[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer

[A/N] Thanks to those of you who are so incredible supportive of my writing. It means so much to me to know you by my side.

FAQ's

Will Charlie make an appearance soon?

Yes, he will. Has anyone missed him?

**8**

Zafrina's office is painted in a bright yellow color now but I remember the wooden statues that are standing around from my last visit here. My heart is in my mouth, my palms sweating. Somehow this feels a bit like seeing a dentist for the first time in years.

"Can I see a picture of the little one?" she asks Alice who quickly pulls one out of her purse. Our therapist smiles, exposing a bit too much of her pearly-white teeth, before she hands the picture back to my wife.

"He's a cute kid."

"He is." I mumble, placing my hand on Alice's in her lap. Shit, why am I so terribly nervous? I shouldn't be nervous. Right?

"Is there anything in particular that the two of you would like to discuss with me?"

"Yes."

"No." I croak. Damn it, why do I get the impression that Alice is way better prepared for this meeting than me. How long has she been secretly thinking about this?

"Fine, Alice," Zafrina says after a moment. "Tell me what you'd like to talk about."

Alice takes a sip from her drink and sighs deeply.

"I want to know why we're always fighting. It's so tiresome."

"What are you fighting about?" Zafrina asks, scrawling down some notes on a note pad. "Is it always about the same thing?"

"No, we're basically arguing over everything." I mumble, rubbing my thumb over Alice's cold fingers. "Me doing all the housework, and about the fact that Alice can never call me, when she's going to be late for dinner. It annoys me that she has her painting equipment all over the house. I—,"

"Are you done complaining about me?" Alice squeaks, her voice breaking. She pushes my hand away and moves a bit further away from me on the couch.

"Baby, I didn't mean it like that." I whisper nervously.

"Yeah, sure,"

"Alice, are you mad at Bella?"

"She makes me look bad, like everything is my fault. She's the one who has changed."

"How so?"

"She means my surgery."

"No, I don't mean the surgery. For everything that is not working in our marriage you're blaming the fucking SRS. I wished you'd never…crap, I shouldn't have said that."

Her face pales, her lips tremble but now that the words have been spoken, she can't take them back. I stand up, dropping a glass with pencils down to the ground.

"You loved me more when I was a freak? Why? Because you like the kink?"

"Bella, sit down. Breathe. Both of you seem pretty tensed to me. I assume that's the reason why you are fighting so often over unimportant things. You need to learn to be more open with each other."

"That won't work." Alice sobs, wiping tears from her eyes. "Bella gets so agitated whenever I mention anything that has to do with her surgery. I love her. I'll always love her but I feel like we're drifting apart."

I swallow another sip from my coffee, wishing I could have some brandy in it right now. That would probably help to calm my nerves a bit.

"I love Alice. I don't want to lose her."

"I don't want to lose you." She whispers softly.

"Well, that's a start. I'll see you next week. Senna will set up an appointment. For our next meeting I want each of you to write a list on five things you like and dislike about the other one. Good luck to you."

We walk out of her office and the entire ride to Esme's house there is some awkward, barely endurable silence between us.

"Are you angry?" I ask her when I park the car behind Carlisle's new Mercedes.

"No, I'm not, just sad somehow."

"Me too, do you really regret that I had the surgery?"

"It was what you wanted. I don't care what's between your legs. What I don't like is seeing you in pain."

"It's not that bad."

"Liar." she murmurs. "Have you forgotten that I've been with you while you used your dilators? You cried. It hurt so much that you cried."

I nod my head and step out of the car. Andy is sitting on the porch, trying to feed some daisies to Esme's cat while she's reading some magazine.

"Look, who came to pick you up, honey."

"Mommy! Momma! Can we go and have some ice-cream now?"

"If you want to. Thank you, Esme, for watching him."

"Anytime, Bella, it was my pleasure. He's such a dear boy."

"That he is. Andy, say good bye to Aunt Esme."

"Bye. Bye, Muffin. Next time you need to eat what I give you."

When we sit down inside the ice-cream parlor half an hour later, I'm still too agitated to eat anything myself. Alice and Andy have some ice-cream although most of his lands on his shirt and his chin instead of his mouth. It's cute though. Suddenly there is a big hand on my shoulder, making me turn around so abruptly that I hit my knee on the table. Crap, that's going to leave a bruise, a big one.

"How's it going? What's the stuffed-in dick doing?"

I roll my eyes at Emmett's comment and pull him into a one-armed hug.

"We're fine. How's Rose? She must be due pretty soon. Right?" Alice asks him curiously, licking some Vanilla ice-cream from her spoon.

"It's four more weeks, and I honestly can't wait for it. I can't endure her mood swings any longer. It's like being married to fucking Pregozilla."

"It can't be that bad." I tell him, pulling out a tissue to clean Andy's face.

"You have no idea." he says, exhaling through his teeth. "It was nice seeing you, ladies. Andy, give me five. Shit, is that nail polish?"

"It sparkles."

"Sparkling is for girls, Andy. Do you want to be a girl?"

"No, I'm Andy."

"Kay, if you say so. Take good care of you mommies."

Andy nods and for a moment, my three-year-old looks like he's aware of the unknown meaning behind those words.