A/N: Yargh. It's Monday. Again. I'm going to try to post this story every Monday because hearing from you pretty people makes me happy. My very first posting schedule.

Of course...I've always been horrible about schedules and deadlines...

How Edward managed to get home after they left Jasper and Emmett's house, he didn't know. His stomach was churning, his head pounding, and his heart just ached. Clearly, his body didn't know how to react physically any more than Edward knew what he was supposed to do now.

Bella was quiet on the drive over, lost in her own thoughts, and that was a small mercy at least. If he had to talk, he felt sure he was going to freak out. It was coming anyway, inescapable, but he was trying to get safely off the road before it did. Whatever was going on in his head wasn't pretty, and it wasn't anything approaching coherent.

When they pulled up in front of his condo, neither of them moved right away. Edward took a deep breath, scraping what little strength he had left off the bottom of the barrel so he could say what needed to be said. "Can we regroup tonight? I know we need to talk, figure things out, but—"

"Tonight. I need to…Yeah. Tonight," Bella said.

They looked at each other, and he could see she was as lost and shattered as he was. There were so many questions they needed to find answers to and quickly. Five lives were about to be ripped apart, including that of a beautiful little girl who couldn't possibly know what was about to hit her. Edward's heart cracked like thin ice, and again he sensed he was seconds away from total destruction.

Luckily, Charlie came out of the condo then, followed closely by Edward's family. Bella got out of the car and stepped to his side. They exchanged a few words, and Charlie turned to say goodbye to Edward's parents. He and Bella were gone barely a minute later, back to their hotel to regroup.

Edward, meanwhile, found himself frozen, gone numb from head to toe because his brain had finally gone into overload. He had no room in his head even for automatic functions like walking and talking. He was only vaguely aware of what was happening as his mother took him by the arm and led him up the walk. Alice walked in front of them, firing questions at him, but he couldn't process her words. He was grateful when their father hushed her.

His parents guided him inside and sat him down between them in the living room. As though his bones were made of sinew and little else, Edward bent forward, burying his head in his hands. He began to shake so hard his teeth rattled, and he couldn't catch his breath. He grasped at the front of his shirt as though he could find his lungs there.

"Okay, son. You're going to be okay."

Hours could have passed before he realized his parents were talking to him, rubbing his back and murmuring calming words near his ear. He was getting light-headed, and for a few horrifying seconds, he was sure he was going to faint.

"Put your head between your knees, Edward. There you go. Good boy. Just breathe."

He just breathed, and that might have been worse. As the vice-grip on his lungs eased, his gasps turned into body-wracking sobs. He was like a sick child crying because he didn't know what else to do. Everything hurt, and it wasn't something he would have been able to describe.

Eventually, though, even that eased. He was cried out and calm again. His father coaxed him to swallow a few ibuprofen, and after a few minutes, that brought the throbbing in his head to a manageable level. He laid across the couch with his head in his mother's lap. He was so glad his family had dropped everything to be with him. Despite the misery and confusion that plagued him, his mother's gentle fingers in his hair soothed him.

Edward sniffled, keeping his aching eyes closed as he found the will to speak. "I could see myself in her." He cleared his throat to try to ease the scratchy quality of his voice. "They showed us pictures. There was one where she was three, and she was scowling at the camera. She looked like you, Dad. In that picture you have of you with Grandpa where you were pissed off. She could have been your sister."

"Or my granddaughter."

Edward opened his eyes and sat up, his elbows on his knees as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know. Maybe I just imagined it."

"She's your daughter, Edward," Carlisle said, sitting down beside him again. "It makes sense she looks like us."

"I know. It's just surreal. I saw her every day for five weeks. Why didn't I see the similarities before?"

"You couldn't have known to look," Esme said. "She's not the spitting image of either of you anymore than you or Alice looks exactly like us."

"I know, " he said again.

"So how do you feel about her?" Alice, sitting in front of him on the coffee table.

Edward's heart lurched. "I don't know what I feel. Something. And it's powerful. But I don't know what it is, and I don't know how to feel about anything."

"But do you want her?"

"You understand how weird this is, right? She was my student. I'm not supposed to want to take my students home."

"She's not your student anymore. She's your daughter."

"I know that, Alice." He glared at his sister and rubbed his temples. "Yes, I want her, but that feels shitty on so many levels."

"What do you mean, sweetheart?" His mother rubbed his back.

Edward sighed. "I know Bella didn't see her until today, but at least she always knew she existed. She carried her. I just got told I have a six-year-old, and I don't know what I feel.

"What I do know is I don't look at Katie the way Emmett and Jasper do. I don't feel about her the way they do. I know she's mine, and I want to be her father. I want her with me, but Jesus Christ. What if that's just some warped sense of ownership? What if I can't love her?"

"You will love her, " Carlisle said.

"How the hell do you know?"

"Because there's such a thing as bonding. People like to think they fall in love with their babies in the womb, but what they're in love with then is the idea of their baby. When you've had a chance to get to know them after they're born, that feeling imprints on the tangible human being. I'm sure it's the same here. You know you're her father. You'll bond with her, and you won't always feel so confused."

Edward rubbed a hand over his eyes and craned his head to look at his father. "Promise?" he asked in a woefully small voice. "Tell me what to do, Dad. Tell me this is the right thing to do, and I'll believe you. Just tell me, because this is going to destroy her." Edward choked on a sob and bowed his head again. "What right do we have to do this to her when she's happy? She's fine."

His parents held him between them. "There's not an easy answer here. I wish there was. You never want your children to hurt, but it's inevitable."

"Like this?" Edward shook his head. "She's not going to understand."

Esme squeezed his arm. "I know the circumstances are confusing, Edward, but what was done to you and Bella-that your child was taken from you-was a heinous thing. There's no easy way to recover from something like that. The right thing doesn't always feel good, my dear boy, and it certainly doesn't always feel right." She sniffed, close to tears herself. "You don't know how much I wish I could make these choices for you, take this pain."

Edward said nothing, but he leaned against his mother and closed his eyes again.

"We're going to be here for you, Edward," his father said, his voice promising the strength Edward didn't have. "We're going to be here as long as you need."

~0~

That evening found everyone gathered around Edward's kitchen table. Before they could get into a family discussion, Edward went to Bella. She was sitting next to her father, her arms wrapped around herself and her posture stooped. She was defensive, and he understood why she would be.

"Can we talk?" he asked, making sure his tone was even. "Alone?"

She seemed uncertain, but she let him take her hand. He led her to his bedroom where they could have a bit of privacy, hoping she would understand hers was the only voice he wanted to hear right then. They sat on his bed, and he was glad that she didn't try to take her hand from his. The physical connection seemed important given what he had to say.

"Bella, I need you to know I'm not angry with you."

She raised her head to meet his eyes, and he could see shame written there. "How could you not be?"

"Well, maybe that's not true. I think I should be angry, and we're probably going to have to deal with that at some point. But right now, there's way too much else going on. I don't know about you, but I'm overloaded with how I should be feeling and how I am feeling, so it's a moot point." Edward raised his free hand to rub the back of his neck, trying to find words that didn't sound condescending or pitying. "Right now, I think we have more important things to talk about than a past neither of us can change. Right?"

She nodded.

"Okay." He blew out a sharp breath. This the first of many, many hurdles they would face in the coming months and years. "So what I need to know is how you want to handle this. I know you want Katie, and I want her too. I would like for us to be a unit in this rather than two separate people out for our own interests, whatever those might be. It's going to be a fight to pull Katie away from her life with Emmett and Jasper. I just think it would be nice if we could present a stable, united place for her to be with us."

"I'd really like that, but how?"

"Right now I just need to know we're going to be parents together. It's going to take work and compromise, but I'm willing if you are."

She brought her free hand up to clasp his hand between both of hers. "I'm in."

Despite the gravity of the situation, he had to smile. "Damn."

"What?"

"We're parents."

She huffed and looked down at her lap. "Yeah."

He pulled her into a hug. They clung to each other, both of them a little shaky, for a few minutes in relative silence. Edward couldn't help but be relieved. His family had been amazing, but Bella was in the same boat as he was. There was some small comfort in the idea he wasn't alone in this crazy situation.

"Okay," he said when they couldn't delay any longer. He stepped back, but he kept her hand in his. "We should get back to them. There's a lot to talk about."

They sat back at the table, side by side now with Charlie on her other side.

"All right," Carlisle said, taking control of the table. "So let's see if we can tackle this one problem at a time. The legalities of getting Katie are a foregone conclusion. She's yours, so let's put that to the side for the moment. Correct me if I'm off base, but I think the biggest problem you have right now is simple geography. Bella, you live in Olympia. Neither you nor Edward has the room to take in a child."

He held a hand out to Esme, and she took it, silently supporting him. Carlisle looked back, eyeing Edward and Bella in turn. "We'd like to make you an offer. We'd like to rent you a three bedroom apartment or a condo. Whatever works. Something here in Seattle, near Katie and Edward's school."

Bella jolted in her seat. "What? That's… I can't…"

Carlisle offered her a gentle smile. "It's not a hardship, dear. My son has always chosen to pay his own way as much as possible, so I know this isn't his first choice either. However, this is an extenuating circumstance. You two are going to face so many incredible challenges. If we can alleviate one, I sincerely hope you'll let us."

Bella's brows were drawn together, shock still plain on her face. "But...my job…"

"I can help you while you look for work here," Charlie said.

"Dad, I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking me. Carlisle is right. You're going to have more than enough to deal with. Take help where you can get it, kid."

The look Bella gave her father was the wide-eyed expression of a frightened child. "But to be away from you and the kids?" she said more to herself than him.

"It's an hour drive. I'll be here every weekend as long as you need me."

"You can't be away from the kids every weekend."

"We'll figure it out, Bells."

She took a deep breath and nodded, squaring her shoulders, visibly summoning her bravery. "Okay. Yeah." She looked at Edward's father. "That makes sense, and it's very kind of you. I'll start looking for work."

Edward squeezed her arm. This was so much for both of them to handle, but he couldn't imagine giving up his home, his livelihood, and his support system too.

"Good," Carlisle said. "That's settled. Now, let's talk about lawyers. Katie is yours, but it's always good to have someone protecting your interests…"

~0~

By the end of the night, Edward's head was pounding again. He was alone in the kitchen, his family having absconded with Bella for the moment.

It really wasn't a surprise when Charlie reappeared and sat across from him. Tired as he was, he made an effort to sit up straight, nodding with respect.

"I'm going to tell you a story," Charlie said after a few seconds. "A little over six years ago, I got a phone call from the hospital in Port Angeles. They said that my daughter had been admitted, which was an interesting thing to hear because at the time I got the call, I was sitting across from my three-year-old daughter, the only daughter I thought I had, and she was definitely not in the hospital.

"As you might imagine, I was confused. They told me my daughter had begged them to call me and not her mother. They said her name was Isabella Higginbotham, and I did recognize that last name. I remembered the girl I had been with for a few weeks. The math added up, so I went to Port Angeles to see what the hell was going on."

The look on Charlie's face was pained. He wasn't looking at Edward, but staring off at nothing in particular, obviously lost in his memories. "What I found in Port Angeles was a traumatized, seventeen-year-old girl, weak as a newborn kitten because she'd lost so much blood and had just gone through seven kinds of hell. She was skin and bones. Beat up and half out of her mind with grief. And she looked like that girl I knew so many years ago except she had my eyes." He huffed. "The color, anyway. There was no life in her eyes when I found her. All I knew was she was my little girl and someone had hurt her. Badly."

Edward's throat was tight, his fists clenched beneath the table as he listened.

"The things that girl had been through…" Charlie shook his head, his voice tight and his jaw tense. "She lived with a man who was capable of beating up a kid who was nine months pregnant and a mother who let him, let's put it that way. And they weren't the only ones who got their hands on her, who hurt her, before she lost the only thing she was living for."

At this, Charlie finally looked at Edward, and his eyes were fierce, burning. "Now, you seem like a nice kid, a good man, but this situation would be trying for anyone. You've got a reason to be upset with her, but I want you to realize, she's lived through things you can't even imagine. She's worked so damn hard to get where she is after all the shit she's had to endure. You have your own battles to fight, so I'm asking you for one thing." Charlie pointed at him. "Don't be the next one to push her down."

Edward's heart was pounding fast and his throat was sandpaper as he stared back at Charlie.

"I won't," he promised.

A/N: Many thanks to Ginny for all her insight. To songster, packy 2.0, myonlyheroin, and barburella for making my docs such a wonderful place to be in.

Goals for this week are STILL Trouble and Oblivious-both of which are being stubborn as FRICKEDY FRACK-with a chance of Long Distance. Have a good week, dear ones.