Edward

Bella was quiet as we dressed for dinner out with the others. We'd had lunch with the parents and Katie and now it was time for Bella's birthday dinner with adults. Mom and Dad were babysitting Katie for the night, taking her to Medieval Times for her birthday dinner and then back to their house for a movie and sleepover. They'd already come and picked her up and their kids were all safely ensconced with Jasper and Alice's parents.

"You look great," I smiled appreciatively as we made our way downstairs. She was wearing a green and black dress that hit her at the knee and showed off her shoulders and collarbone. I loved her collarbone and had to resist the urge to run my fingertips along it.

"Thanks. You look nice, too." She didn't look up at me, but I could hear the smile in her voice. That was reassuring.

There had been something off since her talk with her parents the night before. She'd been quiet all day, subdued and a little withdrawn. It had to be the Katie situation. She'd gone to bed almost immediately after hanging up with her mom and hadn't gotten up this morning until nearly 10, a rarity for her. She'd been awake but just laid in bed. Normally, I'd have been all over that situation, but with Katie in the mix, that was not an option. So, I got up, made bowls of cereal, and played around on the piano with Katie until Bella made her appearance.

She hadn't said much, just reminded us that we were meeting my parents for lunch at noon, before barricading herself in the dining room with papers that needed grading. Katie was self sufficient enough that she got herself ready to go, just needing Bella to do something with her hair.

Lunch was a bit strained and when we got back, Bella once again holed up in the dining room while Katie grabbed a book and asked me to read to her. And now, here we were, a few hours later, dressed and heading out to dinner with friends.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye as I carefully maneuvered the car on the rainy streets. She was looking out the window thoughtfully.

"Everything ok?" I asked finally.

She sighed and turned to look at me. "I'm just tired is all."

"You slept for like twelve hours so I'm going to call bullshit."

She gave me an annoyed look. "What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to tell me the truth. What's going on?"

She sighed again. "I just…I don't know. It doesn't seem fair, necessarily, that I'm going to be responsible for raising someone else's child without really getting to have much say in the matter."

"You do get to have a say," I replied, surprised. "You said you wanted to keep her."

She rubbed her temple. "I know. I'm just…rethinking."

"You're rethinking?" I asked incredulously. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Her eyes started blinking quickly and I knew she was fighting back tears.

"Shit," I muttered, pulling over to the side of the road carefully and turning in my seat to look at her. "Bella, talk to me. What's going on? Why are you rethinking?"

She took a deep breath and carefully wiped at her eyes. "Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be to raise a seven year old? How much we're going to have to go through to keep her and get her in school and everything? There's so much more that we'll have to do with Katie than if she was really and truly ours. All we have to prove that she belongs with us is a letter."

"And DNA. We'll have her tested next week, remember? That'll go pretty far in court if it comes down to that."

She nodded and looked down at her hands. The eye blinking started again and I sighed, reaching forward and taking her hands in mine.

"Look at me, Bella. You are the most important thing in the world to me right now, though Katie is a close second. But if you ask me to kick her out…I won't do it. I won't put her in the foster system or send her to live with Tanya's parents. She's my daughter and I'm going to take care of her the best I can. I know we've got a huge mountain to climb, but I'm really hoping you'll be there to climb it with me."

"And if I'm not?" she asked hoarsely.

My heart dropped and my hand gripped hers. "Please don't even joke about that."

She sighed and squeezed my hands. "I'm not going anywhere, I just…I don't know. I always thought when we had a kid, there'd be those nine or so months of anticipation and preparation and we'd get to start at 0 and work our way up to seven, not have it all thrust upon us out of the clear blue."

"I did too," I admitted, "and there's no one saying that that can't happen. Maybe look at Katie as a trial run." I rubbed her hands hopefully. "This could be really great, in spite of all the roadblocks in our way. Think about how awesome she's been so far. Obviously she's enough like me that she adapts well to weird situations."

She was looking down at our hands through my whole speech and I saw a tear trickle down her cheek. She was quiet and still for a long moment before taking a deep breath and nodding, looking up at me with her chin jutted out with that stubborn set I knew so well. She nodded once and squeezed my hands again before releasing me and digging a tissue out of the glove box. She carefully dabbed at her face while I pulled the car back onto the road, knowing that she just needed a moment to compose herself.

"You're right," she said finally, her voice husky in the darkness of the car. "You usually are. Do you have any idea how annoying that is?"

I grinned. "You were right a few times when I was wrong," I pointed out. She gave a wobbly chuckle and I saw her nod out of the corner of my eye.

"Right again. Stop it or I'll hit you."

I pulled into the restaurant parking lot and turned to look at her again. "Are you ok? We can cancel tonight and go home and talk all this shit out if you want."

She shook her head. "No, I'm fine. I just…we do need to talk about things. I've been tired the past few weeks and a little stressed with school, so adding a seven-year-old to the mix is a bit overwhelming."

"Yeah, but you're awesome. You'll come through this whole thing like a rock star."

She rolled her eyes but I could see a hint of a grin at the corners of her mouth. "Yeah yeah. Come on, I'm sure Emmett is threatening to eat the flowers if we don't get in there soon."

She leaned across the console and kissed me lightly before climbing out of the car. Hopefully we could talk and get through all this fine.

XXX

Tali: So, this is actually a test and only a half chapter. Sorry! It's been a crazy summer for me (moving, pregnant, etc). I may just leave this chapter alone and post the next one that's been finished for ages. Sorry it's been so long!