I do not own Twilight.
Alas, we come to the end. I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who has followed this story to the end. I'm truly grateful for all of your comments and follows and alerts. If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't have given up on this story eons ago. I mean, a hundred chapters?! What was I thinking?!
It's true what they say about the second child.
For the first one, I was always on everyone who was around him to watch his head, to wash their hands before and after, to be careful with the words they use around him, to not put him into the carriage until they've disinfected it. I think my mom got annoyed, but she was good at keeping her mouth shut.
Little Mason was such a good baby. He slept through the night nearly every night, he fed when he was supposed to, he hardly ever cried, he loved everyone—he loved Alice—and he never put up a fuss when his brother came two years later.
Ethan was like an evil twin to Mason.
He hardly ever slept; he was colicky. He didn't let anyone hold him other than Edward and I. He wouldn't stay on the floor or in the basinet or on the changing table for anything and when he began crawling, he was constantly putting anything and everything in his mouth.
Edward took it a lot better than I did. He was patient with them—with him. He took things from him and replaced it with a toy. He coddled him when he cried, he stayed up with him when he wouldn't sleep.
I, on the other hand, thought I was going to go crazy.
And I think I did, because shortly after that, Brianne came along.
My mom and Rosalie were through the roof. Rosalie had had twin boys; enormous, like Emmett, and immediately made Emmett get a vasectomy. She had her little girl vicariously through me and, by the time the third child came around, I was willing to pass her off to anyone and everyone who wanted a chance to hold her or play with her or babysit her.
Edward's dad was the best with her. She was so enraptured by him and everything he did. His voice, his face, his movements. I thought it was because he so closely resembled her father, but there was something about her grandfather that she couldn't get enough of. Edward wasn't all too happy, but it loosened them up to each other during her first year when his dad was able to calm her after a particularly long tantrum.
I loved it. I thought it was the best thing ever and had even talked to Edward about asking his dad to move his shop down to California, but quickly dismissed that idea when Edward about had a panic attack.
Luckily we were alone.
Jasper had signed with a team in Sacramento and while he traveled, Alice stayed in California. She was like my roommate, almost, during the first year of Brianne's life. Jasper was away most of the time and she was at our house morning and night.
Edward liked it at first until she started getting on his nerves as Alice loves to do.
A rule went up: Alice was allowed three times a week, only during sunlight hours.
I think I laughed for an hour straight when he told me this. Not that I didn't want her around, but Alice was bored without Jasper, and that boredom turned into attaching herself to our family as though she was a second wife.
My mom visited as often as she could and for as long as she could—which capped off at about three days in a row before I sent her to a hotel for a day or two.
Esme and my mom had somehow banded together, so they got any information either of them wanted when one of them was here, and one of them was home. It put me into a twist of anxiety until one day I exploded on Edward as soon as he walked through the front door.
It was a weekend and my mom and Charlie were visiting. They had taken all three kids to the park and I don't know what had come over me. It was a mix of stress at work and stress with the kids and their schools and sleepless nights and worrying about Edward's dad and Esme and Peter and my mom and Charlie and constantly making sure that Edward was okay whenever his dad was around, that had me practically tumbling over the dining room chairs as I screamed at him about forgetting to buy more Cheerios.
Cheerios.
But he was a good husband and let me yell until I cried and pushed him away when he tried to hug me. He went to the corner store and bought three boxes of Cheerios and then came home and took me upstairs and let me fuck him until every last particle of energy was drained out of me.
Two hours later I couldn't stop laughing when he told me the reason he hadn't originally bought the Cheerios was because the store had been wiped out.
I tried to apologize, but I think I was laughing too hard and I don't think he understood a word I was saying and by the time my parents came back with the kids we were as happy as could be. My mom looked a little concerned when I choked back a laugh when Ethan asked for a bowl of "O's".
I slept better that night than I had in six years.
I thanked and apologized to Edward by waking him up with my mouth wrapped around him.
He didn't get to finish because a few minutes later there was a tiny knock on the door followed by a, "Mommy?" and "Daddy?", which was Mason's way of subtly telling us he had wet the bed. Again.
I leaned forward to kiss Edward and he held me there for a second, pressing his tongue inside of my mouth. I laughed and pulled away.
"Go back to sleep," I whispered as I moved off of the bed to tend to Mason. "I'll wake you up again in ten minutes."
He laughed when I smirked and fell back to the pillows.
"God, I love you," I heard him say as I shut the door behind me and looked down into Edward's emerald eyes on our six-year-old son.
XX
Again, thank you all so much.
It's with tears that I say goodbye to all of you and this story.
It's been a journey, but it's been worth it to give you all a story you enjoyed…hopefully.