A/N: So there were quite a few mixed reactions to the last chapter. Some of you didn't think they should tell anyone, others that they should just tell the parents but not Jasper, and then still others that thought Jasper should know. Thank you so much, each and every one of you, for your responses and reactions. I appreciate them more than you could ever know.

I just wrote the last lines of this story today, so there shouldn't be any more delays in updates, following read-throughs and such that need to be done. And ericastwilight is superawesome about that. :) So hope you enjoy and hope to catch you all soon.

Chapter Six—In Our Hearts

Sleep was absolutely impossible after that. I wanted to talk to Edward right then and there, but the clearing of Carlisle's throat as he passed my door again on his way back from the kitchen reminded me that it wasn't the time.

However, I didn't feel the least bit tired when I attempted to lie down after Edward kissed me goodnight and left the room, hearing his words swirl around in my brain. Tell Jasper? Why? What good could come of that? I'd admit that occasionally, the logical side of myself had considered it. Mainly because, God forbid, Carlie were to develop some kind of health condition that ran in Jasper's family that I didn't know about, but the doctors were looking into Edward's family history instead. I didn't even want to think of the consequences that could render.

Then there was the emotional side of me, amplified when I heard Edward's voice through the baby monitor, talking to Carlie and soothing her back to sleep at three a.m.

Our daughter already had a father, and one who loved her more than I'd ever seen any man love their child. I could not have wished for anyone better for her—why upset the apple cart? I could understand him wanting to tell his father, and even my parents and his mother, as he didn't feel comfortable in continuing to lie to his family and Carlie's grandparents. But Jasper? I couldn't understand.

I must have finally dozed off just before dawn, as when I woke, my room was fully lit and I heard Edward in the kitchen with the baby. I swung my legs out of bed and rose, making my way down the hall pausing in the doorway. Edward was taking a sip of coffee with one hand and holding Carlie with the other, both of them fully dressed, which surprised me until I looked at the clock on the stove.

"It's already ten? Why'd you let me sleep so late?" I asked, crossing the room toward them.

"You were tired," Edward replied with a raised eyebrow but then shifted Carlie in his arms to hand her to me. "But I'm actually glad you're up. She ran out of diapers this morning, and I also have to grab some ink for my printer, so I'll be back."

"Edward, we need to talk," I said as I took her into my arms, keeping my eyes on him.

"I know. We will. I'll be back in an hour, tops. Love you," he said quickly, pecking my lips and pulling away before I could even revel in it, and then pressed his to the top of Carlie's head. He lingered there for a moment, closing his eyes and running his hand gently over her silky hair. "I love you. Daddy will be right back."

Before I could say another word, he was hurrying down the hall and grabbing his car keys, waving back at me briefly and stepping outside. I sighed heavily, kissing my daughter's forehead in a morning greeting. "Your daddy is really weird, you know that?"

An hour passed and still, Edward had not returned. I laid back on the couch with Carlie leaning back on my bent legs, singing softly to her and running my index finger along the glittery "Daddy's Little Princess" lettering on her dress and the gold crown beside it.

There was no way he could have been serious the night before. Carlie was his entire world; why would he risk that at all? He hadn't shown any signs of growing tired of being a dad, quite the contrary, actually. And our daughter's attachment to him had only increased exponentially since the moment she was born and then nestled in his arms for the first time.

"What is Daddy thinking, huh?" I said in a soft voice, knowing she couldn't understand me and only cared that I was talking to her, which was all that mattered. I traced my finger along her cheek and her head began turning her head toward my hand, so I sat up to grab the blanket from the back of the couch, covering her as I proceeded to feed her. No sooner did I get her settled at my breast and I heard Edward's car pilling into the driveway. "He has impeccable timing, doesn't he?"

Edward came through the door, carrying several bags, his keys between his teeth, and kicked the door closed behind him. "Hey, I'm back!"

"Hey, I see," I replied in a much softer voice and chuckled, and he looked over as if he wasn't expecting to find me there. His eyes widened, most likely since I tended to feed Carlie in my room, living with two men. "Thought you were only picking up diapers and ink."

My voice seemed to snap him out of his daze and he sighed, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "Mother called. Needed me to pick some things up for her."

"Edward," I began and he nodded, continuing down the hall.

"I know. Just give me a couple of minutes and I'll be right there," he called back to me from the kitchen.

I blew out a breath slowly and lowered my gaze back down to Carlie, running my finger along the tiny arm she had curled to her chest. Maybe Edward had thought things over and changed his mind since the night before. It would have explained his odd behavior before he'd left earlier. Or was he possibly nervous about discussing with me that he hadn't changed his mind.

I hadn't noticed that I was crying until I felt Edward come to sit beside me with his arm wrapped around my shoulders, and his knuckle brushed lightly over my cheek. "You really do regret it, don't you? Suggesting this and getting so attached to someone else's baby. Lying and pretending, uprooting your whole life for us. And now, I'm asking more of you, and it's just too much, isn't it?"

Edward's arm tightened around me gently and he pressed his lips to my temple before resting his forehead against my hair, his words whispering in my ear. "I don't regret a thing. You know that I don't think of Carlie as anyone's daughter but mine and yours. And what you've asked of me is something I've wanted for so long, it's like you've reached into my heart and granted one of its deepest desires."

I turned my gaze to him and found his eyes on our daughter at my breast, but I didn't get that strange feeling I thought I would with Edward watching me feed our daughter. Even with our changing relationship, it was as if he was observing something as ordinary as me reading a book, but his focus was on her and he didn't seem uncomfortable at all, either. "Then, what is it?"

"I'm a very selfish man," Edward replied, his head tilting slightly but his eyes never wavered.

My eyes widened and I chuckled in disbelief, causing Carlie to break away from me and wrinkle her nose; her signal that she was done. Edward took her from my arms and her head rested on his shoulder as he began gently patting her back while I adjusted my clothing. I turned on the cushion more to face them and found his eyes closed and lips pressed to her soft, dark hair, and that crease had returned to his forehead. Once again, it worried me.

"Edward, I can't imagine any man who's been less selfish than you have through all this. You've sacrificed so much for us, with our families, our friends—hell, the whole town. You took responsibility for something you had absolutely no obligation to, because you cared about me. Where is the selfishness in that?"

"Because I want everything. You, her… to be a real family. By wanting to come clean to my family, I'm forcing you to do the same with yours. And Jasper," Edward replied in a tight voice, his hold securing around Carlie protectively. "It may be unlikely, but all it would take is for him to get one small hair up his… you know what… to figure out that I'd never touched you, and the timeline was all wrong, and he could ask for a paternity test. And he'd have all the rights in the world strip her away from me. Demand visitation. Whatever strikes his fancy. I don't want to lose my daughter. I can't lose her. Or you."

I could almost literally feel my heart breaking as he spoke, anguish heavy in his tone that became more strained with each word. I'd never had any doubt that Edward loved Carlie, but watching him cocoon her in his arms and brush soft kisses on her head with his eyes pinched closed, gave me a whole new understanding of just how much. The thought of losing her was agony for him; the reality would kill a part of him. I lifted my fingers to trace along the hair around his ear before leaning over to press my lips there. "No one is taking us away. Ever. I love you. And you are Carlie's father."

"On her birth certificate. One little test is all it would take to disprove that," Edward said, finally turning his head to meet my eyes.

"We can't change her genetics, Edward. So what good will telling Jasper do?" I asked, running my fingertips through the hair at his neck.

"Because then we'd be making that first step to tell him, and not hiding it anymore. I knew that with all the years I'd been friends with Jasper, he didn't want kids. And definitely not before he got to live out whatever life he'd wanted to first. But who's to say that won't change in a year, or maybe five years down the line. He could never come back and say that I purposely kept his daughter away from him. And then—and this is where the really selfish part comes in," Edward began and I furrowed my brow expectantly. "I want to ask him to sign over all paternal rights to her. I'm not asking to do this for child support or an occasional babysitter on the weekends. That's my time, anyway. I want to be as close to one hundred percent Carlie's father as possible. Even though my name is on her birth certificate, I want her to be as legally mine as she can be. I don't want to live with this fear for the rest of her childhood. This was the one thing I hadn't take into account in this whole matter. Just that slight possibility scares the crap out of me, Bella."

I wrapped my arms around them both and Edward's head came to rest on my shoulder, fighting back tears at his impassioned statement. "Okay. I'll figure out a way. Is that why you want to tell your dad, too?"

Edward nodded slowly, his hand beginning its movement along Carlie's back again. "Partially. I mean, once we start a ball like that rolling, it's not as if we can keep that a secret for long. But I've also never lied to my dad, and something of this magnitude … I thought I could do it, but I can't. He deserves to know. They all do."

I took a deep breath, my lips quivering with emotion before I could reply. "I know. They're going to hate me, aren't they?"

"No, it was my idea, remember?" he pointed out, but I could only shake my head.

"But I agreed to it. All because I didn't want to lose you," I replied with a raised eyebrow.

"I still can't ever see that happening," Edward said, holding the baby with one arm and wrapping the other around me. His lips touched mine, and as with the night before, every other worry disappeared for those few seconds. I honestly believed his words when he held and kissed me that way. "They love you, Bella. And they love Carlie. Almost as much as I do."

x-x-x

At first, I couldn't quite tell what Carlisle's reaction was when we sat down with him and Esme in the living room the following evening. His mother began crying softly, but his father sat stoically across from us, much as he had when we'd first told him that I was pregnant all those months before. Finally, he stood and moved to sit on the other side of Edward, looking down at Carlie sleeping in her daddy's arms, having refused to leave them for long all night without fussing.

Then he said the three most beautiful words I'd ever heard since Edward said "I love you."

"Love isn't biological," Carlisle said, gently touching Carlie's head with his fingertips. "And this angel is still, and always will be, my granddaughter in my heart."

My parents, on the other hand, were an entirely different story. No matter what, Carlie was still their granddaughter, but the fact that I had lied to them so thoroughly didn't go over well. My mother also cried, asking me how I could do that to Edward and told me how disappointed she was. My dad was just plain pissed and refused to speak to me, leaving the room when we told him.

I spent that night in my bed with Edward's arms around me as I sobbed into his chest, while his parents watched over the baby. "My father hates me. I don't think he'll forgive me for this."

"You know that's not true, Bella," Edward whispered softly into my hair, his embrace tightening around me gently. "You know your dad. He gets angry, blows off steam, and cools down. And then it's back to same ol' Charlie. He loves you so much. You're his little girl, he could never hate you. And Carlie's got him just as wrapped as you do. That's a force he won't be able to fight for long."

"He wasn't even this mad when I told him that I was pregnant," I cried, curling into Edward's body more. I needed his warmth, strength and support more than ever, and in his own special way, he didn't fail to deliver.

"He'll forgive you. And I'm sure, in time, he'll even forgive me," Edward said, his voice altering slightly and I tilted my head to look up at him. I knew going to my parents that evening was no easier on him than it had been on me. My father was right below his own on the list of men Edward respected the most. Telling him that he'd been the one who'd gotten me pregnant had been very difficult for him, but telling him that it was a lie was worse, despite the explanation and reasons behind it. Although, Edward had taken the cold, hard stare from my father far better than I did, to his credit. "I'm sorry I made you do it. He probably just needs some time to decompress before he's back to doting on his girls."

I closed my eyes as his lips pressed to my forehead and I hugged my arm tighter around his waist. "I'm not. You were right, it needed to be done, and I'm grateful that you were there with me. I don't think I'm ever going to run out of reasons to thank you. But really, I don't know how I would have gotten through tonight without you. I love you."

"And I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing you say 'I love you' that way," he whispered, lowering his lips to mine again and kissing me gently. "I love you, too, Bella."

Now that's done... only one thing left. Jasper...