Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. I do, however, own Vern and Tilda Barr.

Chapter Four: The Barr's

Bella Cullen

A couple of days after the dinner with Ethan, I dug around in the closet in Edward's and mine bedroom and pulled out our old family photo albums. I settled down on the couch in the living room and opened the first one.

The first picture – and one of my favorites – was of Edward, Elizabeth and I, taken when she was barely a day old. I was sitting in the hospital bed, holding her warm little body close to mine, smiling at the camera. Edward was sitting in the chair next to the bed, leaning over so his arm could be around my shoulders.

I laughed softly as I saw the gauze on his forehead, remembering the moment when I had seen the gauze….

Emmett reluctantly handed me Elizabeth and waved as he, Rosalie, and Esme walked out the door.

That was when I noticed the small square of white gauze on the side of Edward's forehead. "What happened to your forehead, Edward?" I asked.

Alice and Jasper laughed as Edward turned a deep shade of red.

"Apparently, I passed out last night and hit my head on that table," he said pointing to the table beside my bed.

I laughed quietly, not wanting to wake the little angel that was in my arms. "It was quite funny when you passed out."

"Hey, Mom."

I looked up to see Elizabeth sitting down on the couch next to me with a bowl of buttered popcorn. I wrapped my arm around her and gave her a hug. "Hi, sweetie."

"What are you looking at?" she asked.

"Old photo albums," I said. I pointed to the picture I was looking at. "You were barely a day old when that photo was taken."

"I was so small," Elizabeth said. Then she laughed and said, "Why is there gauze on Dad's forehead?"

I laughed. "He couldn't handle the contractions I was having and passed out. You would think that he could have been supportive through all the pain that I was suffering at the time, but … he decided to pass out and hit his head on the bedside table instead."

She laughed. "I bet Uncle Emmett and Uncle Jasper teased him mercilessly."

"Oh, yes, they did," I said, laughing. "I found it quite funny when I saw the gauze on his forehead."

We flipped through the pages, laughing at funny photos of the family and eating the popcorn. We came to another one of my favorite pictures – a picture of the four of us when Nathan wasn't even a day old. I was sitting in the hospital bed holding him in my arms. Elizabeth was sitting next to me and Edward was once again sitting in the hospital chair beside the bed, leaning over to wrap his arm around my shoulder.

I looked our faces. All of us – excluding Nathan, who was sleeping – were looking at the camera. I looked exhausted but happy and full of love for the new little baby in my arms. Elizabeth had a look of pure excitement on her face, all the while looking already protective over her baby brother. And Edward had a goofy, crooked grin plastered on his face. I could see the immense love on his face for me, for Elizabeth, for Nathan….

"I love this picture," Elizabeth said.

"I know," I said, nodding in agreement. "It's one of my favorites."

We sat there on the couch, enjoying looking through the albums. It was a relatively quiet late afternoon. Nathan was over at Zeke's house for the afternoon and Edward was at the hospital. They were both due home in about an hour.

"So, Mom, are you excited about meeting Ethan's parent's tomorrow?" Elizabeth asked as we went to the kitchen so I could start cooking supper.

I looked at her. "Honestly?" I asked. She smiled and nodded. "I'm kind of nervous."

Elizabeth giggled. "Well, they're really nice, so you have nothing to be worried about. You'll love them. Trust me. Do you think Dad is excited?"

I shrugged. "I should think so. I mean, what father doesn't want to meet the future in-laws of their daughter?"

~~0~~

"I can't believe that we were roped into having lunch with them," Edward said as we drove through Port Angeles.

I laughed and patted his hand. "It'll be fun. Turn right."

A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of a blue house that was relatively large for a house in Port Angeles. In fact, the house kind of looked like it came straight out of a magazine. The lawn was perfectly tidy, not a twig or a branch in sight, and the bushes that lined the house were clipped to the T. There were – and I have no idea how a person could do it in the rainy weather of the Olympic Peninsula – flowers in flower troughs that lined the railing that ran along the porch.

Edward and I exchanged a glance.

"Did we get the right house?" he asked, grabbing the MapQuest sheets from my hands and looking at the address.

"95 Pimmell Road," I said. "Right there."

Any other person, I'm sure, would take one glance at this house and think, "Oh, that's a lovely house!" I, on the other hand, thought, "Oh, that house looks like it could belong in The Stepford Wives!"

We took one last glance at each other, and got out of the car, me grabbing the loaf of my chocolate chip banana bread that I had made earlier that morning. Edward grabbed my hand as we started up the walkway, and I let our hands lay entwined between his pant leg and my brown skirt.

"I hope I dressed okay," I whispered to him as we walked up the steps of the porch.

"You look beautiful. I, on the other hand, hope I chose the right shirt," he whispered back.

I snorted as I rang the doorbell. "You did." I paused before adding, "After you changed it six times."

"This coming from the woman who changed her outfit seven times," he whispered back, and he had my favorite crooked grin on his face, so I knew he was only teasing me.

The door opened and before us stood a short woman in a maids outfit. She had raven black hair and a Spanish look about her. She looked at Edward and I curiously, and said in a deep, deep Spanish accent, "May I help you?"

"Yes, hi, I'm Edward Cullen and this is my wife, Bella. Uh, we're here to meet Vern and Tilda Barr for lunch," Edward said.

The woman looked Edward up and down in a strange manner and then looked at me. I smiled at her. After a few seconds, she said, "Follow me."

She opened the door wider to allow us through and we stepped into a beautiful hallway that had a beautiful marble floor with the fluffiest looking carpet you could imagine on top of it. Hanging on one wall, there was a large mirror that had beautifully ornate gold frame around it. On either side of the door there were two large plants in large ceramic pots.

There was also a bit a spicy smell to the air, almost as if little bags of different spices were hidden around the rooms.

The woman led us into a room off to the side that I assumed was the living room, which was absolutely gorgeous. There were three large, tan leather couches, an expensive looking rug that had an interesting design on it, and more plants.

"Sit," the woman told us and then walked out of the room.

Edward and I looked at each other. "I suppose we should sit," Edward said and I nodded in agreement.

We had only been sitting a moment when two people who I assumed were Ethan's parents entered the room. The woman was about my height, had blonde hair, and wearing clothes that looked too formal for a sit down lunch. The man next to her was a little taller than Edward and he, as well, was wearing too formal clothes – a black suit, complete with a blue tie.

"Welcome to our home! You must be Elizabeth's parents," the woman exclaimed as Edward and I stood up. "I'm Tilda and this is my husband, Vern."

We shook hands with them as I said, "Thank you for having us. I'm Bella and this is my husband, Edward. You have a beautiful house."

"Thank you," Tilda said, looking immensely excited.

And then I remembered the tinfoil-wrapped loaf of chocolate chip banana bread that was in my hands and said, "Oh, here, I made some chocolate chip banana bread for you guys."

Tilda took it, smiling all the wider. "Oh, that's so lovely. Thank you so much!"

Okay, this lady is beginning to scare me a little, I thought to myself.

The maid that opened the front door walked into the living room then with a tray that had four glasses with some sort of drink mixture in it. She set it down on the coffee table, and as she straightened up, Tilda said something to her in Spanish.

The woman nodded, taking the chocolate chip banana bread from Tilda's hands, and left the living room.

"Shall we sit?" Vern asked.

As soon as we were comfortable and picking up our glasses with the weird looking drink mixture in it, Tilda said, "Elizabeth has told us so much about you. She speaks lively about you both."

Edward and I looked at each other, smiling and then looked back at Vern and Tilda. "So, you two have met Liz before?" Edward said.

"Oh, yes. She is such a lovely girl, so sweet and charming. We went to Greece for a couple of weeks and met up with Ethan and Elizabeth there. Let me tell you, I was nervous at first meeting the girl my boy was wanting to marry, but boy, let me tell you. I had no idea I was going to meet a girl like that," Vern said, chuckling a little.

"Yeah, she is a very sweet girl," I agreed.

I took a sip of my lemonade and had to hold myself back from spitting it back into the glass. I sneaked a glance over at Edward, who had taken a sip and he had paused as well. Forcing myself to swallow, I said, "This is very interesting drink that you have here." I placed the glass on the coffee table. "Is it some sort of lemonade?"

"Oh, it's not lemonade, dear. It's iced tea with a little bit of spice added to it. My mother always told me that it's good for a person to drink iced tea with spice in it. It helps keep your mind working," Tilda said. "It's also good to put the smell of spice in the air, don't you think?" The question was pointed towards me.

Not really, but whatever. "Absolutely," I said.

"What kind of spices are in here?" Edward asked, pointing to the drink mixture in the glass.

"Oh, only a little bit of Cajun pepper. Clears out your sinuses, let me tell you," Vern said.

After a few seconds silence, Tilda asked, "So what do you two do for a living?"

"Well, I'm a doctor. I work at the Forks General Hospital down in Forks," Edward said. "I work alongside my dad, Carlisle."

"And what about you, Bella?" Tilda asked.

"I own a small bookstore in Forks," I said.

"Oh, that's lovely," Tilda said. "What's the name of the bookstore? I might stop by one of these days to say hello."

The maid came back in and spoke in Spanish to Tilda and then walked back out of the room.

"Well, lunch is served," Tilda said in an all too cheery voice.

Vern and Tilda led us into the dining room, another room that was decorated quite beautifully with a marble bust of some dead person. In the middle of the room stood a beautiful, gleaming, chestnut table with intricately carved legs and odd looking antique chairs around it. This room, too, had the odd smell of spice to it.

Over lunch, Vern and Tilda told us stories about the time that they lived in Madrid. They told us how they met ("It was a very hot, lovely day and we happened to be at the same beach at the same time," said Vern), what their wedding was like ("It was magnificent! Hundreds of people, ornate dresses, beautiful reception…" prattled on Tilda with a dreamy look in her eyes), several stories about Ethan's childhood ("Vern, do you remember that time when he wanted a turtle and we got him one and it got run over by a truck?" Tilda asked. Vern laughed and nodded), etc.

Edward Cullen

Lunch was interesting.

While Vern and Tilda told us stories from their life, we ate a chicken and rice with bean dish, and it had the strong taste of curry. It kind of shocked Bella's and mine mouths when we took the first bite – our mouths went ablaze as soon it was in our mouths. It was really good, but was too strong in flavor. Not wanting to seem rude, we ate our portion, with the assistance of our glasses of ice cold water.

Vern and Tilda had a … very interesting demeanor about them. They were cheery, and there were permanent smiles plastered on their faces.

It was getting a bit tiring, them laughing so much and Vern keeping on saying "Let me tell you" at the end of every sentence, and the both of them smiling nonstop and I could tell that it was beginning to get to Bella as well.

"So, did Ethan and Elizabeth tell you how they met?" Tilda asked.

Bella took another drink of water and nodded. "Yes. I thought it was so nice of your son to rescue her from the Trevi fountain."

"Have you two ever been to Europe?" Vern asked. "It's a wonderful place, it is."

We both nodded. "I took Bella to Paris for our honeymoon," I said. "We enjoyed it immensely."

"It was gorgeous," Bella nodded in agreement.

Desert was brought in then – normal chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Surprisingly, and thankfully, there were no spices in the cake.

"So, do you two have any more kids or is Elizabeth an only child?" Tilda asked as we ate dessert.

"Only one – Nathan. He's sixteen," Bella said.

"Oh, that's right. Elizabeth did mention she had a younger brother. He must be as sweet as Elizabeth for being related to her," Tilda said cheerfully.

Bella and I smiled at each other. "He can be sweet when he wants to," Bella said. "He certainly was when he was a baby."

Just as Tilda was about to launch into a story about the time when Ethan was born, my pager went off, and I couldn't have been more grateful. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the number on the screen. The hospital was calling.

"Uh, if you'll excuse me a moment, I just have to make a quick call," I said, stuffing the pager back into my pocket.

"Oh, of course," Tilda said, never getting rid of the smile.

"I'll be right back," I said and got up from the table.

It turned out that one of the doctors had called out sick and needed me to come and fill in for them.

The Barr's came outside to stand on the porch to see us off.

"Thank you so much for inviting us for lunch. It was very good," Bella said.

"You're welcome, Bella," Tilda said. "And thank you for the chocolate chip banana bread – you have no idea how much we love it here! We should do this again some time."

As soon as we were out of sight of the Barr's house, Bella let her head fall back on the headrest and said, "Oh. My. God."

"I know," I said, completely agreeing.

"That was … scary!" she said. "Have you ever seen anyone so prim and proper? It reminded me of The Stepford Wives! Don't get me wrong, they were really nice, but …."

I laughed and entwined my hand in hers. "Just think, love. They're going to a part of the family soon!"

Author's Note: Well, I hope everybody enjoyed the chapter. I tried to make Vern and Tilda as interesting and annoying as possible, so I hope I did them justice. I'm not particularly thrilled with the chapter, and I apologize if it was a little bit boring to read.

Next chapter, Elizabeth and Ethan set a date for the wedding. We'll also be dress shopping for a wedding dress (with the help of Alice, Bella and Rosalie)! And a new character will show up unexpectedly, so I hope you'll read on!

Please drop a review on your way out (I'm begging for it) and tell me what you thought of the chapter and who you think is the new character. I'll give a shoutout to the person who guesses the closest! Until Next Time, Lemonade Ninja.