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Warning: Towards the end it gets kind of… well not happy. So beware.
Standard Disclaimer Applies.
Just know that it is really hard for me to be able to type words in the slurred voice that Bella speaks in due to her teeth so just know that she is slurring.
ALSO this chapter takes place the same day as the attack, this is just later in the day. Bella mentioned her doctor's appointment last chapter!
EPOV
"Are you seriously about to fall asleep right now?" Bella asked as she slapped my arm with a magazine. I turned my head groggily towards her and scrubbed a hand over my face wrapping the other firmly around Seth as he attempted to wiggle out of my lap. Ellie was standing at the table next to me looking through the large book/diagram of the progression of the birth. With every big, woman shaped, page she flipped her face twisted into disgust a little bit more. Alice sat in the chair on the other side of Ellie, watching the flipping pages with a similar grimace.
Why Alice was here? I'll never know. The more and more she showed up the more I realized what Ellie was saying was true. Alice really was always around.
"What's this?" Ellie asked before slapping my leg and pointing at the eight month diagram of the baby.
"That's a baby." Her eyes widened.
"It looks like a chicken…" Bella huffed in irritation before checking her watch.
"How does that look like a chicken?" Alice peeked over at Bella.
"You've never seen a chicken in a womb?" Bella asked incredulously.
"You have?" I threw in, Bella glared at me and I just sat back in my seat, not wanting to agitate. She was always angry and or yelling at me.
Don't fall asleep.
Get more sleep.
Stop talking!
Why are you ignoring me?
Why are you touching me?
Don't love me anymore?
Will you hurry up?
Slow the fuck down, pregnant here!
It was like she's turning into a real woman. I grimaced at the thought but smiled hesitantly when I received a harsh look from my wife. Seth turned in my lap and patted my cheek.
"What's this, Seth?" I took his hand and put it on my nose. He choose to ignore me and wrap his hand around my nose and attempt to remove it from my face. "No, buddy. No hurting. I get enough of that from Mommy." Bella slapped the back of my head and choose not to say anything.
"Aw… Calm down, I'm kidding." I tossed my free arm over the back of her chair and she frowned. I sighed and turned back to Ellie.
"Why are we here, Daddy?" She asked as she lifted Seth off of my lap.
"What are you doing?" I said as I reached for him.
"Wanna play Baby?" Seth smiled and giggled. "Okay. You stay." She said before setting him gently on the ground. She backed away from him slightly before plopping into my lap.
"Ellie…" I sighed, Bella rolled her eyes and picked up Seth bouncing him in her arms. "Don't do that." She nodded in response.
"Why are we here?"
"Mommy has a doctor's appointment." I said as she laid her head against my shoulder and ran her small hand over my five o'clock shadow.
"Does Mommy have that?" She asked before jerkily pointing a finger at the diagram.
"Yes. Mommy is having a Baby."
"Mommy already has a Baby." She argued, with her forehead wrinkled. She reached into Bella's lap and pulled up Seth's hand, for proof.
"Another one."
"No."
"I'm sorry?"
"Why do we need another one? She already has Baby and me. That's enough. Why'd she get another one?" I looked to Bella for a bit of help, she ignored my look and focused on Seth. Alright so the more coherent she was, the more angry she became about her face and the carpet.
And my driving.
And….
Everything else.
"I don't know. It's Mommy's baby. Ask her." Dumb mistake. I caught myself immediately after the words were out and my head thumped against the wall behind me. "I didn't mean Mommy's Baby…" I stuttered as I tried to compensate for my slip up. Ellie looked confused and turned towards Bella to ask her, when I turned her to face Alice instead.
"And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Bella growled from next to me. I sighed in exasperation and she hit my thigh when I didn't answer.
"I meant it's in you!" I explained, "Dear god. Stop hitting me…" I rubbed my thigh around Ellie and sighed again. Ellie started to raise a hand and ask for the dollar she'd get for Bella's cussing. I pressed down her arm before mouthing 'not now'.
"So what you're saying I'm heavy handed now? It never stops with you." She grumbled.
"I was thinking more along the lines of man hands… but heavy works too." I joked dumbly, Alice snorted and her eyes widened as she realized how much I had just screwed myself over.
Bella's mouth opened and her swollen cheek glowed bright red. I shot up in my seat, grabbing Ellie so that she didn't fall.
"Excuse me! How long until Mrs. Facinelli is available?" I asked the receptionist.
"Oh you gonna flirt with her too?" Bella asked irately, I put a soothing hand on her knee and she slapped it. To be honest the woman had to be twice my age, she resembled Ms. Isabella more than the receptionist in Chicago.
Not that that mattered…
"As soon as possible, Dear." The woman said softly before mouthing 'Poor Boy'.
"Dear. Agh…Old bitch." She scoffed.
"Bella." I reprimanded when the older woman looked insulted, obviously hearing Bella's comment. Ellie gasped at my tone and Bella glared at me for a second before her face softened.
And then crumpled with tears.
My eyes widened and Ellie pushed off of my lap before going to sit next to Alice.
"Why'd you move?" Alice asked as her eyes stayed trained on us.
"When she stops, she's gonna hit him. I don't want to get caught in that. She does have man hands." Ellie whispered loudly, Alice laughed lightly. Bella lifted Seth into my lap before standing and taking off, towards what I assumed was the bathroom.
"Don't worry. I'm right, she'll hit him. She's probably just going to find her bat." I frowned and took off after her. I heard sniffling from the women's bathroom. I tried the door knob and found that it was locked. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out to see a text from Jasper.
How's it going?
I sighed and typed back a quick reply, shifting Seth into my other arm.
Is it illegal to pick the lock on the women's bathroom door?
You gotta pee bro? I'm sure they'd give you a key.
Bella's locked herself in there- My message was interrupted by another one from him.
Although it is a vagina hospital. You might just have to find the nearest barbershop. Get yourself a manly pee.
Did you start doing drugs?
Naw bro. I get high on life.
Mhmm. I don't need to pee. Bella's in the bathroom.
Well if there's a chick you're trying to bust in on that is illegal. My phone buzzed once again.
Or extremely kinky ;)
I squinted at my friend's dumbass text before my phone was snatched from my hand. I looked up to see my wife's eyes scanning the short text before she let out a growl and threw it to the ground. A slap was delivered to my cheek.
"You're Secretary?" She asked in a high pitched voice that I hadn't heard since the last time she was honestly furious with me, which was when she found out I was rooming with Tanya. Or maybe it was yesterday morning when I burned her macaroni and cheese. "Who wants a moody whale when they could have 'Secretary Chicago'." She curled a lip at me and I groaned, my stomach sinking.
"Bella…" I whispered, she wasn't really angry about the secretary, Jasper's name was prominently displayed in the top. Something more was wrong with her. Namely the incident this morning.
Heels rounded the corner and a familiar voice reached our ears, I turned to see Esme Facinelli standing at the end of the hallway. She strutted up to us and laid a hand on both of our arms. Bella's eyes narrowed at the hand on my arm, despite the fact that Esme touched her as well.
"I've been looking everywhere for you two!" Esme said happily, Seth grinned at her and reached for a hug. That kid was smoother than his old man. "How are you, honey?" She asked before kissing his cheek sweetly.
"I'm ready." Bella snapped, before spinning on her heel and walking in front of us. Esme gestured to Bella and shrugged curiously.
I patted my stomach and Esme nodded in understanding. Once we reached the lobby Bella went straight through the door of Esme's office, making room for Esme to pass before cutting me off and pointing behind me.
"Sit." She stood on her tip toes and called for Alice who stood.
"Bella, really? Isn't this something I should be in here for? You're over reacting. I know you're pissed, but you'll get over it, I won't get this appointment back." I explained, she seemed settled in her resolve and my stomach dropped. "Bella…" My words sounded strangled as I choked them out. Alice laid a hand on my back and I sighed heavily before stepping aside to let her past me. I gulped as Bella stepped back and closed the door in my face. I turned and sat down into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs. I set Seth in the chair next to mine and Ellie took the opposite chair.
I leaned over and rested my elbows on my thigh, burying my hands in my hair. A small hand rubbed my back softly and I looked over to see Ellie smiling sadly at me.
"It'll be okay, Daddy." I pulled her close to me and hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her bouncy curls. Esme stepped out of the room before closing the door softly.
"What's wrong?" I asked at her sympathetic look, I shot up from my chair. My mind immediately jumped to the worst.
The baby.
"Calm down, Edward. Bella and the Baby are fine, alright?" I sighed and nodded. "Are you alright? That scene at the door was…" I nodded, "You know it's her unbalanced hormone levels causing her irrational thinking and everything. There were also traces of a drug in her system. Do you know what she's using?" She asked, my eyes widened and I shook my head. "Nothing for her jaw or anything? I know some women get stressed about their hyper active emotions and want to take something to soothe them but-" I cut her off.
"She took a Percocet this morning… but that's it." Esme visibly flinched.
"That isn't good for the Baby. I'd advise you to have her stay away from that." I nodded, "I don't think it has affected the baby but if she continues to use it there is a possibility that it could. Your wife is almost two months pregnant."
Ask us what we did on Thanksgiving.
"What should Bella take for the pain in her jaw?" Esme's eyes narrowed accusingly and I shied away from her.
"It depends. What happened to her jaw?" She lifted a judging eyebrow.
"What?" She looked down at my bruised hands and my eyes widened in horror. "What? You know I'd never… the fuck?" I asked in a flustered tone. "I didn't hit my wife."
Fuck me. If this day couldn't get any fucking worse.
"Mommy is the only one that hits." Ellie said softly from behind me.
Esme crouched down to her level, "Are you sure? We only want Mommy to be safe."
You think you know someone.
What the fuck?
"She's safe, Esme. How could you-?"
"I have to watch out for my patients Edward. Nothing personal." Of course we couldn't speak about the case, or our being agents with the doctor but this almost made me. This is fucked up.
"It is kind of personal! You think that I would hit my wife?" I tugged a hand through my hair and the secretary kept a sneaky eye on the confrontation.
The door to the office opened behind me, "No, he'd be too afraid of the safety of his testicles if he hit Bella. Ha, his pretty boy face too. She'd fuck him up. No question." Jasper slapped my back. "I got you."
Not helping.
"I was just asking. Her jaw is pretty badly torn up."
"Aren't you supposed to be checking out her cooch though?" I turned on Jasper.
"No seriously? Are you on drugs?" He smirked and shook his head.
"On my wife."
Mental image… Mental image.
I scrubbed at my eyes, "You know what I mean, man. I spend too much time around her."
I didn't know she was capable of being at two places at once. It seemed like she was always with us…
"I was concerned for her safety, thank you very much." Esme sniffed.
"So what happened to her jaw?"
"Nosey…" Ellie whispered from behind me.
I thought hard, "We were robbed this morning, at gunpoint they um…" I gulped getting a mental image of that ass on top of my wife with his gun down her throat. "Hit her in the face, and yeah… Knocked out a tooth."
"Why didn't you just say that first?" I shrugged.
"Will you let me in the exam room?"
"I don't know… Bella…." She bit her lip and I frowned. "Okay, fine." She conceded.
"Come here, bud!" Jasper held his hands out to Seth who reached for him. "I've got them." He slapped my back and I followed Esme in. Bella was on the table looking quite angry as I entered. Alice bit her lip.
"Jaspers out there." I muttered awkwardly, she stood quickly.
"I called him… I'm just gonna go…" Esme entered the room and Alice looped an arm through hers pulling her out again. Bella crossed her arms and pointed those wide brown eyes across the room, blatantly ignoring me. I pulled the chair that Alice had occupied up next to the chair she was in.
"Baby… look-"
"I'm sorry." She said just above a whisper as she stared fiercely at Esme's diploma and medical license. "I honestly can't do this anymore." Her gaze slowly reached mine. "Charlie's right." Her hand went to her stomach and she took a deep breath, while my heart skipped a beat.
"Bella, what happened this morning won't happen again." Her eyes filled with tears and she swiped angrily at them.
"The Christmas tree incident was close. This was too fucking close though. If one thing had been messed up this morning Ellie and Seth would be parentless. I can't do that to them. Or the rest of our family." My breath started to come in short bursts but she continued. "We have too much to lose. Kids, our house… our lives. It isn't worth it."
"Baby-"
"Let me finish." She said seriously, I tugged a hand through my hair and she grabbed my wrist interlocking our fingers. She stared into my eyes, "I think that you should drop the case, give it to Mike or Crowley. Because I'm not keeping the kids near all of this anymore. I didn't realize how… big this would all get."
"Wait." I held up a hand, "What the fuck do you mean you aren't keeping the kids near this anymore? Where are you going to take my kids?" I wasn't sure where this was going but I sure as hell didn't like it.
"We would stay with Alice or Emmett… I don't know." I broke her gaze and hunched over in my chair, dropping her hand.
"You're leaving me." I clarified, she gasped. I knew everything from this morning would come crashing down on us. All of the jealousy and cheating talk from the lobby was just our avoidance of the issue at hand.
"What? No! Oh god, Baby no." She reached for my hand and I pinched the bridge of my nose instead. "I'm just leaving until this is cleared up, I wish you would just drop the case though. I don't want to not be with you. I don't have a choice."
"I said everything would be okay, Bella." I said before scrubbing my hands over my face.
"And then our fucking house was…. Invaded." She put her hand under my chin and turned my head so that my eyes met her large ones. The held a look that I hadn't seen on Bella in years. True and utter fear. "There was a gun, in my mouth and pointed at my head Edward. There was a man outside of our daughter's bedroom with a gun. Things could have been so much worse. I thought I had lost you."
"What are you talking about?" I asked with a shake of my head.
"When the gun went off. I thought that was you. I thought someone had taken you from me from the kids." She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the headrest. "I can't lose you, Edward."
"So how the hell does leaving me prove this?" I asked with a slight edge to my tone. I understood where she was coming from. Seeing that gun in her mouth would scar me for as long as I live. I didn't however understand her leaving me to show that she couldn't live without me.
How the fuck did that make sense?
"I'm not leaving you." She huffed.
"Then what are you doing? Because leaving without me and taking my kids kind of sounds like leaving me." Even if it were probably the best decision in terms of the safety of my children and her.
"You're not listening." The door swung open and Esme cocked her hip.
"Look, I'm sorry about whatever is going on here. But I have another patient coming in soon. Bella, I'll see you in a month alright?" Bella nodded and swung her legs over the seat table thing before standing.
"Yeah uh sorry for monopolizing your office." Bella said politely before leaving the room, Esme gave me an accusing look as I exited after my wife. Bella stood behind Ellie helping her shrug on a coat as I helped Seth into his. Things were tense.
I didn't like it at all.
"Are you tired, pumpkin?" Bella asked Ellie right before she yawned and nodded. Like the two of us, Ellie had been up since the EMT's and police arrived, which was around three in the morning. Seth slowly started to nod off on my shoulder as we walked to the car and got the kids settled into booster and car seats alike.
They both fell asleep about five minutes into our hour long drive back home.
I gulped, "Did you want me to take you all somewhere?" I asked stoically, before turning onto the highway.
"Edward, stop."
"Stop what? You're already leaving. What's the point of me being unproductive?"
"Why are you being so…?" She narrowed her eyes and I shrugged.
"Well if I up and left you you'd feel pretty shitty wouldn't you?"
"You're being uncooperative!"
"Now how am I being uncooperative? I just offered to take you where ever you wanted to go and you got angry. Am I really the one being uncooperative?" I asked pointing a finger at my chest.
"You-" She huffed and turned up the heat before turning to check on the children, who were still sleeping. "You aren't making this easy." She murmured before shaking her head.
"Oh sorry did you want me to open the door for you too while you take my entire life with you? While you 'aren't leaving'?" My voice rose and she glared at me, obviously loosing her cool.
"Shut the fuck up! Edward, you're being a real dick about all of this."
"Oh please." I muttered and she slapped my arm.
"I'm serious! You have a choice too! You don't want to consider what you can do to make this work!" She said as she tried to speak over me.
"Shh…" Came a sleepy voice from behind us, my eyes met Ellie's in the rearview mirror and I frowned at the sad look that resonated before she drifted off again.
"I never said I wasn't going to do anything! You jumped to leaving-"
"I did not! You jackass, I told you-" I snorted as we attempted to speak over each other our voices getting louder with every word.
Her voice softened considerably, "Pull over." I rolled my eyes and took the next exit before parking in the empty parking lot of a Walmart. Bella turned and covered the kids up with a blanket that laid on the seat between them. She glared at me and stepped outside of the car. I checked to make sure the heat was on for the kids once more before stepping out as well.
"What?" I asked, leaning against my door as she rounded the side.
"What? You know exactly what! You don't have an idea about how hard this is for me-" She yelled.
"For you? This isn't exactly the best time of my life-"
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" She pushed my chest and I fucking let her. Because what was I going to do?
"Me? Things get tough and you want to pack up? That's not the Bella that I married."
"Shit changes." She glared.
"Obviously."
"You obviously don't understand how afraid, for all of us, I was this morning. Edward, I'm pregnant-"
"What's new?"
"Just shut the fuck up and listen! I can't do this while I'm pregnant. When it gets serious like this I have to watch out for my family." She stepped toward me, before a tremor rocked through her body and her teeth shivered. My hand immediately twitched towards her wanting to make her feel more comfortable as a natural reaction. "You all are my life."
"I understand just fine. But you all are my life as well and you're taking that from me."
"If this hurts you so much why don't you just drop the case?" She asked quietly, looking up at me, from underneath her lashes.
"I have an obligation to Riley."
"So you can't complain." She growled.
"Why the fuck is that?"
"Because your priorities are obviously your job and then the kids and I." She whispered before pulling her coat tighter around her. She had rendered me speechless.
I'm turning into my father.
I let out a sob like noise and sank down the car until I sat on the bumper. "You know you're my first priority, Bella."
"No…" She whimpered, sounding fucking broken. Not like my wife at all, I looked up to see her wiping tears rapidly. "Because if I wer-if we were we wouldn't be having this issue." She dropped to her knees in front of me, despite the fact that the ground was covered in snow, and leaned on me, resting her head against mine.
"I love you. But I would rather take care of all of this by myself for a while, than have our impending deaths looming over my head." She said sadly, cupping my jaw. "I-we don't have to leave, Edward. This is all on you."
I grabbed her hands and brought them to my mouth, "Don't… don't leave me." My words sounded strangled and I felt like shit. "I am not my father." I whispered before pressing a kiss to her knuckles. I stood and pulled her to her feet so that she didn't catch pneumonia.
"No, you aren't." Our eyes met and she wiped a lone tear from my cheek before pressing her lips to my own. Everything seemed alright, for those few seconds while we were together. Until she asked me the question I'd been dreading for the entire conversation.
"So what are you going to do?"
…TEC…
Hope you laughed and/or enjoyed.
Yeah it got kinda heavy on that last part of the chapter… They needed to have this conversation though.
I know that you guys don't like seeing them fight but… sometimes everything isn't perfect with marriages.
Okay *le sigh* what would you do if you were in Edwards situation?
I'm still tallying up the twins vs. one baby votes… And the girl vs. Boy votes and the names so I'll get back to that later!
Make sure you follow me on Twitter. You all will be the first to know about the Baby results!
I'm () Thatsnotsarcasm
Review! If we reach 655 I'll update tomorrow!