Disclaimer: Stephenie owns all things Twilight.

Chapter 19 - Fightin' Words

BPOV

I swore that I could quite literally feel my blood boiling as I drove back to my house. I was furious with Edward for showing up unannounced and with Emmett for keeping a secret from me. Then of course, I was pissed with myself because I shouldn't have been mad at either of them.

I should have been ecstatic that Edward was back. That he had taken the initiative and did what was best for his son. For the most part, I was happy he had returned. Kind of. I suppose I was upset because he didn't tell me, even though he knew I hated surprises, especially the life-altering kind.

It was as if my car drove home of its own accord; I was in my driveway before I remembered I'd left Edward's. As soon as the front door slammed Masen's arms were wrapped around my waist.

"Where did you go?" His face was pressed against my stomach, his voice muffled.

"I had to talk to someone." I smoothed his hair and kissed the top of his head. He released my waist and took my hand, smiling sweetly up at me.

"How'd it go?" Emmett leaned against the wall, an apologetic look on his face.

"My hand hurts," I said with a hint of a smile.

My brother nodded appreciatively. "That's my girl," he said softly. "I'm going to Rose's."

"Why does your hand hurt, Mama?" Masen asked me, his voice concerned. "Do you need a Band-Aid?"

"No… just a big ole kiss!" I bent down and scooped him into my arms. He giggled as I tickled and kissed him repeatedly. If I could only hear his laugh for the rest of my days they would surely be my happiest ones.

EPOV

Saturday morning dawned unusually bright. I squinted against the sunlight that flowed into the family room. I had fallen asleep there after my encounter with Bella; EJ had ended up curled up behind my knees. He jumped off the couch and slipped down the hall, mewling loudly; I groaned.

We had no food.

~*~

I checked my phone and found that my earlier suspicions were true. Alice would be arriving in Port Angeles early in the afternoon. Bella had also sent me a message with the time of Masen's game. I showered and dressed quickly, then left EJ to wander the house and made my way to the only grocery store in town.

The small store was conveniently empty except for a handful of blue-hairs and a few mothers and their children. I traveled up and down each aisle, randomly grabbing things off shelves. Since I didn't have anything, I just grabbed everything I thought I might need until it looked like I would need another cart.

"Well, shit," I mumbled, and looked around for another cart. I didn't have a chance to grab one before I came face to face with James.

Fuck, I really didn't like that guy.

"Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me!" he groused, voice loud enough that a little old woman passing us gave me a very dirty look. I stared at her wide-eyed and she shook her head and kept walking.

"Listen, I don't think the middle of Kroger is the right place to do… whatever." I tried to maneuver my cart around him, but he stepped right in front of me, stopping the cart with his foot.

"Why are you here?"

"Groceries. It's a grocery store," I said, emphasizing the words, and he rolled his eyes. Yes, I was being a jackass. I didn't really care.

"In Forks. What are you doing here in Forks." He crossed his arms. I sighed and leaned my head against the handle of the cart, then regretted that decision immediately. I'd seen kids chew on these things, for Pete's sake…

"I'm here to be in my son's life. That's all." I threw my hands up for effect, surrendering to him. "I'm not here to mess anything up for you."

"Does Bella know you're here?" he asked, his snide tone starting to piss me off.

"She came by last night," I replied, my mouth automatically curving into a smirk before I could stop it. I watched James' eyes widen as the blood crept up his face and I felt fairly satisfied with myself.

I shouldn't have.

James took a deep breath, ran his hand over his short hair, and then licked his lips. His eyes had turned colder than they were the first time we'd met.

"You know," he began, and shoved his hands in his pockets and smirked at me, "I've been meaning to ask you something…" He trailed off, waiting for me to respond.

"Yes?" I sighed.

"I know you and Bella, as much as it makes me want to puke, lost your virginities to each other, am I right?"

Is this guy fucking serious? I nodded curtly in answer to his question. I mean, it was true, we had been each other's first. But really, I had no idea where he was going with his inquiries, unless… he was simply trying to piss me off.

"Well, I was wondering – I mean, she does this awesome thing with her tongue when she's -"

He probably would have gotten to finish his sentence if my fist hadn't chosen that exact moment to connect with his face.

Apparently he was trying to piss me off.

After the first time my first connected with his jaw I blacked out. It was like I was sitting on top of the cereal and granola shelf watching the whole scene play out.

My initial blow knocked James into a display of cornflakes. He struggled to get up but I grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him against the metal shelves causing boxes to fall around us. He swung out wildly, catching me just above my eyebrow but it didn't phase me. I hit him again and watched his blood make surprisingly pretty spatters on the cardboard boxes behind his head.

I don't know how many times I hit him or how he ended up a heap on the ground with his arms over his head. My vision had blurred and my knuckles ached from the multiple collisions with James' face.

I don't know why I hit him; Bella didn't belong to me, she wasn't my property. But fuck, something inside me snapped when he started talking about her like that. It wasn't right and I wanted him to shut his stupid mouth.

It wasn't until I felt a pair of arms wrap around my torso, pinning my arms to my body, that I actually stopped swinging.

"Take it easy, friend," a familiar voice soothed as the body it was connected to held me to the cold tile. I could feel a knee in my back as metal rings snapped around my wrists.

When he yanked me up and turned me around I came face to face with Jasper.

"Oh, hey, Whitlock," I grinned.

He shook his head and fought a smile. "Dude…" He opened the door of his cruiser and pushed my head down like we were in the Forks version of Cops.

"How's it going, man?" I asked through the cage that separated us. I could see him smile in the rearview mirror but he didn't turn around.

"You know I just arrested you, right?" His voice was amused.

"Did you read me my rights?" I asked, confused.

"Um… yeah, while I had you pinned on the ground."

"Oh." I leaned against the harsh upholstery and sighed. "Well, fuck me."

"I think you just did that to yourself," he said under his breath.

I laughed because it was so utterly ridiculous… and absolutely true.

Jasper was quiet as he booked me (fingerprints and all) and ushered me into one of the two small holding cells in the Forks Police station. I sat on the grungy-looking bed and gazed around at the cement walls. I'd been here before, of course. Emmett, Bella, Alice and I used to play in these stupid cells all the time when we were kids.

Renee, before she left, would bring us up after school to visit Charlie. Well, she would drop us off and go to Port Angeles to shop or go to a movie, but it was fine with us. We liked hanging out with the Chief.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jasper's voice broke through my thoughts about the time Alice had handcuffed Emmett and I together and then lost the key.

"What?" I realized I'd been smiling like an idiot.

"I just arrested you. Do you not get that?" He sat down in the rickety rolling chair and stared at me.

I rolled my eyes, stood up and crossed the little cell. He watched me apprehensively, like he was afraid I was going to try and break out or something.

"I get it, I get it. It's just – it's kind of funny," I shrugged.

"Do you have anyone to call?" He turned to the paperwork piled on the desk and I sighed.

"Just my sis - FUCK!" I cried, slamming my hands against the bars.

"What?"

"I'm supposed to pick my sister up from the airport in Port Angeles. In--" I glanced at my watch-- "two hours." I groaned into my hands as I sat back down. I heard the quiet tapping of Jasper's pencil against the side of the desk and then his loud sigh.

"I'll send someone to pick her up," he mumbled.

"What?" I looked up, shocked.

"I'll send an officer to pick her up. I'll uh – have to check with the Chief first, though," he elaborated as he reached for the phone on the desk and stared expectantly at me. I nodded. He dialed Emmett and I stood up and paced my small cell while I listened. Jasper didn't elaborate the reason I was locked up to Emmett; in fact he didn't elaborate the conversation at all.

After hanging up, Jasper asked me for a description of Alice, then called an officer with the details of her arrival. I used my phone call to leave her a voicemail letting her know that I wouldn't be able to pick her up.

Things were quiet after that. Jasper did paperwork while I stared at the wall and occasionally glanced at the clock and wondered if time could possibly move any fucking slower.

"Honestly, Edward," Jasper burst out, tearing me away from my wall. "What the hell were you thinking?"

I stretched my legs out on the small, dirty mattress where I sat and leaned my head against the cement wall. My eyes met his and, though his were clearly amused at the situation, there was also something else in them. Something I didn't care for at all.

I didn't want his pity.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to rid my retinas of the strange way Jasper looked through the thick metal bars that separated us.

"I guess I wasn't," I mumbled, running a hand over my face. "I just.. hate that guy. I hate that he's in my son's life. I hate that he's with--" I stopped abruptly and pulled myself to my feet. As I paced the small cell I willed myself not to think of her. Of him. Of them. Together.

"I'm sorry," Jasper mumbled after an awkward silence. "I can't imagine what it's like."

"Don't try to."

"Oh, trust me," he laughed softly. "I would never put myself in your shoes. Or Bella's for that matter."

"What do you mean?" I leaned against the bars again and frowned at him.

"I just mean that I can't imagine how tough it is for the two of you to be around each other and not be like you used to be," he shrugged.

I thought about what he said, but I didn't see the problem. "It's fine, you know. That's the past and, well… I mean – it's not about us anymore."

"You really think that?" He raised an eyebrow skeptically and I began to really not like this conversation.

"Yeah. I do." I paced the cell again, pulling a hand through my hair.

"Edward," he sighed, shaking his head. "Do you really think you would have just tried to beat the living fuck out of her… fiancée if things weren't about the two of you anymore?"

"I just don't like that guy," I mumbled.

"Because he'swith Bella." He said each word carefully, like I was slow or something. Fuck, maybe I was.

Maybe I'd been wrong the whole time. I loved my son; I wanted to be in his life, to be close to him. I'd pushed my feelings for Bella aside. I'd had a lot of practice, since I'd been doing that for years, but as much as I loved Masen I know that he wouldn't be able to fill the void that was there. It was a different kind of love that I was missing.

"No." I shook my head back and forth quickly, trying to rid it of the thoughts that were going through it at that moment. Bella in a white dress. Masen with a little sister. A big white house where we would raise children and make love and –

"NO."

Jasper glanced up, startled.

"I can't. I ruined it. She'll never…" I mumbled and trailed off, not daring myself to finish the last bit.

"You both screwed up. I get that," he said softly and I turned to him. He looked different than he had at the bar, the only time we'd ever interacted. He looked sincere and… wise. "But, from what Emmett's told me - everyone knew that you two were it for each other."

"It's too late," I sighed, and slumped down on the ratty mattress again. "She's with James. She's happy."

"She's comfortable," he told me. "She thinks he's safe."

"Well, maybe that's what she needs," I replied.

"You were with her for years… do you think that's what she really needs? Or what she wants, for that matter?" He was leaning forward on his knees, a gleam in his eyes, like he knew exactly what she wanted. What we both did.

"You're freaking me out, Dr. Phil." I tore myself away from his all-knowing eyes and he laughed.

"Please, son." He ran a hand through his shaggy blond hair. "That guy's shit comes from books. Mine comes from the heart." He tapped his chest and winked at me.

"You're a weird fucker, Whitlock," I snorted.

"Thank you," he grinned.

"I just want to see my son," I muttered.

"Maybe you'll have enough time to get to his game," Jasper said to the paperwork he'd returned to.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Maybe, once your sister gets here your arresting officer will take you to get your car from Kroger and who knows, maybe the officer will need to stop somewhere on the way," he went on, continuing to talk to his desk.

I smiled.

"Thank you, arresting officer."

Thanks to killerlashes for just being you. And messynachos. You girls complete me.

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