A/N: Here we go!

Bella sighed, tapping out instructions on her laptop and watching out of the corner of her eye as Melody, perched on her knee, yawned. She rested her head against the side of the bed, curling Edward's fingers around one of her toys and murmuring to him about whatever adventures they were having in her head. The little girl yawned again, eyelids beginning to droop.

Hurriedly, Bella typed the last of her instructions of the day to her underlings back at the station and closed her laptop. She drew Mel back against her, shifting her. She could tell just how tired her baby was when she instantly wrapped her arms around her neck and melted against her body.

Bella stroked her hair, hoping to coax Melody to sleep. It was always easier to get her daughter to leave Edward's side when she was asleep. "Hush little baby, don't say a word," she whisper-sang against her ear.

It had the opposite effect. By the time Bella got halfway through the second verse, Melody stirred. She lifted her head, frowning at her mother. "That's an asleep song. Don't sing asleep songs. Daddy will hear you, and he'll sleeped more, and he's sleeped too long."

"Okay." Bella rubbed her back soothingly. "What should we sing, then?"

Melody considered. Then, she started to croon softly in her wavering little-girl voice, "Don't worry about a thing, cuz every little thing is gonna be all right."

Bella's heart panged. She closed her eyes, stroking a hand from Melody's crown down her back until the girl's words became garbled mush. Finally, she rested her head on Bella's shoulder, her breath evening out.

For a minute, Bella just held her daughter, missing Edward so much that she couldn't breathe. She opened her eyes slowly, taking in his still form. Almost two weeks after his fall, he looked better—the scrapes healing and the bruises turning an ugly yellow-green. In some ways, that only made it worse.

Why wouldn't he just open his eyes?

A movement caught Bella's attention, and she looked across the bed to where Esme was sitting, watching her with concern. She took a shuddering breath. "Edward sings that song to her when she has a nightmare or is scared about something. She likes that bit… 'Melodies pure and true.'"

It didn't escape Bella's notice that, when she spoke, a look of surprise had flitted across Esme's face, and she'd straightened up, like a soldier standing at attention. The truce between Bella and the Cullens had been uneasy and awkward to say the least. They spoke. Obviously, they could be in the same room, but Bella had never talked about Edward to either of them before.

Still, the last twelve days had given Bella a lot of time to think. She could see how much Esme and Carlisle loved their son. She thought perhaps they could see she cared about him, loved him too. All three of them had hurt Edward despite their love, albeit with quite a bit more impact on his parents' part. Their intentions now were good. They weren't being antagonistic toward Bella and they adored Melody. Melody, in the way children do, had taken to them with ease. Mommies and Daddies, as far as Melody was concerned, were always a good thing. And grandparents meant extra love and attention for her.

Esme's smile softened. "I've been so curious all these years. What he looks like as a father. It's a hard thing to imagine." She reached out, caressing Edward's hair with a shaking hand. The bandages around his head had reduced as the swelling receded. "He wasn't… He was an adult, but he wasn't a grown-up when he left us."

Bella nodded slowly, understanding what she was trying to say. In those early days, she hadn't been able to picture Edward as the responsible parent either. "I worried a lot too, at first" she said, choosing her words carefully. "He has a sense of what's fair and what isn't that he doesn't get over easily. I was more than capable of raising a baby by myself, financially and otherwise, but I think he couldn't deal with the idea he could go on with his life with little to no impact. We all would have been okay. Edward wouldn't have been starting from scratch with strangers. I would have been fine alone with the baby. She would be happy and well taken care of.

"But what we have." Bella pressed her hand to her daughter's back, aching. "He's a wonderful father. I think being a father focused him a lot. His life isn't easy, but he rose to the challenge of it so well. And Melody… She's her daddy's girl. She'd rather have his lullabies than my bedtime stories. They're beautiful together."

"I can tell how attached she is to him." Esme had Edward's hand in hers, and she massaged each finger in turn, her eyes, brimming with tears, on him for a few quiet seconds before she spoke again. "You've been good to him, good for him too, I think," she said quietly.

Bella blew out a breath. "I don't know about that."

"I haven't forgotten that I owe you an apology." Esme's brows furrowed, and she kept her eyes trained on her son.

"I…" She exhaled in a gust. "I never knew what it was to hate someone before that woman took my baby away." Her mouth was set in a hard line. "Victoria." She closed her eyes, huffed out a breath and spoke again. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not making sense. What I'm trying to say is, Edward was his mother's son when he was a child. He was such a sweet, giving boy. Hardworking." She looked up at Bella finally, with a small smile. "And yes, he was always preoccupied with what was fair.

"Emmett's trouble… It was all him. His mistakes. His lies. He had a group of friends, but they were similar—troubled children who became troubled adults. Good people who did bad things.

"But Edward." Esme pressed a palm to his cheek. "He was an honor roll student. Painfully honest with us." She huffed, a small smile on her lips. "More often than not, he'd tell on himself when he did something wrong. Then, he was suddenly gone. When I got him back, the boy I remembered was gone, and I had a hard time understanding the man he'd become, the things he'd done."

Her expression turned hard again. "I hated that woman. She hunted him. She turned my child into a person who was a stranger to me. She took his beautiful nature, the way he gives himself so completely, and twisted that for her own purpose."

"And you thought I was like her," Bella said, tone flat. "You saw an older woman who preyed on your young, impressionable son."

Esme frowned. "I wanted to hurt you that day."

"You did." More than anyone, Esme had dramatically altered the course of her life. Not only that, but her career had been the one thing Bella wanted more than anything else in the world. More than children and a husband. More than all the other things she wanted to accomplish.

Bella blew out a long breath, stroking her daughter's hair to calm herself now. "I've done a lot of stories like the one you had in your head. Men, though. Men who go after younger women and all the reasons why. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, after all. Maybe he was an adult, but there's a power differential in an age gap like ours." She looked Esme in the eyes. "I didn't seduce him. And I didn't know he was that young. I thought mid-twenties, maybe. We had a moment I couldn't have planned if I tried."

Esme's eyes were filled with sadness and regret. "I know that now. I believe that now."

"I can see why it would be hard to believe when your son was about to rip his world apart at the seams for me." Bella pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. "He was an adult, and everything that happened between us was consensual. No coercion. No misleading. But I could have done any of those things." She nodded. "I understand as much as I'm going to. Just like I understand that it's the inherently misogynistic perspective of some old assholes that ultimately cost me my dream."

She fixed Esme with a glare. "But it was you who tipped the domino over. It never had to get as bad as it did. Not for him or me. The ironic thing was how much better it could have been for Edward. It was very likely they were going to transfer me thirty minutes away, not across the country. He could have stayed where he was rather than have to choose between the life you wanted for him and chasing after me and his daughter. He wouldn't..."

Bella pressed her lips together, her eyes stinging again.

Esme shuddered and looked to her son. "He wouldn't be here, because he never would have started working at the park."

Closing her eyes, Bella took a moment to collect her rational thought. "He's got a passion both for the work and the outdoors. I can't…" She sighed. "Finding a passion isn't a bad thing. And what-ifs will drive us all crazy."

They were both quiet after that. Bella rested her head against her daughter's, listening to the way her even breaths seemed in sync with her father's. As though they were both just sleeping peacefully.

"I can't put Melody through this for too much longer." Bella wondered why she was saying the words she'd been thinking out loud to this woman, but there they were.

Esme looked up, a question in her eyes. Bella looked down at Edward's still form, her heart aching as she spoke. "I need to get her back to something more normal. Her normal routine. Her home. Her own bed." Hours away from her daddy.

"You're not…" Esme swallowed hard. "You're not giving up on him. Not yet."

"No. Not giving up." He was going to wake up. There was brain activity, the doctors had said. Enough to be hopeful. The mind was just unpredictable. His would decide when it had enough rest. "But it's not healthy for this to be her life. The waiting. The circus." It was heartwarming how many people—Edward's bosses, friends, the family of the young man he'd saved—wanted to talk to Melody. She'd heard from so many people how brave her daddy was.

But those well-meaning people didn't always have the right words. Some of them tended to talk as though Edward had one foot in the grave. Then, there was one of Bella's bosses who kept on pestering her to put the child on television, let her make a statement. It was good news, and people had been curious about their case.

Esme nodded slowly. "That makes sense."

Bella got to her feet. She paused, biting the inside of her cheek as she considered. "I don't agree with what you did. Not to Edward and not to me. But I've made as much peace as I'm going to make with it. I already told you. Whether or not you get to be in Melody's life in the long term is up to him. He's an adult and her father. I intend to respect that."

"It's a good place to start for all of us," Esme said quietly, holding Bella's eyes.

With that, Bella bent over the bed, holding her daughter's head protectively as she kissed Edward's forehead. "Stop being such a stubborn ass," she whispered. "Wake up." Don't make me break your daughter's heart.

She'd only gotten as far as the door before Esme's gasp had her turning back. "What? What happened?"

Esme stared at Edward, eyes wide and brimming with tears. "His hand. He moved his hand."

~0~

Waking up from a coma in real life wasn't like it was on television. It took another day before Edward opened his eyes. Even then, his expression was empty. He was there. They knew that because he would tap his fingers against their hands, responding to questions with the one-tap, two-tap method.

His state scared poor Melody worse than when he'd merely been sleeping. She couldn't understand how her daddy could look so strange, with his eyes open, and not be able to respond to her pleading.

The nurse who'd originally talked to her, explaining what a coma was, happened to be on shift again. She pulled Melody aside. "The brain is what makes every part of you work, from the things you think, to the way you wiggle your toes, your feelings." She took Melody's hand and ran a light fingertip over her palm. "Does that tickle?"

Melody nodded, squirming a little.

"Even that. When someone touches you, the feeling of it starts in your brain. The brain does so, so, so many things.

"When someone has slept as long as your daddy has, it takes time for all the connections to snap back together. They do it one by one by one. He's going to need some help with some of the connections."

"Can I help?" Melody asked in small voice.

"Yes. You remember when I touched you and it tickled? You can touch your daddy, and he'll feel it. You can talk to him, and he'll hear you. It helps him put all the connections together." She ran a hand over Melody's face with a gentle touch. "And trust me. Hearing you will make your daddy so happy. Being happy helps people get better."

Melody nodded and took a deep breath. She reached for Bella.

"Hi, Daddy," Melody said, balancing on Bella's lap and leaning over the rail. She mimicked the way the nurse had just touched her face, running clumsy fingers over Edward.

"Mel, look." Bella nodded her head, calling attention to Edward's hand. His fingers tapped in a disjointed rhythm against the blanket. "I think he wants you to hold his hand, baby."

Melody scrambled, balancing on Bella's other knee so she could reach her daddy's hand easier. She and Bella gasped together, watching Edward's fingers engulf her much smaller hand with a speed he hadn't shown yet.

"He remembers," Bella said under her breath, shaking with relief.

He remembered them.

~0~

Another few days passed. Edward moved his arm. His legs. His eyes became more lively, tracking his visitors around the room.

And then, one night, when Charlie had taken Melody back to the hotel room and Edward's family had retreated for much needed showers at their own hotel, Bella stirred to a beautiful, raspy sound.

Someone was humming Unchained Melody.

Bella lifted her head, blinking sporadically. It took her a minute to realize she was looking into Edward's tired but tender eyes.

"Edward?" she whispered.

He licked his lips. "Do you still love me?" he asked in sore whisper of a voice.

She laughed, tears springing to her eyes. "Oh, God." She took his face between trembling hands and kissed him as hard as she dared. "Yes. Yes, you fucking asshole. Jesus Christ."

"Tha's good." His eyelids drooped and he lifted hand. He smiled when she twined their fingers together. "Been hard to know what's real. I'm glad I didn't make that up."

And with that, he closed his eyes again, only sleeping this time. Bella rested her head on his chest, closed her eyes, and cried with relief, finally able to believe he was really going to be okay.

A/N: :)