You guys rock! Seriously, I can't say thank you enough for all the love and support. Sorry this wasn't up first thing this morning.

See you at the bottom with an important note, but I hope you enjoy this chapter.

xx Dee

Chapter Two

Confession #2: Pregnancy might turn my hair gray, and late-night cravings will probably result in a baby belly of my own.

The next week passed in a fury of throw-up. I was extremely concerned because Bella was even having difficulty keeping water down. I had no idea anyone could toss their cookies that many times in a single day and still walk around like nothing had just happened moments before. She even started taking her vitamins right before bed in hopes of keeping them down, because the only time she wasn't rushing into a bathroom was when she was sleeping.

I was thankful we had so many bathrooms in the house for her to run to. I think she'd even lost a bit of weight, but I refused to say anything. I wanted to call the doctor and move up her appointment, however Bella refused. She said it was normal. I didn't buy it. Needless to say, I had more questions for the doc.

She'd even begun to keep crackers, candied ginger, and peppermints in her nightstand to try and keep the sickness at bay. Sometimes it worked, and others it didn't. It was a fifty-fifty chance every day. On the good days, I was left guessing what she might want to try and eat.

My normally healthy eating wife craved greasy, salty food, but it never stayed down. It wasn't until one of her late night craving runs that we discovered the only thing she could occasionally keep down was chicken strips from Jack in the Box. As disgusting as it was to go there three to four times a week, their food was good and I was just glad she wasn't puking all the time.

The worst thing was she had stopped making my café au laits. Coffee wasn't even allowed in the house, and I'd been regulated to coffeehouses and my mom's house again. Bella felt awful because that was our thing, but she got sick the second the scent hit her nose. I'd taken to drinking it in our outdoor living space and tossing the cups in the recycle bin in the garage after I'd rinsed them out with the hose.

I'd just finished my most recent mediocre coffee before heading into the house to brush my teeth and find my wife for a kiss. With the task done and a breath strip for extra insurance, I found Bella working in her studio.

She was collaborating with Emily on her fourth album. The husband and wife team of Peter and Charlotte Bell had been teaching Bella how to mix her own music digitally, but it was all a foreign language to me. I hated interrupting, but I needed some sugar from my sugar.

Bella saw me the second I entered; a smile broke out on her gorgeous face, and it made my heart thud even harder. "Hey, Eddie."

"Hello, love. How's your morning going so far?" I leaned in to whisper the next question. "How's the bean?"

"It's been good. I'm sure today's going to be a great day." I sighed in relief of her words.

Good was all I hoped for these days. Great was even better.

"What's on your schedule today?" she asked.

"I've gotta head in for some ADR this afternoon. Do you need me to get you anything for lunch before I leave?"

She shook her head. "No, I was just going to order some Chinese for us. I'm dying for some chicken fried rice."

I was afraid she was going to start drooling as she pictured the food magically appearing in front of her. "Okay, love." I kissed the top of her head. "If you do end up needing anything later, just text me and I'll pick it up before I come home."

"Will do. Love you, Eddie."

"I love you too." I winked, hoping she caught the double meaning. Bella did and gave a small smile as she glanced down toward her stomach.

With one last glance at the two most important people in my life, I headed back to my car. The last place I wanted to be was away from my wife, but work called. This was the last of my work projects for some time. I wanted to be by her side through the entire pregnancy.

The drive wasn't too long, and I spent that time thinking about the offer Marcus had made to Bella. I really hoped she would do it. Her voice was meant to be heard; hell, she would make a fabulous actress as well, but it wasn't something she aspired to do like I did.

It really was slim to none odds on the acting, but she had begun running lines with me to help me with my memorization the last two years and I was in awe of the way she latched onto the characters, especially this last one.

By the time I arrived at the studio, I was ready to do whatever I needed to convince her that recording a song for this movie was something she had to do. With the decision made to fight for this for not only me, but her as well, I headed in to do my job so I could get back home faster.

ADR was not a fun thing for an actor to do. We sometimes were able to watch the scenes that we were doing the looping for, and others we were only able to listen to the original recording over and over until we felt like we could duplicate the emotion and tone we set in the moment it was recorded. It wasn't something I enjoyed...at all.

Over and over I listened and recorded, listened and recorded. It was only twelve lines of dialogue, but it took almost four hours to get it exactly right. My throat hurt and I was exhausted from standing in one place for so long.

By the time I made it back to my car and finally got a chance to check my phone, I saw I'd missed two calls from Bella. Worried, I quickly called her back.

"Hello, hubs." She sounded fine, so I released the breath I was holding.

"Hey, wifey. What's up?"

She laughed at my response, and I was finally convinced everything was okay.

"I was hoping you'd run to the store and pick up a box of bowtie pasta. I forgot it when I went out earlier and that's all I need to finish dinner."

"Sure. Are you sure you don't need anything else?" While I would have gladly gone out later if needed, I figured I could try and avoid it if possible.

"Well…" I knew it. "Would you mind stopping off at Rite Aid? I could go for some Chocolate Malted Crunch." She was obsessed with their ice cream and only Rite Aid made this particular brand.

"I don't mind." I glanced at the clock. "I should be home just after five."

"Okay, see you then. I love you, hubs."

"I love you more, mother of my baking child." She laughed at my silliness, and it was music to my ears.

"Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up and went to complete the errands. I ended up grabbing a few additional things she didn't mention—mostly junk food I'd been craving since I was allowed to finally put the weight I'd lost for this movie back on.

When I arrived home, I carried the bags into the kitchen. The smell coming from the oven and stove had my mouth watering. I put everything where it belonged and went in search of my wife.

I found her sitting at the grand piano, writing furiously on the blank sheet music in front of her. I was about to interrupt when she began to play.

The melody was haunting, and an ache began to build deep within my chest. It hurt, and I could feel all the pain she was creating. But then she began to sing and the tears came.

Say something I'm giving up on you,

I'll be the one if you want me to,

Anywhere, I would have followed you,

Say something I'm giving up on you

Holy fuck! It was perfect.

And I, am feeling so small,

It was over my head,

I know nothing at all,

I couldn't stand it any longer and collapsed under the weight of my emotions. She was perfection.

And I, will stumble and fall

I'm still learning to love, just starting to crawl

With each line, I crawled over to her, needing to hold her.

Say something, I'm giving up on you

I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you,

Anywhere, I would have followed you

Say something, I'm giving up on you

I hated that I was going to break the spell she was under, but I needed her in my arms.

"Bella…"

Her playing abruptly stopped and her eyes snapped to mine.

"Edward!" She jump up from the bench and closed the short distance between us.

"It's perfect," I mumbled. "It's exactly what the movie needs. Thank you for doing it."

She shook her head. "Don't thank me yet. You haven't heard my condition to recording it."

"It doesn't matter." I shook my head. "Whatever you want, I'll make it happen. That song needs to be in the movie."

She sighed. "Don't say I didn't warn you." She wrung her hands in her lap.

"What is it, coffee girl? It really can't be that bad."

She looked up at me with hope and tears in her coffee-hued eyes. "I want you to sing it with me. I want it to be a duet. I'm scared to put myself out there, but I know if you do it with me, I can do it too. Just like New Year's in Vegas when you held my hand through the song."

Of all the things I was expecting, that wasn't it. I knew I had a decent voice; I'd used it when I proposed, but it was nothing next to hers. She was an angel who sung directly to God himself. I wasn't worthy of this honor, but if that was what it took to get her to do it, I would.

"You know you're going to have to walk me through everything." She nodded and the tears fell. They were happy ones, and I wiped them away. "I'm going to make lots of mistakes as we go. You've gotta promise you won't get too mad when I do."

"I promise." It was just a whisper, but it was full of joy.

My life would always be about making her unspoken dreams a reality.

"I got your pasta and ice cream. How about we finish up dinner and then devour some of your chocolaty goodness before you walk me through what you have and what you want me to do?"

She nodded. I helped her up, and we went to answer the rumbling in my tummy. I was still nervous, but I sucked it up.

~o~o~o~

Dinner was delicious: warm, shredded chicken pasta salad. It was filled with wilted baby spinach, dried cranberries, and toasted slivered almonds. She tossed it all together with a light raspberry vinaigrette, but after seconds I was full; I even ate half a loaf of the cheesy garlic bread she'd made.

An hour after dinner and with bowls of ice cream in hand, we sat down in the family room and Bella explained her idea about how we would collaborate on the song. I loved her idea about rotating each line.

We tried it out a few times and I was able to emulate her tone and pitch, and hitting the correct note as well. She showed me where it was okay to add my own inflections, and I was actually enjoying it more than I expected.

With the ice cream finished, we headed into her studio to do a few test recordings.

There was nothing sexier than seeing Bella in her groove. Paper was scattered across every surface of the room. Her words and ideas literally littered the floor, and it made me smile.

Being alone in the studio, trapped in a haze of sexual tension as we begged each other to just say something, wasn't just hard on my dick; it was hard on my heart, too.

This wasn't a sweet love song. It was a gut wrenching song that I wanted to hate, but it was just so powerful. Simple, too, but it didn't need all the extra words to get its point across. It just made you feel, and I had a strong feeling it would be a huge success on mainstream radio as well. I just didn't tell Bella that in fear she wouldn't go through with submitting it.

Marcus was going to love it. Of that, I was positive.

AN: Say Something is property of A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera. The Cover that I've pictured as Edward and Bella's version is by Victoria Justice and Max. The video on YouTube that I took inspiration from was posted by Kurt Hugo Schneider and titled ""Say Something" - Victoria Justice & Max - ONE TAKE!" Watch/listen to it to get the full effect. I do not claim any ownership of the song…obviously.

See you all next Friday! xx