Here is the second chapter promised for today, see you tomorrow with the epilogue.

Chapter 15

Charlie and Renee just left to take Morgan out for breakfast. It's their way to give Bella and me some time alone.

"I love the snow when it's like this," Bella says as she sits on the backdoor steps. I watch her and see how she's looking across the backyard, covered in snow.

"Can I talk to you about why I treated you the way that I did?"

Bella turns and looks at me bobbing her head.

"I got a call from Charlie to tell me my mom and Ed were drunk off their asses. I was twenty years old, and had been living by myself doing odd jobs for two years. During those two years, I was still having people calling me or telling me when Mom and Ed had fucked up. I felt like I was the parent of unruly kids. I didn't want to be linked to her or him, at all. I didn't want the responsibility anymore and your dad more than anyone else seemed to keep me tied to them. I went and picked them up and they went from fighting to making out, both completely trashed drunk."

I tilt my head a little as the night slowly comes back to me.

"They were back to fighting for what must have been the tenth time. They had unbuckled their seatbelts and were trying to push the other out of my car. I stopped the car yelling at them to put the belts back on. Ed threw a beer can at me and I must have pressed on the pedal when it hit me. The car jerked forward right into your father's patrol car. I panicked and did something stupid – I drove away. I drove for about three seconds, before I got my head together and stopped.

"I didn't even make it past his car when I came to my senses. He talked to me about safety, because my mom and Ed didn't have a seatbelt on. He then reminded me that I shouldn't leave the scene of an accident. I even got lectured about having an open container in the car, and he knew it wasn't mine. He talked for ages before handing me a ticket telling me to report to the station the next afternoon. When I got back to the car my mom and Ed were asleep.

"Anyway, I arrived at the station and he booked me in and I signed a statement agreeing that I did wrong. A week went by and he came to my home saying I had been given a hundred hours of community service. I was angry that I didn't get a chance to say my side in court. I felt that he had fucked me over just like every other adult in my life.

"The day before I saw you, I found out my mom was pregnant. I was so angry that she was drinking and not giving a shit about what could happen to the baby. Ed and I got in to a fight; he said I should stop trying to pretend I was better than them because I wasn't. He said I would end up like my low-life father, being in and out of jail, drinking and hurting the people he loved. He said it was a proven fact that children of the state end up beating their spouses and children."

I stop letting out a long breath, I still worry he's right. I really never want to be that guy; I hope it's not true.

"I can now picture you running to me, yelling, Ed, you were so happy. I remember how my heart took off. I never understood until I remembered you, why it did that day. I seemed to hear Ed's words and my mind filled with everything I've been through. As I felt my heart and soul sing praise at seeing you, my mind could not shut out his words. I knew I could not hurt you the way I had watched and experienced the hurt in my life.

"You just stopped running to me and looked at me with your doe eyes. You looked so afraid of me. I hated it. I hated that you—someone to me I hadn't met—was judging me. I remember thinking Ed was right, kids can sense bad things in people. That something must be wrong with me, for my heart to react to a child, like that. Then Charlie caught up with you and I remember thinking I hated him.

"After that, I used to see you now and again. When you talked to me I felt a mix of anger and jealousy. You kept saying how great Renee and Charlie were and how they were nice people. I didn't see that, I only saw my own insecurities and bullshit. Again, I couldn't move past the thought that Renee was to blame for what happened to me when I was in care. I blamed her because she was, after all, the woman that removed me. Charlie had fucked me over, but I managed to keep my anger at bay.

"The years passed, and Morgan and my home life were getting worse by the day. I was working as many hours as I could, but when I was working Mom wasn't feeding or taking care of Morgan. When you talked to me, a voice at the back of my head kept saying that you were helping Renee and Charlie, and they were going to take Morgan away. I was afraid that like me, she would be hurt badly. I kept thinking she should be able to have the life that you were having, and it wasn't fair that she couldn't have that. Plus, there was the dread that I would lose her."

I stop talking taking deep breaths, hating how my mind seems to still fill with images of Morgan being in care, getting hurt, just like I and so many others were. I feel Bella's hand grip a hold of mine. She's silently giving me the comfort I need to carry on talking.

"Then James came along, he told me that he was a child of the state, too. I actually felt like he could understand my pain. You seemed to start talking to me more after seeing me with him. James and Jacob would joke about you liking me. It wasn't that I didn't think you were pretty. It was more like I didn't want any woman to like me. You know just in case Ed was right, so I pushed you away. You wouldn't give up, you seemed to keep coming back no matter what I said. I never agreed with what they said about you, in my head. It was clear that Jacob wanted you, but I wasn't worried knowing that you wouldn't go for him. For me they were the people that I should hang around. The people I couldn't hurt because they were just like me. In fact, I knew deep inside, they were darker than me.

"They knew what my home life was like, and they used that to get me on their side. That's how they talked me into helping them steal the cars. I think that's why I pushed you away more. I was afraid that you would tell your father or he would catch me stealing them. If that happened, Morgan would be hurt because of me. When he killed Riley, I saw it so clear on their face what you were trying to warn me about. Seeing you on Halloween worried about me, was almost my downfall. I was afraid for Morgan, for me, for you.

"I was so scared that everything and all the hurt came out, right at you. I swear I felt exposed when you were around. My time after that seemed to be filled with all the emotions that I stopped myself from feeling in my own life. I could understand your hate for James, and I was jealous that you seemed to have such strong emotions for him. I was hurting and just like the prick asshole I was, I lashed out at you."

I close my eyes and my mind takes me through all the things I've done and said. As I have these flashes, I know I don't deserve her forgiveness.

"Edward," Bella sobs out.

I look to her for the first time, seeing she is crying.

"I'm sorry," I say again. The words just don't seem good enough for what I put her through.

"You weren't as bad as what you think you were to me. I never picked up on any dislike you had for me. You were just indifferent to me that was until James arrived. I could see him trying so hard to make you like he was, but I saw you with Morgan. I saw the boy that I knew so well. He was there under all the hurt and anger. It was part my fault I could see that my talking non-stop was not what you wanted or needed at the time. However, I promised Morgan so I kept trying harder. You never really said anything to me."

I chuckle out a dark laugh. "That's the problem, I should've stopped them. Just the way they talked shit about you, when you did nothing to warrant their abuse at all, should've made me stick up for you."

"That's sometimes harder than what people think. It's hard to be the one to stand up, speak out first. James wanted you as a friend; he wanted to take my best friend away from me. He's so good at playing the part of the hurt, lost boy. Now we need to move on, and you need to learn how to deal with your emotions. Helping you is something—if you'd like—I could help you with."

"I would like that," I say softly.

Bella smiles at me and then out of the blue hugs me. The second her small arms are around me, I hug her back.

"Come on, let's play in the snow," Bella says getting up and running into the middle of the backyard.

Before I can stand she picks up some snow and throws it at me. I wipe my face clear of the snow to see that she has another one. I chuckle jumping out the way as it's flying at me.

"Little Bit, remember, I always win this game."

"Well, I'm bigger now," she says throwing a third snowball at me.

"You asked for it," I say swooping down and getting a snowball of my own. I roll on the ground and throw it hitting her on the first try.

When Charlie, Renee and Morgan come home, I'm a little stunned to see them join us in our game. After we all play a while, we build a snowman family. After we decorate and name them, we go in to get warmed up and dried off. We decide to play a few board games together, before Charlie leaves to go to work.

The next few days seem to follow much the same; without all the heavy, of course. Charlie, Renee and Bella, make Morgan and I feel like we're a part of the family.

I have had my first talk with Rose, who's also Bella's therapist. She has agreed to see me weekly for now. For the first time in my life, I feel safe and happy. It just saddens me that Morgan and I could've had this sooner, if I'd just taken my head out my ass.

Since tonight is New Year's Eve, it's Bella's and my first date. Charlie strangely gives me two talks: one as a father giving a man rules about dating his daughter. This one I expected, but the second was a father who was giving his son advice. I was so touched by this that I started to get a little choked up. I've never had a talk like that before; I've never had any sort of parent and child talk.

I knock on Bella's bedroom door—well my bedroom, too—and she opens it. I look her up and down seeing she looks so unbelievably beautiful. I really can't believe how lucky I am.

"You look amazing," I say stepping forward to kiss the side of her face. "And these are for you," I tell her handing her the lilies I picked up earlier today for her.

"They're beautiful."

"You're beautiful," I say huskily as she says thank you.

"I'll put them in some water, and then we can head out."

I bob my head as we walk downstairs.

"I wanna go, can I go, too?" Morgan whines as we enter the living room.

"Sorry, Baby girl, not this time," I tell her as I bend down to her level.

She pushes out her bottom lip at me and crosses her arms.

"Tomorrow, you and I will do something, just the two of us, okay?"

Morgan sighs but thankfully she nods in agreement.

"Be good," I whisper in her ear. I stand up seeing Bella hug her parents.

"Have a good time, and call if you need us," Charlie says as he switches on his police radio.

"We'll be fine; there's no need to listen to that," Bella says and Charlie just looks at her.

"I've always done this when you're out at night; why would I stop now?"

Bella shrugs and tilts her head toward the door. I pick up our jackets and the keys to Renee's car, which she said we could use tonight.

The drive to the cinema is short, but the line for purchasing tickets is really long. I'm grateful for the advice Charlie had given me the other day – he said buy your tickets in advance, so I did.

After the movie, we are going out for dinner, so we only pick up some drinks before heading into the theater and taking our seats.

As the movie plays, Bella hugs against me, and it causes a warm tingling feeling to grow inside of me.

Once the movie's over, I'm reluctant to break this closeness, but we have dinner plans. We head over to the restaurant where I've booked us a table. Bella and I talk so much that by the time we eat, our meals are cold. I was worried at first about the cold food, but it didn't seem to bother Bella at all.

After eating we decide to take a walk along the park, to see all of the lights off the water.

"Do you have any New Year's resolutions?" Bella asks me and I nod.

"My resolution is to strive to be a better person. To buckle down and to grasp the partnership that Aro has given me with two hands." I stop walking and frown.

"What?" Bella asks.

"How did he know I wanted to be an architect?"

Bella gives me an innocent look, but I know now this was her doing.

"You told him, didn't you?"

"Maybe ... Marcus has been telling Aro he wants to retire, which means that he was going to have to look for someone anyway. Besides, he had already seen some of your drawings. Marcus said that you changed some of his designs making them better."

I smile and nod at her. "Thank you for putting in a word for me and helping me get this opportunity. What about you, any resolutions?"

"Don't know really, how about find a job or what I want to do in life," Bella says with a shrug.

"I thought you wanted to go to college and major in English literature?"

"You remembered?" Bella says lightly.

"I always remember our talks."

Bella just looks at me with her mouth open a little.

"I may not have wanted you to talk to me, but I seem to remember what we talked about."

"I'm not sure. I enjoyed working with Morgan's class, so ..." Bella shrugs a little.

"I remember when you told me your dream job was to work in a toy shop." I smile at the end.

"I still would love that."

"No rush, you know. You still have time to think about it?"

"That's true, I do have time."

We start to walk again.

"I'm going to miss you when I start working again. It's going be weird not being around you so much."

"You'll more than likely be grateful for the male company."

"Yeah, that is a bonus."

I look to my watch seeing it's only a few minutes to midnight. I pull Bella around to face me.

"For the first time in my life I'm looking forward to what the next year will bring. These past two months have been difficult, but I would gladly go through them again because it opened my heart, mind and soul to you. I know that I've always loved you, even if I didn't remember. As scary as I find it, I am in love with you. You're who I want to spend my life with."

"I have always loved you. I think I've always been in love with you," she responds.

I smile kissing her lips. What starts off as small chaste kisses heats up as we cling together.

I can hear the fireworks going off, and it tells me it's now January first. Even the loud booms and cheers from others around the area don't pull us apart. After several minutes of kissing this girl and working us both into panting breaths, we finally pull apart.

I put my forehead to hers; our faces are so close that when I open my eyes she is blurry.

"Are you ready to go home, Little Bit?" I whisper out.

"I am," she says touching her lips back to mine.

I kiss her again and hold her close to me, before making our way back to the car.

A/N: So what are your thoughts? Did you like the way they spend New Year's? The final chapter will post tomorrow. Feel free to join us on Facebook, if you want. the group we use there is TeamAllTwilight & AndTAT Fan Fiction.