AN: here's the next chapter guys :)
We left off with Carlisle inviting everyone to dinner, pretty slyly if you ask me ;)

Let's see how Edward responds!

Chapter 31

EPOV

I was rooted to the spot for a moment as Carlisle breezed past me after having not so subtly arranged for me to pick up Bella and have dinner with her in an intimate setting. I couldn't believe him. As the door closed I kicked into action, i turned on my heel and ran out the door after him.

I couldn't believe this. I loved the man but this was… this was beyond words.

I burst out the door and spotted Carlisle casually leaning against the wall next to the elevators.

'What are you doing?' I hissed at him.

Carlisle smirked at me. 'Calm down, son.'

'No. I told you the press is hounding her. Why would you pressure her like that?'

'I'm not.' He said, that same languid smile on his face.

'Dad.' I groaned, gearing myself up to have him apologize to Bella.

His hand came down on my shoulder and he squeezed it supportively. 'Look, I've seen the way you look at her son. You care about her. She is an amazing woman, but she's also in need of support. Esme was just about beside herself when she heard what happened. She could do with a surrogate family right now and this is a good way for her to start accepting help from others.'

'But… the press. If they see me arriving with her...'

'I know.' He interrupted me. 'And that's why I'll make sure to book Donatello's completely. They'll be discreet, Edward. No one will know.'

'Are you sure?' I pressed. I didn't want to put Bella in a compromising position. But I had to admit the idea of really being able to do this... have her out to dinner with my family... I liked it more than I dared to admit.

Carlisle nodded. 'I'm sure. Just bring her to dinner, let her have a family dinner where we can show her what it means to have support. She's doing so well, but she's still shouldering so much alone. I'm sure when Esme has some time with her she will mother her like no other ever has or ever will. It will help her.'

'Don't let mom smother her too much.' I grumbled, sensing I wasn't going to change his mind. Part of me also didn't really want to.

'I can promise nothing.' He said giving me a smile.

He gazed at me for a moment, then he turned serious. His expression turned grave and he placed both hands on my shoulders. 'Do you love her?'

His question caught me by surprise and I stared at him wide eyes for a moment, my mouth gaping. Was I really this obvious?

He laughed. 'it's alright. You don't have to answer me. I just haven't seen you this happy in a long time, son. It must be hard to stay at a distance for now, but just keep doing what you're doing, show her you're there for her, that you have her back and she'll realize what a catch you are.'

I shook my head. 'I just want her to be happy.'

He nodded understandingly. 'She needs to heal a bit more before she's ready to have someone else in her life. You'll have to be patient with her. But once she's ready… there's no doubt in my mind that she'll see you for the wonderful man you are.'

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face. 'Half of the time I think I'm just doing this because I enjoy punishing myself. But then I think of the alternative, of not seeing her outside the club and never joking with her again… and it hurts.'

Carlisle nodded. 'Did I ever tell you how Esme and I met?'

I shook my head.

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then he glanced back at Bella's door before nodding to the elevator. 'Walk with me.'

We pressed the button and headed inside when the doors opened. Carlisle pressed the ground floor button and the doors slid closed again.

'She was in her final year of college, I was just beginning my residency. She came into the ER because her boyfriend had put her there.' There was a hard edge to his voice and I stared at him in shock. 'She wouldn't tell me what happened at first, insisting she'd simply fallen. But then... she admitted she'd been pushed down the stairs by her boyfriend.' There was a shadow in his eyes for a brief moment, before he squeezed them shut. 'She had a broken wrist, bruised ribs and was suffering a miscarriage. She was pregnant you see.'

'I never knew.' I whispered, shocked at how I could never have known about this.

Carlisle smiled sadly. 'She doesn't like to talk about it. It still hurts her, losing her unborn child.'

'I can imagine.'

'I helped her as best I could. I got her fixed up, but it felt wrong to just discharge her and be done with it. I broke protocol and gave her my number. I paid for a hotelroom for her so she could get away from the asshole who did that to her. I helped her get back on her feet and she blew me away with her strength and her compassion. I fell in love with her, but I knew she wasn't remotely ready for that. She'd suffered at his hands and had to learn to love herself first again before she could love another. She started therapy, not because of me, but because she wanted to. And I waited, patiently in the wings until she was ready. It was a year later when she came to the hospital one night with a bag of my favourite cookies in hand because she knew I'd been having a rough day and she just… fell into my arms and never left them.'

I just stared at him, my mind reeling with all this new information. My heart hurt thinking of sweet Esme going through something horrible like that.

'She needed to have therapy first, she needed to learn to love herself first and be strong on her own two feet, before she could love anyone else again.' he continued, placing his hand on my shoulder. 'Give her time and space right now, son. And you'll see that when she's ready she'll come to you.'

I left Carlisle at his car and headed back to Bella's appartent, with his story on a continuous loop in my mind. I knew Bella wasn't ready for anything, she'd told me that myself. And me being one of her players also didn't make things any easier.

I definitely didn't want to pressure her into starting anything, though I knew there was more between us than just friendship. Before yesterday I hadn't been sure. Of course I knew I was attracted to her, but after yesterday, the way she clung to me, let me comfort her, the way she sought out my embrace… it confirmed everything I'd almost convinced myself of wasn't true. She felt something for me as well.

Though what it was exactly and if it could grow into something more… I wasn't sure.

Time would have to tell I guessed. I rubbed a hand over my face. For now I could just be there for her as her friend.

I genuinely enjoyed her company, so being her friend wasn't a chore on my part. I loved learning little things about her, like the way she'd rubbed the sleep from her eyes this morning, the way her nose had crinkled when she'd smelled the coffee, and the surprise in her eyes when she realized what we'd done for her.

I wanted to know everything about her. And by being her friend I could, without adding any pressure on her.

I knocked on the door and after a moment Rosalie opened it. She cocked a brow at me. 'Everything okay?' she asked.

I nodded and stepped through, pulling a hand through my hair. 'Yeah, Carlisle left.' Then I cleared my throat. 'His offer stands, Bella. If you want. He's booked a restaurant completely, so there'll be no others and there's a back entrance we can use so no press will know we're there.'

Bella stared up at me from the couch. Her expression torn. She wasn't sure yet.

'I can take you and bring you home. The press don't know my car and won't know to follow it.' She bit her lip. 'Or Alice could drive you, if you'd prefer that.' I offered. Though it pained me to do so. I wanted to be the one to take her.

Alice glanced at me in surprise, but quickly nodded. 'Yeah, that would be no problem. We'd really like for you to come Bella.' Alice said smiling at her.

Finally she sighed. 'alright. I'll drive with one of you.' she nodded, a small smile on her lips as she gazed between Alice and I.

Rosalie smiled too, proudly almost. 'Alright. Then I suggest Edward goes away again and we look through your closet to help you get ready.'

Bella frowned and glanced at the clock. 'it's only noon. How long do I need to get ready?'

'Well, let's see.' Alice said, 'Manicure, pedicure, hair masks, face masks..'

'Then doing your hair and make up, finding the right outfit, getting dressed…' Rose continued.

'Alright. I can see I'm no longer needed here.' I quickly interjected, backing away towards the door.

When they started throwing those terms out, I was gone. Before Alice could rope me into anything again. she'd pouted at me often enough to convince me to let her practice this or that on me when we'd been younger. I still shuddered thinking back on those days.

Bella giggled. 'run while you still can.' She laughed and waved at me.

I waved back and then turned to Alice. 'Let me know if I need to pick you all up.' I told her.

Alice nodded and quickly kissed my cheek. 'I'll take care of her.' she whispered in my ear.

I nodded, then left to head home again. I walked Mike for a nice long lap around the park, trying to clear my mind. Though it wasn't really working, at least Mike got a nice walk out of it.

At five I got a text from Alice asking me to pick her and Bella up at five thirty from Bella's appartment. I quickly texted back that I would be there.

I headed to the bathroom and quickly got ready, shaving quickly and putting on some slacks and a green button down, rolling up the sleeves to my elbows.

'Be a good boy, okay, Mike?' I pet him before grabbing his food and filling his bowl. I left Mike to his food and grabbed my keys and wallet and headed to Bella. Traffic was light for once so I made good time and arrived at Bella's building at ten to.

I frowned as I saw the press gathered in front of her door. I really wanted to stuff all their annoying camera's down their throats. But I knew that wasn't an option. Nor would it really help anything, except probably make me feel slightly better about what those assholes had done to her. Although I didn't know if these were those same assholes of course.

I waved at the doorman, greeting him before mentioning that Bella would be coming down in a few minutes and getting in my car, but I'd appreciate a diversion to make sure the press wouldn't see us leave in my car.

The doorman quickly nodded. 'Of course, just buzz down when you're leaving and we'll take care of it.'

'Thank you.'

I headed into the elevator and keyed in the code to get to Bella's floor. The doors opened to her floor and I stepped out, heading to her door. I felt slightly nervous suddenly. I wasn't sure why, it wasn't like this was an acutal date. My parents were going to be there for god's sake. This was probably furthest from a date it could possibly be. Still, nerves crept into my stomach the closer I got to her door.

I breathed in deeply trying to settle myself, then I knocked on her door and waited.

'Hey.' Alice greeted me, opening the door with a smile on her face.

I greeted my little sister, kissing her cheek. 'You look nice.'

She smiled at me and did a little twirl. 'Do you think Jasper will like it?'

I groaned. 'perhaps you shouldn't ask me that. I don't want to think about what he's going to be thinking when he sees you'

She punched my arm, and I protested.

'Shut up.' She groused. 'you know Jasper is a good guy. You're his friend.'

'I know. Doesn't mean I want to think about him and you… doing things.' I shuddered, quickly steering my mind away from that topic. I cleared my throat. 'Anyway are you guys ready?'

Alice nodded. 'Bella's just feeding Jake and then she's ready.'

'And Rosalie?'

'She left half an hour ago. She and Emmett will meet us there.'

I nodded. 'alright.'

We waited a moment before the sound of clicking heels warned of Bella's approach. But nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greeted me. Her hair was loose and curled into soft long curls that bounced with every step she took against her shoulders and waist. Her blue dress complimented her skin and clung to her body in all the ways that made every male part of me jump for joy. Her legs were bare and seemed to go on forever with the help of the added hight of her strappy heels. Silver bangles adorned her wrist and a necklace hung between her breasts, drawing my attention to her lovely cleavage.

A throat was cleared by someone and I quickly snapped my eyes up to her face. Her eyes sparkled with mirth and I was blown away by how beautiful she looked.

Alice elbowed me in the side and I grunted.

'Where are your manners?' she scolded.

I shook my head to clear it, and get my mind out of the gutter. 'Bella… you look… beautiful.' I couldn't find the words to express how she looked. Beautiful felt inadequate somehow.

She blushed. 'thank you. you look nice too.'

'thank you.' I muttered, feeling self conscious suddenly.

Thankfully alice clapped her hands, grabbed her purse, hooked her arm through Bella's and started steering us all to the elevator.

'let's go!' she exclaimed.

I nodded. 'there's some press outside, so I asked the doorman to make a distraction while we head to my car. That way no one will know you're inside it.'

Bella smiled up at me. 'thank you.'

The distraction worked perfectly and we got into my car without incident. I drove to the restaurant quickly, making good time and followed Carlisle's instructions to park at the back.

It was a dingy alleyway that did not feel safe at all and I stuck close to both girls as we walked the short distance to the back entrance of the restaurant.

Alice knocked on the door as I kept my eyes on our surroundings. The door opened and we were ushedered inside quickly.

'Good evening, Mr Cullen, Ms Cullen and Ms Swan. The rest of your party has already arrived.' The man said, taking the girls' coats. 'please, follow me.'

Ee filed after him and entered the restaurant. It was a cosy place, with red tablecloths and soft candle light. There was classical music playing softly in the background. In the centre of the restaurant was a large circular table where my parents, Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper were already seated. We quickly headed over and Jasper pulled out Alice's chair as I pulled out Bella's. She glanced at me with a small smile before sitting down.

My mother however couldn't stop herself. The moment I sat down. She sprang up and headed to Bella, pulling her into her arms tightly.

Bella's eyes widened in shock and for a moment she seemed unsure what to do, but then Esme started murmering softly to Bella and her eyes closed and her arms wrapped around Esme.

We ordered some drinks while the two women were still hugging each other tightly. When the drinks were brought out Carlisle finally spoke up. 'Esme, let the girl breathe, won't you?' he asked with a smile.

Esme pulled back from bella, keeping herhands on her shoulders.

'I mean it.' She said to bella. 'Anytime, anywhere.'

Bella smiled timidly, and I could see the emotion swirling in her eyes. Esme sat down next to her, scooting her seat closer to Bella and grabbing her hand firmly in her own. Bella stared at it for a moment, seemingly unsure what to do. But as soon as Carlisle started up a conversation everyone relaxed and started talking merrily. Bella sank into her seat and her hand stayed comfortably clutched in Esme's for most of the night.

Everyone was laughing and enjoying the food and the company. It was a night I would forever remember. It was a night I wished we would have more of. My family and friends loved Bella. And it seemed as the evening wore on, that Bella was starting to love us too. She was starting to let down her walls and open up to us. It surprised me when she offered a story of her own without prompt about her mother. Esme of course had encouraged her with smiles and I think it was exactly what Bella needed.

Calrisle had been right. She needed this. Needed to feel the support of friends and family in a way she had never been able to. We would be that support for her now. I was sure of it.

The longer the evening went on the more her walls came adown and it filled me with joy. We discussed everything and anything, until we finally settled on the club.

'Did they ever find out who was snooping around?' Carlisle asked.

Bella shrugged. 'Nothing on the camera's, sadly. But a security badge of one of the cleaning crew came up missing.'

'So someone could have had access for god knows how long?' I asked shocked.

Bella nodded, looking none too happy about it herself. 'They're overhauling the security and handing out new passes, so the missing one won't work anymore.'

Carlisle didn't seem happy either. Neither did I. It seemed too little... too late.

'Let's hope it was just a misunderstanding and nothing sinister.' Esme said kindly, breaking the sudden tension.

Bella nodded. 'I hope so too. But security is taking it seriously. We're putting guards on the managerial floor and if I'm working late I'm being escorted to my car.'

I sighed in relief. 'that's good.'

She shrugged. 'I guess.'

Emmett cut in then talking about how training was going and Bella smiled and focussed on him. I was grateful for him being able to turn the conversation in the right direction again.

We finished up our dinners and before I knew it it was eleven at night and we were ready to say goodnight.

Esme couldn't help herself and wrapped Bella up into a crushing hug again. I think it even rivalled Emmett's. Carlilsle once again had to step in, gently pulling Esme away from Bella. He then hugged her too, and squeezed her tightly. Her eyes closed briefly as she sank against him. I smiled at that.

Jasper gave her a quick hug, then turned to me. 'I'll take Alice home.' He said.

I shuddered. 'I don't want to know.' I muttered, which earned me a slap from Alice again. Jasper just laughed.

I rolled my eyes at her. 'what? I didn't say anything bad.'

She just rolled her eyes back at me.

'Shall we Bella?' I asked as she stepped back from hugging Rose and Emmett. I'd already said my own goodbye's to Esme and Carlisle.

She nodded. 'let me know how much the dinner was and I'll pay you back.' She told Carlisle.

He shook his head. 'No worries. It's taken care of.'

'I can't accept that Carlisle.'

'I invied you, I can't let you pay when I invite you.' He argued.

'Alright then, next time I'll invite you all and you'll have to accept me footing the bill.' She said with a small smile.

Well she had us there, using our own logic against us. Carlisle laughed and Esme seemed overjoyed that Bella had suggested we do this again.

'Thank you for tonight.' She said as I started guiding her to the backdoor.

We said our final goodbye's and headed outside.

Bella lifted her head to the sky as we stepped out of the restaurant. She breathed in deeply for a moment, closing her eyes.

She seemed so serene just standing there, that I didn't want to interrupt, but I was acutely aware we were in a dark alley where anything could be lurking around. I stepped up beside her, putting my hand on the small of her back. 'let's get to the car.' I murmured softly.

She nodded and let me help her in the car. I quickly got in myself and as we pulled out of the alley, I relaxed again.

'Thank you coming tonight. It meant a lot to everyone.' I told her.

She glanced at me. 'shouldn't I be thanking you?'

I shook my head. 'I know this was quite a leap of trust for you, so thank you for that, for giving us that trust.'

She bit her lip. 'Your family is really kind.'

I nodded in agreement. 'Carlisle and Esme are the best people I've ever known. They give their love so freely, and completely… it's a bit daunting at times.' I frowned at the road in front of me. 'when I first came to live with them… I was a nightmare. Lashing out and being pretty much an uncontrollable brat, but they never once gave up on me. They kept giving me their love even though I hadn't done anything to deserve it. It really helped me. I don't know where I would have ended up if I hadn't had them.'

She reached over and took hold of my hand, giving it a small squeeze. 'I'm glad you had them at such a difficult time in your life.'

I smiled over at her. 'So am I. And I'm glad they want to be there for you now.' I told her earnestly.

She smiled back. We filled the rest of the drive with small talk, nothing big or heavy, just little things about ourselves and things we liked or disliked. Before I knew it I was pulling into her parking lot again. She turned to face me, but I quickly got out of the car, heading around and opening her door.

'I'll walk you inside.' I told her, holding out my hand to help her out of the car.

'You don't have to do that.'

'I know. I want to.' I insisted.

We walked to her apartment in silence, staying close beside each other. At her door she shocked me by embracing me tightly.

'Thank you. for everything.' She muttered against my chest as she buried her face into me.

I smiled, revelling in the feeling of her in my arms as I wrapped my arms around her tightly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. 'You have nothing to thank me for, Bella.'

'still.' She mumbled. We held on for a moment longer, neither of us seeming willing to let go yet.

Finally she broke the embrace, and I quickly stepped back, running a hand through my hair to stop myself from grabbing her again. I didn't want to leave her, but I knew I had to.

'I'll see you at the club.' I told her instead. She smiled and nodded, opening her door and stepping inside. I gave her one final wave and then headed back to the elevators again to head home.