Hello, sorry for the delay in chapters, I've just been busy. I will try to get the updates up quicker but school comes first.

And can I just say that in Australia baseball isn't a very common sport I don't know anybody that plays baseball and I don't even know If we have got a team. Google came up with three different baseball teams for Chicago, so I hope that nobody minds that in this fan fiction, Edward will be a White Sox's fan.

The restaurant wasn't crowed, which wasn't altogether surprising, but there were a few other people here.

At least the service should be quick.

Our server was a girl just older then me, but our server was a man probably in his mid forties. I was glad about this at first, I mean, you don't expect an older guy to ogle your incredibly hot girlfriend, nor do you want that. But shit, it gets awkward when said middle aged guy started to check out your mother.

That's disgusting, and if you don't get your hand off of her, I'll karate kick your ass.

I could that she was uncomfortable, but behind that I could see something else in her eyes. She looked…..flattered?

Ewwww.

I knew that nothing would even happen between my mother and strange-waiter—guy, as he shall henceforth be known, but still, knowing that she kinda liked that attention was weird.

Bella, who was unable to get out of eating anything, ordered a mushroom ravioli and my mother got some sort of ricotta. I got the lasagna, like the last time, ignoring the both of them when they rolled their eyes.

Fuck I loved lasagna.

The whole lunch was over quickly, Bella didn't give me a present and my mother didn't give me another one. We made small talk and I let my mother pay the bill at the end without a fuss, plus I got to drive. I was happy and more than willing to get changed to my pajamas and watch some DVD's on the couch with pizza for dinner.

The Italians were geniuses. Lasagna and pizza from one country, and they made spaghetti too, genius.

The silence was comfortable but I wished that we had some music. My CD player – IPod dock – Radio broke the other week and I had not gotten a replacement yet.

"Are you really opposed to doing anything tonight?" Bella said, leaning forwards again and rubbing my shoulders. Her voice was more sultry than usual, but there was a hint of something else, concern maybe? Without thinking about what I was saying, I asked her –

"That depends, what did you have in mind?" My voice was lower too, and I was thinking about things that I really shouldn't be with my mother sitting next to my. I quickly tried to snap out of my horny-teenager mind set and focused on what was going on.

"Come over to my place for a bit. We won't do anything, just hang out for a little while."

I shot a glance over to my mother, wondering how she would react to this. She caught my eye and smiled, nodding encouragingly.

"You're sure?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"I'm a big girl Edward, I can take care of myself besides, you only get one eighteenth birthday."

Could people please stop telling me that.

"Alright then." I wasn't going to argue about spending alone time with Bella.

We took Bella to her house and after giving me a quick peck on the cheek and hugging mum, she ran at a human speed to the house. She was going to come and get me at about seven.

Mum and I drove to the house in relative silence.

When we got home she asked me if I had enjoyed lunch and I replied with a yes, before the both of us started to watch one of my birthday DVD's.

"I'm sorry." Mother said quietly after about an hour.

"About what?" I said, chewing on a piece of liquorish and not taking my eyes off of the screen.

"We didn't really do anything today."

"I didn't want too." I still wouldn't take my eyes off of the screen, somehow knowing were she was going take this.

"But it was your eighteenth." She put extra emphasis on the word, as if this would make me understand what I already knew. "We said that this was going to be the year that we did something big, have a celebration, and we even got you to agree – "

"But that was before everything changed." I cut her off, knowing that I was probably being a jerk but I didn't want to talk about this right now, not with that dream still fresh in my mind. To my horror, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and my throat tighten.

Dad and I hadn't been close, but still, the guy had been my dad. When I had been a little kid, too naive to see the world and the people here with me for what they really were I had wanted to be like my dad. To me, he had been like a superhero, the big, strong man that could take care of me and mother and put all of the bad guys in jail.

I could take the long hours because my best friends dad owned a big business but my dad was a fucking superhero.

Lets just say that by nine I realized that I was being a dickhead, and that my dad was being a dick.

Not in those words or anything, I might have a foul mouth now but I wasn't always like this, I was at some stage a respectable young man….boy, whatever.

The point is that as I grew up I realized that me and dad had nothing in common, something that my 'superhero' had apparently already gathered. Dad hadn't seemed too bothered when I had stopped calling him superhero, or as I had gotten even older, basically stopped talking to the guy at all, though mother had asked me at the time why I stopped. You're probably thinking that it's all my fault that we had a shit-tacular relationship right about now right? We'll, it's not. If dad had wanted to talk, he was the adult, he was my dad, he could of spoken to me had he seen fit.

But despite all of this – he was still my dad, so of course I was upset when he had died. I wasn't as bad as mother, but I didn't particularly enjoy the reminders. This birthday stuff had gotten me thinking about him for some reason, and I assumed that that was what had brought on that dream.

I blinked quickly, hoping to will away the tears before mother could see them, but she did anyway.

"Oh Edward – "

"Don't," I told her. "Just don't, not over this."

"What happened affected you more than you let me see." She said quietly and I knew that she was upset.

"You weren't in any state to see, you loved him more than I did. I had to take care of you then, not the other way around. You were my responsibility." I hadn't meant that to be an insult, I wasn't angry that she had been such a mess, not at all. And as far as I had been concerned, she was my responsibility. I was the man of the house now and it was my job to take care of her.

"I didn't – I hadn't wanted to…..you should not have had to take care of me, I'm sorry – "

"I didn't mean that as an insult mum," I smiled at her gently, trying to show her that I was telling the truth. "I understood that you needed to grieve, and who was I to deny you that. I didn't need you to take care of me then, I was alright. I mean yer – what happened sucked, but I can't change that and I just had to deal with that." I shrugged again. "No big deal." I turned my attention to the television, hoping that she knew that I didn't want to talk.

She didn't way anything else for about ten minutes, before she excused herself. I could hear her footsteps on the stairs and knew that she was about to cry.

I felt like shit now.

I knew better than to go to her and try to comfort her. I sighed out loud, wishing that I could go back twenty minutes.

At six thirty, mum came downstairs and told me that she couldn't be bothered cooking, and that she was going to get some dinner. She kissed the top of my hair and told me that she would wait up.

I still felt horrible at seven when Bella knocked on the door. I sighed into her hair as I hugged her and told her what happened when she asked.

"I am sure that she does not blame you, she just does not like that you felt like you had to take care of her."

"But I did!"

"Yes, but she did not know that." I sighed and came to a stop at the drivers side of the car and opened the door for Bella, but when she didn't move to get in I looked up at her. She was smiling at me and dangling the keys from her slender fingers. I looked at them, then looked back up at her with raised eyebrows.

"Because you are so adamant against me getting you a gift, then you can drive the car, I know how much you like this thing."

My mouth was agape as I stared back at the car keys. "But you never let anybody drive this." The thing with Alice was a once off.

"Are you saying that you don't want to drive?" She asked me playfully

"Oh I'll drive." I nodded eagerly, reaching my hand out for the keys. She laughed at me and left me staring at them in my palm as she walked away. The beep of the horn brought me back to the present, and I looked in to see Bella leaning over the seats.

"You coming?" She grinned.

I carefully got into the car and started it. I felt a thrill go though me as I felt and heard the purr of the engine.

"You are such a guy." She groaned.

"Lucky for you, right?" My voice didn't have the right amount of teasing.

"Let's go." She flicked my arm, lightly as to not bruise me.

I nodded and sped from the driveway, going above the speed limit as soon as my foot went on the accelerator.

I went faster as we got away from civilization and was surprised that Bella hadn't told me to slow yet.

"You are a pretty good driver for a human." She mused.

I smirked, I couldn't help myself. "Just wait till I'm a vampire." I heard her sigh, but she didn't say anything more.

We started to drive up the driveway before she spoke again.

"You know that the last time that on of us had a birthday was in 1935 right?"

"Yer, you told me the other day."

I pulled up in front of the house, pouting as I gave her the keys. She walked me up the stairs with her hand in mine but stopped me before I opened the door. She stepped in front of me so that she could wrap her arms round my.

"Please be nice.' She whispered before she kissed me.

"Nice about what?" I asked her after I regained my breathing. She smiled again and opened the door, pulling me along side her.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDWARD!" The chorus of voice startled me, the noise, mostly Emmett's booming voice, broke the quite and I could feel my heart beating in my chest.

I could see Emmett, Jasper and Alice standing next to the grand piano in the living room, Rosalie leaning on the couch with her lips pursed tightly, as if to tell me that she hadn't wished me a happy birthday and then Esme, my mother and Carlisle standing next to a huge, and I mean huge as in gigantic, blue cake. There were blue balloons and streamers all over the room.

I blinked a few times before a grin came over my face and I started to laugh. I couldn't help myself.

I didn't know what was so funny, but apparently my sub conscious thought that something was hilarious. My laughter soon spread to Jasper and the others in that corner of the room started to laugh too.

"Not angry?" Bella asked me hopefully.

"No, not angry." I chuckled, kissing her cheek.

"I told you!" Alice cried. "You people never believe me!"

"Alice, we always believe you." Jasper reminded her.

"But not about this!" She whined.

"You knew all along didn't you?" I said to my mother as Bella dragged me into the room.

"All along, but I didn't help with this," She gestured her arms to the room. "which looks amazing, just by the way," she said the Esme and Carlisle. Alice beamed.

"So this was your idea?" I asked Alice. She bit her lip and shook her head. I turned on Bella. At least she looked sheepish. "Bella!"

"What?" She asked me innocently.

"Open the presents!" Alice squealed. She started to bounce again and I looked at where she was pointing. A stack of presents in blue and gold wrapping paper that I had not seen before were on the table next to the piano.

"I said that – "

"But we did not listen." Alice said simply, taking my spare hand and pulling Bella and I over to the stack of presents, letting go of my hand and shoving a present into it. Bella released my other hand so that I could get a better grip.

"You honestly did-"

"We wanted to." Carlisle said, cutting off my complaining. I did not want them to think that I was ungrateful, so I thanked him and went to open it.

"That one's from Rose, Emmett and Jazz." Alice said. I smiled at each one of them, even Rosalie, but doubted that she had anything to do with this. The box was very light, almost felt empty, but I internally shrugged and ripped the wrapping off, only to find that the box had been painted blue. I looked at Emmett, who was shaking with the chuckles that he was trying to keep in.

"Just do it." I told him, and without an hesitation his laughter filled the room. I opened the top of the painted blue box, only to find that the box was actually empty.

"Ermm, thankyou?" My statement sounded like a question. This set Emmett off again, but this time he was not the only one.

"It is actually a new stereo system for your car, just like the old one but an updated model." Jasper told me grinned. I could feel my face light up and understanding.

"Thankyou!" I said, more sincerely this time. I heard a snap and saw a flash and looked towards my mother, who was holding the camera that she had gotten me.

"You need the memories." She smiled.

"That is true," Bella said, though my mother would not know exactly how true Bella meant. "They fade more than you would think." She gave me a meaningful look and I heard Rosalie hiss, though my mother wouldn't.

"The real stereo is in Carlisle's office, we thought that this would be funnier." Jasper continued.

"Oh," I said, still smiling. Not even Rosalie hissing could damper my spirits. "Wait, why Carlisle's office?" I asked, shooting a look to the vampire in question. Carlisle looked just as confused as me and shrugged. I looked back to Jasper who had a thoughtful look on his face.

"Ya know, I have got no idea." He 'hmmed' then snapped his eyes back to mine. "Anyways, keep going." Jasper gestured to the pile of presents.

"This one is from Bella." Alice said, handing me the next box. This one was thinner but also wider and longer in some places.

I took the box from her and looked at Bella. "You better not have spent much." I told her.

"Not a dime, not recently anyway." She put her hand over her heart. "Some of them belonged to Renee and eventually she gave them to me. The others I bought."

I raised my eyebrow at her, knowing that part of this gift would be over a hundred years old.

"Who is Renee?" My mother asked quietly, noticing that the room had suddenly gotten a bit tense. After she said this though, I felt a calm spread over the room.

"She was my biological mother." Bella answered simply, but her eyes hardened.

"Oh," My mother looked flustered. "Sorry, I did not know that – "

Bella waved a casual hand in her direction. "No problem. Esme and Carlisle are the only real parents that I had anyway." I saw Esme and Carlisle beam at this.

Bella nodded at me encouragingly and I went to open the wrapping paper when Alice stopped me.

"Wait!" She exclaimed. Her topaz eyes were wide with panic and Jasper went to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"What is it Alice?" Bella asked her carefully.

"I just think that you should wait to opened that until later." Her eyes were still wide and I just knew that Jasper was pumping her full of calm.

"Alright then." I said, putting the gift on the table. My mother looked confused. I could relate.

"Mine next!" Alice squealed, her excitement back just like that. I could feel the lighter atmosphere returning to me too, and the rest of the room. I wondered if this was Jaspers doing.

Her parcel was small and thin. I assumed that she had gotten me a gift certificate. I was right, a $1000 gift certificate for my favorite clothing store. Typical, I thought grinned. "Thankyou Alice." I told her as I hugged her. She wrapped her tiny and freakishly strong arms around my fragile and human neck and I gasped fro breath.

"That's alright. But last one!" She sang, shoving the last parcel into my hands. "This one is from Esme and Carlisle." I look towards the two and smiled in thanks. The box was in the shape of a cube, and as I started to unwrap, I saw what looked like glass.

Once I had all of the wrapping off, I saw what it was, the year and the signatures.

It was a baseball from the year 1917, the year that I knew that Carlisle started to like baseball. It was from the White Sox vs The Philadelphia Athletics. Players from the White Sox had signed the ball, and I wondered how Carlisle had gotten the ball.

I looked up at him, opening my mouth to say something but not being able to.

Esme looked happy, and Carlisle's smile was slightly smug, but his eyes were, as always, kind.

"Aw shit," Jasper grumbled. "You guys win."

Emmett cursed under his breath and then apologized to Esme and my mother.

"Win what?" Mother asked. I was glad that she did, I had wanted to know but was still shocked.

"We made a bet about what would shock him the most, the party or whose gift. Emmett bet on our present, Bella and I bet on the party and Esme and Carlisle bet in their gift, and we do not let Alice play."

"How come?" My mother looked upset at them signaling Alice out. Meanwhile, I was started to get some sort of sense back.

"Alice is very intuitive, she is almost always right." Jasper replied.

"Almost. Pfft." Alice grumbled.

"Not always." Emmett whined. "How come you guys get to win." Emmett sulked.

"There present was the most surprising?" My mother suggested helpfully. Bella snorted next to me.

"But!" Jasper exclaimed, the soundly loud voice making my jump. "We did not know what their gift was, plus we expected Bella's to be opened now too."

"Thankyou," I said once Jasper had a little rant. "thankyou so much, but how did you know that I was a White Sox fan?" I couldn't think of anything else to say.

Plus, I love the White Sox.

"You told me remember? That time that you saw the jersey from back then."

"Oh yer." That was the time that James and Victoria had tracked us, they had not played since.

"What is it?" My mother asked me.

"A ball from 1917, it's signed by the White Sox's."

"Aww! But Dad, I claimed that on the will!" Emmett moaned. Esme smiled, Alice squeaked and Carlisle rolled his eyes.

"I know."

"Wait seriously?" I asked them. Why would a vampire need a will?

"So Emmett thinks." Carlisle smirked.

The Emmett in question pouted, and I stuck my tongue out and held the ball tightly to my chest."

"Do they ever grow up?" Bella asked Esme and Elizabeth. "Or will I live the rest of my life with men-children?"

"Sweetheart they can be five or five hundred but most of them a children inside." My mother said. If only she knew….

"Tell me about it." Esme muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Hey!" Jasper and Carlisle exclaimed. Emmett and I just looked at each other and shrugged, knowing that they were partially right. But I could act like a grown up if I wanted to. Sometimes…..

We stayed until ten, eating cake and talking and taking pictures. Bella present lay unwrapped on the table with the rest of the presents just waiting to be unwrapped. On of the best parts was when Emmett, who like the rest of the Cullen's was hiding cake in the serviettes on their laps, got his hand 'accidently' pushed by Jasper so he got most of the piece of cake shoved in his mouth and had to eat the whole thing.

I drove to the house with mum after hugging them all, except for Rosalie who retreated upstairs, but I knew that Bella would be running to the house. I was looking forward to unwrapping the present with her, curious as to what she had gotten.

"You were right about Rosalie." My mother said.

"What do you mean?"

"She seems so standoffish; I can see why she and Bella fight a lot."

"You have got no idea." I muttered, chuckling.

"Did you have a good night though?"

"Yes, it was excellent. Did you?"

"Yes, they are very nice people."

"That they are. And….. I am sorry about before, I did not mean to make you upset – I was only trying to offend you or anything, I honestly did not mind."

"I know sweetheart." She put her hand on mine. "What do you think that Bella got you?"

"No idea, but I hope to know what soon." How soon, she would hopefully not know.

I kissed her goodnight on the cheek when we got home, saying that I was tired from the big day and from getting up so early. She called me lazy but went to bed too.

Bella was there, sitting on my bed and fiddling with her hands. "So," She said as I walked to her with the presents in my hand. "Wanna see what I got you?"

Reviews are better than mysterious birthday gifts.