It's you, babe

And I'm a sucker for the way that you move, babe

And I could try to run, but it would be useless

You're to blame

Just one hit of you, I knew I'll never be the same

~ Camila Cabello, Never Be The Same

BPOV

"Oh," I gasped, very narrowly escaping a mascara catastrophe as Edward's arms wrapped around my waist from behind. "Hi."

"Hi," he said, smiling at me through the mirror before pressing a soft kiss to my neck. "Are you almost ready?"

I nodded dropping my mascara in my makeup bag. "Are you almost ready to tell me where we're going?"

I watched him fail at suppressing a smile as he stood up to his full height behind me. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and ignored my questions. "I just need to take a quick shower and we can go."

My petulant pouting was put on hold as I watched him start the shower and discard his clothing piece by piece into the hamper. It was very hard to be mad at him when he was naked. And wet. And he knew it.

"That's not fair!" I shouted over the spray of the water, listening to him laugh as I left the ensuite.

While, logically, I knew Valentine's Day was mostly just a holiday for greeting card companies and candy manufacturers, the whole charade was easy to fall for this year. I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of roses waiting for me in the sitting area of Edward's room. There was an accompanying box of chocolates that definitely wasn't the cheap stuff from the grocery store. Sitting beside the flowers was even a small, heart shaped dog treat for Lady.

We spent our morning on a hike, Lady in tow. While a little bit of the adrenaline high from yesterday was gone, I still felt ten times lighter as we walked. I enjoyed the warm sun and the gentle breeze of Los Angeles more than I ever had. My butterflies made a surprise reappearance every time Edward's hand squeezed mine as we walked. A constant reminder that I had finally been able to let go some of the fear and anger that had been holding me back for so long.

We had a quick breakfast after our hike, on the patio of a café that wasn't too far from his house, before stopping to pick up donuts for Masen and Lucy. Both of which were still asleep when we left the house at nine.

I watched with a smile as Edward set a card and single red rose on one side of the counter, a twenty-dollar bill on the other. As soon as he announced there were donuts, both kids were downstairs within the minute. Lucy smiled at her rose and note, giving her father a hug and a kiss on the cheek before taking her treasures and donut back up to her room. Masen pocketed his twenty, holding out his hand for a fist bump from Edward as he quickly left with his donut, too.

I liked seeing their little traditions. Sometimes it made me sad that there were sixteen years' worth of them that I didn't get to see, but I also knew there were years and years' worth of them ahead that I would get to see. Plus, there was the fact that I was a child when they were making most of those traditions. That made it pretty easy to move past the idea.

Edward left the house again a few hours later, telling me I should be ready to go by the time he got back. Except he didn't tell me where I should be ready to go to.

I got dressed in the closet, wrapping the bright red dress around me until everything was perfectly situated. Once I was dressed I dropped my phone into a small clutch, pulling out the meticulously wrapped box from the bedside table.

"Ready?" Edward asked, walking out of the closet as he straightened his suitcoat over his shoulders.

"Yes," I smiled, walking over with his present behind my back. "But, I want you to open this first because I'm too impatient to wait."

I had taken Alice's advice and gotten him a watch. A very expensive watch. I found his stash of watches, all precisely arranged in a drawer in his closet, and took a picture of every one to make sure I didn't get him something he already had. Then I spent a good two hours at the store, pestering the saleswoman with picture after picture until I found what I hoped was a unique one to add to his collection.

My favorite crooked smile popped up on his face as he took the box. He sat on the small bench in front of the bed, tossing aside the wrapping before opening it up.

I watched all of the emotions pass over his face; shock and awe were the most prominent, before realization must have hit him. "Bella, this is…"

"A very expensive watch," I finished for him. He had a dozen of them in his closet. I knew there was no getting around the price once he saw it.

"Yeah," he blurted out, eyes finally looking up at me. "You don't have to spend your money on me. I – "

"I even got it engraved," I said, ignoring him. I grabbed the box from his hand, turning the watch over to show him the short engraving on the back of the face.

Love, always.

Edward leaned his elbows on his knees, eyes on the watch back in his hands.

"I make a lot of money," I said quietly. "Not a million an episode, but a lot considering I still live in the same house I could afford in college and you never let me pay for food and I have a job title about ten years ahead of schedule."

I watched him look at the watch, turn it over in his hands before I realized maybe he wasn't hesitating only because of the price. "Do you not like it?"

"I love it," he said quickly, honesty ringing through his voice. He stood up, pulling his sleeve up until he could unclasp the watch around his wrist and replace it with the new one.

I reached up on my toes to press a kiss to his cheek. "Good."

I started to understand the allure of buying expensive gifts. His smile as he looked at his wrist made me very happy. As I was turning for the door, he grabbed my arm and had me sit where he had been a minute before.

"Oh, not so fast," he said, pulling a box out of his suit coat. "You don't get to complain about the price, either. Or ever again."

I pressed my lips together, but gave in. "Okay."

Edward smiled, handing me the box. It was sturdy with an intricate pattern on the top. The red leather smooth underneath my fingertips which I knew meant whatever inside was probably equally as expensive as the watch on his wrist, if not more.

I opened it slowly, failing at my attempt not to gasp as I took in the necklace. There were two diamond encrusted rings hooked together, falling from a platinum chain.

"It's beautiful," I breathed out, tentatively reaching out to touch the smooth platinum rings.

Since I was under strict instructions not to tell him it was too expensive, I stood up and handed the box back to him while I worked on unfastening the emerald that was hanging from my neck. I quickly switched the necklaces out in the box, handing the new one to Edward with a smile.

I held my hair out of the way as he fastened it, smiling when it finally settled against my collarbone. "Thank you," I said quietly, turning around with a smile. Edward reached up, cupping my cheek, but said nothing. Only looked at me with an expression I couldn't quite decipher. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Ready?"

I nodded and we headed downstairs, hand in hand, making a stop in the living room where Lucy as lounging on the couch, Lady beside her.

"There's money on the counter for dinner for you and Mase," he said, dropping some cash down on the counter.

"Thanks," Lucy smiled, her head turning away from the television. "You look pretty."

It took me a moment to realize she was talking to me. "Oh, thank you."

"We'll be back late, but please have whoever you're sneaking over gone by ten," he said. I could tell by the strain in his eyes he was only half joking.

"No one is sneaking over," Lucy said with an eyeroll.

"Ten," Edward repeated, walking over to press a kiss to the top of her head. "Tell your brother the same for me."

"How do you know they're sneaking people over?" I asked Edward as he led me to the car. Lucy had seemed pretty sincere when she rolled her eyes and said no one was coming over.

"Because they're sixteen. With their first parental approved boyfriend and girlfriend. And we'll be out of the house for a significant amount of time. They're good kids, but they're not that good."

I shook my head with a chuckle, adding my ignorance to the growing list of reasons why I wasn't parent material.

"Put this on," Edward said, holding out one of his ties to me.

I frowned down at it. "Excuse me?"

"Over your eyes."

"Why?"

"Because our destination is a surprise, and you'll be able to figure it out if you can see where we're going."

I wanted to argue, but I also appreciated the effort he seemed to be going through for whatever our evening entailed. Once the tie was secured around my head, I felt a finger tap my nose.

"Hey," I groaned, pulling my head back.

"Just a test," he chuckled, his hand grabbing mine as I felt the car start to back up. "You look good in a blindfold," he added.

My cheeks heated up as I huffed. The drive wasn't too long, thankfully. And my attempts to focus and try and track the direction of the car were a good distraction, even though I had gotten lost after only a few minutes.

"Stay there," Edward said once the car stopped. I listened as he got out, pictured him walking around the car in my mind before my door opened.

He had a firm grip on one of my hands and an arm around my waist as he led me a few steps before pulling me to a stop. He carefully pulled at the tie until it fell, but it took my eyes a moment to adjust to the setting sunlight.

When I could finally see straight, I smiled at the sight of the house in front of me. Our house.

"What are we doing here?" I asked through the giant smile on my face.

"We can go to a fancy dinner any time," Edward shrugged, walking forward and opening the front door. "I thought the evening called for something a little more… private."

I walked through the door as he held it open, my eyes immediately falling to the left where a fire was burning in the marble fireplace. There was a small, round table set up in the empty room. A couple of chairs surrounding it, a candle resting on top of it.

Even though all of the furniture that I had come to expect every time I saw the house was gone, the bare bones of the place were still beautiful.

I shook my head, walking over to the table and running my fingers over the soft white cloth. "This is much better than a fancy dinner."

Edward smiled down at me, pressing a kiss to my cheek. "Sit. It'll only take me a few minutes to heat up the food."

I did as I was told, sliding my heels off in the process. They were tall and uncomfortable and if I wasn't sitting in a restaurant surrounded by people, I had no need for them.

My eyes wandered around the room as I waited and listened to Edward rummaging around in the kitchen. My butterflies reappeared, fluttering around my stomach as my mind wrapped around where I was sitting.

This would be the house I'd come home to every day, probably for the rest of my life. It was a place that wouldn't be muddled by divorce or affairs. There was a very good chance I'd one day sit in this same room with a baby in my arms, a little piece of Edward and I in a tiny little bundle.

Masen and Lucy would come home from college for the holidays here. There would be birthdays and graduation celebrations and every other family affair one could think of. Most of which I never had much experience with.

A house could just be a house. It was a luxury not everyone could afford, and I was more than grateful to have a roof as pretty as this one over my head. But, this place was more than just a shelter. Because it was going to be the one place I had ever lived where I wasn't scared. I didn't have to worry what was lurking around the corner or go to bed sad and alone every night here.

"You okay?" Edward asked as he sat a steak down in front of me that was about the size of my head.

"Yeah," I nodded quickly, carefully wiping the wetness on my waterline before it could slide down my cheek.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I just," I shrugged, not sure how to put how I was feeling into words. "I like it here."

Edward was quiet for a minute, eyes on me until he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head. "We can sign the papers Tuesday."

"This Tuesday?"

He nodded, sitting down across from me. "If you're free."

"I can be free."

Maybe Valentine's was supposed to be an escape from reality, a romantic night alone with your partner where you didn't think about life or kids or work. I had done a lot of escaping in my twenty-three years, though. So, over our candlelit dinner, we planned.

Technically, we could move into the house Tuesday, but we had no furniture. We would spend the next few months buying furniture and painting walls and getting things ready so we could move in around the beginning of June, after Masen and Lucy were out of school.

It took Edward a good half hour to convince me they were fine with me moving in. He seemed confident they were, even as I listed off all of the reasons they shouldn't be.

Then, he tried to hand me a credit card so I could buy whatever furniture I wanted, whenever I saw it. Which lead to a whole other topic detour until I begrudgingly stuffed the card in my wallet. I made enough money to buy a nice watch, but it wasn't enough to furnish a sixteen-million-dollar house.

After we had finished our dinner, Edward took the plates to the kitchen and I started straightening up the table. I had just blown out the candle, not wanting to burn the place down before we ever got to move in, when soft music started flowing through the room. I didn't have time to look for the source before warm arms were around my waist, gliding me side to side.

It was only a few minutes into the relaxing swaying that Edward spoke up.

"When do you want to get married?"

I froze, only moving because Edward's grasp on me kept me doing so. "What?"

"This seems to be the night to make big decisions."

My brows knitted together, my heart feeling like it was trying to break through my chest. "Are you asking me to marry you?"

"No. You'll know when I'm asking," he said, a deliciously cocky smirk on his face. "I'm asking when you want me to ask. I know how important your career is, and if you want to wait until you're older to get married, we'll wait. But sometimes… sometimes I look at you and it takes every ounce of willpower I have not to ask you if you want to go down to the courthouse tomorrow."

"I don't want to wait," I blurted out quickly, the words coming out before my brain had a chance to think them through. They were true, unequivocally. I knew some women had master plans where they got married at twenty-five and then had their first kid by thirty and so on, but my age didn't matter much to me. It was usually something I tried not to think about, considering Edward was twelve years older than me and I was only six years older than his children.

From a publicity standpoint, waiting would have been smarter. It would only fuel a dozen rumors if we got married too soon. People would assume our affair had started before it did, or that I was pregnant again, or that I had fast tracked my plan to get my hands on Edward's money.

From a personal standpoint… I just really wanted to marry him.

"Okay," Edward nodded with a smile.

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Well… what does okay mean?" I asked. Was it an 'Okay, let's get married,' or an 'Okay, let's talk about getting married,' or even an 'Okay, we'll think about it.'

"Okay means… I'll take what you've said into consideration," he said carefully.

"Into consideration?"

"Yes."

"Well… what does that mean?"

"That means I love you," he sighed, tightening his hold around my waist and leaning down to press his lips to mine.

I knew the kiss was a distraction. Luckily for him, it was a very welcome one. For as many questions as I had, I also had the most important answer. Which was that he seemed to want to marry me as much as I wanted to marry him.

So, I let myself relax into the kiss until I found myself naked on the hardwood floor in front of the fire with the weight of Edward on top of me.

…Closure…

The weekend went by quickly. The signing of what seemed to be a hundred papers to finalize the purchase of our house did not. It was worth it though, because now I had a photo of Edward, Masen, Lucy, and I standing in front of said house sitting on my desk at work. The place was still empty, but it was ours.

"Bella?" Tanya's voice came from the speaker on my phone. "Leon Woods is on his way in to see you."

I frowned, my eyes falling over the calendar I had pulled up on my computer even though I would have remembered if I had a meeting with the head of Edward's network scheduled.

"Thanks, Tanya," I said, putting away what I was working on just in time for Leon to walk through my office door.

"Isabella," he boasted, seeming to be in a good mood. He walked in with a smile on his face, which I found odd. The only time I had ever seen him he was all business. That was under a fairly stressful meeting, though.

"Mr. Woods," I greeted, standing from my chair to shake his hand.

"A house warming gift," he said, handing me a bottle of wine, elaborating as I frowned down at it. "I just came from a meeting with Edward."

"Ah," I sighed, relieved our address wasn't suddenly plastered all over the internet. "That's very kind. Thank you."

We both sat down, Leon getting right to it. "I won't waste your time, I know you're a busy woman. But, I'd like to bring you on as the head of public relations for The Tonight Show."

"Oh," I gasped. It was an intricate web, the difference between publicity for Edward and The Tonight Show. Edward was The Tonight Show, for the time being. But, The Tonight Show was a culmination of years of previous hosts as well.

Technically, I had kind of already been handling publicity for the show. I needed to in order to get Edward's name out of the gutter it had ended up in before. I had never met whoever was in charge of the show's publicity, though. They were never around. I had assumed it was because Edward had refused to work with them.

"I'd love to," the words came out of my mouth before I made a conscious decision. It would be a fine line, because Leon could very well choose not to up Edward's contract in a year and a half and I would end up being in charge of the publicity of the show when someone else took over. The show was doing spectacular, though, and I had every confidence that they would re-up his contract.

"Excellent," Leon nodded. "My assistant will send over all the necessary information. I'm glad to have you on board, Isabella. You made good progress with Edward."

"Thank you."

With another shake of our hands, Leon was gone. I sat back down, still a little surprised at the whole interaction. Leon was an important man, he didn't just go around hiring PR specialists for his shows. Not unless he's trying to make a point.

He knew I'd quit the job if he replaced Edward. He knew Edward could very well be holding a grudge after they tried to replace him. The tables had turned, and now he was sucking up to Edward to make him stay.

I was chuckling to myself as my phone rang, a photo of Edward popping up on the screen.

"So?" he asked as soon as I answered.

"So?"

I could practically hear his eyes roll. "Bella."

"What did you do to scare off the other publicist?"

I heard him chuckle on the line. "I'm pretty sure he accepted my bribe to leave me alone. Unlike you."

"You can't just go around bribing people," I scolded.

"I haven't tried to bribe anyone since this pretty little brunette showed up in my dressing room."

It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"So?" he repeated. "Did you take it?"

"I did."

"Good. We'll go out to dinner this weekend to celebrate."

Before I could tell him about Leon's plot to get on his good side, I saw Renata walking towards my office. After a quick goodbye I hung up with Edward just as she walked in my office.

"The Tonight Show?" she asked, leaning against the door jam.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Impressive."

"He just doesn't want Edward holding a grudge after the whole Biers thing."

"Still. Leon Woods doesn't personally hire you unless he respects you."

I shrugged, still thinking the whole things was mostly to get him back on Edward's good side.

"Well, you're about to be even busier. I've got a girl coming in this afternoon I want you to meet with. Just got herself out of a shitty management deal and lost her entire team. She's got potential, but her former manager is going to be a problem."

"Who was it?"

"Aro Volturi."

"Oh," I grumbled. Aro Volturi had a reputation for being an asshole. He worked his clients to their breaking point and then a little farther to make some more profit off of their breakdowns. He had clauses in his contracts which basically forced them to stay with him, or continue to pay him for five years after they separated. Which was fucked up on every level.

"Yeah. Three-thirty in the conference room."

"I'll be there."

…Closure…

"Are you going to Coachella?" Lucy asked, more like squeaked, as she sat next to me at the kitchen counter. She had been helping Edward cook while I did some more work, but once her job was done she took a seat next to me. And, apparently, started eying my calendar.

"For work, not fun," I clarified, as I watched Edward's back stiffen as he stirred something on the stove.

"Dad," Lucy whined, the kind of whine only a teenage daughter could use on her father.

Edward sighed, turning around to lean over the counter across from us. "We already talked about it, Lucy."

"Yeah, and just as you were about to give in, tickets sold out."

"Well, if tickets are sold out, it's a moot point."

I watched Lucy frown at Edward, before she turned to me. The frown was gone immediately, replaced with a sweet smile and those Cullen eyes that were very, very hard to say no to. Alice had them, Edward had them, and Lucy apparently had them, too.

"You know, my birthday is coming up."

I nodded, knowing I was walking directly into a trap. "I do know that."

"Well, if you were, I don't know, thinking of getting Masen and I any kind of present – "

"Lucy," Edward interrupted. "Go tell your brother dinner is almost ready."

"Dad – "

"Go."

We both waited a minute, listening to her stomp upstairs.

"They want to go to Coachella?"

"They've wanted to go for years. Seventeen is the age limit to go without a legal guardian present, though."

"Ah," I sighed. "Were you actually going to let them go this year?"

"I was contemplating. Then lucked out with the tickets selling out."

I pressed my lips together. I knew it came from a childhood of abuse, but seeing Edward so obviously act as the overprotective parent always made me fall in love with him a little bit more.

"I'd be there," I shrugged. "I'll be with Ashley, but I could check on them every few hours. Plus, I know their blood types in case of an emergency. I can tell her I can't get tickets if you want me to, though."

I watched Edward think it over for a few minutes. Long enough for me to get distracted by the pout of his lips before they opened again. "You don't mind checking on them?"

I shook my head. "No."

"If you can get the tickets, then… I'm sure they'd love it."

A squeal came from the hallway, Lucy running over and immediately wrapping her arms around my neck until breathing became an issue.

"This is amazing," she gushed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I got a high five from Masen as he walked by, the least I could give him with Lucy still strangling me.

As Edward finished dinner, the kitchen was filled with plans. Edward grumbled under his breath at every one, and I sent an email to the booking agent that got Ashley her spot at the festival who had already offered me extra tickets.

The doorbell rang as I was setting Lady's food in the corner for her. Edward's grumbling increased as Ethan walked around the corner holding Lucy's hand. The other girl from the night of the dance coming in behind them standing close to Masen.

She was pretty, hair that was a unique mix of blonde and brown and hazel eyes that nearly matched her hair. Her name was Mona, if I remembered correctly from the night of the dance.

"Hi, Mr. Cullen," she said quietly, obviously nervous.

Thankfully I was setting Lady's water bowl down behind the counter when a small chortle escaped me. I had gotten better at the whole 'Mr. C' thing the last few weeks. Mostly because I was better at holding in my laughter. It still got to me for some reason. Probably because it wasn't that long ago that I called him Mr. Cullen.

"Hello, Mona," Edward smiled, charming as ever. "You guys can go take a seat, we'll bring the food in."

I stood as the group of teenagers retreated to the table. Once we were alone, I got an incredulous look from Edward.

"Every time, huh?"

"I'm getting better," I said defensively. "I don't know what it is. I'm too scared to ask Doctor Stanley about it because I'm pretty sure she'll tell me it's daddy issues again."

It was a joke. Mostly. So, I didn't mind the loud laugh when it echoed throughout the kitchen. It took Edward a good sixty seconds to calm down. When he did, he looked over at me with his eyes bright and a smile on his face, seeming happier than I had seen him all night.

"Thank you for that," Edward sighed happily, dropping a kiss to the top of my head as he grabbed a couple plates. I followed behind him, salad bowl in hand, smiling to myself as I sat down at the table beside him.

As with Ethan's introductory dinner, I kept to myself and let Edward and the kids fumble their way through it. I had done my snooping on Mona after the Valentine's dance last weekend and knew she seemed like a good kid, too. Edward wasn't quite as intense as he was with Ethan's first dinner. Maybe because he got it out of his system then, or maybe because the odds were probably better that Masen would break Mona's heart instead of the other way around. Not because I thought Masen would do anything mean on purpose. Just because that was how teenage boys acted, from what I had been told.

Long after the dinner was done and Masen and Lucy had retreated to their rooms, Edward and I ended up on the sofa in the living room. The sun was long gone, the lights of the city illuminated in the distance through the windowed wall. My back rested against his chest as I matched my breathing to his, Lady's head resting on my foot at the end of the sofa. It was, quite possibly, the most perfect way to end the day.

"You seem better this time," I mumbled, a little reluctant to break the comfortable silence but still glad that he didn't seem as devastated that Masen was dating now, too.

I felt him let out a deep breath behind me. "I'm trying to let go. A little. I know I'm probably being too overprotective. Shit, kids start dating at about twelve these days. But… I was their age when I made some really stupid decisions and I don't want them to do the same."

"Being a little overprotective isn't a bad thing."

I craned my neck, turning my head upwards toward Edward just as he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to my lips.

"They both asked me if you were coming to their birthday dinner earlier," Edward said hesitantly.

"Birthday dinner?"

I felt him nod behind me. "The whole family always goes out together for dinner to celebrate."

I had no qualms about going out to dinner with Edward and his kids to celebrate their birthday. It was the whole family part that made me hesitate. "Who exactly does the whole family entail?"

"My whole family," Edward started. Very obviously starting with the easiest part of the list first. "Irina and Demetri." Strike one.

"Irina's parents." Strike two.

"And my grandparents." Strike three.

"That's quite a lot of people that, you know, hate me."

"Irina's parents hate everyone, myself included. They see the kids once a year, give them a check, and head back to Florida."

Irina's parents were the least of my concern. I had no interest in having dinner with them and didn't really care if they hated me or not, but it would make for an uncomfortable evening to say the least.

"Irina and Demetri know they're on thin fucking ice. They won't start anything. My grandparents are actually very excited to meet you."

"Oh, I met them. For about twenty seconds at Alice's wedding before Carlisle rushed me away because he thought they'd call me a whore."

"He rushed you away because I told him you could get… skittish. My grandparents can be a little intense about their religion, but they're not hard to get along with."

I bit my lip, fiddling with my fingers until Edward's intertwined with mine to make me stop.

"You don't think me being there is going to cause a big fight?"
"No," Edward answered firmly. "The kids want you there. It's their choice, no one else's."

"Okay," I sighed. "I'll go."

A firm kiss got pressed to the top of my head, making me smile. Everything seemed almost easy these days. Yeah, there were restraining orders to deal with and ex-wives to handle, but those things didn't seem as daunting when I got to end a majority of my nights like this.

The problems didn't matter when he held my hand as we walked up to bed or cornered me in the shower with a kiss that took my breath away until I had my head buried against his shoulder to muffle the sounds me made me make. Life was simple as I sat in bed, computer in my lap as I listened to Edward lock up the house and check to make sure neither of his children had snuck out. Or snuck anyone else in.

"Hey," I grumbled, my computer suddenly snatched from my lap.

"It's almost one in the morning. You don't need to be working," Edward said with a shake of his head, dropping my laptop to his bedside table.

I frowned at him, grabbing my bag to pull out my tablet. "I just need to check one – "

As soon as I had the tablet in hand, it was snatched from me, my bag disappearing as well.

"You're always stealing my stuff," I grumbled, my frown deepening as I watched him put all of my things on the floor beside the bed.

He grabbed a book that had fallen out on the bed in our scuffle, staring at the cover for a minute before muttering, "Complex post-traumatic stress disorder?"

"Oh, yeah," I shrugged. "Doctor Stanley only made a formal diagnosis to help with the restraining order. Compiling all of my issues into one little phrase doesn't really change anything," I blathered on. "It showed the court I wasn't lying, at least. Doctor Stanley was out of town this week, so she told me to read that."

I finally got my lips to stop moving and watched as Edward eyed the book.

"What… what's the difference?" he asked quietly. "Between complex and… regular?"

It wasn't the question I was expecting, but it had an easier answer. "Complex is from prolonged… trauma. Regular is usually a more singular event."

I watched him nod and flip the book over in his hands, eyes skimming the back. "May I read this?" he asked gently, finally looking at me. "When you're done?"

"Sure," I answered quickly, a little taken aback at his question. "I'm already done."

It was a basic book, nothing too sinister inside. I was also, apparently, a very textbook case of the disorder. There were no symptoms or descriptions in there that Edward hadn't seen me go through for himself. The avoidance of any situation that might make me the slightest bit uncomfortable, the insomnia and short temper and need to be constantly distracted so I didn't think. He had seen it all.

And he was still here. So, him reading about those things didn't worry me too much.

He put the book on his bedside table before shutting off the light. I buried myself against him, his arms a little tighter around me than usual.

"I'm sorry I stole your stuff," he admitted quietly.

"It's okay."

His eyes were on me, black in the lightless room but saying everything I knew he was thinking.

I'm sorry you're hurt.

I'm sorry there's nothing I can do to take it away.

I wasn't sure how long it was after I had finally fallen asleep, but at one point in the middle of the night as I was resituating myself, my eyes cracked open to see Edward sitting on the couch across the room, a pile of fur in his lap and a book in his hands.

A/N: Finally, huh? Sorry about the wait, but I hope it was worth it. A couple side notes: one, the age to get into Coachella without a guardian is eighteen, but for the sake of this story we're going to say its seventeen. Two, I have no personal experience with complex ptsd, nor do I know anyone that has it. This story isn't meant to diminish anyone's struggles with it, or cause anyone with it any discomfort. It's fiction, through and through.

See you next time!