A/N: Just remember, if you have a question or concern where this story is going, you can always talk to me at any time!

Bella didn't remember driving home. She remembered finally being released from her boss's office and how she'd fled the scene like a criminal.

Was she a criminal? That was one of the many things Aro Scarpinato and his associates wanted to know. There were a lot of answers she didn't have, and no way to save face in front of men like these. They were all about their self-righteous lectures, and didn't she understand that if she couldn't have respect for herself, at least have respect for her position?

She'd bristled. She had a lot to say about why this man who didn't know her thought he could define how she respected herself. As for his company, she'd hardly done what she'd done with Edward in public. Who she took to her bed was her damn business.

Except, she supposed, when his irate mother showed up at the studio to scream at her.

Back at home, Bella went straight to the freezer. She opened the door and stuck her face in, breathing in cold, stale air in huge lungfuls. Her whole world was spinning on its axis, and for a crazy, panicky moment, she didn't know how to cope.

Her phone chimed, and Bella squeezed her eyes tighter shut. She knew exactly who'd texted. The only person that had been texting her nonstop for hours. Obviously, if he wasn't the one who sent her in the first place, Edward had figured out what his mother had done.

"I don't want to talk to you," Bella said to the empty house through her gritted teeth. She squeezed her phone in her hand so tightly she was surprised it didn't shatter. For what felt like full minutes, she couldn't breathe around the enormity of how well and truly trapped she was. There was a sense of inevitability—like she was rolling toward a cliff, out of control.

She needed it to stop.

She needed an out.

Bella slammed the freezer door shut and put a hand to her forehead, beginning to pace. She put her other hand to her belly and rubbed. Hard. Just short of too hard.

It could all be over quickly.

Shaking her head, Bella went to the living room and sat down heavily on the couch. She rubbed her temples, her head spinning.

She'd thought she was resigned to the idea she had to learn how to deal with this one stranger—Edward. He was still a mystery, but the pieces of him were already so overwhelming to deal with. He was a package with whatever life he'd had before they met. His legal problems—who was to say he hadn't been part of a gang? His family. His mother alone had the effect of a wrecking ball on Bella's hard-earned life. Edward also had a father and an older brother. What next? Would they be the threatening type?

There was no guarantee.

How was this good for anyone? How was this even a fair thing to bring a baby into? A teenage, ex-con for a father. A grandmother who'd already threatened her.

What the hell would their lives be if she went through with this?

Her cell phone's ringtone startled her, and Bella gasped. She knew damn well who was calling. She bit her bottom lip savagely, staring at the phone on her lap, her eyes running over and over his name as the screen lit up. Edward Cullen.

If she connected the call, her decision was made, was final. She had to accept him—whatever the reality was. If he was underage. If his parents were bastards. If his past was trouble. It was all her problem, and she'd have to recommit herself to deal with it. This child would be a reality someday soon, even if it was just a possibility now.

She huffed out a breath and put the phone to her ear. "How old are you?" she asked in a rasp.

There was a startled intake of breath on the other end. "My mother...she was exaggerating."

"So you're not a teenager."

Silence on the other end, and then he sighed. "My birthday is in two days."

"And you'll be?"

"Twenty."

Bella closed her eyes tightly. "And you're still in high school?"

"Night school," he said quickly. "I told you. I was… I mean, I fucked up. For awhile I was fucked up. I dropped out. I could have gotten a GED, I should have, but, I don't know. It means something to my parents that I have a diploma."

"Well. At least I'm not a criminal. That's something," Bella muttered, wiping a hand over her eyes.

"Look, I don't know what my mom actually said—"

"It doesn't matter." Bella took a steadying breath, trying to tamp down her anger. "I don't want to talk about your mother right now because I don't have a lot of nice things to say, and the last thing we need is to start screaming at each other. Again."

"I...okay. That's, um, fair."

Bella was quiet a beat, warring with herself. Then, her tongue got the best of her. "Did you really tell on me to your mommy?"

"No." He sounded annoyed, which she honestly couldn't blame him for.

"Do you live with your parents?"

"I thought you didn't want to talk about my mother."

"Fine. Do you live with your father?"

He sighed. "Yes, I live with my parents."

She fell silent again, and took several deep breaths. Her emotions were all over the place. She knew she should steer the conversation to a safe place to start, but she couldn't find one. "Just...what the hell did you tell them?"

"I don't… I don't really know. I was drunk last night."

"Again?"

He made a frustrated noise. "This is all wrong. I don't… I'm not…Agh. I don't know what I'm doing, okay? I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm trying, but I keep getting it wrong, and I don't know... I don't know what to do. Can you just give me a fucking break? Can you tell me what the hell you want? Because I don't know."

And that? That was the best thing Edward could have said. In the space of his outburst, she calmed down, some of her anger and fear draining away as she recognized his. It was something in common. A good place to start. "I can give you a break if you make me a promise."

"What promise?"

"You don't get to talk to me the way you did the other day. I get that you were surprised and upset, but that didn't give you the right to talk to me like you owned me."

"I don't think that."

"I know. What I'm saying is that we're going to talk. And something about my life might make you upset." She grimaced. "And something about your life might make me upset. That's okay. That's understandable. We don't know each other. But we're going to talk it out instead of demanding things of each other. We're going to figure out how to work together with what we have. Okay?"

"That... I mean, yeah. That's fine."

"Okay." Bella sat up, pulling her legs up onto the couch and resting her chin on her knees. "I think I need to ask you one thing before we start getting to know each other. And I really need you to think about the answer. I'm not going to judge you either way. This whole thing—obviously, this isn't the way anyone would want this to happen. But I got to think and decide I was going to keep this baby. I need you to realize you do have a choice. Do you want this baby because you want to be a father, or do you want this baby because you think it's the right thing to do?"

He made a small, startled noise. When he didn't answer right off hand, Bella kept talking. "What I'm saying is that I understand. That's what people say—if you don't step up, you're a scumbag. What I'm saying is that I don't buy that. Or rather, it's not a given. Our situation is only ours, whatever it turns out to be. I have steady income. Life insurance. Enough for all his or her needs, daycare. All that. I don't need you to step up, if that's not what you want. The baby is not going to suffer, and I will never talk down about you to it, no matter what level of involvement you choose to have."

His breath was ragged. "Is that what you want?" he asked, voice rough. "For me to stay away?"

"That's not what I'm saying. This isn't about what I want. Don't think about me." She rubbed her temple, trying to find the right words. "You and I...we're nothing to each other right now. We're not friends. We're not dating. We're strangers who knew each other for an hour before we made a baby. That's why I'm saying, I need you to start with whether or not you even want to be a father at this point in your life. You're free to make the choice. I've seen what happens when people are forced into parenthood, the resentment one parent can put on the other and the child. You, me, him or her—none of us deserve that if we can help it, and, in our case, we can."

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath.

"If you need time—"

"I don't." His voice was small and thin. "I have been thinking about it." He laughed bitterly. "That's kind of all I think about. And I don't know, you know? I don't know how I feel about being a dad. It's… I mean, the thing is just a thing. A blob. It doesn't even look like a baby, and you don't look like you're pregnant. I can't see it. I can't...I mean…"

"It's just an idea right now," Bella said gently. "I get that." When she thought of the pregnancy, she didn't see a fully formed baby in her head. The idea one would eventually appear was a far-off concept.

"What I know is that I can't pretend this never happened. I can't know he or she exists somewhere, and not know them. That's the only thing I know—that I can't walk away completely."

"I get that too."

"But you're moving?"

Bella scoffed. Bile and rage rose again in her throat, making it hard to speak. She had to swallow several times, and when she did, her voice came out rough. "Yeah. Your mother well and truly put the nail in that coffin."

"What do you mean? What did she do?"

She had to work to unclench her jaw. "The way the news business works is this. Stations like mine are owned by a national or even international company. We're all connected. Affiliate stations, they're called. People can be transferred at any time between any affiliate stations. I was in New Mexico when I first started out. I was transferred to two stations there before I came here.

"The news business is also not a place you can afford to stay still." She closed her eyes, her head spinning again. She had to push past the despair that welled inside her. So many years of work, gone in a heartbeat today. "It's very unlikely I can be a field reporter forever, so not moving up or on isn't a long term option regardless. I was supposed to be up for an anchor position." She swallowed hard again, fighting to remain calm, though she couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of her voice. "Ironically, it could have worked out perfectly. The big dogs, the guys in charge of the national business, were in my station. I can't be sure, but I think what they were getting at is that I was being considered for a national job, which is quite a few steps above the anchor position I was aiming for. And it would have been thirty miles from here. Really close.

"But your mother has the worst timing ever. If she had done what she did in front of my boss, it probably would have been fine. He knows me. These people? They don't know me, and they're pretentious assholes. Your mother showed up in front of them accusing me of seducing underage boys."

"What the hell?" Edward said.

"I'm being transferred, without a promotion, to a small, conservative town in Washington called Port Angeles." She took another breath, dizzy all over again at the thought. "In two weeks."

"But you weren't the one… I mean, we both… and I'm not… I'm legal. I'm an adult."

"That's not how she made it sound."

"I could tell them. I could talk to them."

In spite of herself, Bella smiled. She closed her eyes against the sting of tears she refused to let fall and sighed. "That's sweet, but that's not how it works. They've already got into their heads I'm a liability."

"I'm sorry. I didn't ask her to do that. To find you like that. I had no idea what she did until she told me she went to talk to you. Shit." His voice was strained. "I came home again last night, not in a good way."

"Drunk," Bella said without inflection.

He paused a beat. "I don't drink all the time. It's not like that. I just...I told you. I don't know what I'm doing."

Bella clenched her jaw but relaxed it after a second. She chuckled. "I've been whining to my friends that I can't drink, so I get it. Sorry. You were saying, you were upset last night."

"Yeah. And it all came out. Just everything I've been thinking. And I've been thinking a lot of things." If it were possible, his voice got even more nervous. "One of the things I thought about was that if you had to be somewhere else, I would go. I should go, I thought. I don't know. Nothing sounded right, but it was one of the things I said.

"And my parents flipped out. Which is my fault." He huffed. "That's what I did before."

"You followed a girl?" Bella guessed, putting together the pieces. He'd dropped out of high school and said his legal troubles were woman-related.

"And she was older," he hedged.

Bella's stomach twisted. "And pregnant?"

"What? No. Jesus." He gave a nervous laugh and started to ramble a bit. "She got me into a lot of things. Drug stuff, mostly. Selling. A little grand theft. I told you. It was all really stupid. It made sense when she said it, but it was stupid, and I was stupid. I don't do any of that stuff anymore, and you're nothing like her. I told them that. It's not the same thing."

"But Momma Bear wouldn't trust your judgment on that one," Bella said, again just putting pieces together. She massaged her temple. "So, to recap. You ran away. Got into drug and assorted other crimes for a woman. Are you...I know you said they kept you out of jail, but did you get convicted?"

He sighed. "I got six months probation. Which is done."

"And you got a job, two jobs, went back to school." She palmed her forehead. "And now you've knocked a woman up and were talking about walking away from everything all over again."

"Yeah. That...yeah."

Bella chewed the inside of her cheek. "Your mother said she was going to make me pay," she mused. "She did a better job than she expected, I think."

"I'm—"

"You don't have to apologize for what she did. I don't know the long term consequences of this." Her heartbeat picked up in speed as she again considered the overwhelming possibilities. Since she'd managed to piss off people so far above her boss's bosses, would upward movement ever be possible? She hadn't lied when she told Edward she couldn't remain in the job she was in forever. Though there were exceptions here and there, people did not grow old as field reporters. "I believe you when you say you had nothing to do with what she did."

"Okay."

"Your mother doesn't believe you're the father."

"You said you were sure."

"I am, but you don't know me. I'm asking you if you believe me." She softened her tone. "It's okay if you don't."

"I do." His voice was strong, certain, and again, Bella had to smile. He really did have a sweetness to him.

She thought a moment, trying to find the right words. "I can't tell you what to do or what's right for you or even what I want," she reiterated. "But, I'm going to offer a very basic opinion right now."

"Okay."

"I don't think you should give up your life to follow me. You have a support system, you don't have to pay rent, you have a job. Do you want to go to college?"

"I...Yeah. Yes. That's the...that was the plan."

"I just need you to hear that you don't have to drop out to work full time and support yourself and a baby. That's not our story. That's a lot of people's story, but it's not ours. And I'm not forgetting that you want to be involved. I'm not going to forget this kid is yours, Edward. While you're putting your life together, figuring out what you want to do, all that? We can figure out how to get you to me or me to you to see the kid. We can call. And Skype. We can work it out." She pressed her lips together, uncomfortable with the next part, but resigned to it. "We're even going to talk about our values. The things you want for the kid, the things I want. I promise I'm listening. You'll be the kid's father.

"I know it might not be exactly what you thought about, if you ever thought about being a father someday, but you still get to think about your own life. You're just starting out. Once you start paying rent, everything gets more complicated. It's hard to get ahead. Some people never do."

"I don't know…"

"You have time to think about it." Bella nodded to herself. "I want to be your ally, Edward. I want my kid's dad to be happy and fulfilled, with a full and interesting life. I think that's valuable. It's a valuable thing to show a kid. And I don't think a conventional family set up is the only kind where a kid can be happy."

"It's not bad. An unconventional set up, I mean," he said, though he sounded a tinge uncertain.

"It's also worth thinking about that I can't promise I'm going to be stable. I don't know where I'm going to land either. Right now, I have to go to Port Angeles. I have to follow my job, my health insurance. I have to figure out which of my bridges are burned to the ground, and reevaluate where I am. The point being, I can't promise where I'm going to be in a year or two. That's worth thinking about when you're thinking about what you want for yourself and our kid."

She tapped her fingers restlessly on the couch. Her head was getting too full, her thoughts pulling in too many directions. "We'll talk some more. We'll talk through all this no matter what." Bella pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just give me a little bit. I have to figure out how to uproot my life in the next two weeks."

"I'm really sorry about that."

"I know. Are we okay for now?"

"I'm okay if you're okay."

"Ha. I'm okay with you. Other than that…" She shook her head. "We'll figure it out."

A/N: The last two chapters have been endlessly fascinating in the discussion they've resulted in. Can't wait for this one. Again, thank you to everyone who indulges me in conversation.