A/N: As always, big thanks to Dazzled Eyes22 and Melissa.

Happy reading!

My parents stayed at my place for a week. Dad accompanied me to the hospital to meet my colleagues on a couple of days, while Mom and Bella went to the mall or the park. Alice had also hit it off well with my mother and I'd heard my Dad complaining about the devastating effect the trios' shopping expeditions on the Fifth Avenue were going to have on his credit cards.

"Oh, shush, Carlisle!" Mom had waved off his protests. "We don't have a daughter, so I am living vicariously through these two lovely girls. Let me have my fun. I am never going to find this kind of stuff in Forks!"

With an indulgent smile, he let it go.

As though he had any choice in the matter. I snickered.

By the time we dropped them off at the airport, Mom and Bella had exchanged e-mail ids and I caught the tail end of a promise to keep in touch.

Just before leaving, Mom held my face in her hands and smiled. "Bella is a lovely girl and I can see why it didn't take you long at all to fall for her. Be happy, Edward. After everything you've been through, you deserve it. Don't be too cautious. Breathe in and savor every moment of your love, honey."

Her words warmed my heart and I embraced her tightly.

Dad had also saved a few words of wisdom for me. "Now, listen to me very carefully, Edward. I understand why you didn't feel comfortable mentioning to us about your relationship in the past. Now that it's all out in the open, I want you to know that you can talk to me anytime. Okay, son? I'm not going to judge you, or chastise you. I'm always here to listen and offer whatever help I can give you."

I smiled. "Thanks, Dad."

He patted me on the back before moving onto Bella. Mom and Dad told her how proud the entire town was of her and to call them anytime if she needed any help.

My sweet girl teared up at their easy acceptance of her. Mom embraced her warmly. It meant a lot to Bella. I could see that in her eyes. Renee's flighty attitude was in sharp contrast to my Mom's loving nature. She could go overboard sometimes, but I was pretty sure Bella was not going to mind.

Once they'd left, Bella turned to me with a sigh. She looked a little sad, so I pulled her against me and kissed the tip of her nose. It worked. As always, she wrinkled her nose in that adorable way of hers and smiled.

"Well, that went better than we imagined, right?" I asked.

She hummed in agreement and wrapped her arms around my neck. "Certainly. Maybe you were right. Jacob did us a favor by forcing our hand. Now that the whole "telling the parents" is out of the way, we can focus only on us. I should send him a thank you note."

I suppressed the urge to growl. That was left best to Neanderthals. "I wouldn't go that far," I muttered, and she giggled. "He hasn't bothered you again, has he?"

"Nope. Charlie mentioned that he paid him a visit after he came to see you at the hospital. He didn't divulge any specifics, but whatever he said to Jake seems to have worked. He's been keeping his distance."

"Good. I'm glad."

"He isn't a bad person, Edward, at least he wasn't before. I barely recognize this new impulsive and conceited Jacob." She shook her head. "I hate to see him like this, but he is no longer the boy who used to be my best friend. I tried to get through to him, and even gave him what he wanted by agreeing to that one date, so that he would realize that there could never be anything more between us. Now that he has turned into a bitter and arrogant shell of himself, there's nothing I can do about it."

"I just worry about you, baby."

"I know you do." She pecked my lips. "I'm telling you though, that it'll be fine. He respects Charlie like a second father. He won't go against him. I've seen Jacob around couple of times, but he has not approached me. I'm glad that he's finally taken the hint, and has begun to ignore me as I've been ignoring him."

I grimaced slightly, so she kissed me once again. This time, I didn't let her pull away. Bringing her flush against my chest, I opened my mouth to her and deepened the kiss. My hands wandered underneath her thick jacket and stroked her skin through the delicate material of her shirt. As soon as they brushed the sides of her breast, she gasped.

Backing away, she looked at me through narrowed eyes. "You seem to have a thing for public places, Dr. Cullen. First it was the hospital, then the car showroom, and now the airport."

I smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Need I remind you that I was the one who brought us both back to our senses at all those places?"

"You could, if you don't want to finish what you just started here." She pressed her lips into a straight line, but I could see right past the stern façade.

"Like you would ever want to stop. You want me far too much, baby." I leered at her and wiggled my eyebrows, making her laugh and slap my arm playfully.

She shook her head, still giggling, and tugged me toward the parking lot. "Stop being a smartass, and take me home so that we can continue this in the privacy of my bedroom."

"Yes, ma'am."

Needless to say, I made it to her place in record time, and Bella rewarded me by making good on her promise.

The next evening, I headed over to see her after my shift and I was greeted by a very excited Bella.

She showed me some notes she'd made for her upcoming test. "Ooh, I love mnemonics!" She grinned and bounced in her seat.

I raised an eyebrow at her exuberance. "How many Red Bulls have you had?"

"Three. I needed to stay awake to finish this, Edward." She pouted. "The lab we had to perform today was exhausting. I wanted nothing more to snuggle under the blanket and sleep like a baby, but the exam is tomorrow. I had to glance through the entire unit at least once today."

I looked at my watch and chuckled. "It's not even nine and you are done with this unit. You have got this in the bag, baby. I know you've been revising all your notes for a week, at least. Why are you so worried?"

She sighed. "Physics always makes me worry."

I wrapped an arm around her and brought her flush to my side. We were sitting cross-legged on the floor with Bella's books strewn all around us. I pulled her back with me to lean back against the base of the couch.

I combed my fingers through her soft hair as I spoke. "I know, but this time, I've watched you study and I am one hundred percent sure that you are ready. Now, I know that you take each and every test seriously, and I love that about you, but this one is not a major exam. You told me so yourself. You shouldn't take on too much stress, baby."

Somewhere in the middle of my little speech, Bella had pulled back to look directly into my eyes. When I was done speaking, she was still staring at me with a dazed expression on her face.

"Bella? Are you alright?"

"Yeah uh, yeah." She cleared her throat. "You just, um, you said…"

"Said what?" I prompted gently when she didn't continue. I thought back over my words, but didn't find anything that would evoke such a reaction from her.

Did I say something wrong?

She shook her head, as a soft, almost wry smile stretched across her face. "It's nothing. I know I need to calm down. Exams tend to make me very anxious. This professor always likes to bring out the tougher questions, you know the ones that require on two or three steps of deduction and only then you can get to the calculation."

"Deduction, calculation, evaluation- you've done it all. I have no doubt that you are going to rock this test." I nodded once for emphasis.

"Rock the test?" she repeated.

"Isn't that what you guys say nowadays?" I asked innocently.

She giggled and pressed her lips to mine, signaling the end of that conversation. We were clearing up her piles of books, when the door opened and Alice walked in. I frowned, looking her over from head to toe.

There was something different.

"Oh, shit," Bella mumbled.

"What's wrong?" I whispered to her, as Alice stomped into the kitchen.

Bella looked at me incredulously. "She cut her hair!"

The proverbial light bulb went off in my head. Bella was right. Alice previously had shoulder-length, straight, black hair. Now, as she came back into the room, I saw that it had been cut into some sort of a spiky style, and the tips of the strands were highlighted purple.

Bella frowned in deep concern, and I watched in confusion as Alice plopped down on a chair with a tub of ice-cream in her hands.

I looked toward my girlfriend. She saw the bewilderment on my face and explained, "When a girl changes her hair or wardrobe all of a sudden, it means she's hurt. Usually, it's about a guy."

"Ah." I nodded like that made perfect sense to me. "Should I leave?"

She looked torn. "I think… I'm not sure." We both winced when Alice slammed the frozen contained against the table. "Actually, yeah, you should do that. I'll talk to her."

Without any further prompting, I made my way out and called Jasper.

He answered with a hard laugh. "I knew you'd be calling soon."

"What happened? Where are you?"

"Shit met fan, that's what happened." The slur in his voice was unmistakable.

"Are you at Joe's?" I asked, referring to the bar down the block from the hospital.

When he replied in the affirmative, I headed there as soon as humanly possible. The traffic was incredibly frustrating, but I managed to reach there within an hour.

I found Jasper easily enough, sitting at the bar with a drink in hand. Judging by the way he was swaying in his seat, it definitely wasn't his first one.

I took the seat next to him and managed to get him to focus on me long enough to tell his story.

Apparently, Maria had latched on to him ever since the incident with Mrs. Brooks. While he'd managed to dodge any advances she had made, she had only gotten clingier and had demanded to know why he had been rejecting her. He had informed her that he was seeing someone else, but she refused to let him go. Today, when Alice had come to surprise him, Maria managed to intercept her and told Alice everything about her relationship with Jasper. Alice had been shocked and dismayed to learn about it from her, instead of Jasper, and left without giving him a chance to explain.

"Jasper," I sighed.

"I know!" he groaned. "I should have told her when I had the chance, but it's not like I cheated on her! I haven't touched Maria since I started dating Alice."

"That might be so, but the fact is that you pursued Alice before you broke things off with Maria," I pointed out. "If you had managed to get rid of Maria immediately after that, then maybe Alice wouldn't have been so upset, but not after stringing her along for all this time."

"I know you're right." He rubbed a frustrated hand over his clammy face. "I think I hid the truth from both of them because I was expecting the worst. You know me. I've never been in a serious relationship. I like Alice a lot, but in the back of my mind, I was afraid that I would fuck it up, and as horrible as it sounds… Maria is easy… uncomplicated. That's why I didn't push her away immediately."

"So she was your backup?" I asked. I hated to admit it, but honestly, I was a little disgusted.

"Fuck! That sounds all kinds of pathetic and wrong," he muttered. "I have no idea what I was thinking. I waited too long, and now I think I should have told Alice first, and then Maria. I don't even know what lies she must have spewed in front of Alice."

"What do you want now, Jas?" I questioned him hesitantly.

He met my gaze sadly. "Now, every minute of the three hours that have passed since the incident, all I can see is Alice's tearful face and I fucking hate that I am the one responsible for it. I never wanted to hurt her, Edward." He looked at me earnestly and his eyes pleaded with me to believe him, so I nodded.

"I know, Jas. I know."

"Did you talk to Emmett today?"

"No."

"Remember that meeting in Jersey? They went to see a surrogate. Rose doesn't want to risk another miscarriage. They're going ahead with this woman they met. You're with Bella, Emmett's going to be a dad, and me… why can't I have it all figured out, too?" He paused for a moment. "It scares the hell out of me to let someone in, but Alice… she is worth every effort I have to make to conquer that fear. Why did it take me this long to realize it?" His voice was despondent, so I clutched his arm.

"Hey! Where's the guy who encouraged me to not give up with Bella, huh?" I hesitated before continuing. "You need to tell her everything, Jasper. She needs to know it to understand you better. I can't tell what she must be thinking right now, but even if she trusts that you haven't cheated on her, she must have been hurt about the fact that it wasn't you who told her the truth."

He dropped his head. "I know. I had thought I'd do it next weekend, on Valentine's Day. She has been really excited about it. I thought she would be more understanding then, you know?"

Or it could ruin her notions about the day forever.

I knew better than to voice that thought.

"What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you be with her, begging on your knees, or something?"

He grimaced. "I would have done it, but she said she wasn't ready to speak to me just yet. She told me that if I respect her, I would give her the space she needs to deal with this."

I sighed.

"Don't give up, Jasper. These women, I don't know how they do it, but somehow they are able to see past all the bullshit issues that we surround ourselves with, and see us for what we really are. Once you open up to her, she'll be there for you. I'm sure that she'll be the one to help you see yourself the way she sees you. You need to change the way you think about yourself to be able to be the man Alice needs. You can do better than meaningless one - night stands or the whole friends with benefits thing. You are capable of loving someone, Jasper. I know that, and so does Alice, or else she would never have taken a chance on you in the first place. You just need to believe it, and then show her that she means the world to you."

He sighed. "We'll see, I guess."

Eventually, after deciding on a plan of action that consisted of texting her twice a day, so as to not overwhelm or irritate her, I convinced Jasper to leave. His car was still in the hospital's parking lot, so we left it there, and I took him home in mine.

After dropping him off, I'd just entered my apartment, when my phone rang.

"Bella?"

"Hey," she sighed.

"How is she doing?"

"She's binging on ice-cream; that says it all. Her mood is oscillating wildly between anger and sadness. It's hard to keep up. Still, I'm doing my best. She knows about my test, so she ordered me to get some rest now. I tried to stay, but she wouldn't hear of it."

"What wouldn't I give for a few boring days?"

"I know!" she moaned and I imagined her stretching out on her bed. That got me thinking of the nights we spent together in that very bed, with Bella curled up on my chest or tucked into my side. "I wish we could have a little time without the outside world interfering. Just you and me." I shifted slightly as the memory of her delectable behind pushing against my morning wood came to mind.

So highly inappropriate.

"Edward?" Bella asked, trying to gain my wandering attention.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, I'm here."

We talked for a few more minutes before saying goodbye. Bella's words replayed in my mind as I walked into the bedroom. I stripped out of my jeans, and slipped under the covers.

A little private time with my girlfriend sounded absolutely perfect.

When an idea planted itself in my head, I stretched my arm to grab my laptop. I just hoped that she would be amenable to it.

It was time for some research.

A/N: Just 2 more regular chapters to go now. I have exams going on, but I should be able to post Chapter 18 next week. It might just be the one you have all been waiting for ;) After that, I will take a couple of weeks off to finish the story, but I promise to leave you on a happy note.

Thanks for reading!