Tissue warning. The good kind :)
Epilogue
Five years later
Bella
She's beautiful. The most perfect creature I've ever seen. Wisps of blonde hair peek out of the white cap the hospital staff put on her when they cleaned her up. Light eyes, eyes that I know will be just like her father's someday, blink and try to focus on the new world around her. She yawns and makes this soft, sweet gurgling sound, and I melt.
She's the most important thing I'll ever do. The biggest change I'll ever make in my life.
But I think the change in her father is even bigger.
He holds her constantly. Soothes her when I can't. He rocks her, coos at her, sings to her... He's softer, that last hard edge of him gone with her birth. He's surer of himself now that she relies on us for everything.
Because he'll be everything for her.
He looks at her with such awe, such rapture; I wonder how we managed to wait so long to do this. Why we wanted to wait so long. If either of us had known a love like this existed...
But that's the point isn't it? You can't know it until you've experienced it.
And I'll be thankful for the rest of my days that I get to do this.
xx
Three days earlier
"Look at him. Bella, he's-" Edward stopped talking long enough to check our nephew's breathing. His hand splayed out on his tiny chest, and I smiled from my spot at the doorway.
"Dead to the world?" I finished, watching as those green eyes shifted to meet mine.
"He's... he's okay, right?"
"You're the doctor," I answered. "You tell me."
He simply glared at me.
It was so hard not to laugh at him.
"He's fine, Edward. He's tired. You wore him out with that camping trip."
He steadily let out his breath and dragged his hands through his hair. "Why the hell did I agree to do this again?" he hissed.
"To give your brother and Rose some much needed time away?"
He shook his head. "All of it's just too... It's too much."
I stepped away from the threshold and waited for him to join me. "The worrying, you mean?"
"Yeah. Fuck... Yeah."
It was then I finally giggled. Watching Edward's concern over whether Gavin was breathing or not was such a far cry from the way he was when he was first introduced to us. Edward had been terrified, distant, and unattached to the little boy, convinced he'd do something to harm him.
It was in his DNA, after all. The words had never been spoken, but I knew. It was everything he'd worried about for as long as I'd known him. Gavin might not have been ours, but that made no difference. Relatives influenced a child just as much as a parent did.
But all of that fear had all been for nothing. Shortly after he was born, there was a fender bender that gave Rosalie enough bruises to warrant a quick hospital visit. Emmett, of course, had rushed off to make sure his wife was all right. And that had left Edward - who was absolutely panicked - alone with the newest Cullen for the first time.
Edward hadn't been the same since. From that day on, he loved that little boy like he was his own. And it was then he really, truly opened his mind to the possibility of a family.
I held out my hand and led Edward past his prized baby grand - the one bought in Chicago - and to the bedroom next to the master suite, opening the door and peering at the freshly painted, pale green walls inside. "Finish this with me tonight?" I asked him hopefully.
He mumbled something under his breath, and then graced me with a smile. "I have something for it. Give me five seconds."
Before I could respond, he'd pressed a kiss to my hair and darted out of the room. I sat down in the chair in the corner and closed my eyes, my body aching with exhaustion now that I was no longer moving.
"Sleeping again, baby?" Edward asked quietly. I knew he was smirking just from the way he sounded.
I yawned, "Can't help it."
He chuckled, sending warmth right through me; I didn't think I'd ever tire of hearing that sound. I opened my eyes and spotted the brown box in his hands immediately.
"What's that?"
"Get up and see."
"Then help me," I countered. "I don't move like I used to."
He laughed again and crossed the room in just three long strides, carefully taking my hand and pulling me to my feet. His fingers ran over my wedding ring, an unconscious habit he'd picked up in the year we'd been married.
A quirk I adored.
"You weigh a fucking ton."
I pushed him away. "Asshole. You made me like this."
His eyes sparked with mirth as he ran his free hand over my stomach, feeling our daughter shift under his touch. "Three more days, right?"
"That's the idea," I confirmed. Months of tests, checkups, ultrasounds - on both the baby and my heart - would all culminate in one room, in what would hopefully be the least stressful delivery in history by way of cesarean.
I almost rolled my eyes at the thought. Some kind of surprise awaited us. That was just... life. Fact. Murphey's Law.
"She'll probably have her own plans, though."
"If she's anything like her mother, of course she fucking will." He bent over so that his face was just at the apex of my stomach. "What am I saying; you already are. You aren't even supposed to be here. Just like Mom."
"Ah, yes, the plan. The plan she worked so hard to ruin."
"It was the only plan I'd ever made in my life, and look what you did," he said, acting affronted. "I should make an appointment to get snipped. I do know a couple good urologists at UW."
I laughed.
He smirked up at me, and then continued. "I was supposed to be finished with my residency before you got here, you know."
I let my fingers skim through his hair, grinning as he talked to her through my skin.
"But I couldn't imagine not having you now," he tacked on quietly.
The sentiment echoed my own.
He stood up and shifted the box under his arms. "Bella... I... You know I'm not really going to get snipped, right? It's just... I can't fucking deal with anymore um..."
"Surprises of the human sort?" I supplied.
"Yeah. I mean... God, I love her, but if I have to go through the shock of those damned two pink lines again, I think I'll have a fucking stroke."
"Hey, you weren't the one freaking out over your reaction to having to pick up a couple tests in the first place." He looked as if he was going to apologize, so I kissed him quickly to keep him from saying the words. "Now, show me what's in the box."
He grinned widely. "Okay, so I was thinking we could hang these above her crib."
He crouched down on the floor and opened the box, spreading the contents out evenly on the floor in front of us.
He stood up and bit on the inside of his cheek nervously, waiting for my reaction.
"Where'd you find them?" I gasped, swiping at my cheeks. I was crying.
Stupid hormones.
"I made them."
I flung my arms around him and hugged him as well as I could, given how big I was at that moment. They were perfect, the missing piece to the nursery we'd spent so much time readying together. Framed like pictures, white, wooden letters spelled our daughter's name, each of them having a different background: tiny yellow tulips, pink roses, purple and white stripes ... All had coordinating polka dot bows at the top, tied to perfection by her nervous, wonderful father.
There couldn't have been a child any luckier than her for having him as her daddy.
"I love them. I love you."
"And I love you," he murmured against my ear. "There's one more thing."
I blinked in surprise. "Oh?"
"Elizabeth wants to send a gift."
I stood there quietly and tried to read his expression. "What do you think?"
"I think it's fine. She's..." He winced and tried to shrug it off. "She's her grandmother."
"Edward..."
"No, really. She's her family. I don't want to make the same mistakes my parents did with her and keep her from knowing about it all, the good and the bad."
He looked so sure of his decision. There was no way I could argue. "Okay, but if it goes bad, we can sic Charlie on her."
He smiled. "If he's not too busy with that girlfriend of his. What's her name again?"
I slapped his shoulder lightly. "It's Makenna. Jeez. You know this."
"I've only met her once, Bella. You can't expect me to remember it immediately."
"I think she's important to him. So be nice."
"I am being nice," he protested.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"You going to let me hang these or not, baby?" he chuckled.
I beamed excitedly. "You're doing it now?"
"You said you wanted to finish her room tonight..."
"I did," I replied with a nod.
The smile on my face wouldn't go away.
With one last kiss he pulled away from me, immediately turning to go to work on hanging them up above the white, round crib that she would sleep in soon.
I stood back and watched, desperate to see that first moment that they hung completed on the wall and solidified her existence, for the moment they spelled out one of the most important names in our world.
Maggie.
Short and sweet, and leaving my options open. Because you never know.
Epic A/N ahead:
Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, and rec'd this fic. I love and appreciate every last one of you!
Thank you to my amazing prereaders; twilover76, claireoth, stephk0525, who are busy going through the new fic I'm working on. Yep, I said new fic. Eep!
Thanks to my fuckawesome beta dude, Stratan, for giving me just a slice of his nonexistent free time these days to go over and editing everything for me.
Thank you to The Lemonade Stand, Fictionators, Indie Fic Pimp, & TwiFicTrivia for all the support. xxoo
Keep me on alert or follow me on Twitter. I have no ETA for the new fic (I'm currently writing chapter 5), but as soon as I'm ready to post, I'll let everyone know. (at) JT040708