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
If I hadn't been sure before about Mom keeping Bella and Lucy, I was now. As soon as Lucy called her Nona, it was case closed.
So I guessed I had to get used to having them around all the time. If I was being honest with myself, it wasn't that bad. Lucy and Bella seemed to really like me, and I couldn't remember the last time someone wanted to spend that much time with me. Besides Mom and Dad, but they were family. This was different.
After finishing the most awkward and uncomfortable conversation I'd ever witnessed, Mom and Dad left the office. I was relieved to know that Bella hadn't had . . . that stuff happen, but it sounded as if she'd been through enough.
Maybe she wasn't a psychopath after all.
I didn't know why Mom made me sit through their conversation. I didn't do anything besides listen to Lucy and try to understand what she was telling me while also trying to keep up with the other conversation. But once they were gone, Bella let out a big breath and leaned her head on my shoulder.
Now I had a kid in my lap and a girl with her head against me. Great.
"Are you . . . are you okay?" I asked softly.
Bella sighed and nodded against my shoulder. "Yeah. I think so," she whispered. "Just tired of being scared."
"You don't have to be scared here. Everyone's mostly harmless." We were practically the most harmless family ever. We only had about four speeding tickets among all of us. And three of those were Emmett's.
"I'm trying not to be," she said. "You've all helped us so much, but it's just hard."
"So are you excited about working with Mom?" I asked, hoping to change the subject to something less serious. I could only handle so much serious in a short time and was way past my limit.
She sat up straight and nodded, smiling now. "I think so. I mean, I've never worked in an office before, but I like your mom so I hope she won't be too hard on me if I mess up. I want to try my best. Are you sure you don't mind us being there? I'm sorry if Lucy bothers you."
I shrugged as Bella pulled Lucy into her lap. When I'd suggested a job, I was thinking Mom and Dad could help Bella find a job somewhere else. Not in our building. But did I mind? Not really. I kept to myself in the office most of the time, so having Bella work with mom wouldn't affect me.
"It doesn't bother me," I finally answered. "I don't know what work she'll have for you, but it can't be that hard. All she does is boss everyone around."
Bella giggled which made Lucy giggle, and then we went back to sitting in the quiet. This was why I almost liked having Bella and Lucy around. If I was with them, no one bothered me to come be around everyone else. I liked the break from the loud.
Eventually, someone did come bother us, but it was only Seth.
"Uncle Edward, come play with us!" he said with a wide smile. "You can be on my team again. And Miss Bella, Mommy wants you on her team. And Lucy can pick the one she wants."
"What are we playing?" Bella asked, standing with Lucy. Apparently she was going along with this plan. With a huff, I stood with her. If the rest of the family was going to be downstairs, I was going to be upstairs.
"I dunno yet," Seth answered. "But it'll be lots of fun so come on!"
Before I could move to go to my room, Bella grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door, not letting it go until we were downstairs. I didn't know why she did it, and I didn't know why it didn't bother me as much as it should have. But that seemed to be the trend. With Bella and Lucy, I didn't know much at all.
The whole family seemed happy to see us, and we spent the next few hours playing board games and watching TV. I laughed . . . a lot. Mom had another one of her weird smiles again, but this time, I tried to ignore her. She could smile all she wanted because I was actually having a decent time.
I wondered if I had been wrong. Maybe my family wasn't so bad to be around. Yeah, they were loud and Alice was still bossy most of the time, but they still included me and didn't act like I was a stranger. I just wasn't sure but maybe it was Bella and Lucy's fault. I had no complaints for once, though.
That didn't mean I would be volunteering to do this again. The spell they had over me wouldn't last forever, and then I could go back to enjoying my time alone. Or at least I hoped.
After playing for most of the evening, we all dispersed to head to bed.
I fell asleep quickly and didn't wake until I felt something poking my forehead. I tried to ignore it, hoping I was just dreaming, but it didn't stop.
"What?" I mumbled, scooting my head back to escape the pokes.
"Eddard? Sleepin, Eddard?"
Slowly, I opened my eyes and found Lucy standing beside my bed. She smiled when she saw that my eyes were opened and waved at me.
"Eddard! Wake, Eddard?"
I waved back and turned my head to look at the clock. 7:14. Definitely too early to be awake on a Saturday.
"Where's your mom?" I asked her. "It's too early to be awake now."
Lucy leaned against the bed, putting her face close to mine. "Mama sleepin'. Eddard sleepin'. Me wake."
For once, I understood everything she said. Bella was asleep, and so was I. But Lucy was awake. I didn't know what I was going to do about that.
"Up!" she said, lifting her arms.
"Uh, what?"
"Up," she repeated, jumping a few times.
I had no idea what to do. She wanted to lay in bed with me? Was that legal?
"Peas, Eddard?" The way she was looking at me, all big eyes and sad pout, gave me indigestion again, so I placed my hands under her arms and lifted her to sit on my bed.
She giggled and immediately lay beside me, cuddling against my shoulder.
"Are you happy now?" I asked, awkwardly shifting so I was comfortable and pulling the blanket back over me.
Lucy nodded and kept quiet, and I sighed and rubbed my face with my free hand. I glanced to the door and was glad to see she'd left it open, remembering an old rule about having the door open if a girl was in the room. I was sure Mom didn't mean a tiny girl like Lucy, but still. I'd been in trouble enough for one week.
Since Lucy wasn't budging, I closed my eyes again. She was silent except for her soft breathing, so it didn't take long for me to drift off again.
The next time I woke up, it was because something heavy landed right on my chest.
"Eddard! Food me, kay?"
Groaning, I brought my hand up to rub my eyes. Leaving it there, I peaked through my fingers.
Lucy was sitting on my chest and was once again wide awake. For such a little girl, she could knock the breath out of someone. That someone being me.
She reached over to pat my shoulder. "Eddard. Wake, Eddard. Food!"
Clearly I wasn't getting anymore sleep so with a sigh I moved Lucy and sat up.
"Hey, Eddard," she said with a grin, crawling back into my lap.
"Hey, Lucy," I mumbled, glancing at the clock. Well, 9:05 was better than before — still too early for Saturday, but I would have to deal with it. "Where's your mom?"
"Food," she repeated.
"Food, huh?" She wanted me to feed her? I was not qualified for that, but maybe someone had made breakfast - for both of our sakes.
I put Lucy on the floor and headed to the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I may have let her sleep on my bed but there was no way she was following me in here to watch me take a piss. I hoped she went downstairs without me, but when I opened the door, I realized I wasn't that lucky.
"Up me!" Lucy said from her spot by the bed. She hadn't moved at all and was now raising her arms.
I assumed she wanted me to pick her up again, so I didn't even waste time saying anything before picking her up and heading downstairs.
Maybe I was getting the hang of this whole kid holding thing. Lucy didn't have any complaints anyway, and I managed to keep her alive all the way to the kitchen.
"Good morning, Edward. Good morning, Lucy," Mom said, glancing up from the magazine she was reading at the table. "Come sit and help yourself."
Unlike yesterday, I wasn't completely late for breakfast. Today there was a full table, and the one empty seat was next to Bella.
After taking my seat and passing Lucy to Bella, I filled my plate with pancakes and sausage and dug in. This snowed in thing wasn't so bad with food like this. No one said anything to me as we ate, not even to ask me why I came downstairs with a sidekick.
Though I hadn't missed breakfast entirely, I was still the last one to the table and everyone else finished by the time I was on my second helping. Soon the only people left at the table with me were Bella, Lucy, and Mom — not that I was complaining.
"Sorry about Lucy this morning," Bella said as she helped Lucy eat her pancake. "I didn't know she left the room and when I found her, your mom told me to leave her."
"You two were just so adorable," Mom said with a grin. "I made sure to take a picture if you want to see it."
I shook my head, not caring to see the picture. Adorable or not.
"It's okay," I told Bella after swallowing my mouth full. "She . . . wasn't bothering me that much." I thought about telling her that Lucy woke me up too damn early, but for some reason, I didn't want to make her feel bad.
Bella sighed and smiled at me. "Okay good. She really likes you, but just tell me if she's too much."
I nodded, but it was a lie. That littler girl would probably bother me as long as they stayed here. And I would let her because I was a sucker for those creepy big eyes and that pouting lip that gave me indigestion.
Basically, I was a two year old's bitch — a fact that was proven five minutes later when Lucy hugged me and I didn't complain out loud. Sticky syrup-covered fingers included. Yeah, I was whipped.
...
The rest of the weekend wasn't horrible.
Okay, it was actually kind of fun.
Seth and Brady convinced everyone to go back out to play in the snow, but this time, Bella and Lucy received the okay from Dad to join us. Lucy could only stay out for thirty minutes, so Mom made sure she made the most of it.
We built more snowmen, this time making one for each person. A snowman family. When we were finished, Alice set her camera up on a tripod to take our picture next to our matching snowman.
The little boys became bored quickly, and I was right there with them so we started a snowball fight against Emmett and Jasper. The women ran to the porch to avoid the flying snow, but Lucy wanted to stay with me. I might have helped her make a snowball to throw at Emmett. And I might have helped her make another one to throw at Jasper. She had pretty decent aim too, and Emmett and Jasper both decided to fall down and play dead when she hit them. They made her giggle, but I was the one who got a hug at the end.
Rosalie, Emmett, and the boys stayed at the house until Sunday afternoon. With the major part of the storm being over, Rosalie wanted to get the boys back into their "routine" before Seth's preschool started back. Bella seemed to be sad that they left which I didn't understand. They lived next door so it wasn't as if we'd never see them again.
Alice and Jasper stayed, though. Alice kidnapped Bella and Lucy after dinner, keeping them in her room all evening, and Jasper asked me to have a beer with him and play some Texas Hold 'em. I agreed because this spell I was under made me consider spending time with my brother-in-law without being forced.
We played a couple of rounds without saying much besides what was required for the game. It had been a few years since I'd played cards so I was rusty. Jasper seemed to be in his element with both good cards and the best fucking poker face I'd ever seen. He kicked my ass every time the river was flipped. We weren't playing for real money — thank God — so it was easy to keep going.
"It's been nice to have you around this weekend."
Jasper's voice startled me, and I looked up from my cards, just to make sure he was talking to me. He was the opposite of my loud sister, choosing not to fill every moment with meaningless talk, and that made me want to actually listen to him.
"Oh . . . uh . . . yeah. I guess it hasn't been so bad." I wasn't lying. The weekend with my family hadn't been horrible.
He looked over at me, making eye contact this time. "You know, when I first started dating Alice, I thought you didn't like me."
"Really?" That surprised me. Alice and Jasper had started dating during my sophomore year of college. She'd brought him home to meet everyone during summer break. I hadn't had a problem with Jasper, I just hadn't really talked to anyone.
He nodded, taking a drink of his beer. "I already loved Alice so it wouldn't have changed a whole lot, but I knew it meant a lot to her, and to me, to have the whole family's approval. Everyone else was easy to read. Except you."
I shrugged and looked back down at my cards. "It wasn't on purpose," I mumbled. I'd kept to myself during school breaks, spending most of my time working for mom. I'd always known what I wanted to do. Numbers and finance was one thing I could say I loved, and college was just a means to an end so I could accept the position mom had always saved for me.
Jasper chuckled. "I figured that out eventually. You didn't ignore just me. And I know we haven't talked much or spent any real time together in the last five or so years, but I'd like to change that. If you're game, that is."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Did Alice put you up to this?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "Alice may have my balls in her little designer purse most of the time, but she doesn't control who I spend my time with. And I'd like to start getting to know you a little better." He paused and took another drink. "I mean, Bella and Lucy sure do like being around you so you must be fun."
I snorted. "Yeah . . . I don't know why they do that."
"Maybe because you're actually a good guy?" I narrowed my eyes once again, and he raised his hands defensively. "Look, man. I'm not trying to get all deep on you or say that anyone thinks you're not a good guy. You keep to yourself, and that's cool."
"And?"
"And . . . I don't know." He shrugged. "Maybe if you weren't holed up in your room all the time, more people would want to be around you. So. Sports bar this weekend. You game?"
I was almost sure my brother in law just insulted me and I had no clue how to take his comments, but I agreed. I never went out and as much as I enjoyed staying in my room, it would be a nice change from being stuck inside from the snow.
We called it quits at ten when Alice demanded Jasper's attention. I made my way to my room and lay down on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, I thought more about what Jasper had said. It was the most he'd ever said to me at one time and that kind of pissed me off.
But maybe I wasn't pissed at him. He was right; I did keep to myself and stay away from everyone as much as possible. It was easier than dealing with people.
Did I want to change that? No . . . yes . . . maybe. Groaning, I fisted my hands in my hair. I didn't know why I was suddenly so confused. I'd never really wanted to spend time with my family before, but it hadn't been that bad this weekend. No one was different from what I remembered, and I wasn't different either — that I knew of anyway. So why wasn't it horrible?
Maybe I was pissed at Jasper now. This caring bullshit wasn't easy.
All of this headache was from finding two girls, exactly why I kept to myself. There wasn't much I could do now, though. Mom and Dad had basically adopted Bella and Lucy, and they weren't going anywhere any time soon.
"Guess I'll make the most of it," I mumbled as I stood up and went to lock my door.
Going to a bar with Jasper was one thing. Sharing my bed with a little person again was not going to happen.
A/N: Sorry this was a bit later than planned! I'd hoped to have a set schedule for the summer by now, but everything is still up in the air. I'm still shooting to update every other week, but don't worry too much if the next update is a little late, too. I'll be back for sure - especially since we're getting to the good stuff soon. ;)
Thank you all so much for continuing to support this fic. You guys are so much awesomer than I ever could have imagined!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for reading!
