Chapter fourteen

"Rose," Bella breathed out when she opened the door to her room and saw her best friend sitting up against a mountain of pillows, a tray in front of her with a bowl of soup and a slice of loaf on a plate next to it.

"Bella!" Rose cried out, winching slightly, when she saw Bella standing in the door, Rose's eyes growing wide as saucers when she caught Bella's state. "You're pregnant!"

"Oh, yeah," Bella smiled sheepishly as she closed the door behind herself, a hand at her stomach.

"You were pregnant long before I ended up in here," Rose accused, her eyes narrowing, "Why the hell didn't you tell me, and who is the father?"

"Maybe we should wait until you're feeling a little stronger?" Bella suggested, trying her best to avoid Rose's questions.

"I'm strong enough," she grounded out but her eyes grew suddenly heavy and she leaned against the pillows in her back.

"I'm not going anywhere," Bella murmured softly, "We will talk when you've rested," Bella smiled as she pushed a few stray hairs away from Roses' face as she closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep.

"You're looking a little pale," Emmett commented after they had left Rose's room, Emmett with intentions of bringing Bella back to the apartment he was renting while in London so she could rest as well.

"I have been traveling for several hours and I'm dying for a hamburger," was Bella's respond, which made Emmett laugh as he led her out of the hospital.

"What does the doctors say?" Bella asked once they were in a cab and heading for Emmett's place.

"They didn't hide the fact that they were worried about brain damage when she woke up, though they tried to assure me that brain damage rarely occurs for those on coma for such a short time. Then again, no one really knows what kind of accident she was in, except for that Royce!" the way Emmett spoke his name, it was clear that he had nothing left for the man who had claimed to be Rose's boyfriend when Bela arrived at her apartment weeks earlier. No one had heard from him or seen him, Emmett even going as far as having someone searching for him: it was clear that Emmett was smitten with Rose.

"But there's no damage to her brain or any other vital organ, is there?" Bella asked though she didn't want to hear the answer in case it was the wrong answer.

"They've checked her out and other than that she's weak and will need a lot of rest, there's absolutely nothing wrong with her." Bella breathed out in relief and sagged against the seat as the taxi took them through London's street.

"You can take my room," Emmett told her when they entered his small apartment, Emmett kicking his shoes off and throwing himself down on the couch.

"I'm not going to throw you out of your room," Bella answered him.

"And I'm not going to let a heavily pregnant woman sleep on a couch when there's a perfectly fine bed in my bedroom."

"You're too big for the couch to even get comfortable," Bella pointed out, nudging his feet as they hung over the armrest of the couch.

"But he has no choice as there won't be room in the bed for two men and a woman," Bella and Emmett turned their focus to the door to see Edward standing there, a small carry-on bag in his hand.

"What are you doing here?" Bella demanded to know as he entered and closed the door.

"Taking care of what's mine," he shrugged, "And you didn't leave me much choice when you ran off before we could really talk."

"I didn't run off," Bella grounded out as she felt the anger build up inside of her. "And you forbade me to leave, which you have no right to do, then threatened to punish me, which is another thing you don't have the right to do, and left little room for me to explain that I have to be at Rose's side!"

"I'm sorry for how I acted," Edward said calmly, slowly stepping closer to Bella.

"If you come near me, I will castrate you!" Bella all but screamed and Emmett burst out laughing from his spot on the couch, but he tried to choke it back when Bella glared murderously at him before marching to his bedroom.

"She's kind of cute when she mad," Emmett shrugged, folding his hands behind his head as Edward sent him a glare as well.

"Don't Emmett," Edward warned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Don't what? She will always be cute to me because she's Bells and I don't care what you think Eddie, because I have eyes for someone else than Bells."

"Who's the lucky girl?" Edward asked, kicking himself mentally for asking the question when he was supposed to pretend he didn't care.

"Rose of course," Emmett smiled like a lovesick boy and Edward opened his mouth to comment when his phone went off.

"Cullen," he barked into it without looking at the screen.

"Don't use that tone with me, young man!" Esme's voice filled his ears and Edward frowned. "I just got a call from a very upset Bella, telling me how you treated her today. Have you no respect for the woman who carry your child, and my grandchild?" Esme demanded to know.

"She called you, of course she did," Edward sighed, pushing Emmett's legs out of the way so he could have a seat on the couch as well. "Let me have it then."

And Esme gave it to him, for an hour and more.

"-women are humans too!"

"-I've raised you better than this!"

"-she's the best thing to ever happen to you! Don't make her run off without another look back!"

"Make it right are I will be a very disappointed mother!" with that, Esme ended the call and Edward breathed out properly for the first time since he answered the damn phone.

He didn't waist another minute but grabbed his bag and marched into Emmett's bedroom, finding Bella rolling from her left side to her back, then to her right side and then back on her back.

"Uncomfortable?" he asked as he set the bag down at the end of the bed.

"What do you think?" Bella snapped as she struggled to sit up, the many pillows on the bed being both heaven and hell.

"I'm sorry for have I treated you today," Edward murmured softly as he helped her sit up, removing a few of the many pillows covering the bed. "I had no right to demanded anything of you, or threaten you like I did: you are your own person and there's nothing I can tell you to do that you have to do if you don't want to. It's just that, I feel very protective of you, both of you. If anything happens to you, it will happen to our little girl, and I want to be around all the time to prevent anything from happening."

"Treat me like that again, and I will make sure that you wish for everything to just be a dream, a very, very bad dream you can't escape."

"You're kind of creepy when you're angry and full of hormones," it slipped out before Edward could stop himself from letting it go.

"Good, then maybe you will take it to heart," huffing, Bella turned on to her left side, fluffed the pillow and sighed deeply when she was finally comfortable.

*** C R S ***

"Spill all the beans and don't you dare keep anything from me: I will find out one way or the other," Rose was once again resting against a mountain of pillows, curtsey of Emmett.

She was looking much better than she had when Bella had arrived the night before. The color was coming back to her cheeks and she wasn't looking so pale. Her glorious golden mane of hair that had been dull and lifeless was slowly coming back to life, a slight shine to her golden locks as the sun hit her.

Bella told her everything, well, almost: she kept the fact that at one point in their 'relationship', Edward had paid her for sex to herself. Everything else were explained to the tiniest detail, the sex, Edward's tight body and tattoos that covered his tanned skin. Nothing else was kept away from Rose as she listened carefully to Bella's tale.

"And then he showed up in San Francisco. Emmett claimed that they were working on a case together and as Emmett's assistant at the time, I had to be at their meeting. The thing is, the case he claimed they were working on never existed: I've searched and I've asked around, but there's nothing. The last case they worked on was three years ago."

"Maybe he missed you," Rose shrugged as she sipped her juice.

"He didn't miss me, trust my words because there were nothing between is than sex. We never really talked about anything, not until Charlie's funeral."

"I can't believe Charlie is dead," Rose whispered and tears gathered in her eyes, kick-starting Bella's hormones and starting the waterworks.

That's how Edward and Emmett found them when they entered Rose's room: Bella sitting awkwardly on the edge of the bed, both the girls with the arms tightly wrapped around the other as they cried, morning Charlie.

"What's wrong?" Emmett demanded to know and rushed over to Rose, making Bella cry even harder as she saw her best friends eyes light up at the sight of Emmett, worried and confused.

"We were just talking about everything that's happen since last summer," Bella mumbled as she tried to control her tears.

"We were talking about everything that's happened to Bella since last summer," Rose corrected and Bella didn't miss the pointed look Rose gave Edward.

"Everything you say?" and Bella didn't miss the hard look Edward gave her.

"Yeah, I don't know what's going on here, but I think you've had enough visit for one day," Emmett tried to usher them out of the room and Bella realized that Edward and Emmett had left them alone for several hours.

"We will leave so she can rest, Emmett, but there's something I need to know," turning back to Rose, Bella took a more comfortable seat at the edge of the bed. "I need to know how you ended up in the hospital, in coma! No one knew anything and Royce has gone underground."

"Of course he has," Rose scoffed, her face darkening. "When I met Royce, I really liked him because he fit into my wish for a foreign summer fling, though we met in December. He was nice to me, funny, a little rough around the edges, and tall and dark." Bella hid her smile as Rose described Emmett. "But he wasn't as nice he had made me believe: Royce enjoyed lashing out." The tension that filled the room came from Edward and Emmett, both of them curling their hands into fists at their sides, their faces set in stone.

"It surprised me the first time it happened, because we had just had sex and I was filling kind of awesome, knowing I had surprised him with some moves he hadn't expected me to do. The second time came as a surprise as well but when the third lash out came around, I was prepared: I gave him a taste of his own medicine. And before you ask the question Bella, yes I did kick him out of the apartment I rented but he always came back, a crying mess and you know crying men are my weakness. Anyway, the night I ended up here, we had just had our second fight that takes the cake. A few days before, he had pushed me into the wall and I hit my head. A splitting headache followed and I was in a really bad mood as I had barely slept because of the pain when he suddenly got angry for nothing. Tired, I didn't fight back as good as usual and then he hit me in the head. That's all I remember and then I woke up to this monkey sitting by my bed, staring at me like a drooling fool."

"The police," Edward started but Rose cut him off.

"Wouldn't have helped me because whenever he got worked up and lashed out, I did the same. I their eyes, I would have been just as bad as him and I was, so going to the police would only have sent me into jail as well."

"We will let you rest," Bella murmured, hugging Rose before making sure the blanket in top of the thin covers were tucked into the sides to keep her warm.

Emmett stayed behind for a little longer but Edward took Bella back to the apartment.

"You told her everything?" was the first thing he asked when the door closed behind them.

"Not everything, she doesn't know about our little deal at the beginning of the summer, just the normal office sex-fling-thing we had. Which led to this," Bella winched when their little baby girl gave her a good kick to the ribs.

"I think I have a name for her," Edward murmured, dismissing the previous topic as he placed his hands on Bella's stomach. "How about naming her after Charlie?" Tears came to Bella's eyes. "In fact, how about calling her after both your parents? Charlotte Renee?"

"I love it," Bella whispered before she started to sob into Edward's shirt.

*** C R S ***

"I have something to confess," Bella murmured softly, looking down at her hands.

A week and a half and gone by since Rose had woken up and they were all waiting for the doctors to send her home to the States. With help from Carlisle and Esme, there were a chance that they would be able to bring Rose with them home the very same day.

"And what is it you wish to confess, my child," Rose tried to speak in a priests voice but failed, making Bella laugh, and pee herself ever so slightly.

"In college, I earned my money a little differently than everyone else." Bella were unable to lift her eyes from her hands.

"I know," Rose's soft voice slowly coaxed the chin up from where it had been resting on Bella's chest.

"You know?"

"Everyone on campus knew, Bells, and everyone went along with it because we all knew why you were doing it. Everyone, even those who didn't really need your service, paid you to pretend to bee their girlfriend or date. Ali and I knew that if we raised the money and gave them to you, you would refuse because you will never take charity from anyone. The same with Charlie because you're cut from the same cloth. We all wanted to see you happy again and carefree instead of constantly worrying about Charlie."

"So I've been trying to keep it away from Alice and you for these past years, but you already knew?"

"We wanted to tell you that we knew about it, but then when Charlie went in for his first treatment, you were so happy and proud for being able to raise the money you needed, so we kept our mouths shut, watching you proudly from the sideline. Talking about Ali, where is she?"

"I have no idea," Bella shrugged, glad for the change of subject, and relived that she didn't have to explain everything about her past 'job'. "When I talked with her around Christmas, she gave me a number to reach her on but no one is answering."

"She's probably meditating with a group of monks high in the mountains in some country," Rose shrugged, "She will call us soon and anyway, her trip is almost at the end so I guess we won't have to wait long before we see her again."

Late, as in the middle of the night, their plane landed in Boston and Edward took Bella home, and Emmett brought Rose home with him. Too tired to do anything, Bella simply wrenched her clothes off and crawled under the covers naked, her eyes closing before her head even hit the pillow.

Unfortunately, too soon, the sun woke her up, along with a full bladder, and Bella had no other choice than to get up and get dressed.

While they had been in London, the painters had finished most of the paint jobs, a few windows left and the roof throughout the apartment still waiting for a fresh layer of paint. With a piece of toast in her hand, Bella wandered bare feet across the hall to her own apartment and let herself in. The place smelled of paint, heavily, and would need a thorough airing before Bella could spend some lengthy time in it, especially when Charlie were born.

Curious, Bella wandered around, glad to see all the orange, brown and green gone, replaces with white in the kitchen and light sky blue in the living room. She couldn't wait to see her bedroom finished as she had found a perfect pale emerald green for her walls and a rich honey colored wooden floor that would run through the whole apartment.

Alas, they had yet to start her room Bella realized when it was still covered in a horrid red and green wallpaper. The room next to hers would become little Charlie's room but Bella was struggling with what kind of color she wanted to give her little girl's room.

Opening the door, she expected it to be white as it waited for the real color, but it was everything than white. Three of the walls were a soft buttercup, the floor covered with a white and fluffy floss carpet. The third wall was the most amazing thing Bella had ever seen: the wall was picture taken from 'The Lion King' when all the animals gathers at the beginning of the film and Rafiki holds Simba up for everyone to see. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

A knock on the door sounded through the empty apartment and Bella racked her brain for a reason why anyone would choose to knock on her door before she even had moved in: Edward would have walked in as if he owned the place, Emmett would have called her and Rose didn't even know where she lived, apart from the fact that she lived with Edward until her own place was finished.

"Oh, hi," Bella smiled at the person on the other side of the door.

Just a little suspense.

Because of May 17th, Norway's National Day, there won't be much time, so the next chapter will come 22nd of May!