A/N: Wow! You guys rock! Loved all the reviews and PMs, and thanks for the advice on how the legal system and so forth works in the US! Admittedly, it changed my plans a little bit, but it means this story will run a little bit longer than I planned.

I'm going to let you in on my plans – this isn't going to be a never-ending story. It's called "The Beginning of Bella and Edward" because that's what it is…a beginning. There's already a sequel planned, but it'll come a while after this one ends because I'm writing a Jasper story at the moment as well and it's going to be the next one up…when this one is finished.

Hopefully you all enjoy this chapter as much as the last…

Chapter 15

I stood at the windows until Edward's plane disappeared into the clouds. I slowly turned around and trudged back to my truck. I felt empty – like part of me had left on the plane with him.

I left the radio off for the drive home, not wanting to hear anything that would remind me of Edward. The cab of my truck still held his scent, making it difficult for me not to cry. But I'd promised myself that I wouldn't cry on the way home, or when I got there, or even in front of Alice. If I needed to cry, I'd do it locked in my bedroom. And even that was a last resort.

I pulled into the car park at our apartment and opted for the stairs instead of the lift. Too many memories, I let myself think. I felt the tears brimming in my eyes again but made myself hold them in. I finally made it to our floor and made myself a promise that I was going to join the gym – or at least use the small gym in the hospital from now on. I turned my key in the lock and walked in, only to find Alice already in her pyjamas, curled up on the couch.

"You're home early," I commented as I dropped my keys in their place and let my bag fall to the floor.

"I thought you might need me," she said softly, getting up and coming over to give me hug. "Go get in your jammies – I've ordered pizzas and they'll be here in half an hour. Tonight is for you and me to have 'Bella and Alice time'. Jazz isn't coming over, so I'm all yours."

I couldn't help but smile. "Yes boss," I replied with a grin – a real grin.

I walked into my room and was immediately hit with the smell of Edward. But I used it as a comfort, rather than a sad memory. I changed into my pyjama pants and went hunting for my shirt, stopping when I remembered that I'd hidden it in Edward's suitcase. The thought made me smile as I headed over to my dresser for a clean shirt. I pulled it over my head and headed out to the living room.

Alice was watching a re-run of The Simpsons when I got out there, just in time to hear Ralph say to Chief Wiggum, "Daddy, I'm too scared to even wet my pants!" I couldn't help the laugh that escaped from me – Ralph has always been my favourite character and his one-liners never fail to cheer me up.

Alice turned from her place on the couch and smiled at me. "I forgot how much you love Ralph!" she said. Then in her best Ralph voice, which wasn't particularly good, she shot at me, "I bent my wookie!"

I collapsed on the couch next to her and we spent the next twenty minutes throwing quotes back and forth. By the time the doorbell rang with our pizzas, my sides were hurting from laughing so hard. Alice jumped up and paid the pizza girl, then dumped the boxes on the coffee table before running into the kitchen. I heard the fridge bang closed, followed by a cupboard. Alice reappeared wearing a big grin, carrying two cans of Coke and a pile of napkins. "Who needs plates?" she declared.

"Not me!" I cheered back, grabbing a Coke from her and taking the top pizza box. I opened it up to find I had Alice's pizza – supreme with anchovies, minus the pepperoni. "Yuck Alice," I grimaced, handing her the box. "Who eats salty little fish on their pizza?"

"Edward does," she shot back, the grin immediately falling from her face. "Oh Bella, I'm sorry! I've been trying to distract you…"

I cut her off before she could go any further. "Al, it's ok! I don't want to avoid talking about him. It's not like he died or anything – and I'll see him soon enough!" I was surprised because my words were actually true.

"You sure?" she asked, starting to grin again as she passed me my pizza – chicken and pepperoni. "Ick," she whined as the pepperoni smell drifted towards her. "Even the pizza place thinks you're weird!"

I poked my tongue out at her as I opened the box and picked up a slice, then shoved as much of it in my mouth as I could, just to gross her out.

"Jasper taught you way too many things," she complained as she took a dainty bite.

I swallowed quickly and washed it down with a mouthful of Coke. "Actually, it was me that taught him!" I owned up. Jazz and I both had a lot of bad habits, learned from each other while we at high school. We'd tried to rectify them when we were living together through med school, but the pizza shoveling had stayed. Plus, I knew how much it would gross Alice out.

We happily dug into our pizza, talking about Emmett and Rosalie and wondering if they were ever going to set a date for their wedding. We both knew that Emmett wanted to give Rose her dream wedding, and we also knew he was too proud to ask their parents to help out. His business was bouncing along, with new clients seeming to come in each week. Rose was earning truckloads with her modeling for Victoria's Secret, so we had a feeling they might set a date sooner rather than later now.

"How about you and Jazz?" I asked Alice round a mouthful of food. "Any plans?"

Alice blushed and swallowed. "Well, we've talked about it, and it's going to happen, but Jazz wants to wait until your residency is over. And he wants us to talk to Carlisle and Esme about it as well – he's so traditional!"

"That's sweet," I told her. "And yes, he's traditional. Always has been."

When we were both stuffed from dinner, we cleaned up and went back to the couch.

"Bella?" Alice asked timidly.

"Yeah?" I mumbled, absently rubbing my over-filled stomach.

"Are you sure it's ok to talk about you and Edward?"

I smiled at the mere mention of his name and replied, "It's fine Alice. We'll be talking all the time and I'm planning a surprise visit in two weeks – so don't tell him! I'll be fine!"

She had a thoughtful look on her face and I was dreading what was coming next. "Can we talk about Edward, though?"

"What do you mean 'about', Alice?" I had a fair idea where she was going, but since we were talking about her brother, I wanted to be sure.

"Well, I know he's my brother…" she paused. "But you and I share everything! I want to know details Bella!"

I groaned. This was going to be weird, almost as weird as the first time I found Jasper in Alice's bed. Then there was the first time that Alice filled me in on the things Jasper could do with his tongue…something I didn't need to know about my best friend.

"Details? Alice, are you sure? I'm probably going to get pretty graphic," I warned her.

"I know," she sighed, "but I gross you out with Jasper stuff all the time and he's like your brother, so fair's fair."

Taking that as her blessing, I launched in. "He's wonderful Alice. That first night when we left the club, it was so hot! But then when we got back here, he was all uncomfortable because he was worried you were going to come through the door and…"

"Please don't tell me you let that stop you!" she interrupted.

"Alice! If you want details, you'll have to let me roll, ok?" She nodded her head in agreement so I continued. "But then I told him you were staying the night at Jasper's so then he was all for it! We teased a bit but we were just so horny…" I trailed off again as I blushed.

"So was it good?" she prompted me.

"It was more than good," I emphasised the last word, "it was amazing. I don't think I've ever come so hard in my life!" I looked up then to see Alice struggling to cover the grossed out look on her face. "I told you! You're not going to be able to handle this!"

"I can handle it Bella," she assured me. "Keep going."

Next I recounted the following morning. "It was so sweet, and soft, and slow, and still hot!" I told her. "We almost went for two in one day except you came home and interrupted us!"

"So that's why he was in a towel!" she giggled.

"No, he was in a towel because he was just out of the shower when you graced us with your presence," I informed her.

"Oops," she said sheepishly.

"It's ok. It was nice spending time with all you guys while Edward was here – it was nice to not be the fifth wheel for a change." Alice looked a little hurt at my comment so I added, "Not that you guys don't always include me and make me feel welcome, it was just nice to have someone with me for once."

She smiled as she asked, "So, was it all sex and orgasms, or did you guys get to know each other as well?"

I pretended to be wounded by her words, placing my hand over my heart while grinning like an idiot. "Well, the sex and orgasms were damn fine…but we talked a lot too. He told me lots of stories about you three growing up, and about college and law school and stuff too."

We were interrupted by my phone ringing. It was Edward – there was no way I was letting Alice listen in on this call. "It's Edward," I told her, running to my room. "Hello?" I answered breathlessly.

"Hey baby, it's me!" Just the sound of his voice gave me happy bubbles in my stomach.

"Hey me," I teased. "What's all the noise in the background?"

"I'm in the terminal at the airport still – I told you I'd call as soon as I could!" he said.

I was floored – he must've barely been off the plane and he was calling me!

"Bella? Are you still there?" his voice came through the phone. I heard him muttering, "Stupid bad airport reception…"

"I'm here!" I cut in. "Just went off into daydream land for a sec there."

"Ok, well, I can barely hear you, so I'm going to hang up, but I'll call you when I get home, ok?" His voice was all crackly – stupid bad airport reception, indeed.

"Ok. Drive safe!" I told him.

"Yes ma'am – talk to you soon!" We said goodbye and I walked back into the living room with a grin on my face.

"Not painful?" Alice asked with a worried look in her eyes.

"Nope," I replied with my grin still on my face. "He just got off the plane and wanted me to know he got there safe."

"That's so cute!" she squealed. "Who knew my self-absorbed big brother could be so thoughtful?"

"He's pretty amazing, Alice. I'm falling for him pretty fast…"I trailed off again, not quite believing that I was saying those words.

"How fast?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Fast," I said without a second thought. "Not love, not yet, anyway…"

Alice interrupted me again. "You think you're falling in love with him?" She started clapping her hands and bouncing again.

I reached out and grabbed her hands to settle her down. "I guess so," I said slowly. "I never really thought of it like that, but yeah, 'falling' is a good way to out it."

Alice grinned at me again. "That's so awesome Bella! I'm so happy for you," she said sincerely.

I reached out and hugged her. "Thanks Al. Just…don't say too much to anyone, especially not Emmett and Jazz, ok? I want to wait until I know for sure how Edward feels – which I'm planning on finding out when I surprise him in a couple of weeks!"

"I have the most brilliant idea!" Alice said suddenly. I could almost see the light bulb go on over her head. "I'll bet Rosalie can "borrow" some of the new line in your size for you…the models do it all the time," she assured me with a wave of her hand. "Edward won't know what hit him!"

"Nothing too…pervy, ok?" I pleaded.

"I'll even let you come and help choose it," she offered with a wicked grin. "Changing subject, what shift are you on tomorrow?"

I grimaced at the thought of work. "I'm on days tomorrow and Thursday, then I go over to the graveyard shift for three days, then I'm on afternoons until Wednesday."

"Only three days of graveyards? That's not too bad," Alice said, working out days in her head. "Eight shifts and then you're going to Chicago, right?"

"Nope," I said, shaking my head. I get Thursday off, then I work days on the Friday and Saturday. I was thinking I'll fly to Chicago Saturday night and get a hotel somewhere, then call Edward on the Sunday from outside his apartment building. Hopefully he'll be excited to see me and I'll fly back Wednesday morning and start back on days on the Thursday."

"Of course he'll be excited to see you!" Alice shook her head at me. She opened her mouth to say something more when my phone started ringing again.

"Again?" she said with a smile. "I'm going to call Jazz then crash – g'night."

"Night Al," I replied vaguely as I answered my phone on the way to my room.