Happy Halloween!

I hope you're all having a good time with your friends and families : )

I hope you enjoy!

Epov

The next couple of months just about washed away all the pain of past events, in a way they brought Bella and I closer together, we'd both learnt not to make quick assumptions and that had brought us to trust more deeply and discuss situations a lot more.

The first few weeks had been tentative, Alice, Rose, Jasper and Em had all been thrilled for us but Bella's dad and her old friends had had a lot more reservations. They didn't know me and they didn't trust me in any way. Of course, they knew me by reputation and that made things even worse, the idea that I was being constantly linked to chains of different women, especially in the last few weeks whilst Bella had been laying there ill with them watching over her, caring for her, and I couldn't blame them.

It was all I could do to try and convince them I hadn't been with Tanya or Jessica whilst the girl I professed to love had been knocking on death's door and I was making the most concerned effort to toe the line. I asked Charlie for his permission to marry his daughter and agreed to follow curfew whilst Bella was still living under his roof. I wanted to prove to them, and to Bella that I was here to stay, that there would be no more running from now on.

Whilst I still had to work on the film, me and Bella had limited time to see each other but we utilised the time we did have as best we could, going out on dates together, behaving as if we were teenagers again, watching movies and making out in the dark. It was funny, in a way, that after spending time with my fiancée, the mother of my child, I had to return her to her father at the end of the night; it was if we were starting out again from scratch but with a guaranteed goal of a wedding and a baby at the end of it. It was different, but I liked it, and Bella liked being able to spend time with her father seeing as she would be returning to England with me as soon as production was over.

Only a few people had been told about our engagement, we wanted to keep it on the down low as much as possible whilst I was in America because if word got out before I was back in England, the media would be very difficult to control and no doubt Jane would kill me for dumping loads of extra work on her.

Alice had been beside herself when we'd told her, squealing like a little girl and grasping at Bella's hands, shouting about all the things they were going to do together in preparation, even as we saw the group of at the airport, a week before we returned home Alice had been clutching bundles of wedding magazines whilst dictating to Rosalie the things they would need to gather for the hen do.

As production drew to a close I helped Bella gather all her things together and left her to say her heartfelt goodbyes to her father and her friends with guarantees of wedding invitations and baby photos. I had developed a trusting, if slightly tentative relationship with Charlie by this time and I privately invited him over to stay in one of my houses whenever he wanted so he could be around Bella as much as he pleased, I had a feeling she was really going to want his comforting steadiness around the time our baby was born.

Our baby.

A little shock of happiness burst through me each time I thought about the little life growing inside of Bella, the image of the ever expanding soft curve of her creamy white stomach thrilled me.

I had spent hours each night thinking about it, what the baby would look like, whether it would be like me or Bella, what we should call it, what we would dress it in, although I doubt we'd get much choice in that last matter because I knew for a fact that Alice had been researching ambiguous baby clothes since the second we'd found out we were having a baby and was desperate for us to find out the sex of the baby as soon as possible, although she'd vetoed pink and blue baby clothes, saying they were far to cliché for her niece or nephew.

I know a lot of people wouldn't expect me to spend my nights thinking of such things and would probably think less of me if they knew I did. I was Edward Cullen, movie star, I was supposed to be cold and unfeeling, getting my kicks by fucking a different whore every night but what can I say? Those days were over and I was excited. And anyway, what else was I supposed to think about when Bella was still sleeping at her dad's house instead of warming my bed?

I chartered a private jet to take me and Bella home back to England, unwilling to wait for a commercial flight or to have to be stuck in cramped little seats with everyone staring and whispering. I knew Bella was going to miss America and I felt a little pull at my heart when I realised I was taking her away from her family for my own selfish gain but I reasoned I'd make it up to her. I was definitely going to miss her little American twang she had rediscovered though if she swapped back to an English accent. I'd only heard it briefly in the past when she'd been angry and yelling at me, though I hadn't mentioned it because I didn't think she realised she was using it, but it managed to couple cute and sexy together very well and what can I say? We're always after something a little bit different!

I had been so grateful for the private jet on the flight back home, it'd given us the privacy we'd been denied so long and we spent most of the way back promising to ignore the past and look forward to our future together. The last hour or so, Bella had fallen asleep and I pulled her onto my lap, cradling her and brushing my lips over her forehead whilst laying a hand on her stomach. The steady rhythm of her heart beat was soothing and lulled me into a deep peace where I was able to just relax and enjoy her company after so long apart, knowing now what I'd have missed if I had lost her forever. I could never lose her again; it would finally break me completely.

When we had returned to my apartment the first thing I did was move all of Bella's things into my bedroom. It felt complete in a way, I gave her free reign to change anything else in the house and add in all her bits of furniture that she had put into storage and she had happily complied to an extent, nothing major but making sure there was an essence of Bella in every room you walked into, a painting or a photograph, just
something to recognise her.

After a week back we'd settled down again, booked a scan for our baby and released a statement saying I was with Bella and she was pregnant and we were very happy together.

We allowed a bit of pomp and circumstance in announcing our engagement, instead of just releasing a press statement saying we were engaged, I wanted to do it properly, make it special for Bella.

Alice took me shopping for the perfect engagement ring for her, trawling round different jewellery stores for hours until I finally spotted one I knew was right; a two carat princess cut diamond with smaller diamonds on either side, so pure and beautiful, reflecting my own ideas about my future wife. Hiding the ring away in my jacket, I waited for the perfect sunny day to take Bella out for lunch in London. We sat outside at the restaurant in the sunshine and laughed and talked whilst we enjoyed our meal as a string quartet played inside the restaurant, creating the perfect ambience for what I was about to do.

As I heard the strings strike up and start to play Charles Aznavour's 'She', I knew that was my cue. With silence falling around us, I dropped to my knee in front of Bella and presented her with the ring and the words "My life began when I met you and I don't want it ever to end, marry me." I'll admit there was one heart stopping moment when I panicked that she'd say no, even though we were already technically engaged, but to my relief she allowed me to slip the ring onto her finger and then wrapped her arms around my neck saying yes, as the cameras of the ever following paparazzi flashed around us, capturing the moment for the world to see and remember.

Things seemed to have started to fall back into place with my life, I was with my friends and my fiancée, my baby was on its way and we were happy.

I have to give a big thanks to Pauleen who thought up the proposal idea : )

I'm not hugely happy with this chapter as it seems that everything and nothing have happened all at once but it means I can speed things along a little now, pull out of the angst and get back into the romance with the wedding and the baby.

Can somebody please tell me how to answer reviews? I just can't figure it out and I really am grateful for all of them : )

So, should the baby be a boy or a girl? Or should there be a surprise waiting for them at their scan?

I hope you enjoyed it.

Please review : )