offended as possible. She narrowed her eyes, hints of fury flaming in her eyes, making him sweat despite the chill of the night.

"Well, follow me." She surprised him by removing the alarm from her vehicle. "I think we have a microwave at home, I'm sure it can be useful for something."

Sarcasm. Better than rejection at any time of the day. Edward smiled. He could handle that.

O~O~O~O

Her heart was so silly.

Bella sighed as she glanced in the rear view mirror, checking that Edward was behind her and her heart again pounded with... why delve into it? The thing was, she had a heart. She supposed that when you were in the medical profession, having a heart was always a good thing. Sensitivity helped her relate to patients. But it also made her over-involved and hurt a lot more when the worst happened.

However, she wouldn't trade her ability to empathise with her patients for anything. It made her a damn good nurse, and it gave her the strength to go to work every day instead of sitting at home waiting for Edward to come home, heaven knew in what mood. God, she was doing it again, wasn't she? Yes, she knew she was losing intellectual capacity by dwelling on all that shit from the past, but she also had years of hell to go through conscientiously, and every little thing, no matter how small, brought reminders that Edward could be heaven and hell in one package. Finally they arrived home, and Bella grabbed her bag and her composure once and for all... The door next to her opened, making her gasp at the sight of him standing there, waiting for her.

"I'm sorry to scare you," she smiled half-sideways.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, blushing, looking away. I just didn't expect him to... you know.

"That he'd be a gentleman, you can say that, years of being a complete idiot don't pay off with a small gesture." The tension seemed to grow between them, Bella didn't want any more of that, at least not tonight, so she sighed.

"Shall we go inside?" Edward reached out and took her hand to get out of the car, and when he tried to get them to interlace their fingers, she pretended to need to reach into her bag for something. It was one thing that she was allowing him to get close, another to walk in holding hands... it felt too personal.

So it was that minutes later they were in the dining room, eating what for some strange reason was her favourite meal. How did Edward know? That would be a mystery... like what she was thinking at the moment. She wondered if he would still be angry to see James walking beside her, he had never liked him and as soon as they met in the car park, Bella could see a storm rising in Edward's green eyes. He was so sexy. She had always loved his temper because he seemed more in control of himself than ever. Now, he was curiously quiet, staring at her as she ate, something that would have bothered her if she wasn't so very hungry.

"What's wrong?" she finally asked before attacking the cheesy potatoes. "You look like you've never seen me eat before."

"I like watching you eat." Bella snorted.

"Yes, because eating like a desperate woman is so charming." He laughed.

"It is to me, believe it or not, there's no time of day I enjoyed it more than when I came home to eat with you and the kids," he said before biting into his burger." A biting thought occurred to Bella, why if it was the best time did, he never show it? But she said instead:

"Eli called me on my mobile phone this afternoon, can you believe that?", Edward chuckled.

"Yeah, I can believe it, she's too smart," he smiled, "she memorized your phone the other day."

"I didn't know that" she commented, still surprised as Edward nodded.

"I taught them to remember our numbers, in case anything happened, but I never thought they would use it to call you, and I would have been more surprised than I am now, if she hadn't called me first." Bella looked at him, still surprised.

"What did she say?"

"That if I was thinking of coming, I shouldn't forget to bring cake. She almost hinted that if I didn't come with it, I'd better not come at all, so I won't forget to take the little piece I bought out of the car, God forbid she should call me tomorrow in the middle of the meeting to complain."

They both laughed, and after that they continued to have dinner in surprisingly comfortable silence, and when they finished, Edward disappeared into the bathroom. He returned with a wet flannel and rendered her speechless as he very tenderly wiped her mouth, sliding gently into her hands, catching every bit of gooey cheese and grease from the fries, reminding her of how, though it was hard to imagine that the big, normally mean man had this same gesture with the twins. Bella averted her gaze to his broad arms, the jumper pulled tight across his biceps. She'd seen him exercise those arms inclement, but she'd also seen him cradle his new-born babies with care. His silence and abstracted gaze also indicated that something wasn't right and spurred on by the desire to see that he was changing, she dared to confront him.

·What happened today?" He tensed, before stopping abruptly, but not before she could see his eyes fill with shadows.

Edward was amazing at so many things, like being loyal to his job to the point of psychosis, intelligent... and sexual for distraction. And a hundred thousand other things Bella had had to admit that no one else came close to being. But he had one serious flaw. He couldn't handle emotions. Not at all.

He'd always shied away from anything deep... even if he couldn't move. He could sit right in front of her and nod and even talk, but when emotions became strong for him, he would leave them inside his skin. And if you tried to force him to face them? Well, that wasn't possible. No one was forcing Edward to do anything. And yeah, sure, there were plenty of good reasons for the way he was now. His family lost in a tragic accident, his girlfriend with the same fate. Having been beaten up like that all his life, she could understand it. But whatever the stressors were, at the end of the day, Edward was going to run away from anything that was too complicated or required anything from him.

Bella stared at him as he stuffed all the boxes of food into a bag before throwing them in the bin, starting the countdown in her mind as he called it a night.

"I thought I was being normal," he smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. "Well, I guess being sneaky just isn't in me." He grimaced.

"I've known you forever, Edward." He inhaled.

"I'm... I'm going to therapy, nothing really bad happened, it's just... it's a bit hard to go over everything you've been doing over the years, especially the bad parts, the rash decisions, the bad choices..." He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm very sorry if I gave you the wrong impression." She was stunned before clearing her throat.

"Oh, that's... that's good, I wouldn't have guessed." He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, and suddenly she knew that whatever it was they were discussing today, it definitely wasn't their marriage, but was related to his hellish past.

O~O~O~O

"I suppose, I've only just begun."

Edward sighed, remembering how his life quickly went down the drain. Along with his parents and then Angela, his existence had become miserable. That afternoon he had confessed to Leah, the psychologist Emmett had recommended and who had also treated him, how he was tormented by a lot of shit. He'd told her how, among other things, he hadn't been able to deal with the guilt of having quickly slept with the one he'd until recently considered a good friend, a support, and as if that wasn't enough, the enormous weight on his shoulders of knowing he was going to be a father. A bad one, by the way.

Leah told him that it had all happened so quickly without giving him time to process anything, so he was left with nothing but self-loathing and anger, which he lashed out at anyone and anything, not caring much about what was going on around him. Something they were going to work on immediately, even if it cost him headaches to have to spit his guts out in front of someone else. So…he didn't want to talk to his wife about it for the moment, it had been a cathartic enough afternoon.

"I'm so glad, it's a big step," Bella comforted him, gently stroking his hand. Edward smiled slightly at her look, inwardly grateful that there was no pity at all. He hated pity, which was why he had never spoken of his past to anyone. "I'm also glad you sought me out tonight and... shared this with me," she murmured softly, her dark eyes bright and warm.

Then the truth of the situation between them hit him so hard that he almost got out of his chair. Was he in love with his wife? He looked at her overwhelmed, she returned his gaze with a sincere little smile, stroking his hand.

Yes, he was.

And how sick was it that he was only just realising that? At the same time, shame felt like a weight in the centre of his chest, because she wanted more than these banalities, more than these awkward, slow discoveries on his part. She wanted him to love her, but he still didn't feel safe with that feeling. I mean, giving himself over completely to the emotion was so overwhelming it gave him tachycardia. With the twins it was a different feeling, because somehow, he was understanding his role, he was their father and that was permanent, because no matter how many times he screwed up, the love they gave him was enough for him to understand once and for all that they weren't going anywhere, that no matter what, they would always be his blood, so he wanted to be better for them because they were everything to him, they were the only thing that was truly his. With Bella it was different. She could choose him or not, she could break his heart if she went with a guy like Jasper or like fucking James. She deserved only the best, not a guy with demons who was sometimes taciturn, sometimes unbearable... Fucking shit, he just hoped Bella's patience would hold out a little longer to give him time to sort all his shit out.

"Thank you for having dinner with me tonight," he murmured giving her a soft kiss on the cheek, when all he wanted was to sink into her. Being inside her always managed to wipe away any bad situation, she was definitely his drug. With a sigh he caressed her jaw, "I just want to be better for you, I'll see you soon."

Edward is going to therapy, but it is still difficult for him to talk about everything. But taking little steps at the time is going to help him

I am going to be completely honest and say that I totally forgot to answer the reviews and send you the teaser! hahaha But hey, I didn't forget to update! and I've read every single review you've left (•‿•)