A/N: Thanks so much for all your wonderful thoughts.

Most characters belong to S. Meyer. The rest belong to me. All mistakes are mine as well.

Broken – Chapter 28

Hey, Bella, my meeting's done. Went well. I'll tell you about it in a few if you'd like. Hope your meeting went well too. I was wondering if you wanted me to swing by the sandwich shop (the one we visited a couple of weeks ago) on my way to the coffee shop and pick up a couple of those sandwiches?

If I had to be honest, as I texted from the building elevator, I may have still harbored a slight yet lingering fear that Bella would reply that she couldn't meet for lunch after all, that something else came up…that she'd reconsidered.

Yes! I loved those sandwiches! Ask them to make mine with extra mustard, please!

Sure, my love. I grinned to myself like a fool as I stepped off the elevator and walked through the lobby.

And a nice big side of pickles!

Of course. Will half a dozen do?

We'll have to see, lol. I love pickles. Thank you, baby. I'm on my way. Can't wait to see you. So the FDA meeting went well?

As well as could be expected. I'll tell you about it – minus talk of strains, promise. Volterra meeting went well?

Yes, and you can talk strains to me all you want, Edward; at least, for the next few months. In a few months, when I've grown used to being with you, and I'm no longer turned on by every scientific term that comes out of your mouth, maybe not so much talk of strains.

You're a smartass, you know that, Miss Swan?

But you love my smartass, and I love your nerdy ass, and as we found out last night when we put both asses together…

I read that just before exiting the building lobby, and I stopped and laughed so hard that some of the lunch crowd zipping by and bypassing me in a rush actually offered me curious glances.

Miss Swan, your ass is especially sweet and perfectly round.

And on that note, Edward, before this turns into a convo that'll have me tripping over myself again, I'm going into the subway. See you soon. Love you.

Bella, PLEASE careful on that ankle. Love you and see you soon.

"You seemed to be in a good mood this morning."

I looked up, startled out of my post-texting reverie by Maria, who stood a couple of feet away, watching me, with her head tilted sideways.

"Oh. Hey, Maria."

"What did you think of the meeting, Edward?"

"Uh…" I pocketed my cell phone and raked a hand through my hair, "well, things seem to be finally falling into place. I mean, I wish the director would've pushed the manufacturer for an earlier release date and a larger initial supply for the first batch, but I do understand the difficulties inherent in making such requests, especially this time of year."

Maria nodded slowly. "It is a shame though. There was a spike in reported cases on the west coast over the past two days – severe ones."

"I know." I sighed heavily. "Emmett and I reviewed the cases this morning before the meeting. The patients all experienced high, hallucinatory-grade fevers which led to loss of consciousness. One patient, a female in her twenties, was placed in a coma due to the gravity of her fever."

"That has turned out to be the worst part of this strain, hasn't it? When fevers spike that swiftly and that high, there is no way to know what sort of damage might result in the brain."

I nodded, and for a handful of seconds, neither one of us said anything.

"Well," Maria eventually exhaled, "at least the spike is on the west coast, and either way, our team receives the benefit of first inoculations, since we will be out in the field once the initial batch is ready for distribution to hospitals and such."

I swallowed. "Yeah. Yeah, that's a good thing."

"So, I will see you after lunch then, for our inoculations?"

"Yeah. See you after lunch."

"Are you…going far?"

"No, not too far."

She watched me silently, and after a few more moments, she sighed and offered me a faint smile.

"I'll see you later, Edward."

"See you later, Maria."

OOOOO

"I felt like I couldn't even grasp half of the things they were throwing at me – not yet. They talked about promotions, release parties, hypothetical plans on how to handle movie offers."

"Movie offers." My ensuing chuckle was more due to shock than disbelief at the possibility. "Bella, that would be amazing."

"I mean, it was all very speculative," she qualified, "and it'll probably never happen, but can you imagine it?"

"I actually can imagine it." I quirked a brow. "And not only am I not the imaginative one between the two of us, I haven't even read your transcript. But I can imagine it."

"The two of us…" Bella echoed. From across the small coffee table, her eyes sparkled like two dark opals that had been shined to a gloss before being set within a glowing frame. For the better part of a half-hour, I'd enjoyed hearing her gush excitedly, my right hand and her left hand resting between us on top of the table and clasped together, while we used our free hands to pick up our coffees and our sandwiches. It was awkward, to say the least, but neither of us seemed of a mind to relinquish the other's hand.

"Edward, how did this happen? I'm not even talking about this whole book deal stuff," – she gave a dismissive wave with the hand that held her sandwich – "though it's wonderful, yeah."

"It is wonderful, Bella, and I won't let you keep downplaying it, my love."

She smiled sheepishly. "But you and I…on the same page..."

Holding my gaze, she trailed off, as if she enjoyed savoring that fact as much as I did. Then, she bit into her sandwich again and expelled yet another moan, one of many she'd expelled since the beginning of our lunch date. The moan was accompanied by an appreciative head shake that billowed her long hair around her shoulders and was then followed by a careless chuckle.

Meanwhile, I grinned at just how ecstatic she was, and I recalled a similar image of her last night…moaning, while her head writhed from side to side…

And the entire time, I couldn't pretend to myself that a small yet undeniably archaic part of me felt an intense and immature sense of satisfaction, of gratification at her bliss. Her current joy plainly surpassed anything I read in her expression that day in that other, fancier restaurant, when she sat at a much more elegant table, sipping wine instead of coffee, wearing a cocktail dress instead of the smart yet casual slacks and white blouse she wore today, and holding hands with her suited-up then-boyfriend.

The stab of jealousy was just a fleeting one, but it was there, yet it was also served as a reminder of how wrong I could be. Thank God almighty for my erroneous extrapolations in that restaurant. I'd read bliss where there was mere contentment, and love where there was only affection. Had Bella looked then the way she looked now, had she gazed at Brady with half of the open passion and devotion that swirled in her eyes now, I would've probably left that restaurant, headed for the nearest airport, and taken the first flight that could get me the furthest away.

"Good, huh?" Bella said. "Though I don't know that four sandwiches were necessary for two of us, Edward."

"I, for one, worked up a bit of an appetite overnight, and I find myself ravenous this morning." Growling, I tore off an exaggerated piece of my sandwich with my teeth, making Bella throw back her head and laugh. Still chuckling, she offered me a salacious grin.

"I find myself pretty hungry this morning too, so maybe four sandwiches weren't such a bad idea."

Honestly, I was finding more enjoyment from watching her eat her sandwich than from my sandwich; not that it wasn't a great damn sandwich. Even better was the fact that it was Bella who kept tightening her hand around mine, that it was she who refused to sever our physical connection, even if it meant we had to perform hand aerobics to feed ourselves. As she'd just said herself, we were finally on the same page.

"Seriously, these are so, so good, Edward."

She gave our joined hands another squeeze then set down her sandwich to pick up her dark and bitter coffee, and I snorted inwardly at the memory of the barista shouting out her order, over a year earlier, when we first re-met.

'Bella – dark and bitter!'

"Thank you, baby," she murmured, wiping her mouth with a napkin, "and not just for the sandwiches and coffee, per se."

Along with the pet name she'd been trying out for the past half hour, she offered me a soft smile, both of which made me clumsily set down my sandwich and lean in closer to the table, shrinking the space between us so that I could whisper in her ear.

"What are you thanking me for, love?"

She turned her head, and her mouth caught my cheek, brushing it softly back and forth. At the same time, her thick lashes fluttered against my skin. She glanced down at our joined hands and pulled back only enough to lock me in her eyes.

"I'm thanking you for knowing exactly how I like my coffee, for knowing I love this table because it gives us privacy while giving us a great view from the windows. I'm thanking you for not changing this," – she made a circling motion with her hand over the table, "now that we're together, for not trying to make us into something else, and for remembering how much I enjoyed these particular sandwiches a couple of weeks ago, for noticing so much, even while we carried on a heavy and…difficult conversation."

I wiped my free hand on my napkin so that I could softly stroke her cheek.

"All the while, during those few meetings we had together, I thought I was surrendering, unwillingly so, but with no choice." I snorted. "I thought we were organizing your files to bring you closure."

"We were, Edward." Bella smiled tenderly and kissed the knuckle brushing her face. "It was closure on other files that no longer needed to be open, and a reorganization in order of importance, where your file ended up on top," she murmured.

"And yours was always on top," I murmured in return.

She held my gaze, and whispered, "I like being on top, as you found out last night."

I squeezed my eyes shut, and my shoulders shook as I tried to suppress a howl of laughter.

"You're so bad," I said reopening my eyes. "You've always been a fresh thing, and I've always loved it."

"I'm sorry," she chuckled ruefully. "I probably shouldn't be joking after what you told me regarding those additional cases that have popped up of the H5N2 strain."

I shook my head. "Bella, Emmett and I make the most inappropriate job-related jokes all the time. It's how we keep our spirits up, and as you and I both know," I smiled, tapping my temple, "mental health is as important as physical health."

"I know," she agreed, giving my hand a squeeze, "but babe, you've done so much to push this anti-viral through." The awe in her tone both pleased and embarrassed me, and based on the way she dropped her head and she refused to let me break our gaze, she knew it. "I hope you know that, Edward. And in case you don't know, I'm going to keep saying it: I'm so proud of you and the Jack Ryan slash James Bond work you do."

I chuckled quietly.

"Plus, you're a white-boy, Upper East Side rapper to boot. What more can I ask for?"

"Smartass," I smirked while she snickered on and on. "Alright. Enough of your teasing, woman. Tell me more about this deal with Volterra."

Strangely enough, my request seemed to douse some of her previous excitement. She took both of my hands over the table.

"Edward, Volterra Publishing is trying out a new marketing technique. They want me to read passages from the first book at scheduled literary events around the country even before the release date they're shooting for in mid-February."

I nodded, impressed, but Volterra Publishing was building a reputation through their cutting-edge and pioneering promotions.

"Sounds like an innovative marketing technique."

"I think so too," she agreed, "so…they're expecting me to travel – a lot – for the next few months and starting almost immediately."

"Ahh."

"Yeah. I'm visiting my dad in Washington for Thanksgiving next week, but from there, they want me to attend reading events in San Francisco, Tacoma, L.A., Portland, Seattle, San Diego, which is great because with Charlie – my dad – semi-retired, he'll probably be able to hang around with me."

"That is great," I acknowledged, while half of my mind was focused on figuring out what areas she was visiting with possible exposure to H5N2, but she'd listed cities and states in such a convoluted manner that the geography took a minute. "I know you're close to your dad."

"And…after the book is published, they mentioned Europe."

"That's amazing, Bella." I squeezed her hands tightly because I was seriously so damn proud of her and excited for her, even while concurrently concerned for her health. "You've always wanted to travel."

"You remember."

"Of course, I do," I smirked. "I also remember you're horrible at geography as you just proved right now by mixing up all those cities, not even mentioning them in any sort of cohesive order." I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

"You're an ass sometimes," she chuckled. And when she sighed, she finally shared her true fears with me. "I'm scared, not just about the traveling, but about…you and I…we're just getting started."

"Exactly," I said quickly. "We're getting started. Bella, I hoped…but I didn't know if you and I would ever find our way to one another. I did know you'd always get here. So, in those dreams I mentioned last night, you traveled on your book tours, and I traveled for work, and whenever possible, we made time for one another until we found a way to always be together."

"Mmm," she hummed, "it sounds ideal – in a dream. In reality-"

"In reality, it's yet another obstacle in a relationship fraught with them. But if we're both determined-"

"I am now," she said rapidly, turning our hands over the table and weaving our fingers like threads of the same unbreakable cloth. "I am now."

"And I've always been," I teased her. "We'll figure it out."

And I did know it to be true. Now, that we were together, only death would separate us, and I had no plans for that to happen for a long while.

"Now, take a walk with me."

Bella looked up at me curiously as I stood and pushed my arms into my jacket sleeves. Then, I picked her leather jacket off the back of her chair and held it up and ready for her.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she stood and allowed me to help her into her coat.

"If you're going to be traveling, you're getting your booster shot right now. Also, Emmett's dying to see you. He doesn't believe me when I say we worked things out. Or rather, he does, but he's having way too much fun teasing me."

She quirked a brow as she took me in over her shoulder. "The man-bun-wearing microbiologist is teasing you?"

"Can I please tell him you said that?" I grinned as I adjusted her collar. "He's been such a fucker today."

"How about I tell him myself?"

Pulling her by the jacket lapels, I kissed her firmly. "Deal." But when I took her hand to guide her out of the coffee shop, Bella held her ground.

"And then…I have something for you. Something to keep you thinking of me while I'm gone for the next few weeks or so."

I cradled her beautiful face in my hands.

"Lots of sex between now and when you leave me?"

She burst out laughing. "Oh yeah, but…something else too," she said softly.

"Bella, you've given me a lifetime's worth of reasons to always have you on my mind. But greedily enough, I'm willing to take more."

OOOOO

I exhaled a furtive sigh of relief when I pushed the lab doors open, searched the faces inside the room, and didn't find Assistant Director LeeAnn's face among them. Getting her to go along with this might have proven pretty fucking impossible. Hopefully, she'd already been and gone.

As Bella and I entered hand in hand, Emmett was in the process of administering a dose to Collin. Bonnie was rubbing her upper arm.

"My blind grandma could've administered it less painfully," she was complaining.

"Well, then, Bonnie," Emmett snapped, keeping his eyes on his job, "maybe next time a new influenza strain pops up out of the blue and threatens to eradicate half of the world's population, you can ask your grandma to administer your booster, and then tell me how that works out for you."

"Ouch! Watch it, Em," Collin complained.

"Par de fuhkin'-" Emmett muttered as he finished with Collin. His eyes flashed up and grew wide. "Edward…" he grinned broadly, "and Bella?"

"Hey, Emmett." Bella chuckled quietly as Emmett washed his hands and made a beeline toward us. He stopped intrusively close, gazing at Bella as if he truly couldn't believe his eyes.

"He wasn't imagining you after all."

"Asshole," I said.

Bella covered her mouth, but I could still see the amusement dancing in her eyes.

"I'm teasing him, Bella," Emmett confirmed in a whisper. "I bother him all the time. He needs to be teased every once in a while or else the brooding knows no bounds." He winked at her.

"You're a damn-"

"I got it covered, Emmett," Bella whispered and winked back. "He does like being teased."

Shutting my eyes, I shook my head while Emmett and Bella both shared a quiet chuckle.

"Bella, I get the feeling you and I are going to be great friends."

"We will be," she agreed, dropping her voice even lower, "but first I have to tell you that I much prefer short-haired epidemiologists who study the macro-picture than messy-bunned microbiologists who study the micro-picture." She looked up at me. "Did I get that right, baby?"

I scowled at her, while she suppressed yet more laughter.

"Oh my god. Aye Dios Mio. Please tell me you have a twin."

Bella buried her face in my chest and laughed and laughed, sliding her arms around my waist, while Emmett looked at me and…smiled.

Just at that moment, the door to the lab opened, and Maria walked in.

"Hi, everyone. I'm not too late for-"

When she caught sight of Emmett, Bella, and me on the other side of the room, her eyes rounded. Then, clearing her throat, she finished her inquiry.

"I'm not too late for our boosters, am I?"

"No, not at all," Emmett replied. "I got mine done earlier, the director and assistant director were in here a few minutes ago, I just did Bonnie and Collin's-"

"And none too tenderly," Collin said.

"Eff you, Collin," Emmett continued without pause, "and I've got two doses left with yours and Edward's names on them."

Maria nodded, her eyes flashing to Bella before she met mine.

"Hello, Edward."

"Hey, Maria."

She waited a few moments before stepping further into the room and striding swiftly toward where Collin and Bonnie had just received their boosters, where she began folding up her sleeve.

Meanwhile, Bella looked up at me. "There are only two doses left?"

"Bella, that's fine-"

"Oh, yeah." She waved a hand and shook her head. "That's fine. I'll just wait until the next batch is ready. I thought you meant there were extras," she smiled.

"Bella…"

Emmett stood right between us, his head moving back and forth as if he were watching a tennis match. And across the room, Bonnie, Collin, and Maria were undisguisedly in tune to our conversation as well.

"Em, why don't you go administer Maria's booster? We'll be right there."

Emmett looked at me, one of those rare, completely unamused looks of his which I'd known him long enough to interpret. He knew where I was going with this, and he wasn't exactly in agreement. But he only had the micro-picture, while I had the macro-picture.

Nonetheless, with a sigh, he moved toward the others.

"I'd rather you not wait, Bella," I said, once they were all on the other side of the room. "You can have my dose."

She frowned. "But…it's your dose."

"That's fine," I grinned. "The next batch 'll be ready really soon, and I can have my booster then."

"But…it's meant for you."

"Bella, I'm not going anywhere for the next few weeks, at the very least; whereas you are going to be undertaking a whole lot of travel during the holidays, a time period when travel spikes, which means shared sicknesses spike. With H5N2 in the air in many of those places you're going to be hitting, it's going to be spreading, and it would be irresponsible of me not to insist you receive the booster right now."

She pursed her lips. "Edward, I don't know…"

"But I do know, love," I smiled. "Extrapolating is what I do for a living. Remember? James Bond slash John Ryan?"

"Jack Ryan," she corrected with a hesitant smile.

I chuckled. "I'll get mine as soon as the first batch is in. It'll be fine. You'll see."

OOOOO

She met me at my place after work, in the building vestibule because she couldn't get in any further without a key. She was wrapped in her jacket and shivering.

"I'm so damn sorry," I breathed, wrapping her in my arms instead. "There was a last-minute meeting which ran over-"

"Shh," she said against my mouth. "Don't worry about it."

"I'll have to give you keys," I breathed against her lips.

"Okay."

We stumbled into the elevator and stumbled out, mouths and hands all over one another. As soon as the apartment door closed behind us, Bella shrugged me out of my jacket and I desperately helped her with hers, hands clumsy and mouths refusing to release one another's lips, cheeks, necks... Somehow, we shed one another of the clothing items that were in the way. Her slacks were flung aside, while she unbuckled my pants, and they pooled to the floor. Finally, I lifted her legs and wrapped them around my hips, burying myself inside her with one thrust.

She cried out and threw back her head as I drove in and ground my hips against hers before pulling back and thrusting again…over and over, while she caged my head between her hands and kissed me wildly. We came together fast and loud and hard.

We had dinner, salads we prepared together with whatever I had in the fridge. Afterward, I took her much more slowly on the couch, and she rode me rhythmically while the city lights illuminated her like a dark angel.

We made phone calls and skype calls and typed out respective emails. She wrote her beautiful fiction, biting her thumbnail beds, while I wrote my too-real non-fiction and gripped my hair. Then, we bathed together, and she put her mouth on me and let me put my mouth on her in all the places I'd dreamed of.

And finally, when we laid in bed, with only the city lights in the background, we kissed languidly, both of us sated. After a long day, we had one another to share it with, to talk about her parents and mine, about our futures, and about our pasts.

When she went quiet for a while, her head on my chest, I thought she'd drifted. Then, she looked up suddenly.

"How often do you see him, Edward?"

"Who?" I clarified.

"The baby," she whispered. "JJ."

I swallowed. "I try to go over to my parents' a couple of times a week when I'm home, and take him out to the park, teach him to swing one of those foam little bats," I chuckled, "and throw one of those foam little balls."

"What does he call you?" she asked.

"Uncle Edwahd," I smiled, using his pronunciation.

She chuckled. "That's cute. He doesn't spend much time with his father, does he?"

"No," I murmured. "He doesn't."

"My dad's mentioned it. He still keeps in touch with his parents, with my ex-in-laws."

She was quiet for a long while, simply holding my gaze.

"Do you ever wonder...?"

"About him? No. I'm past that. Edward, did you ever see yourself as a father?"

Drawing in a deep breath, I shrugged and replied honestly. "It wasn't something I ever gave much thought, one way or another."

Bella nodded slowly. "That woman in the lab today…Maria…"

"What about her?" I prompted after a few moments of silence.

She searched my eyes and then moved in and brushed her mouth to mine, cradling my cheek.

"Nothing."

"Bella…"

She chuckled. "A woman sees things, expressions…I saw something in her expression, but not in yours, so when I say nothing," she chuckled, "I mean nothing."

Snorting, I shook my head and kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep."

When she lifted herself off the bed, wrapped herself in the blankets and lunged across the room, I groaned and lifted myself on one arm.

"Bella, come on, babe. Watch that ankle."

She giggled. "It's fine, Edward. I almost forgot something," she said as she dug through her bag, "something for you to remember me by when I'm not around for the next few weeks."

"Bella, like I said, you've already given me so much…" I frowned as she made her way back toward me and held out a hand…with a small, silvery object in it.

"My manuscripts," she murmured. "For Gemma, and for the as-yet-unnamed World War Two series I'm still working on."

I stared at the object in her hand.

"I've never let anyone – other than my agent, and of course, now Volterra Publishing – read them. Not even Brady," she murmured. "They're my babies, and I want to share them with-"

I pulled her down on the bed and gazed at the way her dark hair spilled over my white sheets…our white sheets. Her chest heaved as I hovered above her, and I swallowed hard at the image which still seemed dream-like. I had a feeling that on some level, it always would. Because isn't that what real love is?

"In a few months," I grinned, "along with growing tired of hearing me talk about strains, are you going to grow tired of hearing me tell you how much I love you?"

Sliding her arms around my shoulders, she pulled me down on top of her.

"Will you grow tired of watching me bite my thumbnail beds?"

"Never."

"There you go then." She brushed her lips back and forth against mine.

"Thank you for this," I said, gripping the flash drive tightly in my fist. "It means…the world that you'd share them with me."

We actually didn't go right to sleep.

But those moments would have to sustain me, would have to sustain us because a week later, two days before Thanksgiving, and after six more nights spent in a similar manner, I drove Bella to JFK Airport and watched her board a flight to Washington.

A/N: Thoughts?

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