Chapter 21

Edward POV

Finding Bella curled up, barely conscious, on a concrete sidewalk was his worst nightmare come to life. He truly thought that he had lost everything that mattered to him, but when he felt her chest rising and falling he felt like crying with relief.

She was going to be fine.

Their baby was going to be fine.

He didn't want to entertain any other thoughts.

He held Bella in his arms as Detective Uley and her partner arrested Jacob and put him into a squad car. He heard Detective Uley talking to another officer before she walked over to where he was on his knees.

"Edward, an ambulance is coming for her. They'll take great care of her, I promise." She laid her hand on his arm in what he assumed was an act of comfort but he felt nothing. He was focused on Bella and nothing else.

When the EMT's arrived less than five minutes later - the longest five minutes of his life - he reluctantly let her go. He answered all of their questions while they loaded Bella into the back of the ambulance, he demanded to go with them and with a look back at Detective Uley they reluctantly agreed.

The ride to the hospital felt like it stretched on forever. Edward just held Bella's hand while the medics checked her pulse and inserted IV's into her arm, Edward knew that Bella wasn't a big fan of needles and felt a pang at the discomfort that she was sure to feel when she woke up. He didn't understand what the medics were saying to each other, it was like they were speaking an entirely new language. Edward wanted to scream at them, wanted to ask if she was going to be fine but the larger part of him was scared to receive the answer.

What if it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear?

As they arrived at the hospital, they loaded Bella from the stretcher and rushed her into an examination room. Edward tried to follow but an elderly nurse held him back and told him that he wasn't able to be with her and they would do everything they could for her.

"I can't lose her, please," he begged her. She led him to the end of the hallway where a waiting room was.

"Sir, I will come get you the second anything changes with her but right now we need to take care of her and the baby. You need to let us do our job," she told him, kindly but firmly.

He nodded and so she left him alone in the room.

~LCA~

He kept running over the last few hours in his mind as he waited for any news.

Detective Uley had found the landlord and watched the tapes to make sure that Jacob was the perpetrator. Edward complained that they were wasting time but she explained that it was something she had to do if they were going to arrest Jacob and not have his lawyer throw anything out. They had to do everything legally.

Edward then followed her to the police station where she began to call all airplanes, trains, hotels, and motels. She explained that she was looking for any sign of where he could've possibly taken Bella.

Two hours of phone calls had passed before Detective Uley finally got what she wanted. A shady motel on the other side of town told her, with a little persuasion, that a man matching his description had checked in the day before and gave him all cash. He said that he hadn't seen him with anyone but it was the closest lead they had all day so Detective Uley made sure to check up on it.

Edward wasn't going to be left behind so, with a little hesitation, she finally agreed to let him accompany her in the squad car.

The drive was long but once they got within eyesight of the building Edward's heart stopped. It wasn't that the building was run down and his skin crawled just from looking at it. It was the fact that Bella was running down the street and close behind her was Jacob Black.

Detective Uley immediately pulled the car over and slammed on the brakes and Edward rushed out of the car just in time to see Bella trip and land with a loud thump on her side. Edward almost could feel the pain that she was going through. He heard Detective Uley shout his name but he was running to her before he even registered it. He saw red when Jacob kicked Bella in the side but was pleased when he saw the anger and fear in his eyes when he heard Detective Uley shout "Freeze!".

He was thrown out of his thoughts when the door opened and Alice and Jasper came running into the waiting room. Alice threw her arms around Edward and sobbed into his shirt.

"Is she going to be okay?" She asked, shakily.

"The doctor's haven't said anything yet. How did you guys know that we were here?"

"Detective Uley called and told us what happened and that you were going to need us. I think she suspected that you weren't going to be thinking straight and wouldn't call us," Jasper explained. When their eyes met Edward could see the pain and blame that Jasper was putting on himself. When Alice let him go he pulled Jasper to him.

"None of this is your fault," he told Jasper.

"If I had just been paying more attention in that parking lot then none of this would have happened and Bella wouldn't be here right now," Jasper said.

"Jasper, Jacob is sick. If he didn't find Bella today then he would've found her some other time and maybe we wouldn't have had the time to find her before he took her somewhere else. You gave us the precious time to find her and our baby, you saved her life, man," Edward told him.

Jasper just nodded before giving Edward a pat on the back and going to sit in one of the chairs.

"Have you called Bella's parents yet?" Alice asked as she sat down next to her boyfriend.

Edward closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "No, it never even crossed my mind. Her mom was here over the weekend but she left Sunday night. I'll do it now," he told them.

"We can do it for you, Edward," Alice offered but he just shook his head.

"Thanks, but it needs to be me," he said before pressing the number for her father. It rang only twice before he heard his gruff voice on the other end of the line.

"Hello?"

"Charlie, it's Edward, is Renee there with you?" He would rather tell them both at the same time so he wouldn't have to explain the story more than once.

"Yes," he said, slowly. "Edward, what's wrong? Where's Bella?" He asked. Edward could hear the fear that he was trying to hide in his voice, it was the same fear that Edward was feeling himself.

In a voice that held more courage than he was actually feeling he relayed the entire day back to Bella's father. Edward could tell that he had been put on speakerphone because he could hear the slight gasps of Renee in the background.

After about ten minutes of explaining the situation he braced himself for the yelling and screaming. Charlie had every right to be mad at Edward. Edward was supposed to take care of Bella, watch over her, and make sure that she never came to harm.

He'd failed her.

"What hospital are you at?"

Edward gave the name and was surprised that all Charlie said was that they would be there within three hours before he hung up. Edward took the phone away from his ear in confusion, maybe Charlie was going to yell at him in person.

"How'd it go?" Jasper asked.

Edward just shrugged but before he could say anything else the door to the room opened and the same nurse that had led Edward into this room was walking to him.

"How is she?" He asked immediately.

"She has a broken nose and also a broken rib. The rib has caused some internal bleeding so we have to take her up to surgery and take care of it before any harm comes to the baby."

"Thank God," Edward closed his eyes in relief. "So the baby is fine?" He asked, carefully.

"That baby is a fighter and so is Miss Swan. We got a steady heartbeat and lots of movement on the monitor before we moved her upstairs. Once we get the bleeding under control then Miss Swan should recover fairly quickly."

Edward thanked her before going over to Alice and Jasper and letting them pull him into their embrace.

He could finally breathe.

Bella POV

There was a steady beeping right next to her ear. She assumed it was her alarm and went to hit the snooze button but her arms didn't seem to be working. She felt so out of it that it took her a minute to remember what had happened earlier.

Jacob.

The hitting.

The punching.

The running.

She gasped and sat quickly up but a sharp pain ran through her side before she was fully sitting. Arms were around her right away, she cringed away from them. She didn't know what Jacob was going to do to her for attempting to run away but it could not be good.

"Please don't hurt me," she begged him.

"Bella, it's me, you're safe," she heard the voice next to her ear whisper to her. She knew that voice better than she did her own. She opened her eyes only to be met with eyes that were the color of emeralds.

"Edward," she whispered before she broke down in his arms and cried into his shirt. She didn't care that she was ruining his shirt, she was just so relieved to be safe and not to be in the arms of Jacob Black anymore. If she ever saw that man again than it would be too soon.

After some time of crying into his shoulder Bella finally pulled away and looked back into his eyes.

"The baby?" She was scared of the answer but she knew that worrying about it was going to be worse.

"She's fine. She's a fighter just like her mommy," he told her with a huge smile on his face.

She smiled but felt something in the back of her mind stop her from being relieved.

"Jacob…?" She heard the fear in her voice but could do nothing to stop it.

"He's arrested and is still being held at the police station before they take him to jail. There's no way that he's going to get away with what he did to you," Edward told her. She saw the raw anger that was in his eyes when he talked about him. It could only match the anger that she felt, she prayed that he would never see daylight again for what he did to her and for what he almost did to her and Edward's baby.

"Bella?" She heard someone say her name and pulled farther away from Edward so she could find the source. She saw her mom and dad in the corner of the room with tears in both of their eyes. Edward pulled farther away from Bella to give her room to embrace her parents.

She felt their love in their hugs and tried to reciprocate the feeling so they would know how much she appreciated them being here for her without actually having to say the words aloud.

"How are you feeling, sweetheart? Any pain?" Renee asked her while fingering the call button that was next to her bed.

"I feel fine. What was the damage?" She asked, quietly. They looked at each other reluctantly, she could tell that they didn't want to answer the question so she looked at Edward.

"Broken nose and a broken rib. They had to take you up to surgery earlier to take of some internal bleeding but thankfully there was nothing else." He squeezed her hand in reassurance and she felt the comfort he was sending her. It could've been so much worse, for what she went through...she was lucky.

She put her hand on her belly and was overjoyed to feel Carlie kick against her palm.

Everything was truly going to be fine.

~LCA~

"Are you sure that you're ready to go home?" Edward asked her. She loved him but if he asked her that again, she was going to hit him.

It had been three days since she woke up and she was finally leaving the hospital. The doctors kept her so they could observe the broken rib and make sure that it was healing fine. She was grateful for everything they did but she felt like she never had privacy. The doors were opening every five minutes, nurses coming and going, and friends coming to check on her. She was more than ready to be back in her own home with Edward.

Her parents weren't happy but she was making them go home. She didn't need someone to watch over her twenty-four/seven. She knew that Edward wouldn't be able to stop himself but she was going to try her damndest to do things on her own.

She had cleared some time away from school and Angela over at the elementary school was more than okay with her taking some time off. It was just one week but she was hopeful that she would be able to catch up on everything she missed while she was at the hospital and then would be back in full force at the beginning of April.

"Edward, I told you once and I'll tell you again. I want to go home, the doctor has said that I'm fine," she explained with more force than she meant to.

"Okay, but only if you're sure," he told her.

"I am. We both are," she said as she placed a hand on her belly.

These next few months were going to be crazy but she knew that as long as she had Edward by her side that she would be able to do anything.

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Bella was going crazy. She felt like a house, the one thing she wanted more than anything was for this baby to get out of her. At this point she was seriously considering driving around on a bumpy road to force her water to break. She was uncomfortable 99% of the time now and just wanted to hold her daughter in her hands...and not on her bladder.

"Really, again?" She asked her stomach when she felt the familiar feeling of needing to go pee for the thousandth time that day.

She heard Edward chuckle at her from his spot next to her on the couch so she sent him a playful glare before heading to the bathroom.

The past four months had just flown by. The biggest thing that happened was that Jacob had pleaded guilty for assault and unlawful restraint, he got a sentence that made her fall to her knees in relief when she heard it.

30 years. No chance of parole.

After that she put all of her focus towards graduation and her student teaching. She ended up graduating almost eight months pregnant with honors.

Life was going good. It would just be a lot better if she had this baby out of her.

She grumbled to herself as she walked to the bathroom. She flipped the switch for the light but before she could take more than a couple steps into the room she felt a gush of fluid between her legs. For a second she was horrified with herself, she didn't think that she needed to go that bad. When reality hit her she gasped and screamed Edward's name, she heard him immediately run down the hall and join her in the bathroom.

"What's wrong, baby?"

She pointed to the puddle at her feet.

"I think my water just broke."

"I thought you haven't been having contractions. You said that they were just Braxton Hicks!"

"I guess I was wrong!" She shouted at him. He closed his eyes before nodding his head and opening his eyes again.

"Alright, we got this. Let's get the hospital bag, baby bag...purse, wallet, and keys. Anything that I'm missing?" He asked her as he started darting around the apartment. It only took a few minutes before he found everything but when he started to lead her towards the front door she bent over as a severe pain hit her stomach. She held onto Edward's hand as the contraction came and went and leaned against him in relief once it was over.

"Let's go have this baby," he whispered in her ear.

~LCA~

Eight hours later and Carlie Rose Cullen was welcomed into the world.

Bella couldn't stop her crying as the nurses handed her their baby. Carlie was the most beautiful baby in the world (she might have been a little biased).

As Bella looked into the eyes of her newborn little girl she felt like everything she had ever done had led her to this moment. She wouldn't be going into the workforce until next year but she knew that she had just been given the most important job ever.

A mom.

She was going to do everything in her power to give this little girl anything and everything she could want.

As she looked at Edward watching the two of them with tears in his eyes she remembered back to the beginning of the year and the reluctant feeling she had when she'd agreed to a date with the player that was Edward Cullen. If only she could go back to that woman and tell her that everything was going to end up amazing.

Love truly did conquer all.

A/N: I am so sorry for this delay! I got some severe writer's block after sending my original book into a publishing company and getting denied. It took me a while to remember that I write because I enjoy it and I love getting such positive feedback from you guys, my readers. Thank you for all the kind words, they meant so much to me.

There will be one more chapter, the epilogue, and then I will probably start another story. I've been tossing some ideas around in my head but I will make sure to not make you wait for another story. I just hope that you like it as much as you liked this one.

Thank you again.

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