A/N:

Many of you guessed right on what's happening to Bella, and I hope that means I made a somewhat accurate description xD I've never been pregnant myself so I'm banking on the info I can find online!

Edward's taking her to the hospital … sounds kind of awkward :-P Let's see how they'll handle it

Title: The Perfect Partner Program

Author: MarieCarro

Beta: EdwardsFirstKiss

Pre-reader: brwneyedgrl01

Genre: Angst/Hurt&Comfort/Romance

Rating: NC-17

Summary: The summer of 2005 was the summer that changed Bella Swan's life forever. Sent to Ohio by her mother to attend a school for debutante girls not quite up to par, she meets Edward Masen, an apprentice. But is that really all he is? AH

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Word Count: 3, 111

CHAPTER 21 DISCOMFORT

I leaned back in the passenger seat of Edward's car and closed my eyes as I breathed through the sharp pangs of pain that were still shooting through my stomach and lower back at regular intervals. My hands were on my stomach and I attempted to rub it soothingly in case it would help.

"Are you doing okay?" Edward asked with a frown.

I was still annoyed with him despite being in pain and that he was helping me to the hospital, and so I exhaled sharply through my nose. "Just focus on the road. I'm not in the mood to be civil to you right now," I said, but the sentence ended with a yelp when I felt a sharp kick against the hand on my stomach.

Edward stayed quiet, but he also pressed down on the gas pedal and we reached the hospital faster than I would have been able to get myself there, and I appreciated that. I got out of the car, and Edward did the same but didn't follow me.

"Do you want me to come inside with you?" he asked, and I rolled my eyes at his over-the-top concern for me, but my back was to him so he didn't see it.

"Do whatever you want," I replied dismissively and went inside. At the desk, the nurse was on the phone, so I waited for her to hang up, and when she did, she looked at me with a kind smile. "Hi, I need to see Dr. Susan Swan."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, this wasn't planned. I'm twenty-five weeks pregnant, and almost an hour ago I started to experience weird pains in my lower back and abdomen, so I want to see my doctor."

The nurse nodded. "Of course, just let me check if Dr. Swan is available." She began tapping on her keyboard and then made an apologetic sound. "I'm afraid she's not. Would you like to see a different obstetrician?"

I groaned and breathed through the tightening in my back. "Yes, please."

"Then I just need your name and social security number."

I gave her my information, and she said that the doctor would be with me shortly, so I turned around to sit down but startled when I saw that Edward was standing behind me. "Holy shit, you scared me!"

He looked contrite. "Sorry. I just thought you shouldn't be alone right now, and besides, I have to drive you back to the park so you can get your car afterward." He attempted a smile, but I just shook my head at him.

"I've managed by myself just fine for a long time, Edward, and I can call a cab to drive me back."

"Why should I let you waste money when I have a perfectly good vehicle and no better place to be anyway?" he asked as he walked with me to the chairs in the waiting area.

"Because we're not friends," I retorted. "We're just two people with a history that's best forgotten."

"I don't agree with that," he said as we sat down next to each other.

I scoffed. "Right, because you take such pride in your work, and I'm still a part of your resume!"

He sighed. "No, because I don't want to forget meeting you," he said, and I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

"Yeah, right!"

"No, I'm serious," he continued and looked at me with honest eyes. "Meeting you changed my life for the better."

My name was called, and I stood from my seat. "Just shut up, Edward," I said over my shoulder and went with the doctor to be examined.

The doctor, a man close to my age, showed me into a room and shook my hand before he told me to sit down. "Ms. Swan, I'm Dr. Gregory. What is your concern?"

I told him everything, and he hummed as he wrote on his notepad. After a few questions, he put the pad down and stood up.

"Okay, then, I am pretty sure I know what's going on, but hop up on the bed and we'll see if there's a possibility it could be something else," he said and patted the exam table.

As soon as I was on my back, he gently pulled up my shirt and started to feel around on my stomach. "I hope my hands are not too cold," he said with a humorous smile, and I understood that was the line he used when he wanted to make sure his patient wasn't uncomfortable with him.

"No, it's fine," I replied and smiled back at him.

His examination was quick, and I was grateful when he told me I could pull down my shirt and sit back up. It didn't matter that I knew it was his job to examine pregnant women daily; it didn't make it easier or more comfortable to lie down on a table and have a strange man look at my exposed belly.

"Well, Ms. Swan, I can tell you that what you've experienced is nothing to worry about. It's called Braxton Hicks contractions, and they're false contractions that are similar to labor pains. It's completely normal."

I breathed out a sigh of relief. "Nothing to worry about?"

Dr. Gregory shook his head. "Not at all. You might experience them again, but see it as a way to practice your Lamaze breathing until the big day."

I nodded. "Okay, thank you so much."

"No problem at all."

He showed me out back to the waiting room, and to my annoyance, Edward was still there and stood up as soon as we got closer.

"Hey, is everything all right?" he asked, but before I could brush him off, Dr. Gregory spoke.

"Everything's fine. She experienced Braxton Hicks contractions. They're completely normal, but they can be scary when you don't know what they are." He produced a brochure out of his pocket, which, to my complete shock, he gave to Edward. "Here's some information if you want to read together, but the fact that you came here tells me that you're going to be great parents," he said with a grin at the both of us before he left, while I stood there, my mouth agape.

I turned to Edward who looked shocked and awkward, and I took the brochure out of his hand. "Give me that," I mumbled angrily and made my way outside.

I could feel Edward behind me, and I didn't say anything when he led me to his car and held the passenger door open for me.

"You're not angry because of what the doctor said, are you?" he asked as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"No, not at all! I mean, why should I be angry that someone just assumed that the guy who crushed my heart when I was sixteen is the father of my child?" I answered sarcastically. "Because why would a woman ever choose to have a child on her own? There must always be a father, right?"

"There isn't?" Edward asked, and when I looked at him, I saw that he was frowning in confusion.

"I already told you that," I gritted out, still holding on to my annoyance.

"No, you said there wasn't a guy, but I just assumed it meant you'd broken up with the dad."

"What does it matter?" I asked, not understanding why that detail of my life was important.

He shrugged. "I guess it doesn't, but I'm curious."

I crossed my arms defensively because it felt as if he was lurking for information about me, and I didn't like it. "Not that it's any of your business, but I had artificial insemination."

"Why?" he asked and glanced at me. "It's not like you couldn't get a guy."

I let out an incredulous laugh. "And what do you know about that?"

"Well, for starters, I am a guy, so I believe I have some insight into what guys usually want in a woman," he said and smiled amusingly.

I looked out of the window because I didn't want him to see the tears in my eyes. "The problem was never getting the guy," I admitted quietly. "It was keeping him."

"What do you mean?"

I shook my head, still turned away from him. "Why are you so interested in my life? Don't you think you've caused enough damage?"

I heard him sigh. "Bella, what I did to you … there is nothing in my life that I regret more. But it's been thirteen years, and I can't change the past."

"I know," I said, not denying the impossible. "But hearing you say it's been thirteen years as if that justifies your sudden involvement in my life again just makes me realize that you have no idea how much you ruined me."

"Maybe I don't," he replied. "So tell me."

I turned and looked at him, but he was focusing on the road, and I knew that when I told him this, I needed his undivided attention. "I'll tell you when you've parked the car," I said, and he didn't protest, so we spent the remaining way back to the park in silence.

As soon as he shut off the engine, he turned fully toward me. "I'm listening."

I looked down at my stomach and stroked it gently. "When I was doing my military training before I started at the Police Academy, I met this guy … Garrett. He was my AIT Sergeant, and we fell in love," I told him. I could feel his confusion over why I started by telling him that, but he needed to know that part of the story to understand. "We had to sneak around at first because a relationship between a soldier and their sergeant wasn't allowed, but eventually, both of us grew tired of all the secrets. Garrett asked to be reassigned a new unit for the sake of us being together without the consequences."

A tear I couldn't stop fell down my cheek because telling Edward this wasn't easy. "We started to plan a life together. I was going to finish my four years of active duty and then become a reserve. He wanted me to pursue my dream of becoming a cop, and we'd live on his assigned base … start a family." I sniffled and wiped away the tears that were now falling freely. "I was only twenty, but I knew that was what I wanted, and Garrett was the first guy I trusted with my heart after you."

I had to give Edward credit because he didn't interrupt me once as I spewed out my life's story. "One day, Garrett asked to meet me. He wanted to talk, and I knew right away that it was about something bad." I smiled without humor. "I was right. He told me we couldn't be together anymore. That I was emotionally unavailable. He'd hoped that I would change, but after two years, he couldn't do it anymore." I inhaled sharply and finally met Edward's eyes. "It was in that moment that I realized I could never give him my entire heart because I was always scared he would do what you did, which was to crush it until there was nothing left. I needed to keep a small part of it intact for the sake of my own survival."

Edward shifted uncomfortably and attempted to look away, but I forced him to look back at me. My eyes were still filled with tears, but I was getting angry again. "I am damaged. Emotionally unavailable. You caused that. I don't care that you only were Renée and George's puppet, or that you were simply following orders. They didn't make me fall in love with you. You did. You played me. You had me wrapped around your little finger. I thought you were the man of my dreams, and I loved you." I pointed at my stomach. "This baby wasn't supposed to be fatherless. Garrett was the man that healed me and put me back together, but it wasn't enough because you broke me so completely that not even his love for me could make my heart forget."

I opened the door on my side and got out, but before I closed it, I leaned in to say one last thing. "It might be thirteen years ago, Edward, but every time I look at you, I am reminded of everything all over again, and that because of you I couldn't give a good man the love he deserved, and I hate you for it."

{=A=}

I didn't see Edward again for a very long time after I unloaded my burden on him in his car, and I was grateful. Being around him only caused me stress that I didn't want to expose my child to, and maybe he understood that. Maybe he realized that the state I was in made it very unlikely for me to forgive him.

Whatever his reason was, I wasn't going to complain.

I couldn't, however, escape him completely. Apparently, fate had decided that I wasn't allowed to forget him and move on because he was, somehow, always brought up in conversations wherever I went.

The first time was at work, which was expected. Demetri told me that our murder case had been snapped up by the CIA because the victim was suspected of being a foreign spy gone rogue. We didn't get much more information than that, but we did receive a confirmation call from a man who claimed he was "Agent Platt's" unit supervisor.

Since I wasn't present during that conversation, Demetri was shocked when the supervisor informed him that Agent Platt worked under an alias and they'd be appreciative if we refrained from digging anymore into his past.

Demetri, who remembered my reaction to Edward, confronted me about it and I admitted to him that I had known Edward in the past. I told that was the reason why I'd been so suspicious of him when he identified himself by a name I knew wasn't his own. I also, quite embarrassed, told him that I'd used the department database to find out more about him that afternoon since I refused to believe he was actually an agent with the CIA.

I never told Demetri from where I knew Edward, though, because he wouldn't understand the complexity of the entire situation. I didn't doubt his intelligence, but there were times when I had a hard time making sense of the entire thing myself, and it was difficult to explain it to others.

He made me promise that I wouldn't search for Edward again, and I gave him my word that I hadn't looked him up since that afternoon.

However, the entire conversation brought the man to the forefront of my mind, and I found myself unable to rid him from my thoughts.

The second time was at my parents' house, which was the absolute last place I thought the topic of Edward would be brought up.

I was having dinner with my parents while they babysat for Lilly when Sue mentioned it.

"I spoke with Ethan today, and he told me he examined you a week ago," she said casually.

"Ethan?" I asked, unfamiliar with the name, but then I remembered. "Oh, you mean Dr. Gregory? Yeah, I felt some pain, but he assured me it was normal Braxton Hicks contractions, so it's nothing," I quickly said, not wanting to cause her unnecessary worrying.

"Yes, he told me that as well," she replied, obviously not worried. "He also told me you were there with a man he thought was the father?" She finished it like a question.

I noticed how Dad stopped eating and glanced at me questioningly. He knew I didn't make a habit of socializing with men and probably expected me to tell them it was just one of the guys from the station.

I couldn't lie to him, though. "He was no one," I mumbled, irritated that I couldn't even have a nice dinner with my parents without Edward weaseling his way into it. "I was actually quite pissed Dr. Gregory just assumed something like that."

"Well, he must have had a reason," Sue pressed. "I doubt he just picked a random guy in the area." She smiled gently at me. "So who was he?"

Dad put down his fork, wiped his mouth on his napkin and leaned forward like he did so many times when he wanted to know something. By now, he knew it wasn't a colleague. "Well, Bella?"

I looked into his eyes and then sighed. I knew how he was going to react once he found out because, like Becca, he was bestowed with the job of trying to put back the shattered pieces of me that came back from Ohio. He didn't hold the same grudge against Edward as he did against the Carters and Renée, but it didn't exactly mean that Edward was his favorite person either.

I pushed my plate away as I had lost my appetite. "Edward Masen is in town."

Dad's face went completely blank, and then it started to redden as he got angry. "What?"

I nodded. "He's in town for a job," I told them. "Apparently he works for the CIA. I met him at the station when he came to take a case from us. I decided to confront him about it because, of course, I didn't believe a word he said. That was when I started to feel the pain, and he drove me to the hospital. End of story." I wasn't in the mood to give them all the details and I was relieved when I realized I didn't have to.

"He's the Special Agent working under an alias?" Dad asked, frowning. Obviously, whenever the CIA was involved, the Commissioner had to be informed, so, of course, Dad knew about it.

"Unfortunately, yes."

Sue looked between us, slightly confused. "Wait. Edward Masen as in the guy from that god-awful place your ex-wife sent Bella to?"

I nodded. "One and the same."

"And he drove you to the hospital?" Once again, I nodded. "And stayed until you'd been examined?" Another nod. "Why?" she asked incredulously, and I shrugged.

"Beats me. Maybe out of guilt. I don't know, and frankly, I don't care. I haven't seen him since, and I definitely don't want to either."

A/N:

I think all of you already know that she totally will, though, right? ;-)

How do you think/hope will happen going forward? And let me ask this: are you guys ready to get just a tiny bit angsty in the future?

It won't happen just yet, but I want to warn you guys early that heavy angst will ensue eventually!

Love you, and Stay Awesome!