Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters, they belong to Stephenie Meyer. However, the plot does belong to me, as for it was my idea.

Quote: "So much of what we know of love we learn at home."

Music: Decode - Paramore

Chapter Twelve: Home

The talk with Charlie was very simple, thankfully. For someone who never liked talking on the phone, he sounded like an overly hyperactive business man with to much cappuccino. He was delighted to hear that I'd considered on coming home, and he said that he'd deposit the money on my debit card first thing the following morning so I could go to the airport and buy a ticket to go home on. Renee didn't know about the call to Charlie, but I was pretty sure Phil did. He had passed my bedroom, to go to the bathroom. My door had been cracked, and it took the bathroom door a long time to be opened and shut. I was more than sure he had told Renee, and if he had, I was thankfully, because I really wasn't in the mood to tell her anything. The only thing my thoughts were on was being on a plane back to Forks, Washington.

When I'd gotten home from the visit with Edward, I only had time to get dressed into something better than a t-shirt and sweats, without being able to primp myself with the slightest comb of a brush. Mason had been invited by Phil. He had been at the house, according to everyone, watching baseball games with him all afternoon. The dinner had gone really well, considering the disrespectful remarks that Renee made whenever Mason showed the slightest attempt of trying to flirt. One of the things that really caught my eye about Mason was his generosity. When the waiter had left the receipt for our food, he had taken it into his hand before Phil could catch the price, and said that he would pay for it.

The dinner for the four of us had well over 90 dollars, and he even left the waitress a fifteen dollar tip. It didn't' seem to bother him, spending money that he really didn't have. He worked part time at his father's coffee shop, and that was the only money he received. His parent's weren't the type of parents that gave their child money to buy them clothes or to just have for whatever they wanted. They believed that it was a man's job to work his ass off to earn money, even if the earnings wasn't worth the work. I had to admit though that when I did see him work, he did work his ass off, and he did anything to just have a little extra money in his pocket, which was usually what he used for himself since all the money he'd been working for was being put into a savings account. He was saving up to pay his schooling. He wanted to be a surgeon.

The ride home had been pretty peaceful. Renee and Phil were deep in conversation, so Mason and I decided to take the time to talk as well. He'd asked me about Edward, about what had happened between us the night before, and I told him. I told him my plans on going back to Forks, and even though he was hiding it good, I could tell that inside he was really hurt. I promised to stay in touch, and that if his parents allowed him to, that he could visit me anytime he wanted, but we both knew that it would never happen.

"It just sucks though. I just started getting to know how awesome of a person you are, and now you have to leave. Every time I actually find a true friend, they always end up having to move, or they die," Mason said bluntly.

I frowned, not really knowing how to respond. "It's not just that I want to leave, because there is some reasons I want to stay here, and you're one of them," I said honestly. "But I also thought that my mom would've been more supportive if I moved down here, and she hasn't been. Even though my dad worked all the time, he was more supportive than she's been the past two months, and that's what I need. I need someone to be with me every step of the way, and Charlie's been there for me since I found out I was pregnant."

He nodded. "I could help you though. I mean, I could take your mom's place while your here. I could be the person to support you."

I shook my head. "It's not that I wouldn't accept. It's the fact that I need a parent, and the only one that's ever acted like a parent is Charlie. Renee is trying to act like a twenty year old, and she's working on thirty-five. She's not even trying to act like a parent, and that's what pisses me off the most."

"I can understand you there. Well, you'll have to keep in touch. Not everyday like you and Alice talk, I know that I'd bore you, but at least through e-mail. Maybe a few lines every other day, just to know how you and the baby's doing. Is that too much to ask for?"

"No, of course not," I said with sad smile. "I'll write you every night before I go to bed, pinky promise." I held out my pinky finger and he laughed, but accepted it.

"I haven't did a pinky promise since the fourth grade. You have to add the special touch though, you know, where we both kiss it?"

"Oh yeah, your right!" I leaned in to kiss my hand, and instead of my hand receiving the kiss, Mason's lips replaced it. I gasped, starting to pull away, but he cupped my face gently into his hands, and pulled my closer to him. I knew in my heart that I should stop, but my body wasn't responding. Instead of pushing him away, my hands slid around his neck, and he laid me down onto his bed.

His elbow propped him up off my body, and his other hand was lost in my hair. His lips were soft and gentle against mine, softer than Edward's, but Mason had a certain way to deepen the kiss that just made my body melt against his.

I could feel the sadness though each fingertip that touched my body. He'd hidden it well for so long, doing everything to hide what he felt for me, but the secret slipped out, thanks to Sammy. I knew that even if he had told me instead of someone else, he still wouldn't have had a chance. There would have been a possibility if Edward and I didn't have anything together, but everything was the absolute opposite.

We kissed for the longest, and finally he pulled away, and just rested me against his chest. I didn't feel timid laying with him, it was actually comfortable. It felt like hours that we laid in silence, but glancing over at his clock, only thirty minutes had passed. His finger twirled the end of one of my curls, and my fingers played with one of his belt loops.

"You know, I wish that I could have met you before Edward had," Mason said after a while.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

His chest raised as he let out a sigh. "What I mean is that if I would have met you before Edward, the child your having could have been mine instead of his. You wouldn't be moving back to Washington if it was mine, you'd still be living here in Arizona."

I felt the air catch in my throat. How could someone who barely knew a person for three months want to have such a dedication? Could that be true love really was? "If that would have happened, your right, I wouldn't be going back to Forks, but we can't change the past, Mason. The only thing we can do is take everyday as it comes, because you never know what's going to happen."

"Yeah, that's true." He pulled me up to lay on the pillow beside him, and he turned onto his side, staring me in the eyes. "I've never met anyone like you, Bella. You're completely different from every girl I've known. Every girl I've met is just like the others, always trying to act better than everyone else, but you, your nothing compared to that. You're you, you have your own personality, and that's what I guess I fell for."

I frowned slightly, and my hand raised to relax his raised brow. "I've never tried to keep up with all the new trends, or with the popularity everyone else has. In Forks I'm known as Chief's daughter. Here, one minute I'm just another girl who lived here most of her life, and the next I'm a exchanged student from Washington. No one ever remembers you, because they don't want to. I stick to what I like and know, and I've never tried to make myself more than that. That's just the way I've always been. I never seem to change."

Mason chuckled quietly, and a small smile crossed his face. "Usually girls like you are always invisible, no one ever recognizes them, but you shine like a pretty new penny. I guess that's why I never met you before. I never end up with shiny pennies, mine are always rusted and dirty."

I couldn't help laughing. "You're comparing me to a piece of money, thanks a lot, Mason."

He rolled his eyes, and he leaned over next to me, our eyes locking. "Just remember, if you ever decide to come back to Arizona, alone, not with any other person besides your child, I'll be waiting for you. You probably don't believe me, and maybe you never will, but I promise you that if you ever call your mom or whoever and ask about me, they'll tell you that I'm still around, waiting for you to come back."

I swallowed hard, but nodded. "I believe you, Mason. I just don't understand why you're going to give up basically your life for something you'll probably never be able to have."

He shook his head. "You're right, I might not ever have you, but I'll live everyday wishing I did, and maybe one day it'll come true."

I leaned up, breaking the space between us, and kissed his lips softly. "To be sincerely honest, I wish I could have met you before everything that happened, happened."

He stared at me with the saddest face I'd ever seen in my life, and I felt my heartthrob. I could have sworn I seen his eyes sparkle with tears, but they disappeared when he spoke. "You don't know how much I wish I could have you. I would have given you everything you ever wanted."

I nodded, and hid my face against his chest, trying to keep back the urge of crying from the sadness he was causing me. "I know you would have, I know."

A couple days flew by, and I was on a plane back to Washington. I hadn't thought it was going to be so hard to tell Renee that I was leaving, but it actually had been. It had been harder saying goodbye to Mason, I even quietly cried on his shoulder on the ride to the airport. My story to Renee had been that Edward and I talked on the phone, and that was the reason I was going back, because it was best for us to try and settle things as a family.

Mason knew the real story to it, but he went along with what I'd told Renee. When my plane had announced it's departure, the both of us shared a long hug, and he stuck something into my hand, and it was a small gold chain with two hands together in a praying symbol. It was a present for the baby he told me, and he said that the hands of prayer was to remind me that every night he would be praying for me to come back.

I'd given him a kiss on the cheek and made my way onto the plane, waving goodbye to Renee and Phil. It took four hours to get to Seattle, another hour to Port Angeles, and a hour ride to Forks, so I just rested in my seat, thankful that there were only a few other passengers. I looked out my window at the blackness that surrounded the plane, and sighed. I was glad in a way to be on my way back to Forks. I'd be able to see idiotic Alice again, to take care of overprotective Charlie by feeding him well as always, and most of all, Edward and I would be trying to work things out, family wise.

We'd talked on the phone about it the night after Charlie put the money on my debit card, and we decided that in time we would try and get a place of our own, but that would be a while from now. We both needed to continue our schooling, and we really needed to go to college. It wasn't a big deal to me since I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but Edward was going to become a doctor like Carlisle, and that had been sarcastically speaking, set in stone, since he was twelve years old. No one. not a child or a girlfriend was going to be able to change it, and the both of us had to endure it.

As my eyes fluttered shut, the first thing I started to dream was of Edward. It was beautiful. The both of us were sitting in middle of a large, beautiful meadow, with the cackling laughter of a small child echoing through the wind the blew. Edward, handsome as always, lay beside me in a black tuxedo, his hair messy and astray as always, but the thing that caught my attention was his smile. All the years I'd known him, I'd never seen him this happy.

He lay there, my hands intertwined in his, staring at me as if I was the most beautiful woman in his eyes. I could feel blood raising in my cheeks, and I looked down at what I was wearing, I gasped. I was wearing a long white gown, the neck line was a halter that laid against the back of my neck, a small v-line made it's way down my chest, and the bust of the dress was covered with tiny glittering stones. The bodice was tight down my waist, and from waist down it looked like a blanket of pure silk. The dress was breathtakingly beautiful.

"So were married now. What shall we do next?" Edward spoke softly, breaking me from my moment of awe.

I knew I was dreaming, and it felt weird to answer him, but I did. "I believe it's time to start our family, don't you think?"

His eyes glittered as he smiled back at me. "I think that is correct. Just you, me, and the little love of our life."

My face turned to wear his finger was pointing, and I gasped. A little boy no older than three stood in front of us, smiling cheerfully. His hair was a bronze colored brown like Edward's, his bangs hanging carelessly into his eyes. The dark chocolate color of them were visible through the strands. His pale skin was a mixture of both of ours, and his slight chubby cheeks were dimpled. He wore a matching tuxedo like his fathers, and he teetered over to us, a dandelion in hand, and blew it's flying contents into our faces.

The both of us laughed, and Edward pulled the little boy with his free arm, and with the other he pulled me closer to him, so the three of us were hugging. "A beautiful, happy family. Just the way it should be," he said in contentment.

"To the remaining passengers, you have two minutes to exit the plan,"a voice echoed over an intercom.

My eyes flew open, and I jumped up, grabbing my things out of the seat beside me, and exited off the plane. The face of the little boy pondered throughmy thoughts as I made my way to where the luggage rack was, but Charlie, Alice, and Edward stood there, bags in hand. I walked over to Edward's open arms, and he hugged me tightly against him.

"Welcome home, Isabella Cullen."

A/N: I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY! I'VE BEEN WITHOUT INTERNET, AND I'VE LITERALLY GONE CRAZY! Thankfully, today, 5/1/09, I got it reconnected, so I'll have it for a while now. Everything in order, lol. I'll be three months the sixth, and I think the chapters are going to be coming fast now, thanks that the nauseated feeling all the time is gone. Well, hope you like it! Chapter 13 will be up later on today..!
-Granite Paws-