Chapter 12
Edward POV
Edward was floating on cloud nine after the amazing day with his family and all the progress that Rose was making, all he wanted was to lay down with Bella and enjoy the peacefulness that had settled over them but when he heard the two most terrifying words come out of her mouth he thought that his heart stopped beating.
"You're what?" He asked her. He really wanted to be wrong about what he thought he heard her say, he had never wanted to be more wrong about anything in his life.
"I'm pregnant." Nope, they were the same words.
He sat up and had his hands in his hair while he tried to wrap his head around this news.
"How?" Was the only thing that he could think of to say. They had talked before their first time together and, since she was on birth control and he'd been tested and was clean, they decided not to use condoms. He really thought that they were okay but something had gone wrong. "Are you sure?" He asked before she could reply to his first question.
"Yes, I'm sure. While we were at the hospital yesterday a nurse ran two urine tests and they both came back positive." He could tell that she was nervous because she was wringing her hands in her lap but, at the moment, he couldn't help her. He just needed to think.
"I thought you were on birth control?"
She hesitated before responding, "I missed my last couple of appointments," she mumbled to herself.
"How could you have missed your appointments?" The rational part of his brain was telling him not to be angry at her and that it was his fault just as much as it was hers but the irrational part was beating the rational down.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen. This semester's just been really busy and I never gave it a second thought. I had it reupped before the semester but since then...I don't know, I just forgot."
"Bella, I'm not ready to take care of a baby. I haven't even graduated yet, I wanted to give you the world but now you're saying that instead of living our lives we have to take care of...of...this?" His brain wasn't connected to his mouth. He wanted to stop yelling at her but the words wouldn't stop coming, he had literal word vomit.
Bella sucked in a huge breath before saying anything. He saw the hurt in her eyes before it was replaced by anger.
"You don't have to do anything that you don't want to. I can raise this baby on my own without any help from you!" She screamed at him before getting up and starting to walk away from him, that was when his brain finally started working and he ran after her.
"Bella, wait! I'm sorry," he told her when he caught up to her. "I shouldn't have said any of that to you but I just got scared. I don't know the first thing about being a dad," he tried to explain to her.
"And you think I do? I'm just as scared as you are but this baby needs loving parents and if you can't give that to him or her then I will just have to do it myself, Edward."
When she went to turn away he reached out and stopped her by placing a hand on her arm. "Bella, how long have you had to get used to this?"
"I told you, about twenty-four hours."
"Then I think I deserve more than a few minutes before you give up on me. Just let me think, please." He was close to getting on his knees and begging her to give him a few more minutes, she nodded her head so he led her to a picnic table that was off to the side.
Yes, he'd always wanted children but that was five, ten years down the road. He knew that he wanted forever with Bella but did this mean that he had to propose to her right now and get married before the baby came? There was no doubt in his mind that he would be there for his child, he would never live with himself if he did that to an innocent baby.
Then an image of Bella swollen with his child came into his mind and a warmth spread throughout his chest. He was going to be there for Bella, no matter what. He was still scared to death, but he was glad that this was happening with Bella and not one of his one night stands. The rational part of his brain finally came back into power and he saw how much of a jerk he was being to his amazing love.
He dropped his head into his hands and grabbed two fistfuls of his hair before taking a deep breath and looking into Bella's brown eyes.
"I'm sorry," he told her. He saw the tears that she was fighting and he felt like shit all over again. Whatever he was feeling she had to have felt already, and to go through it alone? He pushed down his fear and pulled Bella to him so her head was lying on his shoulder. "I shouldn't have said any of that. I'm just scared and out of everything I thought you would say that was the last thing on my list."
"I know, I didn't want to ambush you like this but I didn't know how else to tell you. Edward, I'm scared. How am I going to do this? How am I going to find a student teaching job and then graduate when I'm going to be as big as a whale?" She asked him. The more she talked the more hysterical she became so he made calming noises while he rubbed up and down her back until her breathing calmed down.
"Let's start with the first one; we are going to do this together - I am going to be by your side no matter what, and you aren't going to have any trouble finding a job since you will barely be showing." He tried to calm her down but by the exasperated look she sent him he didn't think he did a good job.
"What about after we graduate? I was supposed to look for a teaching position right away but I'll be due sometime in June and then I'll have to take time off to recover and then I'll probably miss out on the positions that are open during the summer and I'll have to get a job at a fast food restaurant-," Bella rambled. Edward eventually had to cut her off by placing his hand over the top of her mouth. She just looked at him with sad eyes while a few tears escaped the corners of her eyes.
"Bella, what did I just tell you? We're in this together, if by some chance you don't get a position next year then we'll figure it out when the time comes but there is no use in worrying about it now when it's so far away."
"Do you mean it?" She asked him.
"Of course, you are going to be a great teacher and any school would be lucky to have you on it's staff." He wiped away her tears with his thumbs. "I can write anywhere so wherever you get a job I will be right there next to you ready to help out in any way," he told her. He would do anything to make sure that she got to live out her dream even if it meant putting his on hold for a little while.
"I love you, Edward," she said.
"I love you, too, baby," he told her.
They shared a kiss that was filled with their love for the other. This next year was going to be really difficult but, together, they would be able to get through anything life had to throw at them.
~LCA~
The next couple days were good all around. Rose was getting better every day and the doctors were even saying that, if she kept recovering, she would be able to go home next week. They all rejoiced at that, it seemed like another lifetime where Edward was scared that he would never talk to his sister again.
Two days after Bella told him about the pregnancy he was finally going to introduce Bella and Rose. Bella wanted to wait until Rose felt better and more herself - Rosalie was very happy about that since she wasn't able to wear makeup for the first couple days and 'looked hideous' (her words). The two of them had even agreed to tell Rosalie first about the baby, it would give her something else to look forward to during a very tough and painful recovery.
"Knock, knock," Edward said when they were at the door of Rose's room. Emmett was next to her bed in the chair that Edward began thinking as 'Emmett's chair'. He was rarely seen away from it, Edward was very thankful knowing that Rose was in good hands with this big bear of a man.
"Come in," Rose said. She was sitting up in the bed with her two casts on pillows but only a couple IV's attached to her. Compared to how she looked the first time Edward saw her in the hospital this was a huge improvement.
"Hey, sis, how are you feeling today?" Edward asked. He led Bella through the door and motioned for her to take the other chair that was on the opposite side of where Emmett was seated.
"Still sore as hell but the pain meds they gave me are working well. The doctors are still saying that they're wanting me to go home next week. God, I can't wait until I'm in my own bed," she groaned out the last part.
"Since we have to go back to school soon I wanted to introduce you to my girlfriend, Bella. Bella, Rose," he motioned between the two of them.
"Ah, so you are the infamous Bella Swan that my brother here can't stop talking about," Rose joked with Bella.
"Edward's told me a lot about you, too," Bella said.
"All lies probably," Rose laughed.
"They were all good things," Bella responded. She could already tell that she was going to like Rosalie, there was just something about her that made her feel immediately comfortable.
"What are you majoring in?" Rose asked her.
"Umm, Elementary Education. I want to become a teacher after I graduate," she mumbled. It was still a soft spot for her to think about after graduation and what would happen to her job choices but whenever she started to get anxious about it she would think about the baby that Edward and her were going to raise together and she felt a little better.
"Why do you sound so glum? Are you having doubts about being a teacher?" Rose asked her.
"Wow, you weren't kidding," Bella told Edward. When Rose's eyebrows came together in confusion Edward explained.
"I told her how intuitive you are and how hard it was to hide anything from you when we were kids."
"I just pay attention, it's helped me tremendously in my job," she told them.
"I assume you love your job?" Bella asked her.
"Oh, I do. There are some days when I come home frustrated and Emmett has to calm me down but then other days when I see a child's life get better because of something I did and it makes everything worth it. Social work is hard but definitely worth it in the end."
"That's what I hope I get out of teaching."
"You will," Rose reassured her. Edward could tell that Bella felt better, there was something about being in this room with Rose and seeing how much she'd been through in the last week that made their problems seem so small in comparison. "What's going on, Edward? Now you have the same look Bella had when she was talking about graduation. What are you hiding from me?" Rose demanded. Edward should've known that he wouldn't have been able to keep the baby secret from her, he at least thought that he would've lasted more than ten minutes in the room but sometimes it seemed that Rose was able to read Edward's thoughts.
Bella and Edward looked at each other, he asked her with his eyes if she was sure that she wanted to tell Rosalie and when he saw no doubt in her eyes he knew that she was okay.
"Well, Rose, it turns out that Bella's...pregnant," Edward murmured the last part like he was confessing something deep and dark.
Emmett and Rosalie looked at each other in shock before turning their gazes back on Bella and Edward.
"Well, I thought you two were just going to move in together or something like that but pregnant? That was not even near where I was."
"I said the same thing when Bella told me," Edward said. He laughed at how close him and his sister were, it was like they shared the same wavelength sometimes.
"How far along are you?" Rose asked Bella.
"Six weeks."
"So, that's why you were a little upset about graduation. You're going to be due right around that time, right?" As always, Rose was spot on.
"We haven't gone to a doctor for an ultrasound but the nurse that confirmed it said six weeks so I'm assuming sometime in June."
"Well, come over here for a hug, little brother. I'm happy for you," she told him. He reached around her and gently squeezed her body, he was so scared of breaking her that he quickly let go before giving her a kiss on the forehead and going back to stand next to Bella.
"Bella, come here. You're family now, and our family are filled with huggers," Rose told Bella. Bella just laughed before also going over to Rosalie.
"I can't believe you beat me to giving Mom grandkids," she said to Edward. "Emmett and I were going to start trying after we got married. But since Emmett's taking forever to pop the question you got your chance to have a running head's start," she jokingly said while looking at Emmett. Edward could tell that she didn't mean any real anger, he remembered his mom saying something about Emmett asking for his dad's blessing so he knew that it would be relatively soon, probably the same night that Rose got home.
"You know it's coming, woman, don't rush perfection," Emmett joked with her. Edward was glad to hear him talk and make jokes, he barely said a word the entire time they were in the hospital which was very strange for him because he was always a big talker, he had no verbal filter so Edward loved to listen to Emmett talk. It was like listening to a drunk person try to slur words together sometimes.
The two of them shared a moment before they turned, once again, back to Bella and Edward.
"Do Mom and Dad know yet?" Rosalie asked.
"No, you're actually the first person we decided to tell. We're thinking of telling the parents during Thanksgiving, hopefully the happy holiday atmosphere will force them to take it well," Edward said.
"Of course they'll take it well. You're 23 years old, for God's sake, you're not a teenager anymore. Mom's been hinting for me to give her grandbabies ever since Emmett and I got serious, she will love nothing more than to dote on your adorable babies," Rosalie reassured them.
Edward knew that she was telling the truth but there was something about telling your parents, no matter how old you are, that you and your girlfriend are going to have a child out of wedlock. It's not like his parents were even religious, Edward had no idea why he was so nervous but he was glad that Bella and him had agreed to wait a couple weeks before they said anything to either set of parents.
He was even more nervous about telling Charlie and Renee. He wanted to make a great first impression on them since Bella was so close to her family but when he thought of his future daughter coming home knocked up by her boyfriend he wanted to throttle the imaginary boyfriend and hide his child in a room until she was thirty.
And her dad owned a gun collection?! He didn't know any man that would go into this situation without having an anxiety attack. He would need to make sure that Bella knew where her father kept the guns and then kept her father away from them when they told them. Why would he deprive his only grandchild of a father, he thought hopefully.
As Bella and him walked out of the hospital room after another thirty minutes he was hit with her beauty, again, and knew that he would do anything for her - even walk into a room with a Chief of Police and tell him that he had knocked up his daughter.
~LCA~
Since things with Rosalie were still looking up on Wednesday Bella and him had agreed that it was time to head back to school. They needed to catch up on all the work that they had missed and Bella needed to start looking into student teaching spots so she would be ready by the time Spring Semester began in early January.
Edward had almost three days to get used to the idea that he was going to be a father, it still didn't seem real to him but he made sure to go out of his way to take care of Bella. He thought he saw his mom eye him with suspicion when he forced Bella to give him her bags and let her carry the light ones. She didn't say anything but she could easily already be guessing at the secret that they were keeping.
He still had a lot on his mind and his to-do list; the main one was that he had to talk to Jasper about possibly moving out so he could keep an eye on Bella at night but then after they graduated he had to think about where they were going to live and whether that would be in the same apartment as he had now. A lot was riding on where Bella got a job so he made sure that he put that in the back of his mind, there were a lot of schools in Seattle and his apartment had two rooms and was pretty spacious for a small family.
Everything was going to work out fine, he hoped.
A/N: Okay, so THANK YOU to everyone for the positive reviews. A couple people weren't too happy about the pregnancy twist and I might've lost a couple readers so thank you to the ones that are sticking around. I really hope you like where this is headed. I'm now on WattPad, under the name AlisonPost, so please follow me on there if you have an account. I'm posting this story on there now but after this I'll be posting more original stuff that I would love your response on.
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