A/N – I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. There are time skips the next couple of chapters, because the 'juicy' stuff starts when Draco is a few years old :)

You can wrap your fingers 'round my thumb, and hold me tight
you are my one and only
you can wrap your fingers 'round my thumb, and hold me tight
and you'll be alright.

Ed Sheeran - Small Bump

10 months later - December

Edward

"'Tis the season to be jolly… fa-la-la-la-la… and… fuck, fuck, fuck." I mumble the song in a whisper as I search furiously for my lighter. Where the hell have I put it? I search my jacket pockets, my jean pockets, on my bed; under my bed and every surface in my room. I always chuck my Malboros and my lighter on my bed when I come into the room. Did the lighter grow a pair of fucking legs and walk off? I don't think so.

I glance at the time on my phone as my search pursues. Shit, I have to be at Bella's in five minutes. And I'm in an irritated state, without some nicotine in my system I'm gonna lose my shit at some point during the day, and I'm spending the day with Draco, so I need my smoke now before I get there. So where the fuck is my lighter?

Piss it, I don't have the time to search any more. I grab my jacket and Malboros as well as phone, wallet and keys before leaving my room and heading downstairs.

"Emmett?" I shout around the house, in the chance that he can hear me. Emmett has come home for Christmas. He arrived yesterday – the twenty-second - staying until the twenty-sixth and then going off to stay with Rose and her family for New Year. He hears my name calling, and appears from the living room with a large, family bag of Doritos in his hand.

"Yeah?" As he speaks, a load of crumbs fly free from his mouth.

"Where's your lighter? I can't find mine and need to be at Bella's, like, now."

Emmett's eyes widen in shock. "Fuck sake, man. Wanna keep it down a bit? Mum doesn't know I smoke."

"Dude, she's going to find out sooner or later. And, you know, she probably knows you do already."

"Not the point. And I don't have my lighter with me – Rose stole it; her attempt to get me to stop."

Couldn't have told me that when we first started talking?

"But, there are some matches in the cupboard by the hob; use them."

Emmett you have redeemed yourself. Genius!

"Thank you, thank you!"

I don't waste any more time pissing about, and tear out the driveway before my belt is buckled. I arrive at Bella's in record time, parking my car up behind her boisterous truck thing. I stare out the window, over her front lawn which has a brightly coloured football and a tiny baby slide plotted about. My God, Draco is growing up fast.

As I light up – with all windows down – I send Bella a brief text, saying I'm outside and having a smoke. She replies saying that the front door will be open. It is a rule that Bella has placed, to smoke with all the windows down when I'm in the car. I never, ever, smoke around Draco – and I never will – but Bella is scared of the fumes that may still float around if Draco gets in the car straight after I smoked. So she makes me put the windows down.

I resist the urge to have another as I sit here. But I'm nearly twenty minutes late, so I don't want to push Bella any further than I probably already have.

As I walk through the doors, I expect to hear Bella chatting away happily with Draco like she does, talking about everything and nothing. Instead, I hear Draco crying and wailing and then the sound of something plastic hitting the floor.

"Hello?" I wander through to the kitchen. Bella has one hand braced on Draco's high chair as she's kneeling down, cleaning up the contents of the bowl that had recently been dropped – probably thrown – to the floor. My little boy is twisting his body from side to side, arching his back and screaming his head off. He's kicking his legs wildly, narrowly missing Bella's head.

As Bella stands up, she rubs her fingers across her forehead and squeezes her eyes shut. "Are you okay?" I ask, tapping her shoulder tenderly.

"I'm fine." No you're not. I smell bullshit like a shark smells blood.

"For once, can you stop being the…bloody hero? Is it really that hard to accept that you need some help?"

Bella pushes past me and over to the kitchen counter where she continues to plop something into a bowl. "I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm acting like any mother would when their baby son refuses to cooperate. Whatever I do, it's never right and because of that, I get the tail-end of hurricane Draco!" She takes a baby spoon from the cutlery drawer, grabs the bowl of… whatever that thing is, and proceeds to put it on the tray of Draco's high chair. He takes one look at the crap, and then pushes it away. The bowl topples over the edge once again.

"See! I can't go a day without failing at something. I'm not set out to be a mother."

"Now don't sprout that shit. Looking after a baby is hard; harder than you think until you actually have one. Draco is a bright little boy – because of your parenting – but he is acting like every baby does when they don't get their own way." I bend over to pick up the dropped bowl, scooping up as much of the mess that fell from it. "Before he can speak proper sentences, Draco's only communication is to scream or make a noise – you should know that, Bella." I take a look at the gunk in the bowl. "What is this?"

"Mashed-up banana."

"Jesus, no wonder he's crying; I would too if someone gave me this." I lift Draco free from the clutches of his seat, hold him too my chest and smile brightly, "Hey, little man. I missed you." Kissing his forehead, my smile widens when Draco copies it. He falls forward, wrapping his tiny arms around my neck and lies his cheek on my shoulder.

Looking over his body, I watch Bella pull her hair up into a shaggy pony tail and start to fill the sink with water. "What have you got planned today?"

"Er…" She pours some washing-up liquid into the stream of water, "I have a few more presents to wrap and think of some better meals I guess."

"Well the second you finish that, you're going to sleep, or have a bath or something you people do to relax. I'll be out all day with Draco – I thought Port Angeles would be the place to go – and then he will stay at my house tonight."

"What? Edward, no, I can't let you do that."

"Look, he's my son; we share joint custody. I deserve to have him stay with me just as much as you do. And your outburst not five minutes ago tells me that you could do with the night off."

Bella hesitated, "are you sure?"

"I wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it. I will pop by on our way back, I'll collect his stuff then and you can say goodnight. Deal?"

She hesitated again, "alright fine. What time should I come and get him tomorrow?"

"Whenever you want. Just text me when you're on your way."

"Okay. And, thank you, Edward; I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it, but I should probably be on my way if we have any hope in buying presents." I put all my attention onto Draco, "say 'bye-bye' to mummy." I adjust Draco's position so that his back is against my chest. He puts one hand out to Bella.

Bella crouches down to his level, tickles his tummy with both hands and kisses his cheeks. "Be good for daddy. I love you."

"Da-ya." Draco squeals, reaching both hands out for Bella. We have a feeling 'da-ya' means 'dada', which he uses to great everyone in the family – not just me -, but he's still putting faces to the names.

We both put him in his winter jacket, hat and fleecy mittens, fold up the pushchair and then head to my car. I can tell that Bella is anxious, but she's doing her best to keep it under locks. Once everything is ready to go, she hugs Draco once more, whispers she loves him, kisses his face before closing the door and allowing me to go.

"I'll call you when we're heading back, 'kay?"

"Okay. Thank you; ring me if anything goes wrong."

"Bella, Christ, I'll be fine; trust me. Enjoy the peace."

She mumbled something as I closed my door, something along the lines of 'unlikely'. Turning my head around, I watch the road behind me as I reverse from her driveway. My eyes connect with Draco's. "Ready for a day with Daddy?" He smiles and bounces.

I'll take that as a 'yes', shall I?

Xxx

"Right, I'll need your help, bud." With Draco settled in his push chair, I finish donning my jacket and locking my car before pushing him off towards the shops. "We need to find a present for mummy. What do you think she would like?... 'Cause I ain't got a clue." I mumbled the last to myself. But it wouldn't have made a difference whether I spoke them louder or not; he doesn't understand me – the kid is only ten months for Christ's sake.

Draco reached up to me using his right hand. "Ay-ya."

Two seconds.

Any, er, baby translators out there? If so, do you know what 'ay-ya' means?

"Ay-yaaaaa" Draco repeats.

Heya? Is he saying 'heya'?

"Hello."

Draco talks his gibberish again, "poh," I take his tiny hand in mine and shake it lightly. Whatever it is that I'm doing works for a few minutes, Draco settles down and doesn't make a sound, but then, like the flick of a switch Draco turns mental. He's screaming, his body is twisting about in his seat and whenever I try to touch his face (in hope that it'll calm him down) he swats my hand away like a fly.

I try everything that I can think of. "Are you hungry?" From the tray underneath Draco's seat, I grab a pot of finger foods that Bella had prepared for me. "Do you want some watermelon?" – He doesn't. I put the pot back and bring out some milk, "are you thirsty?" - Apparently not. Pushing the push chair into a quiet area of the parking lot, I unstrap Draco and bring him into my hold. Bouncing on the ball of my feet, I keep a safe hold on his back and his head.

"Come on dude, what is with this screaming?"

I sniff his butt, he smells clean to me.

I really don't want to ring Bella and ask for advice. I'm his fucking father; I need to cope by myself.

But after ten minutes, I don't hold back, and ring Bella's mobile.

"Edward? Are you okay?"

"Could you -."

"—is that Draco? Why is he crying? What have you done? What's happening?"

"You think I did this? He was saying 'hi' to me and then started screaming! He doesn't want fruit, he doesn't want milk; what can I do?"

"That black bag that I gave you, is it in the push chair?"

"Er…" I bend down slightly to see said bag at the back of the tray, "yeah, I have it here."

"I put his favourite toy in there; that should be what he is after. If not, then I'm sorry, but there isn't much else I can do."

"Right, okay, thank you."

"No problem, Edward. Give me a ring if you need anything."

"I will thank you."

It's a struggle to put Draco back in his seat, but I finally do it. I find the toy Bella mentioned – a stuffed Elmo puppet thing – and watch as his eyes grow wide and shine with excitement. His crying stops and a smile breaks out across his face. This is what he wanted the whole time? He had that major tantrum for Elmo?

Fuck sake, I'm never going to understand children.

"Right, are we good to go now?" Draco seemed too interested in Elmo to pay me the speck of attention.

Can't you just feel the love?

xxx

Surprisingly, it never took me that long to find all the gifts for my family (I even picked up some more presents for Draco) all I had left is something for Bella. Alice had said that she loves to read and making visual memories - photos, videos, that sort of shit - is another main hobby and interest. I soon decided on a book (hopefully one she hasn't read) and an electronic photo frame which I'll fill with pictures of Draco etc. and videos of him too; I managed to buy them pretty easily.

Now, I needed coffee.

And a smoke, but I'll need to wait till later for that one.

"Do you want a coffee, Draco? Latte? Milk and two? Or is pumpkin juice more to your liking?"

Draco busied himself by patting his knees whilst nodding his head.

Do I take that as a yes, or?

Draco then began to shake his head. "Right, you can decide on your answer, but Daddy needs some refuelling. Little man, you sure know how to burn the energy from someone." I found a tiny café which didn't seem to have that many occupants, so I wheeled the push chair inside and found a table towards the back.

I parked Draco to the side of the table and wasted no time in unbuckling his belt and bringing him to my lap. His faint hair had been messed up from the hat he wore all day, my fingers made light work brushing through it, flattening it out over his head. I have the bottle of milk and pot of finger foods in front of us. Bella had cut up tiny pieces of watermelon, taken out every single seed and made sure that each piece is just large enough so that he cannot choke on them.

I took one piece and held it close enough for Draco to reach out and grab it. He hasn't learnt how to use his fingers properly yet, so took the watermelon in his palm and squashed his hand to his mouth, his gums mashed down the fruit.

"Can I take your order?" A middle-aged women in a white shirt and pink-striped apron asked, spooking me out of my admiration watching my son. She had a tatty white notepad in one hand and a blue biro in the other, waiting to write down whatever I ordered.

"Just a, er, large black coffee, please."

She scribbled away on the paper, "nothing for the little one?"

"He's fine, thank you."

"Your coffee will be over in just a minute."

"Thank you."

As I sat here, my hands began to absentmindedly tap on the table like a bongo set. I watched in amazement as Draco dropped his watermelon piece in his hand and copied my movements. We spent the best part of five minutes playing this copy-cat game. I would slap twice, he would slap twice, and so on. His chuckle and squirms on my lap encouraged the smile on my face to broaden.

Draco twisted around to look at me and pointed a chubby finger in my direction. "Ah-dya"

Putting a palm flat over my chest, I spoke the word 'Daddy' slowly. Again, Draco squealed "ah-dya".

"Can you say 'daddy', Draco? Da-dee. Daaa-deee."

"Ay-ee."

I congratulated his triumphs, and whilst doing so, the waitress brought over my coffee. A bowl containing sachets of sugar came with it – I emptied out three into my mug.

"Edward?" I turned my head to see a familiar face staring down at me.

"Angela?" Angela Webber is a good friend of Bella's, and moved to Seattle with her family a little over a year ago. She came down for the Baby Shower, but that has been the last time we saw her. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Do you mind if I sit down?" I motion towards the empty seat with my hand. She smiles as she takes it, "I'm fine thank you, and how are you doing? Being a father and all." My hand pats Draco's arm, Angela looks at us with a loving smile on her face.

"It can be a struggle, but he's so worth it – I wouldn't change it for the world."

"You're going to be an amazing father, Edward; I can already see how great you are." Draco has made one almighty mess, squishing a piece of watermelon onto the table and rubbing it around with his hands. I sigh in amusement, pulling a bundle of napkins from their holder to clean up his mess. Angela laughs as she watches us. "His name is Draco, right?" I nod, "I love that name. I don't see why people think it should be…forbidden just because it's a character," that took me by surprise. I know a few people who don't particularly like the name, well fuck them – he's my son, I can call him whatever I want. But Angela's words put some meaning into it. "If the author hadn't made up the name, I'm sure somebody would have; why is it a bad choice?"

"Wow. Thank you, Angela. You have no idea how amazing that was to hear."

"That's what friends are for, I guess."

I notice Draco staring at Angela, his head jolted to the side slightly. I make sure he has my attention and then point ahead. "Her name is Angela; she is a friend of Mummy and Daddy's'. Can you say 'Angela'? Ann-gee-laa?"

She leant across the table, resting on her arms, smiling brightly at my son. "Hello Draco."

Draco cowered back into my chest, covering his face with his arms.

"Don't be scared little man, say hello." I gently bring his arms away, and watch his scared face turn to look at Angela.

She places her hands over her eyes, and then bring them away suddenly, "peek-a-boo!" she plays this game a couple more times. Draco relaxes and begins to smile. "peek-a-boo!" Taking his hands in mine, I make him play along. After several goes, Draco starts to do it himself. A beautiful smile etched on his face the whole time.

xxx

"It was great to see you, but I should get this little one home and into bed." Angela had helped me put Draco back into his push chair, and, after one more game of 'peek-a-boo', we walked together down the streets and to where I had parked my car.

"I'm over this way," she points to the right, "but have a lovely Christmas, and we should catch up again soon."

"Yeah definitely, I'll tell Bella you said hi?"

"That'll be great. See you around. Bye!"

"Bye. C'mon mate. Let's go home."

xxx

Bella.

Okay, so I shouldn't be anxious. Everything is going to be fine.

Edward has been out with Draco for just over eight hours, but they went to Port Angeles, so that takes a fair amount of time, and if Draco has one of his famous tantrums, Edward will be stuck to deal with that until the water calms. I felt sorry for him when he rung earlier; I know just how hard it can be to calm Draco down.

He hasn't rung me since then, so I'm guessing he carried on with the shopping, probably got something to eat and had fun hanging about with his son. I only hope that he's on his way home now. It's gone six o'clock, nearly time for Draco to have some dinner and a bath, and he still has to pop over to get an over-night bag.

At that second, my phone starts to ring.

This will be Edward now, see, not to worry. He's going to say he's on his way, or, that he's just about to drive up.

But the screen says 'Charlie', which I do not expect.

"Hey dad."

"Heya Bells, just to let you know that I won't be home for dinner; there has been a crash on the 101 leading to Port Angeles, so I'm being called over to help."

"Oh God, is it bad?"

"No, no, it's not dreadful. I just have to help control traffic."

"Okay, I'll see you when you get back – I'll heat up your dinner for you then."

"Excellent, bye."

Aah, see, nothing to worry about. There are major delays on the roads.

Edward will ring if anything was wrong.

Yes, yes, I must remember that. I need to calm down.

By the time I made and had dinner, wrapped a plate for Charlie and cleaned the dishes, it had been nearly an hour and a half since Charlie's phone call. I turn the TV on for some background noise as I clean the living room. The local news had just started.

Incoming traffic report: there has been a collision involving a –

The ringing of my phone interrupts the news reporter's voice. I mute the TV to answer. It's Charlie again.

"Bella…" a loud smash from his end of the line muffled whatever Charlie had said.

"What? Dad, I can't hear you."

"The car involved in the crash… its Edward's."

xxx

*RosieRathbone will now hide under the nearest rock whilst you throw hate-bombs at her.*
Um… review?

xx