32
Things were weird, she thought. Carlisle had just left for work. He was a doctor, they told her, at the same hospital they'd taken her to just five days ago. Days? She didn't even know what days meant at this point. Emmett, Rosie, and Alice had arrived a few minutes ago, and she and Edward were standing in front of the stove making pancakes. Well, she was making pancakes, and he was staring at her. It made her feel . . . she wasn't even sure how him staring at her made her feel. She liked it, yet at the same time, it made her nervous.
"Ready to flip them?" Edward asked.
She pressed her lips together before she nodded and slid the spatula under the pancake and quickly flipped it. She smiled and looked at him. "I did it!"
He smiled wider. "You did. Now you need to make like twenty more just to feed Emmett."
She laughed and looked over her shoulder at his brother, finding him staring at her. She quickly looked away. "I can eat more than him."
"Yeah, I bet you can," Edward snickered as the doorbell rang. He leaned over and kissed the side of her head before whispering, "I'll be right back."
She watched him walk out of the kitchen, leaving just her and Emmett. Rosie and Alice had gone with Esme to get Beth up and dressed. She'd wanted to do it, but she also wanted pancakes. Sighing, she used the spoon to pour more batter on the griddle.
"Need help?" Emmett asked.
She bit her lip as she looked back at him. He was leaning against the table, a smile on his face and dimples indented into his cheek. She was quick to shake her head, but when he stood up, she felt herself tense, which was stupid, she thought. He was nice, right? He was one of her nice people. He loved her Rosie, he wasn't going to hurt her.
"I'm just going to refill my coffee," he said, picking up his cup and gesturing toward the pot on the other counter.
"Oh," was all she said.
He walked over and filled his cup, as he said, but turned and leaned against the counter rather than return to the table. "They smell delicious."
"Thanks," she whispered, gripping the spatula tighter as she looked back at him. "Why are you so big?"
Emmett smiled. "Why are you so small?"
"Just am," she muttered.
"Well, I just am," he snickered, winking at her. "I, um, played football at UW. They kind of insist on me being big. Made it easier to tackle the other team."
"Did you like it? Playing football, I mean?"
He nodded. "I loved it. Started playing peewee football when I was seven years old, thought I was the biggest, baddest out there. Won three junior championships, two state titles, and two national titles, but as much as I loved it, I'm glad to be done, I think."
"Rosie said you just graduated from UW, right?"
Again, he nodded. "Starting graduate school soon."
"What'd you study?"
"Business," he replied, taking a sip. "Not sure want I plan to do with it, though."
"Then why study it?" she asked as she flipped another pancake over. Smiling, she turned to Emmett. "I did it again!"
"You're an expert pancake maker," he said with a grin. "And I don't know why I studied business. Seemed like the practical thing to study, I guess."
She nodded and turned back to the stove. "Guess so."
Before she could say anything else, Edward walked back into the kitchen with Peter, Esme, Alice, and Rose, who was holding Beth. She felt her shoulders tense with Peter, unsure why he was there again. The way he watched her, like he was expecting something from her, had her on edge. Was he one of her nice people? She wasn't sure, not about Peter.
"Can I take over?" Esme asked, reaching for the spatula. "Thought you might want to feed Beth.
She smiled and nodded, shoving the spatula into her hand before she walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle, warming it under the hot water the way Esme had taught her. Once she was sure it was warm, she dried the outside of the bottle with a towel and walked over to Rosie, taking Beth into her arms. She could feel the way everyone watched her as she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, settling in the corner of the couch with baby Beth in her arms. She placed the nipple of the bottle into her mouth, and once more, wondered what it would have been like to hold Hope in her arms again.
—SfH—
Edward wanted to curse whoever had the nerve to ring the doorbell. But he didn't. Instead, he leaned over and kissed the side of her head before whispering, "I'll be right back."
Leaving her in the kitchen with just his brother was harder than it should have been. Emmett wouldn't hurt her. He may be a giant, but he was a softy in reality. Edward just hated being away from her for any length of time. It was selfish, he knew, but Bella Swan had changed him in ways even he didn't understand.
When he opened the front door, he wanted to roll his eyes when he saw Peter standing on the front porch. He should have expected the man to come over, knowing how he had warned Carlisle that Bella was unstable. Maybe she was, but weren't they all? Especially until they knew Sam Uley would be locked away and unable to hurt anyone, especially Bella, ever again?
"Kind of early for a house call, isn't it, Peter?" Edward asked, waving the man inside.
"Had a little time before my first appointment of the day," he explained as he walked past Edward. "Thought I would check on everyone here. Been a hectic few days, hasn't it?"
Edward hummed, but didn't say anything else.
"Carlisle mentioned that you just finished your first semester at UW," he added.
Once more, Edward nodded.
"How'd it go? Finals hard?"
Edward rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, Peter," he quipped. "You can stop worrying about me."
Peter smiled wider. "Pretty obvious, huh?"
"Yep."
"You know we all care about you, Edward, don't you?" Peter asked, and Edward had to bit his lip to keep from mouthing off. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to come at you like this, but we've all been worried about you."
"Yeah, so fucking worried," he groused, folding his arms in front of him. "It wasn't my fault, right? It was a stupid accident, wasn't it?"
"Yes, and yes," he admitted.
"Look, logically, I understand that," Edward said, trying to keep from weeping.
He had spent the last three years keeping his emotions locked inside, yet all of the sudden, he found himself crying like a baby every five minutes. It didn't take a genius to figure out why, either. For the first time in three years, he found himself feeling again, all because Bella Swan made him want to feel again.
"But you weren't there. None of you were there, Peter," he said, frowning. "I saw the look on their faces when they picked me up from school, the disappointment in her eyes," he murmured. "She'd never looked at me like that before, and before I could, I don't know, make it better, they were gone. So I'm sorry if I'm little fucked in the head right now."
"Nobody thinks you're fucked in the head, as you put it, Edward."
Sighing, he turned and looked at the base of the stairs where Esme, Alice, and Rosalie stood, the latter with Beth in her arms. "Don't you? I see the way you look at me, Esme. The way you and everyone avoid talking about Mom and Dad around me, because I might get upset."
"Well, to be fair, you do tend to get upset when we talk about Elizabeth and Anthony," Alice quipped.
Edward felt his shoulders tense. "I know, but not talking about them isn't any better. I miss them," he whimpered, blowing out a heavy breath as his eyes filled with tears yet again. "Especially right now. Mom . . . Well, Mom would know how to help . . . help her, and I need to help her, so . . ."
"Elizabeth would have loved that girl so hard the broken pieces would be put back together," Esme agreed, walking over to Edward and placing her hand against his cheek. "And she never would have wanted you to hate yourself, either. She loved her boys, Edward, with every part of her."
"I just . . . I just miss her," he whispered, sniffing back his tears.
"So do I," Esme murmured. "Now, let's go help Bella finish making breakfast. Beth is hungry, and I think she wants her Aunt Bella to take care of her."
"Aunt Bella, huh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Esme grinned, but didn't say anything as she motioned for them to head into the kitchen.
—SfH—
Jasper tapped his nails on the top of his desk, staring at his inbox. He was waiting for notification from the lab that they had gotten the DNA results back on baby Hope/Vanessa. Two days had passed, and they only had a handful of hours left to file charges against Sam Uley, and they desperately needed the results if they hoped to keep him locked away. Sure, they still had the assault charges on him for his attack on James Swan, but there was no way a judge would hold him without bail based just on those charges. Sam Uley's record was clean — too clean, and they needed a match to prove that he had raped Bella Swan.
"Cullen," Garrett barked, drawing his attention from the computer screen to the man's office, where he tilted his head for him to join him.
Sighing, Jasper picked up his coffee cup and stood up, ignoring the looks from his co-workers. He wasn't an idiot. They'd already considered him a selfish asshole, but he'd been downright hateful over the late two days. They had to keep Sam Uley off the streets, and he and Garrett seemed to be the only two who gave two fucks.
Yorke had filed an official complaint against Jasper for being too 'aggressive'. AKA slamming the motherfucker against the wall. Newton and Crowley had backed up their captain, of course, but other than a stern 'play nice with others', his superiors hadn't done anything more, much to Yorke's chagrin. They, too, hadn't understood how Sam Uley had gotten away with so much. Bella Swan had been one of their children, and they had failed to protect her. Jasper would do everything he could not to fail that little girl, like they had.
"What's up, Cap?" Jasper asked, stepping into his office.
Garrett closed the door before he turned and looked at him. "We got the results on our Jane Doe. Sam Uley is a sibling match, which confirms that Jared Uley was her biological father. Our best guess is that after Jared and Claire Uley were killed, Jane Doe was sent to live a foster family. She would have been about a year old, if our math is correct. When Sam took off with Bella, he must have snatched his sister, too. We can't find any missing girls who would have matched her description, though, and we don't know how much contact he had with her in they eight years or so between his parents murders and when he kidnapped Bella, either. But she would have known him, right? For him to let her have as much freedom as she had?"
"Yeah, I think so." Jasper inhaled a deep breath. "You know, a part of me was hoping we were wrong about Jared Uley."
"Me too," Garrett admitted, leaning against the front of his desk. "Makes you wonder how far back this goes, though, doesn't it. Was Jared's father a pedophile, too? Is there a network of sick, psychos out there just waiting to get their hands on little girls like her?"
"That makes my head hurt too much to think about, Cap."
Garrett scoffed, but nodded. "How's Bella?"
Jasper frowned. "She's okay, I guess. Carlisle's worried about how she's going to handle it if Vanessa is her daughter. Or isn't her daughter."
"Can't say I don't have concerns myself," he admitted, and when Jasper raised an eyebrow, he added, "She's fragile, Cullen. She's needs help, you know that, don't you?"
Jasper nodded. "Carlisle has a friend who has been evaluating her."
"She needs more than just evaluating." Garrett started to add more, but stopped when someone knocked on his door. He walked over and threw the door open, smiling when he saw Kate Denali. "Well, well, twice in one week. Aren't we lucky, counselor?"
"I don't have time to deal with you right now," Kate snarled, shifting her attention from Garrett to Jasper. "Where is our little girl, gentlemen?"
"We're waiting for the results from the DNA tests we ran on her and Sam Uley and Bella Swan."
Kate smirked before reaching into her bag and holding out a piece of paper. "Good thing I'm faster than you, huh?"
Jasper took the paper from her, feeing his heart race as he unfolded it. He blew out a deep breath as he read, "Vanessa is biologically the child of Sam Uley and Isabella Swan. We found Hope."
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