A/N: For the record, of course I haven't forgotten about my other stories. I know my boys have been waiting an obscenely long time. I'm just writing what will actually get past all the STUFF buzzing around in my head. 3 Thank you for your patience.

My group got naming rights to the baby. Thanks so much for the little nugget you gave me. Truly awesome.

Twenty minutes after the chaos of birth, a peace settled over Bella that she had never felt before.

Since the moment her daughter had been sparked into existence—essence beginning its journey on the way to personhood—Bella's heart remained unaffected. It was a strange relationship. This being she couldn't see and couldn't hold had obliterated the life she'd known and worked for. Bella. She was changed—thrown off course from the life she'd worked hard for all of her adult life. She was far away from her best friends, though her father had stepped into a more prominent role in her life. And for the first time, there was a huge part of her life she couldn't imagine and couldn't really plan for.

Then, there was Edward. She'd had no intentions for this man beyond a brief few hours of pure electricity and physical connection. She could have walked away from that wedding and never seen him again. Instead, she'd had the pleasure to come to know him, to watch him stumble, fall, and recover with more grace than she could have in the same situation. This pregnancy, the mere possibility of this child, had rendered him homeless—hopeless, many would say. He'd lost his parents, lost the path of redemption that had been laid out for him and had been left to try to navigate the world alone.

He could have whined and cried about it. He could have resented Bella for not being careful or resented the alien unit for existing at all. He didn't do any of those things. At each turn, he took a deep breath, gathered up the cards he had, and did the best he could.

In the final trimester of her pregnancy, Edward had been Bella's rock. They'd formed a strange intimacy—partners without being lovers. He'd gone with her to all the parenting classes, and she'd been charmed by how seriously he took everything, writing notes and asking questions. His hands had been sure and steadying as he guided her through the breathing exercises and let her lean on him as she tried different laboring positions.

It was just the two of them as her labor began and progressed. Her father had been unexpectedly out of town for the weekend. Alice's plane was delayed. And Bella found she was relieved. The world reduced to a bubble, and it seemed right to have him there with her. She'd leaned on him, her head against his shoulder as they slow danced around the birthing suite—one of the distraction techniques they'd been taught—and he whispered in her ear, retelling the story of how they'd met. How she looked so beautiful in her dress, and how he'd wished he could dance with her instead of being on stage with his guitar.

And now, after all the pain, after the flurry of doctors and nurses, after the pushing and relief she felt when her daughter was pulled from her body and placed on her belly, the world was quiet and calm.

The hospital had a policy wherein, directly after birth, the little family had time to themselves for an hour or so. No visitors allowed. Nurses lingered in the periphery, just in case, but the baby wouldn't be weighed or put through any of their various tests for that first hour. They'd helped Bella guide her new daughter to her breast and then retreated as the brand new human being had her first meal, skin-to-skin in her mother's arms, with her father looking on, holding them both.

Edward had his arm draped around Bella's shoulders, leaning in so his cheek was near hers. They were both staring, watching their newborn's every tiny move.

"I feel it now," Bella said, her voice breathless with awe. "I…" How could she explain what she felt? How enormous this emotion was?

"She's everything," Edward said, sounding just as breathless.

Bella nodded. They'd always been on the same page with how they felt about this, about her.

Their daughter. They were parents—forever bound by this connection, by this impossible being they'd created together. Something inside Bella had shifted, had changed and evolved. He was part of that, of this.

"You should hold her," Bella whispered, sniffling hard. She'd been crying since the birth. Not sobbing. Just crying.

The nurses recognized their cue. They came over, encouraging both Edward and Bella as they made the switch—Edward with his shirt off as skin-to-skin contact was encouraged. Their minutes old baby made tiny noises but settled easily as Edward bent his head to murmur softly to her.

"She recognizes you," one of the nurses said. "Your voice. She knows you're her daddy."

Edward looked up at the nurse with eyes so wide, glassy with tears, and a smile the likes of which Bella had never seen. She'd thought her heart couldn't get any bigger than it was at that moment, but as she looked at Edward cradling his daughter for the first time, she felt more.

Looking back at the baby, he started to sway them back and forth, whispering sweetly to her. Then, he began to sing.

It took a few heartbeats for Bella to recognize the song and remember why it stirred something in her. He sang in that voice that had first caught her attention, really wrapped her around his finger. "Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea. To the open arms of the sea."

Unchained Melody. The song that started it all. Started this.

"Melody," she said out loud, stroking a finger down her daughter's head.

"Hmm?" Edward asked.

"I think we should name her Melody." They had decided to hold off naming her until they officially met. "It's sweet." And she secretly hoped the baby would inherit her father's flare for music.

"It is sweet. And pretty." He kissed the top of the baby's head. "And soft." He looked up again at Bella and grinned. "Melody. Mel," he agreed. "Melody Charlie."

This was their beginning. They were a family. Non-traditional, but no less committed to what was important. They both loved their child from the moment they set eyes on her. They were committed to wanting what was best for her and for each other.

All thing considered, Bella couldn't have asked for a better outcome for their beautiful disaster.

A/N: This story is not over. But, had I had the foresight, I would have made it clear it was a story told in two parts. Back soon with the beginning of part 2.