A/N for 2019-07-03: Eeyorefan12, you make my writing so much better. Thank you for all your fine work.

News: The Babies at the Border fundraiser is back for round two. I really wish there wasn't a reason for its existence, but alas, the reason remains. If you're not sure what the fundraiser is about, I encourage you to check out their handle on Twitter, batb_2018, or the Facebook group.

So, I'll be writing for the cause, and donating as well. However, *what* I write is up to you all. I've put a poll on my FaceBook author page: Facebook DOT com SLASH flamingmaplewrites. The choices are: an out- or future-take from this story, a more immediate continuation of Primum Non Nocere, or something else - feel free to message me with a suggestion.

Happy reading,

Erin

"I'm fine, really," Bella said, putting her hand on Edward's forearm. She laid her head back against the headrest, watching the rain begin to splatter over the windshield. Edward had insisted on driving her home in her car after her 'episode' at the Midwifery. Not that she had been difficult to convince.

"You don't look fine," Edward countered. She was sure he didn't think she sounded fine either.

She wasn't, not entirely, but sometimes shaky and anxious was a marked improvement over blatantly panicked.

With the initial onset of her alarming emotional descent, she had grabbed Edward's hand and begun talking to herself in a low voice. Anita, who'd worked with her before, understood these affirmations for what they were. Bella hadn't been so certain of Edward's reaction, and had only peeked up at him after a few minutes. He had nodded encouragingly, and a wave of relief had flooded her as she was reminded yet again what a blessing his ability to read the minds around him could be.

"I just don't do well with reminders of human frailty and mortality—especially when it comes to children."

Edward gently lifted her hand from his arm, squeezing it lightly and kissing it before letting their clasped hands rest between them. "No, I can imagine not."

"I'm okay," she said, willing it to be true.

"Okay," he echoed.

She let herself focus on breathing in and out.

"What was wrong with the baby?" She finally asked him.

"Nothing, as far as I could tell," Edward said.

Turning her head towards him, she frowned. "Nothing?"

"Bradycardia is not uncommon in newborns." He said it clinically. Like it was nothing. Like the baby hadn't stopped breathing. Like he hadn't possibly just saved its life.

She stared at his profile for a moment, then made herself take another deep breath. "Bad things happen to people," she mumbled to herself. "That doesn't mean they'll happen to me."

"I will do my best to keep them at bay," Edward said, releasing her hand to gently brush her cheek with his, the backs of his fingers cool and soothing.

- 0 -

Meredith's impending birthday celebrations were another, much happier reminder of Bella's and her family's human status.

Alice's wish to be involved in Mer's birthday party planning was less so.

"No, thank you," Bella said politely to Alice. "I think Mer and I can plan her birthday party." The 'alone' was inferred.

"If you want some help, just say so. I've been known to follow instructions occasionally."

Jasper disguised his laughter as a cough.

"You pretend a lot," Mer said to him, and then looked at Alice. Her little eyebrows were pinched together as if she was trying to solve a mystery. "Grown-ups are silly," she said to Alice, whom she clearly didn't include in this category.

"Very," Alice agreed. She pointed to the fabric they'd laid out flat on the carpet. "Just put the pin there. Good!"

"Maybe you could do that, Alice?" Bella said, keeping her breathing even. She noticed Jasper wandering away and hoped she hadn't offended him with her concern but he only went as far as the dining room where he sat down before one of the laptops that resided on the table. Edward had wryly referred to the area as Command Central a few days before.

"Why don't I?" Alice was saying to Meredith. "You hold the pattern piece on, and then I'll pin it and cut it out. You can tell me if I'm not going straight on the lines."

Mer nodded solemnly. She adored Alice and talked of her frequently at home. Bella was grateful for Alice's ability to make her daughter feel special.

Edward appeared, gently pulling at Bella's hand. "Come see." he said, sounding uncharacteristically excited. "Outside."

In one of the lower parts of the garden, Carlisle and Josh were sitting on the lawn, a large bottle and a bubble wand between them.

"More bubbles, Josh?" Carlisle was asking.

"More!" Josh squeaked, standing up.

"Okay. What's your name?" Carlisle asked him.

Josh looked momentarily flustered, and his little lips pulled down in a frown.

"Say, 'Josh,'" Carlisle whispered to him.

"Josh!"

"Good!" Carlisle blew out a string of perfect bubbles.

Hand to her mouth, Bella didn't even try to stop the tears but turned herself into Edward's chest. She didn't want Josh to see her crying. "How'd he do that?" she whispered.

"External incentive," Edward said into her hair. "Antecedent, behavior, consequence."

"Okay, in English, for the rest of us," she chuckled, wiping at her eyes.

He planted a soft kiss on her cheek. "It's the premise of the therapy I told you about. You set things up so you have something motivating for the child to work towards—like bubbles. The antecedent is the thing that your child is meant to respond to, like a question, the behaviour is the action you want, and the reward is the consequence. In short, positive reinforcement."

Face rearranged, Bella turned herself around, leaning back against Edward's chest.

"Josh, more bubbles?" Carlisle asked.

"More!"

"Who's that?" he asked, pointing to Edward.

"Man!"

Bella chewed on the inside of her lip, fighting to hold back her laugh.

"That's Edward. Can you say, 'Edward'?"

"Man!" Josh repeated.

"Good work," Carlisle said, blowing more bubbles.

"But—" Bella said.

"They're just establishing rapport right now. Some leeway is important," Edward explained, pretending to clear his throat. "Unlike my name."

"Sure, 'Man'," Bella chuckled, emphasizing the word with air quotes.

After watching for a little, Bella could see that Carlisle had things with Josh under control and that she and Edward were more of a distraction than a help. It was her turn to tug Edward away by the hand.

Meandering around to the front of the house, they settled onto a bench there. "You sure Esme is good, getting dinner ready?" She looked towards the kitchen.

"Quite," he smiled. "You're not getting the idea you need to go help, are you?"

"None at all, seeing as I've barely touched anything in my own kitchen of late."

Edward gave a thoughtful, "Hmm," but didn't rise to the bait.

This did bring her closer to a topic of conversation she'd been meaning to tackle for a while.

"But I do want to talk about matters domestic." Glancing sideways, she saw she had his full attention. "You've been at my place a lot, and it's been really nice."

"Is that a polite Canadian way of saying it's too much?" he asked lightly, still rubbing his thumb over her fingers.

"No," she said, smiling. "It's just you're there, but all your things are here. And I'm not always sure where I'm going to find you."

"You'll find me beside you, until you shoo me away. There would be no other reason for me to be elsewhere."

"I have no interest in shooing you away," Bella said, smiling. "But I'm sure you're valued at your . . . other job."

"I'm on leave from work, so no need to worry about them missing me."

"You are?" It surprised her, though she supposed it shouldn't.

"Some things are more important than work." His gaze was suddenly very intense. "My place is with you and the children right now."

Bella briefly glanced away, feeling suddenly lightheaded. For once, she knew it had nothing to do with her pregnancy. Also, they'd gotten off-track so she needed to lighten the moment.

"I should add, the cat may say otherwise about your welcome." Letting a small smile blossom on her face, Bella remembered the latest interaction between Edward, Josh, and the family cat.

Josh adored Bubbles, seeking her out at every opportunity. He'd been delighted when she'd taken to sleeping in his new bed and kept patting the mattress at night, calling out, "Bu-bbles!" in a sing song voice. These emanations became shrieks of excitement when Bubbles did grace his room with her presence.

So when Josh had tried to bring his newest and most favourite person together with the cat, he'd been perplexed by their seeming incompatibility. No matter how hard he tried, Josh could not find a way to entice Bubbles to approach when Edward was near. The closest he'd managed to bring them was when he had dragged Edward to his room, while Bubbles cowered under the bed, spitting and hissing at any perceived movement.

"Bubbles," Josh had said, trying to soothe her while peering under the bed from a safe distance. Then he'd added, "Man," like Edward was a treat to be offered. No luck.

"I was just wondering," Bella began, "where you consider your home to be—now." She knew she was speaking very quietly. It felt momentous to be asking about this.

His answer was instantaneous. "Wherever you are."

"Okay," she said quietly, wondering if he was just teasing her at this point or if he really was this clueless about what she was asking. "Does that mean you're moving in?"

She watched his eyebrows settle into that wrinkled wedge that told her he was thinking.

Shit.

He didn't want to move in with her? But he practically lived there already!

She sucked in a quick breath, uttering a silent string of chastisements as she tried to understand what was going on. She felt stupid to have assumed that this was the logical next step, but hadn't he just said that his place was with her? Or was he hesitating because she was the one who had asked? Bella looked down at her lap and was oddly surprised to see both her fingers and Edward's still entwined there. The man was giving her whiplash . . .

"Forgive me," he said, squeezing her hand. "My silence has upset you. I think this is where I'm feeling my age."

"What do you mean by that?" she mumbled, not looking at him.

He sighed. "You're going to think this is ridiculous. Probably because it is."

Her heart rate slowed. Maybe she hadn't been wrong?

"I'm worried about what other people will think of me being seen to live with you."

Her eyes shot up to his face again but it still took three blinks, and repeating the words to herself, before she could speak. "You're worried about my reputation?"

He looked uncomfortable as he spoke. "To be fair, it's a secondary concern, but it's one of them."

"Edward, I am not worried about what neighbours I don't really know think. What's your first concern?"

His voice was very quiet. "You're not worried about what Charlie will think?"

She wanted to say she wasn't, but that wouldn't be true. "All things considered, Charlie's opinion is not my biggest consideration."

He nodded.

"What are you worried about?" She asked, resisting the urge to bite her lip.

"I don't want to dishonour you."

More blinks. "What?"

He ran his free hand through his hair, ruffling the back. "You're well versed in the nineteenth century classics, of course." It was not a question.

"Of course." She was trying to figure out the connection between this and the previous line of conversation.

"Just think of anyone moving in with a member of the opposite sex, that wasn't their blood relative, during that time."

"Sure. Total ostracization."

"Yes. I was born at the end of that time period."

Right. "Oh."

"Indeed," Edward said.

Bella pondered this for a moment. "So let me get this straight. You've practically been living at my house, staying in my bed at night, being more intimate with me than we ever were before, and that's okay, but moving your stuff in, isn't?" She blushed a little at these last words. There hadn't been more than a kiss since that first night.

"In a nutshell, yes."

"That's ridiculous, Edward."

"I think those are the exact words I used," he said, smiling ruefully.

"Well, I'm glad we're in agreement on that," Bella sighed.

They sat, staring at the trees, thinking, hands still linked.

"So, I'm taking that as a no to you formally moving in," she said quietly.

Edward's arm slipped around her, pulling her close. "What do you want?" he asked. "Because I had ten years to think about how insisting on what I wanted didn't work out very well."

She looked sideways at him. "I don't want you to abandon your values because you think I want something."

"I don't think I'm in danger of that. I'm just trying to think about the bigger picture. I've been rightly accused of being a tiny bit narrow-minded."

Bella laughed a little. Yes. In their past, that would have been an even bigger understatement than it was now. She let her face relax, thinking again. "I want to be with you," Bella said softly. "I want you to be with us."

He breathed a kiss into her hair. "Okay."

"Maybe you can just leave some clothes at my place, and not move in? Would that be enough of a compromise for your moral sensibilities?"

"My moral sensibilities," he chuckled, turning her face to brush her lips with a kiss. "Ancient, ridiculous notions that I can't seem to shake."

She laughed, accepting more of these kisses. "I love you, ridiculous notions and all."

Disclaimer: S. Meyer owns Twilight. No copyright infringement intended.