A/N: I'm sitting here at work with hardcore vacationitis. I was going to update this tomorrow before I leave, but I think I'll finish Oblivious before I get on the plane instead. I'm in such a fabulous mood! Vacation is looming, and Fic Sisters wrote a great review of Finding Purgatory for me. Oh, and it's Friday. And payday!
This chapter made me very hungry to write. Fair warning.
On their first outing away from Emmett and Jasper's presence, Katie was grumpy. She didn't protest, but she was sullen and quiet. Bella glanced at her in the rearview mirror, watched her staring out the window, and wondered what was going on in that head of hers.
She looked over at Edward to see he too was watching their daughter in the mirror when he pulled up to a stoplight. She reached across the console, touching his arm. His eyes met hers. They smiled at each other, and the weight on Bella's heart lightened. She brushed her fingertips over his knuckles. They were both tired and heartsore, but they were in this together.
"Are you sure you don't want to go to El Pollo Loco, Katie?" Bella asked, feeling brave enough to try teasing.
Katie's head snapped forward, and she narrowed her eyes. "You said we were going to McDonald's."
Bella's lip twitched. "Okay. McDonald's it is." She reached back and squeezed Katie's foot. Katie huffed, but she didn't pull away.
Edward looked over to Bella and winked, a smile playing at his lips.
When they pulled into a parking space, Katie got herself out of her car seat. She was a good girl and waited, letting Bella take her hand so they could cross the street. Bella closed her eyes briefly before they started walking.
Every once in a while, she could pretend that they were what they were supposed to be-a mother and daughter who had known each other all Katie's life.
Katie let go of her hand when they were safely to the door. She darted into McDonald's when Edward opened the door and waited with an impatient pout for them to catch up.
Edward squatted down to her level. "Do you want to go out and play?" he asked, pointing to the play area with his chin.
Katie studiously stared downward and shook her head.
He sighed and nodded, standing. They got in line.
"What a beautiful little girl you are," the woman in front of them cooed.
Katie stared at her for a moment and then lunged at Bella. She wrapped her arms around Bella's waist, hiding her head at the small of her back. Apparently, shyness trumped moodiness.
The stranger grinned. "What a doll."
Stunned by her daughter's first embrace, Bella couldn't answer. She moved as though in slow motion, reaching behind her to pet Katie's hair.
Edward touched her side and cleared his throat. "Thank you," he said to the woman.
They shuffled forward, Katie still plastered against Bella. She was still so stunned, she stared dumbly at the cashier when he asked for their order.
Smiling now, Edward spoke for them. He asked Katie if she still wanted a hamburger and she nodded in response, her nose still pressed into Bella's back. She was so hidden, the cashier couldn't immediately see her gender.
"Do you want a boy or girl's toy?" he asked.
Katie made the most hilarious sigh of exasperation Bella had ever heard, and she peered around Bella's side. "Toys don't have a gender."
All three of them stared at her. Katie took a step to the side, still glaring at the cashier. "What toys do you have?"
He obliged her by showing her, and she chose the car toy. They paid and went to go sit down. Bella sighed, stroking Katie's hair once before she was out of arm's reach again. "Are you sure you don't want to play?" she asked.
Katie shook her head.
Luckily, the food was ready quickly. Edward set Katie's Happy Meal in front of her, and she set about disassembling it. They tried to engage her, and while she would shake her head yes or no in acknowledgement, she wouldn't really answer. She didn't say much of anything until she took the first tiny bite of her burger. Her brows knitted, and she pushed the burger away from her with a huff, slumping back in her seat with her arms folded.
"What's wrong?" Edward asked. "Does it taste funny?"
The scowl she leveled at him was almost malevolent. "This is not how I like my burgers."
"I ordered all of our lunch without onions," Edward said.
She looked at him as though she clearly thought he was the dumbest person on the planet. "I don't like pickles. My Daddies know that. They've always known that. You're my daddy, and you should know things like what your baby likes to eat, and it's not gross pickles. I don't think you're a very good daddy."
"Katie," Bella said in a shocked undertone.
Katie's glare softened into uncertainty as she looked between her parents. "Well!" she said, and hunkered down even further in the booth.
Bella reacted automatically, years of dealing with her sibling's childish squabbles kicking in before she could think. "That wasn't a nice thing to say, and you hurt your daddy's feelings."
The little girl looked uncertain, but her eyes narrowed. Her shoulders heaved. "I'm very mad right now. Marcus said it was okay to be mad."
"He's right. It's okay to be angry, but it's not okay to be rude. Emmett and Jasper know all the things you like because they learned them over time. We're all learning things about each other. I know that's frustrating, but we shouldn't be mean to each other."
Katie glared. Bella crossed her arms and stared right back. "I think you should say you're sorry."
The little girl's lower lip trembled, and she looked down. Bella's stomach twisted. She hated being the one to make her daughter look like that. She wanted more than anything for Katie's life to be all happiness from here on out. She wanted to see her smile.
Edward put a hand on her knee and squeezed in quiet support. Apparently, he thought she was doing well, and that heartened her a bit.
Katie took a breath and looked up at Edward, her eyes full of tears, though she wasn't crying. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice and then looked back down at the table.
"Thank you. I forgive you." Edward reached out, gently wiping the tears that had spilled over away. "Would it be okay if I took the pickles off your hamburger?"
Her lower lip jutting out, Katie just nodded.
"Have you ever tried dipping your hamburger or your fries in barbeque sauce?" Edward asked as he moved her pickles to his box.
Katie said nothing.
Edward put her hamburger back on the wrapper in front of her. "You should try it. It's really good," he said, his tone nonchalant. He cleared his throat and looked up at Bella, telling her with his eyes to play along. "You know what I was thinking?"
"What?" she asked. She wasn't hungry anymore, but for Katie's sake, she ate a fry anyway, dipping it in the barbeque sauce Edward had left at the center of the table.
"I was thinking there were some things I don't know about you."
Bella tilted her head, looking at him. "What do you want to know?"
"Well...how about your favorite color?"
"Brown," Bella said, and waited for the inevitable fall out.
Sure enough, Edward's nose wrinkled. "Brown? Who likes brown?"
"Exactly. Brown gets a bad wrap. It's the underdog, and for no good reason. Brown is the color of earth. What's so plain about that? And you know what? When people split up their M&M's by color, brown is always picked last. Awesome. More candy for me."
Edward's lips quirked up in a genuine grin. "Wow. That is a very nuanced argument in favor of the color brown."
Bella's lip quirked. "Well, what's your favorite color?"
"Blue. For no other reason than it's pretty. I'm shallow like that."
Bella couldn't help but wonder if the fact she was wearing a dark blue shirt had anything to do with his choice. Even as she pushed the thought away as ridiculous and self-centered, she blushed.
Edward glanced over at Katie. "What about you, Katie? What's your favorite color?"
She shrugged, but she was looking up now, her expression curious.
"Okay." Edward looked back to Bella. "Are you a dog or a cat person?"
"I don't know. I've never had a pet. I think kittens are funny because they'll climb you with their teeny tiny claws."
"Ah, yeah. I have to admit, I'm guilty of sharing too many cat videos on social media," Edward said.
Bella was struck then by a wave of deja vu. Though the conversation was meant to be trivial, Edward had always given her the impression her words were valuable and worth listening to; like he was taking this conversation seriously even though it was light-hearted.
She looked down, concentrating on eating for a moment rather than letting herself think about the past. "You know, this is really good," Bella said, dipping another fry in the barbeque sauce.
Edward grinned at her. "Ketchup is overrated when you can have McDonald's barbeque sauce. Though, in a pinch, the sweet and sour sauce works well."
"There's a sweet and sour sauce?"
He clucked his tongue. "Oh, man. McDonald's knows how to do sauces, okay? Not only is there a sweet and sour sauce, but you also have chipotle barbeque, sweet chili, honey mustard, hot mustard, habanero ranch, creamy ranch, and spicy buffalo." He sat back in his seat with a teasingly arrogant smirk. "They're all good sauces. Barbeque is just the best."
"I don't know if we should take the word of a guy who would get a chicken sandwich when he could have a burger, should we, Katie?" Bella asked, glancing at her daughter.
Katie looked up, seeming surprised that Bella would ask. She shrugged uncertainly. Still not ready to talk.
Well, that was okay. Bella stood. "I'm going to try for myself."
She went and asked for one of every sauce they had, not even rolling her eyes when they did the chintzy thing and charged her ten cents each. Back at the table, she set each one out methodically and opened them. "Okay. Here goes nothing."
They dipped, discussing the merits of each sauce. Katie watched them, the curiosity on her face growing the more they talked. Bella had to fight a smile of triumph when she darted her hand out, dipping a fry into the barbeque sauce. She hesitated a moment before taking a bite.
"So what's the verdict?" Edward asked, having obviously witnessed the small miracle as well.
Katie wrinkled her nose-a stunning replica of the face Edward had made just minutes before. "Verdict like when bad guys go to court?"
It took Bella a minute to remember Emmett was a police officer. She probably had only ever heard that word in association with criminals.
"In this case, it means what do you think?" Edward said.
"Oh. I like it." And as if to prove it, she dipped her fry again.
"I think I like the sweet chili the best," Bella said.
Katie looked between her and Edward. "I like barbeque." She took a careful bite of her hamburger, chewed, and swallowed. "And I like red M&M's."
"That's good. If we buy a bag of M&M's, I can have all the brown ones, Daddy can have the blue ones, and you can have the red ones."
She saw Katie look momentarily perplexed at the word Daddy, but she didn't comment on it out loud. "How about yellow and orange?"
"I guess we'll have to split those."
"It's too bad there's not another color," Katie said. "Like purple. I like purple."
"Purple's cool," Bella said. Never in her life could she have imagined that having a conversation with a six-year-old could make her so unbearably happy. She looked over at Edward, and they shared a smile. It wasn't the first time they'd had a good interaction, but given that Katie had been so grumpy when they drove off with her, it was more than they'd dare to hope today.
"Hmm. How about more questions," Edward said. "What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?"
"Waffles," Katie said.
"With butter and syrup or whipped cream?"
"With syrup. Whipped cream is for desserts."
"Oh, of course you're right." Edward nodded, the picture of seriousness.
Katie's eyes lit up. "But strawberries on your waffles is the best. Or bananas."
"That does sound tasty. "
"What's your favorite breakfast?" she asked him.
"Grits."
Katie screwed up her nose in confusion. "What's that? It sounds yucky."
"Have you had Cream of Wheat?"
Katie nodded.
"It's kind of like that. It's really good with butter and a bit of honey." Edward shrugged. "It's comfort food."
"Oh. Okay." Katie looked to Bella. "What's your favorite breakfast?"
"An omelette. With cheese, meat, mushrooms, and tomato."
"But no onions," Katie said.
"No. Blargh. Onions." Bella made an exaggerated shudder that drew a little giggle from Katie.
Oh, Bella wanted to make her baby girl laugh as often as possible. It was such a beautiful sound, she almost cried.
"Okay. How about breakfast protein. Are you sausage or bacon girls?" Edward asked.
"Bacon," Bella and Katie said together.
"Me too," Edward said, beaming at them. "Well, it's a good thing we're already eating. Otherwise this conversation would make me really hungry."
"We can still have dessert," Katie said with a hopeful note.
"That's a good plan if ever I heard of one. What do you like?"
Katie tapped her lips, looking between them. "I think we should get cookies, because we can get three, and then we'll all have one."
"That's very thoughtful of you." Edward took two dollars out of his wallet and handed it to her. "Do you want to go get it for us?"
Again, Katie perked up. She took the two dollars and hopped down to the floor. "What kind?"
"Chocolate chip," Edward said and looked to Bella.
"Chocolate chip sounds good," she said.
"Me too. I'll get chocolate chip," Katie said, and she scampered off to the register to order.
Bella and Edward both watched her. Edward put his hand on the table, palm up, and Bella rested her hand in his. He twined their fingers together, and they squeezed each other tightly.
~0~
The drive back to Emmett and Jasper's house wasn't nearly so oppressive as the drive away had been. Katie was in a much better mood. Bella glanced in the rearview mirror, watching her as she stared out the window, a faraway but mellow look on her face.
Still, she hated this part-the end of the visit. Every single time she walked away from her baby, the twist in her heart and gut was excruciating. It didn't matter if it had been a good visit or a bad visit-they'd had both-she still wanted Katie in her arms, in her home, with her.
She glanced over at Edward and saw he was, again, looking at Katie as often as the drive would allow. Home with them, she amended in her head. They were a team. Partners. Days like today, it was easier to believe everything would all work out.
When they pulled into the driveway, Jasper and Emmett came out of the house. Katie unbuckled herself, waiting impatiently for Bella to release her from the backseat. As soon as she did, the little girl ran up and hopped into Emmett's waiting arms. She hugged him and then Jasper tightly before she looked back to Edward and Bella.
Bella wanted a hug. She wanted a hug more than she wanted almost anything else except to take her baby home. She crossed her arms, comforted slightly when Edward came to stand beside her, his hand at the small of her back.
Katie laid her head on Emmett's shoulder, but she smiled at Edward and Bella. "Thank you for taking me out."
"You're welcome, sweetheart," Edward said. "We're going to the park after school on Monday. Remember?"
"Yeah. Okay."
When they got back in the car, Katie waved at them enthusiastically, still smiling. Despite the agony of having to leave her child behind again, Bella smiled and waved back, warm straight through to her bones.
A/N: My girls make my work better - songster, barburella, Packy 2.0, jessypt, and MyOnlyHeroin.
And you guys. Have I told you lately that I love you? Because it's true!
How are you feeling?