Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters. They are all sole property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: Thanks to our beta AgoodWITCH for getting this back so fast. Hope you enjoy it!


Good News and Bad News

One week followed, and then another with no monthly visitor in sight. In addition, I seemed to notice telltale changes in my body. I seemed to have a weaker stomach when it came to foods I didn't care for as much. I seemed to grow tired far more quickly than usual, and there were tiny things going on that I wasn't sure if they were real or simply my imagination. The most noticeable of which was the fact that my breasts seemed tender and my nipples looked darker. It seemed like the reality of my situation was quite clear, but I still wanted to have a doctor's opinion before I told Edward. I finally broke down and made a call, setting up an appointment the following week.

I debated how to handle the situation, finally deciding that I should use my married name with the doctor's office. It just seemed the smartest way to handle things. I entered the office in midtown fifteen minutes early to fill out the paperwork since I was a new patient to this gynecological office. This was one of those times where I decided that I was justified in using the money Edward left behind for me. If I truly was carrying his child, it was going to get the best care money had to offer.

I shifted anxiously in the plush seats as I waited for my name to be called, gooseflesh rising on my arms when the name 'Mrs. Cullen' was announced into the cream colored room. I followed the nurse down the hall to a room where I was handed a gown and sheet to change while she left the room briefly. I had barely changed when she knocked on the door to enter once more.

The nurse, Betty, took all of my information, scribbling furiously in the folder she had on the table before her. She smiled up at me with a twinkle in her eye before letting me know that Dr. Stein would be in shortly.

I fidgeted nervously with the sheet draped over my legs as I waited and waited for the doctor to arrive, jumping nearly out of my skin when the loud knock sounded at the door seconds before it opened swiftly revealing an older gentleman with white hair and wire rimmed glasses. He looked up with a bright smile as he swiftly stepped to my side.

"Mrs. Cullen, I'm so glad you have decided to come to our practice for your needs. I'm Dr. Stein."

I smiled and nodded, feeling as though my voice had left me completely in that moment. He stepped to the counter, flipping open the file he had carried in with him and examining the pages seriously before looking up with a smile.

"Well, Mrs. Cullen, you do appear to be showing all the signs of pregnancy. I'm going to do a physical examination and with any luck toward the end I will be able to tell you if you are in fact with child."

I smiled, nibbling my bottom lip hopefully. As hard as I knew it would be to be pregnant and probably give birth without Edward at my side, I would much rather have his child than not. The doctor directed me to lay back on the examination table, lowering the sheet and raising the gown to expose my midsection. He began to push and prod with his fingers along my lower abdomen. I winced a few times when he would hit particularly tender spots.

He completed the examination without a word before explaining that it was time to do the internal portion of the exam. My face flooded with heat as he lifted my feet into the stirrups and did the things doctors did in that respect. One benefit of no longer being a virgin, the exam wasn't nearly as painful as they had been in the past.

The doctor continued, never speaking until he was done, moving away and telling me I could lower my legs while he washed his hands in the nearby basin. Finally, he turned around with a smile.

"I have good news, Mrs. Cullen. The condition of your cervix most definitely indicates pregnancy. Do you have any idea how far along you might be?"

I smiled brightly doing a jig on the inside in my utter joy. "I can give you a five day span in which it had to have happened, doctor."

He smiled with a nod as he scribbled down in the folder adding the two weeks that for some strange reason is the way that pregnancy is calculated, putting me at anywhere between seven and eight weeks depending on exactly when during our five day honeymoon the baby growing within me was conceived.

I left the doctor's office with a hand full of pamphlets, which I discretely tucked into my purse and walked out onto the city street with a bright smile on my face. I stopped at a payphone, asking Marcus if I could take a sick day for the rest of the afternoon. He asked if I was okay, and I replied that I was more than okay, but just needed some time to take care of some things. He agreed knowing I wouldn't call for time off lightly.

I rushed to the subway station, catching the first train I could back uptown, in a hurry to get home and write my letter to Edward. I was determined that even if he wouldn't be the first to know, he would be the first to have been told.

I grabbed my stationary from under my bed, along with a framed picture of Edward that Esme had sent to me last week of him dressed in a suit looking so dapper it was more than a little ridiculous to picture a man that amazing being married to me. I settled down in the living room after switching on the radio and began to pen the most important letter I had ever written to my husband.

As I wrote, Glen Miller's In the Mood came on, making me smile as I stood up to dance around my living room while staring at the picture of my husband, remembering our first dance on the night we met. I couldn't wait to get word back from him after he got the letter. It was just disappointing that I would have to wait over a month to find out what exactly how he responded. I laughed as I spun around the room, lost in memories and wishing more than anything that he could be there to hold me in that moment.

Finally, as the song neared its end, I sat down sharing what I fool I had just made of myself and adding my last oaths of love and longing before sealing the envelope. I filled out the addresses, attaching the stamp upside down as a secret code between the two of us that Edward had suggested would remind us that even while we were separated by war, our love was eternal. I kissed the flap once more before dancing my way out to the mailbox on the corner to drop the letter in the box to go off to my love.

When I turned around, I was greeted with the suspicious gazes of my two best friends, both smiling deviously at me.

"Skipping work to write love letters, huh? Bad example you're setting there, bosslady!" Alice teased as she wrapped her arm with mine as we walked toward the brownstone.

"I had some very important news that I needed to send out right away before I shared with anyone else. I didn't want to wait another second."

Rose and Alice both frowned at me before looks of shocked realization graced their features. "Oh my God, Bella…are you pregnant?" Rose finally gasped through her surprise.

I smiled brightly and nodded as both girls squealed and engulfed me in squeezing arms in the middle of the sidewalk a few doors down from the brownstone. They immediately dragged me home, forcing me to sit down while they fluttered around me, making supper and forcing glasses of milk and orange juice down my throat.

When supper was over, the girls sat excitedly nearby as I called my in-laws with trembling fingers, holding my breath as I listened for Esme to answer the phone. I knew that they were supportive of us now, but I still couldn't help but be afraid that they might be unhappy. Thankfully, my fears were unfounded as Esme squealed in delight, shouting into the background to Carlisle who ran into the room to join on the conversation. Within moments of hearing the news, Esme began making hints to Carlisle that if they finally made the move back east that they had been discussing that she could help ease the burden of caring for a newborn with the father away.

I settled into bed that night with a bright smile on my face, anxiously awaiting Edward's response to the news as I rubbed my still flat stomach, knowing that in a few short weeks, the telltale bump would appear above my hipbones.

I returned to work the next morning, scribbling in a meeting for the two of us at the first possible opening in his schedule at ten the next morning. Marcus came in seeming frazzled as he kept fidgeting with his tie and rubbing the nape of his neck roughly. He had two phone conferences early, coming out afterward looking even more concerned. All too soon, ten o'clock rolled around. Before I had a chance to even tell him I had written us in, he waved me into the office with a furrow in his brow.

"Bella, I need to have a conference with you. There's something big going on and I can't pin down what it is. Can…can you do me a favor and see if you can get some information secretary to secretary that I haven't been able to get personally?"

I sucked in a deep, steady breath with a smile. "I can do you one better. Alice can sweet talk info out of just about anybody. Let me see if she can work her magic in Chicago. Is there anything in particular you need?"

He grimaced. "We need full accounting sheets for all income and expenditures for the past three months, with particular focus on raw material purchasing costs."

I nodded as I scribbled in my notebook, to make sure I had all my details straight. I glanced up, gauging if it was a good time to tell him about the baby, before finally deciding it could wait. I asked if there was anything else he needed. He shook his head without looking up as he frowned down at some tally sheets in his hands.

I told him to buzz me if he needed anything before walking out of his office and straight down to Alice. She smiled at me deviously with a small salute. "Consider it done, bosslady."

"I told you not to call me that, Alice. Not only is it inaccurate, but it's not smart around here."

Alice snorted. "Your husband has left all of his shares in this company to you in the event of his not returning. In my mind that makes you the boss of every person working for Cullen Steel. You can argue it all you want, but you wield more power here than Marcus could ever hope for."

I snorted rolling my eyes before asking if she's like to grab lunch with me. She smiled with a nod as she lifted the receiver to her phone and began the process of patching herself through to her counterpart at the Chicago offices of Cullen Steel.

****

Two days later, Marcus' mood had only managed to deteriorate as we waited for the package Alice had coerced out of Chicago to arrive by express delivery. Once we received it and Alice and Marcus had a chance to go over the information late Thursday afternoon, he along with both Alice and I were worse than ever. We sat at the large oval table in the conference room, all of our aching heads resting in our hands as we stared down at the numbers that did not lie. The Volturi brothers were not only practicing shady business practices, but they were making choices that could end up closing the company's doors for good while the three of us stood by, powerless to stop it.

Marcus, Alice, and I stayed up all night that night, trying to think of anything we could do, but to no avail. Mrs. Cope was shocked to find us still in the conference room when she arrived early the next morning.

"Ms. Swan, you have no business working all night in your condition! You need a good night's sleep dear! It's crucial for the health of you both."

I stared at the woman wide eyed, wondering how on earth she knew. Besides Alice, Rose and my in-laws, I had told no one about my pregnancy. I shot Alice an accusing glare, only to receive a confused headshake in response. Marcus looked between the three of us before turning to me.

"Bella? What is she talking about?"

I looked at Mrs. Cope in shock as she smirked at me. "I have had four children, dear, and have helped many of my sisters through their own pregnancies. I can spot that glow a mile away dear. I was just waiting for you to let us know."

I sighed with a nod before glancing nervously at a shocked Marcus. He blinked at me slowly, still in shock as I began to explain. "I'm sorry Marcus. I intended to tell you on Tuesday, but then you were so upset and worried about this situation and I didn't want to add to your stresses. It's not that big of a deal. I can still work up until the baby is born. I'm only about eight weeks along, so we have nearly seven months before it will be a major issue."

Marcus sighed slowly with a dazed nod before finally pushing to stand from the table. "I..um…need to go for a walk. Mrs. Cope is right, Bella. A woman in your condition should not be working such grueling hours. Take the rest of the day off. I'll think this over and try to come up with some kind of solution by Monday morning. Um…Congratulations, Bella. I'm happy for you, truly."

I nodded, nibbling on my lower lip as I watched him sigh, scrubbing his neck roughly as he rushed from the room. I looked back at Alice anxiously as she smiled encouragingly.

"Everything will be okay, Bella. I just know it. We just need some time to work up a plan of action."

I nodded as I began collecting the papers we had received. Alice helped before assisting me in locking them in the safe under my desk. There was no way we would ever let those papers end up in any other hands besides ours. The information on them was far too dangerous to the future of Cullen Steel.

I yawned as I went to the restroom to straighten my clothing, hoping I didn't look too worse for wear aside from the dark rings under my eyes from lack of sleep and stress. Finally feeling somewhat more presentable, I left to go tell Mrs. Cope that I would be gone for the rest of the day and grab my purse from my desk.

I never made it to her office, however, when I discovered a thin man with thick dark hair and wearing an expensive suit standing at my desk. I approached him with a smile, introducing myself as Ms. Swan the executive assistant to Mr. Volturi. I felt a chill run up my spine as the man smiled creepily at me, extending a cold bony hand to me.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Swan. I am Marcus's father, Aro Volturi, current CEO of Cullen Steel, and your boss by default. Now please tell me where I can find my incompetent son."

I swallowed past the lump in my throat composed of a combination of fear and anger. This man was ruining my husband one slimy decision at a time while he was half a world away fighting for his freedoms. It made me want to spit in his face and curse him to the ends of the earth, but instead I smiled politely, doing my best not to give myself away.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Volturi, but Mr. Marcus had to step out this morning for a meeting across town. I'm not sure how long he will be out. Can I leave him a message for you?"

He scoffed waving a hand of dismissal at me mumbling, "some secretary, she can't even keep his schedule straight,' before speaking up at me with arrogant authority. "I am going to take up residence in his office while I wait to conduct some business. For the rest of the day you are mine. I want a cup of hot coffee on my desk in three minutes, one sugar, no cream, or you're fired."

I stepped around the desk, my fisted hands behind my back to hide them as they dug crescent shapes into my palm. "I am sorry sir, but in an effort to do our part for the war effort and have more for the rest of the country, our office has chosen not to partake in our portion of the sugar rations. We do not have any to add for you."

He growled at me, his face growing red with anger. "Then you better go down the street and find a restaurant to get some or you can expect to find your pink slip on your desk first thing tomorrow morning. I expect that coffee on my desk in no less than ten minutes, sweetheart, or it's your livelihood."

With that, he turned and slammed the door, leaving me fuming as I stared at the dark wood, sending mental daggers into the man's heart. How was it even possible that this man and Marcus were related in any way? They were as opposite as two men could possibly be.

As I grabbed my purse and made my way toward the elevators, I did think of one positive in this situation. With any luck, I would find Marcus while out and warn him of what was to come. I was almost certain that he could use all the preparation he could get.

Author's Note: Think you hate Aro now? Just wait until the next chapter, which I finished just a bit ago and will post later this week. Don't worry though, eventually he will get his just desserts!