6 Months Later

BPOV

It was a Friday afternoon in mid-May and Forks High had gotten out early. The baseball team had made it to the State Championship game, so school got out at noon today after an assembly. The game was scheduled for tomorrow in Seattle, but the coach had wanted the team to travel down today and spend some time on the field they would be playing on. That meant I wouldn't get to see Edward until after the game tomorrow. The rest of the Cullen's were picking me up in the morning so we could all travel and watch the game together.

"Jake!" I yelled, throwing my arms around him. It had been months since I had seen him.

"Hey Bells!" Jake yelled back, returning the hug.

Charlie and Billy had gone fishing for the evening, leaving Jake and I to ourselves for the evening. I had brought pizza and followed him into his garage.

"So how close is this thing to being done?" I asked as Jake reached to pick up some form of tool to tinker under the hood of the old car he was attempting to fix up.

"Just about there," he replied, then continued to explain what was left to do on the car. It all sounded like jibberish to me. "You should see what I'm fixing up for Embry though."

I watched as Jacob walked to the corner of the garage and pulled a grungy looking sheet off of his 'project'. Under the sheet was a fun looking moped.

"Ooh. Can I ride it?" I asked, clapping my hands together.

Jake side, "Your dad and your boyfriend will kill me if you get hurt."

"I won't get hurt, one time around the block. Please Jake," I begged. It was usually pretty easy to talk Jake into anything.

Jake dropped his head and pulled the sheet the rest of the way off. "Just around the block." He maneuvered the bike out of the garage and onto the driveway.

I quickly hopped on as Jake steadied the bike and ran through how to drive the bike. It wasn't like it was big, just a little moped thing.

Jake let go of the bike as I accelerated, making my way easily forward. I made it around the block, loving the feel of the wind blowing through my hair. It was such a beautiful day out. I was pulling back into Jacob's driveway when I was met with the uneven ground. The road was paved and there was a slight drop off to the Black's gravel drive. The bump caused me to lose my grip on the handle bars and the next thing I knew, they were turned hard left. I wasn't going very fast, but it did startle me enough that I wasn't able to kick my foot out to attempt to brace myself. I ended up on the ground with my right leg pinned under the moped. Jake was immediately over me, lifting it off.

"Did I hurt the bike?" I asked, trying to see if there were any dents or scratches in the shiny silver and black.

"The bike is fine," Jake replied, propping the moped up on it's kickstand and turning to help me up.

I'd felt completely fine until I tried to put pressure on my right ankle. "Ow. Ow. Ow." I cried, grabbing onto Jake so I didn't fall over.

Jake led me over to his dad's truck and let me sit on the tailgate while he gently removed my shoe and sock. I big my lip, trying not to show how much it hurt. It didn't work and Jake noticed my grimace.

"Okay, I'm taking you to the ER," he stated, quickly lifting me up bridal style to set me in the passenger seat of the truck.

I was trying to come up with a good argument, but honestly, my ankle was really hurting and I knew I should probably have it x-rayed. "Fine, but when Charlie asks how I got hurt – I tripped."

Jake grinned at that, "Sounds good to me."

Carlisle could only shake his head at me when he saw Jacob carrying me into the ER. "Dare I ask what you did this time?"

"Disagreement with a moped," I told him. There was no way I was lying to any of the Cullens. Besides, Carlisle couldn't ground me like Charlie could.

An hour later Carlisle was back in the room wrapping my quickly swelling ankle with ace wrap. Thankfully it wasn't broken, just mildly sprained. He told me to keep my ankle elevated, iced and be on crutches for a few weeks. He also advised me to avoid the moped for awhile – that wasn't going to be a problem. I was much more concerned that I could've damaged the bike than I was for my ankle.

Jake and I got back to his house just before Charlie and Billy returned. Charlie just shook his head and helped me into the car after we had told him how I 'tripped' in the driveway.

"Bella!" Alice called, bounding up the steps toward my bedroom. It was a little after 8am and she was here so we could go to the game together.

She shook her head when she saw the crutches I was sporting. "Only you," she muttered, pulling out her make-up bag. For once, Alice had decided my wardrobe options were okay – but it was only because it was a baseball game and I had opted for my skinny jeans and Edward's baseball shirt that I had borrowed last week, the name 'Cullen' prominently displayed on the back. Alice quickly went to work applying my make-up and even pulling out a bunch of blue and white ribbon to tie around my ponytail. She glanced at my crutches thoughtfully then started adorning my crutches with the school spirited ribbon.

Emmett, Rose, Jasper, Alice and I all ended up riding in Emmett's jeep while Carlisle and Esme took his BMW. There just wasn't room in any of the vehicles for all seven of us. I couldn't believe the number of people at the stadium when we pulled in. The place was packed – and we'd even arrived an hour early. I made it through the parking lot fine but was just about to the point I was going to sit on the steps and watch the game rather than risk attempting to make it down the large number of cement steps I would have to brave to reach the second row seats the Cullens had obtained.

Alice was the first to notice my hesitation and quickly moved so that I could lean on her. I couldn't help but giggle, "So instead of just me going down, this time I get to take you down with me?" I asked. She just smirked at me. Before either of us could attempt the first step I was flipped up off the ground and into two huge muscular arms.

"Jeez! A little warning next time Em!" I cried, trying desperately not to hit anyone with my crutches. Alice grabbed the flailing crutches and immediately passed them over to Jasper to carry. "I can walk on my own," I muttered as we started down the steps.

Emmett looked at me skeptically, "Apparently not very well, little sis."

I playfully smacked his shoulder. Emmett had always been like a big teddy bear of an older brother to me. I'd always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling and Emmett seemed like the perfect big brother candidate. It didn't hurt that he'd referred to me as 'little sis' ever since Edward and I had started dating.

Emmett carried me all the way down the steps, telling jokes the whole way.

EPOV

I threw a few more warm up pitches before I headed back to the dugout. It was still pretty early, but the stands were already filling up. I was just returning my gaze to the dugout when I noticed my family – in particular Emmett carrying Bella down the stairs and her ankle wrapped up. Jasper had a pair of crutches tossed lightly against his shoulder. My concern was short lived as I saw the smile on Bella's beautiful face as she laughed at my goof ball brother.

She caught my eye then and waved, smiling widely at me. I couldn't help but smile and return the wave. Their seats were in the second row, behind the dugout so I quickly jumped up on the blockade and learned against the railing to the stands.

"Do I even want to know?" I asked, smiling at Bella.

She grinned back at me as she shook her head no. It was amazing how devastatingly klutzy she could be, but it was just a part of her charm. She quickly hopped up and hobbled over to the rail I was leaning against.

"Good Luck," she said before leaning in and giving me a quick kiss.

This was going to be a great day.

I glanced at the scoreboard – it was the bottom of the ninth and we were up 4-2. There was one out and a runner on first. I had pitched the first seven innings before Coach had pulled me and put Kevin in to pitch. He'd immediately allowed the two runs and got pulled. Ben had managed to finish out the inning and was starting the ninth. I watched as he wound up and rocketed one toward home, the cracking of the bat resounding a moment later. I watched as the ball lined straight at Mike at second – he managed to catch it, step on the bag and immediately fire it over to Ricky at first. Double play. The stands erupted in cheers and they announced that Forks High had just won the State Baseball Championship. The fans quickly rushed the field, lifting several of the players onto their shoulders, including Jackson, who had hit the two run homer in the sixth. I turned around in time to see Emmett stand Bella back upright, close enough that she only had to hobble one step to throw her arms around me. See . . . I knew it was going to be a great day.

"Congratulations, Baby," Bella yelled as I picked her up and swung her in a circle.

I grinned at her, leaning in for a kiss. "Thank you for being here today for this. It makes it so much better knowing you're here."

Bella grinned, "I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

I leaned my forehead against hers, still supporting most of her weight with my arms. "I am so going to marry you some day, Bella Swan."

Bella was smiling but I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was taking this seriously. "Promise?"

"Absolutely," I vowed.

I don't know if Bella completely comprehended my seriousness in that moment, but I had every intention of following through with it – if she'd have me. We'd talked about it before, not in regards to us specifically, but in general. Bella had said she had always wanted to wait until she had graduated with at least her Bachelor's before she thought about marriage. It almost seems too long to wait, but I know we're young and have no business thinking about marriage this early, but I really couldn't imagine being without Bella. She had very quickly become my entire life.