DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM TWILIGHT. THEY ALL BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.

BPOV

Watching Edward get into a mini strop about not being able to open his presents was cute. Normally, he didn't really like getting gifts at all, I guessed that because it was his birthday he wasn't too against the idea. The shock in his eyes when Alice told him that she'd hidden his presents so he couldn't open them was just adorable to see. It was nice to see him acting like a normal teenager, after he'd spent so long being depressed and withdrawn. It was good to see him laugh.

Alice's cover as to why he wasn't able to open his presents now was ingenious. Of course she would have told Esme and Carlisle the lie about it and they would agree with her and collaborate her story if he brought it up. I could see that he knew that there was something else going on, but of course, none of us were going to enlighten him as to what was happening. It would take the surprise out of the surprise party that we were throwing for him.

I had also taken it upon myself to call Diana, Claire and Michael telling them about the party. They had all agreed to come with the same excited tone that Alice had used when she had come up with the idea. Michael had told me that he would get in contact with Shane to see if he could come, and he would text me later on to tell me if he could come or not. I had no doubt that he would. They all cared for Edward as much as his family did.

Alice had been overjoyed when I'd told her that I had contacted them, and that they would be coming. I guess it gave her more of a reason to go all out with the party. They would be arriving when Edward and I were in Port Angeles.

When the others left the room, I heard Alice and Rose giggling and whispering to each other, and I couldn't help but notice the perplexed look on Edward's face. Obviously he was still trying to process what had just happened.

"What's wrong love? You look confused." I said, not managing to conceal the grin that was spreading across my face. He turned to look at me, his face melting into a smile as he did.

"I'm not sure." He shook his head, chuckling softly. "I know I should be used to Alice by now, but that girl never ceases to scare me." I laughed at his choice of words and he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me back down to lie next to him on the bed. "So, what's the plan for today then?"

"I was thinking, maybe, an early dinner and then a movie." I looked at him and I saw his face become slightly apprehensive about the idea of a meal. It would be his first meal in public in......well, in god knows how long. "I mean, we don't have to go to the meal if you don't want. We could just go to the movie if you're not comfortable with the thought. I mean it was just an idea-" He cut me off, placing a finger on my lips.

"No," He said calmly. "It's okay. I'll be fine." He smiled at me and taking his finger away from my lips he kissed me softly.

"Are you sure?" I asked, suddenly apprehensive about the idea. I didn't want to make him uncomfortable in any way.

"Yes," He nodded once at me. "Yeah, I am." He grinned at me and I smiled back. I was so proud of him. Who knew that he would do a complete one-eighty in the time that I'd known him? The Edward that I had met in Biology on that first day back at school would never have agreed to going out for a meal. Hell, he would skip meals with his family and had been known to throw it up if he had been forced to eat it. This Edward was now pushing his boundaries and moving outside of his comfort zone. Something I knew must be very hard for him to do.

I looked at the time on his clock by his bed and saw that it was already past noon.

I tapped him on the arm gently. "Right, Mr. Cullen." I said, easing myself out of his arms, earning a pout in return. "Come on, you need to get up and dressed." I kissed him quickly on the lips and he smiled. "Go on! Shower, dressed. Now!" He looked slightly put out but complied anyway. Grabbing a towel from one of the cupboards in his room, he walked into the bathroom adjoining his room and a few moments later I heard the shower going. I sighed and thought about today. The plan was that I would take Edward out, we would do a little shopping in Port Angeles, grab an early dinner and go and see a movie, which movie I would leave up to him, and then we would come back here and the others would spring the party on him. I told myself that I wasn't going to think about the party, as I knew that it would be evident on my face that I was hiding something from him.

Twenty minutes later he came out, clean, shaven and dressed. I'm telling you even in a plain powder blue button down shirt and jeans, he looked amazing. I was having a hard time stopping myself from jumping on him at that point, so I got up off of the bed, walked over to him and kissed him gently on his lower jaw, the place I knew he liked to be kissed the most. For the moment anyway.

I took his hand and we walked downstairs to where everyone else was sitting either in the living room, watching something on the television or in the kitchen. We walked into the kitchen where Esme and Carlisle were sitting and they beamed at us as we walked in. Esme stood up quickly and hugged Edward gently. He hugged her back, testing his limits with contact. Even though he had come a long way with everything, he was still apprehensive and could panic when it came to physical contact. Derek had told us that there was a good chance that this fear would be with him for the rest of his life.

"Happy Birthday, my boy." She said, beaming at him and he smiled back at her.

"Thanks Esme." He replied sitting himself down on one of the barstools that surrounded the sideboard. I pulled myself up into one next to him, not letting go of his hand.

"Happy Birthday, son." Carlisle said, grinning from across the kitchen.

"Thanks, Carlisle." He said, still smiling as he looked at his father. "Hey, do either of you know why Alice has hidden my presents?"

Esme feigned quite a believeable look of shock and turned to glance at Carlisle who shook his head and shrugged. They were both better liars than I had given them credit for.

"No." Esme said, turning to face the two of us again. "I mean, I know that she wanted you to wait until your present from Carlisle and I was ready, but I didn't think she'd go so far as to hide them from you." She chuckled slightly. "She must really not want you to open them yet."

Edward nodded. "It's not fair." He looked at me and pouted, causing me to laugh at him. He grinned at me and I kissed him on the cheek. "So what time are we going?"

"I'm not sure." I shrugged. "Whenever you're ready."

"You've got to have something to eat first." Carlisle called from across the kitchen and Edward rolled his eyes, nodding. "Don't roll your eyes at me, Edward. You know you've got to."

"I know, Carlisle. I know." Edward said, looking at Carlisle again.

"Now, what do you want?" Esme asked him. "I know its after twelve but I could make you some pancakes or cereal. I'll make you some pancakes." I could see that Edward was about to protest but she had already turned around and Carlisle shot him a warning look. He looked down at the ground, his jaw clenched, seeming a bit frustrated. I knew that one thing that was bothering him was that he wanted to be able to make his own food. Him taking charge of his own menu was supposed to be part of his therapy and I could tell that he didn't feel like his family was letting him do that.

A few minutes later there were two plates of steaming pancakes in front of us. Esme had made some for me as well, and I smiled at her gratefully. I picked up my fork and started on my own pile as Edward started on his. I knew that he would have preferred that Esme and Carlisle didn't watch him, but I think on some level that he knew that they weren't going to leave him any time soon. I could see that this strict regime of meals was going to start wearing on him soon.

After we finished our pancakes, I turned to Edward. "So, are we ready to go?" He looked at me, smiled and nodded. I grinned and kissed him again.

"Hang on a moment." Esme called, filling a glass up with water. She placed the glass on the counter top in front of us along with a large white pill. Edward's anti-depressant. He hated taking them, but he knew that it was necessary, so that he didn't fall back into his old ways of thinking. He took the pill and downed the glass of water with it, giving me a small smile after he had placed the glass back down.

"Come on then," I said, sliding off of the stool. "Let's go." He grinned, sliding off of the stool he was sitting on and following me out into the hallway. I picked up the keys to his Volvo and he looked at me sceptically. "What? I've never driven it before."

"Okay then." He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Don't worry, love. I'm not going to crash it." I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him softly. "I know how much you love your car."

"Almost as much as I love you." He whispered against my lips, before pressing his to mine again. I giggled against his lips and broke away pulling him out of the door, calling out a goodbye to everyone.

As we got into the car, I could see Alice watching us out of the window, pretending to be sitting in the sunshine, soaking it up. It was June after all and even in Forks it was quite warm. But I knew that she was waiting for us to leave the driveway so that she could set things in motion for tonight. I've got to hand it to that pixie, she really could be snealy and conniving when she wanted to be. I would hate to see what she would be like if she got her hands on anything really incriminating.

The drive to Port Angeles was quiet but nice. I drove most of the way with one hand grasping Edward's as he looked out of the window. The last time he had been on this route, it had been towards the clinic and I could tell that those memories were flashing through his mind now. I smiled inwardly as I thought about what his face would be like when he saw Diana, Michael and Claire at his house tonight. I hoped that he would enjoy himself. He wasn't a huge lover of parties, and specifically hated attention being on him, so I was a bit concerned as to his reaction. Hopefully he would be happy at the effort that his family had put into his birthday, and excited to see his friends again.

Only way to find out is when we get there.

We arrived in Port Angeles a little after two o'clock and finding a place to park we walked around for a little. We went into a couple of shops but didn't really see anything that we wanted. I even told him that if he saw anything that he liked then I would get it for him as an additional birthday present seeing as Alice was being mean and not letting him have the ones from his family. He point blank refused that gesture and told me that the watch was more than enough for him. Going into the bookstore, I bought myself another copy of Wuthering Heights, as the one that I had right now was beginning to fall apart, from my having read it so many times.

We went to the docks and sat there for a while, talking about completely random things. Things that wouldn't really make much sense to anyone else were they to listen in to the conversation, and yet somehow they made complete sense to both of us. It got to four o'clock and I told Edward that we should go and get something to eat so we could get a decent movie time. He agreed and stood up, pulling me up after him. I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed him gently, deepening it slightly before breaking away. I giggled at him and he grinned back at me, showing me that glorious crooked smile that always made me go weak at the knees.

On the way back into the main centre of the town we saw Eric and Tyler, who grinned and walked over to us.

"Hey," Tyler greeted us and Eric waved slightly at us.

"Hey guys," I said, grasping Edward's hand. He hadn't really met Tyler and Eric before so this was going to be a little awkward for him.

"Hey Edward," Eric said smiling. "How are ya?"

"I'm good. You?" He smiled back at Eric.

"Not bad, man. Not bad." I could tell that Edward and Eric would probably get on if they had the chance to get to know each other.

"So," Tyler said, turning to me. "What brings you two to Port Angeles?"

"Well, " I said wrapping my arm around Edward's waist. "It's Edward's birthday so we're going to get some dinner and then catch a movie."

"Oh, happy birthday, man." Eric and Tyler said at the same time, grinning at him.

"Thanks." Edward smiled back, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

I looked at my watch and saw that Alice would be expecting us back in three and a half hours, so I had to cut this short and get things moving. "Anyway guys, we should get going. It was good seeing you guys. See you at school on Monday?" I asked and they nodded, saying goodbye to Edward. We walked in the direction of one of my favourite resturants in Port Angeles. "Well, that was relatively painless."

"It was." Edward seemed a bit distracted.

"Are you okay love?" I asked and he shook his head slightly and looked down at me. Seeing my concerned expression he leant down and kissed me, smiling.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I was just...thinking." He replied, still smiling.

"About?"

"Oh, nothing really."

We walked up to the resturant. La Bella Italia it was called. "Are you okay?" I asked turning to face him. "We don't have to go eat if you don't want to."

"I'm fine Bella, love." He kissed my forehead tenderly. "Honestly. I'll be okay." He smiled at me.

"Okay, but if at any time you think it's too much then tell me and we'll go, okay." He smiled gratefully and nodded.

We walked into the resturant and waited to be seated. After a moment or two a waitress came over and almost stopped dead when she saw Edward, her eyes almost bulging out of her skull. She smiled in what I supposed was meant to be a sexy way and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"Table for......?" She said in what was supposed to be a seductive voice.

"Two." Edward said, bluntly and her gaze fell on me, her face falling slightly when she saw Edward's arm draped over my shoulder. I smiled sweetly at her, at the same time letting her know that he was mine. She motioned for us to follow her and she led us to a table in the back of the resturant.

We sat down and I smiled at him. He grinned back and took my hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze showing me that he was alright. He would be alright. For the moment at least. If he felt uncomfortable at all at any point during the meal then we would leave. No arguments. I had made that clear enough to him and he seemed grateful for that scapegoat. I had the feeling that the whole attitude around his eating at home was wearing on him a little. I wanted him to know that he wouldn't be forced when out today. Today was about him. It was his special day after all.

We were interrupted by the waitress who introduced herself and took our drinks order, again being another one who leered at Edward for an unnecessary length of time. I cleared my throat and smiled at her and she appeared to get the mesage and walked off, obviously annoyed that it was me sat there holding Edward's hand and not her. But then again, who could blame her? He was gorgeous. And he was mine. She quickly bought our drinks over and we ordered our food. I went for spaghetti whereas Edward ordered the mushroom ravioli.

We chatted about random things like we had whilst being at the docks until our food came. I noticed him tense up slightly when it arrived and I squeezed his hand in a reassuring way, smiling at him and letting him know that it was okay. I knew that this was a huge step for him. Eating out for the first time after treatment was a huge thing, and it was supposed to mean that the recovery process was working still. I behaved in the way I had back in the clinic, busying myself with my own meal, while Edward got started on his. I knew that he felt more comfortable eating this way, rather than having people watching him, as he had at the clinic and was now at home. I thought that maybe I should talk to Esme and Carlisle about that. About how they shouldn't openly watch him eat as it made him incredibly uncomfortable and made him lean towards not eating more than encouraging him to actually eat.

"Good?" I asked and he nodded smiling. He was doing better than I thought he would. This boy never ceased to surprise me. I say boy, when I mean man. Because he was. He wasn't the same lost and broken boy anymore. He was stronger, healthier and more confident.

Finishing our meal, I made sure that I grabbed the bill before he could. I looked at his disgruntled expression and explained to him that as it was his birthday he was not paying for a single thing today. He sat back in his chair and huffed like a child that had just been denied some candy of sorts. I knew that Edward hated attention and people doing things for him and obviously the fact that it was his birthday was not going to change his ideas on the fact that it should be the man that pays for the meal and not the woman, even if it was the man's birthday.

We walked hand in hand to the cinema, debating over what film to see. In the end we saw a film called Duplicity, though neither of us watched much of it. We spent most of the film watching each other instead of the screen in front of us. If someone asked me then I wouldn't be able to tell them what happened and I doubted that Edward would be able to either.

"Was there any point in us going to see a movie?" He asked me, chuckling as we walked towards the Volvo.

"Nope." I said as my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I took it out and saw that it was a text from Alice. Glancing up, I saw that Edward was preoccupied with something else so I opened the message and read it quickly.

B

Everything's ready.
Everyone's here. Get home ASAP.

3 A xx

I looked up at Edward who looked down at me and smiled. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him gently, texting Alice back. Thank god I didn't have to look at my phone to know what I was texting someone.

A

Just leaving Port Angeles now.
Will be home ASAP

3 B xxx

I snapped my phone shut and Edward opened the driver's door to the Volvo for me. I smiled at him as I got in and put the keys into the ignition as he walked around and got in the other side.

The drive home was as peaceful and quite as the drive there had been. We were enveloped in a comfortable silence, our hands intertwined in the middle of us as I navigated the roads back to Forks, only letting go to change gears or to turn on the indicators, showing I was turning onto a different street.

"So," I said after a while, as we were nearing his house. "Have you had a good day?" I smiled, glancing over at him to see him looking over at me smiling.

"The best." I chuckled. "What?" He asked and I feigned innocence. "Bella?" Out of the corner of my eye I could see that he had narrowed his eyes at me. Shit! I thought. He's going to know that something's up. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," I replied in what I hoped sounded like an innocent voice. His eyes were still narrowed as he looked out of the window. I let my breath out slowly and silently so he wouldn't realise that I had been holding my breath. He had let it go, for the moment. It didn't really matter anyway, because we were approaching the long driveway that led to his house. Turning off and approaching the house I saw that everyone who wasn't in Edward's family had hidden their cars around the back of the house as Alice had asked them to, well actually I could imagine Alice "asking" them to do anything, and I would bet that they were all cowering in fear, rather than hiding to surprise Edward.

I stopped in front of the house and turned off the ignition, facing Edward. He looked at me and smiled. I leaned over and kissed him tenderly, with him placing his hadns on either side of my face.

"I love you," I whispered, smiling.

"I love you too." He breathed back, placing another soft and sweet kiss on my lips. I almost didn't want to go into the house. I wanted to sit in the car forever and have Edward all to myself.

"Come on." I moaned, opening my car door and placing one foot on the ground. "Let's go inside. Alice is probably throwing a fit, deciding that she's going to take your presents out of hiding."

He chuckled. "I still can't believe she did that." He opened his own door and got out, slamming the door. I locked up the car and took my hand in his. Thankfully the front of the house wasn't where the main living room was, so it was no surprise when he saw that the lights were off. It would have given it away if all the lights in the living room were off when all the cars were here.

Placing my key into the door, I let us in and we hung up our jackets and walked through into the main living room. I could tell that Edward was slightly confused to see that the lights were off in this room as well. That is, before all the lights were thrown on and there was a deafening chorus.

"SURPRISE!!!!"

Is it safe to come out yet? *peeks head over top of hiding place*
He's had a happy birthday and has now had the living daylights scared out of him at his own party :D
It's a fun day for Edward.
Please review xxx