Hola. Thanks to my lovely ladies again, and to you, of course. ;)

Blind Ambition – Chapter Five

"Alice is here," Edward said, without looking up from the guitar he was restringing.

"It's creepy when you do that," Jasper replied with a frown in his direction.

"What's creepy?" Alice asked from the doorway of the backroom.

Edward grinned as his sister dropped a kiss to the top of his head and greeted her husband with a high-five. "That I know when people are in the room. Jasper's just jealous that I'm a superhero and he isn't. And you wear those jangly bracelets. I know it's you."

"That's why I wear them," Alice stage-whispered and placed a warm paper cup in Edward's hand. "I brought you some hot chocolate."

"What about me?" Jasper's frown grew as he glanced at his wife.

"I'm still mad at you," Alice sniffed.

"Oh, I think I hear the front door," Edward said quickly as he rolled himself away from a potential lovers' spat.

"Coward," Jasper muttered as his retreating back.

"Yep!" Edward yelled with a laugh. "Coward every time!"

As it turned out, the bell over the door of the shop had rung, so Edward's excuse was validated. Though it was often difficult to help customers these days without Jasper's help.

"Can I help you?" Edward asked, hoping his customer wasn't actually a murderer coming to take advantage of a crippled blind dude.

The faint scent of vanilla surrounded him and he heard her move closer. His worry seemed to fall away in her presence.

"I hope so," a quiet voice replied, making him smile.

"Hello, Dr. Clearwater," he greeted her, trying to make out her shape in the dim lighting of the store. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Actually, this was completely and totally planned. I need a gift for my younger brother and was hoping to borrow your expertise."

"Oh, sure. Trust the blind guy," Edward joked, and then quickly turned his head toward the back room at the sound of raised voices.

Leah followed his gaze, but Edward didn't linger for very long.

"Sorry, my sister is here," Edward half-heartedly explained.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she's pregnant and hormonal and mad at Jas. He probably took the trash out wrong, or something." Edward grinned. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"A guitar. He's been taking lessons on a hand-me-down from a friend, and I want to get him a new one for graduation. One to call his own," she told him.

Edward nodded appreciatively. "Nice gift. We have some great six-strings over here that are pretty good for just starting out. Not too expensive," he said as he slowly made his way across the shop. Leah followed him and watched silently, intrigued.

Edward stopped in front of a display of guitars hanging on the wall and ran his hand over the first one, muttering to himself. She smiled as she watched him do the same to three more guitars before he finally lifted one off where it was hanging and placed it across his lap. He strummed it quietly and nodded.

"It needs a little tuning, but I think this one will work."

"How did you just do that?" Leah asked with a soft laugh.

"I know my way around a guitar." Edward smiled. "And around the store. Jasper and I have a pretty good system so I know where everything is. And I have these," he held up his hand and wiggled his fingers, "they're pretty smart, too."

"I'm impressed," she said, and Edward could tell she was smiling.

"As you should be! It was a lot of work!" he said, and she laughed.

"Yeah, and he complained about it the whole time," Jasper said from behind them. Edward not-so-discreetly flipped him off while Alice quickly crossed the room to stand beside Edward. She'd become incredibly protective of him since the accident, but Edward assumed it was because she'd found out she was pregnant around the same time.

He blamed it on "motherly instincts".

"Alice, this is Dr. Clearwater. My physical therapist," Edward told her, before she could go all mama-bear.

"Oh!" Alice cried, and Edward could hear her bracelets jangle as she stepped around him to greet Leah. "I helped do the research when we were looking for someone to help with Edward's recovery."

"Yeah, you can blame her for being stuck with this guy," Jasper teased. Edward rolled his eyes behind his glasses and held the guitar out to his friend.

"Ring this up for her, please? I'm going to grab her some extra strings and picks. Do you know where the case is?" he called as he rolled away with Alice on his figurative heels.

"Sure thing, boss," Jasper said, gesturing Leah to follow him. "You play, Doc?"

Leah laughed. "No. My brother is graduating high school. I thought it'd be a nice gift."

"It's a good model. Did Edward pick it out for you?"

"He's pretty good, huh?"

"Yeah, I give him a lot of shit, but the guy knows his stuff…too bad he's such an asshole."

"I heard that, you know," Edward grumbled as he set a few small bags on the counter.

"I know." Jasper smirked. "I was testing out your superpowers."

"Behave, boys," Alice said, this time kissing her husband's cheek and ruffling Edward's hair. "See you and Bella at dinner, Edward," she called as she left the store, the bell ringing over the door as she did.

Edward made a noise in the back of his throat which Leah and Jasper chose to ignore: Jasper because he knew what was going on, and Leah because she had no idea.

"Let us know if you have any problems or it breaks or…you know." Jasper shrugged after he'd rung Leah up and packaged the guitar for her.

"I will." She smiled in thanks and turned to Edward, who seemed to be lost in thought. "Thanks for your help, Edward. I'll see you Monday?" He turned to her slowly, shaking his head as if to clear it.

"If you're lucky, Dr. Clearwater," he smiled, and she chuckled quietly, but declined a response. Instead she waved at Jasper and took her leave. Edward made his way to the door after it closed, locked it, and then, feeling for the side that he'd made Jasper stick a piece of Velcro on, flipped the sign to 'closed'.

"Were you flirting with her?" Jasper asked, and Edward shrugged.

"I don't know, was I?"

"Were you doing it on purpose?"

"Doing what?" Edward frowned.

"You know that whole 'if you're lucky' thing, that's flirting," Jasper explained while Edward pointedly rolled away. His friend followed quickly, holding open the backdoor and then locking it once they were both out of the way.

"Is not," Edward argued while pulling himself into the car. Jasper folded up the wheelchair and stuck it in the back of his car.

"It kind of was," he said after he'd climbed into the front seat.

"Want to get a beer?" Not even trying for subtlety, Edward changed the subject, and Jasper laughed under his breath.

"Whatever you want, boss."

xXx

"Where's Bella tonight?" Edward's sister-in-law Rosalie asked later that night, as they gathered at Alice and Jasper's for dinner.

"She's running late," Alice explained from across the kitchen. Edward just shrugged and rolled his chair quickly back and forth, causing the three-year-old on his lap to giggle loudly.

"Be careful, Chloe," Rosalie gently scolded her daughter as she stood on her uncle's lap and pulled his expensive sunglasses off his face to place on her own.

"She's fine, Rosie," Edward said, grabbing the little girl and kissing her cheek loudly. "Did you talk to Em this week?"

"Yeah, we got to Skype yesterday," she said. Edward could imagine the wistful expression she always got when someone mentioned Emmett or his service as a trauma medic in the army. "Three more months."

"It'll be here before you know it," Edward encouraged and Rosalie let out a sigh.

"I know. That's what he keeps saying."

"See? Not as dumb as he looks," Edward teased and Alice slapped him across the back of the head. "Hey!"

"Didn't I already warn you once today?" Her voice faded away as she went into the dining room.

"She did," Edward sighed, kissing Chloe's cheek again and slowly taking his glasses off her face to rest them back on his own.

"Dinner is served, mon petit choux," Jasper announced from behind them. Rosalie lifted Chloe from Edward's lap and they followed him into the dining room.

"Did he just call us cabbages?" Rosalie whispered loudly, making Edward chuckle as they settled around the table.

Alice asked her husband, "Should we wait for Bella?", with a glance in her brother's direction.

"What do you think, Ed?" Jasper asked. Edward shook his head in response. He hadn't heard a peep from Bella since her text that morning, and assumed that she had let Alice know she was running late because she knew Edward would be upset.

"It's fine, she won't mind," he said quietly, feeling all of their eyes on him. Alice shrugged at her husband, trying to have a silent conversation with him, but Rosalie quickly changed the subject to talk of Alice's pregnancy and plans for the baby shower.

Edward sat while they bustled around the table, passing dishes and talking quietly, until Alice set a plate in front of him and slid a fork into his hand.

"Thank you," he murmured, after she listed the placement of the food on his plate. He hated feeling like an invalid, especially during moments like these, when he knew they were forcing conversations amongst themselves so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable.

It just made him even more uncomfortable when they did that.

A while into dinner, the front door opened, and Bella bustled in. Edward knew it was her by the sound of her heels on the tile floor. That, and the fact that she announced herself as the door slammed behind her.

"Hi! Sorry I'm late!" she cried as she entered the dining room. "Hi, sweetie," she greeted Edward with a kiss to the cheek and then took her seat beside him. He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his lips, inhaling the scent of her skin.

"Did you get a new perfume?" he asked quietly.

"What?" Bella pulled her hand away. "Oh, I just used a different one today."

"But you use the same one every day." Edward frowned. "The one my mom brought you from France after her and Dad's anniversary trip. Remember?"

"Well, I wanted a change today, silly. Not everyone likes the same thing every single day."

"What can I say, I'm a creature of habit," he muttered, going back to his dinner. The fact that she'd used a different perfume didn't really bother him that much. Edward just liked when things were familiar to him, and lately Bella had been anything but familiar…and that was what worried him.