Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, but this ratty old notebook, the couch that I sit on, and the fiancé giving me a foot massage do belong to me.
Summary: Bella's past affects everything in her daily routine. Edward keeps his true emotions hidden better for the sake of his two children. When these two meet at Edward's sister's bonfire, can they unravel many years of fear and guilt and help each other in the long run, or will it be a wasted effort that tears them both down further? AH/AU
Author's Note: So, this chapter would have been posted with Bella's POV the last chapter, but to be honest with all of you fabulous people out there, it wasn't written all the way. Besides, it's good to change things up a bit, no?
Complete and eternal gratitude goes to the beta/God, Leon McFrenchington.
"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has even been spoken."
--Fydor Dostoevsky--
[EPOV]
"You guys want to go over to aunt Alice's tomorrow?" I asked hopefully as soon as Maddy and Tony were done with their cereal.
"Wiww Miss Bewwa be dere?" was Tony's immediate response after hopping down from his bar stool and putting his bowl in the sink.
I honestly did not comprehend their fascination with this young woman. After the phone conversation that I just had with her though, I could not understand anyone's interest in her. Whenever I would visit my parents, they would always talk about her likes and dislikes whenever the situation would arise. The way they spoke of her, it felt like I already knew her. Although, what was the situation with her living with Carlisle and Esme for a year and a half?
"Yes hon, Miss Bella will be there." When I told him this, his small cheeks lit up a bright pink color and a coy smile crossed his face.
"Tony, do you like miss Bella?" I asked suspiciously, a half-grin enveloping my face. I may not have liked her, but what kind of father would I be to deny a smile to my son's first crush?
"No." He looked down shyly, a smile still on his face.
"Yeah-huh!" Maddy shouted from the living room after turning on the television. We recently knocked half of the wall down so that I could see and hear what was going on better if I was in the kitchen and they were in the living room, or vice versa.
"What makes you say that, Madds?" I asked, coming out of the kitchen with Tony on my heels.
"Weww, he's ah-ways tawkin' 'bout her and dat kind of stuff," she mumbled as Saved by the Bell came back on.
"Maddy, I didn't know you watched this show. I used to watch this when I was little."
"Scweech is my favowite."
I laughed lightly and turned my attention back to the television, hoping that some mind-numbing shows would get Bella's voice out of my head.
The day went on and on, and before I realized it, I was getting Tony and Maddy ready for bed and still trying to get her voice removed from my head.
-0-0-0-
Around eight o' clock, the next morning, I was awoken by a phone call from Emmett. It started out with a series of grunts, and then proceeded like this.
"So, you going to Alice's bonfire tonight?"
"Of course, Emmett. Alice would kill me if I didn't."
"Good. I know that Alice wants you to meet Bella, since you were gone when she moved in with us."
"What in the world are you guys talking about? I talked to her yesterday and she said the same thing."
"It's not my story to tell. She had a bad situation in her adopted parents' home and needed to get out of it. That's all I'm saying."
"Well, from what I gathered on the phone with her yesterday, she's a real doll."
"It seems like she's goaded your goat, and for that, I love her even more." Emmett chuckled into the phone.
I rolled my eyes. "What time does Alice want us over?" I asked, hoping that it wouldn't be so late that the kids would be tired half way through the bonfire.
"Around three."
I looked at the clock. It was eight thirty now and it was supposed to start at five. If Alice wanted us to get there early, that meant that we were going to be forced to set up. Fantastic.
"Alright, Em, I'll see you there."
"Bye Edward." Emmett clicked off the phone.
I quickly got changed out of my pajamas and into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before heading downstairs to fix myself a cup of coffee.
Maddy and Tony woke up pretty early for a Sunday morning. The weekends I usually let them sleep in late, considering the fact that they were normally up at seven or eight, depending on the weekday. Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, they went to Carlisle and Esme's house, so they had to be up at seven, because the trip from Seattle to Forks was much longer than the twenty minute drive to Alice's apartment, which they went to on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
I decided to ask them what they wanted to do today, and I got answers that I was not expecting. Normally, they would ask for ice cream, or a movie, but today, they asked if we could go and feed the ducks down at the pond on Inkster and Taylor. Naturally, I said yes.
After this little adventure, I remembered that I had a couple of errands to run, so we stopped to do a bit of grocery shopping and paid a couple of bills.
Lunch was served at Taco Bell, and eventually, we made it back to the house so we could grab some blankets and other stuff for the bonfire.
"You guys ready to go?" I asked, walking by their room.
"Yeah, but daddy?" Maddy asked, walking out of the bedroom and next to me with Tony trailing slightly behind.
"Yes, honey?" I tried to see over the pile of small quilts in my arms so I could look at Maddy as she asked her question.
"What's a bonfire?"
"Do you remember when we used to go camping?" I probed lightly, knowing that if she did, it would inevitably bring up memories of Tanya, and then she would remember that night.
She shook her head and picked up a flashlight that I had asked her to grab earlier.
"Well, a bonfire is a big outside fire that everyone sits around and roasts marshmallows and hot dogs. Sometimes, someone will even play the guitar and sing," I informed her, going based off of all the bonfires I had been to.
"But how does da fire stay stiww?" Tony asked after we were all in the Volvo and buckled properly.
"It's in a big, round pit that tries to prevent it from going anywhere," I told them, pulling out of the driveway.
"But what if dat doesn't work?" Maddy asked, truly perplexed.
"Then we all run away really fast while Emmett sprays everything with water." I heard giggling in the backseat as I finished my sentence and their imaginations created an image of Emmett doing this. That was about the extent of out conversation as we traveled the fifteen miles to the apartments.
"Edward!" Alice exclaimed as I buzzed her apartment.
"I'm here, Alice, and I think Rose and Emmett are pulling into a spot as we speak," I said, peeking out the glass windows. Sure enough, Emmett and his wife of two years, Rosalie, were pulling into a parking spot in Emmett's ostentatious Jeep that looked almost exactly like the one he lost years previous.
"Well, how about you wait a minute and I buzz you all in together."
"Unca Emmy, put me down!" Maddy squealed.
I turned around quickly to make sure that my lug of a brother was not putting my daughter in any more harm than was always present around him.
My six foot four brother had scooped his niece up in his arms and had thrown her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and was now spinning around the lobby, looking quite like a dog who was chasing his own tail.
"Emmett, put her down," the statuesque blond who was standing against the windows said.
Many people saw Rosalie as beautiful. I didn't. I mean, yes, she was pretty, but to me, it was a type of beauty that you saw everywhere these days. She was tall, had good proportions with long, blond hair and clear, pale skin. Her eyes were almond shaped and hazel. These were categories that would make a person beautiful any day of the week, yes, but it was also the fact that I saw Rose just like I saw Alice; purely a sister.
"Yeah, unca Emmy, put her down!" Tony exclaimed after being hugged by his aunt.
"Whatcha going to do, squirt, spray me with your juice box?" Emmett asked teasingly, while purposefully stumbling around.
Tony walked up to them and gave him the evil eye that I'm sure Emmett and I had given a few guys when Alice was growing up.
Emmett carefully lowered a very discombobulated Maddy onto the ground. She dizzily walked over to her Rose, who promptly picked her up and squeezed her like she hadn't seen her since birth.
I turned my attention back to the situation between Tony and Emmett. Looking down on the little monster, I saw a devilish grin on his face that he must have gotten from Alice. Emmett looked like he was holding back a laugh as Rosalie pushed the button to have Alice let us in. Tony reared back his tiny foot, and with all the strength he could muster in his two-year old muscles, kicked Emmett.
Emmett and everyone else's faces turned from ease to shock and Alick stood at the door with a look of apprehension on her face and the handles of a wheelchair in her hands.
"Can you guys move?" she asked quietly. "Edward, hold the door open as Jasper comes in. Emmett, can you take his keys?" she questioned nervously. Emmett and I nodded.
As soon as Emmett and I finished head-bobbing, Alice frantically commanded, "Edward, get the door!"
I rushed over to the door to immediately find Jasper carrying the most breathtakingly beautiful girl I had ever seen in his arms.
"Jasper, you can put me down now. Alice, for God's sake, I do not need a wheelchair. Are you guys listening to a word I'm saying? Oh, apparently not." She huffed as Jasper carefully set her in the chair.
When I heard this voice, I suddenly realized that this Aphrodite, was the same girl that I had gotten into a fight with on the phone. This gorgeous woman with the long, flowing brown hair and wonderful piano key colored skin, was Bella. The same girl that I had called swift-lips. Oh God.
The pictures at mom and dad's house did not do her justice.
"Miss Bewwa, what happened?" Anthony and Maddy bounded over to her and she winced as one of them brushed past her knee.
"It's nothing, sweethearts, just an old pain acting up again." She turned to me and as soon as her eyes rested upon mine, my world paused.
Her eyes. They were round like the Target symbol, but the color surrounding the pupil was the most vibrant, deep soulful brown I had ever seen.
"You must be, Edward Cullen," she said, making her voice as lifeless as possible.
"I am." I nodded and then focused on her slightly swelling knee. "Is everything alright with your knee?"
"Well, obviously not." Alice gave the wheel-chair a hard jerk and Bella's shoulders bounced against the top half of the seat. Bella winced and pushed herself up further, but rolled her eyes.
"It's just an old injury acting up. I fell on it in the store. It's nothing that I haven't done before." She blushed a beautiful, light pink when mentioning either her clumsiness, or her injury, as Alice rolled her into the elevator.
"You guys can take the next one. I have to talk to Bella about something," Alice said, daring us with her tone and eyes to challenge her of go against her order.
A playfully fearful look crossed Bella's face. "I'll see you guys later if I make it back alive," she yelled right as the elevator doors slid closed, making sure that whatever secretive conversation they were having in there stayed secretive.
Four hours, seven attempts of Emmett trying to jump over the fire, and a million times of washing Tony and Maddy's face from melted chocolate and marshmallows went by. I stood by the bonfire, trying not to set my second s'more aflame, wondering what could have made Alice so serious earlier today.
Whatever it was, Bella was greatly affected by it, no matter how much she pretended not to be. I knew because I was an expert at trying to make things seem normal and perfect.
It seemed that the subject had really gotten to her. Every time when she thought no one was looking, she would take in a big breath of air, bring her trembling hands up to her face, and scrunch her eyes together. It was like she was trying to hold back tears.
I felt this strange urge - well, rather, a need - to go over and comfort her. To tell her that whatever was going on, it would be okay and everything would work out in the end, even though I had no idea if any of that was true.
Finally, I got fed up of just standing around. I needed to go and talk to her, but I knew that we couldn't have a decent conversation until I apologized for what I had said to her on the phone yesterday.
"Hi Bella, how are you this evening?" I asked, sitting down in the lawn chair next to her.
She slowly turned her head toward me, and I know it sounds fucking girly, but it felt like my heart skipped a beat when her mahogany-colored eyes rested upon mine.
"Wonderful, Edward, how about yourself?" she questioned, even though it sounded like she really didn't care to know the answer to the question she posed.
Though, who could blame her? I had been a complete jerk to her the day before, and I wouldn't blame her if she kneed me "where the sun don't shine" and then ran away.
"I'm not too bad, but I need to apologize for the phone conversation we had yesterday. I shouldn't have talked to you like that. No one should have," I finished and let my eyes quickly shoot down her body, truly taking in her appearance for the first time.
It was the middle of March, warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt, but still cool enough for a bonfire. Bella was wearing a pair of shorts that stopped mid-thigh and a short-sleeved shirt that said "Are you sure you want to do that?" in white bold letters.
Bella turned to look at me, her hair brushing past the left side of her face to reveal a long scar, starting at her earlobe and ending at her chin. How could I have missed that before? As soon as she moved the rest of her body, her shorts slid up on her legs a bit, showing the beginning of a series of red and white, beaded lines that I'm sure were scars. 'What happened to you, Bella?'
"What do you mean by that?" she asked shortly, strangely angered by my apology.
"Just what I said," I told her cautiously, afraid to incur the wrath of a woman that seemed to think she was scorned. "Did you not hear what I said, or-"
"No, I heard what you said, Edward. I'm not deaf. But what do you mean, no one should have? How much do you know about me?" she demanded an answer, her beautiful eyes narrowing.
"Just what I've been told by my family. Why, am I supposed to know something in particular that I don't?"
"Well, considering the fact that I just met you today, you're not supposed to know my deepest, darkest secrets."
"It's a good thing that I do-"
"Edward! Bella!" my mother's sweet and cheerful voice interrupted mine, which was growing more and more harsh.
Bella glared at me for a second longer before turning to Esme and giving her a hug, which Esme eagerly returned.
"How are you,dear?" Esme asked, looking concerned.
"I've been better, but we can talk about that later. How are you?" she questioned, her previous attitude changed completely.
"I'm great, Bella, but I'll be even better once I see my grandchildren. Where are they, Edward?" Esme questioned curiously.
"What do you mean, where are they? Last time I checked, they were with Jasper, learning how to make s'mores." I quickly turned around to look at my son and daughter with their soon-to-be uncle, but I didn't see them there.
As cars from the main road passed all around us, my eyes scoured every possible place for them. Nothing. They were nowhere.
"Maddy! Tony!"
What's your greatest bonfire experience?