Yay! New chapter!! *happy dance* There should be another one tomarro or heck, even tonight if I get the next one back from I awesome beta.

Edward's POV

I was half a mile from the house when I heard their thoughts. Alice had seen me coming home hours ago but had kept her mouth shut for my sake. Esme was stressing over the blueprints to the new house they were planning to build in a couple of months. Alice was quietly shopping online, trying to contain and hide her excitement from Jasper. Jasper was wrestling with Emmett but was distracted because he was picking up Alice's mood. Carlisle wasn't home; he was working at the hospital, and Rosalie was admiring herself.

I walked through the front door and was nearly knocked down by a tiny blur of white and black. Alice hugged me, then ran into the living room, then up the stairs to get Esme. Emmett and Jasper greeted me happily while Esme and Alice reappeared. Esme hugged me tightly, crooning, happy that her son was home.

"Oh, it's so great to see you!" she said.

"It's good to be home, Mom," I said.

"Carlisle will be happy to see you," Esme said.

"Edward," Rosalie said from the top of the stairs.

"Rosalie." I nodded to greet her. Things were still tense between us since the fallout we had after we came back from Italy.

"We should call Carlisle," Esme said. I shook my head.

"I was going to go to hospital. I need to talk to him," I said and headed for the door. "I'll be back later."

I went out to the garage and grabbed the keys to a random car. I heard the door from the house to the garage open, and Alice entered.

"You know?" I said.

"Before she did," she replied.

"You didn't tell me?"

"I just figured…" she said. I opened the car door and got in.

"Who else knows?" I asked.

"Just you, me, and the floorboards," Alice said in an attempt at casual joking. "Will you at least say goodbye to us this time?" I nodded.

"And if you're feeling down, you'll call the suicide help hotline?" she said. I stared her down. There was an awkward silence. "Okay... not funny yet."

~*~

I walked through the front doors of the hospital and went to the front desk. "I need to see Dr. Cullen," I demanded to the young nurse. Her breath caught when she saw me but she quickly regained her composer.

"Excuse me, but Dr. Cullen is a very busy man," she replied. "You'll have to make an appointment."

"Please," I said, "just page him and tell him that Edward is here to see him."

"Sir, I'm sorry. But as I said, you will have to make an appointment."

"Nurse," I faked a smile, attempting to dazzle this woman, something Bella had told me I did unknowingly, "just tell him that Edward is here and I promise that he will want to see me right away."

Dazed, she reached for the phone. He's got to be at least eighteen, right? That means legal for me... "Dr. Cullen?"

"Yes?" I heard his voice through the line.

"There is someone here to see you, "she paused, "Edward."

"Yes! Point him to my office immediately," he said. Wow, he seems very excited, she thought as she led me toward his office, another son maybe. I know that he has two other and two daughters. Maybe he ran away? With a girlfriend perhaps? The idea of that saddened the young nurse.

If only.

Carlisle was ecstatic to see me. We sat for a few moments catching up, but it wasn't long until I had to bring up why I'd come to talk to him.

"I saw Bella."

"Did you know?" He was completely still. I nodded.

"She was in Portland, going to college there."

"How did she look?" He, of course, was looking at it from a medical perspective. When he'd seen her for those few minutes in the airport, she had looked sick to him. She'd lost too much weight, her eyes were sad, tired, and bloodshot, and she just hadn't looked healthy.

"Better, I guess." And beautiful as always, I added in my head. "She seems healthier. She should be gaining all the weight back soon. She's pregnant."

Carlisle raised his eyebrows, exhaled, and sat down at his desk. His mind was going through many different things at once at inhuman speed. Finally, his mind settled on me and how I was reacting to this news.

"I'm assuming she was in a relationship with someone..." he said.

"I'm not sure... I'm pretty sure," I said, knowing that my thoughts were conflicting each other as always. "I did a little investigating, but nothing for sure came up. Anyway, she's in Forks right now, visiting for Charlie's birthday, so I probably won't know anything until she gets back and, hopefully, gets in touch with the father."

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't made up my mind 100% yet- and that's probably driving Alice up the wall-" I said, and Carlisle chuckled, "but I think I'm going to get involved. Be her friend, I mean."

"If that's what you want, son, but there's something you should know." He paused. "If you do become a part of Bella's life again, just being friends? It's going to have to stay that way. If Bella wants this, then it's what she gets. You can't ask any more or any less of her without hurting her again. I know it's not easy to think about. I saw the pain you went through when you left and when you left a second time.

"I know how hard it was for you to make the decision all over again when you returned from Italy. I saw you contemplating on the ride home, and I knew you were wondering whether or not to stay. But I also saw how tightly you held onto Bella's sleeping body. You'd thought she was dead, and I can't imagine going through that. All I'm saying is, if you do become her friend and you're not happy with only that, and you might want to leave again, you can't, because I know you. You could never bear to go through the pain or watch her go through the pain of losing you again."

Damn it. Why does he have to be so insightful?

~*~

I dialed the number I hadn't called in years, and Charlie picked up on the fourth ring.

"Hello?"

"Hi, may I speak to Bella?" I raised my voice to a high pitch, pretending to be Alice. I knew how fond of Alice Charlie was.

"I'm sorry, but she's out hiking. But she has her cell with her, I can give you that?" He paused. "Who is this?"

"Err..." I said, "This is Alice Cullen."

"Alice Cullen," he said, "how are you?"

"Fine, thanks. That number? I need to talk to Bella."

Charlie gave me the number and I hung up. I paced back in forth in my room for a few moments. Finally, I dialed Bella's number and waited patiently.

"Hello?"

"Bella?" I said in my normal voice. There was a long pause, and I heard a husky voice calling her name in the background. "Hello? Are you there?"

"Uh, yeah... sorry," she said, stunned.

"I'm sorry; do you know who this is?"

"Yeah... I'd know that voice anywhere. Hi." I could only imagine the beautiful blush that was filling her face.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Good. Um, how did you get my number? Not that I mind or anything."

"Well, I still had your house number... and I called Charlie, told him I was Alice, and bang. I got your number." I chuckled and she laughed. I wished I could see her face laughing. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah."

"I was wondering, maybe, if we could meet up somewhere, sometime. Maybe get some coffee or lunch. Not for me, of course, but you know."

"Uh, sure. When?"

"Later next week, maybe."

"'K, see you then," she replied, and I hung up.

"Sooo..." Alice stretched the word out while standing in my doorway, "is this a good idea? You know, with her being pregnant and all."

"I honestly have no idea," I said, looking down at the carpet.

"Hey," she shrugged, "you never know. Maybe the father turns out to be some sort of mutant creature, and you'll once again have to rescue Bella, except this time it'll be from her own evil mutant spawn."

I sighed. "Thank you, Alice."

~*~

Bella's POV

I closed my cell phone and stared blankly into the trees. I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost didn't notice Jacob trying to get my attention.

"What?" I snapped unintentionally.

"What's wrong? Who was on the phone?" he asked.

I shook my head to clear it and focused on Jake. "Nothing, it was just Guyden," I lied. He'd have a fit so big he'd phase if he knew that Edward was calling me. "Come on, let's go," I said, changing the subject.

We started walking and talking like nothing had happened. Everything was normal, especially when I tripped over a tree root and went face first into a rock, knocking myself out.

Where I Stood- Missy Higgins (go listen to it. its great)

Thank you to my wicked awesome beta Duck Life!