A Sight to Behold

Could he really believe she didn't need him? Need him, as desperately and passionately as he needed her?

The day after Fourth of July dawned crisp and cool, but not cold. Paul and Bella had spent the holiday at Charlie's house, laughing and cooking and watching entirely too much baseball. Bella ignored the men and their television and instead played peek-a-boo and patty-cake with her daughter, as well as a rousing game of "Ring Around the Rosie." Since Jake and his family spent the holiday in La Push, Bella insisted on a picnic to polish off the leftovers and spend time with her best friend.

While Bella and Phoebe took a nature walk on the wooded path that circled the perimeter of the park, Paul and Jake were digging into the picnic baskets full of food like hungry wolves. Paul and Jake had, of course, remained friends after they stopped phasing, but never spent a considerable amount of time alone together now that Paul and Bella were married — probably because, according to Jake — they were usually attached at the hip. Usually conversation between the two men began with stilted pleasantries and a few awkward silences before reverting back to the easy male camaraderie they'd enjoyed while in the Pack.

Paul was drinking a beer and finishing the last of a cold turkey sandwich when Jake approached with a bag of chips under one arm and a red Solo cup in the palm of his hand.

"What are y'all going to name the baby?" Jake asked, depressing the spigot on the hunter orange Igloo cooler, pouring himself a cup of lamentably non-alcoholic fruit punch.

"Ehh," Paul said, lazily popping the muscles in his neck as he slouched against one of the wooden tables underneath the large awning of the park's picnic area. "I think we finally found a compromise, John if it's a boy and Crystal if it's a girl."

"Do you want her to be a stripper?" Jake asked, arching one eyebrow dubiously.

"Given that Bella's other picks were Agatha and Edith...I think Crystal will consider herself lucky," Paul replied dryly.

"What if you have twins?"

Paul snorted, but glanced affectionately towards his wife, who was coming out of the restroom, Phoebe balanced on her slender hip. "You think that tiny body could hold more than one baby?"

Jake smirked and nodded his concession.

Paul's voice lowered to a confidential tone. "I was really worried, you know, when Bella got pregnant with Phoebe. The doctors warned us that it was going to be a really hellish pregnancy — if she could carry to term at all."

"It wasn't that bad, though, right?" Jake confirmed, his brow furrowing into intense concern.

Paul shook his head as he took a long gulp from his beer. "Of course, they had to do a C-section and Bella got that infection afterwards and couldn't breastfeed. I just —" Paul blew out a breath. "I told her I didn't want anymore children."

"She fight you on it?" Jake asked casually, propping himself onto the wooden bench next to Paul's feet.

"Nope," he answered as he took another gulp. "And that should have been my first fucking clue."

Jake grimaced. "What'd she do?"

"She stopped taking her birth control."

"Ooooh." Jake cringed again, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe her audacity.

"Then she got so worried about what I was going to say that she waited until Father's Day to tell me."

"Daaaamn," Jake breathed, sighing. "She was what? Already three months by then?"

"Almost four," Paul replied, unable to stop the bitterness from seeping into his tone.

"Damn," Jake said again, shaking his head. "I don't know what I would've done if Anna kept a secret like that from me."

Paul rubbed his temples. "Tell me about it."

Jake's wife Anna was sashaying over, a paper plate with a hamburger perched atop it in her outstretched hand. She seemed to sense the tension between the two men, and quickly made herself scarce. Jake proceeded to assault the hamburger voraciously.

"What'd you say?" he asked when he swallowed the first enormous bite of his burger.

"What could I say? It's her body — she knows best what she can handle. It just scares the shit out of me that she's still taking risks, though. I thought we were done with that shit."

Bella was fast approaching, and Paul ducked his head to control the lump in the back of his throat and to cleanse his face of his expression of anxiety. "Hi, Daddy," she called out to Paul when she got close, glancing at his beer with a wary eye.

Obediently, he tossed the bottle into the garbage can beside the picnic table before reaching out for Phoebe. Chubby arms shot out, fingers wiggling impatiently.

"Du's!" Phoebe insisted, pointing towards the duck pond with giddy anticipation.

"You wanna go play with the ducks?" Paul asked, nuzzling her plump cheeks with his nose. She nodded emphatically, slapping her hands on each of Paul's cheeks rhythmically. As she began to get excited, the playful slaps came harder and faster.

"Gentle, Monkey, gentle," he admonished, reaching for one of her rotund little arms.

"Gen'lul," she parroted, showing him a mouthful of tiny teeth.

"You're just like your momma, Monkey. You're a man-killer."

Bella shoved at his shoulder ineffectually, chuffing, trying to hold back a laugh.

"See?" Paul insisted, pretending to be highly affronted. "Now she's beating me!" As he hefted Phoebe closer to his chest for the trek down to the duck pond, he called out over his shoulder to Jake, "Call the shelter for battered spouses, tell them I'll need my usual cot tonight!"

"Who would have ever thought?" Bella sighed in contentment as she stretched out on the bench next to Jake. His gaze followed hers down the knoll towards the duck pond. Paul had Phoebe on his shoulders and was hanging onto her tightly with his left hand, as his right pointed out objects of interest on the horizon.

"That Paul would be a great dad?" Jake asked, frowning.

"That someone so small could exert complete dominance over someone that big," Bella corrected dryly.

Jake chuckled around another enormous bite of hamburger. "You've had him wrapped around your finger for years."

Bella punched him lightly on the shoulder, blushing.

"You don't think so?" Jake asked incredulously. "He's crazy about you, Bells."

She ducked her head shyly. "I know."

"He's hurt as hell that you're having this baby without him," Jake said solemnly, pushing his plate away.

"He said that?" Bella asked, her jaw dropping open.

"He didn't have to," Jake answered, fierce. They both turned their attention back to Paul and Phoebe, who were now squatting together at the edge of the pond, throwing bits of stale bread onto the surface of the water. Ducks were happily devouring each bite, clamoring for more in nasal honks. Paul noticed them watching, smiled shyly and gave a small wave.

"You kept him out of the loop for more than three months. He's your husband, Bella. The kid's half his, and he's all yours."

Bella's heart constricted painfully at Paul's bashful blush. Could he really believe she didn't need him? Need him, as desperately and passionately as he needed her? Sure, she'd been reluctant to tell him that she'd gone behind his back in her efforts to conceive again, and she'd waited far longer than she intended once she was pregnant. But didn't he know that her world revolved around him and Phoebe?

"Hey, Jake," she said slowly. "I'll be right back, I've got to go talk to my dad for a minute."

Jake gave her an appraising look, but nodded, turning his attention back to his hamburger. Bella understood him as perfectly as if he'd said the words. Make this right, Bells.

xxx

Bella sauntered down to where her husband and her daughter sat playing and lowered to a crouch beside them. Phoebe's knees were now muddy from kneeling next to Paul on the bank, though thankfully her white shorts were still fairly pristine. The cotton fabric was covered with tiny purple butterflies, flittering around in an endless dizzy pattern. Today her hair was up in a little bun on the top of her head, and matching white sandals were strapped to her feet. Phoebe turned her attention away from the sailboat Paul had constructed from a piece of paper to look up at her mother. Several others had been folded and sat at the shore, a ready fleet.

"Boah!" she insisted, aiming her tiny finger at the boat. Paul set the folded paper on the surface of the placid water, and gently pushed it out to "sea" with one finger.

"Say, 'Bon Voyage!'" he instructed as he waved to the departing paper boats.

"Bah Voyah!" Phoebe repeated obediently, waving at the tiny invisible passengers on her vessel.

Bella had braced herself, one hand on the damp soil beneath her, and a lazy grin now played on her lips. "Let's cover the basics first, shall we?" she suggested.

"Au revoir?" Paul offered, one eyebrow lifting imperiously. "Adieu?"

"Bye bye," Bella enunciated clearly, as she leaned forward and addressed her toddler. "Monkey, you want to go bye bye with Grandpa?"

"Granpa?" Phoebe repeated, mulling this over. From her tiny little bottom, Phoebe suddenly expelled a dainty fart.

"What was that?" Bella asked with faux-surprise.

Phoebe giggled hysterically. "Music, Ma."

Paul bit back a hearty laugh and he and Bella shared a secret smile. "If we teach her how to play the Star-Spangled Banner, we could make a fortune."

Bella socked him lightly in the shoulder. "Pig," she accused affectionately.

Charlie appeared over the small rise that led down to the pond, and Bella pointed. "Look, Phoebe, it's Grandpa!" Bella was still on her haunches next to her Paul also was perched, and she held onto his wrist for support as Phoebe abandoned her boat, running towards Charlie and hurling her chubby body at his legs. Charlie scooped her up into a wide swing over his head, and then waved at Bella and Paul as he disappeared, his granddaughter in tow.

"Your father kidnapping our munchkin again?" Paul asked, picking up stones one by one, until he found one that was perfectly round and flat.

"Just for tonight," Bella assured him, slipping forward until she was planted in Paul's lap. He skipped the stone across the top of the water, watching it bounce several times before slipping beneath the murky surface.

"You've been awfully quiet today. What are you thinking about?"

Paul's eyes concentrated very resolutely on the horizon. "You. The baby."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the moment I knew," Bella confessed, her eyes filling with tears. "Every time I saw you — with Phoebe, especially — Paul, I wanted to tell you so bad."

"So why didn't you?" he asked, unable to hide the hurt in his voice. His jaw clenched, and Bella stroked it soothingly.

"I don't know. It seems stupid now." She buried her face into the crook of Paul's neck.

"What's the worst that would've happened? I would yell at you?" he shrugged, the movement slow and painful. "Unless you thought I would hit you."

Bella reared back, gasping in surprise. "How could you say that to me? You know I would never think that," she retorted angrily. "I just didn't want weeks or months of the silent treatment." Paul still looked so defeated, and she found she couldn't remain peeved with him. Instead, she nestled closer once more and trailed her open mouth along his jaw up to his ear. "I want your baby, Paul. I want to give you a son."

"At the risk to your own health?" Paul snapped. "Did you stop to think what Phoebe — what I — would do without you? You know I wouldn't survive," he trailed off, his voice quiet and sad.

"Women my size have babies all the time," Bella insisted. "Have faith in me, Paul." She cupped his cheeks and made him meet her gaze. "Please be happy about this with me, please. I can't do this alone."

Paul appeared stunned. "Did you think I would leave you?"

"Stop purposefully misunderstanding me," Bella ordered firmly. "You told me, when we got married, that you wanted a family." Her voice lowered intimately. "I want a family with you, too. I'm trying so hard to make you happy, baby."

"I am happy," he retorted, sapped of his anger.

"You told me then that you wanted as many babies as I wanted."

"That's before I knew how hard it is on your body," he grumbled quietly.

"Don't you understand?" she argued passionately. "I'd go through ten times as much to have a family with you."

Paul sighed, resigned. "If you have even one complication, I'm going to make you stay in bed."

"Mmmm, I would happily stay in bed with you." Paul fixed her with a look, and she laughingly amended. "Alright, alright. Even one problem and I'll be on Doctor Paul's bedrest."

Paul took Bella's mouth in a sensual tongue-kiss as he wrapped his arms around her slight body. Her eyes met his again in the falling twilight. "Maybe Dr. Paul should take me to bed for some private care," she murmured huskily.

Paul's fingers were underneath her dress, toying at the leg-band of her sensible cotton underwear. "Dr. Paul thinks he needs to perform his exam right now."

She squirmed against his heated touch as first one finger, then two, slid across her slippery folds. Bella threw her head back and gasped, clutching at Paul's shoulders urgently.

"I can't wait to see you get heavy, baby," he whispered, thrusting his hand against her in slow, methodical movements. "I can't wait to have your belly between us when we fuck." He dipped forward and sucked a delicious, swirling pattern against the tender skin of her neck. He brushed his thumb against her clit in swift, sure movements.

"Paul, I'm close," she gasped, undulating frantically against his hand.

"Cum all over my fingers, baby," he commanded in a sultry murmur. "I want to lick you off of them, come on." He pumped her harder, pressing his thumb against her clit in endless, glorious pleasure. Her muscles clenched around his hand and he moaned, bucking his hips up, instinctively needing to be inside her while this happened.

Bella bit her bottom lip savagely to keep from crying out, and then stilled in his arms, her head on his shoulder. "Take me home, Paul," she requested a long, soft minute later. "Make love to me in our bed." She tugged his earlobe between her teeth gently.

Paul scooped her up as he stood, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a flash of white — the now-flattened paper sailboat. He saw it at the same moment, and stooped down to retrieve it. He balanced Bella on his knees before plucking it up and depositing the crumpled paper atop her belly.

"Look, honey," he said brightly. "Now you can say I've fucked you on a boat."

Bella rolled her eyes at his playful pun and wiggled her toes. "I seem to recall being fingered on said boat. My husband has yet to fuck me, period."

Paul grinned as her broke into long strides towards their parked car. "An oversight that will be corrected very soon babe, I assure you."

And it was.