Here's the new chapter (finally)! I had time to finish it today because I can't go anywhere. There's a hurricane watch, everyone's evacuating, and all the stores and shops boarded up their windows and doors. We've never had a hurricane here (a minor one in 1999. It was more like a severe thunderstorm.), so I'm interested (and scared) to see what's gonna happen.

And we just had an earthquake – I think 4.2 in magnitude – a few days ago! (Another first.)

Anyway, I'm stuck inside all day today and tomorrow, so I had time to finally finish this chapter.

- JayBee

EPOV

I stared at my reflection in the mirror through half-lidded eyes as I brushed my teeth. Swollen eyes, two-day old beard, and crazy hair because I went to sleep with it wet last night. Attractive.

I looked toward the door when I heard the bed sheets rustle. I poked my head out of the bathroom to look at Bella, who was tossing and turning in bed, the sheets tangled around her body.

I walked over to the bed, toothbrush still in my mouth. "Bells." I poked her arm. "Bella."

"What?" She mumbled. She turned away from me and hugged my pillow to her chest.

"Come on. You have to go back to work today."

"I don't want to."

I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "I know," I sighed. "But you have to." She'd been sick for the past couple of days and was just getting over her cold. I felt bad for making her go to work, but she had to go.

Bella sat up with a huff. "I feel like crap."

"You'll feel better later in the day. Come on." I held her hand and dragged her into the bathroom. I turned on the shower and led her into it. I couldn't help but stare at her swollen lips. I dropped my gaze to her perfect breasts and slowly looked back up at her lips.

"Are you gonna kiss me?"

I looked up at her. "No."

"That sounded awful lot like a 'yes'."

"No. Take your shower and come downstairs." As much as I wanted to kiss her, I didn't want to get sick. And kissing would lead to other things, which would just make her even more tired.

She turned toward the spray with a sigh and wet her hair. I closed the glass door of the shower, quickly got dressed, and made my way downstairs to feed Con and make coffee.

Bella came down the stairs slowly as I was rinsing the coffee mug.

She sat at the kitchen table, sulking as she looked at the mug in front of her. "I don't want orange juice anymore! I don't even like it," she pouted.

I leaned against the counter and looked down at her. "I know, but you have to drink it. It'll help strengthen your immune system."

"I want coffee." She poured the juice into the sink and filled the mug with coffee.

I shook my head with a smirk as I watched her. "Stubborn."

"Shut up," she scowled.

"Cranky."

"No. That's you in the morning."

"I'm not cranky in the morning."

"You never talk to anyone."

"I talk to you."

"I don't count."

"You count." I kissed her forehead and threw my messenger bag over my shoulder. "I'll see you tonight."

I scratched Connor behind the ears before locking the door behind me. I thought about Bella as I walked to the bus stop in the cold weather. Why was she in such a sour mood? Maybe it was because she had a cold. Or maybe she just woke up in a bad mood. Maybe working on the wedding with our wedding planner from hell, a.k.a. Alice, was getting to her.

We'd been engaged for five months already, and we were getting married in two months. I couldn't believe how fast time flew by, and to be honest, I just wanted everything to be over with so we could go on our honeymoon to Abu Dhabi. Marrying Bella isn't going to change anything in our relationship. The only difference is going to be the legal papers we'll have.

I made my way onto the bus and sat in an empty seat. At the next stop, a tall brunette with long curly hair walked on and sat next to me. She smiled at me, and I smiled back with what I hope was a polite grin. I might have looked like the Big Bad Wolf preying on Little Red Riding Hood – I couldn't be sure.

I forced myself not to look down at her huge breasts, which were practically bursting out of the top of her shirt.

"Are you going into the city?"

"Yes." No need to say more. I wanted to keep the conversation short.

"Where?"

"Rockefeller." I looked into her blue eyes. I couldn't bring myself to look away.

"I'm on the same avenue, a few streets over. I don't mean to be too forward, but would you like to get coffee tonight after work? I can meet you at the Rockefeller Café after I get out of work."

"I'm..." Engaged. "...busy."

"Oh." Her face fell and she turned back to the front of the bus.

I put my ear buds in my ears and turned up the volume on my iPod. Mellow Metallica songs. Just what I need. I rested my forehead against the cool window and closed my eyes.

I know it's natural to be attracted to people besides Bella, but I still feel guilty for it.

When I opened my eyes a few stops later, the brunette was gone.

I grabbed my bag, got off the bus quickly, and got a bagel on the way to my office.

I went through my daily workload, same as always. I sent Bella a text during lunch, asking if she was feeling better. I wanted to call her, but she probably she wasn't on her lunch break yet.

She answered me an hour later, saying she felt okay, but something told me she was lying. I just wanted to go home and see her, be able to hold her.

A knock at my office door startled me out of my thoughts and I sat up. "Come in."

Tanya poked her head in before walking into the room. "Hey, Edward."

"Hey," I smiled.

She walked over and dropped a manila folder packed with papers on my desk. "These need to be done by Tuesday." She walked around the desk and leaned against it, her arms crossed as she looked down at me. "Why so glum?"

"I'm not." She raised an eyebrow. "Okay. I am. I don't know why. I think Bella's having a bad day and it's putting me down, too."

"Why is she having a bad day?"

I shrugged. "Maybe because she's getting over a cold. Or...okay. I'm gonna tell you something, but this information doesn't leave this room."

She held a hand up. "Scout's honor."

"Okay," I laughed. "We just recently started using condoms, and maybe she doesn't like the way it feels - I mean, that's not what I mean. Maybe she doesn't feel satisfied and she's getting frustrated...so it all caught up with her and now she's irritable?" Bella had to get off the pill because of breakthrough bleeding or something, where the lining of her uterus came off. Now, as much as neither one of us want to, we have to use condoms.

Tanya looked at me for two beats before laughing. "Edward, that makes no sense."

I let out a groan and hit my forehead against my desk with a thunk. "I'm an idiot," I said to my shoes.

"Be quiet. How many times have you told me not to say negative things about myself?"

"That was years ago. I've changed." I picked my head up and gave her a small smile. "I'm all for self-destruction now."

She rolled her eyes. "Trust me, Bella's satisfied."

"How do you know? You've never felt me bare."

"Has she said anything about it?"

"No."

"Then you have nothing to worry about. Personally, if I was Bella and it was bothering me, I wouldn't wait until I was frustrated to say something about it. She's just having an off day. We all have them."

"You're probably right. Thanks," I sighed. "Really."

"No problem."

She left and I grabbed the file in front of me, flipping through the pages filled with data and statistics.

Tanya had to be the best ex-girlfriend there was. She never made a situation awkward, and she understood that I would never leave Bella. And she was okay with that.

I stayed until I was able to finish half of the paperwork Tanya gave me, and was finally on my way home at 8:00.

By the time I sat down in the subway, I felt like I'd been running around all day. I laid my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, forcing myself not to go to sleep.

I opened my eyes a few minutes later to a man walking around the subway with a box full of different candies and chocolates, explaining to the passengers that he needed to raise money so he wouldn't have to live on the streets anymore. I learned to block out these sob stories at a young age, but I could really go for something sweet right now. An appetizer before dinner.

I bought a pack of Starburst for $1.00 and chewed each one slowly, savoring the flavor. I saved the pink ones for Bella and put my headphones in as I stepped out of the train, listening to Jay-Z on the way to the bus stop.

I couldn't wait to have dinner and lay down with Bella and Connor.

Maybe she wasn't having a bad day. She was probably over her cold by now and her mood had gotten better. Probably I was just imagining things.

I walked into the apartment and sniffed the air. A hint of tomato sauce. Yummy.

I rounded the corner and saw Bella on her hands and knees, cleaning tomato sauce off the ground while trying to keep Connor from licking the floor.

"Whoa..." I dropped my things and grabbed a bunch of paper towels before pulling Connor to the side by his collar. "Why aren't you listening to her?" He cocked his head to the side and stared up at me. "Go." I pointed to the living room and watched him walk away with his head down. He lay down on the carpet and I quickly got down on the floor to help Bella. "What happened?" I looked at the sauce splattered all over the counters and the broken glass jar by Bella.

"I was gonna make pasta and the jar slipped out of my hand," she said in a hoarse voice. She didn't look up at me, just continued cleaning up the mess.

"Are you still sick?" She sniffled and shook her head "Look at me." She shook her head again and I stopped wiping the floor. "Bella," I said sternly.

My heart dropped when she finally looked at me. Her hair stuck to her tear-stained cheeks, her face blotchy. She took in a shaky breath as I moved next to her and brushed her hair out of the way. "What happened?"

She shrugged. "Nothing."

I pulled her into my lap, her back against my chest, and kissed just above her ear. "Tell me." I put my hand on her forehead. At least she didn't feel warm.

"I hate this day and I hate my job. And I hate the shower in our room, I hate my car, and I hate this stupid sauce."

I hugged her tight and didn't ask for any details. She had to be having a bad day. She loved all of those things - even her rusty old car. "You know, if you hate that car so much, we can get you a new one."

She shook her head and turned to her side to bury her face in my shirt. It broke my heart even more that I couldn't so much as pull a small smile from her.

"You want to go out to the balcony and get some fresh air?"

"No."

"We can watch a movie. Any movie you want."

"I don't want to watch anything."

"I'll finish cleaning up and make the pasta. Go upstairs and lay down for a bit."

We stood up and she made her way to the stairs. "I don't feel like eating anything."

"You have to eat something."

I continued cleaning as she went upstairs. I wiped down the counters and fridge before turning to the pot full of water on the stove. I dumped the water into the sink and washed the pot. If Bella didn't want to eat pasta, she wasn't going to, no matter how much I begged.

I grabbed a half-eaten box of Oreos, a pint of Ben & Jerry's Baked Alaska, and filled two glasses with milk. Con came over and I gave him a couple of Oreos before putting everything on a tray and going upstairs.

I pushed the bedroom door closed with my foot and put the tray in front of Bella on the bed. I changed into sweats and didn't bother putting on a shirt. I took my seat on the other side of the tray and was glad to see Bella eating the Oreos.

I looked up at her with a smirk as she wiped her nose. "What, no ice cream?"

Bella looked at me as she dipped her Oreo in the ice cream and shoved it in her mouth.

"That's my girl." I leaned forward and kissed her nose.

She handed me three pieces of Starburst and kept two for herself. I shook my head and pushed her hand back. "They're for you."

I ate two-thirds of the Oreos and Bella ate the rest. At this point, I was glad she was eating something. I didn't care what it was that she ate.

I brought the tray downstairs when we were done and came back upstairs to find the bedroom lights dimmed and Bella sitting on the bed with her back to the door.

"Please tell me you're not crying," I whispered as I made my way over to her.

"I'm not."

I sat in front of her and was relieved to see that she was telling the truth. "Come here." I pulled her into my lap and kissed the top of her head before breathing in the clean scent of her shampoo. We sat in silence for a few minutes, and her evident sorrow was eating me up inside. "Do you want to talk about it now?"

"No." I let out a sigh and looked down in her lap where she was playing with my fingers. "I'm sorry."

"Why? You don't have to be."

"Because if you were having a bad day, you'd tell me about it."

I shrugged. I didn't know what to say. I WOULD vent to her if I was having a bad day. I didn't know why she was holding back, but I didn't want to push her too much.

"It hurts you that I'm not telling you."

"No," I whispered.

"Edward." She moved around until she was straddling my waist with her legs wrapped around my hips.

I put my hands at the small of her back and let out a small sigh. "Yeah. It makes me sad. I thought by now you'd trust me enough to tell me everything without any problems."

"You don't really believe that, do you?" I shrugged. What should I have believed? How could it be possible that Bella still felt uncomfortable talking to me about things? She put her hands on my hips and rubbed small circles with her thumbs, making my skin burn under her touch. "There's no one I trust more than I trust you." I couldn't even count how many times she'd told me that. Maybe she didn't have a problem with trusting me. Maybe I was the one with the problem. I always tried my hardest to be completely honest with Bella, but I felt like sometimes she held things from me because she didn't trust me. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like an idiot. She was my best friend, we'd been engaged for five months, and we were getting married in two months. Of course she trusted me.

"I just don't want to think about today. It makes me even sadder when I talk about it."

"Who did you talk about it to?"

"Caius."

"Mm." I felt a twinge of jealousy and quickly pushed the feeling aside.

She held my gaze for a few seconds and I thought she was going to speak before she looked away. I put a finger on her cheek and pushed her head back to the front. My heart plunged into my stomach at the pained expression on her face. "One of my patients committed suicide today."

I clenched my jaw to keep my mouth from hanging open. "What?"

"Yeah. Caius was there when a nurse told me."

"Which patient?"

"The old man with one leg shorter than the other."

I wrapped my arms around and hugged her tight to my chest, resting my cheek on the top of her head. "I'm sorry, baby."

"So am I. And then a bunch of other stuff happened and...I don't know." She pulled her legs in and curled into a ball in my lap. "I just want this day to end," she said in a quivering voice.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

"You've already made my day better. The only thing I looked forward to today was seeing you."

"There has to be something I could do to make you happier."

"Just hold me."

I could do that.

If Bella ever suspected that a patient was in danger of himself or someone else, she had to report it. Obviously she was surprised that this suicide had occurred. I prayed to God that she didn't blame herself for not being able to stop it.

I ran a hand through her hair as I looked into her eyes, searching for any signs of discomfort.

"Why do you want to marry me?"

I pulled back to get a better look at her. "What?" She stayed quiet, questioning me with her eyes. "Because I love you, Bella. More than I could even begin to explain."

"Why?" She asked with a small smile.

I smiled back, glad to see her happy, even for a second. "Because not only did you offer me some of your Starburst, but you offered me three pieces instead of keeping the three pieces for yourself."

She cocked an eyebrow and I made a silly face before laying her down on the bed. I lay down beside her, draped an arm over her waist, and brought a hand up to play with my hair.

I closed my eyes, reveling in the comforting feel of Bella under my arm and my fingers twirling my hair.

"Edward, the lights," Bella murmured.

"Too lazy." Besides, they were dimmed so they weren't a bother. "Good night, Bells."

"Good night, baby." She kissed my cheek before taking my hand out of my hair.

"Stop..." I swatted her hand away and continued playing with my hair.

"Edward," she sighed.

I opened my eyes. "If it bothers you that much, don't look." We kept quiet for a few seconds and I ruffled her hair before twirling my own hair around my fingers again.

"Edward...my hair." She mumbled as she combed her fingers through her hair

I smiled and closed my eyes. "Sorry. I forgot you had somewhere important to be."

I know it bothers Bella that I have to play with my hair to go to sleep, but it doesn't hurt anybody, and it puts me at ease.

I'm pretty sure she thinks it's childish, but at least I didn't pick up thumb-sucking.

I awoke to Bella's warm body pressed up against mine, and smiled with relief.

It was Saturday. No work.

I turned my head to look out the window and took in the sound of the rain hitting the glass.

I let out a loud yawn and looked down at Bella when I felt her stir. She nuzzled my neck before kissing just behind my ear. She licked the outer shell of my ear and blew on the same spot, sending air into my ear as well. I shivered as I felt my stomach heat up and a jolt of electricity coursing through my entire body.

I gasped as Bella palmed my hard cock through my boxer-briefs.

I grabbed her hips, turned her over onto her back, and laid my body down on top of hers. I had one hand on her hip and the other in her hair as I nibbled and nipped at her neck.

She grabbed my hair as I pushed the front of my boxers down far enough for my cock to spring forward. I pulled the crotch of Bella's panties to the side and entered her hastily, eliciting gasps from both of us.

Bella mewled and moaned in my ear with each thrust, spurring me on. The feel of her soft panties on the side of my cock felt fucking amazing mixed with the feel of the tight grip her pussy had on it.

She wrapped her legs around my hips as I pushed in and out of her with vigor, the heat in my stomach making its way down south.

"Bells…" I panted, on the brink of my release.

I felt her clench around my dick and knew she was close as well.

I rested my forehead against hers, kissing her between thrusts.

She thrust her hips up to meet mine and I let out a strangled cry as I dropped my head to the crook of her neck.

"Fuck…me…ungh…Edward!"

I turned my head in time to see Bella's eyebrows furrow as she came around me, her pelvic muscles clenching and unclenching, literally sucking the cum out of my cock.

"Oh, fuck…yeah…unghhhhh!" I let out a series of grunts as I released into her. I sobered up when she pushed at my chest, subsequently making me slip out of her. My last spurts of cum landed on her stomach, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Get off, get off!" Her eyes were wide with panic as she pushed me again.

"What the hell are you doing?" I got off the bed and looked at her incredulously. What the fuck?

"We didn't use a condom!"

I stared at her, dumbfounded. I blinked twice, not able to do much else. "Oh."

Shit.

This story is nowhere near over yet. There's something I'm building up to, so please just be patient! I know the chapters aren't so great right now, but I'm trying to move the story along quickly, wrap everything up, and still build up to what I'm building up to (if that made any sense).

Anyway, if I was Bella, I would've probably shoved Edward completely off the bed instead of pushing at his chest…but that's just me.

Do you think Bella's pregnant? What do you think they're going to do?

Please review!