Stephenie has it all. I just decided to play with her characters and add some of mine.
Beta'd by TeamAllTwilight.
This is exactly where we are in the story. Right before chapter 76.
It was late again when I arrived home. No matter how many times I promised Bella I'd make it back before seven, I always managed to arrive back after nine.
After unlocking the front door, I dumped the keys in the stupid ball we had fought about, kicked my Pumas off and went to the kitchen to make a sandwich. Like always, I found a container with a note in the fridge. I wolfed it down standing, all the while thinking of the times Dad had told me it wasn't a good idea to eat while standing. I washed the container and fork. Washing the dishes was a trait I had found really enjoyable. Who knew I'd like that? Bella was more than happy to let me wash them.
I went upstairs and slowly opened the door of our bedroom. To my surprise, she was awake, reading a sports magazine. Basketball Times. It was the newest issues, the one that had my stupid interview.
"Hi!" She grinned, resting the magazine on her swollen stomach and looking all radiant.
I walked to the bed and sat next to her. Like always, I kissed her stomach then her lips. "Hey, sweetie."
"It's ten."
"I arrived fifteen minutes ago. Hungry," I explained, sheepishly.
She chuckled, rising the magazine and giving me a raised eyebrow. "What do you like to do in your spare time?" she read.
Oh, no! I cringed, waiting for whatever she had for me after my statement.
"I recently found out that I love washing the dishes. It's almost better than sex." She put the magazine down and her brown eyes widened.
I focused on rubbing one hand over her stomach. I had to sweet talk my way out of that one. "She was asking the most stupid things ever." I shrugged.
"Washing the dishes is better than sex?" she asked incredulously. "Wait until Emmett reads this."
"Oh, fuck," I groaned. "Do you want to take a vacation? How does Antarctica sound?"
She laughed, throwing her head back. "I'm afraid I can't fly." She pointed to her middle section. "You took care of that."
"Sure I did. It was a matter of time." I grinned, cupping her cheeks and giving her a sound kiss. "How was your day?"
"It was hectic," Bella answered, leaning back against the headboard. "Remind me again why did I choose to work in the insurance sector."
"Because you like it?"
"I guess it's time for a change," she mumbled, looking up at me.
To my surprise, I saw tears in her eyes. Stupid hormones. "What did he do now?" I asked, gathering her in my arms.
"Remember how we laughed when we watched Look Who's Talking and how Molly was happy that she got a pink card only not to be soon after that?"
"Yeah?" I rummaged through my brain to remember the scene and came up empty. There was something about a pink card, but what was it about? "What happened?"
"Ken left a letter on my desk while I was meeting with my last client," Bella whispered. "And I had never seen that kind of letter before. I was talking with Kim and it was exactly like in that stupid movie! I was 'Look, I haven't gotten this pattern before!' and she looked scared and…when I opened it…I kind of fainted…"
"Whoa! Are you okay? What did it say?" I asked worried.
"Yeah, we're okay." She smiled tightly. "You don't remember the scene, do you? You'd have guessed by now."
I shook my head, worried of what she was about to tell me.
"He fired me."
"That son of a bitch!" I yelled. "How dare he!"
"It's for the best," Bella murmured, stroking my hair. "I'll start looking for something else once he's born."
"She," I corrected automatically.
Bella rolled her eyes. "If I win that bet, I'm going to be five hundred dollars richer, you realize?"
"That much? Who else betrayed me now?" I moaned, pouting. It was four hundred yesterday.
There was a bet running in our family, fifty bucks it's a girl or a boy. Bella's team was winning so far.
"Your mom and after I left from work, I bumped into Sylvia."
"Oh, really?" I asked surprised. We hadn't seen her in some months. Shockingly, Bella had become tight friends with her once she got over the fact that Sylvia had been my first. "Wait a second!" I shouted, realizing what she had said at first. "Mom is Team Bella? Since when?"
"Since…nine AM this morning." She shot me a huge smile.
"What did you bribe her with?"
"I told her she could do whatever she wanted for the baby shower."
I groaned, falling on the bed. "Fuck my life."
"Oh, come on. You have Emmett on your side," Bella teased me.
"And that's only because he has two boys and still hoping to have a girl."
"Maybe. And there's Bob too."
"Bob will never betray me," I told her.
"Knock on wood."
I grabbed her foot since it was so close to me and started tickling her sole. She shrieked and squirmed under my fingers.
"Edward! Can't breathe!"
I doubled my effort. That earned me the magazine in my head. Fuck, that hurt. I pushed it away, only to find my face grinning up at me.
"Nice shot," Bella complimented, tucking her feet under her.
"Thanks." I grinned. "My first cover."
"Second."
"First alone," I rectified.
"Of course. The team had ruined your shot last time." She laughed.
"That they did."
I went to shower and when I returned to Bella, I found her awake waiting for me. It was so rare lately. I jumped into the bed under the cover and hugged her to my chest.
"So you bumped into Sylvia?" I asked, kissing down her neck.
"Mhmm, yes. We grabbed a small coffee."
"Really? You can't drink coffee."
"It was a small cup and I barely drank half of it. You're over reacting." Bella sighed, annoyed by the same argument, but I worried about them. "Sylvia told me that she almost fell for a patient."
"What does almost mean?" I asked, going back to nuzzling her neck.
"She spent more time than normal with him and they kind of kissed the night before he was to be released," she explained.
"Kind of?"
"Stop repeating after me! The sad part is that he had a cardiac arrest during the night. I never saw her so…negligent with herself."
"What do you mean?" I asked, wondering what had been in her head to get involved with a patient.
"She always wears make up, but she wasn't wearing any today. Her scrubs were rumpled and her hair was a mess. I mean, she's almost like Alice about fashion and she wore scrubs, running shoes and a trench coat." Bella glanced up at me. "She didn't even recognize me at first!"
"I don't want to sound mean, but she knew that getting involved with a patient was against the rules," I announced to her.
"Edward, you can't help who you fall in love with!"
"But you have to be a little rational about it."
"Love isn't rational. If it was, we wouldn't be here. Do I have to remind you how I despised you?" she retorted.
"You said Rose was right about the pent up sexual frustration!" I protested.
"Maybe." Bella shrugged. "But still, we disliked each other and then, suddenly, somehow, we were together. I don't even know how it happened." She laughed, twining our fingers. "One minute I was glad Jared knocked your jaw and the next second, I was worried and I wanted you to feel better hence the ice reference."
I smirked, leaning down to kiss her. "I remember that night. It was the 'best' night ever. I got caught by an angry boyfriend, who nearly unlocked my jaw then you started making fun of me and then out of nowhere, you were pressing ice against my jaw."
She smiled, pressing her lips against mine, moving them slowly. We continued to just kiss for what seemed like hours. I would never get enough of her soft lips against mine.
Her small hands wrapped in my hair as she straddled me. My hands went to her waist. I always got nervous when she tried anything. Maybe I was too paranoid, but I was afraid the baby might get hurt somehow.
"You're doing it again," Bella murmured against my lips.
"What?" I whispered, my thumbs rubbing her hips.
"You froze when I moved on top of you," she groaned, sitting down on my lap.
I opened my mouth to defend my involuntary action when she started grinding. All that left my mouth was an embarrassingly loud moan.
"Don't say no," Bella pleaded me, bracing herself on my shoulders.
"Uh, I just…oh, God! Maybe…Fuck! Bellaaa, holy fuck!" I couldn't talk. The little vixen knew what she was doing to me.
"I think," she whispered seductively, taking my shirt off. "Toto is quite ready for some loving."
I should have never admitted that my dick was named Toto. She teased me about it every chance she got. I just had to pray our kid would never watch the Wizard of Oz.
"Toto is always up for you, Bella," I told her, bringing her head to me.
Her small hands went to my pajama bottoms to take them off when I heard the unmistakable sounds of paws scratching against our bedroom door. Bella stopped fighting with my pants and started laughing.
"Cockblocked by the dog."
"You should have walked him," I muttered, wanting nothing more than to sink in her warmth.
"If I'm awake when you come back…we can continue."
"You won't be awake, you know that." I moved her on her side of bed and swung my legs off the bed. "Sleep."
"If you're really good, I might join you in your morning shower," Bella whispered.
I grabbed my t-shirt and left the room. I laughed when the dog jumped and started barking.
"Hey, little guy. Come on." I motioned to him to follow me down the stairs.
About seven weeks ago, while watching TV, Bella saw a commercial about adopting puppies. I immediately said no knowing we were already way too busy. The baby was due in three months then, we still had to paint the room and find the blasted crib – we always ended up fighting about it and left empty handed and in tears in Bella's case. I had to grovel for a few hours until I was forgiven.
Bella insisted we should go and at least see the puppies on one weekend. I was sure we'd leave with one. I couldn't say no to her and frankly, I loved dogs. I missed Spot and his silliness more than I thought possible.
So the Sunday following the commercial Bella had seen, we went to the local dog adoption center. I had pleaded her from the beginning to not even look at the dogs that were going to be put to sleep. She had agreed. After a few hours of looking around, I started to breathe in relief. We hadn't found anything until Bella grabbed my hand and dragged me somewhere.
It was a big dog that looked like a Husky but wasn't quite a Husky. I read on the description and it said Timber Wolf. The guy that was with us, was probably happy we finally stopped somewhere. But then he told us that dog was spoken for and he was quite violent. I didn't understand what that meant until I had reached to scratch him. He had launched at the bars and I jumped back, startled.
That was the last dog we had seen and we decided it wasn't our lucky day. The guy guiding us started leading the way to the door when I saw the smallest dog ever.
"Wait a second," I had yelled after him.
The cage was eye level with me and I peeked inside. He was small and a light brown, sleeping soundly in the back of the cage. I glanced at the description and it said English Mastiff, aprox. 7 lbs, 2 weeks old. Male.
"Oh, I'm sorry, that one is in such a bad condition that-"
I didn't allow the guy to finish. "We'll take him."
Bella looked at me shocked. I pleaded her with my eyes. Yeah, I was against it about five days ago and then I was pleading to get a dog. A dog that was going to be put to sleep. I went against my own rules. When she saw him, she fell in love too.
After too much paperwork for such a small puppy and buying supplies, we were on our way back home. The sleepless nights were like a pre-show for when the baby would arrive. We took turns feeding Cody as Bella named him. When I questioned the weird name, she gave me her book with baby names. I refrained from saying she was insane. Cody meant helper, but until now we had been the one helping him. I couldn't wait until it was his turn to help. If it ever happened.
After many weeks, he finally understood that when he had to potty he should bark or scratch at our door and we'd take him out. The past week had been a miracle of having clean socks. I almost missed the pee puddles.
Grabbing the leash from the hanger, I fastened it to his leather collar and opened the front door, stepping outside. He started barking and tugged me toward his tree.
Once he was done, I tried stirring him back inside, but he wanted to walk some more.
"Oh, come on, I'm tired, Cody," I protested.
His small tail waggled as he kept pulling me down the street. Such force for such a young animal. At eight weeks old, he was weighing thirty pounds. When we had called home and told my parents what we had done, Mom's reaction was a string of exclamations about how big he'd get, how much food he'd eat, that we should have thought before buying a dog and blah blah blah. I really didn't care anymore. I used to worry, but I had a good salary and I really loved the little guy. Dad was proud I had saved Cody's life.
After almost two years at the Bulls and with the years of experience from high school and college, I had a salary of $500,000. It could have been more, but they still thought of me as a rookie. It was perfect for what we needed, though.
"Hi, neighbor!"
I focused to my left from where the voice came and saw Billy, my nightly companion. He was still in high school if I remembered correctly and his parents had brought him a dog on one condition: he was to walk it whenever.
"Hey, Billy!" I greeted, gripping Cody's leash tighter. He wasn't good around other dogs. They frightened him for some reason.
As Billy fell in step with me, Cody cowered into my ankle as Daisy came around me and started sniffing his ass. She was older, though I had no idea how much. I never asked.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I was," he grumbled. "Until she had to potty."
"Yeah, me too. Long day." I yawned.
"Starting up soon?" he asked, grinning. He was probably the only person to talk normally to me, knowing my career. When he realized his neighbor was playing for the Bulls, he told me it was cool. His mother was an entirely different problem and I'd be surprised if Bella didn't slap her one day. It's not like I am pro violence but she was downright hysteric. Even poor Billy kept apologizing for her.
He told me about school and I told him about the most pressing matter at that time: the crib. He laughed at me. When we arrived in front of his house after having walked to the boulevard and back, I bid him goodnight and went home.
Cody disappeared in the kitchen and I heard him lapping water as I went to bed. I fell face first on the bed and was asleep the next second.
Like a clock, I was awake at six even though I was tired. I never believed Dad when he told me my body would get used to waking up at some hour. After stretching and yawning a few times, I went to the kitchen.
I found a mug of steaming coffee on the table along with an omelet and the paper. It was then that I remembered Bella was going to be home alone since that motherfucker fired her. But where was she?
Just then, the back door opened and Cody rushed inside coming like a bullet to me. I picked him up and he licked at my face. I should start thinking about conserving water in the morning.
"Good morning," Bella greeted me, sitting on a chair.
"Hey," I said, dropping the puppy that was still attempting to lick me clean. "Thanks." I gestured to the food.
"Might as well get used to it. I'm going to spoil you," she said softly, taking my hand over the table.
I rubbed my thumb over her wrist before bringing it to my lips and kissing it. "I love you."
"Love you too," Bella told me smiling. "Can you try and be home by six? We have guests."
"I remember. I'll do my best," I promised, cutting the omelet and shoving it in my mouth. I loved her cooking. It was addicting. "Mhmm." I swallowed two more bites. "This is amazing as always."
She laughed, squeezing my fingers. "Lucky you sweat it out at practice or your couch would kill me."
"He'd never do such thing!" I said seriously, polishing my plate. "As long as I don't get caught up in a jam, I'll be home at six."
"Okay, but be late on your back. Last time you left me alone with Liz, I saw some very incriminating baby photos."
My hand froze on the cup of coffee. I really had to get home early. Shuddering at the horrid memory, I grabbed the cup.
"I'll see you in a few hours." I went to her side and kissed her head. "Take care of yourself."
"I will. I think I'll laze around. First day of freedom in a long time."
She didn't look upset of getting fired, but she was always good at hiding her office problems.
*RA*
That evening, I returned before six because I made sure to leave the arena before rush hour. But I was home too late. Liz and Ed were already there.
Since they didn't have a car, I had no idea they were inside until I opened the door and saw Ed coming out of the room downstairs.
"Great," I mumbled. I wished Liz wasn't showing Bella compromising pictures of me as a baby.
"Hey, kid!" Ed greeted me as I dropped my duffel bag.
"Hi," I mumbled.
"Don't look so excited to see me."
I shot him a small smile. "I'm just hoping there isn't a photo album around."
"She forgot it," he told me, winking. "I made sure."
"Thanks." I nodded. "It was horrible enough last time. I mean, Bella kept bursting in spontaneous giggles for over a week."
"Did I hear right? You're home early?" Bella's voice trailed from the living room. Then she came in the hallway and hugged me, kissing me. "Did they kick you out?"
"I tried to beat them here. No such luck, but I'm glad…there are no pictures involved this time."
"No pictures, but Liz was telling me some interesting adventures of yours," Bella giggled, putting her hand on my chest.
"Is that so, Liz?" I asked loudly, stirring Bella back to the living room.
"Oh, of course." Liz nodded, smiling at me. "Remember when Ed lost you?"
"I didn't lose him, for the last time!" Ed shouted.
"Lost me?" I asked, looking between them. I didn't know that part. It wasn't a secret they didn't really like me in the beginning; if I was honest, in the past few years we really started bonding. But lose me?
"Oh, she was just starting to tell me about that," Bella told me, sitting me on the couch.
"So?" I asked, sagging on the couch and yawning. "You lost me?" I raised an eyebrow at Ed.
"You were momentarily misplaced."
I snorted, turning my attention to Liz, hoping she'd be more explicit. She rolled her eyes at her husband.
"Do you remember your fifth birthday anniversary?" she asked softly.
"Vaguely." I shrugged. It was during that time, the time…I realized they didn't want me…when they were hurting me. The beginning of hell.
"We went to the park and I went to buy something to feed the ducks. Before I knew, Edward, I mean Ed, was behind me giving me money since I had left without any."
"And that's when you realized I wasn't around?" I asked, chuckling.
"No," Liz laughed. "Ed ended up coming with me to buy corn flakes and only when we returned, I asked him about you. I can't believe I had forgotten about you." She shook her head.
"I told her that you were watching the ducks," Ed continued amused.
"Of course, you weren't there watching the ducks when we arrived at the spot you had been. And Ed kept telling me you were just misplaced. My palm was itching to go around his neck and twist it, but I was to blame just as much as him."
"How did you find him?" Bella asked, engrossed in the story.
As they talked, I remembered vaguely of that day and how one second I was watching the ducks with them and then I was alone. I must have panicked and wandered away.
"As we started walking around and calling his name, we finally found him on a bench a few feet away, dangling his little legs over the edge and scrubbing at the dirt with a long twig," Liz explained, bringing me to her side. "I hadn't been so scared before in my life."
It was all clear in that second. I remembered everything and waited for her to continue, but she never did. She probably loved Bella too much to tell her what had happened next. I remembered how Ed had grasped my elbow and dragged me home where he broke that twig on my ass, but Liz was trying to stop him, I remembered her pleas from the other side of the door.
I tired not to give away that I remembered what had happened next and sighed, getting up. "I'm going to shower. Try not to embarrass me further," I mumbled.
When I finished my shower, I was surprised to find Ed on our bed, waiting for me. I went to the closet, wondering what he wanted.
"Edward," he started.
"Yeah?" I asked, grabbing a clean shirt, glad I had taken boxers with me in the bathroom.
When he didn't answer, I turned around to see what he wanted and almost knocked into him since he was standing behind me.
"I just wanted…to apologize again. I know you remember that day. I saw it in your eyes."
I sighed, looking away. "I know you're sorry," I told him, still not meeting his eyes. "But that won't erase the past and can we just remember the good times? Like Liz just did? She extracted the nice part. Please," I begged.
"Anything you want, Edward. I was telling Liz before we left today that…our happiness depends on you right now. The second you decide you can't really be around us…or that you don't want your baby around us…you have the power to throw us to the curb." His black eyes were full of unshed tears and his voice trembled.
"I wouldn't do that!" I exclaimed. "I promise. Look at me. I won't hurt you like that. I know this means a lot to both of you," I promised, searching his eyes.
"We don't deserve it. I don't deserve it, kid. I was such a monster."
I choked up and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him for the second time in my life. Living so close to them, I had become closer to them than ever.
The much awaited outtake...there's more to come. I promise.
I decided to post this today to celebrate the big day of FINALLY watching Cosmopolis trailer. Eric is everything I expected him to be.