[Disclaimer] All things Twilight belong to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer
[A/N] Welcome back my lovely readers. I'm glad that some of you like reading my little story here. I know that it's pretty unrealistic but I have fun writing that way and as long as you want me to I'll continue with it.
This chapter is dedicated to Silvi86 for being my 600th reviewer. Thanks so much for leaving such nice reviews; I really appreciate it a lot.
**Chapter 32**
"How long will we have to wait for the stupid shrink to finally show up here? This is totally not acceptable to keep us waiting here for so long." Zafrina asked the police officer impatiently while I started rocking Lilly back and forth on my lap.
"Mommy, I'm tired. Can't we go home now?"
"Soon, sweetie…"
"Miss Penthes, is it really necessary that Lilly talks to the police too?"
She nodded her head.
"Yes, it is and they're not allowed to talk to her without the presence of a psychologist. It's pretty ridiculous. Everyone knows that most shrinks aren't quite right in their own heads…"
"So, everyone knows that, hmm?" Jasmine snarled at her as she entered the office.
"Ahm, I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have said that, Miss ahm?"
"Whitlock. You don't need to apologize for saying what you think."
"Kay. Well, I'm Zafrina Penthes…I'm the attorney."
"Oh, I see. That explains a lot Miss Penthes."
"So…what does it explain?"
Jasmines lips twitched into a crooked smile while she twisted her honey blonde curls into a knot at the back of her neck.
"A lot, actually. But, I think that we should get started now."
She sat down on the chair next to me and Lilly and cleared her voice.
"Hi Lilly, you remember me, don't you?"
My daughter raised her head from my shoulder and nodded her head.
"Yeah, I do. You work in the hospital but you're not a doctor."
"Hmm, that's right, Lilly. Do you know why you're here Lilly?"
"Because Daddy and Uncle Emmett hit each other…"
"Why aren't you typing?" Zafrina asked the police officer.
"Write down what she's saying."
"Ma'am, it's doesn't matter what the child knows about the incident between Mr. Cullen and Mr. McCarthy. This here is just about the fact that you want a restraining order that keeps Mr. Cullen away from his daughter and his wife."
"Yeah, I know. You still should write it down though."
"Ma'am, I'm not your secretary."
"Please, don't fight. Just ask Lilly what you need to ask her so that I can take her home with me again."
"Fine, Miss Swan. We'll do that."
"Lilly, can you tell me what your father said to you when he showed up at your house?"
"That I should come to stay at Grandma's house with him…"
I pulled her closer to me and twisted a wisp of her copper hair around my fingers.
"And then?"
"I told him that I wanted to stay home to play with Fido and he got angry." Her voice was barely a whisper now.
"What do you mean he got angry?" The police officer asked her impatiently.
"He…he…,"
"Stop talking to her so rudely. Can't you see that you're intimidating the child?" Zafrina snarled at him and his face turned into a crimson red.
"I didn't mean to Ma'am, but we're not used to question little kids."
"Let me ask her then, if that's okay with you?"
He nodded his head.
"Lilly, when you told your father that you didn't want to come with him, did he yell at you?"
"Hmm, yes he did. I don't like it when someone yells at me. It scares me."
"Yeah, I can understand that, Lilly. Did he do something else apart from yelling?"
"He grabbed my arm and tried to pull me to the car."
"Did he hurt you?"
"I don't know." She mumbled and started rubbing her forearm thoughtlessly.
"Lilly, would you like to have a bracelet like those I'm wearing?" Jasmine asked her and I wondered why the hell she was doing this right now. Had Ali told her anything about Lilly's upcoming birthday? No, why should she…
"Yeah, I'd loved to. Auntie Rosie lets me wear her bracelets too when I'm at her house."
"You have to show me your arm, Lilly, so that I can see if it will fit you."
"Kay."
She pulled up the sleeve of her shirt and when I saw the purple bruises on her wrist I inhaled sharply between my teeth.
"Take a picture of that. I want it to be documented that he hurt his daughter."
The police officer pulled out an old-fashioned Polaroid camera and took several shoots of Lilly's arm.
"Why is he taking pictures, Mommy?"
"Because…because…" because your father has turned into a lunatic and I have to keep him away from you. God, this is so messed up.
"Mommy?"
"I don't know, sweetie. Maybe he just likes taking pictures." Jeez, I sucked at lying.
"Your mother is right, Lilly. He just likes taking pictures." Zafrina explained to her and forced her full lips into the weak attempt of a smile.
"Is that enough?"
"Is it enough for what Ma'am?"
"The restraining order, of course."
"Am, yeah, I think so. We'll inform Mr. Cullen that he has to keep a distance of at least twenty meters…"
"Fifty would be better."
"Fine, it makes you happy. You'll get fifty meters."
I wondered if they would really be enough…
XXXX
"Are you okay?" I whispered into Ali's ear as I hugged her from behind.
"I don't know, Bella." She croaked out before she started sobbing in my arms.
I turned her around and pulled her closer to me, carefully making sure that I wouldn't put too much pressure on her injured ribs.
"You're not regretting that you pressed charges against your brother, do you?"
She shook her head.
"No, I don't…or I do…I'm not really sure anymore."
Slowly I cupped her face between my hands and wiped away a few tears from her pale cheeks.
"It was the right thing to do, Ali. Stop worrying too much about what is going to happen now."
"That's easy to say, Bella. My parents will be so pissed at me for doing that."
"Try to stop thinking about Carlisle and Esme. This is not about them. It's about you and what Edward did to you. He didn't even apologize that he put you in the hospital, for crying out loud."
"Yeah, I know, Bella. God, I wished I could just run away from all this crap. It's like I can't breathe anymore."
"I'm so sorry about this whole mess. If there is anything that I can do for you, you'll tell me. Will you?"
She nodded her head hesitantly.
"My sister wasn't too happy to hear that Emmett broke our brother's nose but then she paid the bail without blinking twice."
"That's good to hear. I'm glad Emmett won't have to spend the night in jail."
"He wouldn't. He and Riley were playing cards when Rosalie showed up at the police office to pick him up."
"Must be good to know the right people, I guess." I mumbled while I walked over to the sofa and sat down on it with a sigh.
"Yeah, that's right. I think that Emmett knows Riley from his time in the military, but I'm not sure."
I pulled her on my lap and planted a soft kiss upon her neck while I tried to inhale as much of her scent as possible.
"I'm glad that you showered." I mumbled.
"Now you don't smell like hospital anymore."
She chuckled slightly.
"Well, I've heard better compliments before…but not in the last time."
Then she leaned forward and kissed my mouth tenderly. A low moan escaped my throat as she sucked my lower lip between her teeth to nibble on it. How, I had missed to be able to kiss her. It was strange that I already felt such a strong connection to her although we hadn't known each other for very long.
"I love you, Ali." I mumbled against the soft skin of her neck before I placed a few featherlike kisses on her collarbone.
"I love you too, Bella, so very much. Promise me that you won't leave me."
"Ali, of course, I'm not going to leave you. Why are you so afraid that I could do that? You're probably…no, not probably; you're definitely the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life. I never thought that someone could care for me the way you do. I'm clumsy and fat and…"
"Don't call yourself fat, Bella. You know that I don't like that."
She stroked over my hips and my stomach until she finally wrapped her fingertips around the amber heart around my neck.
"You have my heart and now you can do with it whatever you want to."
"And you have mine, Ali." I whispered before I covered her lips with mine again. I kissed her slowly, almost hesitantly. Enjoying the sudden increase of my heartbeat as the tip of my tongue nudged against hers.
"Bella, can I ask you for something?"
"Of course, you can. Whatever you want, I'll make it yours."
"I don't want you to buy me anything, but I was serious when I told you that I wished we could just run away."
"You want to run away? Seriously? Aren't we a little bit too old to do something like that?"
She nodded her head.
"Desperate times ask for desperate measures. We really need some time away from my family. Please, Bella, I don't want to have to face my parents in the next days. My mother will probably cry and my father…well, you know how he thinks about the fact that we're together now."
"Hmm, yeah I know. But where should we go."
"Come on, Swan girl. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Don't suggest hiking. I'm really not that outdoorsy."
"I hate hiking. Can't we go just take a little road trip or something like that? I need to buy new rolls of cloth anyway and we could do that during our trip."
"Where do you want to go?"
"Paris would be awesome. You'd love Paris, but I guess that would be a little bit above our budget."
"Hmm, yeah…a little bit." Or a little bit more, who cares. God, I really needed to do something about the job problem.
"Penny for your thoughts…" Ali whispered after a few awkward moments of silence.
"I was just thinking about the fact that I still need to find a job."
"You'll get one. Don't worry too much about it."
"Zafrina says that Edward needs to pay support for me and Lilly but I really don't want to take his money. It makes me feel as if I still depend on him."
"Bella, no matter how much it annoys you. He'll have to pay...at least for the little one."
I nodded my head.
"Yes, I know, Ali. Isn't that weird? Now he can't even come near his own daughter anymore."
"That's a good thing, I guess. My brother is…well, he seems almost crazy to me. It's frightening. How can he hate me so much? What have I done to him?" her voice almost cracked at the end.
"It's my fault, Ali. He only is so angry because you're with me now. And I don't really understand it. He never really cared about me."
"He married you, Bella. That means he…,"
"That means nothing. Marriage is just a piece of paper. And I think that he only proposed to me because I was pregnant. Who knows, maybe your father even made him do it."
"I don't think so, Bella. That's just too much even for Carlisle."
I twisted a curl of her short hair around my fingers. It was so dark that the light of the lamp above us added a bluish shimmer on it.
"Your hair is so pretty."
She shook her head.
"I like yours better, Bella. It feels like silk. You have to promise me that you won't cut it off."
I promise, Ali."
I cleared my throat before I spoke up again.
"Are you sure that you want to go out of town for a couple of days? I don't want to leave Lilly here to stay with your sister and Emmett. Although they would surely love to take care of her, she's the closest to an own child they'll probably ever have."
"Bella, I really think that we need that; all three of us. Lilly is so confused because of this whole situation. I don't want her to think that I'm the reason why she can't see her father right now."
"Ali, it's not your fault. Stop blaming you. It's Edward's fault that he reacted like a complete moron. When I saw the bruises on Lilly's wrist, I wanted to punch him right into his broken nose again."
She planted soft kisses all over my face.
"I don't think that you could hit anyone. That's just not who you are."
"But, I want to protect you. I bet if Jasmine had been in the same room with you, she would have knocked him unconscious for what he did to you."
"Why are you mentioning, Jazz right now?"
Probably because she was completely pissed at me when I talked to her in front of the police office? And your life would be so much easier if you would be with her instead of me…No, Bella don't think too much about that. Ali said that she wants to be with you…
"Bella? She didn't say anything rude to you, did she? Look, I know that she's protective and I really don't need that from my girlfriend."
I pulled her closer and buried my face against her neck, while I hoped that I could be everything that she would ever need…
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
[A/N] Tell me what you think of the idea of the girls getting out of town for a few days. Any suggestions where they could go? Until next time…take care