Last proper chapter guys :( 1 more outtake after this.
I don't. Stephenie does.
Chapter 25
Edward
3 years on.
That large sigh of relief when you hang up your work jacket and you know you don't have to touch it again for another week. Pure magical bliss. After I was issued with three long haul trips in the space of two months, I was offered a weeks paid vacation to make up for it. I grabbed that opportunity with both hands. A week where I can spend quality time with my wife and children? Yes please.
Not only that, but I also finished in time to collect said children from school. That seldom happens, and I loved nothing more than seeing their little faces light up in surprise at me standing there. Not that they don't have the same expression with Bella, but they always expect to see her standing there, y'know?
First to collect where the Twins. Since the day they were born, they have been inseparable and did everything together. That never changed - even when leaving the school building they are side by side; with similar outfits and matching backpacks bouncing lightly. Ellie had on a white blouse with a burgundy skirt and little black boots, and Marco wore a white polo shirt, burgundy jeans and a tiny pair of white Converse. And it wasn't like Bella and I decided upon dressing them in matching outfits. No - if Marco wore a black tee with blue jeans, and Ellie didn't have something on that were the same colors, we would all know about it.
My sister, Alice, believes they caught the 'designer gene', but that is just Alice for you.
Even their hair was the same shade in color. A rusty brown, I suppose you could call it. Marco's was wavy and hung around his ears, and Ellie's was long that dropped below her shoulders. She often had it tied back in two identical pleated braids.
So damn cute.
"Daddy!" They called, and raced ahead of their little classmates to get to me.
"Daddy, what you doing here?" Marco squeezed my left leg.
"You're no working, Daddy!" Ellie preferred to be lifted into my arms. She squashed my cheeks between her palms which made a pout on my lips. Then she kissed them with a loud "mwah!".
She's a Daddy's girl.
And I don't mind one bit.
"I finished early, so I came to collect my favorite twins." Marco soon felt the jealousy and asked to be held as well.
"We your favorites, Dad?" I had to choose my next words carefully; they could end me in a whole pile of shit.
"You," I kissed Marco's head, "are my favorite Marco. And you," I kissed Ellie, "are my favorite Ellie Belle."
A coy smile crossed my daughter's face, "I... your favorite girl?" She grinned.
"You're one of my favorite girls."
"Is... Mommy your favorite girl?"
I had to laugh at how simply adorable she was. "Mommy is my other favorite girl, yes."
Ellie's cheeky grin soon turned into a toothy smile, "Marco your favorite girl?... No! Marco no a girl, Marco a boooooy!"
I made sure we had all our belongings (once, I forgot their lunch bags and the wife wasn't too impressed) before we made our way to collect another of my favorite boys. My teenage boy. Christ Almighty Cooper's a teenager. Like, soon he won't need my help anymore... and I'll be forking out all my money so he can go to college... and I don't think I'm ready for this, man!
A lot has changed for Cooper too, in the last few years. After our honeymoon, Bella and I looked into service dogs and what it would mean for him, for the family, and also how much work it would take to train one. We were highly convinced when we saw that Cooper could finally go to the park by himself, and not have to rely on one of us being their incase he had another relapse. Or meet his friends on the weekend without the supervision of an adult. We would feel a lot more content and relaxed as a family, because we would know before anything happened and could seek out the right medication to calm the attack.
As thought, Flash took a while to be trained, but he didn't take as long as other adult dogs would take. He had always been so in tune with Cooper. He now has 'working' hours and 'home' hours. Every morning, the two head into school with Cooper holding Flash's harness and a coat that tells everyone not to interfere. He follows his owner everywhere - day in, day out - and whenever Cooper's blood pressure drops or spikes too high, Flash lets out a worried bark and brings us to attention.
The school were amazing with it all. They allowed Flash to sit alongside Coop in class and set up special study spots if the classmates were too intimidating for him. We've had a couple minor attacks since Flash's training, and he caught them all before they became serious.
We noticed the change in our son's confidence, too. He's proud to show off Flash, and those fuckers that picked on him a few years back? They haven't said a word - 'cause no idiot would bully a kid who has a loyal dog by their side.
For simplicity, they're allowed to leave class five minutes early, before the corridors get too crowded. Right on time, the pair left the school building. Coop had a smile which showed how excited he was for the weekend ahead. He may be thirteen, but my boy still looks like a cheeky little nine year old.
"Are you excited about the weekend, Papi? I sure am - it's going to be wicked fun."
"Of course, Coop. It'll be lovely to see everyone again."
Here's the low down; what with everyone's lives now being that bit more stressful and chaotic, we had to limit the number of trips to Fork, or when they came to Seattle. It was easier to pick a weekend in the following month or two to see the family then. So this weekend Grandparents, siblings, in-laws... the lot. The whole Cullen crew are spending the weekend in Seattle. It'll be like Noah's Ark in our house.
Except with children and not animals.
If I counted correctly there would be 7 children in total - majority of them under the age of 6. Technically it's eight children, if you count the one forming in Rose's stomach. She and Emmett had some difficulty conceiving their daughter, Emma. But after trips to the doctor and all that gross stuff, it fell into place and now they are expecting their second child within the next five months. Emma, who turned one a couple months ago, is the apple of Emmett's eye. Her hair is thick with curls and a luscious fair color. Her eyes look far too big for her face, but that adds to her beauty. They are a sparkling blue, like her mother, and you are wrapped around her little finger from a simple blink.
Eight months ago Alice and Jasper gave Little Lottie her wish of a baby brother, Peter. He, too, is Jasper's doppelgänger with the blonde hair that is so light, you'd think he didn't have any. My nephew was going to be a heartbreaker. With a severely over-protective sister.
Then we have my little whirlwind. When Bella and I discussed having another child during our honeymoon, we thought we'd have some time before anything happened. But clearly my stuff was pretty strong, 'cause within a month we had a positive test resting on the bathroom counter.
Finley is now two, and he's gonna put me in an early grave. I swear. He runs everywhere, he gets into everything. Doesn't matter what height something is at, or how dangerous it may be - he will climb it. We've had more trips to the emergency room for cuts and grazes with Finley than we have with the other three put together. But God, he's fucking cute.
His new words are 'doggie poop'. I took the kids on a walk with Flash, who, naturally, stopped to shit. The Twins giggled and pointed at the mound screaming "poop! Look, Dad, poop!" By the time we got home, Finley had perfected the words and greeted Bella with an excited squeal "doggie poop!".
Cooper and the Twins get a kick out of making him say it.
"What would you like for lunch, Fin?"
"Um... doggie poop?"
Lil' Fin had woken up from his nap when the kids and I got home. Bella was curled up on her favorite seat, and Finley plodded around the living room in just his t-shirt and diaper and a bottle of juice in one hand. Bella offered me a sleepy smile - I stroked her hair back and lent down to kiss her head. "How's he been?"
"Yeah, fine. Apart from giving me a heart attack when I saw him literally on the kitchen table. He climbed from his seat as my back was turned."
With a laugh, I dropped to my knees as our tiny terror ran up to me with his plush elephant toy. "Daddy! E'phant toot toot!"
"Elephants go toot toot." I said with a smile. It was amazing to see how much he had learned in such a short space of time. Finley left me with the elephant to collect some other toys.
"Linley bear... a babit."
"Finley's bear and rabbit - that's right little man." Most of the words he said weren't proper words - more like mumbles - but he had a wide vocabulary which you could just about understand.
"Mommy, iiiit's a Linley... bear." We both turned to see that Mommy had fallen asleep. Finley gasped at what he saw.
"Mommy's sleeping, Fin."
"Why... why mommy... seeping?"
"Because she's very tired." And you keep her plenty active.
"Oooh." Fin attempted to climb the seat where Bella sat. "Wake, Mommy, wake!"
I gently took his wrist in my hand and brought him down before he either woke Bella up, or fell off and hurt himself. Or both. "Let's leave Mommy to sleep, yeah? C'mon, we'll go and find your brothers and sister." I had over heard Coop saying they were in the back yard, so I had Finley put on some pants and his shoes. "Want to play with the pets, Fin?"
"Yeah, we'll... d'animals and s'doggie poops!" I didn't have the chance to reply to his words, because he was off in a flash, heading for the animals.
Um, yeah... talking about the animals... Bella warned me not to bring anymore home, unless I wished for them to replace me.
Gotta listen to your wife, y'know?
It's not that we have loads of pets...
Okay, what am I saying? We have a zoo.
No, literally - a zoo.
It's Cooper's project he made with our three rabbits - Pepper, Mollie and Percy, and two guinea pigs - Thor and Loki. Together, we built giant hutches for them and Coop invites family, friends, or neighbors 'round for the chance to play with the pets or sit on a blanket and hold them. He called it 'The Zoo' and has never been so proud of a project before.
Yes, we still have the frogs - Alvin, Simon and Theodore, and the geckos - Georgia and Leonard.
Then there's the surprise Bella was not too thrilled about, but quickly warmed up to. You see, my friend needed to find a home for them, and I knew they would be great for us and the Twins would adore them. So, after a long discussion with my brilliant wife, she agreed that we could have them.
The newest members of our family - Zach and Zoey, the cocker spaniel puppies.
Holy shit, how I've stayed a married man I'll never know.
Zach is a tan color with darker ears, and Zoey (his sister) is chocolate brown with a pure white stomach. They have just as much energy as Finley (almost) and as thought, the Twins instantly took them in as there own.
Coop still pests me about that damn python, but I think we have enough to deal with for now.
0-0
The family arrived and my mother had never looked more at home surrounded by all her grandbabies and getting smooches off every one of them. "My, my, my; you're all getting so big!"
"Nannnna. Mmmeeh big boy!"
"That's right, Fin. At this rate, soon all my babies will no longer be babies," She eyed us all with a smirk, "you'll all need to have more!"
"Ahem." Rose cleared her throat and patted her stomach.
"Okay, Rose, I'll let you off this time. Bella? Alice? Either of you granting my wish?"
The guys around me all sniggered, including myself. My stubborn wife spoke up first. "You can count me out. I don't remember any of you lot having twins!"
"Trust me, it's not the same down there." Because I was born without a filter, the words kinda slipped out without me managing to stop them. When everyone laughed, Bella stared at me with a deadly glare.
"Thank you, darling." She sneered.
"I'm sorry, baby. I love you."
Looks like it'll be the dog house for me tonight.
0-0
Once the initial 'hello, how are you's were over with, the kids split up into their own groups 'cause they're too cool to be hanging around with parents, y'know? The babies stayed with us, obviously. Cooper and Marco went to deal with The Zoo and play with the puppies and Ellie and Lottie went to play some Disney Princess game. They were both obsessed with that movie, Frozen, and decided they looked similar to the main characters - Elsa and Anna. Now they run around with a toy snowman and sing Let it Go morning, noon and night.
I hate that song.
Ellie wasn't very happy when I couldn't decipher who she was dressed as a few days previous. The characters looked the same to me, how was I supposed to know one was Anna and one was Merida? I hadn't even heard of Merida.
"She's from Brave, Daddy! Y'know, the one with the bear?"
Oh yes...that one...
But like I did with the rest of the kids, I let her play whichever made-up game she fancied, if that made her happy.
It wasn't just the kids that went their separate ways - our wives did too. Mom, Bella, Alice and Rose went for a 'girly chat' in the kitchen with the babies, leaving the men to entertain themselves in the living room, with Frozen playing for the hundredth time. So manly.
"Right," Emmett belched loudly into the back of his hand, "who's up for another?" He shook his empty Budweiser bottle.
"Yeah, I'll have one."
"Count me in." Dad and Jasper agreed. I accepted one as well, but because it was my house, obviously I had to heave myself off the couch to get them.
In the kitchen, I was surprised to see that Coop had joined the ladies. Bella had her arms lovingly around our son. After we married he went from being a daddy's boy to one hell of a mommy's boy. Not a lot of teenage boys are so willing to cuddle their moms in public, but our little Coop is one of a kind.
"You alright, bud?" I patted his shoulder. He looked sleepy, which was normal for him. He ran out of energy very quickly and sometimes would take a nap just like Finley does.
"Yeah," he nodded. "We're talking about when Auntie Rose told Uncle Emmett that they were having my new cousin and how excited everyone was."
All the ladies watched our conversation go on. "It was a very exciting moment." I agreed.
"S'good Uncle Emmett didn't act like you, right?"
"Oh, yes," Bella pitched in, "we wouldn't want that." I knew what she was doing - she was getting me back for my comment earlier about her nether regions.
"Why not, dear?"
And it worked 'cause my mother was now all ears.
"Padre was a real jerk! He thought the Twins weren't his babies!"
Thanks son. Way to show some support...
"Is this true, Edward? Why did I not hear about this?"
Esme Cullen - a force not to be reckoned with.
"Just forget it, Mom. It happened like five years ago."
But of course my mother couldn't forget it, and neither could my sisters. Bella stayed suspiciously quiet through the whole thing.
"That's not the point though, is it Edward?" Alice piped up.
"How could you think Bella would do something so dreadful?" Rose inserted.
"I hope you got a severe seeing to after that."
"Don't worry, Nanna, I had Uncle Emmett and Uncle Jasper punch him in the nose!" Cooper giggled. "It was so funny!"
I came in here to collect a few beers, not get the third degree from my family.
"Edward, dear," Mom placed her hand gently on my arm. "You know I don't agree with violence - especially between my own family." I felt a but coming on... "but," there we go... "should that ever happen again, I'll make a hit in the nose feel like a stroke with a feather. Do I make myself clear?"
I knew from my childhood experience that my mother means everything she says. I caught Bella when she left the kitchen. "Don't let her hit me." I whispered with a hit of amusement in my voice.
She giggled into the arm that I had cuddled around her shoulders. "Of course I won't."
"And I'm sorry for being a jerk."
Bella turned out of my arm and faced me with a frown forming on her brow. "When were you a jerk?"
"Earlier on. When I made the comment about... down there."
A beautiful smile appeared on her face, "ooh, Edward. You silly old fool." With her hands on my chest, she leant up for a kiss. "I love you."
Relief. "I love you too. And, baby, if I am a jerk - and don't realize it - you will tell me, right?"
"I promise to let you know. I'll tell Esme too, so... maybe it's best not to be one."
Wicked, wicked woman.
0-0
Sunday nights are always the same - Finley and the Twins need to be bathed and fed early in preparation for another long week at Preschool and Kindergarten, (Ellie isn't too bad when it comes to having a bath, but with the boys it is torture), Cooper waits to have dinner with Bella and I ('"cause, y'know, I'm a man") but every week, without fail, you'd hear him screaming from the shower: "PADRE! I FORGOT TO DO MY HOMEWORK!" so that then leaves us having dinner surrounded by his homework.
"My Spanish teacher said I'm getting so good and I'm top of the class." He bragged with a know-it-all smile. "But, of course I already knew that 'cause, y'know, I'm amazing. And I need to be amazing if I want to be a translator, right? I'll need to learn more Italian though."
And that's another thing. His life goal changed once again. No longer does he wish to be Tom Cruise or own his own zoo - he wants to be a translator. To be honest, I could have told you that years ago when he first picked up foreign languages. But now he has his mind set on that, and we've even looked into colleges. The idea of that really clenches at my heart. Emmett gets on at me all the time for that, and often asks when my dick will grow back. But it hurts.
It seems like only yesterday he was zooming around the house like Iron Man, asking me about hairy wieners and creeping into my bed for Lazy Saturdays. I dread the day he goes to college, and when all our kids leave home.
I'll need to start up a new hobby. Distract myself.
Bella has insisted we find local colleges for our children in that way they can stay at home. And perhaps build an extension onto the house for them to move into. Well, we say that but could be we long for Finley to move out so we can have the house to ourselves and go on the vacations we always dreamt of.
We've been on a couple vacations as a family of 6 - a trip to Florida so the kids could see Mickey Mouse, and meet their Grandma Renee (Bella still has trouble communicating with her). The other trip was mostly for Cooper, but we found a way to include the little ones as well.
We went to Chicago so that Coop could visit Tanya's grave. It was a beautiful day - perfect for the occasion. I took him there when he was a lot younger, but it had been years since we last visited. Bella and I noticed a massive change in our son that day. We imagined him to shy away from us and hide back his emotions, but he didn't. He appeared to mature more than anything else.
The six of us stood 'round her grave all placed a flower. Okay, Fin was too interested picking off the petals, but we let him off. I said a few words, and Bella too - she promised Tanya that she'd look after Cooper and love him like he was her own. Then Coop had his chance to say something. We offered to leave him to it, but he wanted us to stay.
I didn't hide back the tears that pooled in my eyes.
"...I have a wicked awesome family, Mom; you'd love them. I have my Nanny and Grandpa, Grandpa Chief, Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice, Uncle Emmett and Aunt Rose, my baby cousins, my brothers - Marco and Finley, and my sister - Ellie. And I have my Madre and Padre who love me very much (even when I'm a bit naughty). I also have lots of animals and my best friend, Flash - he's my dog. Padre said you liked dogs too; I think you'd like Flash. He'd like you too, 'cause he likes everyone. Padre has always said I look just like you, do you know that? I love that I look like you. I wish you were here though, Mom. I always wanted to meet you. I still find the biggest star in the sky and I know that's you watching me. I miss you, and love you very much..."
It was a sad day, but at the same time it was what we all needed. Because we were in the area, Garrett asked if he could spend the day with Cooper. He reluctantly agreed, but in the end he loved his day with Garrett - they went to see some film and Coop was introduced to his half-brother, Riley. The two got on like a house on fire and found out both had a love for superheroes.
Unfortunately Coop hasn't seen Garrett since that day, but he phones every couple weeks and they hope to visit us within the next few months. So far, Garrett has stuck to his word and we have no reason to think that he wouldn't show.
0-0
Monday morning arrived, the kids and Flash were taken to school and because Bella and I were both off work, we saw no need to take Finley to preschool. Extra costs, y'know?
I was distracted from the work emails by the sound of splashing and over-excited laughter coming from outside. Knowing exactly what was going on, I closed down my laptop.
Zach and Zoey were both pawing at the baby guard attached to the back door. "C'mon, pups." I said, letting them free.
Across the yard, I spotted Bella holding a giggly Finley in her hands. Both were in the pool and she was giving him his weekly swimming lesson.
"Are you joining us, Daddy?" Bella called over to me.
"Nah," I said with a laugh, "I'll watch from here."
"Daddy!" Finley giggled and splashed the water, "I-ah me swimmm!"
"And you're doing an excellent job buddy!"
It was a beautiful moment to encounter.
Six years ago I met Bella again, teaching my eldest son how to swim. And here she is now, as my wife, teaching my youngest.
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The outtake will be up whenever I can get it written :) But for now, I wish to thank all of you for the incredible support and love you have shown this story (including TWOF) and mostly, how you have loved Cooper more than anyone in the story! LOL. You guys are crazy.
How about a wee review telling me what you loved most?
See you soon! x