A/N: Ermagawd. My brain took a vacation on vacation. I didn't write ANYTHING except postcards. Which is really weird for me. Usually I start getting really anxious if I don't write. I guess I was adequately distracted this time around. :)

Anyway. This was already ready, so here we go! By Proxy is up next!

"Edward?"

Edward looked away from the mirror, surprised to find Bella peering in the door to his room. "Hey," he said, turning to face her. "What's up?"

She stepped into the room, her expression apologetic, and Edward's breath caught. The dress she was wearing struck him. It was strange. It wasn't even remotely revealing. It was a relic from a time when showing an elbow would have been risque. It was a beautiful, elegant number, and even though it hung off her form oddly, there was something becoming about it.

"There are a million buttons on this," she said, gesturing to the dress. "Can you help?"

"Of course." He stepped to her side as she turned around. Again, his breath caught. The dress was open all the way down the back to just above her ass. He swallowed hard as he pulled both sides of the fabric together and began buttoning. "Wow. Obviously the woman who originally owned this dress had lady servants to dress her."

"Can you imagine? Wait, does that make you my lady servant?"

"See, I knew I should have bought the French maid uniform."

They both chuckled, and Bella sighed. "It'd be impossible to get into this myself. I just don't twist that way."

Edward's fingers fumbled. Each of the buttons was tiny and delicate. The fabric was old. It felt fragile, and he took special care not to rip it.

Despite his concentration, his eyes kept straying, following the line of her spine. The backs of his knuckles brushed her soft skin. He'd be lying if he said he didn't think about this, about seeing and touching any part of her that wasn't typically clothed.

The handful of times they'd been together physically had been quick, impromptu moments. They were two college kids who enjoyed each other's company and shared an electric attraction; it was no surprise it had happened. But the last time, mere days before she came to tell him she was leaving, had been different.

Tanya was gone that night, out at a party, and so it was just Edward and Bella in the apartment. Bella made him dinner-simple grilled cheese and tomato-since he frequently forgot to eat when he was elbow deep in a project. They talked. They kissed, and he carried her to his room. Afterward, they fell asleep tangled in each other's arms.

He'd awaken in the early morning to the beautiful sight of Bella in his bed. She had rolled onto her belly at some point during the night, and the blankets had fallen down low so her bare back was there under his fingertips. It had been one of the more profound moments of his life, carved second for second into his memory. He remembered the soft feel of her skin, the heady smell of sex, and the cute little sounds she made as she grumbled in her sleep. Her hair spilled wild around her on the pillow and down her back. She was so beautiful-witty and interesting. That was the moment he admitted to himself he wanted this, wanted her. He wanted evenings like the ones they'd spent together-talking, making love, and he wanted to wake like this with her in his bed.

Edward blinked, coming back to the present as he finished buttoning the last button. She'd already been pregnant that morning, as he gazed down at her and wondered how to tell her he wanted her. He hadn't known it, but he'd had so much more than a potential girlfriend in his bed.

Now, she was so changed. He caught glimpses of the girl she'd been, but she was reserved. She was so damaged, but losing a child the way she had would do that, he expected.

"There," he said, patting her back once before he stepped away.

"Thanks," she said, turning to face him. Her eyes swept over him. "You look good. Great. Better than usual. Um..." She flushed.

Edward smoothed his hand down the front of the tux he wore. "Thanks." His lips quirked up. "It's not really a costume. Especially next to yours."

Katie had been insistent Edward and Bella needed costumes if they were going to go trick-or-treating. Bella's stepmother had the ancient dress in a chest in the attic. Katie had deemed it acceptable and had told Edward he could be a fine gentleman and Bella could be a lady "like in olden days."

"As long as Katie is happy with it. I'm happy." Bella turned toward the mirror above her dresser. "I wish I knew how to do anything with my hair, though." She ran her fingers through the long tresses. "It'd look a little more authentic if I could do that coif thing. You know, the updo that sophisticated ladies of yore wore?"

Edward chuckled. "Yore." He walked up behind her, catching her eyes in the mirror to make sure she was okay with him touching her. He gathered her hair in his hands and twisted it up. "I can do it for you, if you want."

Her eyes went wide and Edward huffed, slightly bashful. "Alice," he said by way of explanation. "She taught me how to do her hair."

Bella's smile was amused and gentle, her eyes soft as she watched him twist her hair up. "See," he said. "If you have bobby pins, it won't be a problem."

"Katie will be happy," Bella said. "She asked me just the other day what made mommies different from daddies. She said her friends told her once she was weird for not having a mommy and said that mommies did different things like hair and makeup." She smirked. "She told me that was stupid though, because Emmett did her hair just fine."

"Oh, that's a fun picture," Edward said with a laugh.

"Yeah. I thought so." Bella turned around to face him once he let her hair go. "Katie was a little upset when I told her I couldn't do much more than a really basic braid. I guess we got that covered after all."

At her words, something sparked warm at the center of his chest. It was a weird feeling, at once happiness and nerves. Being a father was such an abstract concept. He was only beginning to grasp what being a full-time parent would consist of. Maybe being able to do his daughter's hair was mundane in the list of parental duties, but as a man who'd never been given the chance to do anything for his daughter, it was huge.

It was also a spark of hope. One by one, piece by piece, he and Bella were figuring out how they were going to work as a team. That little tidbit made him hungry for more.

Taking her hand, Edward tugged her down with him to sit on the bed. He kept his hand with hers, hoping to assure her ahead of time he wasn't angry. He also suspected what he wanted to ask wouldn't be easy for her to answer.

"What were you going to name her?" he asked.

Bella's head snapped up. Just as quickly, she looked back down, her breath stuttering. She pulled her hands out of his and clenched them a couple of times. "I don't know that I ever decided on a girl's name," she said, her voice thin and far away. "I had a few ideas. I thought about Mara for one of my favorite Star Wars characters. The books, not the movie. Because I wanted that for her. For her to have strength and magic." She glanced up at him, a small, wistful smile on her face. "I thought about naming her Danielle."

"Why?" he asked, because he there had to be a reason.

"You'll laugh at me."

He shook his head.

Bella looked down again and took his hand, beginning to play with his fingers. "One of the first movies I can remember watching was Ever After. You know it?"

"Drew Barrymore as Cinderella."

"Her name in that movie was Danielle. It was such a great story. She was everything I wanted to be-smart, loyal, kind. She was both strong and clever enough to rescue herself. And her prince…" She shook her head. "She challenged the way he looked at the world. He was richer than her, more powerful. She was a little more than a servant, and she turned the head of a prince. Not just because she looked good, though I'm sure that didn't hurt, but because she made him think."

She looked up again, and her eyes held him fast. He remembered watching her one day as she sat on his couch, her legs drawn up, her head resting on her knees as she gazed out the window. He'd drawn the eraser end of his pencil across her cheek, pulling back the curtain of her hair.

"What are you daydreaming about?" he'd asked her.

She'd looked back at him, and he'd wondered if he imagined the tinge of sadness in her expression. "Fairytales," she'd answered.

Bella ducked her head again, breaking the intensity of the stare. She started to play with his fingers again, flexing them in and out one by one. "To be honest, though, I always thought she was a boy. A little Edward."

"You would have named a boy Edward?"

Her eyes found is, and there was definitely sadness in them now. "I want to think if I'd made it to my father on time, or if Katie hadn't been taken, I would have called you sooner rather than later. I know it's what Charlie would have told me to do." She huffed. "Really, he might have made that choice for me. I was a minor, after all." She shrugged. "Maybe I would have waited to name her."

"Maybe," Edward said, acknowledging the inevitable pang of regret. He caught her hand again, squeezing her fingers tightly. "But now we have a beautiful Katie, and we're going to spend our first holiday together.

She snorted. "Halloween."

"It would have been her first holiday anyway."

Bella shook her head, not looking up at him. "The Fourth of July." She swallowed hard, and he thought he felt her shake. "That's the day I woke up. Well. I guess I'd been awake before. Kind of. It takes a long time to recuperate from losing that much blood. Everything before July Fourth is a haze. I think even when I was semi-coherent, they kept saying I needed to tell them what I did with the baby, and I kept screaming what happened to my baby until I'd get too agitated. They'd dose me, or the lethargy would get the better of me. It was night time on July Fourth. They must have gotten it through their heads that my baby was kidnapped by then. I just remember hearing fireworks somewhere outside while a nurse explained my baby hadn't been found." Her body shook in earnest, but only in one tremor, as though she were trying to shake the feeling away.

Edward couldn't even begin to imagine. He shifted and put his arm around her, drawing her close. She laid her head on his shoulder. "We have her now, Bella. All the holidays for the rest of our lives, we have her."

~0~

It was a good night, surprisingly. Surprising because Bella knew Emmett and Jasper didn't want them there. Just as it was significant to her and Edward because it was the first holiday they would spend with their daughter, for Jasper and Emmett, it was the first holiday they had to share her. Once upon a time, Halloween had been their first holiday together too.

Still, the men were civil as always in front of Katie. They seemed to know all the hot spots around the city, and were the ones who suggested trick-or-treating along the waterfront. All the shops gave out candy, and there were games and activities. There was enough going on that they'd been able to share Katie effectively, each of them taking her to a different activity, splitting their time with her while still being able to enjoy an intimate moment.

The only thing that had potentially dragged the evening down had been when Bella went with Katie to one of the trick activities. The children were rounded up and distracted for a minute so that when they turned around, their parents were missing. The parents all jumped out fairly quickly, mostly to the laughter of their children, but Katie hadn't seemed amused. She'd been clingier with Bella after that, and a little quiet. When it came time for them to part for the evening, she had asked several times if Bella was sure she and Edward would be back for another visit in a few days.

Back at home, after she could breathe again around the devastating pain she felt every single time she had to leave her daughter behind, Bella couldn't stop staring at the pictures on her phone. With everything going on, Katie had been as hyper as any other child, and her grin in the pictures was radiant. Bella traced her fingers over a picture of the three of them-her, Edward, and Katie-making their best spooky faces as they posed with one of the ghost figures littered about.

Bella jumped as the picture disappeared, replaced by the notification she had an incoming call. From Jasper. She swiped to connect the call and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Uh. Hi," Jasper said, and his voice sounded strained.

Bella's heart began to pound hard. She could hear wailing in the background. A child screaming. Her child screaming. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

"Um. Look, I think Katie had a nightmare. A really bad nightmare. We can't calm her down, and I think…" Jasper took a deep breath. "I think she wants you."

Bella didn't need to be told twice. She was already out of bed, toeing on her shoes and looking for her keys. Her throat was tight and her stomach twisting. Her baby needed her, and she wasn't there.

"I'll be there in five minutes. Tell her I'll be right there."

"The door's open. Just come up."

Given that it was Halloween and the teenage misfits were still out and about, Bella had to force herself to concentrate enough to drive carefully. She needed to be at her daughter's side. She needed it like she needed oxygen to take her next breath. Each minute passed like an eon. Rationally, she knew this wasn't an emergency, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that her little girl called for her, and she wasn't there.

Finally, Bella pulled up in front of Jasper and Emmett's house. As promised, the door was open. She heard Katie's cries right away. They were the desperate cries of a child who had driven herself into hysterics. There was no rationality at all about them. Bella raced up the stairs. She hardly saw Emmett and Jasper. All she saw was the form of the miserable little girl on the bed. She was curled into a ball, crying in hiccuping sobs, babbling something that couldn't be understood.

Bella sat down on the bed, her heart pounding out of control, already crying because she couldn't stand to see her baby in so much pain. "Honey. Hey. Look at me. Look at me, baby. I'm right here."

To her surprise, at her words, Katie unwound herself from the ball and hurtled herself forward into Bella's arms, almost knocking her over. She wrapped herself around Bella, her arms around her neck and legs around her body.

"Hey. Hey, it's okay." Bella's voice shook as she stroked Katie's back and hair, rocking her. "Katie-girl. It's okay. I've got you. Everything's okay." The little girl's body was hot, her face wet where she buried her head at Bella's neck.

They stayed for a long time like that, Bella rocking Katie while her body shook with hiccups and sobs. But she began to calm instantly. When Bella chanced a glance at Emmett and Jasper, she could see it written on their faces-it really was Bella Katie had wanted, had needed. They were devastated. For the millionth time, Bella's heart went out to them. It broke her heart just to hear her baby cry so brokenly. She knew it must have been painful to be unable to comfort her.

When Katie was breathing more normally, Bella tried talking to her. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Katie sniffled. She still had a vice grip on Bella, but she began to speak in a timorous voice. "I thought you were gone. I thought you were make believe. Like when the stupid people said you were disappeared. An' I thought… I thought…"

"Oh, baby." Bella rocked her. She thought she understood what she was saying. After all, once upon a time, she'd convinced herself the baby she'd carried for nine months but never laid eyes on couldn't have been real, and that kind of mind-fuck had warped her brain. Broken reality was hard to deal with, even on a minor scale.

As she tried to explain, Katie started to get upset again. She squirmed, as though she was trying to get even closer to Bella, trying to crawl into her skin. "I'm sorry, Mommy. I'm sorry. Please don't leave, Mommy. Please."

Bella's breath left her in a gust. Her body jolted and then froze. Her heart twisted, but not, for once, with the agonizing type of pain. No, with that single word, her heart felt so full it physically hurt. She gasped, hardly able to breathe, hardly able to convince her mind to accept this whole moment as real.

But no, it was true. Her baby was in her arms, calling her Mommy for the very first time.

Clutching Katie to her, Bella kissed the side of her hair, closing her eyes as she started to cry in earnest. "I'm here, Katie. Mommy's here. Always. I promise."

A/N: Okay. I'm about to board a plane back to California. I'll see you all soon. MWAH.