A/N: Thanks so much for all your wonderful thoughts.

Since so many of you asked for an Epi to Stages…here it is. Hope you enjoy it.

Most characters belong to S. Meyer. The rest belong to me. All mistakes are mine.

Stage 9: Afterward for Bella and Me
(aka after a while, it was no longer just about us…but it was still amazing)

In this stage, Bella and I-

"Edward?"

Her sneakered feet pound the steps as she runs up, so writing the rest of this will have to wait.

"Edward?" she repeats just as she slowly pushes the door open, and with a sigh, I turn in my swivel chair.

I'll never take for granted the teasing smile that greets me nor the privilege of witnessing it every day of my life. This story could've gone very differently had I not come to my senses in time…and had my Bella Marie not been the intrinsically wonderful and forgiving person she's been – Cry-Baby and Pain-in-the Butt and Wallpapering-my-brand-new-laptop-in-puppy-stickers and Making-me-think-zombies-wanted-to-eat-my-brains stages and all – since the day I met her when she was one week old.

Luckily, once I got my head out of my ass, we got to the point pretty quickly.

Now, as she watches me and the laptop open behind me, I see the curiosity etched in her beautiful features and the way it makes her dark eyes sparkle. But before she can say anything, I place a finger against my lips.

"Those don't look like the plans for Forks' new downtown area," she says quietly. "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking a break from them and writing."

"Starting a new career?" she chuckles impishly.

"No, not really, but…I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, and I wanted to write some stuff down."

"What is it?" she asks, that innate curiosity that used to sometimes get her in trouble and often land us in shouting matches rearing its gorgeous head.

"Why don't you come here and find out?"

She tiptoes quickly toward me and takes a seat on my lap, and having her this close, I can't resist wrapping my arms around her, brushing my mouth against her neck first and then kissing her softly when her mouths finds mine.

"Everything good?" I ask when she pulls away for air.

"Everything's perfect."

"Perfect," I grin in return.

"So, what is this?" Her eyes pan to the screen.

"Take a read."

Already knowing the material she's about to read, I choose to watch her as she begins at the very top, biting her lips as she reads. I don't have to wait long to know what she's thinking because she opens her running commentary in the very first paragraph.

"Bumfuck town," she snorts. "Of course."

"You know I no longer think of it that way."

"Because you and Jasper and the junior architects who work for you are practically remodeling the entire town."

Chuckling heartily, I bite her shoulder and make her yelp. "It's more the people in the town, and you know that."

She meets my eyes. "I do know that."

Then, she returns to reading.

"It's not a memory, Edward," she smiles.

"It is a memory," I grin.

"Hearing our parents repeat the story of when we all first met over and over has painted a picture for you, babe. But you were four, Edward. You don't actually remember it."

"You're wrong. I remember seeing you all bundled up in your pink blanket in Renee's arms, a tiny, little red-faced thing."

When she opens her mouth to continue contradicting me, I jerk my groin against her plump ass and she yelps.

"Just keep reading."

"Fine." She chuckles, and continues her running commentary.

"'Middow' name,'" she giggles. "How freakin' adorable. Ahh, and Bella Marie enters the story."

"Bella Marie is the story," I murmur against her neck, making her chuckle quietly again.

"Maybe she once was," she says.

"She still is," I breathe.

She smiles. "Pfft, 'Best friends forever.' Boy was Mom wrong."

"Well, no, not really. We went through a stage where we weren't friends, but we're best friends now, aren't we?"

"True," Bella nods. "And Mom acts like she knew all along we'd end up together. They all do. Remember Emmett and Rose's wedding?"

"Yeah, I snort. "While we thought everyone was busy and entertained with dancing and partying, you and I hid in a corner to kiss and grope."

"And we got busted by Emmett."

"Who threw a fist pump in the air and howled for everyone to hear, 'OH YEAH! BEST DAMN WEDDING PRESENT EVERRRR!'"

"Shh!" Bella says, laughing as quietly as she can manage. "Then your dad said, 'Bout time you manned up, son.'

"And the chief said, 'Yeah, I thought I was gonna have to start threatening him with jail or something if he didn't grow a pair soon.'"

"And then our moms started going on about how beautiful the future grandchildren were likely to be."

Bella rolls her eyes, and I snicker.

"Yeah, I had to calm you down a bit after those two got started with that and reassure you I wasn't pushing you into the baby-making stage just yet."

"Not just yet," she smirks.

Chuckling yet again, I redirect her attention. "Keep reading, Bella Marie."

She scowls at me when she reads about how Emmett and I used to tease her when she was learning to walk. She shoves me in the shoulder when she gets to the part where I confess to blowing out her candle at her third birthday. She smiles softly when she gets to the Infamous Clallam County Little League World Series.

"I remember that," she whispers.

"Now, how is it that you claim to remember that, when you were four, yet you won't allow me to remember the day I met you when I was four."

"I've always had a better memory. Well, look who's making her first appearance in the story: Miss Tanya Denali," she smirks. "And offering to share her ice-cream to boot."

"Yeah, but look whose ice-cream I ended up sharing at the end of the night. And you completely skipped over the part where I threatened Mike Newton with bodily harm if he hit you with the ball."

"My hero," she mutters, making me chuckle. "Though you did go on to call me the bane of your existence, so that kind of negates the entire hero persona you may have been going for here."

I snort. "Keep reading."

She laughs. "Poor Edward and Emmett, forced to attend kindergarten graduation. You know, I saw that kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Molina, the other day. She says she still remembers that particular graduation when the entire kindergarten class had a meltdown because of their blank diplomas. She says ever since then, she makes sure she prints out little diplomas with the graduates' names on them."

I shake my head. "I'm telling you. You were Trouble from day one."

She shoves me again and continues reading.

"Alice enters the picture!"

"And unfortunately, she never left. Oof!" I grunt when she bounces hard on my groin. "Do that again."

She shoves me instead.

"You should've been honored that I decorated your laptop with stickers instead of being a meany. Aww, and look at Esme trying to make you understand why I was always tagging along and bothering you."

"Yeah, but I was still too young to get it."

"I know. We both were, and Esme knew it. But it's always been intrinsic in her and in my mom to speak to children as if they're reasonable creatures, not as if they're mindless little beings. It's what's made them both such wonderful instructors." She meets my eyes.

"You know how proud they are of you, right? You're an amazing teacher as well." I kiss her softly. "Now, keep reading."

She chuckles heartily next. "I still remember how scared you looked when I hid behind those trees and pretended to be a zombie. I wish I would've had a camera with me."

Scowling at her, I shake my head. "You know you shaved ten years from your future husband's life, don't you?"

"Well, obviously I didn't know that then," she shrugs, rolling her eyes. "Plus, you deserved it for not letting me play your zombie game." Her eyes hold mine for a few moments. "You know…I think that night when you and I sat out in the backyard talking…I think that was the first night I actually semi-wondered for a minute what it would be like to kiss you."

I quirk a brow. "Really? When you were ten?"

"Mhm. It was when you went on and on about how whoever fell in love with me was going to have to be one patient saint. Little did we know you were talking about yourself."

"Yeah, but was I wrong about the patient saint thing?"

When she bounces again, I hold her down in place, and she laughs as she pretends to struggle to free herself.

"You know, I used to watch Alice and Jasper kissing, and I thought it looked pretty gross."

"Wait, are we still talking about the middle school stage for you and Alice?" I whisper-shout.

"Mhm. Oh, don't worry, Jasper was only twelve. Don't forget he's two years younger than you." She says this as if she's reassuring me.

I shake my head. "Thank God that one didn't find you a husband before I came to my senses."

"Well, I did have a few boyfriends before you came to your senses," she grins, "so…"

"Ugh. Just keep reading."

"Ahh, and we get to the stage where things started getting hairy between us."

"I'm sorry I didn't go to your twelfth birthday."

She snorts, eyes on the screen. "Couldn't get out of football practice. How naïve did you think I was? Ahh, and speaking of which, there's Tanya again."

"Bella Marie, she's only important to the story to demonstrate exactly how dumb I was, still too immature to know what to look for."

"Mm," she grunts. "And we get to the night of your first date with her. Hmph, at least you bothered to think of a condom." My face is burning as she meets my eyes. "Seriously? How did you not also stop to think of how our parents would be home soon?"

I shrug apologetically. "Hey, I was a stupid-"

"-and horny-"

"A stupid seventeen-year-old."

She rolls her eyes and returns to the screen. "I should've let you get busted with your pants down," she grins, yelping again when I pinch her behind, "and I should've left the princesses in the woods alone to find their own way out. You should've seen them clinging to one another and screaming every time something moved," she chuckles mischievously. "'Katie, I'm scared!'" she mimics. "'Tanny, stop squeezing my arm so hard!'"

I bite back the howl of laughter threatening to break loose, and I rest my forehead on her shoulder. "You're so bad. Thanking you for getting us out of that one feels wrong now."

"Hmph. That was nothing. It was what she did afterward, lying about rumors about you and me."

"It was her jealousy. Bella Marie…" Swallowing, I meet those dark eyes I adore, eyes I'm still hoping will be recreated in a little being both part of her and me. "It was my immaturity too. Do you know why I wrote this?"

"Why?"

"Because as I sat here this morning, waiting for you to come home and thinking about everything we've been through over the past few months, I wasn't sure if I've ever properly explained to you just how wrong I had it there for a while, and…how it was you, from the very beginning, who kept me from straying too far. It was all these memories of our different ages and stages, Bella, that stayed with me even when I was in Chicago, and even during those years when I was too selfish and self-absorbed to come home. I couldn't escape them, and I couldn't escape you because you were at the heart of all of them."

She palms my cheek. "I thought about all those times a lot too during those years you were away. And I did miss you, Edward, but I was having my own moments, making my own memories, and experiencing my own firsts. I think…in a way…it's a good thing we were apart those years," she nods. "We were at ages and stages where our differences were glaring, and it wasn't until you came back that I was ready to move past what happened my freshman year and your senior year."

"I was so nervous yet so excited to see you at your high school graduation."

She chuckles. "I was so shocked to see you, and I wanted to talk to you and hang out with you, but, there was a party going on-"

"And you had a boyfriend who refused to stray more than two feet from you."

She snickers. "Poor Jake."

"Poor Jake?" I say, lifting an eyebrow.

She keeps laughing. "Think about it. He and I were going pretty hot and heavy before your return."

"I don't want to hear this."

"What I mean," she says between her continued amusement, "is that here he was, this older guy who absolutely worshiped me-"

"I really don't want to hear this-"

"-and who, for a while there, was keeping me pretty happy-"

"I'm about to throw you over my shoulder and-"

"-and BAM! You return, and it turns out he wasn't the older guy I wanted worshiping me. Why do you think he acted like such a jerk whenever you were around? He sensed it, just like Tanya must've sensed it. Just like our parents swear they always knew, just like Emmett said he suspected once you guys got older, just like Alice says she always knew…you and me…we've always belonged together."

"Well…I guess that makes me feel somewhat better."

"How about if I do this?" she breathes, brushing her lips back and forth against mine. "And how about if I remind you that I love you and that you and I have built the most amazing life together, a life full of family, friends, and so much love."

"I love you too," I breathe, nipping her sweet lips.

She snorts. "Even Emmett and Rosalie moved back to Forks. Our family is complete! And now…"

"Now…"

Just then, our now makes her presence known with a soft whimper, a sweet little cry that spears right through my chest and eradicates all thoughts of Jake or Tanya or a time before Bella and me were anything other than the friends, lovers, the husband and wife…and the parents we are now.

My breath hitches. "She's awake."

Another whimper, this one louder.

"And she's hungry. I made it home just in time. Woah! Throw me off your lap, why don't you?"

Bella teases when I carefully yet quickly pick her up off my lap so that I can go get our daughter – our Maribelle.

When I pick her up from her bassinette, she gazes at me through green eyes and quiets down, and I sigh in relief and wonder and so much damn love and happiness. While Bella settles herself on her chair and gets herself ready, I kiss Maribelle's soft forehead and place her in Bella's arms, explaining everything to our pink bundle step by step, just as our mothers have told us that we should always try to do with our children.

"There you go, Princess. Let's get you and Mommy settled so you can nurse, and then sleep for just a little bit because Mommy just returned from her six-week check-up, and Daddy is dying to make sweet-"

"Edward, that's more than she needs to know."

Chuckling, I sit next to my two favorite females in the world.

"Then maybe I shouldn't read the story of us to her aloud as a bedtime story, huh?"

"Not certain parts, no, babe," Bella smirks, "but it is a beautiful story. Thank you for writing it."

For a few minutes, she nurses quietly, and when she looks up, she finds me watching her.

"Thank you for not outgrowing me, Bella Marie, in any of your magnificent stages."

She smiles softly. "Thank you for being patient while I spread my wings in my college stage."

"Thank you, for marrying me and for sharing this new, amazing, and perfect stage with me."

And while our daughter nurses, our mouths gently meet, then our foreheads rest against one another as we gaze down at the newest stage in our love.

THE END.

A/N: Thoughts?

As always, thanks so much for joining me on a new journey. Times are crazy, and it means the world to me to have you guys to share this with – my way of staying sane in a new not-so-sane-at-the-moment world.

Thank you, and stay safe. :)

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***Thief of Hearts should resume tomorrow***