i like you guys so i decided not to make you wait long. if you missed it: i posted BPOV of the last chapter in between this and the last.
*I don't own Twilight*
Chapter Nineteen
Edward Cullen
The staff gave us a few minutes before they took Audrey from us. They had finished cleaning Bella up or whatever it was they were doing down there. I stayed by her head and gave her a thousand kisses on her face after handing the baby back to the nurse.
"Go tell everyone, Edward… they've been waiting for a while," she said, tears still in her eyes. I smiled and nodded, kissing her one last time. My dad agreed that he'd follow Bella to recovery and stay with her while I went to inform my mother and our friends – who had hopefully made it – of the baby's arrival.
The hospital was like a fucking maze and I was lucky I'd been here a lot, visiting my dad, not as a patient, growing up or else I'd have gotten lost a ridiculous amount of times. I finally made it to the maternity waiting room where my mom was sitting with Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett. They all looked up with expectant faces when they saw me.
"Audrey Elizabeth, seven pounds, nine ounces… she's gorgeous," I announced. My mom had tears in her eyes and rushed to hug me. Alice and Rose hugged me next. They both had tears streaming down their faces. I shook both Emmett and Jasper's hands and I couldn't wipe the stupid, cheesy smile off my face.
"How's Bella?" Alice asked, looking slightly concerned.
"Good, she did great. Dad's in recovery now with her. She'll be in recovery for a bit and when they move her to her room, you guys can come up. I better get back there but I'll ask the nurse to let you guys know when you're able to come back." I hugged my mom one more time before heading back to recovery. It was a little hard to convince them to let me in but a little name dropping did the trick and I was back before I knew it. Bella was sitting up slightly, smiling down at the tiny bundle in her arms. My dad hugged me and kissed Bella's head before excusing himself from the room.
"How are my girls?" I sat on the edge of the bed, tucking a strand of hair behind Bella's ear.
"Wonderful… oh, Edward, look how beautiful she is," Bella beamed at me. She looked tired and sweaty and the small amount of make-up she'd worn earlier was gone but she was gorgeous all the same.
"I can't believe she's here. It's fucking awesome, baby." I leaned in and kissed Bella then the top of our girl's capped head. She was fussing a little and her tiny hands had escaped from the blanket and were balled up by her face. I gently soothed my finger over her knuckles and was surprised when she straightened her hand then grasped my finger.
"I love her so much," Bella whispered, wiping her eyes with her free hand, "I love you."
"I love you too, Bella. Both of you. More than I ever thought I was capable of," I was speaking quietly, whispering back. Audrey turned her head toward Bella's chest and started moving her face around.
"What's she doing?" I asked, my brow furrowed. I slightly remembered Jax doing this same thing to Bella and her face had turned bright red at the time.
"Oh, uh… she must be hungry. It's instinct. But I don't know how…" she trailed off, blushing even now. Bella then started to try to pull the hospital gown down. I leaned in and awkwardly helped Bella move one arm out of the sleeve of the hospital gown, exposing her breast. Audrey seemed to know exactly what to do and latched right on, making little noises as she ate. Bella winced a little.
"Does it hurt, B?"
"It's weird," she said, stroking Audrey's cheek. I helped her situate a pillow under her arm to make holding the baby in that position easier and her face relaxed.
Bella kept her eyes on our tiny girl as she ate. Her face was calm and peaceful and I'd never seen her look so happy. I wondered if I wore the same look on my face and figured I must. I was happier than I could ever remember being. Audrey suckled greedily, like she was starving. She unlatched a few times and fussed until Bella adjusted her and she found her way back to her food source. Bella winced every time she moved but when I tried to help, she shook her head. I wasn't sure how I would have helped anyway.
Finally the baby finished and yawned hugely. I took her from Bella just as a nurse, wearing hot pink scrubs and looked like she was about nineteen and ditzy, came in to transfer Bella to the room she'd be in for the next few days. I was patting her back gently trying to get her to burp, rocking gently at the same time. When the nurse reached to take Audrey from me but I turned, blocking her.
"Uh, I can carry her."
"I can't let you; hospital policy says babies have to be in the bassinet when they're out of the room. Sorry." She shrugged and reached again.
"Let me finish burping her," I frowned. The nurse agreed and when she let out a quiet burp, I carefully handed her to the nurse. As I handed my tiny daughter over, I frowned deeper still when I saw how rough the too young nurse was being.
"Hey, careful she's just--"
"Edward," Bella said and I looked at her. She looked amused. "She knows what she's doing. The baby is fine."
"Okay," I frowned then leaned and whispered to Bella, "She's like, twelve. How do we know she knows what she's doing?" Bella snorted and shook her head at me.
"If it makes you feel better, you can push the baby while I push your wife, Mr. Swan," the ditz said.
"Oh, I'm not his wife," Bella said, shaking her head and laughing. I frowned. Wife, fiancée, same difference and why did she think it was funny? Though, I didn't appreciate being called Mr. Swan. We really needed to set a date for the wedding.
"Fiancée, whatever, Bell. It's Cullen, by the way."
"Oh, you're Dr. Cullen's son?"
"Yes. And Audrey here is his granddaughter," I nodded with a smirk. The nurse looked a little nervous as she finished swaddling Audrey, being noticeably more careful and then settled her in the bassinet.
Good, she should be careful with Dr. Cullen's granddaughter.
Bella laughed and the nurse unhooked her IV before pushing the bed out into the hallway. I put Bella's bags in the bottom of the bassinet and followed, pushing the cradle. Audrey was squirming and her eyes were squinted. I wondered if the bright lights were bothering her and tried to shield her eyes as I pushed but the thing was bulky and I kept almost hitting the wall so I gave up.
The room Bella was transferred to was nice and I suspected my father had something to do with it. It was a private room, huge and had a flat screen television mounted on the wall. There was a couch and a few chairs that looked more comfortable than you usually saw in the hospital. There was also a cot, where I'd obviously be sleeping. The nurse got Bella settled in and hooked up to the IV again. I picked the baby up once the bassinet was parked and sat on the edge of B's bed. She sighed softly and smiled at me.
"Good sigh?" I asked
"Perfect sigh," she corrected.
We had a few more minutes of peace before we were bombarded. My dad, mom, Alice, Jasper, Rose and Emmett came in at once, all wearing huge smiles and expressing their excitement to Bella. My mom rushed over and scooped Audrey out of my arms before I could protest.
"Little Audrey Cullen. Bella, she's gorgeous," my mom had tears streaming down her face as she gazed lovingly at her granddaughter. My dad hovered over her shoulder with the same look on his face. I felt proud. Proud I'd been a part of creating this little creature. She was the best thing I'd ever done.
"Bella! How did it feel, are you okay now, do you need anything?" Alice rapidly fired off questions.
"Um, it felt weird. It hurt, there wasn't anytime for an epidural. I'm great now. I mean, it's nothing awful. I don't need anything, I have everything I need," Bella grabbed my hand, grinning at Alice. My mom finally gave Audrey up to Rose who cooed at her softly, inspecting her tiny hands and touching her nose.
"You're so lucky you got a girl on the first time." Rose sighed wistfully, "You both did! I'm so jealous," she turned to Emmett, looking at him like he was to blame that she hadn't had a girl.
"Well, Edward says Audrey will be our only child so..."
My mom, Alice and Rose all looked at me, looking equally appalled.
"You're only going to give me one grandchild, Edward?"
"Oh, hey, you and Dad only had me!"
"Yes Edward, but we got it right the first time and had a son," my dad joked. My mom huffed and smacked his arm.
"We agreed that one was right for us with our schedules and there were some other circumstances. But if you're not both in agreement… it shouldn't be for just you to decide."
I gave Bella a dirty look for bringing it up and she looked smug. Rosalie handed Audrey to Alice who started crying and babbling to the baby about going shopping and spending all of Daddy's money. I rolled my eyes because I wasn't surprised that'd be the first lesson Alice gave my two hour old daughter.
Audrey got passed around and I sat next to Bella, wrapping my arm around her shoulders, "Hi, baby."
"Hi," she said quietly, laying her head on my shoulder and yawning loudly.
"Thank you," I kissed the top of her head.
"For what?"
"Audrey. She's… perfect. I could never have imagined…"
"I love you, Edward."
"I love you too, B."
~*~
The rest of the hospital stay passed quickly. Bella was healing perfectly and there had been no complications and Audrey was perfect. She ate like a champ and peed and pooped like she was supposed to. She wasn't jaundiced at all and she hadn't dropped from her birth weight. In fact, she was up two ounces.
After just one night after Audrey was born in the hospital, we were allowed to go home. Bella had just showered and was wearing a deep blue sundress with thick straps; her hair was drying naturally curly around her shoulders. You would never be able to guess that she'd just given birth when she wore that dress. It hid the small bump that remained.
Audrey was lying in her bassinet wearing just her diaper. I'd mastered the diaper change but I was too scared to try to put the dress on. I was worried I'd end up snapping her little neck.
"Is everything packed?" Bella asked, looking around the room. I nodded. I had already taken most of the stuff down to the car. All remained in the room was Bella's purse, Audrey's car seat and a blanket to shield her from the sunlight. Bella slipped her feet into a black pair of flip flops and I grabbed the camera, taking the picture before she noticed. She looked up and scrunched up her little nose. I took another picture, making her laugh.
"Knock, knock," my dad spoke from the doorway before walking in. He was dressed in dark blue scrubs and a lab coat with his name embroidered. Just behind him was Dr. Morgan. I assumed was here to sign the discharge papers so we could get out of here.
"Oh, let me just finish dressing Audrey then I have some questions, Dr. Morgan," Bella said. I handed my dad the camera and went to help Bella get Audrey changed into the little Dior dress. My dad took a few pictures causing Bella to roll her eyes. I had warned her that my parents and I were all a little picture happy. She was starting to get the idea. I just wanted every moment of this perfect event documented.
Once Audrey was dressed, Bella handed her to me and turned addressed Dr. Morgan and my dad excused himself, claiming he was getting a wheelchair but I knew he wanted to give us some privacy.
"First, I wanted to thank you for everything. You've been a wonderful doctor and you helped bring Audrey into this world..."
"Oh, Isabella. That's very sweet. And I must say, Audrey is one of the cutest I've ever delivered," the doctor smiled at Bella and hugged her gently.
I situated the car seat on a chair and put Audrey in it, going about adjusting all the straps so it fit her correctly. Some lady had some by earlier to show us exactly what to do, which I was thankful for. I'd had no idea that the straps and buckles were supposed to come to a certain place on Audrey.
"Now, um... I had a question about how long Edward and I… um, how long we have to wait to be... together again?"
My head snapped toward Bella. Her face was tomato red and I had definitely not expected her to ask that. I figured it would be months before I got to be in her again.
"The official word is six weeks, after your check up," Dr. Morgan told her. Bella's face was brighter red.
They kept talking but I tuned them out.
Bella was finishing signing the discharge papers when my dad came back with the wheelchair. I plopped down in it, "Thanks, old man! I'm could use the ride, I'm a little tired."
I yelped when he smacked the back of my head. Bella giggled and tried to hide it behind a cough but I was onto her. I got out of the chair and adjusted Audrey's head in the car seat; it kept leaning to one side. Once she was adjusted perfectly, I covered her with the blanket.
Of course, this is my child and once we were ready to go, a loud noise sounded from the car seat. I groaned softly and took her out. I made a face as I changed the dirty diaper because it was gross. Bella was laughing from her seat in the wheelchair so I glared at her. She finished speaking with the doctor from her seat and Dr. Morgan said goodbye to all of us before leaving the room. I put the baby back in the car seat and washed my hands quickly before announcing that we were really all set.
My dad pushed B in the wheelchair and I carried the car seat. The blanket was positioned over it to block the sun from poor little Audrey's eyes but it was bright out and I worried that it was too much for the little girl.
My dad helped Bella into the car while I latched the baby's seat into the backseat. I was a pro from practicing. At least I thought I was but it's a little different when you're trying not to jostle a two day old baby and it took a few tries to get it to click. I moved the blanket so it was covering her so she didn't get too chilly when we put the air on in the car. Due to Bella's hormones, she was always hot. My dad said bye to Bella before coming to my side of the car.
"Son," he began as he pulled me into a hug, "your mother and I are very proud of you. We've seen a lot of good change. It's wonderful. Audrey is beautiful, congratulations, Edward. Now, be careful driving and I'll see you later."
I nodded before waving goodbye and getting into the car. Leaning over, I kissed my girl. She grinned and put her hand on my thigh. The ride home was quick but Bella backseat drove the whole way.
"Don't take the corner so sharply!"
"Slow down!"
"Don't jam on the breaks!"
My knuckles were white against the steering wheel by the time we pulled into the garage. I parked and turned off the car before helping Bella out. She yawned and stretched.
I got Audrey's carrier along with a few other bags, resolving to get everything else later, before I followed Bella into the kitchen. She got the camera out and took a few shots of me carefully extracting the baby from all the belts and safety shit and held her against my shoulder. I grinned at her because she was a little camera junky too.
~*~
Bella Swan
After taking about a billion pictures of Edward and Audrey – they were just so cute together, I couldn't not take pictures! – I looked around. The kitchen was spotless. It had been clean when we left but it seriously looked like someone had been in here and scrubbed it top to bottom. But Edward had been with me in the hospital the whole time. He hadn't left once.
I heard voices coming from down the hall and my eyes widened. Had someone broken into our house? And cleaned? I looked at Edward, who was trying too hard to look innocent. He shrugged his free arm, holding Audrey with the other.
"There are people in our house!" I whispered to Edward, not wanting to be heard by said people.
"There are?" he asked incredulously. Or what was supposed to be incredulously, I supposed. We really needed to work on this boy's acting skills.
"Edward! You're the man! Go! Find out who!" I was shrieking in my whispering.
"I'm busy, baby," he gestured to Audrey who was holding onto his thumb with her little hand.
"Ugh! If I get killed…" I huffed before I slipped of my flop flops and tiptoed down the hall. The closer I got, I realized whoever was there had stopped talking. Did they realize we were home? Oh my God, were they waiting on the other side to kill me? I finally reached the door and peeked in then let out a huge sigh of relief at what I saw.
Emmett was sitting on the couch with Rosalie lounging on his lap. Alice and Jasper were sitting on the floor, surrounded by Charlotte, Henry and Jax. Emmett spotted me first and nudged Rose.
"Bells!" he shouted.
Rose got off his lap and ran over to hug me, "We wanted to welcome you home!"
I hugged her tightly and walked into the room, grinning at my friends. I was so thankful they were here. They had come to see me at the hospital but once we came home, I imagined it would be just us. The thought had made me sad. I should have parents here, not wanting to miss a minute of their granddaughter's life. But I had these amazing friends.
"Aunt Bewwa! You had the baby in your belly!" Charlotte yelled, jumping up and down at my legs. She was wearing a white shirt with a sparkly unicorn, a black mini skirt and little silver ballet flats. Alice had straightened her blonde hair and she had a silver bow on top of her head. It was adorable.
"I did, honey. She's very tiny."
"Do you want to meet her?" Edward asked from behind me. I turned and kissed him quickly, knowing he had done this. I had the best fiancé in the world.
"Yes! Let me hold her!" Charlotte demanded.
"Say please, Charlotte. Nice little girls use their manners," Jasper reminded her. Charlotte sort of rolled her eyes before doing as her father said.
"You have to wash your hands first, sweets," Alice said as she struggled to get up from the floor. Edward offered her a hand and to my surprise, she took it. Charlotte whined for a few minutes before Alice whispered something in her ear and she decided to comply. I wondered what she'd bribed her with.
While they were gone, Edward sat on the floor by Jasper and they greeted each other. Henry looked warily at Audrey before going back to playing with his foam blocks but Jax army crawled his way over to Edward, cooing loudly at the sight of another baby. The boys were adorable – dressed in matching outfits of brown, white and green plaid short overalls with white shirts that had brown trim along the arms and neck line under them.
Jasper picked up his younger nephew and sat him on his knee so he could have a clearer view of Audrey, who was still on Edward's shoulder. Jax immediately reached out and grabbed her hand, tugging on it.
"Uh-uh, buddy," Jasper said as he gently made Jax let go of his hold on the baby. She started fussing softly.
I sat on the couch next to Emmett and Rose sat on my other side. Emmett wrapped his arm around my shoulder and squeezed as we watched them on the floor. I smiled at him and Rose.
"I clean, now I hold the baaaby, Aunt Bewwa!" Charlotte announced, holding up her still wet hands.
"Charlotte…" Jasper said, warning in his tone.
"Pleeeeaaaassseeee, Aunt Bewwa!" Charlotte whined.
"Alright, but you have to be quiet and gentle, like with Jax," I told her softly. She came and wanted to sit in my lap but I deferred her to Aunt Rose. I felt great but didn't want to chance it. Edward scooted back over to us and handed me Audrey, who I laid across Charlotte's lap. Thankfully, Rose was helping hold her without being too obvious.
Charlotte was on cloud-nine as she rocked the baby and sang her one of the songs from Beauty and the Beast. It was so sweet. Edward was smart and grabbed the camera, capturing a few shots.
"What if we try to get one with all four kids?" Edward asked. Everyone agreed but I wasn't sure how it would work out.
"I don't think Charlotte can hold the baby on her own," Alice whispered to me and I nodded, having not wanting to say that and offend her.
"How about we put a blanket over the car seat, kind of to hide what it is, and put the baby in that and the kids can gather around?" Rose suggested, holding Jax on her hip. I agreed and asked Edward to go get a plain white blanket.
He came back a few minutes later with two blankets and a few pillows. One blanket he lay out on the floor and set the carrier on top of it. The other blanket, he covered the carrier with and positioned the pillows around it. It wasn't a bad looking little impromptu photo set. I carefully settled Audrey into the seat, adjusting her dress. She fussed for a second then calmed down. Charlotte immediately sat next to the carrier and continued singing. Rose got the boys situated.
Twenty minutes, a billion pictures and lots of fussing and whining later, we were done. Out of all those pictures there were probably maybe ten that all kids looked totally happy in but it was the other ones that were hilarious. Some of the faces they made or at the end when Charlotte decided she was allowed to just pick Audrey up, causing Emmett to jump in and save the day.
All you see in those pictures is Charlotte looking up to no good, Charlotte leaning over and putting her hands on Audrey's arms, Alice's hands reaching from the one side of the photo frame while Emmett's legs enter the other side. Then Emmett's legs and Charlotte's feet dangling in the air while Audrey wailed in the car seat. Henry patting Audrey's head gently as I went to pick her up and Charlotte got reprimanded by a very angry looking Alice just barely in the frame.
Why Edward kept snapping pictures, I'll never know.
Audrey's wails got louder, no matter how I tried to sooth her. Once she started nuzzling her face against my chest, I figured it out. She hadn't eaten since an hour before we left the hospital, three hours ago. My poor baby was probably starving, normally eating every two hours.
I sat on the couch, pulling down the one side of my dress so my boob popped out.
"Whoa," Jasper said. My head snapped up. I don't know what I was thinking or if I was even thinking but I had totally forgotten about our company. Audrey had already latched on though so I couldn't stop but maybe…
"Shit, B. Wanna cover yourself up instead of giving these fools a look of what's mine?" Edward tossed me one of the blankets from the floor and I turned even redder at his words as I covered myself and Audrey from everyone's eyes.
"Don't listen to him, Bella. It was a very nice view," Emmett grinned until Edward glared at him and Rose smacked the backside of his head.
"What's yours? How very… caveman like, Edward," Alice said snidely. She was sitting on the couch, holding Jax, who was trying to climb up her pregnant belly.
"Yep. Mine. She belongs to me," Edward said then he winked at me. I rolled my eyes but grinned at him, adjusting the baby a little. My milk hadn't come in quite yet and I was hoping Audrey was getting enough to sustain her.
"So!" Rosalie jumped up and sat next to me, "We have some news."
I laughed and joked, "You're pregnant?"
"What? How did you know?! Alice!"
"It was a guess, I was kidding. Oh my gosh, I was right?! Congratulations! How far along are you?"
Now her cheeks turned pink, which never happens, "Three months."
"What? Henry is only six months old!"
"I know, I know! But you were both pregnant and I always wanted a big family," Rose grinned at me.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
"Actually, I just found out. I mean, we were trying but with the two kids… I missed the signs! I missed the whole first trimester, I only have the fun two left!" she said sarcastically.
I laughed because I knew that was a joke to Rose. She'd had two stress free, problem free, morning sickness free pregnancies. The only part she remotely didn't like was the late stages and labor.
"I'm so happy for you, sweetie!" I hugged her awkwardly; it was hard with Audrey nursing and tried to hide my tears. She and Alice were so lucky. They had husbands who wanted big families. My fiancé wouldn't entertain the thought of the second. Thinking about never experiencing this amazing process again made it impossible not to cry.
When Rose pulled away, I wiped my eyes and sniffled, capturing Edward's attention.
"What's wrong?" he asked, kneeling in front of me. I shook my head, not wanting to get into it now.
"Well, are you okay?" he tried instead and I nodded before telling him that I was hungry.
"Already taken care of, Em just ordered a bunch of Chinese food."
I smiled at him as he wiped my tears away.
"You should congratulate him and Rose, they're expecting again," I told him lamely.
"No shit," he laughed and kissed me softly then turned to Rose. "Congrats on being knocked up again. Gonna repopulate the Earth?"
"Somebody's got to," Alice said to Edward, giving him the side eye. Alice had me pegged. Edward rolled his eyes at her and got up, going over to Emmett and Jasper.
"Dude, congratulations," he said as he gave him a guy hug. Emmett's smile was wide and you could tell he was proud.
"It's you and Bella next," Emmett joked, "gotta give Audrey a little brother or sister."
"No fucking way, dude. I was an only child and look how great I turned out," Edward joked then went to get the door when the food got there. Jasper and Emmett followed to help carry it.
Rosalie and Alice both turned toward me once they were out of earshot.
"Don't worry, Bella. You'll totally have another baby. With as much sex as you two have… accidents happen. Condoms break and birth control isn't always effective," Alice grinned.
"How do you think I got Jax?" Rose laughed. Audrey finished eating and Rose took her to burp her.
I felt a little bad plotting to have another baby. I mean, Audrey was only a few days old but I knew I had to act as soon as it was alright to have sex again. I had to do something rash before Edward did.
~*~
bella is obviously hormonal and crazy. ;)
reviews = previews, as usual.
in other news: i've started writing a new story, which will be posted soon. it's called edward in charge. edward is a canadian looking for an easy, legal way into the states. he signs up for an au pair program and ends up working for the dwyer family. bella is renee's seventeen year old daughter and edward will be spending the next year taking care of her little brother and sister. it's totally different from shades of green but put me on author alert to see when it's posted.