A/N: I know that was a bit of a long wait and I apologize. Real life is hectic. But, that being said, there are tentatively 3 chapters and an epilogue left for this story. I can't believe it's already almost done…

Thanks to my wonderful beta LittleLea05

The Little Fireman

I want to be a fireman like my dad

I'll always try to do what's right

And stand against things bad

I watch my daddy all the time

So I can be like him

I want to be as brave as he

When facing dangers grim

He goes where others fear to go

And helps each one in need

It doesn't matter who it is

For that's a fireman's creed

Someday I'll stand up big and tall

And also pass the test

There's nothing else I want to be

For firemen are the best

-Author Unknown

Disclaimer: Plot mine, everything else, Stephenie Meyer

Chapter 21 – New Life, Know Love

Bella POV

I was fucking pissed.

Okay, maybe a little more than irritated. But what the hell?

Alice and I got to the hospital only minutes after I was able to get a hold of Rose, but instead of letting me go in there, Nurse Stick-up-ass wouldn't let me go with Alice to her room because I wasn't direct family. Alice would have ripped her a new one if it wasn't for the look of intense pain flashing across her face. The nurse hurriedly wheeled her away and I got stuck waiting for the guys to show up in the waiting room.

I picked up one of the parenting magazines with a smiling blue eyed baby on the front and started rapidly flipping through it. I was a basket case.

It isn't like this was the first time I had ever been present for one of my friends giving birth. I was there for Alice and Jasper's first child, Joshua and the nice nurse there let me in both times for Rose and Em's girls, Danielle and Emily. Granted Rose had her children at a different hospital but still. I should be in there with Alice right now instead of letting her be all alone. Maybe I can sneak passed the nurse's station? Just walk in there like I own the place.

I threw the magazine down and walked out of the waiting room and down the hall to the left. Sitting at the nurses' station was a little old lady with far too many beaded necklaces on and scrubs that had old school Mickey Mouse on it. I made it about five steps passed the nurse's station, almost in the clear, before I heard her speak. "Excuse me; can I help you find something?"

"Oh, sorry." I lied. "I should have asked. I just got a call that my sister is here giving birth."

"Name?"

"Alice Whitlock." I froze when Nurse Stick-up-ass came around the corner. I was hoping and praying she wouldn't notice me, and if she did, she wouldn't recognize me. She didn't even look up from her clip board as she spoke.

"Ruth, don't let this woman back to see Mrs. Whitlock. She isn't family."

I stomped my foot. Literally. "Come on! Alice's husband is a firefighter, my co-worker, and he is currently on a fire. Who knows when he will be able to get here? She shouldn't have to go through this alone."

Nurse Stick-up-ass looked up at me at last and an understanding crossed her face. "Firefighter?"

"Yes. Her husband is and I am. She is in dispatch."

"Okay, fine." She huffed as she put her clip board down. "Only because of the service you are in. I imagine you guys are a lot like us and we try to…cater…to others in our industry. Follow me." I sighed with relief as I quickly followed her down the hall. She went from being Nurse Stick-up-ass to just Nurse Bitchy Face.

"…you're in for a bit of a long wait." I heard from inside the room as the nurse opened the door. Standing at the foot of Alice's bed was who I assumed to be her OB/GYN doctor. He passed by me with a nod and left the room. I quickly pulled up a chair next to Alice and grabbed her hand.

"How are you?" She had already been changed into a blue and white standard hospital gown and she was rubbing small strokes across her belly.

"Okay. Doc says it's gonna be a while. So maybe Jazz will get here in time?" I nodded and leaned back in my chair.

"I'm sure Rose has got in contact with them already. Don't worry hun."

Time was passing by really slow. It had been about two hours since we originally got here. Alice had contractions every once in a while but not close enough for them to raise any concerns. We were trying to keep ourselves occupied by flipping through the limited amount of channels on the tiny ass TV in her room. Alice dosed in and out of sleep for the most part though.

Nurse Bitchy Face brought Rose in about a half hour ago and we talked about my engagement and how funny we found it that Alice went into labor from the news. I also pestered Rose about knowing before hand, but I couldn't be happier that Edward had gone to her for advice.

Before we knew it however, Alice's contractions were starting to get closer together and the guys still hadn't shown up. We tried to keep Alice from thinking too much on the fact that Jasper wasn't there instead of not concentrating on giving birth.

Behind us I heard the door open and I looked over my shoulder. Okay, I'm an engaged girl, but even I had to admit that Jasper looked fucking sexy standing there in his turn out pants, boots, red suspenders, with his t-shirt on covered in soot and ash and sweating a bit. Made me want to go find Edward really really bad.

"Hey baby." Jasper walked up to Alice's side and Rose and I stepped away.

"We're just going to go wait with the others." I motioned to the door. Jasper nodded and Rose followed me out. The waiting room was packed. I quickly found my way over to Edward and collapsed in his arms. Surrounding us were Carlisle, Emmett, Seth, Peter all still in their gear. Plus Esme and Charlotte had shown up. Over in the corner playing with some toys where Danielle, Emily, Joshua and Peter's little boy. Next to them were both Alice and Jasper's parents. There were far too many people here. And all of them were talking.

I was sitting on Edwards lap so I swiveled around a bit so I could look at him. I kissed him quickly on the lips, "So, rough fire?"

"Yeah. All of us were inside, minus Carlisle, when apparently Rose showed up. Carlisle couldn't just pull us out; we were in the thick of it. It took everything I had to keep Jasper there long enough for us to pack up the hoses properly once Rose told him. I swear I thought he was gonna run right over here, fully geared and all."

I laughed. "But you're still in your gear." I pulled on one of his red suspenders. He nodded. "It's sexy." I smiled at him.

His voice lowered and his grip around my waist tightened. "How long until she pops?"

"Doc said it could be a while. I think probably at least more than an hour from now." He leaned in and nuzzled into my neck.

"Wanna go find somewhere a bit more…secluded?" He whispered and I nodded. I quickly got up and grabbed his hand. Emmett raised an eyebrow as we passed him at the door.

"Gonna go find the cafeteria. Feeling a little hungry." I said quickly.

"Sure you are…" he chuckled. I let Edward lead me down the hallways. I had no idea where we were going to find a secluded spot. I don't know about you, but I don't spend enough time in hospitals to know where I can sex it up. My knowledge goes as far as the Grey's Anatomy interns getting it on in the on-call room.

We turned down a hallway that only had one other person in it at the other end and they were briskly walking away. It was a short corridor and my first guess was there were a lot of supply closets in this area. Edward reached out and jiggled the handle of the first door we came too. No luck. The second one was locked two. But the third one, we hit a jack pot. He quickly pulled me into the little supply closet and checked to make sure no one was around before he shut the door.

He quickly locked the door. Why they put locks on the inside of a supply closet full of cleaning stuff is beyond me, but I was quite grateful for it right now. He quickly grabbed me and pushed me up against the wall next to the door. His lips crashed into mine as his hands started wandering over my hips and to my pants.

"We didn't get…" He said as he dragged his lips across my jaw and down my neck, "a chance to celebrate our engagement properly earlier."

"We can now…" I flicked open the clasp on his turnout pants as he stepped back. He started fumbling with his pants and I quickly pulled mine down and away. No need for being all the way naked, I just needed a quick, fast, hard fuck. Our lips came together rather hard as he lifted me up and balanced me against the wall. My legs wrapped around him and I dragged my mouth away from his. I could taste the sweat and the faint taste of ash on his neck but I didn't care.

Edward groaned and the sound went straight to between my legs. "Marry me now. I don't want to plan a huge big wedding months from now. I want to be able to call you my wife now. Marry me next month. We can do it where ever you want, invite whoever you want. Can you plan a wedding in a month?"

I froze and pulled back to look at him. I could hear footsteps on the outside of the door next to me. The closet was cramped and smelled faintly of Mr. Clean but I didn't care. All I cared about was the question Edward had just asked me. His arms tightened around my waist as he held me up against the wall. One minute we were heatedly kissing and then he was asking me the same question I had been bouncing around my head since we got here. It was almost as if he could read my mind in this instant.

"Yes." I whispered.

"Seriously?" His eyes brightened and he looked so happy.

"Yes of course. I had been thinking the same." His lips were on mine again, fast and insistent like he was too happy to contain himself any longer. "I don't want to wait any longer." I mumbled against his throat as he quickly pushed into me. I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming out and alerting everyone to our activities as he started to pump into me at a feverish pace.

Ten minutes later we stumbled out of the supply closet with severely wrinkled clothes, Edwards hair was no longer matted down with sweat as it stuck out at every odd angle, and I was positive I had a bit of 'wall burn' on my back from being taken against the wall. But I didn't mind. All I could think about was the fact that in a month, Edward and I would become a Mr. and Mrs.

Edward POV

I grabbed Bella's hand as we made our way out of the closet. I turned away from the direction we had originally came so I could find the cafeteria, or at the very least, a vending machine. I really was starving. We turned down a couple more hallways before we found ourselves in a place most guys would never want to be unless they were the father. To our left was a giant glass window and on the opposite side was at least seven light blue and bright pink bundles. Newborns. Seven of them. It scared the shit out of me.

Bella stopped abruptly and pulled away from me to stand in front of the glass. Meanwhile, I was standing behind her freaking out. I had this feeling in my chest I truthfully couldn't explain. I had never felt it before, didn't have a name for it, and I was quite honestly scared to know what it meant. My heart was beating rapidly in my chest because it felt like it was swelling large enough to burst forth, and I felt like I wanted to cry, laugh, smile and crawl into a hole all at once. And all I could picture was Bella standing in front of me holding a blue or pink bundle.

And then it hit me.

I wanted a child of my own. With Bella. And that would never happen. I felt my heart drop but I tried not to show it. I love Bella no matter what and we would find a way around this somehow. I really didn't mind adopting. The child in my vision of Bella didn't have to be ours in the literal sense. We can adopt an infant…I think.

I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. She snuggled into me as she continued to look on.

"I've never been around babies before." I whispered. I felt like I had to be as quiet as possible so I wouldn't wake them, even though there was a wall and three inches of glass between us.

"Really? I was there for Joshua, Danielle and Emily."

"Youngest kids I've dealt with outside of the work environment are Emmett's, Jasper's and Peter's kids."

"You didn't ever have younger cousins?" She asked, sounding a little dumbfounded.

"No, when my mom died, my dad moved us out here. He's an only child and I don't really know my mom's family...we lost touch over the years."

"I'm sorry." She sounded sad as she turned in my arms. "I didn't think before I asked."

"Babe, it's okay." I kissed her on the forehead and wrapped my arms tighter around her. We were startled by the sound of laughter at the end of the hall and a door closing. I grabbed her hand and started to walk forward. Before we even turned the corner I heard voices.

"…doing surprisingly well given his age and the circumstances. But I'd like to see him again say, day after tomorrow around five again?"

"Sounds good with me. Tyler has a play date with a friend of mine that has a little boy about his age at two that day but I think we can make it."

We turned the corner to see two ladies in their early forties standing there. One looked rather professional in a dress suit and the other looked a little ragged, a mom for sure. Standing right next to her legs was a little boy I knew I'd never forget even if he looked totally different when he wasn't covered in soot.

Bella froze. "Tyler?" Both the women looked over at her surprised as the little boy looked up from the floor. He was really little and I had to imagine that had something to do with living on the streets, but it also looked like he had gained a little weight in the past few months. He had dark brown hair, much that same as Bella's with light tanned skin.

"Bella…" His little voice called as he wrenched away from the woman's hand and bounded over to Bella. She dropped down right in front of him and he hugged her fiercely. When she pulled away he looked up at me. "Eddie…" I bent down and gave him a hug too. I felt my heart bursting to see him look so much happier since the last time we saw him.

Bella and I had visited with him for a good three hours before we left the hospital after the accident. We were told he was going to be put into foster care with the hope he would be adopted since he was only four. Part of me really hoped that the lady standing there giving us a death glare was only his foster mom. Although, I had no idea what I would do with that type of information. She could just be really over protected.

"May I help you folks?" The 'mother' asked as we straightened up. Tyler had wormed his way in between us and grabbed a hold of each one of our hands. It was heartwarming and I was starting to feel like an emotional girl. Did babies and children to this to everyone?

"These my fire friends." Tyler whispered and all of us adults looked down at him.

I chuckled a little, "I think what he means is that we're firefighters. We're the ones that saved him."

"Oh." The therapist said. "Are you the pretty lady?" She laughed as she asked Bella.

"Pretty lady?"

"Yeah, Tyler comes and sees me twice a week after the accident. He talks about the pretty lady in yellow who hugged him in the building. I'm assuming you're the firefighter that was with him?"

"Yeah that's me." I glanced over at Bella and noticed a huge smile on her face.

"Well, Hi then. I'm Doctor Johnson, Tyler Vanda's therapist. And this is his foster mom Evelyn."

We both shook their hands and introduced ourselves. We stood there and discussed for a few minutes about Tyler and how he was progressing. He apparently was doing rather well and the therapist was making sure he would be physiologically ready for adoption should the time arise. Bella and I both left our number with his foster mom so if she needed anything we would both gladly be there to help. I knew I didn't only speak for myself when I say that I had grown rather attached to this little boy. He reminded me of myself at seven when I lost my mom.

A few minutes later we found a vending machine, finally. Couple bags of Cooler Ranch Doritos later, we walked back into the waiting room. Emmett wasted no time in calling us out.

"That was an awfully long trip to the cafeteria only to be coming back with a couple bags of chips." He laughed and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Couldn't find it. Settled on this instead." I smiled as I replied and we took our seats.

The next hour passed by as slowly as that last hour of work before a vacation would. Nobody told me how boring it is to sit around and wait for a woman to give birth. Granted, if it's your girl in there giving birth to your child, well that's an entirely different experience. I was starting to debate whether falling asleep or sneaking off with Bella again would be more beneficial.

I suddenly heard a loud "Woohoo!" coming down the hall towards us. We all perked up and looked around to see what was going on. A second later Jasper burst into the room. "We have a girl! 8 pounds, 4 ounces; Kaitlyn…" he looked over at Bella, "Marie Whitlock." The room exploded into cheers and congratulations. Bella went over and gave Jasper and big hug and whispered something in his ear.

"Okay, so Alice needs some rest. Other than our folks, you all can see her in the morning. Visiting hours are over soon and they won't let anyone else back." I had made my way up next to Bella as Jazz turned to whisper to her again. "Except you Bells, she wants to see you real quick." She nodded. "Hurry. Room 3026." She ducked out of the room as I turned to Jasper, clapped him on that back and smiled.

"Congrats man. I'm happy for ya!"

"Thanks Edward. I'm ecstatic."

"I can only imagine."

"Oh you'll find out someday…." He said as he looked around the room. He froze and looked back at me. "I'm so sorry, I didn't think before I said that."

"It's okay man. Besides, we've already decided that we'll adopt. So, maybe in a round-about way we will understand someday." He nodded and gave me a quick "man-hug" back pat thing before he left the waiting room. A few minutes later Bella came back with tears in her eyes.

"They're happy tears Edward." She laughed at me as I expressed concern. "Come on let's go home." We all said goodnight to everyone. Since it was already Thursday and tomorrow morning we'd be off for three days anyhow, Carlisle pulled some strings and shut the engine down for the night.

As we walked into our apartment I asked Bella what I had wanted to ask her since we were at the hospital. "So…what did Alice want?"

She pulled me over to the couch. "Well, I guess she did a lot of thinking while she was in there waiting." She got quiet. "I told her that we wanted to marry in a month. You should have seen how big her eyes got. She asked if she could help plan. I told her yeah."

"I don't mind that, but why did Alice want to see you?"

"Oh yeah…anyways…she knows that once we do get married one of us will need to find another job. I hate that rule, but I agree with it. I mean, no offense, but look how you reacted with the collapse a few months back. That's why they don't want you to date or be married to your fellow firefighters, it interferes with work. I'm actually surprised Carlisle let us get away with it as long as we have." I nodded my head along with what she was saying. Yeah, I did understand. I was constantly worried about her and if I couldn't focus on the task at hand, not only would I be putting my life in danger but those of my fellow brothers and potential rescues.

"Anyhow….Alice isn't going back to work at the dispatch office. I guess her and Jasper had talked it over at length and decided for her to stay home with the kids for a little while. Besides, apparently they do want more kids and she wants to try her hand at something else. She said she doesn't know what yet, but she would like to. So that presents me with an opportunity."

"Wait, wait…presents you with an opportunity? Bella, Engine 17 is your family I can't ask you to leave there. I was thinking I'd find a new station to go to."

She put her hand on my mouth cutting me off. "Will you let me finish?" I nodded and she removed her hand. "Good. Now, like I was saying…working for dispatch presents me with a good opportunity. Not only would I have a 9-5 job, but I'd still be involved with the fire service and be able to put my knowledge to work. And I'd know if you were on a fire or not. Not to mention my dad will be retiring before too long and I'd like to spend more time with him. Plus, if we ever want to have kids." I smiled and leaned down to plant a kiss on her.

"I want to have kids with you Bella; it's not a matter of if, but when. We can be like that one couple that adopts a new kid every year."

"Brad and Angelina?" I nodded and she started laughing. "One, just no. And two, maybe if we were rich and famous and could afford that, yes. But honestly, its kids like Tyler I'd like to help; the ones that have no family here. I was so happy to see him today."

I felt like I was just smacked upside the head. It was like everything made sense. Finally! "Bella…" I breathed out. She stopped talking and looked over at me.

"What?"

"Tyler!"

"Yeah? We saw him today." I rolled my eyes. She wasn't getting it. "I think I'll call his foster mom after we go see Alice tomorrow and see if maybe she'd let me take him over to the station. I think he'd like to see the engine in a nonthreatening way."

"Bella…Bella…stop." She shut up at last and looked at me. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning but this was so much bigger. "Now, feel free to tell me I'm crazy or that this is too fast or whatever, but…Bella…" I grabbed her hand and looked her square in the eye. "Tyler needs parents. We want children. We are already highly attached to Tyler, why don't we just try to adopt him?"

She was silent for half a beat before she lunged at me and started planting kisses every which place she could reach. "God, I knew I loved you for a reason Edward. Yes. A million times yes." She sat up quickly. "Oh my god. I don't even know where to start."

"I'd say maybe we should check in with that therapist tomorrow while we are at the hospital and go from there." She smiled at me and I knew, right then and there just from her enthusiasm, she would make a great mother to Tyler. But I also knew…it would probably kill her if they said no.

A/N: Ok, so I don't have children and have never really been present for a friend's birth, so I really did wing it and step out of my element in this one. Hope I did it justice.

Also, I am so happy with the response I got last chapter. The reviews and PM's were awesome. I can't believe how many of you liked getting a teaser for the next chapter. So, I did another one for all of you to say thanks! :)