Hello Sister, Goodbye Life
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. All recognisable characters, content or locations belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Warning: Adult themes. Language.
Important Author's Note: Hey, guys. First off, thanks for the reviews - awshum. Anyway... the important stuff. Well, this will be my last update for a while. I have half of chapter 16 written but I don't want to post any more until I've written at least chapter 18. My reason is, well, real life. My muse is temporarily unavailable at the moment and my theory is that it was swept away in the floods currently hitting QLD, Australia - ma home state. No, I'm not directly effected, but needless to say, I'm isolated in my own home. Along with that reason, I'm going through some pretty shitty family crap at the moment and I just want to sort that all out with my family before I get back into this story. I'd really appreciate if you guys understood and, got, please don't hate me for it. This chapter will tell you more about Edward's ex-wife and blah blah blah blah. Read away...
Chapter Twelve
Bella Swan
Edward called me mid Sunday morning and, after a long conversation about anything and everything, he asked me if Maddie and I were able to go with he and his kids to the park. The weather was forecast to be sunny and he'd promised his children a day at the park. Agreeing with a smile on my face, we bid each other a good day and hung up.
Rosalie was at the formal dining table looking at Career One's job openings in the paper and Maddie was on the floor chewing on a plastic ball.
"Maddie, don't do that," I chastised, picking her up and removing the ball from her hand. Moving over to the drying-dishes rack, I got her pacifier, rinsed it and placed it in her mouth. She smiled around it and began to tug on my hair as I began to make my breakfast one handed.
"Did you feed Maddie yet?" I asked as I pressed the on button on the coffee machine.
"Yeah," she replied, not looking up from the paper. "You were asleep for a while, what's up?"
"Couldn't sleep last night," I replied, "Edward woke me up, though."
That caught her attention and she looked up, eyebrow raised expectantly. "What'd he want?"
I shrugged. "He invited me and Maddie to a picnic in the park next Saturday."
The rest of Sunday passed uninterestingly. Rosalie confessed that it was nice not having to recover from a hangover as I played with building blocks with Maddie.
"Ma!" She cheered as I lifted her higher so she could place the triangular prism on top of the tower that we'd been working on. Once we'd both moved back a foot or so, Maddie clapping her hands together happily, Rosalie took a photo of her in my lap, both of us smiling as I pointed a finger at the tower we'd built.
I didn't miss the symbolism in the moment: Maddie and I had built a small family together between the two of us, just as we'd done the same with the block tower. The tower was missing a mote, though and I wondered if we'd ever get to making one.
On Saturday Morning, I had Madeleine in her stroller, my tote and her diaper bag stored in with it as well. Edward had said we'd walk to the park seeing as it was a fairly short walk from my house so, once I was ready, I bid farewell to Rosalie who was getting ready to head to lunch with her parents and pushed the stroller down to the gates.
Once Edward arrived in his Volvo, he took Anthony's stroller out of the trunk, unfolded it and put him in, along with a picnic basket and Anthony's diaper bag.
Once ready, Eva holding onto the side bars of both strollers as she walked in between them, we set off for the park, talking about our week.
"So, save any lives this week?" I asked teasingly.
He chuckled and shrugged modestly. I laughed and turned my attention to where we were going. There was a bike path down my street and the park was just around the bend. It was wide enough for both of us as we pushed the strollers and Eva to walk comfortably side by side.
"What about you? Bring the justice to anyone this week?"
"Lucky for me, I don't have to deal with those cases. Poor Billy has to be given the hate mail and all that. A seperated couple is fighting for the custody of their twins, though, and I represent the twins' mother. At the moment, we've come to a shaky treaty – father gets them weekends and mother weekdays."
Edward nodded his acknowledgement. "My ex-wife didn't hesitate to give up her parental rights. It's why I wonder why she showed up at their daycare all of a sudden."
"Does she have a history of... substance abuse? Uh... sorry, it's probably a personal subject; you don't have to answer that." I blushed and focused all my attention on following the path.
"She used cocaine in high school but when I met her in college, she was clean – she'd gone to rehab after senior year of high school. She was clean when we got married and throughout her pregnancies with Eva and Tony. About three months after Tony was born, I came home one day to find her unconcious in the bathroom, eyes pin pricks and glassy and bleeding from a gash in her forehead; she'd overdosed. At the hospital, she agreed to go into rehab and when she got out... she just left. About a week later, I got divorce papers in the mail signing away all her rights to the kids and not bothering to take anything in her name."
By that point, we were at the entrance of the park and Eva was looking longingly towards the swingset. Shaking myself out of my stupor, I pushed onto the grass and under a shady tree, well in sight of the playground. "That was certainly an... interesting story," I said after a long moment of silence, in which Edward spread out a blanket, set Maddie and Anthony down on their stomachs, folded up the strollers and set out the picnic basket.
He chuckled merthlessly but didn't comment, instead pulling out a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich in a zip lock bag, took it out of the bag and handed it to Eva.
"Alright, two choices," he said, turning to me, "Ham and cheese or PB & J."
Maddie and Anthony were now sitting up and playing – more like chewing – Anthony's dinosaur toys. Maddie had the wing of a terradactyl in her little mouth and Anthony the tail of a tyranasaurus rex.
"I'll go the peanut butter and jelly, please," I replied, turning my attention back to Edward. He withdrew the sandwhich and a bottle of water, both I accepted graciously and dug into as he did the same with a ham and cheese sandwhich.
After the sandwhiches were eaten, Edward pulled out a plastic container of sliced fruit. As Eva dug in with gusto for the cantelope, Edward and I fed Maddie and Anthony apples, grapes and watermelon.
Stomachs satisfied, Edward and I packed away the picnic basket, moved our gear to a bench nearer to the playground and herded the kids to the swingset. There were four swings; two normal sized swings and two baby sized.
Putting Maddie and Anthony in those, I began to push them gently as Edward did the same for Eva on the "big girl" swing.
"If this was a perfect world and your parents were alive, what would you be doing right now?"
It was two in the afternoon on a Saturday. "Either nursing a hangover in the pool, shopping for a night out or... eating a late lunch with my mom." I looked down at Maddie and ran a hand through her short hair, smiling fondly. "She loved those lunches; she said it gave her a chance to feel young again." "I was always a mommy's girl and Maddie had been proving to be a daddy's girl so while Renee and I went out to lunch, Charlie and Maddie would go off and do whatever they did." I paused again. "But I'd give up a perfect world for this world – spending time with an awesome guy, his kids and mine. At the moment, this world feels perfect."
He turned his head and smiled at me, reaching out a hand. I took it in my own and he surprised me when he lifted our entwined hands, placing a lingering kiss on my knuckles.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the park, spreading out the blanket on the grass and setting the three of them down for an afternoon nap when they began to yawn.
With the kids out cold as it was nearing dusk, Edward and I sat together, just off the edge of the blanket and began to watch the sun's slow descent towards the horizon in the west. We were sitting close enough so that our shoulders grazed and our knees brushed. I turned, just as he did, and in that moment, I realised that I was growing to love this man. The space between us vanished as we both leaned forward until, finally, his lips tentatively brushed against mine. He tasted fruity from the fruit we'd been nibbling on earlier and his lips were soft and firm. Our lips seemed to mould together as he pressed his lips harder against mine and I responded in kind. His smell of honey and sandalwood pervaded my senses, dizzying and centering me at the same time.
Too soon, we seperated, gasping for breath. Smiling, I moved back to staring at the sunset and we began to talk about LeMarx and Darwin's theories of evolution, of all things. We both agreed that Darwin's opinion that evolution happened over many generations and not just one was more logical than that of LeMarx's but for certain cases. For one, those with sensory impairments such as deaf or blindness. Deaf people, it was scientifically proven, had better vision and vice versa for that of those with blindness.
We were still talking about it as we moved the children into their strollers, me discovering that Edward's was a two seat stroller but the other had been holding the picnic basket on the way there. Storing it underneath the two seats, he placed both children in their seats, me doing the same with Maddie.
On our way back to my house, we talked music. I found that Edward was a musical whore, listening to whatever he wanted, very much like me. We seemed to be able to talk nonstop about anything and everything and nothing all at once but time flew with him and soon I found myself outside his car as he packed away the stroller, his kid's already fast asleep in their car seats.
"I guess this is where I say goodnight," he said reluctantly, giving me a sad smile.
"I guess so," I replied on a sigh. In all honesty, I really didn't want him to go, though I thought it would be a little bit too soon to ask him if he wanted to come in.
He walked me to the foot gate and once I'd punched in the code, it clicked open and I stepped through. Turning around, I let Edward kiss me gently before stepping back and pushing the gate shut.
"I really enjoyed myself today, Edward," I said honestly, smiling all the while.
He grinned, ruffling the hair on the back of his head. "Can I, uh, call you tomorrow?"
I grinned in return and nodded. "I'd like that."
He looked over his shoulder at his car. "I have to go," he sighed again, "I'll call you tomorrow, then."
I waved to him as he turned on his heel and walked towards his Volvo. I stood there until he was around the corner and out of my sight before finally turning and pushing Maddie towards the house. Most of the first floor lights were on when I entered the open garage. Pulling Maddie's diaper bag and my tote over my shoulders, I got Maddie unbuckled and into my arms before moving into the house where I found Rosalie watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager with a tub of ice cream in front of her.
After setting Maddie down for the night, I returned to the living room with another spoon and collapsed into the spot beside her. She grinned at me but otherwise didn't acknowledge my presence, so focused on what was going on on the TV.
When the commercials started, though, all of her attention was on me. "What happened? Spill! I want every detail."
"We walked to the park where we ate lunch and talked. We played with the kids on the playground until they passed out, only to start playing again when they woke up. They fell asleep again around five and we sat and watched the sunset." I grinned. "And kissed."
"Oh mygod!" She practically mauled me when she threw herself at me, her hands going to cup my face, her nails digging into my skin slightly. "Woman, details!" She exclaimed, eyes practically popping out of her head.
So we discussed every little part of the date until the early hours of the morning, Secret Life of the American Teenager completely forgotten. We both trudged upstairs and headed to bed. I wasn't sure about Rosalie, but I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.