A/N: You know, I was thinking about all the things I had to research for this fic: broken femurs and aftercare procedures, schools that had hockey teams, romantic necklaces and rings, newspapers in Wisconsin, chapels in Vegas, hotel rooms in Vegas, pregnancy tests, Kegel exercises.... Hahaha!!! At least I didn't have research how it feels to be on pain meds, what it's like in Forks, or anything having to do with ice rinks, those were already in my realm of experience. ;-) I really can't believe this fic is over. I'm really sad to see it over. It was so much fun to write, and the response I got blew me out of the water. You guys rock so hard!!!!
If you're worried about me not continuing writing, you need not worry at all. Hakuna Matata! I'm working on several other stories. I'd love for you to check them out:
Little Sister No More: Jasper has always seen her as his little sister. How can Alice convince him she's all grown up? AH/AU. Canon couples. Up on my profile now.
A Fair to Remember: Bella and Edward reunite after years at the Clallam County Fair. Will the sparks still be there? AH/AU. Up on my profile now.
Masks: What is you want and what you're supposed to want may be two different things for Edward. Bella loves him, but is it enough? AH/AU/slash. Coming soon!
Keep Me Safe: Alice Brandon is a famous fashion designer. After her studio gets broken into, Emmett McCarty steps in as security of her life... and secures her heart in the process. AH/AU. Coming soon!
See, there's still a lot coming from me, no worries!!! Hehe. Put me on your alerts for more. Thanks again, I can't say it enough. I appreciate all of my readers, whether you review or not. :-)
A HUGE thanks to LittleLea05 for being my rocking beta throughout, and for putting up with my lack of communication at times... When you don't write with an outline, it's a bitch, so thanks to her for putting up with my mysteriousness. ;-)
Final disclaimer: It's really not mine at all, SM is just nice enough to let me play with her characters.
EmPOV
"That's right, yeah! Go, go, go! Stop! Turn around!" I shouted to my five year old son, clapping my hands to prove my point and encourage him. Elijah's face was bright red from his exertion on the ice, and from the frigid temperature. I was having him do laps around the ice, practicing his stops, over and over. I was probably being one of those hard-ass coach dads, but if he wanted to make the pee-wee hockey team, he'd have to practice.
"Daddy, can I practice shooting goals? Pleeeease?" I could never resist those hazel puppy dog eyes of his. The color, of course, came from a mix between Bella's gorgeous brown eyes, and my baby blues, as did his light brown curly hair.
"Sure," I said, and Eli raced to the edge of the rink where his stick and puck were laying. He set right in to slapping the puck around, and I could just barely hear his commentary of each whap of the stick. I had to laugh. I had done the same as a kid, pretending I'd just won the Stanley Cup.
"What's he saying?" Bella asked, coming up behind me. She held a little angel in her arms, our two year old, Natalie. She looked like she had just woken up, her hair a glorious curly halo around her head. Her eyes were squinting against the rink's bright lights.
"He's pretending he just won the big championship," I grinned. Natalie held her arms out to me, and I grabbed her easily and swung her onto my hip, but not before kissing Bella swiftly.
It had been five years since we'd reopened this rink and put our own name on it. It had been over a year after the accident that the doctor's gave their seal of approval for me to get back on the ice, and though my career was completely out of the question, that didn't mean that I couldn't coach. I took a job as a coach at the local rink, and gotten in close with the owner and manager. A year out, I was the manager, and when Marcus made the decision to relocate, he offered to sell the place to me. Bella and I jumped at the chance of being business owners; it was like a dream come true for me.
It was hard to adjust to having a young child, a new business, and having a huge pile of college debt to our names, and the first year was hard, but we pulled through, and we were doing well now. I worked as manager and owner, while Bella stayed home with the kids and wrote the book review section of the Wisconsin State Journal.
Life was crazy, especially when Natalie came into the mix, but we wouldn't have it any other way.
I skated around the rink with Nat in my arms, and she squealed with delight and held out her arms like she was flying. Sometimes she reminded me way too much of her Auntie Alice, but in a two year old, it was endearing.
Alice had apparently gotten pregnant pretty much on their honeymoon, and now she and Jasper had a six year old daughter named Selena, and another on the way, another girl. They were insanely happy, and visited often from their new home in Chicago. Jasper worked at a pretty big law firm, and Alice worked as a personal shopper, something Bella teased her endlessly for. We always teased Selena and Elijah that they would get married someday, and they'd just blush and pretend to hate each other. Now that seemed familiar…
"More, Da-da, more!" Natalie screamed, and I sped up faster for her. She loved the ice just as much as Eli and I seemed to. I couldn't wait to put her into skates and see what she could do. Bella was pushing towards ballet, but I'd see to it that my girl had blades on the bottom of her feet soon enough.
Natalie giggled, a wonderful dimpled grin on her face that matched mine. She was bundled up like an Inuit, but she looked completely blissful. "Go, Eli, goooo!" she yelled to her brother, who was still pretending he was Gretzky.
"I think I'm going to look over the numbers before we open up," Bella said smiling, her cheeks and nose steadily getting redder and redder. She was completely bundled up in her brown jacket, but always claimed to hate the cold, and made any excuse to get into the warm office that she could.
The first lesson on the ice I'd given her, she'd nearly broken her arm.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked, warily looking at the ice, still slick from the recent Zamboni pass.
"Of course, baby, I'll be holding onto you the whole time, I promise."
"I'm gonna break my ankle."
"No, you're not. I tied your boots nice and tight."
"I know, I can barely feel my feet," she grumbled.
I rolled my eyes. "C'mon, it's gonna be fun."
"Fine," she sighed, and took a tentative step on the ice. Her knees immediately buckled, and she fell hard against my chest. My arms went out immediately to hold her upright, and her feet slipped around for a few more seconds before she was steady.
"Watch out, it's slippery," I teased, and she glared at me. I could tell she would have hit me, were she not clinging to me for dear life.
"Shut up," she growled. "Just for that, you're not getting any tonight."
"Aww, baby," I whined, giving her a pout and my best persuasive eyes.
"No," she said, and looked out at the ice surrounding us. "Oh God, I'm going to die."
"No you're not," I promised. "You're going to be great. Now," I pulled away slowly. "Take my hand."
She looked at me as if I were insane.
"Baby, trust me. I'll catch you if you fall, I promise."
She took a deep sigh, and extracted herself from my arms, still shaky on her feet. She held onto my hand like a vice, and I was only grateful that she didn't take that grip into the bedroom. Scary stuff.
"Now, take a step… like, an actual step, don't try to glide just yet…" I was trying to use my dad's advice from oh so long ago, when I'd had my first lesson.
"Okay," she said, sounding nervous. I skated in front of her, going backwards, letting her to grab onto me whenever she needed, which was often. "Whoa, whoa, oh my gosh," she kept saying under her breath. "Emmett…"
"Are you okay?"
"I think so," she said, and it was true, she was gradually progressing, becoming more sure on her movements, her steps turning to strokes slowly but surely. Her grip never lessened, however.
"See, it's not so bad." She chanced a glance up from her feet to give me a slightly stressed looking smile, and then zeroed her eyes back down to the ice.
We made the lap around the rink four times, and by the time we started in on the fifth time, she was looking up at me, and grinning.
"I think I can do this now," she said. "I mean, without you helping."
"Are you sure?"
"Not entirely. But I'm going to do it." There was my stubborn girl.
"Okay, I'm going to let go now," I said, and dropped her hands. She wobbled a bit, but remained upright.
I gave her a huge grin. "See? You're doing great!" I turned so that I could skate beside her.
We went around and around, and Bella was a fast learner despite her protests to the contrary. I held her hand, and played with her wedding band. We'd gotten "married" a few months before. Somehow, we'd managed to keep our official, Vegas wedding a secret from our parents, to avoid any undue upset, and told them after the big, flowery shindig they'd thrown for us a few months later, in December when I was on break from school.
The honeymoon was spent in Hawaii, where we'd spent the vast majority of our time in the hotel overlooking the beach, and the rest of the time exploring the island… a very short amount of time. I felt bad, in a way, but it was just too easy to stay holed up in our hotel room and enjoy each other. That's how our relationship started, after all.
"Wanna race?" Bella asked, clearly confident now with a wicked grin on her face.
"You sure?" I asked incredulously.
"Yeah, what are you, afraid?"
I rolled my eyes at that. "As if!"
"So you ready… set… go!"
Luckily, the rink wasn't crowded as we weaved in and out of people's way. I was shocked to see that Bella was very nearly keeping pace with me, her body clearly acclimating to this environment well. It made me happy to see her so comfortable in such a short amount of time.
Her eyes were shining. Clearly, she thought she was going to win. I upped my speed, and she matched it. We went around what must have been a dozen times, to the point where even I was getting tired.
I looked over to see her reaction… and she wasn't there. I knew she hadn't pulled out in front, so I looked back, and saw that she was sprawled out on the ice, clutching her arm.
"Shit!" I raced back to her, and kneeled on the ice besides her. "Are you okay?"
"Oww," she responded, clearly not okay.
"Lemme see, is it broken?" People were skating around us, avoiding hitting us, and I could see that people were coming to help from the main office.
"No, I don't think so," she said. "But it hurts like a bitch."
"I'm so sorry, baby, it's my fault."
"No it's not, I was the idiot who suggested we race an hour after the first time I get on the ice." She laughed bitterly.
"I'm sorry, my love." I kissed her on the forehead, and she just sighed. The guy who was also trained as the medic of the place ran up, and assessed the damage.
"Natalie, do you want to go with Mama to the office?" I asked.
She shook her head vehemently. "NO. Stay wit Daddy." She crossed her tiny arms and shook her gorgeous curls one more time. She was as stubborn as her mom, and I loved it. She was going to be a heartbreaker someday… that is, when I let her out of her chastity belt, which will be when she's about thirty.
"Just don't let her get chilled," Bella said, and I rolled my eyes, well aware of this complaint. Yeah, because I let our kids get hypothermia how many times?
"Don't worry, baby," I said, and gave her my secret weapon smile, the one that ensured that I'd get in her pants before the sun went down. She blushed, knowing this smile, and threw Nat a kiss before ducking out of the rink to warmer climates.
"You wanna fly, baby?" I asked. This was something I'd never do in front of Bella, she'd have a heart attack.
"Yeah!" she squealed. "Fly! Fly!"
I shifted her in my arms, and soon Natalie was flying over my head, my arms stretched up over my head. The kid was up in the air a good eight feet… I guess she really was "flying."
"Mom's gonna kill you if she sees," Eli said. Ahh, my son the know-it-all and resident smart ass. Takes after his old man.
"Yeah, well no one's going to tell her, are they?" I challenged.
"What'll you give me?"
I fought to bite back a laugh. He was going to be a con artist someday, I swear.
"A Reese's peanut butter cup before dinnertime?"
"Two."
"One and a half."
"One and three quarters."
"A whole one and one Nat gets a bite out of first."
"Deal!" We shook on it while Natalie sang in my ear. She was always singing, it seemed, especially lately. This time, it was a new creation, something about blue birds and daffodils and umbrellas. She was too cute for words, I swear. Her cheeks were getting red.
"Baby girl, let's go see Mama, okay?"
She pouted. "O-tay."
"Eli, we're going to see Mom. Are you done?"
"No!" he said with a determined look on his face.
"Okay, well you have ten more minutes before we open, so hurry. Then you can watch the big guys skate." The local hockey team practiced here early in the morning, and it was Eli's big treat to come watch them once a week. He was devastated when we told him he couldn't be here to watch once he started school in September.
"Okay!" He skated off, and slammed the puck extra hard into the net.
Natalie waited as I put on skate guards, and then I swung her into my arms again to find Bella. She was at the desk, calculator and pencil close by as she examined our books.
"How's it going?" I set Nat down, and she raced over to Bella, hugging her leg. Bella swung around to hold her in her arms, and Natalie snuggled into Bella's neck. My heart couldn't help but melt just a little bit to see them like that. My two best girls.
"Oh, everything's just fine so far," Bella said, playing with Natalie's curls as she looked down at the book again. "We should be fine for next month."
"Good, good."
She sighed and sat back, rubbing Natalie's back. "I'm so tired today, and I have no idea why."
"Well, I did keep you up kinda late last night," I said with a grin.
"Emmett!" she hissed. "Natalie's right here!"
"As if she knows what I'm talking about," I said, rolling my eyes. She glared at me. "Fine, fine. I'm sorry you're tired."
She gave me a rueful glance, and resumed her work. I went to go get Elijah off the ice, despite his many protests, and unlock the door for the team. It was six am, and one of the things I hated most about this job, not that there was much to hate. I was beginning to be tempted to just give the coach a key of his own so I wouldn't have to get my ass out of bed so early each day.
Bella was getting her stuff together when I got back in the office. "I think I'm going to go back home and lay down for a bit," she said. "I seriously need some more sleep."
"Is everything okay?" It was now that I noticed she had dark circles under her eyes, and her face was paler than usual.
"I'm sure I am," she said. "No worries. I'll just take a nap and I'm sure I'll feel better."
"You want me to keep Nat and Eli?"
She shot me a grateful look. "Are you sure?"
"Of course, I don't have much going on at the moment, it's no big deal. I'll stay with them, Eli would be sad if he couldn't watch the practice."
"Okay," she said, and dropped Natalie's bag. "I'll be back in awhile."
"Take your time, my love," I said, kissing her gently.
She smiled. "I knew there was a reason I married you."
I laughed. "Right back atcha, babe." I winked, and she walked out to the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
BPOV
Tired… so incredibly tired. The last few days I'd been wandering around like a zombie, and throwing up like one, too. That is, if zombies threw up, I wasn't quite sure. Not my genre of movie. Anyway, I had a sneaking suspicion of why this might be, but I was scared to find out.
Emmett and I hadn't talked about expanding our family more. We'd had Elijah on accident, Natalie on purpose, and hadn't talked about adding a third. Not that I was opposed to it. Emmett and I were both only children, and we both knew we didn't want our kids to be in the same lonely boat. But we already had two, surely we didn't need another…
Didn't need one… but did we want one? Ugh, it was so frustrating. I'd been putting off taking a test because I just wasn't ready to think about the possibility just yet. And besides, I was on the pill. When would this have happened?
I thought back, and then gasped. Shit. We were so stupid. I'd gotten sick, and went on antibiotics… Shit. Shit, shit, shit. We hadn't used condoms after I'd gotten better, even though I was fully aware the medicine would have counteracted with my birth control.
"Baby, the kids are asleep… and I'm wearing my best boxers and nothing else," Emmett said suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows and patting the bed beside him.
I burst into laughter. "Your best boxers, huh?"
"Yeah, they're made of the finest polyester, almost like silk. Wanna feel?"
"Oh my God, you don't have to use pick up lines to get me into bed anymore, you know that, right?"
"Yeah, but it's really fun to try," he said, giving me his best panty-dropping smile. I finished brushing my teeth, and then jumped into bed with him, pouncing on his hard body.
"Mmm, I appreciate your efforts," I sighed. He rolled on top of me and kissed me deeply. I sighed, and switched the angle so that his tongue could better play with mine.
"It's so hot when you wear my T-shirt," he moaned, pushing the hem up my thighs towards my waist.
"Mmm," I responded, and pushed my body towards his, wanting to be closer.
"Patience, baby, patience," he said, feeling me up and down over my shirt. Not good enough.
"More," I sighed. "Please, Emmett."
Ever since we'd gotten married, he liked to slow things down from time to time. It was romantic, and the sex was always fantastic, but there were times when you just want to be taken, you know? And now was definitely one of those times. It had been too long… over two weeks for us since I'd gotten sick. Definitely not acceptable.
He dipped his fingers into my wet folds, and I moaned. More. I definitely needed more. I bucked my hips into his hand and growled deep in my throat.
Emmett kissed me again, adding another finger and slowly thrusting into me over and over, his thumb occasionally brushing against my clit. I was on fire, and he was doing nothing but stoking it, bringing me higher and higher without release.
"Emmett, for fuck sake!" I groaned. "Please!"
He withdrew his fingers, which made me mad, but then I realized what he was going to replace it with, and I couldn't argue any more. He slipped inside me slowly, pitching forward until I was completely filled, and I sighed with contentment.
"God, Bella, how are you still tight after all these years?" he groaned. I'd never tell him about my secret Kegel exercises that had nothing to do with bladder control.
"Please, harder, Emmett," I sighed. Soon, far too soon, I could feel myself tightening around him, and he rubbed my clit until I was falling apart in his arms. My climax triggered his, and he collapsed on top of me, both of us satiated and sleepy.
Yeah, that had to have been the time. The pills had been effective again shortly after. Oh God. If I was pregnant I'd have to quit the pills right now.
I had been lying in bed, trying to sleep, but now there was no way I could sleep until I knew. I put on my shoes and bolted to the drugstore a few blocks down. I would have driven, but I had a lot of nervous energy.
I bought three different kinds of tests, and a big thing of cranberry juice, and then ran back home to drink the juice and find out if I was going to be a mommy again.
The tests took forever, and I was severely tempted to call Alice or my mom, but it was eight am here, which meant that Alice, who was pregnant herself, would still be in bed, and that it was six am at home, and my mom was by no means a morning person.
The minutes ticked by achingly slow. I was tempted to look, to see what the tests were leaning towards, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise. My heart was racing.
What if I was pregnant? Emmett and I weren't exactly financially successful at the moment, though we were smart and secure. The rink was doing well, and I had the income from the paper to help us along. We weren't suffering. We had a small but nice home, didn't splurge on stupid things, and had savings in the bank. We'd be okay.
And I knew Emmett would be excited. I couldn't believe how insanely proud and happy he'd been with Elijah and Natalie. He was constantly hugging my belly, singing to the babies, and making sure I was eating and sleeping properly. He was entirely too cute.
And then, what if I wasn't pregnant? The thought saddened me. Suddenly, I wanted this life that could be inside of me. The thought excited me. I loved being a mom. It was especially difficult with Elijah, what with having a baby and then starting a business, but we'd figured it out, and Natalie was easy as pie. That girl was a blessing after her noisy, colicky brother.
The timer dinged. Okay. It was time. My heart was pounding out of my chest. Apparently, no matter how many times you do this, it never gets any less exciting or terrifying.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing as I picked up the first test, careful not to touch the pee end. I cracked one eye open, and then stopped breathing.
A smiley face.
The second test had a blue plus sign.
The third, "Pregnant."
Well. That answered it then. I stared at them, unable to believe it. And then I burst into tears. Happy tears. My hand flew to my belly, feeling no different than before, but knowing that my baby was in there. Holy crap.
"Hi baby," I said softly.
I was too excited to sleep now. I jumped up and went down the stairs, feeling the need to do something with my hands. I was just trying not to call up my mom or Alice. Emmett needed to know first. So I cleaned the kitchen, and then the living room. Eli could clean his own room, and needed to if he wanted to go to his friend's birthday party this weekend. Natalie had a few things on the floor but not much.
If it was a girl, she would share the room with Natalie. What if it was a boy? Elijah was too old to share a room with a baby, and we didn't have a spare room. Nat and the baby would have to share. How would she like that?
By the time I was done with my cleaning tirade, it was time to pick up Eli and Nat before I started writing for the day. How was I going to see Emmett and not burst it out? I wanted to wait, when it was just the two of us, but I could never keep secrets from him. I was an open book.
I sighed, and drove back to the rink. My heart burst open in my chest when I saw Emmett, Elijah and Natalie all sitting in his office, talking and playing. Nothing extraordinary, nothing particularly sweet or touching. Just them, all together, content. Happy.
Emmett was the perfect father, and soon we'd be parents all over again. I couldn't get over it. I felt like bursting into tears again, but if I did that, Emmett would want me to go to the doctor's, and then I'd have to tell him right here and now, and I wasn't ready for that.
Somehow, I got through picking up the kids without him suspecting a thing. My acting must have improved over the years.
Somehow, I got my article on the latest romance/thriller done. It was dumb and fraught with unnecessary angst, and I gave it a bad review.
Somehow, I got dinner ready and the kids entertained until Daddy got home.
Somehow, we made it through dinner, and put the kids to bed after bath time.
Somehow, I slipped into pajamas and slid into bed next to Emmett, who seemed oblivious to the butterflies in my stomach and the baby in my uterus.
"Emmett?"
"Yeah?" He was flipping through late night shows, trying to choose between Conan and David. I say Conan every time.
"Can you hold on for a sec with the TV?"
"But baby, that guy who brings on all the animals is next," he whined.
"Emmett, this is slightly more important."
He finally caught on to my tone, and shut it off. "What's up?"
I took a deep breath. "Well, remember when I was sick a few weeks back?"
"Yeah?" His brow furrowed, trying to see where I was going with this. "Are you okay? Are you still sick? Is it worse?"
"No, I'm not sick," I reassured him.
"But you've been tired."
"Yeah, I have."
"So…"
"So…" I sighed again. "Remember, I was on those medications, and they have sort of a reverse affect on my other medications… or at least make them not work for awhile?"
"I don't get it."
"Of course you don't," I sighed. Blunt was always best with Emmett. "I'm pregnant."
"WHAT?!" His jaw dropped open, clearly not prepared for this. "Your medicines made you pregnant?"
"Oh my GOD, you're an idiot!" I exclaimed, though I had to laugh at his logic, or lack thereof. "YOU made me pregnant, you moron. The birth control stopped working, and we forgot to use protection."
"And now you're pregnant?"
I bit my lip nervously. "Yeah, I think so. I mean, I took the tests… like three of them… and they all came back positive."
"Oh my God!" he exclaimed, and suddenly his mouth was on mine, and his body pressed up against me excitedly. "You're pregnant! I'm gonna be a daddy!"
I didn't mention that he already was one. "Yeah."
"I'm so happy," he said, a goofy smile on his face, and suddenly everything was right. Everything would be okay. "Are you happy?"
"Of course I'm happy," I sighed. "I didn't expect it… but I figure, it was made with love, and nothing can be wrong about that."
"Nahh, we can't go wrong," he said, grinning like an idiot. My idiot. He kissed me again, and ran his tongue along the seam of my lips, asking for permission. I granted it, and he made love to my mouth, his hands running slowly down my body, resting against my currently flat stomach.
"Hey there peanut," he said in a soft baby voice, and I had to giggle. "I'm your daddy. And you're going to grow up big and strong, and be so loved." I had to sigh at his loving words. I truly had the perfect husband, even if he didn't always put the seat down, and left his dirty clothes on the floor occasionally.
"Emmett, I love you so much," I said, suddenly overcome with emotion, my throat choked up and thick with tears.
"I love you, too, Bella," he said, and I noted his eyes were also brimming with unshed tears. "You've given me everything."
"And you've given me all, my love."