Something's Gotta Give

Epilogue Part 2

Three months later

"Any word?" Edward asked as Bella scowled at the computer.

"The organization has pretty much crumbled since Liam was shot." In the weeks following their return from the memorial in Chicago, Liam, Riley's tie to a mob organization, was shot three times in the chest, only to live for another three weeks in a coma. He died the night before due to all of his injuries. "Alec suggests that I don't give up my alias, since a few family members are still alive."

"We already decided that, so what's the problem?"

"Jasper wants to see me."

"I see." He couldn't look at her then, returning his attention to the morning paper he was reading earlier.

"That's all you're going to say?" She huffed when he shrugged and rose to wash her dishes in the sink. Jacob was due any minute to pick Edward up for work, but he couldn't think of anything to say. He couldn't tell her not to go; she hated when he made decisions for her.

As if she hadn't brought up the sore subject of her ex-husband, Edward asked if she had any plans.

"I have an appointment to get the birth control shot."

Her new doctor informed her that her chances of getting pregnant had increased over the years. From the three percent chance she was told when she turned eighteen and had married Jasper, to a twenty-five percent chance of having a baby. Other than the scar tissue from the car accident in her youth that claimed an ovary, she was in relative good health.

He put the newspaper down when he heard her voice shake, circling around the island and wrapping his arms around her. "It's your choice on whether you see him or not. I won't make the choice for you, but I will go with you, if you'd like."

"We've said all we've had to say to each other. I don't l-love him, not like I love you." She shrugged. "I forgave him for leaving me like he did. I don't know what he wants."

"Does it matter?"

"No, it doesn't."

"Then maybe you should ask what's it all about and go from there. Maybe he needs to know you're all right, and to see it for himself. I know I would, if I were him."

She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck, giggling when he lifted her onto the kitchen counter. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you a kiss," he said, right before he did just that. "I love you." She smiled into the next kiss, both oblivious to the knocking for a minute "I'll be right out," he called out, waiting until Jacob moved off the porch. He returned his attention to Bella's kiss swollen lips, rubbing the bottom one with his thumb. Resting his forehead on hers, he took a breath to get the words he had on his mind for weeks. "How about you don't get the shot?"

She smiled, rubbing at his two-week-old beard. "You want to have babies with me?"

"I want whatever happens, to have a chance to happen." He did a shy half-shrug thing and kissed her forehead. "I want a lot of things with you. Everything, in fact. It'll take time for me to work through my issues, but if you're right there beside me, I know I'll be okay."

"Happy?" He knew what she was asking with that soft-spoken word. Would he be happy if they couldn't have a baby?

"As long as I'm with you, yes," was his response.

She wrapped her arms around him so tight that he could barely breathe. He felt her lips on his ear. "Okay, I won't get it."

.

.

.

"Jasper is getting married," Bella said a few days later. "He wanted me to know. That's what he wanted to see me about. She works at the firm with him, but is strictly a non-field agent."