Sorry to all of you who expected an earlier update. As horrible as an excuse it may be, I honestly got really busy with summer work for school.
Characters belong to SM
I heard small whimpers that night when I headed to bed after a long evening of paperwork. I poked my head into Melody's room to see a thin sheen of sweat layer her forehead.
I went to retrieve Bella but when I saw how peaceful she was sleeping, I decided I would handle the problem.
When I entered the child's room for the second time, she was sitting up in bed with her arms out for me. I reluctantly took her in an embrace.
She cuddled into my chest without a word, and I let my mind wander while she took comfort. "What's wrong, Melanie?" My mind still lost in thought.
"Melody," she snapped playfully and hitting me lightly on the chest. "I had a nightmare, that's all."
I didn't answer because I truthfully had no idea what to say. Melody continued anyway.
"It was dark," she remembered, "I was calling for Mommy, but she didn't answer."
I shivered, that thought was disturbing.
"Suddenly, a voice behind me called out 'daughter.'" I couldn't see her face for she tucked herself further into me. "When I turned, a small amount of light lit him, but the man didn't look like the daddy I had always known. He was…"
Tears soaked into my shirt alerting me that the child had lost her grip. "Take me to my mommy please."
I lifted her gently, and she wrapped her small arms around my neck. I placed her next to her mother. The child burrowed underneath the covers, and Bella wrapped her arms around her subconsciously.
I left the room feeling that the scene before me felt private between mother and daughter…not mother, daughter, and bodyguard.
Bella ran for no more than a mile on the treadmill the following morning due to yet another stumble upon the completely flat surface of the treadmill.
"I swear there was a bump!" she argued for the forth time, but she couldn't fool Melody or me.
Peaches and milk started Bella diet. Melody didn't have a problem with the choice of food even though she was used to a breakfast routine.
Curls bounced at the thigh, and I looked down only to find Melody walking at my side. I raised a brow waiting for her to speak.
"Will you practice piano with me?" the determined expression was present on her face so I agreed and followed her to the music.
Her swift fingers were water flowing over the keys, and a soft tune eased throughout the air. But soon enough, unexpected missed notes corrupted her song. I looked up from the book I had been read while she practiced.
A tear slipped down her face, and I left my book aside when I went to take a seat next to her. "Why did you call my Melanie the other night?" She whispered.
"I was distracted," I mumbled in return. "I would never forget you name."
"Promise?" She murmured returning her attention to the black and white keys of the piano. I nodded in her direction.
"Come on, I'm sure your mother is probably waiting for you," I said trying to pull her mind away from the previous night.
"To do what?" She muttered back. The child was obviously bored with her life stuck in a house full of amusing objects but having nothing to do. How ironic. "What was that?" Melody turned to look at me, and I realized I had spoken aloud.
"Nothing," I smiled back at her. She scampered up the stairs and out of my sight.
I sat at my desk looking over previous medical forms from hospitals Bella or her daughter had ever been to. An idea invaded my mind, so I pulled out my laptop and researched Bella's name. Only a few best selling children's books came up as well as a newspaper article on her new fame.
Of course, Bella had told me before she published with a pen name.
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! I have something for you!" The high little voice overran the peacefulness in my office.
"Come down and show me, Mel, I'm cooking!" Bella called back to the child who was currently on her way down the steps.
Thump, Thump, Thump.
"Mel, you okay?" The mother's tone was active and neared the scene. I rushed to the top of the steps where the event had occurred and saw the little girl sitting stunned on her bottom.
Bella wrapped her arms around her daughter rocking her back and forth soothingly. "What happened, Edward?" She asked looking up at me where I stood at the top of the stairs.
"I didn't see it happens," I explained.
The little girl looked down at the paper in her hands. "May I see it, baby?" Bella asked her holding her hand out for the piece clutched in the tiny hands.
Melody shook her head. There was a rip punctured in the middle. "It's ruined," she cried forgetting about her stumble and focusing on her present.
"I'll fix it." Bella was becoming more persistent, and I took shelter back in my office. It wasn't my place to help Bella with her child, even with my lack of knowledge or otherwise.
The rushing of feet passed my door, and other door closed with a loud click. My door opened to reveal Bella looking disgruntled. "Lunch will be ready in a few minutes."
She brushed a piece of hair away from her face. "Are you alright?" I asked taking in her tight posture and the failed attempt of a relaxed expression.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Melody has just been a bit cranky lately; she hasn't been sleeping as well as she should be."
She left to finish her meal, and I made my way into the child's room to find her working vigorously. The drawing of her mother and herself sat on the bed in front of her with a hole in the middle.
"I need to get this done for Mommy," she mumbled glancing up at her original then back down to her new edition.
"Lunch is going to be ready soon. Your mother made a very unhealthy greasy brunch, so you better get down there and gobble up all her food." I tried to lighten the mood with playful words, but her face remained stoic. "Why don't you finish it tonight?"
"I need to get it done for her," she repeated.
"Why?" I stressed. Perhaps I could an insight of what was going on in her little head.
"I need to say sorry to Mommy for missing having a dad," a tear ran down her face, and I silently took in how much little girls cried. She held out her arms toward me, and I had no other option than to let her curl up in my lap.
I noticed how she didn't say her dad. She just missed having the male presence near to take care of her. She sobbed, and I heard the running of feet near the door.
Melody didn't hear the door open or if she did, she didn't acknowledge the fact. The look on Bella's face told me I had yet another problem to fix. She left the room as quickly as she had entered.
"Edward?"
"Yeah?" I answered the child with the most at ease voice I could muster up.
"Why did he hurt my mommy? Why couldn't we all have a wonderful life together?" Her questions were unanswerable.
"I don't know, Melody," I rocked her the way I had seen Bella do.
"Do you think I'll ever have another father?"
I wanted to say yes, and wash all her tears away with little promises, but those words weren't mine to speak. Only Bella had the power to answer the child's questions honestly.
"It isn't my place to answer that," I replied. I wiped away her tears and helped her off the bed. She ran out of the room without me, and when I entered the kitchen for lunch, I found Melody clinging to her mother whispering apologizes in her ear.
As soon as lunch was over, Melody asked politely to be excused and hustled back up to her room.
"May I talk with you?" Bella asked softly once Melody's door closed. I nodded and waited for her to continue. She simply shook her head and slunk down into a chair. "She's so young." Her voice was quiet. "She doesn't deserve this."
Bella allowed her head to lower and broke off our eye contact.
"I don't know what to say," I mumbled slightly uncomfortable. She looked so broken in front of and yet I couldn't reach out to sooth away the worry.
"Do you know why Melody was upset today?"
I remained silent, pondering on the idea of preserving the child's faith in me, but perhaps Bella was just asking a question she already knew the answer to. Instead of putting myself in the middle to of the upcoming situation, I shook my head.
Bella sighed but dropped the subject when she began to unload the dishwasher.
"Don't worry about that tonight," I dismissed, "your muscles look tense. Go upstairs to your room, and I'll unknot your muscles."
She raised an eyebrow at me curiously.
"I used to be great at messages. I gave them all the time when the stress began to build up on the one being protected."
Bella nodded without questions and made her way to her room.
Before entering Bella's room, I checked on Melody to find her working studiously on her new creation for her mother. I left her to her project and found Bella sitting on the couch. She had changed into a pair of yoga pants, and a light blue shirt.
The bruises on her arms were nothing but speckled dots of color, but a wrap still adorned her ankle.
I previewed the room and found no comfortable spot for a good message beside the bed. Fuck me.
She sat Indian-style across from me with her back facing me. Shaking out in front of me, I reached my hands out to gently touch her shoulders.
Bella shuddered under my touch. "Are you cold?" I asked, and she shook her head.
So I began kneading the knotted flesh, a soft sigh whispered off her lips. Shit…I could feel my pants tighten in the northern region. I pried the muscles away from each other using the tips of my fingers on her back, and a bit-back moan was released into the air.
"How are you feeling?" I cringed at my slight husky voice.
She turned her head to meet my gaze, and I saw vaguely hooded eyes stare back at me. "It feels wonderful." Her voice was raw, but she turned her head away from me once more, and I presumed silently trying to hide the obvious arousal I was sporting.
"What's your pen name, Bella?" The question blurted from my mouth. She turned back again and smirked playfully.
"Why, Mr. Cullen, are you curious about my writing?" She teased.
I shook my head. "Just making conversation," I lied.
"Isa Key," she replied, once again looking away from me.
The name was so familiar. I wasn't one to read erotic books, but that I doesn't mean haven't in the past. Perhaps I had read her book already. Deciding to let the matter drop, I'd ask Emmett next time he came by.
A call came from Melody's room, and Bella jumped off the bed quicker than any ninja I had seen in any movie.
"Coming, Sweetheart!" she called while she raced down to the room on the right.
New happens occurred today that I had never witnessed. There was still so much depth to the child who longed for a father but loved her mother unconditionally. Bella had so many different sides to her that I was excited every morning to see which one she would be that day.
My earlier statement proves true; living with this somewhat broken family wouldn't be so bad.
PLEASE REVIEW