Disclaimer: The characters of Twilight are owned by Stephenie Meyer. The original characters, content and ideas of this story are mine.

A/N: I know a lot of you are devastated by the news of "Robsten" and to be honest I hated to hear it too, because I thought they were a great couple. But come on people let's gets serious here, Bella and Edward are characters from a book that were played in a movie, nothing more! You have to learn to separate the characters from the real people. Kristen is young and sometimes when we are young as humans we make mistakes and use poor judgment, unfortunately her mistake is on the front of every damn magazine for the world to see. I hope Rob and Kristen can work things out, but if not I wish them all the best, and look at it this way Twilight fans, she certainly gave us new stories we can write about "infidelity and forgiveness"! With that being said, I hope those with an open enough mind can still enjoy the Bella and Edward stories, because even if they had never dated in real life they are still awesome on screen together!

Chapter 24

More Distractions

BPOV

"Tanya? What are you doing here?" Edward said looking shocked to see her at his door and if I was being honest she looked as beautiful as ever.

"I came to see you darling, is this a bad time? Oh I see your friend is back, hello Bella."

Darling! Friend! This chick seriously does not know who she is messing with.

"Um…"

Um? What the hell does he mean um? Tell her that I am now your girlfriend and hell yes this is a terrible time!

"Um… well Bella and I were just leaving to take care of some business."

"Oh pity, I was coming to take you to breakfast. Well I guess you can call me when you are done, see you later darling." She said kissing him on his cheek and walking away.

Edward just stood there and when I heard the elevator door close I pulled him back in the apartment by his arm and slammed his front door. Crossing my arms over my chest I glared at Edward and judging by the way his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, he was not ready for my wrath.

"So, what was that?" I asked not sure if I really wanted to know the answer.

"I don't know Bella…I…I guess I just froze up."

"You think? But what you did is not my concern, Edward, however why you did it is!" I said fighting tears.

"I just didn't expect to… I wasn't prepared to see Tanya…"

"While you were with me." I said flatly cutting him off. Edward stared at me with an apologetic expression and my heart broke and with that came the tears that I could no longer control. "Do you still love her?"

"I care about her." He said still looking at me

"That was not my question Edward!"

"Bella… I was in a relationship with Tanya for a while and I would be lying if I said there is nothing there at all, but…"

I raised my hand to silence him and squaring my shoulders I looked him right in the eyes.

"I will go to the police department, by myself and then I will come back later to get some of my things…"

"Bella, wait no don't leave… I don't want you to leave, let's talk about this."

"Go ahead Edward, talk."

"First of all, I am not letting you go to the police department alone. Second of all, this is not how we handle things Bella, me and you, we talk. Third and most important, Bella yes, I do still care for Tanya and I probably will always care for her, but that's it nothing more, but you, I am in love with you.

Edward was now holding my face between his hands wiping away my tears and placing kisses all over my face starting at my forehead and working his way down to my lips.

"When I wake up in the morning it's your face I want to see, (kiss), and when I lay down at night it's you I want to hold, (kiss), and when I need someone to talk to, it's your voice I want to hear, (kiss, kiss) and when I think of my future, I can't imagine it without you by my side."

Edward crushed his lips to mine with so much passion that I couldn't have resisted if I wanted to. He pushed me back against the door and continued to kiss me like his life depended on it with one hand on the back of my neck and the other arm wrapped around my waist holding me in place.

"I love you Bella and I want to marry you." He whispered while placing kisses down my neck and I froze.

"What did you say?" I asked quietly wondering if I had heard him right.

Edward stopped kissing me and looked into my eyes.

"I said, I want to marry you."

Not knowing what to say I just stared dumbfounded at Edward which seemed to have made him nervous.

"I mean… it doesn't have to be right now… I was just thinking that if I was going to get married…I …um would want it to be to you, but I understand if you are not ready or if you don't feel the same as…"

I cut off his rambling by planting my lips back on his hoping to show him he did not have to doubt my love for him and when I pulled away, Edward's eyes were burning with lust, desire and love.

"I love you too Edward, I just didn't expect to hear you say that."

"What, that I want to marry you? I don't know why not, but you really don't see yourself clearly do you?"

I stood there silently trying to process what he was telling me and trying to convince my heart his words were real.

"I guess we should get down to the police station." I said trying to break the sudden awkwardness.

"Yeah you're right, I want this creep identified and locked up as soon as possible."

EPOV

After leaving the police department Bella forced me to go with her to meet Jacob for a late breakfast against my better judgment, but it turns out he wasn't that bad. Bella had invited Jessica to go with us after calling her about the news involving James and to my amusement she and Jacob seemed to have had an eye for each other. He seemed genuinely happy for Bella and I, to my surprise, and I decided that for Bella's sake I would at least try to be cordial to him. Unfortunately Lauren did not get caught with James and there was no evidence of her being involved, however like James, she had given her two week notice to the hospital and ended up leaving anyway. Which brings us to the present where I am standing at my stove fixing Bella some chicken noodle soup to eat before she falls back to sleep. It has been five weeks since Jacob came to visit and Bella and I have been working on getting her bookstore together nonstop. My family, along with Jasper, Rose and Emmet has all taken turns flying here to help get things in order. Bella has caught a bug that has had her in the bed for the past eight days and my guess would be her immune system was compromised from lack of sleep and over exertion.

"Here you go, love" I said sitting the tray with her soup, crackers and orange juice on the bed. She looked weak and fragile and paler than usual, with an awful cough.

"Thank you" she said in a raspy voice as she sat up in my bed. Bella had already moved into her own apartment and just as I predicted it is a total waste of money, considering we may sleep there once a week. After Tanya showed up at my door, I called her and politely let her know that I was not single as she may have believed and that it would be inappropriate for me to go out with her anywhere. She didn't like it one bit, but hey this was the decision she made so live with it, because I have clearly moved on. My thoughts were interrupted when Bella abruptly threw the covers back and dashed to my bathroom holding her mouth. I ran behind her and as she kneeled in front of the toilet vomiting her guts out I held her hair for her and applied a cold towel to the back of her neck. When she was done I flushed the toilet and helped her back to the bed.

"Bella, I have a friend at the hospital who's an internal medicine doctor and I think I may want you to see her tomorrow, just to make sure this is not an infection that will need antibiotics."

"Okay" she said sounding even weaker and closing her eyes to go back to sleep. She had only eaten two tablespoons of her soup and she did not touch the crackers or the orange juice which worried me. I checked in on her from time to time and continued to check her temperature every two hours which at one point had reached one hundred and two degrees. After waking her up to give her Tylenol I called into the hospital to let them know I was bringing her to the emergency room.

"Hi Dr. Cullen, you can put her in exam room four and I will send a doctor in as soon as possible"

"Thanks Rena, I appreciate it." I said to the ER nurse

I placed Bella on the bed as gently as I could and I noticed while carrying her she felt lighter than usual, as if she had lost a few pounds. She looked even more pale under the fluorescent lights at the hospital and so weak and frail. I placed a kiss on her forehead and used a tissue to wipe away some of the sweat on her face. Her eyes had dark purplish rings under them and look sunken in. Her breathing was a little shallower than I had noticed before and her lips looked dry. My heart broke as I looked down at her sleeping form and anxiety took over me as I wondered what could be wrong with the love of my life.

"Hello Edward, how are you this evening?" one of my colleagues Dr. Rachel Stevens broke me from my mental torture.

"I'm good Rachel, how are you?" I asked out of politeness, but not really caring. I just wanted to know what was wrong with Bella and that may sound selfish, but sue me.

"What brings you guys here this evening?"

"It's my girlfriend, she has been sick for over a week now and there is no sign of her getting better. I did the usual of keeping her temperature under control and keeping her well hydrated, especially since her appetite seems to be nonexistent. She rarely can hold down food or liquids and she appears to be getting weaker as the days go on."

"Any chance she could be pregnant?" Dr. Stevens asked.

I was like a deer looking into headlights, because with everything that had run through my mind pregnancy was not one of them. How could I, Dr. Edward Cullen the pediatrician, not think of the possibility that Bella could be carrying our baby? I mean if I was being honest, we had not used any type of protection, which I guess was not smart in hind sight. I blinked a few times trying to gather a clear thought that would make all this make sense to me. I didn't know how I felt with the possibility of being a father, nor did I want to think of Bella's reaction if this news is true.

I stood for a moment and imagined a beautiful baby girl with Bella's big brown eyes and beautiful chestnut hair and right then and there all my uncertainty dissipated and I could feel a smile forming on my lips.

"Dr Cullen, are you okay?"

I blinked as I realized Rachel was still standing there waiting for an answer with her eyebrows furrowed.

"Er…. I apologize Rachel, this is a bit embarrassing for me, because the possibility of pregnancy never crossed my mind and I could have preformed that test at home." I said smiling nervously while running my hand through my hair.

"No worries Edward, I'll get a urine sample as well as lab work ordered just to be sure we are not overlooking anything. The nurse should be right in." and with that Dr. Stevens turned and walked out of the examination room.

I sat in the chair next to Bella and grabbed her hand which caused her to stir and as she looked up at me and she looked like a helpless child. My heart rate accelerated as I realized I would have to tell her about the possibility of her being pregnant. How would she react and would she feel like I ruined her life and all her plans. Would she want to keep the baby, we had never discussed our views on pregnancy in all the conversations we had. Oh no, what if she did want an abortion, I would be crushed or worse what if she decided to keep the baby, but wanted nothing to do with me; I don't know if I could live with that. The nurse came in breaking me out of my agonizing thoughts.

"Dr. Cullen I'm going to draw some blood from Ms. Swan and I will also place a bed pan under her to collect a urine sample."

"I can step out for a minute…"

"No!" Bella said sounding stronger than she had in over a week and I turned to look into her wide anxious eyes. "Don't leave me, stay."

"Okay love, I will." I said sitting back down and lacing my fingers through hers.

When the nurse finished prepping her arm to draw blood and was ready to stick the needle in, Bella's breathing became shallow again and the monitor was showing a slight elevation in her heart rate and blood pressure.

"What is it love, are you in pain?" I asked hearing the worry in my voice.

"N-No, I just don't want to see what she's doing." And then it hit me the cause of her sudden anxiety. One of Bella's weaknesses was the sight of blood of any kind, even her own blood. She had a weird super sensitive nose to the smell of it, "it smells like rust", I remember her telling me and the sight of blood made her dizzy and light headed. For this reason we never watched horror films, at least not the gory ones.

"It's okay love, just look at me and it will be over before you know it." I said reassuring her.

After the nurse had gathered what seemed like half the blood in Bella's body and a urine sample she left the room with a promise to come check on Bella soon. We watched a little TV and soon we both dozed off to sleep. The sound of the blood pressure machine automatically taking her blood pressure every thirty minutes kept disturbing my already uncomfortable slumber. I looked at the clock and realized we had been at the hospital for over five hours with no results back yet. Is this what patients and their families feel like when they visit the ER, because I was ready to go to the lab and pull the results myself which I knew would be totally out line and unprofessional, but this waiting was killing me. Just as I stood to walk to the nurse's station, Dr. Stevens walked into the room with a somber expression on her face. Taking a deep breath she looked at Bella who was now awake and let out a sigh, which only made my anxiety spike more, because I know that look, I've worn it myself plenty of times in my career.

"Ms. Swan, because Edward is not your spouse and due to the privacy laws, I have to ask would you like him to leave so that we can discuss the results of your test?"

"No, absolutely not I want him here." Bella said shaking her head.

Dr. Stevens eyes shifted to mine with a wary and apologetic look as if trying to silently warn me about the news she was about to give. She walked to the opposite side of the bed closer to Bella's head and sat on the small rolling stool and scooted closer to Bella and with one more glance over to me and another deep breath, she began to speak.

"Ms. Swan, I have some good news and some bad news, I'll let you choose which you want to hear first."

I gave Bella's hand a gentle squeeze to remind her that I am here.

"The bad news." Bella said barely over a whisper.

With another deep breath Dr. Stevens began to tell us Bella's test results.

"You are suffering from anemia which is a low red blood cell count, which explains why you have been so fatigued. Further testing is showing that you have Multiple Myeloma which is…"

"Bone Cancer" I said cutting the doctor off as I felt all the blood drain from my face.

Bella turned and looked at me with her eyes wide before turning back to the doctor.

"W- wh-what stage is it in?" Bella said with a trembling voice.

"Well I have ordered for you to get a bone x-ray and also we will need to perform a bone marrow biopsy to determine the stage the cancer is in. Then we can determine how aggressive it is and the best method of treatment for you"

Bella turned to me again with tears streaming down her face and looking completely confused and scared and I am sure she was mirroring my own expression. I leaned over and used my thumb to wipe away her tears and spoke very softly to her.

"Hey, I'm here and I always will be and I love you, remember that, okay?" I said kissing her forehead.

She nodded her head and leaned into my hand while closing her eyes and taking a deep breath; then she turned back to Dr. Stevens.

"You said you had good news also, what would that be?" she asked her voice still trembling.

Dr. Stevens looked over to me again and then back to Bella with a small smile playing on her lips.

"The good news is, Ms. Swan you're also pregnant."

Shock immediately took over me as my heart leaped with joy and I could hear the gasp from Bella as she turned her anxious eyes to me once more. Burying her face in her hands she began to sob and suddenly I was afraid of what she was thinking.

"What have I done?" she said while sobbing. "I just keep making one mess after another."

"Dr. Cullen, I'm going to step out so you two can have some privacy." Dr. Stevens said looking empathetic.

"Bella love, look at me, what are you thinking right now?" I said pulling her hands away from her face.

"Ever since I moved here I have caused you nothing but one headache after another and you have been so gracious through it all. You moved me here trying to help me get back on my feet and I just can't seem to get it together and now this! Now I'm pregnant which just adds to the long list of issues you've had to deal with because of me and…and…I can't deal with all of this by myself…"

I quickly cut her off grabbing her face between my hands and crashing my lips down on hers. When I pulled away I leaned my forehead against hers and looked deep in her eyes before speaking.

"Is that what you're thinking, that I'm upset, that you have somehow ruined something for me or caused me some type of suffering? Because you're so wrong love, in fact you couldn't be further away from the truth right now. I know we have done things kind of backwards and we should have taken more precaution, but the way we did things is our way, our story, our memories and now our future." I said placing one hand on her belly while still cupping her face with the other. "I am the happiest that I have ever been in my life and I can't apologize for that and if we are ever not together, it will be because you walked away, not me, that I can promise you love."

Bella didn't speak but her falling tears said it all and as she processed my words I could see relief flash across her face and she mouthed a silent 'thank you' to me.

"You're welcome love." I said while placing a loving kiss on her forehead.

We have a long road ahead of us with her illness and the pregnancy, but as God as my witness I will cherish every moment he allows me to be in her presence and I will spend every day making sure that she knows it. As for right now, I needed to talk to my family and also Emmett and Rose before we made any decisions, because Bella will need their support as well.

A/N: Okay loyal readers here you go, chapter 24 finally! Sorry for the delay, but I am also working on another story I wrote as a screen play that has been picked up by a producer which has taken precedence, so my updates unfortunately will not be as often as they were but I will try to update once a week at least. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and as always reviews make me want to write more so please leave me your thoughts/comments/opinions, thank you.