Chapter 16: A Change in Character

EPOV

Honestly, ladies, let me ask you a question. 

How difficult can it be to pick up the phone and call a motherfucker, when you specifically told that motherfucker that you were planning on doing so, and as soon as you step foot into your apartment? 

I mean, it involves five goddamn steps.

You step into your apartment. 

You pick up the phone. 

You dial a fucking number, that you should have memorized by now.

You put the phone up to your ear. 

And you fucking wait. 

After I unlocked the front door to Bella's apartment, I opened it and stepped inside, only to raise an eyebrow at all of the people who were standing around in her living room. Every single one of them seemed tense with worry, which only made me begin to feel the same exact way before I started counting heads.

Pop. Check.

Whitlock. Fucking check.

Morris. Check.

Smith. Fucking check.

Chase. Check.

Davis. Fucking check.

Murphy. Check.

My heart dropped. "Where is Swan?" I asked everyone.

My pop pushed himself away from the wall that he was leaning against while he ran one of his hands down his face. Noticing the dried blood that was on his forearms and knowing that it wasn't his, my worry increased to another level as I looked around the room, seeing that the rest of the team had no signs of visible injury. "Son, I think that you should take a seat, so that we can...talk."

"Where is Bella?" I asked, repeating myself as I narrowed my eyes at him.

He lowered his head at my question, which only pissed me the hell off. The rest of the team looked away from me, causing my anger towards their avoidance to quickly elevate. "Fucking Christ!" I gritted as I slammed the door shut, the small amount of patience that was in me, vanishing. "Someone needs to fucking answer me."

My cousin called out my name, so I turned my attention to him. "Why don't you relax a bit and take a seat?"

"Are you serious with this 'take a seat' bullshit?" I asked in disbelief. "Where...the...fuck...is...Bella?"

Nothing.

My car keys fell from my fingers before I fisted them together as I started to head over towards Murphy, who rolled his eyes at me in response as he held his hands up in the air, staying put. "Oh, man. I swear to God," I growled, more than ready to fucking kill the kid. "Let me find out that something happened to her. I promi—" 

When I reached him, I was interrupted by Matt, who quickly placed himself in between us at the same exact time that Sarah grabbed a hold of my arm as it extended. Keeping my eyes on the rookie, I glared at him. "When I find out what hospital she's staying at, Murphy, you better go home and pack a fucking bag, because you'll be joining the same goddamn establishment after I'm done with you."

The damage that I caused him last time when he quote on quote let me win?

Child's play, compared to what I'll bring to him this time.

"Edward, I should tell you that Bella is fine," Pop whispered, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I looked over at him with a raised eyebrow as Morris let go of my arm. "Then where is she? I didn't get a call like I was supposed to when you guys were done, which should have been a while ago. I tried calling her but all that I got was her voice mail so I came over here, thinking that maybe she forgot or something and I see all of you guys in her apartment, looking like someone fucking died."

"You didn't let me finish," Pop continued as he lowered his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well, shit!" I snapped, throwing my hands up in the air. "By all means, dad! Fucking finish!"

Meeting his narrowed eyes, I swallowed, regretting my anger instantly. "Edward, I'm not here to receive your attitude. Let me know when you're back to behaving like an adult, so that I can talk to you like an adult."

Raising my hand, I held back my retort. "Adult."

"As I was trying to tell you, Bella is physically fine."

"Physically?"

Placing his arms across his chest, he nodded. "Physically, she's unharmed."

Ignoring his cryptic bullshit — that mind you, gave me no goddamn relief — I walked through the living room and into the hallway, a million thoughts running through my mind as to what could have possibly went down.

I mean, this is Bella Swan who we're dealing with here.

The chick could have popped a cap in someone's ass and said that it was a mistake, for all that I know. Bella could have probably popped a cap in her own ass, even. Or, someone could have popped a cap in her ass, and she could be in her bedroom right now, chillin.'

Seriously. Nothing shocks me with this chick.

As I was heading towards her bedroom, I heard the shower running in the bathroom as I passed by it with my Pop following behind me. I stopped in front of the closed door and raised an eyebrow at him as he stood next to me, nervously running his fingers through his hair. "Why didn't you just tell me that she was in here this whole time?"

"Edward, I think that you should leave her alone right now," he replied. "She's been through...a lot."

I laughed at the man's suggestion, because it was clearly insane. "You think that I should leave her alone?"

"I do."

"Well that's fucking priceless, because that's the last thing that she needs," I whispered. Facing him, I shook my head before I continued. "Look, dad, I understand that Bella has been through a lot, and I'm not saying that she hasn't, but the thing that fucking blows is that she's been through it alone. I mean, granted, the chick had Emmett and Jake, but think about it. McCarty didn't find out about that asshole father of his until later. And, when the shit was brought up, he snapped. He spent the last few weeks before he was brought in mad at her for withholding that vital information, for his sake. The support that she needed was nonexistent in the one person who she honestly believed would give it to her, even if she denied needing to have it. You don't know her like I do, which is cool, I mean, I don't expect you to. But I know that the support that she didn't receive bothered her, unconsciously. I see it in the way that Bella acts with her brother. It's different. She doesn't trust him like she used to, and it's the same thing with Jake. She still holds resentment towards him for telling Emmett what she wanted to tell him." Running my fingers through my hair, I rolled my eyes at myself for rambling. "I get that you probably don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but believe me when I tell you that she doesn't want to be alone. Even if she tells you that she wants to be, it's Bella we're talking about. I'm not leaving her alone. She needs someone." 

After a few seconds of looking at me in some type of a way, he nodded. "Alright."

I took a hold of the door knob and went to turn it, but growled instead when I noticed that it was locked.

Oh.

So, Bella has no problem in leaving the front door unlocked, but locking up the bathroom door is cool?

I'll never understand the chick's logic, man.

Placing my forehead against the wood, I knocked. "Bae, it's me, open the door."

Nothing.

I knocked, harder. "Bella, open the fucking door."

"Son, I uh...I tried that, for a while. She won't unlock the door."

"For a while?" I spat, narrowing my eyes at him. "Christ, Pop! How long has she been in there for? It's not as if you were born without a goddamn shoulder. Slam into the fucking thing," I growled before I did just that.

---

BPOV

My eyes left the dark red color that stained the skirt that was clinging onto my thighs as I heard the door slam open. Bending my knees, I wrapped my arms around my legs, noticing that it was Edward who disturbed the only thoughts that were running through my mind on repeat. "Hi," I greeted him in a whisper, my vision blurry from the water that was hitting my face. 

Keeping his eyes on me, he closed the door behind him and as I heard him lock it, I raised a brow at his own raised brow. "Bella?" he asked in some uncertain type of a way, as if he didn't recognize me, or...something.

I didn't blame him, though.

I hardly recognized my own self.

It was better that way, it seemed.

"Hi," I repeated, not knowing what else to say to him.

"Bella, what are you..." he paused before he slowly stepped into the shower. Bending down a little, he took a hold of my arms and pulled me off of the tub floor, mumbling a "Jesus Christ," as the water that was coming from above hit his shoulders. "You're burning your skin, baby. What the hell are you doing in here, all alone?"

I pressed my forehead against his chest as he reached around me and breathed him in, his scent a bit stronger and therefore calming me down a bit faster. Feeling the water that was hitting my body cool down, I groaned, missing the sting that it previously provided the skin that my clothes weren't covering. "Hi," my lips whispered over the wet fabric of his tee shirt, causing my voice to come out muffled.

Taking a hold of my jaw, he lifted my head up to his and frowned as his eyes roamed my face. "Hi."

Wrapping my fingers around his wrists, I leaned back a bit and blinked, trying to get the water out of my eyes so that I could see him better. His thumbs ran over my lids as they closed, helping me along, before he pulled me away from the spray. "You should...get out," I started, a bit upset that he replied to my 'hi' and that I now had to come up with something else to say to him. "The water is running and...you know...you're going to get your clothes all wet and then...you might get sick or something...pneumonia, or whatever it's called. I mean, I don't know...I'm not a doctor, but...I'm sure that it's not going to...end...well...if you...because of me. I don't want anything to happen to you because of me...I didn't mean anything to happen to you because of m—"

He whispered my name, interrupting me as his eyebrows scrunched together. "I'm already wet."

"Oh," I replied as I noticed that his clothes were, in fact, soaked. Turning my attention to what I was wearing, my eyes widened as they once again met with the red color that embedded itself into the thin fabric of my skirt. "Oh my God...I...what did I...I...can't believe...that I did that...why did I do that? How could I do that?"

Looking down, his eyes imitated my own stun as they saw what I was seeing. "Christ, Bella!" he growled as he let go of my face to grab a hold of my hips. Lowering himself down onto the tub, he allowed his knees to support his body as his fingers pulled my skirt off in some frantic kind of a way. "Where are you bleeding?" he asked as he tossed the wet fabric out of the tub, his gaze searching my pale skin. "Tell me where you're bleeding, so that I can stop it."

"It's not mine," I whispered, looking down at him. "It's not my blood."

His hands went to my hips and turned me around. "Don't be ridiculous," he gritted as I felt his palms roam my back, continuing with their search. "I can't believe that you didn't tell anyone that you were hurt. It's one thing to be stubborn but Jesus Christ, really? Fuck, where are you bleeding from? I don't see anything wrong here."

He pulled my shirt off before I placed my arms across my chest. "It's my mom's...or it was my mom's blood." Feeling his fingers freeze, I closed my eyes. "I guess that her blood is considered to be my blood, too...or, it was considered to be my blood. I mean, you know, since I came from her and all, right? Before she...left."

He turned me around again before he pressed my back up against the tiles, positioning us away from the cold water as he stood in front of me. "Bella, I don't understand what's going on with you," he started, his voice a little low as he tried to hide his anger. Placing his closed fists over my stomach as I went to push the kid away from me, he shook his head. "You need to calm down and talk to me, because this nonsense rambling that's coming out of your mouth is honestly starting to freak me the fuck out right now. I mean, I am trying to listen to you but you're not making any sense. I get that you're acting like this because something happened. I just need to know what that something is, so that I can help you. I only want to help you, Bella. I'm fucking here to help you." Taking a hold of my face, he gave me a small smile that I didn't deserve, causing my frown to deepen. "I'm not going to argue with you, or get pissed off, or even judge you. If you did something wrong, then you did something wrong. You're going to get over it, like we all get over it."

Brushing his hands off of my face, I placed my forehead against his shoulder and closed my eyes. "I, uh..."

After a few seconds of silence, he laid his own forehead against my bare shoulder. "Baby..."

"Don't," I interrupted. "Please just...don't call me that...alright?"

"I need something out of you, Bae. I can't take your silence right now. Give me something."

"I don't want to talk about it," I whispered. "I can't...don't ask me to talk to you about it, yet."

He nodded, keeping his position. "Okay."

"Just...not right now. Maybe later, I might be up to it, but not this very minute, yeah?"

"Okay."

I lifted my head a second before he followed suit with his own, so that we were looking into each others eyes as I wrapped my arms around his torso. "I'm trying to force myself into asking you something," I started as he placed his palms over the tiles that were next to my shoulders. "I just, I don't know who else to ask. I mean, I don't want to ask anyone else."

"You don't have to force yourself," he whispered with a shake of his head. "Please ask me. Anything."

Placing my forehead over his chin, I pulled his body into mine for its warmth and comfort, knowing that it had that power. "Stay?" I whispered, hating to admit that his presence calmed me. "I mean, just for a little bit, can you stay with me?"

"Are you kidding me?" he asked in a soft laugh. "For as long as you need me to, Bella, I'll stay. Of course."

"You promise?"

Leaning back a bit, he lifted my chin. "I'm not going anywhere, I swear. Like I told you before, I'm here until you tell me to leave. And even if you do tell me to leave, I won't listen to you anyway. I'm afraid that you're stuck with my persistent ass until I get bored with your stubborn one."

I smiled at his teasing before I frowned, noticing his clothes. "You're soaked."

"You mentioned that already," he whispered, running his thumb along my bottom lip. "Don't worry about me. I say that we get you out of this bathtub and into some dry clothes." I raised an eyebrow at him and he smirked before he continued. "Since you're naked and all, it only seems appropriate, although...me even suggesting the shit of covering you up is inappropriate and highly goddamn unnecessary, in my opinion anyway."

Wanting to tease him back but not finding the energy within me to do so, I placed my arms across my chest as I lowered my head. "Can you uh, give me a few minutes? I'll get out, I just want to take a quick shower first."

"Okay," he whispered, stepping out of the tub. "I'll go and get you some dry clothes to sleep in, yeah?"

"Okay," I replied, not looking at him as I closed the shower curtain. "Thanks."

---

EPOV

As I stepped out into the hallway, Carlisle raised an eyebrow at my appearance. I shook my head at him as I shut the bathroom door behind me, not wanting to hear the remark that he was getting ready to say, knowing that he was going to try to ease the heavy tension that built over my body. "What the hell did you give her?" I asked in an angry whisper. "Did you really find it necessary to medicate the girl?"

Following me into Bella's bedroom, he shrugged. "I only gave her a Xanax, Edward. Why is it a big deal?" 

"Why is it a big deal?" I asked in disbelief, looking over my shoulder as he shut the door behind him. "I find it a big deal because she's acting all...I don't know...wacky, or whatever you want to call it. And, I know that you know the fact of how Bella hates that fucking feeling, of not having any control of her emotions."

He took a seat on Bella's bed before he jumped out of it as I pulled one of her drawers open to get her some dry clothes. I raised an eyebrow and he shook his head as he looked around the room in some uncomfortable kind of a way. "What do you mean, son? How exactly is she behaving? I only gave her one pill."

Returning my attention back to my task, I rolled my eyes when I saw a pair of my boxers. As I lifted it, I laughed. "Well, I'll be damned."

The drawer held more than one pair of my boxers.

Now I know where all of my fucking shit went.

Taking two pairs out of the drawer, I placed them on top of the bureau before I turned around, pulling my wet shirt off at the same time. "Well, Bella must have taken something else," I mumbled. "Did you notice her calling someone at any point during the night?"

"Are you suggesting that she took illegal drugs?"

"I don't know what I'm suggesting," I whispered as I tossed my tee into the bathroom, cringing at the sound of the wet fabric hitting the clean floor. "I mean, she works for James, as do I, but...Bella spends a lot more time with the asshole. She thinks that I don't know about it, but I do. I know about every fucking meeting that she 'sneaks' off to."

"Did Bella tell you anything?"

I ignored his question as I nodded towards his arm. "Whose blood is that, Pop?"

"Did Bella tell you anything?" he asked me, returning my avoidance with his own.

I walked into the bathroom and closed the door a little to undress. "How did Bella hurt herself during the gig?"

"She didn't hurt herself, Edward."

I shook my head as I took my jeans off. "That's Bella's blood on you, dad. Don't fucking lie to me."

"If she told you that it wasn't her blood, it wasn't her blood," he continued as I pulled my boxers on.

"You expect me to believe what she was telling me in there?" I asked, walking back out into the room. "She's talking about her mom being gone, and how it's her mom's blood that's all over her clothes, or how it used to be her mom's blood. It doesn't make any sen..." I paused as he lowered his head. "What?"

Meeting my eyes after a few seconds, he nodded. "Her mom is gone."

"Well, yeah, I know that she's gone, dad. I mean, the bitch disappeared a while ago without telling her, which is cool, I guess, if you enjoy fucking up your daughter even more, considering the fact that she already sees herself as being fucked up."

"Edward, you don't understand what I'm trying to tell you. Renee Swan is gone, as in...she's dead."

Uh. "What?"

"Bella shot her mother."

I laughed at his statement. "Yeah, alright."

Keeping his eyes on me, he nodded. "Bella shot her mother because her mother held a gun up to me."

My amusement vanished as soon as he spoke the last goddamn word, because I knew then, that what he was telling me was the God honest truth. It spoke Swan, in a nutshell, and his persuasion of the matter was entirely unnecessary. "Jesus Christ."

"Yep."

Running my fingers through my wet hair, I lowered my head. "Holy shit."

"Yep."

Meeting his eyes again, I shook my head. "I don't even know what to say right now. I mean, how the fuck did that happen? Why was Renee there? Her name wasn't mentioned during Murphy's briefing. God, did I miss it or something? I would have recognized it, right? Shit, Pop, I thought that we had everything taken care of."

"Calm down, son."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Calm down? This is not a 'calm down' type of a goddamn situation!"

"Go and tell Bella that," he whispered angrily. "Better yet, go and show Bella how you're taking this goddamn situation, so that you can add to her burden, because you know that is exactly what is going to happen. You need to relax, so that she can relax," he continued, losing the edge to his voice. "I understand that Bella's been through a lot and that she's been given a hard fucking deck of cards, but we're all going to stick together and help bring her out of it."

I nodded as I looked away from him. "Where's the midget?"

"Lilly is sleeping in her bedroom," he answered. "Your mom tried to take her to the house but the girl doesn't want to leave Bella alone. She took one look at her and decided that she wasn't leaving, something along the lines of ride together, die together, whatever the hell that means. We all tried, but...you know Lilly."

"Emmett?"

He shook his head. "I didn't tell McCarty anything. My thoughts were on Bella when we returned and I knew that Emmett was watching the little one all night long, since Rose went to her mother's with your sister. I didn't want to bother the kid, knowing that he had his hands full with his son."

Grabbing a hold of one of Bella's tee shirts, I nodded. "Well don't worry about the midget. I'll take care of her and with Emmett, I'll talk to him tomorrow morning. I'm not going back to the apartment, I'm staying here with Swan, so if you can just do me a favor and bring some clothes over, I'd appreciate it."

"Are you sure about Lilly?" he asked with a small grimace. "I mean, she's..."

"Cool," I finished, laughing at his nervousness. "I think that I can handle it. No worries."

I mean, she's a kid, right?

It's not like it takes a genius to watch her.

And if it does, it's not a big deal, because as it turns out, you're looking at one.

Shaking his head, he followed me out of the bedroom. "I'll get everyone to leave."

---

BPOV

After Edward placed me on top of the bathroom counter, he took a hold of the boxers that were tucked into his own and went to kneel down so that he could pull them up my legs, but I stopped his actions by grabbing onto his shoulders. "Can you...not?" I asked as he raised an eyebrow at me. "I don't want to get dressed."

Pushing himself up to his feet, he placed his hands on top of my thighs and rubbed the chilled skin there. "Bae, what do you mean, you don't want to get dressed? You're fucking freezing and I don't want you getting sick."

"I won't," I whispered, placing my hands on top of his to stop their movement. "Can I just go to bed, please?"

Taking a hold of my face, he lifted it as I went to lower my head. "You're asking me if you can go to bed?"

I nodded after a second as I wrapped my arms around his neck. "Please?"

He groaned a "Fuck," as he grabbed a hold of my hips before lifting me off of the counter. "Of course you can you to bed," he mumbled, letting me wrap my thighs around his waist as he carried me out of the bathroom.

I let my legs fall from him as he laid me down and tightened my arms around him as he went to pull away from me. "Sleep with me tonight?" I asked, tucking my face into the warm skin of his neck. "I don't want to be..."

"I'm not leaving you alone," he whispered before kissing my shoulder. "I just want to turn on your night light."

"No, just leave it," I sighed, breathing him in. "I don't care about it."

His mouth frowned against my skin. "Leave it?"

I pulled him down on top of me in answer and groaned as my tits ended up getting squashed in the process. I smiled at the snort that escaped his throat before I frowned, feeling his fingers around my wrists as he tugged my grip off of his neck. "Come on," I complained, trying to reclaim my hold on him as his body left mine.

Laying down on the empty spot next to me, he took a hold of my searching fingers and interlaced them with his own before he pulled me onto my side, so that we were facing each other. "I told you that I wasn't going anywhere," he whispered, placing our hands in between us as he laid his other one over my neck, letting his thumb run along my jaw. "I'm right here, Bae, so no worries, yeah?"

"Yeah," I hummed with a small nod, keeping my eyes on his as I let my free hand run down his chest.

After a few seconds, his body tensed when my fingers reached his lower abdomen. "Bella?"

"Hmm?" I asked, tucking my fingertips underneath the waistband of his boxers.

"Not that I'm complaining, because I'm not, but..." he paused, his breath hitching a bit as I ran my palm against the indented skin that was placed underneath the elastic. "I don't think that...shit, that feels nice."

I knew what he meant, because it felt nice to me, too.

The hot skin of his chilled by the cold skin of mine.

The cold skin of mine warmed by the hot skin of his.

"I want to take these off of you."

"Bae," he groaned as he took a hold of my wrist, stopping the comfort that I was trying to give to the both of us. "I can't believe that I'm about to say this, but...tonight...it's just not a good night. You know what I mean?"

I shook my hands out of his hold and sat up on my knees, watching his eyes as they traveled down my naked body in a way that completely thrilled me. "I didn't mean it like that...I mean, not in any sexual type of a way. I just want to feel your skin against mine. I haven't felt you in a while and I kind of...miss it, you know?"

"I miss your skin, too," he whispered, looking into my eyes as he sat up.

Placing my arms over his shoulders, I straddled him. "Then let us miss it together."

"Together," he whispered, softly running his hands up and down my sides. "Okay."

I nodded before pressing my lips against his, for just a second, while both of his hands brushed my hair off of my shoulders. As I leaned away, he pulled my face towards his again and kissed me, for another second, as I took the time to push myself up on my knees and off of his lap. "I'm sorry," he apologized with a small grimace, taking my retreat the wrong way as he let his hold around my neck go.

I shook my head as I pulled him up to his own knees. "There's no need to be sorry. I'm just...impatient."

"You're always impatient," he replied with a soft laugh, keeping his eyes on me as he pushed his boxers down his hips. "And I won't complain about you trying to get me undressed, only if you behave."

I pushed him until he was laying down on his back and finished pulling the fabric off of his legs and feet before I laid down next to him. After turning onto my side, I closed my eyes as he pressed his chest against my back, placing one of his arms over my shoulder. "Thank you," I whispered as I interlaced our fingers together.

His breath tickled the skin over my neck as he laughed. "I wouldn't thank me yet, Bella."

"What do you mean?" I asked, opening my eyes with a raised brow.

"Well, I'm a fucking dickhead, who is currently naked, thanks to you, might I add."

"You're not a dickhead," I replied. "And, I'm not understanding why I shouldn't be thanking you yet."

"Because I'm trying to fight my body's reaction to what your body is giving it," he answered me, his voice filled with disappointment. "And it's really fucking hard right now, literally. So let me apologize beforehand, yeah?"

I let go of his fingers as I looked over my shoulder. "What are you talking about, Edward?"

He answered my question by pressing his lower half into my lower half, causing a small gasp to leave me as I felt him against me. "That is what I'm talking about, Bella." Pulling his hips away, he shook his head. "I don't want to come out as an asshole, but I can't help the shit, so I'm honestly sorry if you're offended, but you just feel too good. You smell fucking epic. And, you're a woman, with tits that I have memorized and with an ass that I know it next to my dick."

"You're so charming," I whispered with a small smile as I interlaced our fingers together again.

"I'm just keeping it real."

Pressing my back against his chest more, I hummed. "I'm not the only one who feels too good."

"Yeah?"

I nodded as I closed my eyes. "You feel...unbelievable."

"It must be the Xanax that Carlisle gave you."

Keeping my eyes closed, I started to slowly lower our interlaced fingers down to where I could show him that it wasn't the medication that Carlisle gave me earlier. He breathed my name, catching onto my mission as I let my thighs spread apart a little bit. Shaking my hand out of his, I placed his own against my wetness and licked my lips at the same time that his teeth bit onto my shoulder. "The feel of your skin does this to me, Edward."

As I lifted my hand from his, his fingers left me and went to my thigh to push it back down, causing my eyes to open as I looked over my shoulder. Giving his lips a quick lick, he shook his head as he let his mouth run over the skin that he bit a few seconds ago. "I don't think that we should do anything tonight," he whispered against my shoulder. "I mean, Pop told me what happened, and I want to make sure that you're...alright. And I know that you aren't right now. I understand that you want to talk about it another time and I'll give you your space with no complaints whatsoever, but I just...don't feel comfortable messing around with you when you're trying to hide the shit that you're going through."

"Can you show me?" I asked, changing the subject that I don't plan on talking about, ever. 

Removing his mouth from my skin, he met my eyes. "What do you want me to show you?"

"You tell me that you love me, right?"

He nodded. "I wouldn't tell you that unless it was true. I hope that you believe that, Bae."

"Show me," I whispered. "Show me what it...feels like...to be loved. God, that sounds stupid."

His hand left my thigh and came up to my cheek. "Stop being your own worst enemy."

"I don't know," I mumbled, closing my eyes. "I mean, after everything...I don't know."

"Look at me?" I did as he asked. "How can you not know the power of those eyes of yours?"

"They don't hold any power, Edward."

"Are you kidding me with that bullshit?" he asked, giving me a small smile. "The way that they can, alone, tell me what to do? The way that I can't resist their silent commands, even when I try to? The things that they've seen, that made you a stronger person? Fuck, Bella. You take one look at me, and I'm done for. Those eyes of yours are...beyond anything that I could explain to you."

"Show me," I whispered.

He pulled me onto my back and as he lowered his face down to mine, I closed my eyes. Feeling the softness of those lips of his against my cheekbones, I held my breath as he kissed the tears that fell over them away. "I love and hate these at the same time," he whispered. "I love them because they show me that you're affected, in some type of a way, when you're so hard to read. I love them because they show me when you're honestly angry, the pure passion that you have for something, or someone. I love how they immediately show up for retarded reasons, such as when you see a man crying. I mean, who the fuck does that, anyway?"

I snorted as I opened my eyes. "Seeing a man cry is fucking sad, I can't help it. Don't make fun of me."

"It's fucking weird," he whispered with a roll of his eyes before giving me a chaste kiss. I raised an eyebrow at the kid as he rubbed his nose against my own. "And this right here," he continued with amusement in his voice.

"You love my nose?"

"It's adorable with the way that it tries to hide the fact that it smells me, or my clothes."

I smiled as he kissed the tip of it. "Well, you and your clothes smell excellent."

"Your cheeks," he whispered as he moved on, running his lips along the warm skin there. "I love the color that they turn when you're at all flustered, and I love how you're going to tell me in a second that you don't blush."

As he lifted his face from mine with a raised brow, I narrowed my eyes at him. "I don't blush, Edward."

He smiled as he started to lower his head down to mine again, stopping the descent of his lips when they were right there, teasing my own in the way that they absolutely loved to be teased. "And that mouth of yours," the kid hummed, letting his toothpaste filled breath hit my senses. "I sincerely love all of the stupid shit that comes out of it. All of the sarcastic remarks that escape it. The way that it tells me off, or puts me in my place when I deserve to be told off or put in my place. The way that your mouth speaks to me and tells me what you truly feel, I..." At his pause, I wrapped my fingers around his wrists. "The amount of love that I have for it is...insane."

"Show me?" I asked in a whisper, watching his tongue as it softly ran across his lips. "Please, show me?"

His mouth pressed itself against my own a nanosecond later, and I closed my eyes and pulled his body down to mine with a moan, swallowing his groan as he took a hold of my hands and placed them above my head. "I can't get enough of your taste," he whispered in between light pecks before I spread my lips apart to offer him more of it, causing a lovely hum of satisfaction to leave the both of us as our tongues reunited, an act so...soft.

As soon as I spread my thighs apart to accommodate him as he laid down on top of me, he broke the heated kiss and lifted his lower body up from mine. I pouted at his shake of the head as he moved himself down a bit, placing the hardness that I wanted to feel below the area that desired it. "Don't test my willpower, Bella. You know that I don't have a lot of it when it comes to you."

I bent my knees and kept my feet on top of the sheets as I gave him a small nod, silently letting the kid know that I was going to behave. Running his open mouth along my collar bone, he lowered my hands down from where his own held them above my head. I raised an eyebrow at him as he placed my fingers over the pulse that was bounding underneath the skin of his neck, and he smiled as he laid his own fingers against my pulse. "I love this feeling right here," he whispered. "I love how it tells me that Bella Swan is alive. That you're right here, in front of me. I love that steady beat that it gives me," he continued, tapping his digits along with it. "I can't get enough of it's song."

I closed my eyes at his words. "You mean a whole lot to me too, Edward."

"And these hands right here," he whispered, kissing my palms and making me meet his gaze again. "I love how they touched so many people, in ways that you don't even realize. The comfort that they bring me, Bae, it's..."

"The same comfort that your own bring me," I finished, running my hands along his cheeks. "I get it."

I ran my fingertips along the edges of his mouth before he took a hold of my wrists with a smirk. "These stubby fingers of yours," he hummed, kissing my knuckles. "The shit that they do to me." I raised an eyebrow at him for clarification, causing his smirk to widen. "I love the urgency that they all contain when they want my shirt off. The way that they tug on my hair and demand more of my closeness, I absolutely love, but when they pull on my hair during an argument, it just ticks me off."

I hummed as he started nibbling on my pointer finger. "I thought that this show was about love?"

"I can still love something that pisses me off," he whispered as he dropped my wrists. Placing his hands against the sheets by my shoulders, he scooted down a bit more until he came face to face with my chest, causing it to start rising and falling faster. "And these," he continued, his voice full of appreciation. "Are fucking exquisite."

"Oh?" I breathed, mesmerized by his tongue as it ran across his mouth, in some hungry kind of a way.

Looking up at me, he lowered his face down to one of my breasts, causing my breathing to stutter as he softly ran his mouth around the skin that surrounded my nipple. "I want you to watch how it responds to me, yeah?"

Running my hands along his biceps to keep them occupied, I nodded. "I'm watching."

His muscles tightened underneath my palms as he grabbed a hold of my sides, keeping my body in place as he took a quick bite out of the skin that was above my nipple, and when his tongue soothed the ache immediately afterwards, I inhaled his name. A groan of my name left his chest and shook my unmentionables below as he licked a strait line across the nipple that he failed to give attention to a second ago. "I call it a talent," he teased.

"I call it a talent when you match it," I retorted.

As he flicked my other nipple with one of his fingertips and caused it to instantly perk up, I hissed. "Yeah?"

I nodded, completely distracted as his mouth enclosed around the nipple that his tongue tasted a few seconds ago. "It seems as if you have a talent," I moaned before I groaned as he let me go with a pop at the same time that he palmed my other breast. "Fuck your lips and your hands and everything that they're attached to, man."

He grinned at my statement before he ran his nose along the bottom of my breasts, tickling me with its sniffs as I giggled, running my fingers through his hair. "This is my favorite part," he whispered. "It's where your smell is the strongest. If I wouldn't end up with a boner throughout the night, I wouldn't mind sleeping down here with my face tucked underneath your tits."

"Charmer, once again."

Moving his body down my body, I kept my eyes on that mouth of his as it descended, so thoroughly in its act of running along my skin. When his lips stopped at the faded scar that lived over my lower abdomen, I closed my eyes. "This right here, Bae, shows me how goddamn strong you are," he whispered, interlacing our fingers together as he kissed the ill filled memory. "You're an amazing person, and you deserve the world, the world doesn't deserve you. I love the imperfections that you have, because of your past. I love the person that you became, the person that your struggles and grumbles made you."

I laughed and cried at the same time as I looked down at him. "Struggles and grumbles, though?"

"I'm not a fucking poet," he mumbled, narrowing his eyes at me. "And besides, Esme always used to say that."

I pursed my lips. "That definitely sounds like something that Esme would say."

"Can I move on?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, looking as if he was a bit irritated with my blatant amusement. "Or should we call Ma up and tell her about how you just dissed her words of wisdom?"

"And have to hear about her reefer smoking days?" I groaned, shaking my head. "No way. Please, move on."

Letting go of my fingers, he placed his hands underneath my thighs and spread them apart even more, causing me to gasp as I noticed that his face was right there, above it. "This skin," he moved on, keeping his eyes on mine as he ran his mouth over the area that the elastic of my panties would cover, if they were on. "I love the smoothness of it," he hummed, kissing said smoothness. "I love the warm indentation that's here at other times as I run my tongue along it," he continued, running said tongue along it.

"That feels..." lick of a Cullen tongue over the other goddamn side, "sofuckinggood."

Hearing and feeling a soft laugh coming from below, I narrowed my eyes at him and then groaned a "No," as he sat up, not wanting his time 'down under' to be done. Letting my elbows support my upper body, I noticed a small frown show up over his face as he took a hold of my right leg. "I love your forgiveness," he whispered, running his fingers along the small scar that was put there by his bullet. "The way that you deal with me, how it seems as if you don't mind dealing with me, I love it because...I don't know." Meeting my eyes, he gave me a thankful smile, and I shook my head at him, silently telling the kid that his gratitude wasn't necessary. "A lot of people turned their backs on me because of my bullshit, so I guess...I just...I fucking appreciate you, Bella."

Sitting up on my butt, I placed both of my legs around his hips. "I appreciate you, too, Edward."

He gave me a small nod, but something in me told me that he just wanted to change the subject as he looked down at my legs. "And these knees of yours," he continued, shaking his head as his fingertips traced along the scratches and bruises that were caused by my carelessness. "I don't understand how one person can have so many injuries here." Meeting my eyes, he smiled, which made me smile, as I started running my hands up and down his arms. "I love the rebound rate that you have, how you fall and can get right back up again, although, you are a complete hazard to yourself."

Placing my feet up against his chest, I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't make fun of my clumsiness."

"And these cold feet," he continued as he ran his hands over them, his warm palms doing what they do best as they rubbed my chill away. "I adore them, especially when they greedily shove themselves at me."

"Do you and my feet need a moment?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "I can look away if you want me to."

Running his hands up and down the skin out of outer thighs, he looked down at my toenails with a grimace, as if there was something wrong with their appearance. "Your nails are all painted, and with no chips like usual."

"Sarah Morris," I explained, wiggling me toes at him.

Tossing my feet to the side in some I'm done with you type of a way, he smirked as his hands grabbed a hold of my hips to pull me into his lap. Placing my arms over his shoulders, I hummed in now you're talking, feeling his body surrounding me as I wrapped my thighs around his waist. "That goddamn Sarah Morris. What are we going to do with her schemes of always trying to fuck up your shit?"

I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about what we were going to do to her.

"Right here," he whispered after countless seconds of stillness, pulling me even more closer to him before wrapping his arms around my waist. "I love the warmness that your body gives mine," he continued, placing his forehead against my own as I closed my eyes. "Do you feel what you do to me, Bae?" he asked, his minty breath numbing my lips. "The only body that causes mine to react like this, is yours."

Letting one of my arms fall from over his shoulder, I brought my hand in between us and ran one of my fingers over myself, letting out a soft moan, not being able to control the sound simply because it was that sensitive. I lifted my forehead from his and kept my eyes on that dark green color as I ran my digit's tip along that bottom lip that I wanted a part of, forever. "Taste what your body does to mine," I whispered a second before he did just that, allowing his tongue to lick what I gave him. "That's all you, Cullen," I finished, hearing that delectable groan of his.

Lowering his gaze down to our laps, he took a hold of my fingers and gifted them a soft kiss before he placed my palm over his chest and kept it there with his own covering it. Feeling the steady beat of his heart, I let my eyes close as Edward laid his forehead against mine. "I love you, Bella," he murmured, running his other hand along my right thigh. "With everything in me, I fucking love you, completely. You're it for me."

My other arm left his shoulder and wrapped itself around his torso as I pulled his chest into mine. Keeping my palm over his heart, I let my lips meet his with a frown, feeling the beats underneath my skin become stronger. "I feel as if you're it for me, too," I whispered. "But to...love someone, when you don't even like yourself, I..."

At my pause, his hand that was warming up my thigh left the skin there and took a strong hold of my chin. As I opened my eyes, he pushed my face back a bit, so that we could look at each other. "I understand that you don't feel the same way, Bella," he whispered. "I don't expect you to. This isn't what I'm trying to show you."

"But...it's not because of you, Edward," I argued as I took a hold of his face. "I mean, yeah, we fight a lot and all, but that's just what we do. You're beyond amazing. Honestly, it's me, I'm just...I'm a fucking mess." As he went to say something, I shook my head. "I don't want to waste your time, because what if I'll never be able to love you?" Dropping my hold on him, I growled. "I mean, fuck! Here I am, telling you that you're it for me, but I don't love you. What kind of bullshit is that? It doesn't make any sense! I don't make any sense. I mean, am I in love with you? Is this what love feels like? God! I don't even know what love feels like. How sad is that? I'm just...I'm a fucking sad human being, that's what I am. Christ. How do people deal with my shit? How do you deal with my shit? Seriously, how do I..."

And he entered me, in one smooth movement, thoroughly interrupting my rambling as it turned into a mile long moan that included my nails latching onto the muscles of his arms. "I deal with it by shutting you up," he gritted as he kept himself inside of me, holding my hips down as I went to move. "But fuck me and my ideas of doing so at this moment, because it's been a hell of a long time since we did anything like this," he complained, his grip tight as he placed his forehead over my shoulder to try to calm down his already wound up breathing.

Kissing the hot skin over the side of his neck, I closed my eyes as I wrapped my fingers around his wrists, not removing the hold that he had of my hips, but more than ready to do so in a minute or two. "You feel so good right now...like this, with you inside of me. I missed you being inside of me."

"Fuuck me," he groaned, letting his cool breath hit my chest as he kept his forehead over my shoulder, perking up other areas that honestly didn't need anymore perking up. "Please don't say shit like that to me right now."

"You fit me perfectly, Edward," I hummed over his neck before I let my tongue play with his pulse point.

"That's not helping me," he growled and then moaned something that gave me chills as he felt my mouth start sucking the beat that my tongue mingled with a second ago. "Christ, just give me a goddamn second."

"Christ isn't here right now," I whispered as I slapped his hands away from my hips in a quick movement. As I pushed myself down, a centimeter more, I smirked at his sharp intake of air when I took all of him in. "I have no problem with taking a message, if you'd like to leave oneohhhh right there," I groaned as he held me down and ground his hips up.

He leaned forward and placed me on my back as he whispered my name in reverence, staying inside of me as I kept my thighs wrapped around his waist and my arms wrapped around his shoulders. "God," the both of us breathed, him at the feeling of more deepness, and me at the feeling of his weight on me. When the kid began moving his hips in an agonizing slow rate, I took a hold of his face so that I could look into his eyes. A second later, he mumbled a curse word as he laid his damp forehead over my chin, pushing into me a bit harder while his hands went to the sides of my neck.

"It's okay," I whispered, immediately knowing what his body was silently telling mine as it trembled above me. Feeling the sensations that his lower abdomen gave my clit as his skin rubbed against it, I moaned his name as his thumbs over my jaw tilted my face down to his. "Cum, Edward. I want you to."

"No way," he growled before he slammed into me, causing my thighs to tighten around his waist as I kept him there. "I want you to cum first, Bae," he added in a strained voice, grinding against me for exactly five seconds before I actually did what he desired. "That's it," he groaned, feeling the clench that a part of my body gave a part of his body. 

"That's so it," I agreed before he pressed his lips against mine, letting my mouth swallow the small grunts that left his mouth as he followed suit, muttering random curse words along my tongue.

"So it," he hummed after numerous seconds as his body collapsed on top of mine.

"So it," I agreed, closing my eyes.

---

Next Day

EPOV

"Please unlock this door so that I don't have to slam into it again." 

"I'm taking a shower."

Placing my forehead against the door, my grip around the handle tightened. "Unlock the door, Bella." 

"I'm taking a shower."

"You've been taking a shower for the last two god...dangit hours!" I snapped. "Unlock this door!" 

"I'm taking a shower," Bella and Lilly repeated. 

Looking down at the midget, who was standing next to me as we both faced the locked bathroom door, I raised an eyebrow at her. "I really don't need you adding onto my frustration, Lilly. I have enough of it in dealing with Bella."  

"Well, you heard her, Edward," she replied in some bored type of a way as she placed her arms across her chest. "I mean, she's only going to keep saying the same thing over and over again. And, in my opinion, I think that you should just let her do her own thing. It's not always about you. It's always about Bella. That's my tip. And, I think that you're being a little overbearing. Slow your roll, dude." 

"I'm being a little overbearing?" I asked, fucking offended. 

"Is that what I said?" she asked, seeming as if she spoke a mistake. I nodded, and she shook her head. "I meant that you are being a great deal overbearing."

Before I could reply to that bullshit, the doorbell rang and I grabbed a hold of the little girl's pony tail as she went to go running down the hallway, which was a huge goddamn mistake on my part, seeing as to how Lilly screeched, with her arms flailing up in the air, acting as if she was trying to take off.

And it wasn't a 'chilled out' kind of a screech, like for instance, the sound that Little McCarty makes. This was a 'chew through your goddamn eardrum' type of a screech...that had me thinking that they were actually bleeding. 

Letting go of her hair, I grimaced as she turned around to face me in some quick as shit type of a way that had me backing up a bit, because who the hell know what Bella Swan taught this chick. "My bad, Lil. I wasn't thinking," I whispered, covering up my junk. "I didn't hurt you, did I? If I did in any way, yikes..."

"That's your apology?" she shouted before kicking my kneecap. I hissed in pain as I rubbed the hit and then groaned as she took off running down the hallway, like some goddamn track star. "I swear that all of you boys, who mind you, idiotically classify yourselves as men, were born without brains!"

Yep.

This is a kid who is definitely being watched after by Bella Swan.

It's written all over the goddamn place.

Before I had the chance of stopping her, she pulled the front door open and smiled at Emmett, who in return, narrowed his eyes at me while I limped my ass into the living room. "What in the H. E. Double hockey sticks is going on, Cullen?" he asked, picking the midget up and placing her over his hip as he stepped into the apartment. "You leave me some voice mail telling me that something went down with Bella, and I find you here?" 

Taking a seat on the couch, I ignored his question as he shut the door behind him. "Lilly, can you give me a few minutes to talk to Uncle Emmett?" I asked before I quickly added a "Please," just in case, not knowing if I was forgiven for my previous dumbass behavior of grabbing a chick's hair.

"And what do you expect me to do while you talk to this man?" she asked, exaggerating the man part.  

"I don't know. Go and do some chick stuff," I told her before I grimaced, regretting my goddamn words.

Christ.

I mean, to be fair, I have a lot of shit on my mind, people.

So, fucking excuse me and my behavior.

"Are you calling me a chick?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at me, like chick's do.

Emmett grinned as he looked at her. "Well, you are, aren't you?" he asked her, which was retarded.

And like a goddamn chick, the midget grinned as she took his baseball cap off of his head. "Can I wear this while you two boys talk about my caretaker behind her back?" she asked him as she put it on, trying to hide the grimace that I could spot from a mile away.

"Oh man," he groaned, running his hand through his hair. "That's my favorite ca—"

As a pout crossed Lilly's face, McCarty stopped talking. "Please, my favorite uncle in the whole wide world who is the strongest out of all of the rest?" she whispered in awe, making me cough a 'bullshit," as I tried to get Emmett's attention so that I could silently tell the dude to look the fuck away.

"Crap." 

I rolled my eyes, seeing as to how he was already bought the second that she said strongest. "Idiot." 

After lowering her down onto the floor, he pointed at her and I ran my hands down my face with a low groan, knowing that the chick despised that shit. "Alright, you can wear it. Just keep in mind that that's my baseball cap," he told her like it would make a goddamn difference. "Be careful with it." 

"Of course," she replied as I internally told him to say goodbye to his beloved accessory.

He scratched the back of his neck as he took a seat on the recliner, keeping his attention on Lilly while she skipped into the hallway. "So?" he started when we heard the midget's bedroom door close. "What happened?"

Wanting to get to the point, I got to the point. "Bella shot Renee." 

Like I expected, Emmett laughed. "Yeah, Cullen, alright."  

"I'll give you the basics, since I don't know the whole goddamn story as of right now," I whispered as I sat up. "Renee Swan was at Lazo's house last night during the assignment and before you interrupt me, no one knew about that little fact until shit hit the fan. At least, that's what I was told. So, blah blah fucking blah, her mother held a gun up to Pop, and your sister in return shot her dead with the first bullet that she fired, although she fired five of them." 

His eyes widened as soon as I mentioned the part where Renee held a gun up to Carlisle. "Holy shit." 

See, people? Bella Swan, in a fucking nutshell.

"Holy shit," I agreed. "My exact thought when I first heard about it."

Standing up, he raised an eyebrow at me. "Where is she now?"

"She's in the bathroom," I whispered, pushing myself off of the couch.

"Doing?"

Rolling my eyes, I ran my fingers through my hair, surprised that it wasn't falling off from all of the attention that it received since I woke up. "Claiming to be taking a long ass shower," I answered him.

He shook his head at me before he started heading towards the hallway. "Seeing as to how you care about my goddamn sister, you should know that Bella Swan doesn't take a long ass shower when shit hits the fan," he told me as I followed him. "Bella Swan burns her fucking skin off when shit hits the fan."

As he stopped in front of the bathroom door, I raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you doing?" 

"What do you think that I'm doing, Cullen?"

"The door is locked," I stated.

"You were born with two of these, were you not?" he asked me as he patted my shoulder. I grinned as he used his own to slam into the door a second later, instantly opening it. Looking back at me, his brows scrunched together in confusion. "Well. That wasn't as hard as I thought that it would be."

I shrugged. "I might have slammed into it last night, sharing the same idea as yours."

"Nice," he commented with a nod before he turned his attention to the shower curtain. "Kiddo?"

I grimaced, hearing Bella's scratchy voice echo throughout the room. "Emmett?"

"You decent?"

"Not at all," she replied behind the curtain. "Leave me alone."

"I'm coming in," he declared, ignoring her demand as he placed his arms across his chest.

"I'm naked, Emmett," she whispered. "I suggest that you think twice about your threat."

Rolling the sleeves up his arms, he laughed. "Well I suggest that you cover yourself up." 

"I'm good," she told him as I pictured her grinding her teeth together. "Thanks, though."

"On the count of three," Em started in boredom, like he was used to this sort of thing happening.

"Three. Two. One."

I rolled my eyes at Bella's count before I nudged his shoulder. 'She's not naked,' I mouthed.

"I know," he told me — in some irritated, leave me the fuck alone kind of a way, like don't you tell me what I already know about my goddamn sister — as he grabbed a hold of the shower curtain. After he pulled it open, he whispered a "Hey, Kiddo," with a wide smile, completely ignoring her glare...

That was directed at me, mind you. "Oh, come on, Bella. This wasn't my idea."

Stepping into the shower, Emmett bent down and grabbed a hold of her waist. After lifting her up from the same tub floor that I found her sitting on last night, he threw her over his shoulder with ease and rolled his eyes as she started thrashing around. "Let go of me!" she shouted. 

Ignoring her demand, he nodded at me as he stepped out of the shower with her. "Give me room."

I moved out into the hallway and grimaced as she started pounding on his back when he walked out of the steam filled bathroom, knowing that the shit had to hurt him in some way. "I swear to Christ, Em! If you don't put me down right now, I'm never going to talk to you again! Who the hell do you think you are?" 

"A brother who is not going to put you down, only to have you run back into the bathroom so that you can finish burning your goddamn skin off," he answered as he kicked her bedroom door open. "That is who the fuck I am." 

As I followed the two of them into her room, Bella growled at me. "I fucking hate you, Edward!" 

I threw my hands up in the air, exasperated. 

Was I the fucking one who had her over my shoulder? 

No. 

But, I remained silent and let her have the last word, because on a serious note, this whole thing wasn't anything new. And, I wasn't in the goddamn mood to have my balls meet up with my intestines when Em decides to let go of Bella, because I'm almost positive that that would her comeback. 

My balls like their environment, so I'm good. 

With women, it's best to just shut the fuck up. 

That's what I learned, anyway.

I also learned that it's not cool to slam a chick down onto a bed, so as I saw Emmett do exactly that, I kind of didn't appreciate it. 

Not kind of. 

I didn't fucking appreciate it, at all. 

And when Swan cried out in complete rage as his hands and knees held her body down against her will, my apprehensiveness about McCarty's reaction with me stepping in disappeared, just like that. 

It took me a literal second to walk over to the bed and pull him off of her from behind. "Emmett, dude, that's enough," I told him as she kicked his hip, wiping tears off of her face as she pushed herself up to a standing position. "You can't hold her down like that. You know better." 

"Why are you even here?" Bella spat, interrupting the response that he was getting ready to give me as she glared at him. "I don't even understand why you're here to begin with all of a sudden! Why now?" 

"What do you mean, why am I here, B?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her. "I'm here for you." 

"You're here for me?" she laughed, and as her lip trembled a bit, I lowered my head, not liking the visual of seeing her in any pain. "You fucking left me!" she continued. "So leave now, because it's nothing that I don't expect out of you! You leave and let shit fix itself, that's what you're good at, Emmett!" 

"What are you talking about?" he asked her. "I didn't fucking leave you."

"Get out of my goddamn apartment!" she spat. "I didn't fucking invite you!"  

He went to walk over to the bed again, but I grabbed a hold of his arm and stopped him. "Kiddo?" 

"Don't call me that!" she yelled, pointing at him. "You don't deserve to call me that!" 

"What's going on?" he asked her before he raised an eyebrow at me. "What the hell did I do?"

I nodded towards the door. "Let's leave her alone for a little, yeah?" 

He shook his head and pulled his arm from my hold before he started heading towards the bed, causing Bella to begin backing away. "Don't touch me," she hissed as the back of her knees hit the headboard. 

"Don't touch you?" 

"Don't touch me, ever." 

He scratched the back of his neck as he nodded. "Alright?" 

Lowering her head, she placed her arms across her chest. "Leave. Both of you, leave me alone." 

After I pulled Emmett out of her bedroom, he kept his eyes on me while we made our way through the hallway, which only began to rile up my goddamn nerves from his scrutiny. "What the fuck was that?" 

I shook my head as we walked into the living room. "I don't know, McCarty. Bella's just...she's going through something right now," I whispered, taking a seat. "I mean, you can't really expect anything less. It's not like your sister's experience last night was something to celebrate, you know?" 

Sitting down next to me on the couch, he ran his hands down his face. "She...hates me, man." 

"She doesn't hate you, Emmett," I told him, leaning back. "Don't be ridiculous." 

"Did you see the way that she was looking at me?" he whispered to himself. "Like I was my d—" 

"You're not your dad," I interrupted. "Don't think of her reaction like that." 

"What do I do?" he asked, meeting my eyes. "What can I do? She's my fucking sister." 

"You give her time." 

"Time?" He shook his head. "I can just leave her alone. No way. I need to be —" 

"I'll be here." 

He raised an eyebrow at my interruption as I stood up from the couch. "What?"

"I'll be here for her." 

"Fuck, Cullen!" he growled, punching the couch cushions before standing up. "That's what she meant!" 

Running my hands down my face, I bit my tongue, not wanting to tell him that the shit was obvious and that he should have known that a long time ago. "I think that you just need to give her time, Emmett."

"You were here for her, when I wasn't."

I shrugged as I placed my arms across my chest. "It's not a big deal." 

"It is," he replied, standing in front of me. "It's more than a big deal."

"Man, look," I started, "I don't feel like arguing with you. It's been a long fucking d—" 

"I'm not arguing with you," he interrupted. 

"Oh," I whispered, suddenly uncomfortable with his pleasantries. "Cool."   

"Shit, Edward. I appreciate you," he continued, causing my eyebrow to raise in suspicion. "No homo."

Well, thank the Lord on that, I thought as he rolled his eyes at me. "No appreciation is needed, Emmett. I'm not here for Bella because of you. I'm here for Bella because of Bella. She needs someone, and she has that someone in me."

"You're good for her." 

Running my fingers through my hair, I snorted. "I don't know about all that, Emmett."

"I know about all that," he replied as he patted my cheek in some brotherly type of a way.

That had a growl leave my chest as I smacked his hand away. "Dude."

He winked at me before he started heading towards the front door. "Keep me updated?"

"I got her," I told him. "No worries." 

---

One Week Later

EPOV

Bella Swan?

I don't recognize the chick.

This whole week, I've been trying to rile her up, because, you know, that's our shit.


But, I received nothing, man.

I kept her apartment spotless, not only to relax my goddamn nerves that are beyond irritated, but more to get a reaction out of her, because I knew for a fact, that my OCD 'tendencies' freaked her the fuck out. Nothing. If Bella leaves her bedroom at all, she just...looks around in a daze for a few seconds before she disappears again.

Normally, I'd say that I like seeing her backside so often, but you won't hear that from me as of now.

Cooking has become a regular thing for Lilly and I, which is no goddamn problem, since I never expected Bella to handle the food, because...you know...Swan and turning on a stove don't mix unless you want to die. Period. She used to claim that she was a chef in the making but, come on, people, we all know that it's bullshit. Lilly knows it, I know it, and she knows it. And, it's not a big deal, because I actually enjoy making her food, only to watch her scarf it down in some greedy ass manner and then let me know that I wasn't no Ramsey Gordan. The problem that I'm having is getting her to actually eat anything that is considered food.

She comes into the kitchen, gets a few snacks, and leaves.

Bypassing my goddamn masterpiece, for cookies. 

Who just eats that shit, for a whole goddamn day?

That used to be Bella's 'snack' after the fucking snack.

You get me?

The only activity that I have no problems with is when we sleep together, which is every night. I mean, we haven't had sex since that first night, which is again, cool. I know that she's going through shit and I'm not here to bone Bella whenever I get the chance to do so, even though...the idea doesn't sound too fucking bad.

Don't look at me like I'm an asshole.


I'm just saying that boning Bella Swan is pretty fucking...

Moot point.

Every night around eleven, I sit on the couch in the living room and wait for her to come out of that god forsaken bedroom of hers, just to give its familiarity a break for a goddamn second. And when the chick does, she gives me this...look...that makes her silent request of me undeniable.

There's absolutely no 'no' within me for her.

And, don't get me started on her appearance.

I mean, come on, people. Let's be real, right?

I'm a fucking dude, number one, who has an insane obsession with Bella Swan's mind and body. But since I can't get a part of her mind as of late, seeing as to how she's being stubborn in denying me of it, the goddamn body part wins over, which is again, cool, in an uncool kind of a fucking way that needs to cool me off.

Yeah, alright, I know. That didn't make any sense. I'll clarify.

Bella hasn't been wearing a hoodie, which is beyond fucking weird to begin with, but...

Okay, look. I'll admit it. Swan not wearing a hoodie is good and all, but...shit.

She's been wearing those goddamn wife-beaters that she knows drive me insane.

Literally. I see it, and I'm hard. It takes one second for take off.

With that said, I should mention that Bella hasn't been wearing a bra.

Also, the air conditioner that she all of a goddamn sudden likes, is always on.

Which, you know, perks shit up, really nice.

I won't lie and say that it wasn't irritating and painful at the same time, though.

My right hand never got a break. 


My dick? It's practically numb. 

Never in my twenty five years of living, had I jerked off this much.

And, it's been a week, man!

I miss her goddamn remarks, because she gave me none.

I miss her goddamn words, because I received not a single fucking letter.

Lilly's remarks and words, though?

Christ. Can I get a shut up, and without the midget knowing that I wanted one?

"Absolutely not, Lillian Smith." 

"Absolutely yes, Edward Cullen!" she shouted, giving me a headache as I rubbed my forehead. "And you better not call me by full name again! Acting as if you don't already know the dangers in doing so! As a matter of fact, if you'd like a reminder, I have no problem-o in giving you one!" 

I groaned as I ran my hands down my face. "I'm sure that my sister can help you in that...department."

"I want a man's opinion, Edward!" she growled as she pulled me off of the couch. I hid a grimace as she grabbed a hold of Emmett's stolen baseball cap that she decorated with some pink glitter. Shoving it on top of my head, she smiled. "Now that is what I call...better. I mean, your hair is nice and all but come on, let's not get ahead of ourselves, am I right or am I right? I will not embarrass myself by going to the mall with your out of control locks. It is a big deal and it is not attractive." 

And this cap that's on my goddamn head is? 

As she started to head towards the front door, I tugged on her hand, stopping her. "Listen, midget," I started, kneeling down to her level. "I get that you're all...hyped up, or whatnot...from staying in the apartment. But, I don't think that it's...appropriate...for me...to take you out shopping for a bathing suit, or a two piece as you refer to it as. I mean...I honestly just don't feel comfortable doing that. I know a lot of women who wouldn't have a problem with helping you out. And, I'll still pay for it, like I suggested."

"You didn't suggest it." 

Well, she told me, didn't she? 

"Alright," I laughed, pushing myself up to my feet. "I'm sorry for not suggesting it like I was supposed to." 

"And, hold the phone on you knowing a lot of women who wouldn't have a problem with helping me out." 

"What about me knowing a lot of women, Lilly?" I asked, not understanding her problem. 

"Are you cheating on my caretaker who is not behaving as my caretaker right now?" she asked, glaring at me as she placed her hands over her hips. "Because let's face it, Edward. I will execute you if I find out that you are. Bella is my ride together, die together, always. Recognize." 

"Ride together, die together, though?" 

"Recognize," she finished, snapping her fingers at me. 

If Bella Swan doesn't love me by the end of this week, I'm the fuck out of here. 

Recognize that. 

"Lilly, I'm not cheating on Bella." 

"You better not be, yo!" she screamed before she kicked me in the nuts...

Causing me to drop, instantly. "Christ, midget!" I choked, cupping my shit. "Was that really necessary?"

"I'll go and get your soon-to-be emptied wallet," she said with a nod before stepping over me. "While you recuperate yourself ."  

---

"Lilly, I don't know!" I groaned, covering my eyes as I saw her place the two piece over...herself. 

This has to be illegal. 

No, seriously. 

It's fucking illegal.  

"Excuse me, dude who looks like he has a penis! Stop it right there! I need your help, desist all activity!"

I uncovered my eyes and narrowed them at the teenager who stopped at Lilly's command. "Yeah?" 

"What do you think of this bathing suit? Is it saying that I'm available, yet not available?"

He swallowed as he placed his arms across his chest. "Uhm, well...wow...that is a nice bathing sui—"  

"Back the fuck up," I growled, interrupting Mr. Teeny Bopper as he went to take a step towards her.

"Yep, backing up!" he yelped as he did just that with his hands up in the air, beside his shoulders.  

Lilly shook her head in disappointment as she pointed at me. "You cursed, Edward-o." 

"I sure did," I stated in some proud as shit type of a way before I grimaced. "And, since I came here with you, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Bella about that. Seeing as to how she's going through something right now...I don't want to upset her any more than she already is, yeah?" 

"What about this one?" she asked, ignoring my goddamn plea as she placed another two piece over...herself.

I shook my head as I kept my eyes on her own, because I wasn't some sick fuck. "No." 

She covered an eyebrow as she raised it at me. "It is too provocative?" 

"How do you even know what that means, Lilly?" 

"Uncle Smith," she explained. 

"Of course," I whispered as I rolled my eyes. "Make sure to let Bella know that, when she's cool again." 

"I can't find any bigger padding," she mumbled to herself as she started playing with the fucking boob parts of the bathing suit, causing me to groan as I looked away from her. "And I definitely need bigger padding. Hey, do you think that I can stuff tissue paper in here?"  

"Water would kind of defeat the whole purpose, wouldn't it?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

She grinned. "You actually think that I'm getting a bathing suit for swimming?"  

My eyebrow raised higher. "Well, aren't you?" 

"God," she laughed, shaking her head at me. "Are all men this dumb? This suit is for show, Edward. Like, duh, don't get it twisted. I'm not a hot piece for nothing." 

"Christ help me." 

Placing an imaginary phone against her ear, she smiled. "Christ is not here right now, can I take a message?" 

"You need to spend more time with my mom," I stated in some decisive manner, taking a hold of her hand with one of my own. Snatching the suit that was for a show that wasn't going to happen out of her grip with my other hand, I threw it over her shoulder. "Swan's a bad influence. My parents? Better for you." 

She laughed as I started to pull her towards the store's exit. "You want me to sleep over there and hear the sounds that your dad makes because of your mom during the entire night? Thanks but no thanks, dude!" 

---

Another Week Later

EPOV

Hearing the doorbell ring, I groaned as I dropped the plate that I was washing down into the sink before I ran out of the kitchen. "Hold it, midget!" I shouted at the back of Lilly's head as she went to unlock the front door.

This wouldn't have been the first goddamn time that this little chick has opened the door without knowing who was on the other side of it. To say that it irked me was an understatement. Also, I knew that she got that shit from Bella, so that in itself drove me fucking insane. But, as of right now, I didn't have it in me to bring it up to Swan, because she was going through some kind of a, I don't know, spell.

Lilly looked over her shoulder with a growl, causing me to roll my eyes at her dramatics as I headed towards her, running my wet hands down my pants to dry them off. "God, Edward! You're like...being totally uncool! I am so going to call Aunt Alice and tell her to medicate you with some...benzo's, yo!"

Benzo's, though?

Lifting her up into the air, I groaned as she took a hold of my hair and pulled it. "How many times do I have to tell you, Lil?" I asked as I placed her over my shoulders. Taking a hold of her wrists to stop her tugs, I looked through the peep hole that Bella Swan considers a 'waste of space.' "I seriously don't want to see you opening this door when you don't know who is standing on the other side of it. It's dangerous and me having to repeat that to you is getting old."

"You're getting old," she laughed in a comeback as her hands squeezed my cheeks. Not seeing anyone on the other side, I tightened my fingers around her wrists and she in response, locked her elbows so that I could pull her off of my shoulders. "I mean, it's not like you're going to have that hair forever, Edward. I actually noticed a couple of bald spots up there. I don't want you to get all ewe on me. You need to take care of your image."

Can you tell that Lilly spent too much time with Bella?

Cause I sure as fuck can.

After I lowered Lilly down onto the floor, I placed my arms across my chest and rolled my eyes at her as she mimicked my stance. "Midget, can you do me this solid?" She shrugged before I continued. "Can you go into the kitchen to get Bella a bottle of water and bring it to her? She's in her bedroom. If she sees you offering it to her, maybe she'll actually drink something."

"Bella isn't going to drink anything," she replied in some chick kind of a way. "My previously cool caretaker is now loopy. You know this, I know this, and she knows this. I think that we should just embrace her crazy."

Kneeling down a bit, I groaned. "Come on, Lil, don't call her crazy. Bella's just...having a hard week." 

As have I, motherfuckers. As have I. 

Looking after a kid whose a chick and having my main one ignore me?

Fucking amazing, let me tell you. 

"You're almost naked, Edward," she stated in nonchalance, changing the subject. 

"I'm not almost naked," I replied, rolling my eyes at her as her own studied me. "I have sweatpants on." 

"Alright, so listen up."

Oh, fuck.

This can't be good.

I mean, when chicks say shit like that...it just can't be good. 

Placing her hands over her hips, she continued. "I'll get Bella water only if I can wax your chest hair."

"Wax my chest hair?" I asked before I looked down. "Lilly, I have like...eight hairs on my chest."

"And, shave your head," she added, insanely. 

"We are not shaving my hair off, Lilly."   

She shrugged. "Well then, I'm not doing you a solid."

"Bella likes my hair," I tried.

As she covered her eyebrows, I pursed my lips. "Does Bella really like your hair?"

"She does."

"Oh, so I guess those were the noises that I heard a few times a while back, huh?" 

My eyes widened, thinking of all of the times that Bella and I messed around, back then. "Uhm..." 

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmmmm," she whispered with a smile before turning around. Looking over her shoulder as she reached the kitchen door, she winked at me. "Keep your banana in your sweatpants, hot stuff."

I scratched my eyebrow, kind of...speechless.


Was the exaggerated mmhmm honestly that goddamn necessary? 

Can't we just leave it at four m's and one h?

And holy shit on the preteen's food choices. Did she just call my dick a banana? 

After I pulled the door open, I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion, seeing some kid standing out in the hallway. Meeting my expression, he groaned and turned around with his hands up in the air. "Can I help you, dude?" I asked, not understanding what the hell he was doing. "I mean, are you lost or something?"

Looking over his shoulder, he frowned. "I won't cry this time, so go ahead. I mean, please go ahead, sir."

"Dude," I whispered, pursing my lips at his nervousness. "I don't even know what you're doing right now."

Turning around, he faced me as he smoothed out his hair. "I'm uh...I'm here for Lillian Smith."

Lillian Smith?

Yeah, sure.

If she heard the kid full name her like that, she'd flip a shit.

I grinned as I placed my arms across my chest. "Are you telling me that you're here for Lilly?"

"Yeah," he whispered, looking into the apartment. "I'm her...uh...second boyfriend." 

I laughed. "That's real funny, you adolescent. Seriously though, who are you here for?"

"Edward!"

Looking over my shoulder, I nodded towards the dude. "You know him, midget?"

Coming up to my side, she nodded. "Dominick," she breathed, in some way... 


That had me slam the door shut in the kid's face with a loud laugh, cause honestly? 

Why waste anymore of this 'Dominick's' time, right? 

"Lilly, you don't have a boyfriend," I explained, standing in front of the door. "Let's face the facts."

"Yes, I do!" she screamed, stomping her female foot on the carpet. 

I snorted. "No, you don't." 

"Edward! Let him in!"

"Negative."

"Positive!"

"Negative," I repeated. 

"That's it! I'm telling Bella that you peed on the toilet seat!" she warned.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Did she accept the bottle of water that you offered her?"

"No..."

I shrugged. "Then I don't care if you tell her that I peed on the toilet seat."

"ARRGGHHH!" she screamed, stomping through the living room like a goddamn astronaut. 

"ARRGGHHH!" I screamed back, and then grimaced. 

I need a fucking plan. 

No, seriously, people.

I just screamed at a nine year old.

I need a fucking plan.

But, come on, who the hell did that young dude think he was? Granted, the chick wasn't my own, but get the fuck real. I know how boys are. They're goddamn ruthless, and up to no good. He's lucky that I didn't arrest his preteen ass, showing up here...running his hand through his hair. I mean, I'm almost positive that it's illegal to date a chick who goes by the name of Lilly Smith, being that young.

Yeah, it's fucking illegal.

I called Morris. "How's Bella?" she asked, answering on the second ring. 

"How do you feel about bringing Bella back?" I asked instead.

"Smart man, Cullen," she replied. "Smart fucking man."

I nodded as I locked the door. "Like I don't know that shit already."

---