Bella

I held up a blue shirt with some kind of fairy on it. It wasn't anything I would have liked at her age, but I didn't know what Katie would like.

"What about this?"

Katie frowned. She'd been pretty nervous at first about voicing her opinion but when Alice tried to push some super girly pink frilly dress on her, she'd balked and put her foot down. Apparently, pink was not her favorite color. She had pink clothes but her mom had picked them out. So, now we were all pointedly avoiding pink.

"I'm not really a big fan of fairies."

"Ok. What do you like?"

She chewed on her lip, a total Edward move. "Zombies?"

I froze, staring at her for a long moment. "Do you even know what zombies are?"

"Yeah. I like monsters."

I laughed and shook my head in amazement, stuffing the blue shirt back in. "We'll see what we can find."

She smiled and reached forward, slipping her hand into mine. Rose grinned at me over the top of the rack and motioned towards the boys section. "Come on, Katie, I'll be we find some awesome zombie stuff over here."

Katie looked up at me anxiously. I smiled encouragingly. "It's alright. Rose is one of the good guys."

Katie nodded and headed off with Rose. Alice sighed dismally when they were out of earshot.

"Looks like you're in the same boat as me," she said dramatically.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "What exactly does that mean?"

"No getting to buy cute girl clothes. Rose has all the luck with Gwen. Of course the machoist guy in the group got the most adorable baby girl." She pretended to pout but I knew she secretly loved seeing how Emmett was wrapped around his daughter's tiny finger. He'd go to the moon and back for one of her smiles or kisses.

I grinned. "I honestly have no idea what to do with a girl," I admitted. "I mean, Hilary was my last real interaction with a girl child and that's been seven years now."

"Yeah. Oh, did you know she's here in Chicago? I think she's at UC."

My eyes widened. "Shit, is she that old already?"

Alice laughed. "Yes. She turned 13 the year you were there or did you forget?"

I sighed. "No, I'm just in total denial she and Todd are growing up. I still get emails and cards from them, how bizarre is that?"

"Dude, they were in your fucking wedding."

I grinned, remembering the junior bridesmaid and groomsman. They'd been beyond thrilled to be included in the proceedings and their little sister, Roberta, had been pulled down the aisle as our flower girl, even though I'd never had charge of her. I felt old, realizing she was just a year younger than Katie.

"I wonder why she hasn't looked us up yet," I mused, pulling out a pretty blue top for me and adding it to our giant pile. Shopping with Alice was a marathon on a regular day. Black Friday was the worst. I remembered the year after she and Jasper got married, she dragged me out at four am, on my birthday no less, to shop. I'd been pretty annoyed, a fact that was only slightly tempered by brunch at my favorite restaurant and a fuckawesome birthday present of her promising to not make me shop with her during the after-Christmas sales. And a $100 gift card to my favorite book store. And three pounds of fudge from my favorite place in Decatur.

"Maybe she's worried you won't be interested in seeing her or something," she said with a shrug.

"Possibly, but that's ridiculous. The Bonners stop by whenever they make a trip up here, have for years."

"Yeah, well, this time her parents aren't with her. It's different."

I nodded and yawned. "Is it almost time to meet the guys? I'm wiped."

She checked her watch. "I think so. It's almost noon and we're meeting them at 1:30 at Earwax."

I shook my head. "Weird name for a restaurant."

"Weird, or totally awesome?"

I laughed and maneuvered our cart over towards Rose and Katie. They'd managed to find some Katie-approved shirts and hoodies. We made our way towards the changing room and Rose and Alice took up assistant duty while Katie and I shuffled into a changing room with our arms full.

She looked nervous at first when I gestured for her to take off her clothes and try on what we had brought in.

"Don't look, ok?"

I nodded. "Of course. But you can't look at me either."

A hint of a smile played at the corner of her lips as she carefully pulled off her coat and shoes, turning her back to me as she pulled her ratty shirt off. I bit back a sigh when I saw the sharpness of her shoulder blades again. I turned my back on her and stripped off my own shirt, pulling on the blue one.

I fluffed my hair and studied myself critically in the mirror.

"Well?"

Katie studied me appraisingly. "I like it. It makes your skin look nice."

I smiled. "Thanks. I like your shirt, too."

She'd pulled on a black shirt with what looked like the cover to the Beatles Abbey Road album, but the last three guys were zombies. She nodded, studying herself in the mirror like I just had, turning from side to side.

We worked quickly, discarding only a few items and passing things back and forth to Rose and Alice, who ran around getting alternate sizes and keeping tabs on what we were keeping.

"Oh crap, I'm supposed to call Edward," I muttered, digging through my purse. I was shirtless and Katie was staring at my breasts unabashedly. Oh for the innocence of youth.

I hid my grin as I found my phone and pulled it out. I quickly pulled up Edward's number and hit send, pulling on my regular clothes as Katie did the same.

"'lo?"

I smiled. "Hey, morning, Sexy Hair. How's your morning been?"

"Lonely. Is it time for me to get out of bed?"

"It is. We found some great stuff for Katie. I think you're going to like it."

"I'm sure I will. Did you get anything?"

I grinned, knowing exactly what he was talking about. His favorite part of the now annual trek with Alice was when she dragged me into the lingerie stores and stocked me up for the coming year. Left to my own devices, I wouldn't have matching bras and panties but to Alice, and even Rose, that was a mortal sin, worthy of being the 8th deadliest.

"I got a couple things. I'll show you later."

"Is the munchkin there?"

"Yep. Wanna talk to her?"

"Um…sure." He sounded surprised but not upset. I smiled at Katie.

"Sweetie, do you want to talk to Edward?"

"Ok." She took the phone. "Hi Daddy. Are you having lunch with us?"

I grinned and pulled my shirt back on, ready to switch places with Rose and Alice.

Edward

I lay on the bed, my eyes closed and a silly smile on my face as I listened to Katie talk excitedly. It was unbelievable to me that she'd only been in my life for a day and a half and she was this talkative with me. I suppose that had to be my genes since Tanya had told me she was incredibly shy as a kid. I frowned when I heard something about zombies.

"Zombies?"

"Yeah, Daddy, they're wicked cool."

I stifled a laugh but only just. Wicked cool? Were kids saying that these days? "I was not aware of this."

"Oh no, Daddy, they are." She said it with such seriousness I had to grin. "Are you coming to lunch?"

"I am. I'll have to hang up now so I can get dressed."

"Ok. We'll see you there then."

"You sure will. Tell Bella I said bye."

"Ok. Bye!" and the line was dead.

I chuckled to myself as I put my phone on the nightstand and stood up, stretching. I showered and dressed quickly, my talk with Katie having gone on a little longer than it probably should have, but I really liked talking to her. I was discovering I liked this parenting thing. So far, so good. I hoped.

I drove carefully to the restaurant, the roads slick with the rain, and not-so-easily found a parking space about a block away. I grumbled to myself about getting wet then realized my hair was still wet from my shower.

I hunched my shoulders and hurried the distance from the car to the restaurant. It was easy enough to find the guys: they were sitting in the back around a large table with the three kids. Emmett was wearing a pink plastic princess tiara complete with purple flowers and tulle veil and repeatedly getting smacked in the shoulder with a plastic wand by a giggling Gwen. Jasper and the boys were wearing superhero masks, the hard plastic kind that have an elastic string that attaches them to your face. Jasper was Wonder Woman, Will was Spiderman and Harry was Batman.

"Hey guys," I grinned, shrugging out of my jacket. Jasper looked up from the book he was reading aloud, Have I Ever Told You How Lucky You Are? I loved that book as a kid.

"Ed!" shouted Harrison excitedly. I shot his dad a glare before grinning down at him.

"Hey buddy."

"Up!" he shouted, raising his arms.

"Sorry, we're about to eat."

He sighed melodramatically and looked back down at his scribbled picture. "Fine." Just like his mom, he could lay on the guilt without hardly looking at you.

"So do I get a costume or is it just you two losers?" I grinned, dropping into an empty seat towards the end of the table.

"Well, the boys did bring you a mask," grinned Jasper. "It was picked out specifically for you. I made the mistake of attempting to put it on and got yelled at."

"Yeah, it was pretty horrifying." It was really hard to take Emmett seriously, especially when I saw now that he had a pink boa around his neck.

"Dude, you are whipped by your 18-month-old."

He grinned. "I know. Isn't it great?"

I grinned and nodded. "It is."

Jasper had been rummaging around in a bag during that exchange and sat up triumphantly with a mask for me. I laughed when I saw it was Michelangelo, the ninja turtle.

"Badass."

Harry grinned. "Ass."

"Crap, sorry Jasper."

"Don't worry about it. Alice taught him that one."

I grinned and pulled on my mask. It was hard to see out of and it squashed my nose, making it some hard to breath but I still felt hella cool wearing it. I pulled a couple of random rubber bands out of my pockets and made nunchuks with my silverware. I was playing around with them, making the kids giggle by my lame usage. I'd have to practice more.

"So tell us about Katie. Who's her mom?"

I set my nunchuks down and sighed running my fingers through my damp hair. "Remember Tanya?" They both stared at me blankly. "Tall, skinny, hippy chick?"

"The one who didn't shave? Or bathe much?" Emmett asked with a frown.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah."

"Dude, why did you keep sleeping with her? I don't get it."

"Yeah, me either. Anyway, the last time we were together apparently something didn't work and now there's Katie. Her birthday is tomorrow."

Jasper let out a low whistle. "Bella's birthday."

I nodded and grabbed Emmett's drink and took a sip, making a face. "Seriously? Diet?"

He shrugged. "I've got to keep my girlish figure to keep Rose interested."

I shook my head and looked to Jasper. "What do you have?"

"Tea. I'm not allowed to drink carbonated beverages."

"You're both whipped."

"And loving it."

I laughed. "Yeah, same here, though Bella's not so strict."

"So…Katie?"

"Right. Sorry." I filled them in on what I knew: Tanya's "plans" and her illness, the fact that I knew enough about her past to not want any kid, let alone mine, to have to grow up with the people she called parents, and how accepting she was of us already.

"Dude, she calls me 'Daddy.' How great is that?"

Emmett grinned. "Fuckawesome."

I quirked an eyebrow at him and he waved his hand dismissively. "She's too young to really understand it, right sweetie?" he turned and made a face at Gwen who beamed and promptly smacked his nose with her wand.

Jasper and I burst out laughing and the kids did too, though they really had no clue what they were laughing at. It was during the hysterics that the girls came in. I grinned at Bella and Katie's pink cheeks as they pulled off their coats and joined us at the table.

"How was shopping?" I asked Katie as she clambered into a seat on one side of me while Bella sat on the other side.

"Good. I got zombie stuff."

"Awesome. Did you get me anything?"

She looked up at me, horror struck. "No, Daddy. I'm sorry. I didn't see any zombie stuff for you."

"It's ok. I'll find something on my own, I guess."

Bella laughed softly. "Don't worry Katie, I got some things for him." She winked at me and I grinned back at her stupidly.

Lunch was pretty normal for us, lots of laughter and talking, the kids being rambunctious and hilarious at the same time. I had to remove my mask when our food came and when I went to grab it again, I saw Katie had it on. It fit her much better. Her eyes were visible through the holes and she didn't appear to have any trouble breathing.

"Do you even know who that is?" I asked her curiously.

"Of course," she sounded miffed. "It's Mikey. He's my favorite. He had nunchuks."

My jaw literally dropped. "You are so my daughter, beyond a doubt. He was always my favorite, too."

She grinned up at me, I could tell even through the mask. Bella checked her watch.

"We've got to get going," she announced, grabbing her purse and rummaging through it for some money. "I have some papers I need to work on grading and I don't want to put it off any longer."

The others nodded and started gathering up children and belongings. Gwen and Will had been fast asleep against their father's chests for a while now and Harry looked like he would be joining them soon. He was a trooper, but every trooper needed nap time.

It was raining harder when we got outside, so the babies were passed to the women and we men ran out for the cars. Katie followed behind me as I sloshed through puddles. I grinned and caught her up in my arms, a little alarmed by how light she was. She laughed and wrapped her arms around my neck excitedly.

We did a quick transfer of bags before there was a round of hugs and kisses and we parted ways. We were all meeting up for dinner tomorrow night for Bella's birthday so the last minute plans were shouted as we climbed into our cars and drove home.

Bella sat back in her seat and sighed contentedly. "That was nice."

"It was," I agreed, reaching across the console and taking her hand. She smiled at me and squeezed my hand. "Did you have fun, Katie?" I called over my shoulder.

"Yep. Can I really call them aunts and uncles and cousins?"

"You really can."

"But they're not?"

"No. Neither one of us has any brothers or sisters anymore."

I squeezed Bella's hand and she gave me a sad smile. She twisted slightly in the seat. "I'm going to call my mom and dad tonight. Would you like to talk to them?"

"Where do they live?"

"Texas."

Katie's eyes widened. "Like cowboys and Indians?"

Bella laughed and shook her head. "Not exactly. Not everyone in Texas is a cowboy."

"Oh."

"But I do have friends who are Indian. Maybe someday we'll make a trip down there and you can meet them."

Katie beamed. "I'd like that. And I'd like to meet your mommy and daddy too. Can I call them Grandma and Grandpa?"

"I'll ask them but I don't see why not."

Katie sat back, contented with that thought.

Tali: Heyo! So, this is the last written out chapter currently. I had a too-big gap between this and chapter 6 so I'm writing a new 6. And it's not done. I think I've got about 1000 words and TONS more to put in (multiple requests for longer chapters are being heard) but being sick is the pits. I'm having trouble reading updates I get, let alone finding the energy to write my own. So, be warned: there may be a delay between this and the next chapter. Sorry...