Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the Twilight universe.

Author Notes: No long drawn out speech here. I know you guys want to get on with it. But just to clarify a couple of things. Yes, this will have some drama and angst but no, it isn't like part one or two. I have a couple of new twists up my sleeve for everyone.

And I have been woefully bad at responding to reviews. The website has made it much more difficult to reply but I wanted to send a big wet sloppy kiss to everyone that has taken the time to review. I adore reading what you have to say and love to see what you guys are predicting. Please don't take the lack of a reply to mean I don't care. Its truly not that…just that I have really crappy internet service at home and it kicks me out of things an awful lot.

Chapter 4-Sweet Reunion

EPOV

The smile on my face grew wider and wider with every second that passed as I watched my wife stunned into perfect stillness. Her hands covered her open mouth, her eyes were wider than I'd ever seen them and unblinking and she hadn't taken a single breath since she'd rounded the corner.

"Bitch!" JP yelled, still facing the porch where the rest of my coconspirators stood, all laughing and grinning.

"JP?" she whispered so quietly I didn't think he'd be able to hear her. But once again, he surprised me. He whipped his head toward the oak tree, causing the ginormous bow on his head to slip sideways and cover his eye like some sort of demented pirate.

"AHHHH!" he screamed at top volume, which being JP was loud enough to scare the birds in the tree. "There's my girl!"

The chuckles that filled the air came from all around. Our family, the kids inside the bus as they watched their father act like a goof ball, Heidi as she stood at the bottom of the bus steps…everyone laughed as he made this half giggle, half growl kind of noise, bent his knees so that he was eye level with her, opened his arms and started running toward her. He made his way across the forty or so feet that separated them in record time; all the while she stood motionless as a statue, still in shock at his appearance. With every step he took, his bizarre noises got louder and louder, until he was laughing at the top of his lungs.

Her trance broke when he was ten feet away from her. In five steps she had closed the distance between them. It was extremely funny to watch them react at the same moment. He bent his knees a little more deeply just as she stretched her arms up and jumped toward him. The end result was that when he straightened his lanky six foot three body, her arms were wrapped around his neck and her legs were around his waist. They both were squealing like school kids as he rocked them both from side to side in wide exaggerated movements.

I felt the heat of Heidi's body closing the distance behind me and raised my right arm just as she moved in beside me. Settling her into a one armed hug, I noticed that her eyes were shining with tears and her smile was as large as my own. We loved these two more than anything else in the world and seeing them so happy made both of our hearts sing.

"They're kinda like little kids at Christmas, don't you think," she asked me without breaking her gaze. I couldn't tear my own eyes away from the sight of my wife's smile long enough to answer, so I just nodded my head in agreement.

Bella pulled back just enough to cup JP's face in her hands and he locked his wrist at the small of her back. She leaned in and kissed him on the mouth and then on the nose, earning another round of chuckles from their collective audience.

"You look so beautiful JP," she said sincerely as her hands swept over his face, tracing the lines around his eyes as they crinkled against his mile wide grin. Slowly she moved the tips of her fingers over his cheeks and lips, her eyes beaming brighter with excitement with every passing motion.

"Well, that's about the most fubared response I've ever heard," he said in his barking laugh as he leaned forward and kissed her again. "Hot as hell? Okay. Fucking awesome? Alrighty. But 'beautiful'? You fallen and hit your head recently?"

"Shut up, Asshole. I think you look beautiful."

"If its any consolation, I think you look beautiful too. Freaky as fuck with the pee colored eyes but still beautiful."

"Pee colored eyes? What the fuck?" she said with mock offense and then laughed as he shifted her effortlessly to his hip and turned toward where Heidi and I stood. As he started walking toward us, she just leaned her head down onto his chest. I couldn't help but laugh as they neared us. She looked like the most stunning toddler on the planet as she tucked her head under his chin.

"Honey, want to adopt another kid?" JP shouted to Heidi as they closed the distance toward us.

"No thanks already got enough and why are you yelling? We're standing right in front of you."

"Heidi! Oh my God, it's so good to see you," Bella squealed again as she leaned forward and hugged Heidi tightly, body still clinging to JP's hip.

"Oh, sweetheart, it's so good to see you too. I can't remember ever seeing you look better."

"What are you guys doing here?" my wife asked them both, her eyes jerking back and forth between the two of them. Then she turned those gorgeous eyes toward me and cocked her head to the right. "Did you do this?"

I reached toward JP and grabbed her under the armpits. JP shifted her so that she easily slid into my arms. She released her legs from around his waist and wrapped them around my own hips, her feet never hitting the ground. The look in her eyes, the pure happiness, made my heart melt. My wife was always painfully beautiful but seeing her so excited and so clearly ecstatic nearly brought me to my knees.

"I can't take all the credit, baby," my eyes sliding toward the bus where the originator of this little excursion resided. "But the timing was my idea and I've been making the arrangements for a while now. Do you like your birthday present?" I asked quietly as I leaned my forehead against hers.

"Oh, Edward. This is most amazing birthday I've ever had. Especially since I had no idea it actually was my birthday," she said sheepishly. I leaned forward and kissed her softly and then hugged her to my chest. She returned the hug with enough force to momentarily push the air from my chest. "So who else gets the credit for this?"

I laughed under my breath as she turned her head toward the porch and our family. Every single one of them had their hands raised, letting her know that they had all, in one way or another, had something to do with arranging this for her. Jasper winked as the last twenty four hours fell into place for her. And being the gentile ladylike creature she was, she flipped him off while mouthing "thank you". It only took a fraction of a second for the acknowledgements to come from across the lawn. It was plenty of time to let that little secret out of the bag before the next one opened his mouth.

"I guess you could say that I got this little party started."

Her long brown hair nearly took my eye out as she whipped her head around toward the voice with the speed of lightening. I knew, without ever looking at her, that this would send her back into a state of immobile shock and I couldn't fucking wait.

"Oh my God," she whispered as moisture gathered in her eyes, her hand once again back at her open mouth. I followed her laser point gaze to the open door of the bus. Standing on the ground just below the step, one hand still gripping the metal railing was the person that had made this whole thing possible. And the one person that would make this perfect for her. "Chip."

"Baby girl," he sighed, the tears in his own eyes flowing freely. He opened his arms wide to her amazed gaze. Standing behind him, still mostly inside the bus was Marcus with a four year old Jared perched on his hip very much the way that JP had been holding Bella just minutes before.

She slid down out of my grip without every taking her eyes off the man that was father, friend, confidant and healer to her. Her shoulders rounded and she grasped her hands in front of her stomach as she walked slowly toward him, conscious of keeping up human appearances. When she finally reached him, she melted into his embrace. The ragged expulsion of her breath was the tell tale sign that my wife was sobbing with joy. In that moment, her face was that of the eighteen year old girl that had first met Chip in that Seattle bookstore.

"I've missed you so much," she said in a small voice as she hugged him as tightly as possible.

"I know baby girl, I know," he soothed her. His hand stroked her back and hair in a calming gesture as he rocked her gently.

"Edward, my man, you did a good thing here," JP said with real emotion in his voice as he watched them embrace. "He misses her more than he wants anyone to know. He loves us all, he nearly fucking worships the kids. But there is something about that one that has his heart tied directly to her."

"How long do I get to keep you?" my wife asked with more amusement in her voice as she looked up at Chip.

"A while," he said as he kissed her forehead. "At least a few weeks."

"Really!" she said very loudly, her body bouncing on her toes. "Weeks, not days?"

"Really. Now say hello to everyone else before you piss off your guests."

She smiled hugely and hugged him to her again. She pulled back with the most adorable look on her face, her nose scrunched up and her eyes narrowed.

"You smell funny."

"Oh kiss my big fat Gucci clad ass," he replied sarcastically.

"Your ass isn't big nor is it fat. In fact," she said as she looked over his shoulder at his backside, "you're skinnier than the last time I saw you."

"Psh, baby girl. I am no such thing. I just had a perfectly tailored tuxedo on the last time you saw me."

I couldn't help but laugh as I watched them. Chip and Bella would never change in their interactions with each other. And I was sincerely glad for that. They were the perfect mix of sarcasm and unadulterated love. I laughed a little harder when I realized that Buddy had quietly crept across the grass and taken up residence at Chip's feet. As a matter of fact, his ass was planted on the toe of Chip's designer shoe.

"Ah, lovie," Marcus said as he stepped the off the bus and pushed past them with a now extremely squirmy four year old worming his way to the ground. As he passed Bella, he kissed the top of her head. "It good to see you. Life is always more interesting with you around."

As soon as Jared, the squirmy toddler in question, hit the ground, he ran like a bolt of lightening toward where I stood with his parents. His thoughts were a whirring jumble of images and "shouted" words that matched the wild eyed expression on his face.

"Mommy! Mommy! We're at's Disney World!"

"What? Baby, what makes you say that?" Heidi said in a very soothing voice. That had little to no effect on the little boy in front of me.

"We is, Mommy, we is at Disney World! Look!" he screamed as he pointed toward the porch that contained only my family. And not a large rodent in a bow tie.

I cut my eyes toward my family to see them all grinning like morons. Every single one of them was revealing in the fact that this little boy was so excited about them; however mistaken he was about our location. I noticed Esme and Rose in particular had soft expressions on their faces and an extra spark of love in their eyes.

"Rat, this isn't Mouse Land," JP said as he squatted down so that he was eye level with his son. "This is the house of the friends that Mommy and Daddy told you about in the bus, remember?"

"No, Daddy! It's Disney World," Jared insisted as he stomped his foot and pointed toward my family with as much force as his four year old body would give him. "See, it's the Princesses. Right there!" he yelled again, only this time he looked right at Alice. "Its Snow White and Cinderella standing on the porch," he finished with a huge jump in to the air accompanied by a fist pump. Then he turned at rocketed toward the porch and toward the "Princesses".

"God, help us. The little man just wrapped every female in this family around his pinky," Emmett said with a guffaw that echoed off the mountains that surrounded our home. Jasper and Carlisle both cackled their agreement as they watched Alice, who forever more would be referred to as Snow White, drop to her knees and open her arms wide to the little boy that was apparently going to tackle his favorite character.

"Oh, little man, if you aren't the sweetest thing I've ever seen," Alice cooed as she wrapped her arms around Jared in a monster hug. He buried his face in her collarbones and smiled like he'd just won the lottery.

The painfully sweet scene that I was thoroughly enjoying watching was forcefully interrupted by the thoughts that invaded my mind. I looked back toward the bus to see none other than Paul walking slowly down the stairs. His hair was pulled back in a pony tail at the base of his neck but otherwise he was the spitting image of the JP I'd met in Atlanta. I sighed as I realized that the likeness extended all the way to the dirty thoughts that danced around in his head as he descended the steps with his eyes fixed on my wife's ass.

"Uncle Eddie," he whined loudly as he stood on the bottom rail, just five feet or so away from where Bella and Chip were still hugging each other and watching the toddler reduce my sisters and mother to blabbering cooing squealing messes. He stretched both hands out in front of him like he was grabbing at something. It didn't take a mind reader or rocket scientist to know exactly what he was imaging grabbing considering his gaze was still fixed like a laser to her backside. "I'm begging you! Just let Auntie B make a man out of me. Just one time, please."

Even I couldn't help but snort and then laugh at his antics. But my reaction was far less funny than his parents. JP clapped loudly and then nearly became hysterical laughing so hard, spurned on I suspected by a nearly out of control Jasper. But Heidi hid her face in her hands and was thinking of ways to kill her teenaged replica.

"Sorry, dude. No can do," I called back to him as Bella turned around slowly to face him. Her eyebrow was cocked but she was also smiling. She could no more resist Jared than she could resist JP.

"Not gonna make a man out of you but how about a hug, Paul?" she said sweetly as she opened her arms to him. He stepped quickly into her embrace, laying his cheek on her chest much like his younger brother had done with Alice. Only his actions were much funnier to watch considering that he was already significantly taller than her.

"You really are a carbon copy of your dad, aren't you?" she said with a laugh as he looped his arms around her tightly.

"Yeah, Mama says I got all the crap behavior DNA from him and all the good stuff from her," Paul said with an evil glint in his eyes.

"P-man, you behave yourself," Chip said as he lightly swatted the back of his head. By my count that was the third swat he'd earned in the hour that I'd been near him. "Don't you dare embarrass us in front of the Cullens." While the words were stern, there was a tenor of adulation in his thoughts as he looked at his oldest grandson. It was complete devotion to all the kids of EverClear that was the most audible thought in Chip's mind. It swirled through everything he was thinking.

"I know, I know. Behave or they'll think we're a bunch of heathens."

"I've known your father for a very long time. I know you're a heathen," Bella said with complete joy in her voice as she released a very reluctant teenaged horn dog from her arms.

"Please don't lump me in with him Auntie Bella," Isa said very primly as she finally emerged from the bus's interior, a large hard back book tucked under her arm.

"Oh lovie, never," my wife beamed as she hugged her namesake.

Isa was a truly amazing little girl. She was stunning beautifully but her dark eyes intimated at an old soul living inside. Her personality was very much like her mother and somehow completely unique at the same time.

It was surreal to see how close Bella was to the kids that she had only met in person a handful of times over the last few years. All of the interactions had been short, only an hour or two at the most, but they had all had lasting effects. Where I was known to them as not much more than the guy on the present tags, Bella was truly their aunt. The all saw her as a part of their family.

"Bitch! I'm getting' jealous over here. Come hug me again woman," JP shouted as he nearly levitated with excitement over seeing his children and his best friend so contentedly comfortable with each other.

"Dad! Language," Isa said with a perfectly cocked eyebrow.

"Sorry puddin'."

She groaned at the term of endearment but smiled widely none the less. She was, evidently, very much a daddy's girl.

It took nearly forty five minutes for everyone to make the rounds hugging each other. Grandpa C and Nana E, as my parents were known, looked nearly as full of pride as Chip and Marcus did when they watched the three kids. My sisters were still fawning over Jared while good naturedly side stepping Paul's borderline suggestive comments. My brothers were overjoyed at having JP back in the mix. There were hugs and kisses, compliments and squeals. Everyone was nearly bursting with happiness. Overall, it couldn't have been a more perfect afternoon.

The sun was starting its descent when we all started making our way into the main house. The plan was a large dinner for our guests followed by getting everyone settled in the guest cottages so that Bella and JP could spend some time together catching up. I was walking with Isa up the steps of the porch when Chip fell into synch with me.

My foot froze mid-step as I caught a good whiff of his scent.

Suddenly, Bella's comment from earlier in the day made sense.

"You smell funny."

It wasn't a funny smell at all. And it also made sense why she couldn't place what was off with his normally woodsy citrus scent.

"Not a word, Edward. We'll talk later," Chip thought as he passed me, shooting me a very stern look. I also noticed that when he walked past Carlisle as he held the door open to the main room, he stiffened. My father's eyes followed Chip inside, the same look of concern on his face that I was sure clouded my own.

"He said we'd talk later," I whispered to my father much too quietly for anyone else to hear. His only reply was a curt nod.

The smell was subtle but distinct. Deceptively benign in origin but menacing in its implication.

At least to anyone that had a medical degree.

Chip was a sick man.

Chapter Notes: The gang's all here. Let me know what you think and I'll see you next week. Same bat time, same bat channel.