Twilight and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I'm just playing around with them.
Lots of thanks to MelissaMargaret for making this pretty, and to anhanninen and xxluvCarlisleEsmexx for prereading.
EPOV
10:34
I couldn't remember the last time I was able to sleep this late on a weekday. Stretching, I rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. The lights came on as soon as I flipped the switch, a sign that we still had power. That was fine with me. I'd get the day off and not have to worry about finding something to do that didn't require electricity.
After finishing in the bathroom, I slowly headed downstairs. Not in a hurry to be around the whole family again, I only went to find food. The rest of the day would be spent in my room avoiding as much of the insanity as possible.
But as I walked past the living room, Alice called my name.
Sighing, I scratched my head and entered the room.
Alice was sitting on one end of the couch with Lucy in her lap. Bella was beside her, and Mom was on the other end. Rose was in one of the chairs, but other than that, no one else was in sight. The amount of women in one room made me nervous. No good could come of this much estrogen..
"What's up?"
"Lucy wants a snack, and since I'm sure you're on your way to the kitchen, you can bring back one for her."
I huffed. "No 'good morning, Edward' before you start asking for favors?"
"Nope," she answered, smiling. "It's closer to afternoon than morning anyway, and it's not like you'll say no to Miss Lucy."
Well, she was right about that part. Even though her eyes creeped me out, it wasn't as if I was going to deny her food.
"Fine. What does she want?"
"What kinds of snacks does she like, dear?" Mom asked Bella, but Bella shrugged. "Well, how about you go help Edward figure it out?"
I didn't think I need that much help, but Bella nodded so we went to the kitchen together.
As I'd hoped, I found a plate full of breakfast waiting for me in the oven. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, and toast - Mom had really gone all out.
"Man, you guys had the good stuff this morning," I commented, wasting no time before shoveling a fork full into my mouth.
Bella giggled, nodding again. "Um, yeah. Your mom and sister cooked a lot. I've never seen that much food at one time before, but your brother eats a lot. So does Dr. Carlisle."
"Yeah," I agreed, looking back at my plate. "I think it's a family trait. I probably could have eaten more than this."
"I wasn't sure you'd ever come downstairs," she said softly. "I haven't seen you since yesterday afternoon." I looked over at her, but she wasn't looking at me anymore. Weird.
I shrugged. "I like to sleep late, and I was just hanging in my room yesterday. So. . . what kind of snack does the kid want?"
Going over to the refrigerator, I grabbed the milk to pour myself a glass and let Bella look inside. It was pretty full with all kinds of stuff, but she pulled out the yogurt I'd bought yesterday.
"I think she'll like this," Bella said softly, running her hand over the package. "Did you get this?"
"Uhh . . . yeah," I said slowly, not understanding why this was a big deal. "I got it yesterday when i got that doll. There's some Nora cereal too somewhere around here."
Before I knew what was happening, Bella had her arms around my waist. Hugging me. I barely had time to awkwardly pat her back with my free hand before she backed away. I didn't know what to say so we stood silently for a few moments, not looking at each other.
"Milk?" I finally asked, offering her the carton.
She glanced at the carton, nodded, and then left the room.
Not knowing what in the world she was doing, I went back to eating my breakfast. It was still warm and tasted amazing. All of Mom's mom looks were totally worth being able to eat her food. Well, mostly.
Bella returned just as I was finishing the last of my food. She had Lucy's cup in her hand, so I pulled the milk back out for her. After she poured the milk and grabbed the yogurt and a spoon and I placed my plate in the sink, we went back to the living room together.
Alice and Rosalie were no longer sitting with Mom and Lucy, and I sighed in relief. The less I had to deal with at one time, the better.
I did love my family, but besides the four years I was away at college, I had been around them my whole life. Emmett and Alice had bossed me around when we were kids, and they had a bad habit of trying to do the same now that we were adults. In small doses, it was fine. But the whole family at once? That was torture I didn't like to put myself through often.
I stole Rosalie's seat, reclining the chair as I watched Bella feed Lucy the yogurt. For some reason, it was interesting to watch. Lucy would open her mouth wide to wait for the spoon, and Mom and Bella would laugh each time. They finally gave Lucy a turn to feed herself, and she didn't even get pink yogurt on the couch. I knew for a fact that Emmett's kids couldn't eat without making a mess. We all saw that last night.
When Lucy was finished, she drank her milk in Bella's lap while Mom took the trash to the kitchen. After a few seconds, she scooted down to the floor and walked over to me. Taking her cup from her mouth, she held up her arms.
"Eddard, up!"
"Say please," Bella instructed, obviously not noticing my slight panic. The kid wanted me to what?
"Peas." Lucy grinned, scooting close to my raised legs.
"You want me to pick you up?" I asked, and she nodded.
Carefully, I leaned over to pick her up and placed her in my lap. She settled up against me and started drinking her milk again like it was no big deal.
But it was a big deal. One day hadn't increased my knowledge of children. Lucy wasn't a math equation, and I had no idea how to solve her.
To make things worse, as soon as Mom came back, she had a shit-eating grin on her face. Seeing me like this made her happy. Some mom she was. But she did turn on the TV to some kid show that made Lucy laugh. So maybe she wasn't so bad.
When Lucy finished her milk, she handed me the cup like I knew what to do with it. Then she started talking to me, but I only understood half of what she said. And that half was translated very liberally.
"Dora, Eddard," she said, holding up her doll for me to see. She still had it and was carrying it about. That made me smile. "Dora and Boots s'plorin', Eddard."
"Really," I mumbled, like I knew what she was talking about.
She nodded and patted my hand, and I noticed that though she wasn't hooked up to a bag or anything, the needle was still in her little hand.
"When does this come out?" I asked, pointing to it.
"Dr. Carlisle said this afternoon," Bella answered with a smile. "As long as she's still getting better, she won't need anymore of that kind of medicine."
Mom wrapped her arm around Bella and pulled her close to her side. "Carlisle's very happy with how things are going so far," she added. "Miss Lucy already sounded so much better this morning, so we're all hoping she'll be good as new within a couple of days."
"Where is Dad?" I asked.
"Probably either in his office or getting ready to take the boys outside to play. We didn't lose anything last night, but we did get plenty of snow." She squeezed Bella again. "We'll be hanging inside today, but you might want to think about going to play with them. I'm sure they'd love some Uncle Edward time."
I wasn't so sure about that, but as much as I didn't hate spending time with Bella and Lucy, it was starting to get weird again. A break could be nice.
"I think I'll go find Dad and see," I said a few minutes later. Carefully, I let down the chair and stood with Lucy under my arm. Mom and Bella both started laughing at me, but I just rolled my eyes. It might not have been how a kid was supposed to be carried, but at least I didn't break her before I could put her down in Bella's lap.
Dad wasn't in his office, so I followed the noise downstairs and found everyone else putting on coats, hats, and mittens. Apparently playing in the snow was now a family thing.
"Are you coming out with us, Edward?" Alice asked when she noticed me.
I shrugged. "I don't know. It's cold out there." I'd had about all the cold I ever wanted yesterday.
"Don't be a pussy . . . cat," Emmett quickly corrected himself when Rose slapped his arm. "I was going to say cat, woman!"
She snorted. "Sure you were. But really, Edward. Don't be a pussy cat. I know the boys would love to play with you. Right, guys?"
They both agreed and jumped up and down as best as they could in their gear.
Out numbered, I sort of agreed and headed back upstairs. I dressed in the warmest clothes I could find and put on my coat and gloves. I couldn't find a hat, but Jasper let me borrow one of his. It was an ugly ass green color, but at least it kept my ears warm.
As soon as I walked outside, the shivering started. My first thought was that I needed to go back inside. Maybe Mom would make me some hot chocolate. And maybe Bella would need me to sit with her again. As weird as that was, at least I'd be warm.
But then a little hand grabbed mine.
"Come on, Uncle Edward! Come play with me and Brady!" Seth smiled up at me as he pulled on my hand.
"Uhhh . . . what do you want me to do?"
"You can help us build a ginormous snowman army to fight the bad guys!"
"A what?" I laughed as he huffed at me. "Look, little dude . . . I don't know what you want." I didn't speak four . . . five . . . whatever year old.
"Just come on!" he ordered, pulling me over to where the smaller kid was waiting with Emmett, Jasper, and Dad. "Brady, Uncle Edward's gonna help us with the army!"
"Yay!" Brady cheered, jumping up, just to fall down in the snow on his ass.
I couldn't stop myself from laughing at him, and even Emmett and Jasper were snickering. Dad was the only one who managed to keep a straight face as he helped the kid up.
"Granddad's got your back, bud," he told him, patting his covered little head.
He wrapped his arms around Dad's leg, pouting at the rest of us. "I don't wanna pway wif you."
Emmett sobered from his laughing, quickly glancing to the porch where Rose was sitting with Alice. "Aw, come on, buddy. We're sorry we laughed at you. Right?" He looked to Jasper who quickly agreed and then to me, but I refused to say anything.
"What?" I asked. "I'm not sorry. It was funny. He can take it."
Em narrowed his eyes at me and walked over, talking low. "Look, if the kids are happy, Rose is happy. If Rose is happy, I'm happy, got it? So apologize even if you don't mean it so we don't all get in trouble."
Sighing, I rolled my eyes. "Fine." I'd heard Rose yell before, and I wasn't ready to experience that today, so I went over and knelt by Brady. "Sorry for laughing, kid. Will you play with me now?"
I felt so stupid, asking for the kid to play with me. All I expected was maybe a nod, but instead, he threw his arms around my neck.
Well this was different. Apparently today was the day for hugging.
I still felt a little awkward, but I wrapped my arms around him and patted his back a couple of times. The back patting worked on Lucy yesterday, and it kind of seemed to work on him. He backed up and smiled at me.
"Unco Edward, you pway wif me, not Daddy."
I chuckled under my breath and nodded. It wasn't as if I wanted to play with Emmett anyway.
Seth split us into teams and had us all rolling snow into snowman parts. Jasper and Dad assembled them, and soon we had a small army of eight snowmen. They didn't have faces or arms, but I guessed they did look pretty cool.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd made a snowman. And I really couldn't remember the last time I'd played with the boys. But they weren't so bad. Kind of snotty, but so was Emmett at times. If I survived growing up with him, I could deal with these two.
Hanging with Emmett and Jasper wasn't so bad either. Even though we all worked together, I rarely talked to them about anything other than work. It was actually nice to spend time together like this. Well, not exactly like this because I was probably freezing my nuts off. But I could see that hanging with them after work would be all right. After the snow melted, maybe we could go somewhere. I'd have to ask them later.
Maybe Bella or Lucy had put a spell on me - one that made me want to spend time with my family. Everything was completely different since I'd found them. Whether it was a good different or a bad different, I couldn't decide. I'd have to sleep on it, for a few days at least.
A/N: Thank you all so much for continuing to read and review, and for being patient with me while I was out of town.
I'm so sorry I wasn't able to reply to many reviews, but I figured posting a new chapter would be preferred to a reply. ;)
And I usually like to let my stories speak for themselves, but since many reviewers had this question, I figured I should address it. Edward is not autistic, though it's my personal opinion that everyone could fit on the spectrum somewhere. He's just a regular, introverted guy who is very clueless. Most guys I know don't immediately emotionally connect, and if they don't have kids, the littler ones especially tend to intimidate them. This Edward is more clueless than most, but just like Bella, Edward has a story to tell. Hopefully you guys will stick with me to hear them.
I hope that cleared up a little about Edward, but feel free to ask questions in reviews, PMs, or on twitter. I try to answer any that won't give away the whole story.
Thanks again for reading! Your support means so much to me. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
