Hello again everybody. Hope you all are doing well. I'm fabulous and happy, which is wonderful after so much stress. I hope you all enjoy this one…it has a mix of genres for the masses.

A huge thank you to Brie and kitchmill for their beta skills…even if I may have messed it up by adding 200 more words in the final read through. xx

Chapter Eighteen

Confession #18: Sometimes the tabloids did get their facts right, but that did not mean I appreciated them or desired to be a moneymaker for them...especially when it was at the expense of my family.

Fall set in quickly that year, and while I wasn't working in the traditional sense, I did take a lot of meetings and attend a few auditions. Things were slowly coming together with the cologne commercial as well.

Everything truly was moving and shaking workwise, but what excited me most with the changing seasons was when we learned that we were expecting girls right before Halloween.

Although we didn't take Caleb trick-or-treating house to house because of the paparazzi, we did dress him up and take him to visit his grandparents. Charlie was working, so Renee was meeting us at my parent's house. Emmett and Rose were also coming over with their girls.

At nearly seven months old, Caleb was very active. He started crawling just last week and it was amazing to see the transition from a stationary human to a roving little child already heading toward independence. While I loved the changes, I hated knowing he wouldn't always need me as much as he did then. As a result of him reaching this milestone, Caleb's costume had to fit a mobile child.

His wild hair growth was a gift from me and the only costume that seemed fitting was a Lion. Bella painted the tip of his nose a rosy pink and drew black whiskers onto his cheeks. On his forehead she added a tuft of faux fur with yellow and brown paint. He looked absolutely adorable, especially when he smiled and showed his newly acquired two bottom teeth.

Bella went so far as to dress up an unused paint can she found at the craft store with a homemade cat food label instead of using a traditional pumpkin or bag for collecting candy. It was very cute. The pictures I captured of Caleb with the can between his legs and a huge smile on his face before we left for a visit with his grandparents were priceless. His first Halloween was turning out wonderfully.

The short car ride was filled with baby babbles that had coffee girl and me smiling.

Our car had barely stopped in the driveway when Renee rushed out of the house. Bella shook her head but hit the unlock button so Renee could take Caleb into the house.

"Hello, my little lion. Aren't you the most adorable cub ever. So cutesy wootsy." Renee's baby talk had me near laughter, but I held it in.

"Hey, Mother, it's nice to see you too. So glad you missed me as much as I've missed you." Bella rolled her eyes with her words.

"Your mama thinks she's so funny," Renee muttered before closing the car door behind herself and absconding with our son.

With a little chuckle I made my way over to Bella and stage whispered, "As soon as we started having kids you knew we wouldn't matter to our parents anymore. At least we have each other."

"I heard that," exclaimed Renee. "You should be grateful we want to give you some alone time since it will all but be nonexistent once the twins arrive."

Our arms tightened around each other and I placed a kiss on her forehead. Coffee girl's eyes fluttered shut and she sighed. I loved making those sound come out of her, more so during love making but even in that moment I enjoyed her noises.

"Come on, love. We should head in before you catch a cold."

She rolled her eyes once more and muttered, "Yes, dear."

I just smiled.

~o~o~o~

After about forty-five minutes of picture taking, Emmett and his family arrived, loudly.

"Happy Halloween!"

You would have thought it was the girls announcing the holiday, but it wasn't. It was my loud-mouthed brother who walked in dressed like a court jester. I rolled with laughter at the yellow and purple costume he was wearing, but it was the white knee high stocking and curly-toed shoes that really had me on the floor.

"Mock me all you want, brother, but at least Rose and I aren't the ones that made headlines tonight."

I snapped out of my moment and asked what he was talking about, but Rose beat him to a reply as she read something off of her phone.

"It seems like Edward Cullen can't keep his hands off his wife, Isabella. The Oscar winning twosome were spotted leaving a doctor's office yesterday and the normally svelte Isabella was sporting another baby bump. Their reps did not respond to our questions, but it's pretty clear that she's knocked up again. We'll keep you posted on bump watch 2.0 as the story continues to develop!"

I looked at my glowing wife and smirked. "At least they were correct on the fact that I can't keep my hands off you."

While Bella blushed and shook her head, everyone else got a good laugh from my response.

Em's girls had been in there own little world until they heard what their mother had said. Their eyes quickly went to coffee girl's midsection and then widened at the obvious bump.

"You're having another baby!" they shouted together, scaring Caleb, who began crying.

"We are," I confirmed as I picked Caleb up from the floor, cooing at him to calm him back down. He burrowed his face into my shoulder and smeared his Halloween makeup on to my t-shirt.

The girls grew quiet and, as I learned last year, when they were quiet nothing good could come from their devious little minds. They began whispering to each other and little head nods followed before they turned to their father. I breathed a silent sigh of my own since they weren't focusing on me anymore. I really didn't want to be put on the spot again.

"We want a baby, too. Daddy, can you knock Mommy up?" Rose had just taken a sip of the wine my mother had given her, and said sip came flying out of her mouth with her girls' words. The red wine covered Emmett's face and costume causing the satin to stain and stick to his body.

No one could hold back their laughter after that, not even Caleb. It rolled out from him loud and clear, making Bella and I gasp. He'd given us little chuckles and big grins before but never this full bodied laughter that we were receiving right then. Huge smiles overtook our faces and we proceeded to try and get him to laugh again.

The night wasn't progressing as we'd expected but I had learned the best things in life couldn't be planned. There was nothing better than watch Em attempt to talk his way around the birds and the bees with his five-year-old girls who now had more questions about how babies got into Mommy's tummies. Having been in that hot seat with them last year, I didn't envy him. Those girls just continued to hound him with more questions based on his previous answers.

Rose, ever the prankster, whipped out her phone and proceeded to video the entire conversation. By the time we were ready to leave with a sleeping Caleb, Emmett was still dealing with the twins' inquisition and I was still smirking.

"I wouldn't be smirking like that if I were you," whispered coffee girl. "Because that'll be you in about five years."

I was sure I looked like a deer in headlights. She was right and I was fucked. Damn me and my super sperm.

~o~o~o~

The rest of autumn seemed to fly by as Bella's belly continued to grow. Along with her expanding midsection, the press had somehow learned we were expecting twins. Even without existing projects on my plate the paps were everywhere.

We couldn't shop without being followed. We were unable to visit Bella's parents at their home or even hit up a coffeehouse without the constant clicking of a camera or rude comments flying out of the bastards' mouths in hopes of a reaction from me. Since it wasn't just about me, or even us as a couple anymore, the effort it took to refrain from rearranging their ugly mugs was chart-topping. We had to look at getting someone to help around the house and with the everyday errands that we needed to do.

Bella hated the idea, but after she was rear ended by one of the stalkerazzi it was a necessary evil she accepted without a fight. The babies' and her safety was more important than anything else.

I could remember her frantic phone call after it happened like it was just yesterday.

"Hey coffee girl...miss me already?"

"Eddie," she stammered out through her tears and I could hear Caleb crying in the background. "I need you. There's been an accident."

My heart dropped at those words. "Where are you?"

"Um...I pulled into the Target shopping center near my parents. It was the paps, they hit me. They're standing outside the car taking pictures. I don't know what to do."

I could sense how frightened she was and quickly grabbed the keys to my car and raced out of the house. "I'm on my way, but what I need for you to do is hang up with me and call the cops. Let them know what's happening. I'll call your Dad. I'm so sorry, love. Try to stay calm and I'll be there as quickly as I can."

"Okay. I love you," she sniffled.

"Oh, coffee girl, I love you too. Stay safe and I'll see you soon."

The second she hung up, I called my father-in-law.

"Hey, son, what's going on?"

"Charlie, Bella needs you. She just got into an accident with the paparazzi. She's around the corner from your house."

"What?!" he shouted. "Where is she?"

I, for one, was glad I wouldn't be on the receiving end of his temper. "She's in the Target parking lot. They have her car surrounded and are taking pictures. I told her to call nine-one-one. I'm on my way to her but I know you're closer. She has Caleb with her."

"Those motherfuckers!" I heard the siren from his patrol car go on and breathed a sigh of relief knowing he was on his way to her. "I'm on my way."

Charlie hung up and I tried to call coffee girl back but she wasn't answering. Traffic was a bitch and I was more scared and frustrated than before. It took me forty minutes to get to them. I'd barely managed to park my car before I shot out of it and rushed over to the scene, but I was stopped by one of the cops.

"Sir, I can't allow you any closer."

"Please, that's my wife. She needs me." I saw my father-in-law holding Caleb and shouted to him. "Charlie!"

"Let him through, rookie." He let me pass by him and I ran over.

Caleb reached for me the second I he saw me. He was still crying and buried his face in my neck as I began questioning Charlie on where Bella was and he told me they'd taken her to the hospital for observation because her blood pressure was through the roof. I lost it.

"Calm down, son. Think of Caleb." I tried. I did, but my worry for my wife and daughters was through the roof. "Renee is on her way to collect Caleb so you can get to Bella. I'll follow her back to your house so nothing can happen to them while you're at the hospital with Bella."

I nodded and sought comfort in the fact that Caleb was okay and that the accident hadn't seemed to have been too bad, just a scuffed up bumper. Charlie arranged for the SUV to be towed since I couldn't drive two vehicles at once. Besides, I wanted her car thoroughly checked out and repaired before we even thought about driving the children around in it again. Odds were I would be trading it in for something else because it was already a beacon for the paps.

There was a crowd that had gathered and more paps standing off to the side. I was positive TMZ was already reporting on the accident. One more thing to deal with. I'd have to call Alec and Jane and my parents.

While we were waiting, Charlie whispered to me what hospital she was taken to and then told me they'd arrested the driver for reckless endangerment and a slew of other charges. He also said that odds were they wouldn't stick, but hoped it would keep them further away until I could get Bella back home.

Once Renee had Caleb, I rushed to Bella. On the way there, I prayed that both she and our daughters were okay.

I shook my head at the memory of that scary moment. They were fine...all of them. It did have me wanting to retire and leave the business altogether, but coffee girl wouldn't have it. She said we couldn't let the paparazzi win and I couldn't fault her logic.

"Besides, shopping online is fun."

Online shopping and delivery services it was until we found help. We avoided going out except when we couldn't prevent it—like Bella and Caleb's doctor's appointments. We even broke down and hired a decorator to do the new nurseries for the girls.

It was an adjustment to say the least, but it was better than the alternative for sure. The plus side was that due to the holiday season being fully underway, there was free shipping for almost everything. That made it all better in coffee girl's eyes. I just went along for the ride because my family was safe.

And at the end of the day, that was all that really mattered.

Thank you all for your continued support. Leave me your thoughts if you so desire…I love hearing from you when you do! See you in a couple of weeks. xx Dee