A/N: SM wrote Twilight and other stuff. I wrote this ... and other stuff.
Thanks for your reviews and follows, my heart is warmed by your support.
Peace!
Edward had been knocking on Bee's door for what felt like hours but she refused to open it, instead she was sitting on the floor in her room leaning her back against the door. She was mad but she was also a little sad.
She was so excited to spend time with her grandfather but Edward was getting more and more difficult. He seemed to get angry whenever she spoke of Aro or her Italian family. She didn't know what to do. She loved Edward so much but she didn't understand why he was so unhappy with her lately.
"Bee, please baby, open the door," he begged. I am so sorry I said that your grandfather looked creepy, I didn't mean it."
She banged her elbow back against the door in anger, he did too mean it and she wasn't opening that door until he admitted it.
He reeled back and rubbed his forehead which took the brunt of her angry bang against the door but it made him realise she was right there on the other side of the door and that she was sitting on the floor. He knelt down so that he could speak softly to her, leaned his head against the door and tapped gently, trying one last time to get her to listen to him: "Isabella, please let me in... I want to apologise in person... I am so sorry for upsetting you. I guess, well, I guess I'm kind of jealous of all the time you've been spending with your grandfather and I miss you. Emmett's right I'm being selfish ... please baby, I really am sorry."
The door opened unexpectedly and Edward fell forward and flat on his face: "Umpff."
Bee covered her mouth, at first in shock at seeing Edward crash through the doorway to the floor but then to try to hide her giggles as Edward grunted as he lay face first on her carpet.
"Oh Fancy Pants!" She reached down to help him up but he pulled her down for a hug instead. She giggled again: "Let me up Edward, I am still mad at you."
He squeezed her tightly and kissed her softly: "Don't be mad Bee. I said I was sorry."
"You said my grandfather looked like a creeper," she pouted.
Edward tried to pull off a look of shame but he couldn't do it; he was just too pleased to be holding Bee again, even if it was on the floor of the doorway to her bedroom. He didn't care. She had opened the door and she was in his arms again; he just wanted to kiss her over and over again.
Just then Esme came up the steps: "Edward, what are you doing on the floor in Isabella's doorway? Let her up, honestly, why am I always having to separate you two?"
Bee struggled to get out of Edward's arms but he knew that his mother was only teasing so he pulled Bee even tighter to his chest: "Oh no, I'm not letting you go. I haven't apologised properly yet."
Esme reached down and pulled Bee away from him playfully: "Well you can just apologise standing up, mister."
She turned to Bee who was attempting to straighten her clothes: "Isabella, sweetheart, your grandfather has arrived. He has some photo albums with him he wants to share with us... you... well, anyway his brother sent them out from Italy, apparently."
Bee clapped her hands with excitement: "Oh really, photos... of family."
Sitting up Edward slumped his shoulders in defeat, once more he was about to lose his girl to her grandfather. He knew he was being a dick. It was wrong to be jealous of Aro stealing all her time; she'd had noone and now she had real family. He should be happy for her.
As he stood he resolved to be happy for her. It was time to stop being such a selfish prick.
For the past two weeks, Bee had spent most of her time with her grandfather and Edward felt left out and forgotten. The previous night when he was trying to cuddle up with Bee and she just wouldn't stop talking about Aro, he blew his stack and during his rant he said that he thought Aro looked like a creeper with his pale skin and that long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Bee started to cry, then she got angry and stormed out of his room. When he followed her to her room she slammed her door in his face and he'd been waiting there ever since.
Emmett was on his way to his room upstairs when he found Edward sitting outside Bee's door looking and sounding pathetic. He sat on the stairs that led up to his room and tried to console his brother: "Edward, you've got to switch teams to get through this."
"Switch teams? What are you talking about Emmett? You know I'm not gay, I thought we were past this?"
Emmett laughed his head off: "Not sex teams you idiot. You have always been Captain of Team Edward; you've pretty much had things your own way for most of your life. But now, you are in a RE...LA..TION...SHIP. That means that sometimes you have to switch teams and this is one of those times. It's time to get on Team Honey Bee."
"So basically you're saying that I'm being selfish and need to think about what Bee wants and not just what I want?" He couldn't help it sounding like a question, this relationship stuff was so new to him and he often felt like he had no idea what he was doing but what Emmett was saying made sense. Edward marvelled for a moment that for once his boorish brother was both making sense and being quite sensitive.
Emmett nodded: "Well, you'll need to change if you ever want to get any pussy again... yeah."
And there was the Emmett he knew and loved: "Emmett, this is not about p... and I told you not to talk about Bee like that... anyway, it's not about sex. It's about attention. She's not paying attention to me and I hate it."
"Selfish," Emmett stated. "C'mon Ed man, this is Bee's family. She's been alone all this time, of course she wants to spend time with him while he's here but she loves you, bro'. Be happy for her and get on Team Bee for a change, okay."
Emmett fist pumped his brother before heading upstairs to his room leaving Edward to reflect on their talk and his behaviour, which he did until morning when he started knocking on Bee's door with renewed vigour.
Bee was still clapping and dancing on the spot about news of family photos when Edward took her hand: "Before you.. we.. go down to your grandfather, can I talk to you for a few minutes... alone?" He gave a sheepish look to his mother who smiled at her son before heading down the stairs.
Esme called back to them as she walked down the stairs: "There's waffle batter all made ready to cook when you're ready."
Bee's eyes grew wide: "Ooh, I love waffles."
"Bee please," Edward implored. "I really want to talk to you, just for a few minutes okay?"
She reached up, cupped his cheek with her hand and nodded before leading Edward back into her room. He closed the door behind them and they sat on the bed together.
"Baby, I am so sorry I was rude about your grandfather. I was jealous. I am so used to having you all to myself and I hate the thought of you not needing me anymore. But I shouldn't have lashed out the way that I did and said those things about Aro."
Bee gave him a small smile: "Oh, my fancy pants, what am I going to do with you?"
"Forgive me?" he said hopefully.
"You're forgiven," she said.
"Kiss me?"
She leaned forward and kissed him.
"Come to bed with me?"
She slapped his arm: "Nice try, handsome, but there are waffles in the kitchen and I am starving."
Edward mocked horror and held his hand to his heart: "So you'd rather have waffles than make love to your boyfriend?"
She flung the door open and looked back over her shoulder and winked: "That's right big boy."
Edward jumped up and chased her to the kitchen where he caught her, spun her around and kissed her deeply pressing her against the kitchen counter. Her hands wove through his glorious hair and he groaned into the kiss when she tugged at his hair lightly.
The sound of Emmett's loud, fake cough and the clearing of several throats broke them apart and when then turned they realised that Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie and Aro were all at the kitchen table watching them. Bee's face flamed red and Edward looked at his shuffling feet.
"Good morning Isabella," Aro chirped happily. "... and young Edward," he said less happily.
Esme walked towards the couple and pinched Edward's arm as she passed him: "Have a seat you two, I'll get you some waffles."
"Thanks Mom," they both mumbled as they shuffled to the table.
"Isabella, my dear brother Caius sent me those photo albums I mentioned the other day. I was hoping we could sit together and look through them today, would you like to do that?"
Bee glanced over at Edward. She didn't want to be a bad girlfriend but she really wanted to look at the photos.
Edward decided this was a good opportunity to show that he really was on Team Isabella: "That sounds like a great idea, Bee. I have some errands to run in Port Angeles today anyway. You should stay here with your grandfather and I'll be back later. Maybe we can go to the Diner for some pie later - just the two of us?"
Bee sighed with relief: "That sounds like fun." She took his hand under the table and whispered: "Thank you."
Emmett gave Edward an approving nod and punch in the arm: "Rose and I are going to PA too, Ed, you wanna come with us?"
Edward agreed and with everyone's movements settled, they all tucked into a round of delicious waffles.
After cleaning the breakfast dishes, Edward showered, dressed and left with Emmett and Rosalie, but not before giving Bee a kiss to remember him by, in the privacy of his room. He left with a huge smile on his face having decided what he wanted to buy in PA and thinking of the look on Bee's face when he gave it to her.
Bee came back downstairs with an equally silly grin on her face, feeling the afterglow of Edward's searing kiss. She really liked kissing him.
She stopped by the kitchen on her way to the dining room where Aro was waiting for her to invite Esme to join them: "I don't know if you'd want to but would you like to look at family photos with me and my grandfather?"
Esme was delighted to be asked; she'd been suffering her own little bout of envy watching Bee get closer to her grandfather. A small part of her feared losing her new daughter: "I'd love to join you sweetie, thank you." Esme poured a cup of coffee for her herself and Aro as well as a cup of tea for Isabella before joining them in the dining room.
They spent the next few hours pouring through photo albums, albeit very slowly. Isabella was greedy for every detail and story behind each photograph. Aro was stunned by her patience and genuine attentiveness. Esme was not surprised at all, she knew the lonely and sad circumstances of her young charge's life before she came to live with them.
When Isabella insisted on preparing lunch for them and disappeared into the kitchen, Esme took the opportunity to chat quietly with Aro.
"She's hungry for every detail because she's been alone for so long … most of her life really," Esme explained.
Aro nodded with a sad expression: "Thank you Esme for looking after my sweet little girl. She amazes me. After hearing her story from you and your husband, as well as from your Police Chief, I would've expected Isabella to be quite ... hard. But she's so like her grandmother, my Siobhan, always so hopeful yet also resilient."
"Yes, resilient is a good way to describe Isabella. We love her very much, Aro."
Esme wanted to beg him not to take her from them.
"I know. I can see that Esme." Aro wanted to beg them to share her.
"Lunch is ready," Bee called out breaking the spoken and unspoken moment between Esme and Aro.
Bee chatted happily as they enjoyed the delicious salad baguettes she'd prepared. She was so excited at the family resemblance they'd all noted in the photographs between herself and her namesake, her great grandmother Isabella Volturi.
"Esme, I wonder if we'll see my Irish family's photographs when we go to my grandmother's New York apartment and look through the things she put in storage for me?"
Aro put his sandwich down and looked at Esme sternly: "You're taking her to New York? When?"
Bee not noticing the tension in his voice answered before Esme could respond: "Oh we're going next week. Originally we were just going to look over Columbia Campus since Edward and I are going to do our undergrad there."
Aro stood from the table: "Next week? Columbia? You're going to Columbia with Edward?"
Bee put her food down quietly, realising her grandfather was angry. She shrunk away instinctively; angry men frightened her. "Yes," she said in almost a whisper.
Esme leaned over and rubbed her arm shooting a stern look of her own to Aro, who watched in horror as his granddaughter shrank away from him. He sat down again immediately and tentatively reached his hand towards her but she slipped her hands down into her lap, reaching one over to Esme. Esme was her rock, her protector.
"Oh my dear, please forgive me. I was surprised to hear that you had plans to travel that I wasn't aware of, please Isabella, I meant you no harm."
Bee looked to Esme who gave her a small smile: "It's alright Isabella, you are safe."
Esme didn't want to defend Aro because using Emmett's vernacular, Esme was Team Isabella all the way, she owed nothing to Aro. He seemed like a genuinely nice man, but she would always stand with Bee; Aro would have to prove himself.
"Perhaps I should go?" Aro said to Esme, sad that Bee was unresponsive to him and that he had frightened her.
But Bee didn't want him to go: "No, please don't go grandfather, I'm sorry ... I get frightened when men shout... I ... I don't want you to go."
Aro sat in silence. He knew enough of Bee's past to understand that she had every right to feel frightened by angry men; he felt ashamed of his outburst and resolved in that moment that he would be more careful with his emotions when around her. He was just shocked to hear the news. He had just found his granddaughter and here she was telling him of plans she'd made without him.
Esme spoke quietly, allowing Isabella time to recover her equilibrium: "Aro, we had actually planned to go on a tour of several colleges around the country, since Edward and Isabella were both accepted to so many. However, after the incident with her step-father we thought it best to stay home for awhile. Since then Edward and Bee have narrowed down their choice to Columbia for pre-med undergraduate study and then Dartmouth to complete their medical qualifications."
She looked proudly to her daughter and stroked her hair lovingly as she continued: "After hearing of Siobhan's apartment, Isabella and Edward asked if we could travel to New York so they could visit Columbia but also go to the apartment."
"Oh," Aro said quietly.
Bee was confused by his reaction. With Esme's hand in hers, she spoke up: "Um... grandfather? Don't you want me to go to Columbia?"
"Columbia is a fine University, Isabella. I am immensely proud that you've been accepted to go there. I just... well, I was hoping... I spoke with my brother and he and I were both hoping that you might come to Italy to visit us before starting at College."
Edward gasped from the garage where he'd been quietly listening to their conversation. He hadn't intended intend to eavesdrop but when he returned home he stopped outside the kitchen to enjoy listening to Bee singing to herself in her off key way as she made lunch for Esme and Aro. He intended to go around the back and leave them to enjoy their time together but when he heard Aro shout he almost stormed into the room instead; he knew Bee would've been frightened but then he heard his mom take care of it, so he waited.
When Aro spoke of taking Bee to Italy, there was no way Edward could hold back.
He marched angrily into the room and reached his hand out for Bee who took it and moved to the bottom of the stairs with Edward: "You can't take Bee to Italy. No way. We don't know anything about you, we can't let you whisk her off to another country. Bee is a Cullen now, she belongs here, with me." He held her against him tightly.
Bee smiled when he described her as a Cullen but she didn't want to hurt her grandfather's feelings and she could see from his expression that he was shocked by Edward's outburst.
"Edward, it's okay baby, please don't get upset." She cupped his cheek as she always did to calm his hotheaded behaviour.
He leaned his forehead to hers and whispered: "Bee, please don't leave me. I love you and I know you've just found your family but I'm your family too. Please baby." A tear rolled down his cheek and Bee realised that this was the fear at the heart of his rude behaviour towards Aro. He was afraid of losing her.
Still in their little bubble, Edward reached into his jacket pocket to pull out a jeweller's box. He opened it and held it out to her: "It's a promise ring. It's my promise to love you every single day of forever and it's my promise that one day, when we're both ready, that we'll be married."
Bee looked into the box and saw two beautiful rings: "Why are there two?"
He looked at her sheepishly: "One is for me. I want everyone to know that you are mine and I am yours."
Both rings were shaped with a crown and two hands holding a heart, the smaller ring had an emerald in the centre of the heart.
"They're Claddagh rings," Edward explained. "It's an Irish tradition so I thought it would be nice, in honor of your grandmother and your Irish heritage. If you wear them with the tip of the heart pointed towards you, it means you are in a relationship."
Bee's eyes filled with joyful tears: "Oh fancy pants."
Edward took the smaller ring from the box and placed it on the ring finger of Bee's right hand with the heart pointing towards her: "Grow old along with me?" He voiced the part of Browning's quote as a question as he was seriously asking her to promise herself to him.
She let out a small sob but then took the plainer and larger Claddagh ring from the box and placed it awkwardly on Edward's right hand ring finger as she completed the quote: "The best is yet to be!"
Once again everyone in the Cullen kitchen watched as Edward and Bee kissed each other deeply. This time though Esme was filming it on her phone with tears streaming down her cheeks and no one tried to stop them.
As he watched them, Aro knew he could not separate them. The mention of the Claddagh rings and his beautiful Siobhan reminded him of the tragedy that can result of separating young people in love.
"Of course, young Edward is right," Aro said. "I would never think of separating my granddaughter from her Cullen family, I would like to extend an invitation to all of the Cullens to join us in our home in Montepulciano. Perhaps I could join you in New York and then we could travel to Italy from there?"
Bee ran across the room and hugged her grandfather: "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Esme wiped the tears from her eyes and clapped her hands together: "Well, I think that sounds like a wonderful plan. I'm going to call Carlisle and see if he can extend his leave. Rosalie, you'd better ask your parents if they're happy for you to join us. Then I'll get online and book the travel." She left the room in a whirl, heading to her office, already dialling Carlisle's work number on her phone.
Emmett gave a fist pump before grabbing Rosalie's hand and leading her back to the garage: "We're going to Italy! Let's go talk to your parents Rosie so I can sweet talk your Dad into letting you come with us."
Amidst the sudden burst of excitement and activity, Edward stood stock still. His gaze remained glued to his Busy Bee as she hugged her grandfather. A wave of relief washed over him as he watched them; Bee had accepted his promise and offered hers in return.
A/N: Aww, Edward - Claddagh promise rings - what a sweetheart!
So everyone's going to Italy - what fun. I'm glad Aro could see the tragic irony of separating young lovers.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for reading.
Reference:
Browning quote:
"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!"
- Robert Browning