A/N: Oh mah gah. You guise. This chapter legit stopped talking to me for a while. Sigh. Sorry for the delay. We're back... just in time to finish.

"No..."

Edward stirred, blinking sleepily, trying to figure out if he was really awake. The room seemed to be moving, like a boat rocking at sea.

"Get away from me!"

Fully awake at that, Edward rolled carefully onto his side, his hand automatically darting out, but hovering just above Bella's thrashing form. His throat tightened - seeing her suffer was never easy.

"Sweetheart?" He let his hand rest on her shoulder.

"Not my baby. Please," she begged.

"Bella." He called her name, stroking her cheek.

She woke with a start, her eyes wild. "Edward?"

"I'm right here."

"Edward," she whimpered, scrambling into his arms.

Carefully, he moved them so they were sitting on the bed, and murmured to her nonsensically, rocking her.

"I thought he got to you. And the baby... the baby..."

It killed him how her voice trembled. "Everything's fine. You're okay. Riley's perfect. Look. She's asleep."

Bella pushed away from him, peering over the side of the bed. When she saw Riley nestled safe in her bassinet, her breath left her in a gust and her body slumped, tension giving way to relief.

She breathed deep. "Yeah." Her voice was more steady, deeper. When she was still in the throws of nightmare, her tone got as high pitched as a little girl. "We're okay."

"We're okay," he agreed. He stroked her cheek, brushing away her tears.

Sniffling, she turned her body toward him, resting her head against his chest, breathing in and out through her nose

"We're home, and you're safe," he reminded her. "Riley's safe."

They'd been home for a few days now after Riley's three weeks and several days stay in the NICU. Bella's nightmares, while heartbreaking to Edward, were better now that they were home. It was easier to convince her shaken psyche things could get back to normal when she was back to a more routine place.

And it was definitely easier for both of them now that Riley was free of any wires, monitors, or big hospital equipment.

After a few minutes of peace, Riley woke and squalled. Edward reached for her first and settled the tiny baby carefully between him and Bella. She calmed quickly as they caressed and patted her.

She was still so small, their little bird, but growing. She was finally starting to show a little of that baby chub, though Edward was still a little terrified by how easily breakable she seemed. He rested his finger in her tiny hand, taking comfort in the way she gripped him instinctively.

"You know I love you, right?" Bella whispered. She sounded sleepy, and when he looked up, he saw that her eyes were hooded.

"Of course I know that." Gently tugging his finger back out of Riley's hand, he brushed the hair out of Bella's eyes. "I love you, too."

Edward had come to realize Bella needed to hear the words - that he loved her and loved Riley - more often than she knew how to ask for them. Edward had spoken briefly a few times with a counselor at the hospital when he began to suspect there was something to the way she kept asking him fitfully if he knew she loved him.

It made sense, in a lot of ways. Her subconscious struggled with the idea she was safe and truly loved without conditions - the right way, not Alec's warped and twisted version of love. He knew, in her heart of hearts, she feared he couldn't love Riley because she wasn't biologically his. She was forever watching them together.

So Edward did his best to constantly reassure her, hoping someday soon, the words would sink in. It wasn't always easy and it was often frustrating. They both hated how he had to sleep on the very edge of the bed - far enough from her that her psyche wouldn't begin to feel restrained. When she woke afraid, as she had that morning, Edward had to take care that his sheltering arms didn't turn into restraints in her head.

It was slow going, but Edward and Bella were reclaiming their intimacy one touch, one caress at a time.

"Will you sleep?" Bella murmured, her eyes already closing again. If he was going to fall asleep, she wouldn't want the baby on the bed - not while Bella still thrashed with nightmares.

"Not right now." Carefully, Edward leaned into brush a kiss against her crown. "Right now, I'm going to watch my beautiful girls."

And that was exactly what he did.

~0~

Bella was exasperated.

"Is this necessary?" she grumbled to her husband.

"Absolutely," he said seriously, his voice low near her ear. Bella shivered pleasantly in response. He was walking them carefully down the stairs, his hands tight over her eyes, and so her other senses were heightened. "I couldn't wrap some of your presents, so this is the way it's got to be."

"Some of my presents? Edward, what did you do?" Bella groaned.

It had been decided that Riley's first Christmas - and Bella's first Christmas with the family - couldn't be regulated to how they'd spent the original day: worried because the baby was struggling with jaundice. To that end, the family was gathered at Edward and Bella's house for dinner and presents - just as they would have been under normal circumstances, even if it was over a month late.

Edward just chuckled in her ear and continued forward until they finally got to the bottom of the stairs. "Merry Christmas, sweetheart," he murmured against her ear before he lifted his hands from her eyes.

Bella gasped. "Oh my God!"

She flew forward, right into the waiting arms of the boy - holy crow, he was a giant of a man now - in the foyer. "Jacob!" She was already crying as she threw her arms around his neck. Laughing, the boy-man spun her around. "I missed you!"

"Hey, Bella. Long time no see," he said, hugging her tight before he set her down.

Disentangling herself from Jacob's arms, Bella went to hug the second person standing in the foyer - her mother.

As soon as she'd hugged Renee, Bella went to Edward, peppering his face with so many kisses for once he was the one who blushed. But he held her tight against him, and when she looked up, he seemed happy she was happy.

~0~

"You're different, Bells."

Bella turned to her side to find Jacob looking at her, his expression mildly curious. She felt instantly self-conscious, wondering if he was picking up any anxiety. Her skittishness and the way she sometimes jumped at shadows irritated Bella to no end, but she didn't think Jake could have seen it. She was typically okay in the house, and -

"Whoa. Jeez." Jacob laughed and touched the pad of his finger between her eyes, making her go crosseyed. He laughed again - same old Jacob. "I didn't mean it in a bad way."

"Well, what did you mean then?"

"I don't know how to explain it. You're just..." He shook his head, looking her over again. "You look good. This family you found is kind of crazy, though."

Bella grinned, looking out over the room, watching everyone mill and talk. "They have their moments, but I think I'll keep them." She made a wry face. "I mean, it doesn't look like I have a choice. They won't give my baby back." Her ever watchful eyes tracked Riley as she was handed from Jasper to Esme.

"Wow," Jacob muttered. "That's still so crazy to me. I can't get used to the idea of you being a mom. And a wife. It's... weird."

"Yeah." It still made Bella's head spin - how quickly her life had changed in the space of just around six months.

Her friend nudged her. "You know, I'm going to miss you a lot. But it's a good thing, what you got going on here."

Bella's mouth quirked up into a smile. "You think?"

"Yeah. Forks - I don't think you would have ever been happy there. And now look at you. You have a plan to do … what's it called? Interior decorating?"

"Interior design," she corrected.

"Yeah. That, which is cool. And, I don't know. You seem happy with the whole domesticity thing."

Across the room, Bella caught Edward's gaze. He smiled at her, and her cheeks felt warm, pleasant tingles travelling down her spine. "With the right person, it's good."

"He does love you. I can't argue with that," Jacob said cheerfully.

He excused himself then to inhale another of one of the thousands of plates of little cookies and appetizers that were scattered around. He stopped Esme in the middle of the room, waggling his fingers playfully at Riley who didn't seem impressed.

Esme was still chuckling as she came to take Jacob's place at Bella's side.

"Hey, little bird. Are you hanging out with Grandma?" Bella asked her daughter, not taking her from Esme's arms but stroking her soft cheek.

"Well, when I can wrestle her away from everyone else."

Bella smiled, her eyes still on her daughter as she stroked the tufts of dark hair that seemed to thicken more by the week. Jet black hair. Alec's hair.

She swallowed hard.

"I'm glad, you know," Bella said softly. "They all accept her."

Esme looked perplexed. "Well, honey, of course they do. She's their niece. My granddaughter."

Closing her eyes briefly, Bella smiled though she felt overwhelmed.

"Are you okay, dear?" Esme's hand was on her arm in an instant.

"Yeah. Yes, I'm fine." She still got emotional easily. "It's just a lot sometimes. The way this began... I mean, I took advantage of a total stranger's kindness. He saved me. And gave me a home, a family... love."

"But, Bella, don't you understand, you've saved him, too?" Esme asked quietly.

Opening her eyes, blinking away the wetness, Bella furrowed her brow at her mother-in-law. "He didn't need to be saved."

"Oh, he did. We all did, really - our family, anyway." Readjusting Riley in her arms, Esme turned her body slightly so she could nod in Edward's direction. "A year ago, at Christmas, what you would have seen was my oldest son sitting off by himself. He usually had his hands folded across his chest, and he smiled very seldomly."

Bella could hear the lingering pain in Esme's voice, but she couldn't quite understand. As she watched Edward now, he had a broad smile in place. He tapped Emmett's arm to get his attention, and whatever was said, the boys began mock-punching at each other and laughing.

"You've seen it yourself - the rift that stood between all of us and Edward. When you came into his life, that rift began to heal, finally." The older woman's smile was gentle, adoring, not only for Edward but for Bella. "You made my lonely, unhappy son a husband and father. Everything he's had or accomplished? He's never smiled like this, Bella. Never. He's never seemed so... light."

Esme clucked her tongue, her expression thoughtful. "Most people would probably think having a baby at fifteen was the biggest mistake of my life. But my baby saved me in so many ways. I wanted to save him, but now I know it wasn't something I could do." She sighed quietly.

"The older I get, the more I realize mistakes are part of the package. Yes, Carlisle and I were very irresponsible when we were fifteen, and all things considered, getting pregnant with Edward was the biggest mistake of my life at that time. But Carlisle and I? If it hadn't been for Edward, we likely would have been a flash in the pan. What could have been just a teenage fling became something both Carlisle and I fought for. Our biggest mistake became our greatest salvation. "

Bella turned this over in her head, trying to reconcile what Esme was saying with her guilt over everything - how she and Edward began, how Riley had gotten her start in life. But there was something to what Esme was trying to say. Yes, so many of the things she'd done were ill advised, even horrible, but look at what she'd gotten in return: her wonderful husband and her little bird.

And yes, though she sometimes concentrated on the bad things - how chaotic and upturned Edward's life had been since she'd wandered haphazardly into it - she wasn't so naive that she couldn't see the good that had come of everything. Alice had it right when they talked several months before: she was a catalyst to a lot of things being said that had needed saying for a long time.

Edward, ducking away from Emmett as the younger man tried to put him in a headlock. He loped over, sitting on Bella's other side and tickling her neck with the tip of his nose. Bella giggled.

Lifting her head back, she considered him for a moment, remembering the serious, somewhat sullen stranger he'd been when they first met.

Esme was right. It was a stark contrast to the way he looked now - his smile so wide and easy, his eyes soft and adoring.

Leaning in, she kissed him sweetly, savoring.

She couldn't have known how her mistake would turn out, what a gift in disguise they could be. There was no denying she was lucky.

Wrapping her arms around Edward's neck, Bella thought she was going to have to stop overthinking it and just enjoy the love she'd found.

~0~

They were just about to sit down to dinner when the doorbell rang. Edward was both surprised and not to find his grandfather standing outside his door, looking uncomfortable.

Edward Senior had changed considerably since his fallout with his son and grandson. He'd made vague reference to what had brought this on, that what Carlisle had said had made him rethink many things. It was probably the reason he'd gone out of his way to hire the best lawyer for Bella and had further put Edward and Bella up in a hotel near the hospital while Riley was in the NICU.

Whatever it was, it couldn't have been easy to get used to coming at things differently, but he was trying. So Edward tried his best not to be wary.

What he didn't expect in a million years was when, after dinner, the old man sat down in front of Edward and Bella looking like he had taken a huge bite of a very rotten lemon.

"Young lady," he began, frowned, and tried again. "When we met... Some of the things I said..."

Bella reached forward, putting her hand over his and looking right at him. "I understand," she said quietly. "Would you like to hold the baby?"

Both Edwards looked at Bella with eyes bulging out of their heads.

As ridiculous as it seemed, Edward had always been at least moderately terrified of his grandfather. Even then, though the man was obviously trying to play nice and working to enjoy rather than criticize his family, Edward was slightly tense, waiting for the next moment when Grandfather would find something wrong. It never failed to impress him that Bella had never shown the man any fear.

And of course, it only spoke to her gentle heart that despite the man having called her a whore, she'd long ago forgiven him.

The elder Cullen cleared his throat. "It's been a long while since I've held a baby." He looked at Riley, his expression a mixture of apprehension and curiosity.

Bella stood, lifting Riley out of Edward the Second's arms and settling her into Edward the First's.

The old man chuffed, watching enraptured as the infant yawned. She made a few baby noises, grunting and swallowing, but then closed her eyes, just as content to be in his arms as she was with everyone else.

Edward waited, his shoulders tensed. Scenarios ran through his mind where his grandfather denounced the child. If he ever said one word against her...

"She's beautiful," he said quietly. "Truly."

Bella smiled, and Edward relaxed, putting his arm around his wife, tilting his head to lean against her hair.

He caught Carlisle watching them and wondered if it ached. This was what he never got: his father accepting his choice in mate, his child. But Carlisle didn't look hurt. He only smiled as if everything was exactly as it should be.

Looking at his beautiful wife, so strong and vibrant, and his little girl, already the apple of his eye, surrounded by a family he was learning really, truly loved him, Edward couldn't help but agree.

A/N: Zomg.

Yes, there are a couple of things we still need to clear up (both of them start with J's). I haven't forgotten. There's an epilogue for that!

I'll save the mush for the epilogue, but thanks to my girls who let me whine and cry when this refused to speak to me and helped me out. Thanks to GinnyW, Shug, and barburella for stalking my docs this last little bit.

Oh quick, cute, awesome rec: The Babysitter by Plummy. So cute and funny. Very short. 2 of 3 chaps posted.