Quite a few changes coming up in this chapter, the friends are all in Forks.

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyers owns Twilight, not I.

Chapter 16

Saturday June 2 , 2012

BPOV

I wrenched open the front door and came face to face with the people I considered my family.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked as I motioned for them to all come in.

"We figured you needed us for support." Rose said as she carried a sleeping Sariah into the living room.

"We could use the vacation, anyways." Alice said as she carried a sleeping Lilly in her arms and Jasper followed carrying a sleeping Tori. I motioned up the stairs.

"Edward is asleep in my room; you guys can go lay Lilly and Tori down with him." I told her as I kissed her cheek and patted Jasper on the shoulder as they passed by me.

Emmett hobbled in on his crutches with a sleepy Skylar, Annabelle, and Maggie trailing behind him. "Hey baby Bell, how you holding up?" He asked as he stepped aside so his girls could go in the house after their momma.

"I'm doing well." I told him as I leaned down to hug each girl in turn. "You girls sleepy?" I asked them and they all nodded.

"I have a big old bed upstairs you can all fit in if you want to go take a nap." I told them and they all nodded eagerly.

I just chuckled, picked up Maggie and started up the stairs just as Alice was coming back down empty handed. "Hey, Ali, can you help Anna, I think she's just about asleep on her feet." I told her as I continued up the stairs.

She picked up Anna and we all went into my mom and dad's room. This is the first time I had opened this door since we got here. "Is this…" She trailed off as she laid Anna down on the bed.

I nodded and placed Maggie in the middle of the bed. "B, why does it smell in here?" Maggie asked as she snuggled into her blanket.

"Cause this is my mama and papa's house and nobody's lived here for a long time. How about I light a candle to help with the smell?" I asked her as I stroked her hair.

She nodded and closed her eyes. "Love you, B." She mumbled as she fell asleep.

"Come on, Sky, crawl on up here sweetheart." I told her as I patted the spot beside her sister.

She hopped up on the bed and looked at me with tears in her eyes. "What's wrong, baby girl?" I asked her as I stroked her face gently.

"Mama told me how your mama and papa are with the angels and how you might be really sad." She explained the best way she knew how.

"Oh sweetheart, it's okay. It's nice to have a full house to help me deal with everything. Now crawl in here and take a quick nap." I asked them as she snuggled in beside her sister.

"I love you, B." She said as her eyelids slid shut.

"Bella, are you really okay?" Alice asked as she stood from the bed.

I nodded and went to her outstretched arms. "I will be, Ali. Thank you guys for all showing up here to support me, how long are you staying?" I asked her as we walked downstairs arm in arm.

"Just for a week, we are going home next Saturday. I have Tony running my stores and Emmett has Greg and Danny running his shop until his foot gets fixed. Jasper has agreed to work 'from home' so we're here free of worry, B." She told me as we stepped off the stairs.

"That's great, Ali, there is just one little problem." I told her as we followed the voices of our friends in the living room.

"What's that, B?" She asked as we stepped into the living room.

"I have nowhere for any of you to sleep. This is only a two bedroom house." I told all of them.

"That's not a problem, Bella, we will figure everything out." They all told me as the hugged me from all different sides.

Edward joined us a few minutes later. "Why did I go to sleep with my wife and sons in my arms and wake up later to two toddlers in my bed?" He asked as he walked into the living room and saw everybody there. "Holy shit, when did you guys get here?"

We all laughed at him as he stood there with his hair standing out at all angles rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

We all sat around my old living room and chatted about odds and ends things, them asking me what it was like growing up in a place like this and what my parents were like.

We finally hashed out the sleeping arrangements. For tonight, Edward and I would sleep in my old room, Em and Rose were going to blow up an air mattress and put it upstairs in my mom and dad's old room as well as three playpens for the little girls. Alice and Jasper were going to sleep on the pullout sofa bed. I felt sorry for all of us because none of us were going to get a good night's rest.

"What's for dinner?" Emmett asked as he vigorously stabbed a fly swatter down in his cast.

"There is no food in this house, how about us women go to the grocery store while you guys sort out the playpens, babies, and luggage?" I suggested to them since I was the only one who knew where the grocery store was.

"Oh yeah, there is a spare bed in my mom's junk room upstairs if you guys feel like cleaning out that room and storing everything up in the attic." I told them as slipped on my shoes.

They nodded as Rose, Alice, and I walked out the door and headed to the grocery store. "You guys know it's inevitable that this is going to take longer than either of you think and news spreads fast in this town. And at this moment I am the big news." I told them as we all climbed Alice and Jasper's car since it was the only one not blocked in.

They just laughed. "It's okay, Bella. We all have a shit ton of luggage that the guys have to tote into the house." Rose chuckled as she fastened her seatbelt.

It was almost five o'clock by the time we got back to the house and it was in chaos.

Three grown men and six little girls can do more damage than anybody could ever realize. They got the room cleaned out alright but all of my mom's art supplies were in the hands of the little girls and they were having a blast.

"Emmett Willard McCarty, get your crippled ass down here!" Rosalie screamed up the stairs when she spotted beautiful blonde headed Tori with purple paint all in her hair and cherub faced Lilly with green paint all over her arms and stomach.

"What, babe?" Emmett asked as he stood at the top of the stairs with his eyes going wide when he saw his beautiful girls. "Oh shit, girls you were only supposed to paint on the poster boards." He said to them and they just smiled at him and continued smearing paint all over each other.

Alice and I just laughed as Rose and Em had a stare off on the stairs. "It washes out, Rosie. Those are my mom's paints and she usually got paint all over everything when she painted." I told Rose as Alice and I carried the grocery bags into the kitchen. "Come on, Ali; let's go see if the refrigerator and stove still work."

When I went to turn on the water in the sink and nothing came out. I groaned as I remembered Sue telling me that they had shut the water off years ago and drained the pipes to keep them from busting during the winter months. "Umm…Bella...the fridge isn't coming on and it's warm." Alice said as she opened the refrigerator door the rest of the way. I groaned again remembering that they had also told me that all the appliances had been disconnected from electricity to save them.

"They probably work, Ali, they just all need to be hooked back up." I told her as I looked out the window and saw Edward and an old friend of mine from high school working on turning on the water. "Looks like Edward is already working on the water. Let's go find Jasper to get the appliances hooked back up." I told her as I went in search of Jasper since he was the only one not busy or in trouble.

We found him in the den area that Charlie used to house all of his guns, fishing poles, and my trophies. My shooting trophies, fishing trophies, and spelling bee trophies all hung on the wall beside his plaques from the force. "Jazz we need your muscles so we can get dinner started." I told him as he stood looking at the pictures beside each trophy.

"Okay, you and your dad must have been close. Where was your mom during all of these pictures?" He asked as he continued looking at the pictures.

"She never really took that big of an interest in my extracurricular activities." I told him as I turned and walked back into the kitchen.

He never said a word as he came and plugged in the fridge and stove for us. I was standing at the counter cutting up the chicken for the chicken spaghetti we were going to make when I felt his arms wrap around my shoulders and he placed a kiss on the side of my head before leaving the kitchen.

I felt the tears pour down my cheeks as I fired up the stove for the first time in six years. I had fixed this exact recipe, only in smaller portions, many times in my lifetime. The leftovers usually froze nicely.

I stood there crying as I cooked the chicken and noodles, not even noticing anything going on around me. Everybody left me alone to deal with my own demons and for that I was grateful. The one thing that my mom and I had connected on when I was younger was cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. She grew tired of the responsibility of cooking every day when I got older and started doing most of the work.

I stood back over the kitchen sink as I drained the water off the noodles as I stared out the window and remembered the days I had spent out there learning to shoot every gun that my dad had in the house. I chuckled to myself as I remembered when I was about ten and my dad had frozen a milk jug full of water and told me to shoot it. When it exploded, I had dropped the gun terrified at the explosion it had caused. I remember him kneeling in front of me, wiping my tears, and telling me 'Bells, this is why we don't play with guns. That is what happens when you shoot somebody, the person's insides explode like that.' It wasn't true but it was enough to terrify the ever loving shit out of me.

I dried my hands and rubbed my stomach. "Boys, your Grampy Charlie was a special man and it saddens me that you will never get to meet him, but he will live on through me, I promise you guys this." I told my sons as they kicked me in answer.

"Talking to yourself, love?" Edward asked as he walked up and propped beside me on the counter.

I shook my head and wiped away my tears. "Nope, talking to our sons. I was just remembering my dad's version of gun safety." I told him as I mixed together the three casserole pans of chicken spaghetti.

"Really? I saw all of your trophies in there and most of them were for first place. In fishing, shooting, and spelling bees, that's quite a variety of extra-curricular activities, love." He told me as he took the first finished casserole pan and slid it into the preheated oven.

I laughed and nodded. "My dad insisted that I be a well-rounded child. I was the son he never had. We fished, hunted, and shot together; my mom hated all of them so it was usually just me and my dad. That boat out there has seen many days on the river with just me and my dad fishing peacefully." I told him as I motioned to the tarp covered boat sitting in the backyard under a little awning that wasn't there when I had left town six years ago.

"We should go fishing while we're here; you can teach me all that it involves. Mike said that he and Billy kept the boat tuned up over the years and that he was the one that built the awning over it, so it didn't ruin." He told me as he grabbed the second casserole dish and slid it in beside the first one.

"I was wandering about that." I said quietly as I finished up the last casserole dish and slid it over to him. "I would love to take you fishing and show you my dad's secret fishing spot that isn't so secret." I told him as I turned around and propped up against the counter beside him.

"I needed this, Edward. Our boys deserve to know what wonderful grandparents they had." I told him quietly as he came to stand beside me.

He leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips. "That they do, love."

We both turned around and began working on the salad silently until Maggie came screeching into the kitchen. "Eddie! Eddie! Save me!" She said as she barreled into his legs, knocking him into the cabinet.

Edward chuckled and picked her up and placed her on the counter beside him. "Wanna help B make a salad?" He asked quietly.

She nodded eagerly. "Yeah! What do I do?"

I shooed Edward out of the way and began showing Maggie how to tear up the lettuce and put it into the bowl. This brought tears to my eyes again that I quickly blinked away and focused on showing Maggie how to tear the lettuce up. This is exactly how my mom had showed me how to cook when I was Maggie's age.

Before I knew it, I was surrounded by five little girls all eager to help, and I relished in it. I had Skylar and Annabelle buttering the bread for garlic bread. Maggie was playing in the salad tossing it all together. Tori and I were mixing the Kool-Aid together.

"You girls need any help?" Rose asked from the doorway.

"No, mama." Came from all the girls and I just grinned at them.

"Mama, come look at what I done!" Maggie called from her place on the counter.

"Mama, come look what we did!" Anna called from the kitchen table where she and Skylar were working.

"Me too, mama, come!" Tori called from her spot in the other sink basin.

Rose did the attentive mama thing and made her rounds with all the girls, apprising each one of them in turn. "How you doing, B?" She asked as she propped up on the counter beside Tori and I.

"I'm doing well; it's nice that all of you guys are here. I had told Edward that I wanted to replace some of the hurtful and bad memories with good fun filled ones. You guys will all help with that." I told her honestly. "It's a little hard remembering everything while knowing that I won't ever see them again, but I had suppressed all memories of them for years now, so it's kind of nice too."

"That's great, Bella, but you need to remember to stay as calm as possible for those kiddos of yours." She told me as she kissed the top of my head. "I'm always here if you want to talk about anything."

"Great, can you go get Ali and come back; I need to talk to both of you about something." I told her and she nodded.

She quickly went and got Alice and they both practically ran back into the kitchen. "What's up, Bella?" Alice asked as she snagged a tomato out of the salad bowl.

I took a deep breath. "I want to paint the house and buy some new furniture tomorrow." I told them and I saw the light spark in Alice's eyes. "I figured the guys could do the painting while we go pick out the furniture. We will have to go to Port Angeles to get everything." I told them quickly.

"Are you sure Bella?" Rosalie asked quietly concerned.

I nodded. "I'm sure. I want to turn my room into the nursery/play room, gender neutral of course for the girls and our boys. And I think I want to move us into Charlie and Renee's room." I told them quickly before I changed my mind.

"Sounds like a plan. Are you going to replace all of the furniture or just the bedrooms?" Alice asked.

"Everything; we never had the money to buy new furniture, but now I do and I want to do this for myself. My dad left this house and in his letter told me that he wanted me to make this a happy home when I was ready." I told them as I turned and looked out over the backyard again.

"We can do that, Bella." They both said just as the timer went off on the oven.

EPOV

Sunday, June 3, 2012

I stretched my back and groaned as I heard it pop as the water poured down over my head. That bed should be used as a torture device. It served its purpose for the night, but I was eternally grateful that the girls were going to Olympia to buy new furniture. The guys and I were going to toss all the other furniture and paint all of the rooms while the ladies spent the day shopping. We had split up the little ones. Us guys were keeping Maggie, Skylar and Tori while the women were taking Sariah, Anna, and Lilly. It was going to be a fun day to say the least, even though this house was small, it wasn't that small. The girls had left at sunrise this morning to make the most of the day since they had a three hour drive into Olympia.

"Eddie! Eddie! I go pee!" Maggie called from the door as she banged on it the best she could. I groaned, turned the shower off as quick as I could. I grabbed the towel and threw it around my hips as I wrenched open the door for her.

"Well come on in, Ms. Maggie. Eddie's going to go get dressed, okay?" I asked her as she hopped up on the toilet.

She nodded as I heard the telltale sign of her peeing. I grabbed my old clothes and tossed them on and was sitting on the bed when Skylar and Anna came walking in dressed in their overall shorts and tank tops. "Eddie, Daddy said you would fix our hair." Skylar said as she held out a handful of colorful ponytail holders.

I groaned as I scooted back on the bed. "I'm going to kill your Daddy. Come here Sky, let's do yours first. You got a hairbrush?" I asked her and she crawled up between my legs and handed me the hairbrush.

Luckily enough Rosalie had taught me years ago how to fix the girls' hair when they spent the night with me so this wasn't really hard at all. In a few quick minutes, I had their hair fixed in braided pigtails so that it would stay out of the paint later on. Maggie came in just as I was finishing Anna's hair. "Me too, Eddie! Me too!"

I patted my lap and she scrambled up and her knee narrowly my precious manhood. I groaned, picked her up and sat her down between my legs. "You need to still, Maggie, so that I can get your hair right, okay?"

She nodded and sat stiller than I've ever seen her sit before. Once all the girls were ready to go, I knelt in front of all of them. "Wanna get Daddy back?" I asked them and they nodded and leaned in closer to me.

"How are we going to do that, Eddie?" Skylar whispered quietly.

I quickly told them the plan and we all descended down the stairs. We found Jasper in the kitchen scrambling eggs and frying some bacon that the women had picked up last night. "It's almost done, Edward."

I nodded and the girls and I sat down at the table to wait and drink our orange juice. "Where's Em?" I asked him.

"I'm right here, idiot." He said as he clambered in, his foot encased in a walking boot.

I glared at him. "Don't call me an idiot after I fixed your girls' hair for you, douche." I told him as Maggie turned in my arms to look at me.

"Eddie, what's a doug?" She asked and we all busted out laughing at her innocence.

An hour later, the girls and I were strolling the aisles of Newton's picking out paint supplies, trimming tape, and a shit ton of paint to paint Bella's house. "Eddie what's all this for?" Skylar asked as she stood on the end of the buggy.

"We get to paint B's house today and we need all of this to do that with." I told them as I stopped in front of the paint samples. "What color do you want to paint the kitchen, girls?" I asked them as I stood in front of every color imaginable. Alice had already texted me the colors for each bedroom and the living room before I was even awake this morning, but told me I had free reign on all the other rooms.

"Excuse me, aren't you Bella's husband?" Asked a woman in her mid-30's if I were to guess.

"Yes, I am." I told her as I extended my hand to her. "It's nice to meet you, how do you know my wife?" I asked her.

"My name is Jennifer, and I worked with Chief Swan after I graduated from high school. What are you painting?"

"Oh, we're painting Bella's house today while her and some friends are out picking out furniture in Olympia." I told her.

"Yeah, we get to paint B's whole house." Annabelle piped from the buggy.

"Eddie, what's this color?" Maggie asked, shoving a paint sample into my face.

Jennifer just laughed. "Want some help painting and decorating?"

When the girls and I got back to the house an hour later, we had a trail of cars behind us of women offering to help clean out the chief's house to help Bella out.

BPOV

I was about to drop dead on my feet but we still had more buying to do. We had all the big furniture bought and on its way to Forks but now we had to buy all the bedding, towels, pillows, rugs, etc…all the things to make a house a home.

We had bought three crib to toddler bed conversions, three new complete bedroom suites, a new living room suite, and a new dining room set in the four hours we had been shopping. Thank god it was time for lunch and the girls' naptime. I had given Alice free reign with my credit card and sent her on her way into Target to get whatever we needed for the house.

Edward and I had talked last night and decided since we planned on future vacations here that every couple needed their own space. Edward and I were going to be taking over my mom and dad's room, my room would become the nursery/playroom, and my mom's old junk room would become Em and Rose's room while the den downstairs would become Alice and Jazz's room.

Rose and I were sitting in the SUV with our feet hanging out the window listening to music, snacking as the girls slept in the backseat. "This is nice, isn't it?" I asked Rose quietly.

She hummed in agreement. "Sometimes I love being pregnant, other times I hate it, but I love all my girls the same." She said as she rubbed a hand over her baby bump.

"Have you thought of a name for this one yet?" I asked quietly as I popped a chip in my mouth.

"Hmm… I don't name my girls until I see them. It comes to me when I look at them for the first time. We don't even discuss names until I start going into labor."

"Wow, I don't know if I could wait that long to decide names." I chuckled at her.

"It takes a lot of restraint but it saves a lot of arguments between Em and I." She laughed then groaned as Sariah started crying from her car seat.

She acted like a bell signaling that it was time to wake up because within five minutes, Tori and Lilly were both wide awake. She fixed Sariah and Lilly a bottle as I popped out the strollers so we could go inside and find Alice now that the girls were awake.

We walked around Target for over an hour as Alice piled buggy after buggy full of stuff that she declared that we needed. We stopped for Chinese on our way home before making the three hour trek home. Our SUV was packed to the gills with everything we would need or didn't need. I groaned as we pulled into the driveway and saw all of my mom and dad's furniture piled onto an old trailer and hooked to a truck I didn't recognize.

"It's kind of surreal to see all of the furniture that I was raised with, sitting out in the rain." I told to no one in particular.

"I can only imagine what you are going through, my parents are free spirits, but at least I have the knowledge that they are alive." Alice said comfortingly.

"Thanks, Ali." I told her as I gripped her hand tightly in mine.

"I am glad we are having a moment right now, but can we please have this moment while we are inside? My ass is numb and I need to pee." Rose complained from the very back.

We chuckled and began piling from the car. I sat Victoria down on her feet and she toddled towards the house. "Go find Daddy, Tori." I called after her.

"Edward!" I called as I unbuckled Lilly from her car seat.

"Yes, love?" He asked from right behind me.

I jumped. "Geez Edward, you are going to send me into early labor, sneaking up on me like that." I told him as I turned to face him.

"Sorry, love." He said as he tickled Lilly in the ribs causing her laugh and wiggle in my arms.

"We have a shitload of stuff in this vehicle that needs unloading and three amazing guys to do it." I told him as I stepped around him and made my way inside as Rose and Alice just laughed at his shocked face before screaming for their significant others.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I stepped through the door. It didn't even look like my old house anymore. The walls in the living room were painted a sky blue with white trim/molding; it looked amazing with the new furniture and accent pieces that we had picked out earlier. I walked around and saw that all of mine and my dad's trophies and plaques had been placed on one of the bookshelves that Alice had insisted upon earlier today.

I ran my hand along the edge of the shelf as I wandered out of the room and into the rest of the house. The kitchen was painted a bright yellow with white cabinets; the den was now painted a deep red with Alice and Jasper's new bed and dresser sat against one of the walls. The dining room had our new huge dining room table and chairs sitting on top of the huge rug that I had insisted we buy today.

I wandered up the stairs running my hand along the wall that was beige and lined with various pictures that used to be spaced throughout the entire house. When I got to the top of the stairs, I stopped and took a deep breath before walking into the first door which was technically the master bedroom, Charlie and Renee's old bedroom, now mine and Edward's new bedroom. One wall was painted a dark brown while the rest was painted a light blue; it went amazingly well with the comforter set Alice had picked out earlier today. Our bed stood center stage against the dark brown wall and our dresser was pushed up against a different wall.

We had gone with minimal furnishings in the bedrooms and just got beds and one dresser for each couple. We had splurged on the living room and the kids' bedroom.

I finished strolling through the rest of the rooms, loving what the guys did with the paint colors. I was surprised that they had gotten it all done while we were gone. They're small touches of both my mom, my dad, and my childhood throughout the entire home.

"You like it, love?" Edward asked me as he found me staring out the window of my old bedroom.

I nodded and turned to face him. "I do, barman, even though I'm shocked that you got it all painted today." I told him on a chuckle.

"Oh, I had a shit load of help. This house was packed to the gills with people up until an hour ago." He told me as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"That explains it then."

So the friends go home in the next chapter :(

I hope you all enjoyed Bella reliving her memories. There are more of those moments coming up in the next chapter then we are on to Chicago for 4th of July, Tori's 2nd birthday, and Edward's birthday.

Please leave me a tiny review and lemme know what you thought!