A/N: Hello, chaps! Happy Tuesday to you. Let's see what Valentine's Day looks like for our friends, shall we?

Being fascinated with all things about mothers, on Valentine's Day night, Katie opted to help Bella get ready. They sat together with the closet open, debating the merits of pants or dresses on a cold, rainy Seattle evening.

"What did you wear on your first date with my daddy?" Katie asked. She was sitting on Bella's bed, picking through her limited makeup supply.

Bella sighed, trying to smooth her unreasonable nerves along with her dress. "I don't think we've ever been on a date."

"Then how did you fall in love?"

Katie looked so perplexed, Bella had to laugh. She brought her jewelry box over for her daughter's inspection. "Daddy and I were never really boyfriend and girlfriend. We were friends for a while. I think that's better-when you start out as friends with the person you fall in love with," she said, choosing careful words to explain a situation that was so far out of any six-year-old's understanding.

Because Edward was her friend, she'd known he was good and kind. Over and over, she returned to this point. This whole mess could have been so much uglier with someone else.

"Tell me a story about you and my daddy," Katie said, offering her a necklace with an amber colored pendant.

Bella smirked because the dress Katie had wanted her to wear was dark blue. It didn't go with amber, but she wasn't going to tell her daughter that. "Hmm. A story."

Whenever she thought about the people she and Edward had been when Katie was conceived, Bella's heart ached. It was confusing, because she liked who she'd been with him. With Edward, she'd been a young woman sure of at least her immediate future. He'd looked at her and talked with her as though her words, her self, were worth something, and with each conversation, she'd become more sure of who she wished she could be.

"Well, okay. I suppose you have to know first that in high school, they have a lot of dances. The biggest one is prom, and it's a big deal to have someone ask you to go," Bella said. Her lips quirked. She'd never been innocent enough to dream about prom dates, and she'd tested out of school before it was a real possibility anyway.

"So at the university where we met, they held a prom. Kind of a nostalgia thing. Do you know what that means?"

Katie shook her head.

Bella thought a moment about how to explain. "It's when you think about your past, and it makes you a little happy and a little sad." As though people in their late teens and early twenties were so far from their teenage years. "It was a little silly, but a lot of people were going to go.

"When he was in college, Daddy studied all the time." Bella exaggerated the words and made a show of making her eyes go wide so Katie giggled. "He told all our friends that he needed to study more than he needed to go to a silly party. Between you and me, I thought he could stand to relax, so I went over to his dorm with a...milkshake." She coughed into her hand.

Milkshake, tequilla sunrise, what was the difference?

"Yum. Strawberry or chocolate?" Katie asked.

"Um. Strawberry-banana. Anyway," Bella said. "I went over, and we talked, and drank our milkshakes while he studied. He asked me to tell him about my prom, and he got kind of upset when I told him I hadn't gone to my high school prom." She made a face so Katie wouldn't think this upset her. "Dances weren't really type of my thing, that's all.

"So right after that, Daddy went to get us more, uh, milkshakes from the store down the street. It took him forever, but I found out that was because he had to walk to another store-"

"Why didn't he drive?"

Because he was more than a little tipsy. "Because he didn't have his car. He'd lent it to his roommate."

"Oh. Okay," Katie said.

"As I was saying, it took him a while to come home, because he had to walk to another store." Bella smiled at the memory. "He had a corsage for me, and really crappy decorations. He sent me to raid Tanya's-that was his roommate-closet to find something that resembled a dress, and he put on his best clothes. He put on music, and he gave me a prom."

"Oooh," Katie said, looking a little starry-eyed.

Bella laughed. She stood and swept Katie up into her arms. The little girl giggled merrily, clasping her arms tightly around her mother's neck. "I told him I couldn't dance, and he danced with me anyway. Like this." She swayed them gently. "It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me."

"Did you kiss?"

Bella sighed and closed her eyes, nuzzling the side of her daughter's hair.

When she saw what Edward planned, she remembered how she had to fight to keep a goofy smile from her face. Were her cheeks as bright red as they felt? When he'd shooed her off to find something to wear, she'd gone to the bathroom first. Sure enough, she looked flushed.

Then, when he'd pulled her into his arms, she thought surely he was able to feel the way her heart pounded against her chest. But then she'd been distracted by how perfectly she fit tucked up against his body. She rested her head on his shoulder and teased him for being a cheesy bastard. She'd wondered aloud if he'd liked slow dancing with his date, whomever she'd been.

He'd gone quiet at that, though he kept moving them around the room. When she looked up, her breath had caught in her throat. He was looking down on her with an expression she recognized. Hunger. Like her stepfather's friends before they pulled her down onto their laps and put their hands on her. She should have been terrified.

Unlike her stepfather's friends, though, there was a tenderness in his eyes that was anything but malicious. He'd kept one hand at the small of her back, the other holding hers close against their chest. Wordless, he'd raised their joined hands together to brush her cheek, and his gaze had fallen to her lips.

"We did kiss," Bella said, answering her daughter as she shook the memory away. "It was nice." They'd kissed and kissed, and Edward asked her, his expression a mix of mischief and hope, if she wanted the full high school prom experience.

She lost her virginity at prom. Bella snorted at the thought and her bizarre life.

"If you go dancing, maybe you'll kiss again," Katie said, her eyes bright and hopeful.

Bella set her daughter on the bed and touched her cheek briefly. "You know that even if Daddy and I don't kiss like Emmett and Jasper, it doesn't mean either of us are going anywhere. I love Daddy, and I love you." She kissed her forehead. "And Daddy loves us both."

~0~

"Thanks for doing this Mom, Dad," Edward said.

He watched with his parents as Bella gave Katie last minute instructions. It was still difficult for her to leave Katie. They wouldn't be doing this at all-not yet-except the little girl had insisted.

Carlisle smiled at him. "That's our job, isn't it? We're the grandparents."

The gleam in his parents' eyes at that word made Edward smile. "First overnight stay with Grandma and Grandpa."

"I'm surprised she chose us, to be honest," Esme said. "I'd have thought she'd want to go with Emmett and Jasper. She knows they're always up for babysitting."

Edward frowned. "They told her they didn't have plans for Valentine's Day." Who could blame them? Edward wouldn't have felt like celebrating anything if he'd lost his precious baby girl. "She knows how to work them even better than she works us. She wouldn't calm down until they promised to go on a date too."

Carlisle looked to the little girl and smiled. "The world is simple in the eyes of a child. As long as Emmett and Jasper keep doing what they always did, nothing else has to change." He looked to Edward and raised an eyebrow, a smile playing at his lips. "And if she can get the two of you to kiss, then she can make you into the image of the parents she's used to."

Edward rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, anyway. Thanks for taking her. I know she wants to stay the whole night, but she doesn't have to. We'll probably be back before eleven. The kid sleeps like the dead. She won't even notice if we take her home."

Esme laughed. "Are you kidding? Katie's never had grandparents." She threaded her arm through Carlisle's and patted his hand. "We're going to make sure she has more sugar than she could possibly want; she gets to stay up later than you would let her, and basically gets to break every single rule in the book. Honey, I've been dreaming about this part since your grandparents spoiled you and your sister rotten every time our backs were turned.

"Besides," she said, looking every bit as innocent as her granddaughter could. "You never know. You may well need a night off."

"Mom!"

~0~

Bella yelped with glee and surprise as a trapeze artist soared over their heads. She tittered, craning her head to follow the flight. "This place is bizarre," she said, turning back to Edward. "How did you find it?"

"Groupon." He winked at her. "I googled 'How to show a lady a good time in Seattle' and after I waded through all the porn content, I found a Groupon article. I didn't even know Groupon had articles."

The Pink Door featured Italian dinner-only mildly spendy-and a show. Tonight, the show was a trapeze and aerial gymnastics act with the lady performing right over the heads of the diners. Without a net.

It wasn't possible they'd never had a mishap. Bella eyed the delicious antipasto plate.

"It would suck if she landed in the appetizers," Edward said.

"I was just thinking that."

Edward pretended to protect the food when the woman swung by again, and Bella laughed. He grinned back and shrugged. "Oh, well. Seeing as I found it on Groupon, I suppose it wouldn't be such a big waste of money. Though the food…" He looked at it mournfully.

"I've never been on a date, but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to talk about how much money you did or didn't spend," Bella said, teasing him. In reality, money was almost always forefront on both their minds.

Edward cocked his head, studying her. "You've said that before-that you didn't date. Why didn't you? Or, I guess, did you want to? Was it just circumstance or?"

Bella didn't look at him at first. She moved bits of salami and pickled veggies around her plate before she finally looked up at him from underneath her eyelashes. "I don't know if you understand how messed up I was when you first knew me. You know that quote? 'You accept the love you think you deserve?'" Bella swallowed hard. "I don't think you want to know what I thought I deserved before you came along, and that's probably why I ended up running from you."

She wiped a hand over her mouth, deep in thought now. "Trying to untangle all of that, seventeen years of conditioning and destructive thought processes on top of trying to cope with losing my baby?" Her voice cracked and she shook her head, overcome with emotion. "Six years isn't a long time when you have so much of your life to figure out. For a long time, I was paranoid of people in general. Any of them could have been the ones who took my baby or people like my stepfather's friends or even my mother. I didn't trust people at all, let alone enough to date one. All of that had to be fixed too."

Edward reached out, taking her hand away from her face. He smoothed a thumb over her knuckles. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

Somewhat frustrated-why the hell had she gone there when they'd been having fun-Bella shook her head. "It's not your fault."

"No." He looked down at their joined hands, his lips working as though he were searching for words. "Do you ever resent me?"

Bella furrowed her brow. "For what?"

"I've always known I was lucky. I've worked hard in whatever I do, but I've had so many advantages." He looked to her with a sad smile. "I don't know if you realize how strong you are, Bella. The things you've been through, and you're so good.

"But mainly, I have no idea what it's like to lose a child. I get angry sometimes that I missed so much. But you missed all of it too and have to live with all the years you had no idea what was happening to her on top of everything else. How could you not resent me?"

Bella shuddered. "I wouldn't wish that kind of thing on anyone, least of all you. You gave her back to me when I was the one who lost her."

Edward squeezed her hand. "She came back to the both of us." He smiled more genuinely then. "And I can't say I'm unhappy that she insisted I take my best sweetheart out on the town."

Bella blushed and let go of his hand as the waiter came by with their meals. He was the biggest sweetheart she'd ever known.

~0~

It was a good night, and Bella found, as they got closer to home, she didn't want it to end. It was nice, and she found she wasn't awkward with Edward as she was with most people. He kept her in the moment when, in other social occasions, she often found herself drifting into her own thoughts.

When they got out of the restaurant, it was pouring freezing rain. Bella had to laugh. Theoretically, it was the perfect middle to a romantic evening-a stroll hand in hand. In reality, Edward grabbed her hand so they could run in the rain to the car.

By the time they got back home, Bella's thoughts had returned to Katie. She was eager to see her daughter and wished Katie hadn't insisted on staying overnight with her grandparents.

"Well, we've satisfied our part of the bargain. You think Katie will be happy?" Edward asked.

Bella smiled. It was always nice to realize she wasn't alone in this. Their thoughts were so often in the same place. "I told her about our prom today. Do you remember?"

The way he looked at her then stole her breath. "Of course I remember." Of course he did. Regardless of what it had been to him, it had been the start of everything. It had been the beginning of what led to Katie and all this. "I always thought proms were a waste of time, but I liked dancing with you." His expression brightened. "In fact..."

He walked over to the cell phone dock, and pressed a few buttons on his phone before he connected it. Bella flushed but grinned when an easy Latin number came on. Edward held his hand out to her. "Dance with me?"

Just as it had years before, her heart began to pound. She took Edward's hand, nervous and thrilled at once. His arm went around her waist and they began to dance.

Bella took in a deep breath, shocked by the emotion that hit her as she settled into his embrace. It hadn't been fantasy or imagination. She fit with him. This had been the beginning of something beautiful.

What could they have become if she hadn't run from him?

Bella ducked her head, dropping her gaze. It was overwhelming to think about what might have been-the enormity of lost potential.

Edward stiffened and pulled back, though he kept her in the circle of his arms. "Bella. You're shaking." He studied her, and his eyes went wide. "Are you crying?"

She turned away from him. "I'm sorry. It's just... The what ifs are getting to me right now." She laughed, the sound bitter. "It's silly. It's not like we were together. Just kids messing around."

He took her by the arm and turned her gently toward him. "For that alone you should know the what ifs aren't only you." He cupped her cheek, trying to get her to look up. "Don't you understand? I was the one who made it all about sex that night." He ran his thumb over her cheek. "I didn't have the words that night or any other night. I wanted you, but I seduced you instead. I thought it was easier. I thought we were both too busy for a relationship."

Bella closed her eyes. She was shaking all the worse, not quite able to shake the wave of despair. Everything seemed so hopelessly complicated just then.

"If you'd been my girlfriend, if you'd known what I felt about you, a lot of things might have been different," Edward said, his voice quiet. "Bella, open your eyes."

She shook her head. Tears welled and squeezed past her closed eyelids, but she still didn't open them.

There was no good option here. She was, after all, a human being, prone to all the insecurities of her species. She didn't want to look at him and see only adoration and friendship. She was so deeply in love with him. He'd been the embodiment of the fantasies she indulged in to escape the nightmare that was her life; the handsome prince she dreamed would carry her off to a castle in the clouds. Now she lived in reality, and she knew better than to think he was perfect. She had fallen all over again, watching this man with his strengths and flaws struggle with her through this impossible situation. Of course, she loved him, and it would break her heart if he didn't feel the same.

But if by whatever miracle he felt the same things she did, saw how well they fit, what then? Day by day, they were still struggling. Katie had issues. Edward and Bella were trying to find their stride as parents to a girl who still loved and felt allegiance toward her first parents. They were trying to figure out a long-term plan that didn't involve depending on their parents for help. It was so much to deal with; were they really going to add the complexities of a new relationship to the chaos that was their life?

Edward stroked the tears from her cheeks cupping her face in his hands. "Baby, look at me."

Bella drew in a deep breath through her nose and opened her eyes.

In an instant, Bella knew all her worrying, all her questions and fears about Edward were for nothing. She might be sure of nothing else in her life, but looking into his eyes, she knew how this part of their story began and ended. She was his, and he was hers. It had been so for all the time they'd been separated, and it would always be so.

Edward had been right months ago. They never could be just friends.

Bella tilted her head up, catching his kiss. It was a fervent kiss, but slow. She let the knowledge of her love for him, and his for her, seep into her veins. It spread like fire in her blood, consuming her. She threaded her fingers through his hair, and he wound an arm around her waist, each of them pulling the other closer.

Edward took a step backward, falling down on the couch and bringing her with him. Bella straddled his lap, sighing against his mouth because this felt more right than anything ever had.

After a long, breathless moment, Bella laughed.

Edward pulled back, panting ever so slightly. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, his eyes light and happy. "What's so funny?"

"I can't decide if we're spoiling our kid. This is exactly what she wanted, isn't it?"

"Ah." He kissed her chin and the corners of her mouth. He pulled back again and traced the shape of her mouth with the tip of his finger. "Not exactly. She wants us in the same bed, among other things."

Bella's breath stuttered at his words and the way his voice had pitched low. There was hunger in his eyes when he looked at her. He swallowed hard and smiled. "But I don't put out on a first date."

Caught off guard by how incongruous those words were, Bella laughed. Then, she couldn't stop. Her laughter turned to chortles. Her chortles turned to giggles, and she hid her face at Edward's neck. She couldn't help it. For just this moment, she wasn't confused, scared, worried, or angry. She was nothing but happy, and that happiness made her giddy.

Beneath her, Edward chuckled and held her closer. When her giggle fit subsided, he shifted her in his arms so she was cradled against his side, her head tucked under his chin. "We're going to do this right. Right for us. Whatever that means."

A/N: Many thanks to MoH, songster, jessypt, barburella, and Packy 2.0.

How are we feeling now, kids?