Hmm, sorry about this...Bella's not going to die. I can pretty much promise that.

Chapter 9

"Mommy, what's wrong?" Bella's looking from her mother to her father scared by the look on their faces when they wake her up early to talk.

"Bella, baby girl…" Taylor sits on Bella's bed and pulls Bella up to sit on her lap. She kisses the top of her daughter's head before looking at Ryan. He sits down next to them and wraps his arm around his ex-girlfriend kissing the side of her head.

Taylor gives Ryan a smile knowing he's going to be there through all of this. Knowing that he won't leave their side. Ever.

"What's wrong?" Bella lays her head back on Taylor's chest before looking at her father.

"Remember when you got real sick, Bell?" Taylor asked running her hand through her daughters white blonde hair. Bella nodded. "Remember how we went to the doctor the other day?" Bella nodded again. "Baby…you're sick again…" Taylor wrapped her arms tightly around Bella's body as the little girl cried in her mother's arms.

"Why?" Bella whispered. Taylor looked at Ryan. This was too much. Way too much for her to handle.

"I have no idea…baby girl." Taylor whispered.

"I'm sorry, mommy. I didn't mean to get sick again." Bella cried.

"You didn't do this, babe. This isn't your fault." This was breaking Ryan's heart as he took his arm from around Taylor to reach for his daughter. He needed to hold her. Make her feel better or at least safe. "You're going to be okay." He rubbed her back once she was in his arms with her face buried in his right shoulder. "I won't let anything bad happen to you. You'll get through this." He was mostly trying to reassure himself. He knew he needed to be strong for both Bella and Taylor sake but this was hard. He didn't know what to do about this.

"Promise?" Bella asked.

Ryan looked at Taylor. He knew he'd do whatever possible to make sure that little girl lived, she already had a place in his heart, but he also knew that was something he couldn't promise her or her mother.

"I'll do my best, okay?" He says. Bella takes that answer nodding starting to calm down from crying so much.

"Can we stay home today and watch movies?" She asks. Ryan looks at Taylor. He has so much to do with the Newport Group building and getting everything situated but he also knows he can't turn down that beautiful face of his daughter.

"I'll call Julie." He says.

"I'll call work and Bella's school." She says. Ryan gives her a smile. He can't believe that Bella's in pre-school.

"Can I pick the movie?" Bella removes her face from Ryan's neck finally.

"Of course, baby girl." Taylor tells her. She was able to stop crying so that Bella wouldn't see. Bella smiles before hopping off of Ryan's lap and walking out of her room. Ryan laughs. She's still in her pajama's and her hair's all messy.

"She's going to pick Cinderella. Then we'll watch Ariel next if she can make it…" Taylor tells Ryan.

"Sounds good." Sure enough Bella comes back into the room holding up her favorite movie. Cinderella.

"I'll go put it on." Ryan takes the movie from her hands and starts out of the room wanting to give Taylor some alone time with Bella.

"I love you Mommy." Is all Bella tells her mother before following her father out of the room. She catches up with him and takes his hand.

Taylor watches this. As much as she loves that Bella's become attached to Ryan and as much as she loves that they are getting along…she misses having her little girl to herself. She knows it's selfish but it's strange to Taylor having to share Bella.

-

"That took all of five minutes…" Ryan glanced over at his daughter who within the first five minutes of the movie had fallen asleep quickly.

"It will happen a lot." Taylor spoke quietly just looking ahead of her with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Sandy called…he wanted to know if we wanted to go to Berkeley one weekend…you know to visit with Bella but I told him probably not because she probably wouldn't be feeling good…" Ryan spoke uncertainly.

"Did you tell him?" Taylor asked.

"No." He shook his head.

"Thank you…I'm sure we can go up there for a weekend. Bella will be fine." She gave him a smile.

"Will you tell them?" He questioned.

"I don't see why not. It's not like it should be some big secret…I'm just scared their going to hate me for what I've done…keeping your daughter from you." She said quietly.

"Don't worry about that anymore, Taylor. I don't care…it happened and neither of us can change the past as much as we really want to…"

"Okay. Is it bad that I'm still in love with you?" She grinned. Ryan didn't say anything to her. Because he felt the same. Because he knew if he said something it was either something he didn't want to say or something she didn't want to hear. So he just looked ahead of him and that conversation was completely over.

-

"Ryan." Sandy Cohen spoke into the phone.

"Hey Sandy." Ryan took a deep breath.

"What's going on? You sound upset." Sandy was good.

"Yeah well…I talked to Taylor and she said that it'd be okay if we went up to Berkeley for a weekend with Bella." Ryan told him.

"That's great! Sophie's going to be so excited."

"Yeah…well I'm going to have to talk to you later…Bella's up now and she wants some ice cream." Ryan grinned looking over at the blonde on the couch. Taylor had to go to her office quickly leaving Ryan in charge of his little girl.

-

"Daddy…I don't feel so good." Bella clutched her stomach tightly before bending over and throwing up whatever had been in her stomach all over the backseat of Ryan's car. Ryan glanced back. He wasn't worried about his car. That could be fixed…or cleaned. He was worried about his daughter. He pulled over to the side of the road and quickly got out. Upon noticing Bella in a crumpled state in her car seat he also saw the blood…

"Bella…" He shook the girl. She wasn't responding. This wasn't good. Not good at all.

"Taylor!? Something's wrong…" Ryan spoke or more like yelled into the phone when he called the mother of his child. She had said something and then told him to take Bella to the hospital.

This wasn't good. Not even close.