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

This was hell.

There was no other way to describe it. I hated shopping, but this wasn't just any shopping. This was coffee-fueled female insanity. And I had been dragged along for it.

The snow had finally slowed on Monday, and by Tuesday, all roads had been cleared. Dad went back to work as soon as he could, but Mom decided we would take a few more days off and go back on Thursday.

To me, this meant more time to sleep and lie around the house.

To Alice, this meant time for a shopping trip.

Bella had caved and given Rosalie, Alice, and Mom the go-ahead to buy some things for her and Lucy. I'd thought this meant I would have the house to myself for the whole day, but I'd been dead wrong. All it had taken was an "Eddard go" from Lucy for Mom to think it was a great idea.

That little girl lived to torture me.

We were three hours into this hell, and I was the pack mule. The women had picked out little clothes, big clothes, pajamas, underwear, shoes, and so many things I couldn't even identify but now carried around in heavy bags. My arms felt like they might fall off if we visited one more store, and thankfully Mom noticed.

"You know, Edward . . . you could probably take those bags to the car now. We have just a few more things on our list."

"Really?" I eyed her suspiciously, wondering if I was really getting off the hook so easily.

"Yes, I think we can manage," she said with a nod. "Although . . . I bet Lucy could use a break, too. Are you tired of shopping, precious?"

Lucy raised her head from where it was resting on Bella's shoulder and smiled at Mom before putting her head back down. Bella rubbed her back and turned to look at me.

"You don't have to take her," she said softly. "I can carry her until we're done."

I nodded, relieved but feeling a little bad for her. She didn't look like she wanted to be here much more than I did. Plus she'd been carrying Lucy the whole time. They were both acting all paranoid now that we were out of the house, and Lucy wouldn't go to anyone else. But still. I didn't want to be responsible for that little person.

"You know we could probably finish faster if you took her with you," Rose suggested, smirking at me.

I narrowed my eyes but thought about it. If they finished faster, I could be back home faster and enjoying my last day off.

Alice nodded, agreeing with Rose. "Yes, that's true, Edward. And you know, there's a frozen yogurt place just a couple of stores down. You two could go get some while you rest, and we'll meet you there. Bella, can Lucy have frozen yogurt?"

Bella shrugged. "She's never had any, but I guess so. But Edward doesn't have to —"

"Perfect!" Mom interrupted, pulling out her wallet. "You two can go take a break. We shouldn't be more than half an hour."

She handed me ten dollars and began talking to Rose and Alice. Apparently I didn't have a choice now.

"I'm sorry," Bella murmured, stepping away from the other women. "I tried."

I took a deep breath and let it out, shaking my head. "No, it's . . . okay. I know it's not your fault. Does Lucy even want to come with me?" If she started crying, there was no way I was agreeing to this.

"Hey, Luce." She rubbed her back again and waited for her to lift her head. "Edward's going to get a snack. Do you want to go with him?"

She nodded so fast that she almost looked like one of those dolls with the moving head.

"Eddard!" she squealed, turning to hold her arms out for me. "Food, Eddard!"

Sighing, I shuffled the bags around so I had a free arm for her. Once she was settled and Bella kissed her goodbye, I panicked.

"Wait," I said as Bella started to walk toward the others. "What do I do?"

One weekend hadn't increased my knowledge of little people nearly enough to feel comfortable taking care of one by myself for any length of time.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I do?" I asked again. "With her. There are rules, right?" There had to be some kind of guide book for this thing. I needed the chapter on what to do with a kid in public.

Bella looked at Mom and then back to me. "I'd go with you if I could, but I don't think they'll let me right now. Um . . . just don't lose her. You can't stop watching her no matter what. Please just keep her safe."

"Keep her safe," I repeated, nodding. "Okay. Safe. Anything else?"

"I don't think so. She went potty a few minutes ago, so she should be fine. Lucy, be good for Edward, okay?"

Lucy nodded and waved to everyone, and then we were on our own. As I walked to the exit, I realized what Bella had said. Oh God. I wasn't one for praying, but I prayed to whoever was listening to keep me from having to take this kid to the bathroom. I was definitely not qualified for that. Ever.

After dropping the bags off at the car, I carried Lucy down to the yogurt place. Thankfully, it wasn't very crowded. But who else would want frozen yogurt after dealing with all the snow? Mom was crazy.

I wasn't sure what I wanted so I browsed through the flavors, finally deciding on chocolate and peanut butter with some of that chopped candy. But I had no idea what to get the kid.

"What kind do you want?" I asked her. She looked at me and smiled but didn't answer. Well that was helpful. "Uh . . . do you like chocolate? Or vanilla? Watermelon?"

She giggled and placed her hands on either side of my face. "Like Eddard."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know you like me. But what kind of yogurt do you like?"

"Pink!" she finally said, pointing to a picture across from us.

Strawberry. That seemed normal enough.

I thought I was home free once I knew what flavors to get, but of course I was wrong. I quickly realized that I needed two hands for this.

Not knowing what else to do, I put Lucy down, watching her for a few seconds to make sure she wasn't going to escape.

"Eddard?" she asked, looking up at me with that pouting lip and raising her arms.

"I have to fix our yogurt," I explained. "Give me a minute. But . . . stay, okay?"

She actually listened to me and didn't move except to wrap her arms around my leg. I could barely believe it. Did all little people do that or was Lucy just special? Either way, I knew I needed to move fast and quickly prepared our bowls of yogurt. Figuring asking Lucy about toppings was a lost cause, I added a few sliced strawberries and chocolate chips. If she didn't like them, I'd eat them.

After weighing our bowls and paying, I found us a table away from the few other people sitting inside. As soon as I sat down, Lucy climbed into my lap. I wasn't about to try to move her. She might not have ran away before but I wasn't going to chance it again.

Even though it was freezing outside, I enjoyed the yogurt. Plus, it was nice to sit after following the insanity around all day. Lucy seemed to enjoy hers too and tried to offer me some of her yogurt. That lip killed me so I tried a couple of spoonfuls which made her want some of mine. Again, I fell victim to that pout, but the smile I received in return wasn't so bad.

When i finished my yogurt, it didn't take long for me to realize that I should have paid more attention to Lucy.

"Oh shit," I mumbled as I looked at her face . . . and chest . . . and hands.

"Eddard, look," she said, offering me her hands. "Pink! Icky pink yum. Uh oh."

Her hands were definitely pink and sticky as was her mouth and front of her shirt. A little bit might have been in her hair, too. There was also a ring of brown around her lips from where she'd tried mine. I had a feeling I was going to be in trouble for this.

Just as I was scanning the place for a napkin container, the bell on the door jingled and Mom led the pack inside. There was no use in trying to hide because she spotted us right away. I braced myself for the lecture I was sure was coming, only to be surprised when they all started laughing.

"I see someone enjoyed the yogurt," Mom said, still laughing as she sat down across from us. "Was that good yogurt, Lucy? Did Edward give you a good snack?"

Lucy nodded, holding her hands out toward Mom. "Nona, look! Yum pink. Icky hands. Eddard uh oh."

I knew it was my fault, but she didn't have to rub it in.

"We'll go get some wet paper towels," Rose said, and Alice followed her toward the bathroom.

Bella sat beside me and I passed Lucy over. "Sorry I got your kid all sticky."

"It's okay," she said, smiling as she kissed the top of Lucy's head. "Was she okay for you?"

I shrugged. "Yeah she was okay. I kept her safe." Whether I deserved to be or not, I was proud of myself. I'd kept her alive and safe for over thirty minutes. It wasn't an experience I was ready to repeat, but we were both alive so I guessed that was all that mattered.

Rose, Alice, and Bella cleaned Lucy up with the paper towels and then changed her into a new outfit once we were back at the car.

Not wasting any time, I climbed into the driver's seat and took the keys from Mom. If I had to ride in this huge mom car, I wasn't going to be stuck in the back again. No matter how much Lucy begged me.

Once everyone was buckled in, I started driving toward home, finally able to relax knowing that the torture was over. Soon I'd be inside the warm house and hopefully alone.

"Wait," Mom said as I was about to turn. "Your father called me earlier and wants us to stop by his office before we go home."

Changing lanes, I did as she said without a word. What was the use anyway? I hoped this was just a quick errand, but based on my luck lately, this would be anything but quick.

After parking in a free spot, I unlocked the doors for Mom and whoever else to get out, but no one moved. I glanced over at Mom, wondering what the holdup was, but she was looking at me.

"Are you going to give me my keys?"

"Why? I'm staying here."

"Edward, it's too cold."

"Which is why I need your keys."

She shook her head. "You're not wasting my gas when there's a perfectly warm place to go. Just come inside with us. It won't kill you. I bet Lucy wants you to come, don't you, sweet girl?"

I didn't even turn around before turning off the car and handing the keys to Mom. I didn't need to. Of course Lucy would want me to go inside with them. That little girl was running my life now and i didn't have the energy to go against her today.

Everyone tried to hide their snickering as we walked to the door, but I still heard them. And they only became louder when Lucy reached her little hand out for mine from her spot in Bella's arms.

Thankfully there weren't any people in the waiting area to see me in this awkward position, arm halfway in the air as I held Lucy's hand. The receptionist let us go straight back to Dad's office where he was waiting for us.

"Just the people I've been waiting for," he said, smiling as he stood from his desk. "How was shopping?"

"Very successful," Mom said, meeting him halfway to give him a kiss. "We found everything on our lists and got Bella some new clothes for work tomorrow."

"Well good. It's been slow here, so I might be home early. But first, I wanted to get Miss Lucy in for a chest x-ray."

I felt Bella stiffen beside me which made Lucy hide her face against her shoulder.

"Um . . . what's that?" Bella asked softly. "Will it hurt her?"

Dad moved a little closer to us, shaking his head. "It won't hurt her at all. It's just a way for us to take a picture of her lungs so we can make sure the pneumonia is clearing up. And if it's not, we'll just have to try some different antibiotics. Based on the way she's been sounding though, I think we're just fine. It's just a precaution."

"Did you have an ultrasound when you were pregnant with Lucy?" Rose asked, and Bella nodded.

"When they used that wand to look inside my stomach to see Lucy?"

"Right! This is kind of like that, but nothing will even touch her. She'll just have to lie on a table for a few seconds."

"Oh. Okay. Are we doing it now?"

Dad nodded. "I say we go ahead and get it out of the way, then I can take a look and you guys can be on your way back to the house and out of the cold."

Bella didn't seem to be entirely convinced, but she followed Dad out of the room. Lucy wasn't happy to let go of my hand, but no one made me go with them. It was the only mercy my family had shown me so far today.

I wondered if the x-ray would upset Lucy but I didn't hear any screaming, and when they returned less than ten minutes later, she was smiling as Dad carried her.

"You were such a big girl, sweet pea." Dad kissed her cheek before passing her back to Bella. "When you leave, make sure you stop by and see Bree to get some stickers. You deserve a few."

Lucy giggled and hugged Bella but then saw me and I wound up with the kid in my arms.

"So what's the verdict?" Mom asked.

"She's all clear. It's what I expected since she's been sounding clear since yesterday, but it was nice to see some proof."

Knowing that Lucy wasn't sick anymore made me feel . . . something. Relief, maybe? She had been really sick when I stumbled upon them. And i'd never wanted to be stuck with them but that didn't mean I wanted this littler girl to stay sick. Plus, she didn't cry anymore.

But as a reminder of what was still wrong, Lucy coughed . . . in my face. As if that was the perfect place to spread germs.

"Uh Dad? Can you fix that?" I asked, frowning as I pointed at her face.

Dad had the nerve to laugh as he shook his head. "I'm afraid not, son. It's good for her to cough and keep everything loosened up. She should be over that within a week or two. I'm not worried about it."

Great. Another week or two of little person germs.

After a round of goodbyes, we filed back out of the office and headed to the car, but only after Lucy received a whole row of animals stickers from Bree.

Mom climbed into the driver's seat before I had a chance, and Alice had shotgun. I had no way of getting out of sitting by Lucy and by the time we made it home, I was covered in stickers of zebras, lions, and monkeys.

I was pretty sure I'd never been happier to see our driveway than I was today, and as soon as I fulfilled my unloading duties, I went up to my room and locked the door, hoping it would work for once.

The first night I tried locking my door backfired. Locking it did keep Lucy from coming right in, but it did not keep her from knocking at seven in the morning. And for a kid, she was a pro at knocking loudly. I'd planned to ignore her until she went away so I could go back to sleep, but I also hadn't counted on my mother helping her. The two of them had knocked and called my name until I finally had to get out of bed and open the door just so i could get some peace and quiet.

It was easier to leave my door unlocked and just hope Lucy didn't wake me when she crawled into my bed than to deal with her pout and sad eyes every morning.

But this afternoon I was taking my chances.

I took my jacket off, pulled off my collection of stickers, and crashed on my couch. Grabbing the remove, I turned the TV on and flipped through the channels for something good to watch. I caught some sports highlights but nothing too interesting and wound up flipping through the channels again. Somehow, I managed to find I Love Lucy and watched a whole episode before realizing what I was doing. I couldn't bring myself to change the channel and was watching another episode when there was a soft knock on my door.

No one called for "Eddard," so I was fairly sure it wasn't Lucy. With a huff, I rolled off the couch and unlocked and opened the door. I was surprised to see Bella on the other side and more surprised to see that she was alone.

"Um . . . hi," she said, biting her lip. "Sorry if I'm interrupting anything. I just wanted some quiet and thought maybe they wouldn't look for me here."

Chuckling, I ran my fingers through my hair and stepped aside for her to come in. "You want to escape them now, too? I thought I was the only one." After closing and locking the door again, I motioned toward the couch, and we sat on opposite ends.

"I love your family, and I'm so glad we get to stay here . . . "

"But . . . ?"

She laughed softly and smiled at me. "But I'm used to just me and Lucy. This is . . . a lot."

"I've known them my whole life and it's a lot for me, too. But I don't normally have to go shopping with them. That was some new level of hell."

Shaking her head, she looked down at her lap and sighed. "I don't think I'll ever be able to pay them back for everything they bought today. It's so much. We already get to stay here where it's warm and dry, and the food here is so good. We were okay with that."

"Mom won't care if you don't pay her back," I pointed out. What was the big deal? She wanted to buy them this stuff.

"No," Bella said, glancing up to meet my eyes. "I don't want to owe anyone. I can't do that to Lucy."

I nodded, not knowing what to say. Nothing she said ever made sense to me. This girl was strange.

We were quiet for a while, and i focused on the TV. Having Bella in my room wasn't as weird as I thought it would be, and it was definitely more enjoyable than Lucy's visits. Unlike her daughter, Bella was quiet and didn't feel the need to talk about Hispanic children and their pets.

But after half an hour passed, the quiet was awkward. I glanced over at Bella out of the corner of my eye, and she was wringing her hands in her lap as if she was nervous. Did I make her nervous?

"So . . . " I said slowly, clearing my throat before looking at her. "Are you . . . going to work with us tomorrow?"

Her hands stopped moving as she met my eyes. "Yes, Esme said I'm going with her tomorrow. Alice is picking out clothes for me and Lucy now. What's it like? Working for you mom."

I shrugged. "It's okay, I guess. I have my own stuff to do so I don't really work directly for Mom. She does a little of everything, and I just focus on the finance."

"Oh. What do you do for that?"

"I'm in charge of our money. Mom likes to call me the CFO, but I don't think our company is big enough for a title like that. Basically I keep track of what we're spending and earning and our investments. I like numbers, so I enjoy it." I could have talked for hours about the specifics, but I chose my words carefully. If Bella didn't know what a blizzard or an x-ray was, she probably wouldn't have understood my risk management and investment strategies. Plus, I figured she didn't want to hear about that. Most girls I'd ever talked to couldn't have cared less about accounting and the stock market.

But with Bella, it wasn't the same. She wasn't sighing and looking away like she had better things to think about or interrupting to talk about something I didn't care about. She actually listened and seemed interested in what I was saying. This was different.

"I prepare a weekly report for the company, too," I continued since I had a willing audience. "It's always a part of our staff meeting so we know how we're doing. This is the slow part of the year for us, but we're still doing well."

Everyone in the company counted on me to have accurate, up to date information. Though I was young, I still managed my responsibilities and did my best to never let them down. So far, I hadn't and I was proud of myself. This had been my dream job since I could remember.

Bella's eyes were wide. "Wow. You do all of that? Edward, that's . . . amazing. I've never done anything close to that important." She looked down, shaking her head. "I can't even dress myself," she said softly. "Alice is picking out my clothes for tomorrow right now."

Her sad face made my chest hurt. I definitely needed some Tums if I was going to be around her more often.

"Well, I can't dress myself either," I offered, wanting to make her feel better. "Clothes usually appear in my closet — I'm assuming from Alice — and that's how I know what to wear. I prefer this." I gestured toward my current clothes. Jeans and hoodies were what I lived in during the winter.

She smiled after taking in my appearance. "That's what I like too. At my old job, I could wear whatever I wanted because I had an apron. Alice and your Mom keep saying 'business casual,' but I don't know what that means."

"You had a job?" I asked. For some reason, that surprised me. She was alone with a kid. How could she have worked? And why was she homeless? "What did you do?"

"I worked at a coffee shop. I know coffee and pastries, not offices."

"How long did you work there?" I had no idea why I was interested, but I simply was. Bella was unlike anyone I'd ever talked to before. Her life was completely different than mine.

"Almost three years. I-I think I miss it."

"So why did you stop working there if you miss it?" I asked. The small smile on her face suddenly disappeared, and my heartburn was back. Fuck. "Sorry. You don't have to answer -"

She shook her head, interrupting me. "No, it's okay. I had to leave. It wasn't . . . I didn't feel safe there anymore. And with Lucy with me . . . I just couldn't take the chance."

I nodded though I didn't actually understand. And I wanted to ask more about why she didn't feel safe, but I couldn't decide if I wanted the answers.

This girl wasn't a psychopath like I'd originally thought. Of that I was almost positive. But she wasn't normal either. Bella was like a puzzle, and I couldn't decide if I wanted to solve her.

Thanks to more knocking on the door, I knew my thoughts would have to wait, especially when the knocking was accompanied by a call for "Eddard."

My plans for an afternoon alone had been ruined, but I wasn't sure if I regretted letting Bella hide out with me. But that was right on par with the course of my life recently. I wasn't sure of anything.


A/N: Thank you all so much for the continued support! You guys are just awesome.

Sorry for the late update and lack of review replies. My summer schedule was up in the air until last week, and now I'm dealing with 180 hours of night shifts from now until the end of July. So updates might be a slow for a little while depending on how I adjust to being awake all night several times a week. We'll just see what happens, but thanks in advance for sticking with me! =)

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks so much for reading!