29
One of the few memories had of when Edward was little that didn't consist of him being in the hospital was his eighth birthday. His mom and dad had bundled the three of them up and driven them from Chicago to Washington D.C. The ten plus hour car ride had been filled with laughter, singing, and games. It was the first and only time Edward had left the city. When they got to D.C., they spent three days touring the National Mall: the monuments, the museums, the culture. It was the first time he felt almost normal.
Of course the next week, he ended up back in the hospital, another surgery, another month of being ripped away from his family. After that, he pulled away from his family. He told himself it was easier, but of course, he was wrong. There was nothing easier about his life. Never had been, never would be either.
"Edward." Looking over his shoulder, he saw Emmett walking toward him. "She in there?"
He nodded and turned back to the rec room. Bella was sitting at the same table Renee always seemed to sit at. Charlie was to Renee's right, while Bella was to her left. They were working on a puzzle, though Bella seemed to be watching her parents interact more than anything. He could see the hope in her eyes, the longing to bring them home. He knew in that moment what they had to do, even if nobody else was going to like it.
"They look happy, don't they?" Emmett asked, leaning against the door frame across from Edward.
"They do," he admitted.
"I want to bring them home," Emmett murmured, shaking his head. "But I'm scared."
"Me too," Edward admitted and when he looked at him, he added, "This changes everything, and change scares me."
"It scares me, too." Emmett looked over at his parents. "Rose is pregnant."
"What?" he asked, shocked. "But we thought. . ."
"So did I," Emmett said with a smile. "She hasn't told me, yet, but I know."
"If she hasn't told you, then how do you know?"
"Because Rose is the love of my life, Edward. I've loved her since I was thirteen years old." Emmett dragged his hand over his face and through his hair. "She's the other half of my soul."
"I get that," he said, looking at Bella.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you do." Emmett placed his hand on Edward's shoulder before pushing off the doorframe and walking over to where Bella, Charlie, and Renee sat. He took the chair across from his mother, and once again, Edward felt the cruel sting of envy.
—WH—
Late in the afternoon, Bella and Edward found themselves sitting in the hospital cafeteria, waiting for Emmett, Rose, Esme, Carlisle, and Phil to meet them. He knew this was the moment when they would have to decide what they were going to do, when their lives would change once again. Bella had spent all afternoon with her parents. Renee would remember her, then forget her, then remember her again, though it seemed like her moments of lucidity were longer than the moments when she found herself trapped in the mind of her sixteen year old self.
"Why are they always so fucking slow?" Bella muttered, picking up her bottle of water, twisting the top off, and taking a drink.
"Probably conspiring," Edward quipped, leaning forward and placing his arms on the table.
"Probably," she agreed, placing her bottle on the table and reaching for his hand. "Are you sure that's what we should do?"
Pressing his lips together, Edward nodded, having already told her what he felt they should do in regards to her parents. "It just feels right."
"But you know what that will mean, don't you?" she asked, but before he could reply, they saw Emmett, Rose, Carlisle, Esme, and Phil heading their way. "Here we go."
Once the five of them had gotten their lunch, they joined them at their table in the back corner.
"Sorry we're late," Esme mumbled, taking a drink of her coffee and grimacing.
"It's fine," Bella lied. "Let's just skip all the small talk and get straight to it, all right?"
"Butterbean," Esme said with a shake of her head. "Fine, we don't think they should come home."
"While we don't like the idea of them being separated," Emmett added, placing his hand on the back of Rose's chair, who kept her eyes on her food, "none of us are in the position to give them the support they need."
Bella pressed her lips together, her eyes catching Edward's before she looked at Carlisle and Phil. "And do you two agree with them?"
"No," Phil said, clearing his throat while Carlisle said, "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Bella asked.
"I think if we separate Charlie and Renee, both of them are going regress. Especially Renee, but I don't know if any of us have the capability to take care of them the way they need to be."
"Bullshit," Phil scoffed, causing everyone to look at them. "You just don't want to because they would be an inconvenience to you."
"That's not true, Phil," Esme argued.
"Isn't it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Let's not bullshit each other anymore, Esme. When they fell, you, Emmett, and Rose got saddled with Bella and Jasper. It wasn't fair, but you took them in, raised them because you knew that's what Charlie and Renee would have wanted. Even when Bella had cancer, when she lost her voice, when she angry and bitter and alone."
"She wasn't alone," Emmett quipped, and when Bella scoffed, he looked at her. "You weren't."
"I was, though," she said, leaning back in her chair and pulling her knees up to her chest. "I couldn't speak, I couldn't laugh, I couldn't really even cry. Nobody understood how I felt every day."
"We did," he insisted.
"But you didn't," she quipped. "You didn't, Em, because you weren't fourteen years old with cancer and no voice, no way of expressing yourself anymore. My world shattered around me in an instant. And until I met Edward, nobody saw the real me. He did, though."
"We did the best we could," Emmett whimpered.
"I know," Bella acknowledged. "And I'm grateful that you three never stopped holding me, loving me, but now Mom and Dad need us to help them." She paused and looked at Edward, who gave her a subtle nod. "Mom and Dad are going to move in with me and Edward."
For a moment, nobody said anything. Carlisle shifted his eyes to Esme, whose mouth opened in shock. Rose's eyes widened and she looked at Bella before turning to Emmett, who looked angry. But Phil was the only one who actually smiled.
"No," Emmett said, shaking his head. "No way, Butterbean."
"Yes," Bella said, clearing her throat and dropping her legs down and scooting to the edge of her chair. "They can't go home to you and Rose, Emmett," she added, before turning to Esme, "Or you and Carlisle. So, Edward and I have decided they can come live with us."
"Where?" Emmett asked. "You're little campus apartment?"
"We'll find a bigger place," she said, shrugging her shoulders.
"And how are you going to afford it?" Emmett asked. "Hmm? How are you going to pay the rent? The utilities?"
"We'll get better jobs, we will find a way," Edward said, reaching over and placing his hand on top of Bella's.
"What about school?" Esme asked, drawing their attention to her. "You can't go to school and take care of them, Butterbean."
"So, maybe we have to put school off another year," she said, the sadness in her voice hit Edward's soul. He knew how important their education was to them, but her parents meant even more.
"This is insane," Esme exclaimed, throwing a hand in the air.
"Everyone calm down," Phil said, leaning forward and placing both hands on the table, his attention shifting to Edward and Bella. "Charlie and Renee are not going to live with you in Seattle."
"Why not?" Bella asked. "I'll take care of them."
"I know you would, sweetheart, but it's not your job. You and Edward had to grow up faster than most. You deserve to be able to be free, to live every day to the fullest. You can't do that if you have them living with you." Phil smiled. "Besides, we all know your dad won't let that happen."
"So, instead we dump them off in a nursing home?" Bella whimpered. "At least with us, they'll be together."
"Nobody is going to let them be separated again, Sweetheart," Phil said, reaching for her hand. "Charlie and Renee are going to live with me."
"What?" she gasped. "Phil?"
He smiled. "I've loved him my whole life, Butterbean, and he needs her with him. He may be the love of my life, but she's the love of his. So, I'll take them in, help them."
"That's not fair to you, though, is it?" Bella asked.
Phil frowned. "If life was fair, they wouldn't have fallen, you wouldn't have gotten cancer twice, Edward would have been born with a perfect heart, and Alice would have never found herself locked in the backseat of that car, would they? No, Butterbean, nothing in our lives are fair, but like you, I can't abandon him. So I'll take them in."
"Phil," Emmett murmured, shaking his head.
"I know." He pushed away from the table and stood up. "It's the way it should be."
Without giving anyone a chance to refute what he said, he turned and walked away. Phil truly was the most selfless of them all.
—WH—
Nobody said much after Phil left. They sat there for a few more minutes before heading back upstairs. As Edward watched the way Phil interacted with Charlie and Renee, the way he looked at him with so much need and desire, while looking at Renee with compassion and friendship, Edward knew Phil was right. He was the only one of them capable of taking Charlie and Renee into their homes. But once again, Edward felt the sting of envy.
Sometime around two in the morning, Edward climbed out of Bella's bed and pulled his clothes on, leaving her a note so she didn't freak out if she woke up and discovered him gone. They had arrived home just after eight, and he hadn't been able to sleep. So, after giving up, he climbed into his car, and drove over to his house, parking in front. He had just stepped onto the porch when the light came on and the front door opened, and he found himself face to face with his brother.
"Hey," Carlisle said, gesturing for him to come in. "You okay?"
"No," Edward murmured, shrugging his coat off and laying it on the couch before he sat down. "How'd you know I was coming?"
"I didn't," he said, sitting across from him. "Couldn't sleep."
"Me either." Edward noticed one of their photo albums open on the coffee table. He picked it up, dragging his fingers over one of the photos. His twelfth birthday. He had just been released after spending two months in the hospital. It was his tenth heart surgery, and he had suffered from an infection and pneumonia. They sent him home on oxygen, and he was restricted on the amount of physical activity he could handle every day. His mom had insisted on making him a cake, but he had been too weak to blow out the candles, so Carlisle and Alice helped him.
"We almost looked happy there, didn't we?" Carlisle asked, drawing his attention to him.
"Almost," Edward said, softly. "I don't like this, Car. Not talking to you. Being angry all the time."
"I don't like it, either." Carlisle pulled the photo album out of his hands and placed it back on the table before shifting so that he was facing him. "I'm sorry I failed Pix, Edward. I thought she was okay, though, and I guess I thought it was my chance to be happy."
"It's not just your fault," Edward said, softly. "How many times in the last couple years did she tell us how worried she was about us? Maybe she wasn't worried about Bella and Esme hurting us as much as she was worried that we didn't need her anymore."
"Yeah, maybe," Carlisle agreed. "Dumb as shit, but maybe."
Edward laughed. "I miss her."
"Me too." Carlisle placed his hand on Edward's shoulder. "I've missed you, too."
"Me too, Car," he whimpered. "Me too."
Though they didn't say much else, Edward and Carlisle sat together for the next couple hours, pouring over every photo album they had, remembering the good times, the bad. Reconnecting as brothers.
Just after four in the morning, Edward climbed out of his car and headed back inside Bella's house, but stopped when his phone chimed with a new message. Upon opening it, he gasped and let out a strangled sob at the same time. Because in his text messages, from Jasper's number, was a painting of him, Alice, Carlisle, and their parents. A moment later, a message came through that said: Soon.