Epilogue ~ Five years later

Edward

Becoming a father was everything I ever could have imagined, and so much more. When Bella and I made that pact all those years ago, never could I have even dreamed that it would turn out as wonderfully as it had.

I wasn't just a dad; I had a family. There were two beautiful little boys, who were the absolute joys of my life, greeting me every morning when I woke up, and ending my days with hugs and "I love you, Daddys" as I tucked them into bed at night. I also had the amazing woman who blessed me with them still at my side, and I was more in love with her now than the day I asked her to marry me.

That was definitely not to say that life had been easy, as nothing ever is, especially with two babies at once, and in particular, the first few years. My "twice the joy, half the sleep" comment I made to Bella when we first learned that we were having twins, proved to be only half true. All the joy was definitely present, but I'd been overestimating the sleep part—by a lot.

Bradon had been a fairly easygoing baby, even sleeping through the night by the time he was two and a half months old…if he wasn't woken up by his colicky brother. Derick was the fussier of the two in general, which led to a lot of sleepless nights, particularly on Bella's part. She'd insisted that I needed more rest than she did, since I was responsible for the lives and health of dozens of little ones every day. Whereas she could nap during the day while they did. Once her maternity leave had ended, she really wasn't ready to leave the babies yet, which I had been half expecting anyway. She'd already been pointing out how expensive daycare was for one infant, let alone two. Additionally, while she didn't want to quit working entirely, the idea of being away from our kids for eight or nine hours a day was upsetting to her as well.

"The daycare providers will be more of a parent to my children than I will. I don't want to be a weekend mom," she told me one night, a week before her leave was up. "I could talk to Mr. Biers about maybe working from home for a while, and if that's not a possibility, I've thought about going back to school for my Master's in a few years anyway. I could start a couple of courses once the boys are a little older."

The nervous tremble in her voice was breaking my heart, and so out of character for her. She'd always been pretty assertive in the things she wanted, for the most part, and I hadn't noticed that changing much since she became a mother. Yet, she was looking at the floor, as if I would really say no to her desire to be home with our kids, or worse, be angry at her for it. Sure, we had been talking about finding a bigger place in the next year or two, preparing for when the boys would grow out of their cribs, in addition to the car payment we now had on the SUV. Did that mean that we absolutely could not afford to live on one income if we needed to, especially with doubling the cost of daycare, which was more than half of Bella's salary anyway? That would not be a problem at all. Even if she did want to squeeze in a few classes here and there, we'd have to tighten our belts a little, but it wasn't unmanageable.

"Bella, as long as the boys are happy and healthy, with everything they need, anything else can be worked out. And a large part of what they need is a happy and healthy mom," I said, gently tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear and giving her a kiss. "We'll figure it out, no matter what."

Was our marriage always perfect? Of course not; no relationship is. We'd argue and get on each other's nerves from time to time, especially once we hit the toddler years. Cranky would be an understatement, for both of the boys, and Bella's patience would get a bit frayed by the time I got home from work. Then if I'd had a bad day as well, there was a high probability that we'd be going to bed mad that night. Which, yeah, it was never a good idea to do that, but exhaustion always wins out over logic. Then once we found a three-bedroom house to rent that was within our budget, moving with a pair of rambunctious two and a half year olds was definitely a challenge.

There were many sleepovers with the grandparents or Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper during that period.

By the time they were just about to turn four, however, things gradually began settling down, and Bella found time to start taking a few classes, which helped immensely. She loved being a mother, without a doubt, and our boys meant the world to her, but as any mom will tell you, particularly a stay-at-home one, the need for adult conversation and interaction after only having small children to talk to all day is very high. And an exhausted husband, especially since I'd become a partner in the practice, for maybe an hour after the boys were asleep most nights, just didn't cut it. She needed something outside the walls of our home, that didn't involve grocery shopping or other errands for our family, while still not giving up all her time with our sons. Night classes a few evenings a week while I was home with the kids seemed to be the perfect balance that she needed, and her mood and self-esteem improved greatly.

Yet, following the boys' fifth birthday and the early stages of registering them for kindergarten started, my mind began wandering. Bella and I had both passed the midway point of our thirties, and the window of opportunity was starting to close if we wanted more children without increasing the risk to her health too much. We'd discussed it occasionally over the past few years, but there never seemed to be a good time. Derick and Bradon were a handful, no doubt, plus I could never ask her to give up the path she had only just started toward her law degree, either. Regardless of how much I would love to try for a daughter as well, even if there was any way to guarantee that our next child would be a girl—or a singleton, for that matter—my wants and desires were only a part of the equation. I was only one person in a family of four, after all.

For weeks, I laid beside my wife at night, but my mind was light years away. I tried to not let it show and be as physically present as I could, but obviously, she knew something was off.

"I love you. You know that, right?" she said one night as she pressed her body against my side after we'd made love and kissed my chest.

I looked down at her and watched as her eyes rose again to meet mine. "Yes, why? Are you trying to brace me for bad news or something?"

Bella shook her head and a soft smile touched her lips, mirroring my teasing one. "No, nothing like that. You've just been so distant lately, and I don't want to be one of those nagging wives, constantly asking you 'what's wrong?', but I can't pretend I'm not worried, either. It's been going on for way too long now."

I sighed, bending my arm behind my head as she shifted to prop her chin on her her own, which was laying across my chest. "I'm not entirely sure, baby."

"The truth, Edward. We've always been honest with each other in this marriage. Don't change that now," she replied firmly, her eyes never wavering from mine. "You've never been afraid of talking to me about anything. What's so different now?"

"I'm not afraid, Bella. I've just had a lot going on in my mind." The fingers of my free hand began toying with her hair where it was cascading down her bare back, but she was not allowing me to distract her or dodge her questions. Her gaze was so determined in its hold on mine, I knew there was no way to go but complete honesty. "Everything's about to change. Just the boys starting school is going to change so much around here. Now that they will be going for hours at at time during the day, are you going to be taking more classes? Going back to work? I just don't know what's going to happen or what's in our future. Or what you want."

"You could always ask me. That's usually a pretty good method of finding out these kinds of things," Bella said pointedly with a small shrug. "And you want another baby."

Her blunt words took me by surprised, but more so that they weren't in the form of a question. I gave a small nod—there was no hiding much from my observant wife. "I do, but I'm not the one that would be carrying the baby. And you just started taking your classes and all, how can I ask you to give that up?"

"Who said anything about giving it up? I worked almost the entirety of my pregnancy with twins, and you think a couple of night courses would be too much to manage?" Bella's eyebrow arched at me, and I couldn't help but chuckle in response. "Besides, I have no time limit when it comes to my degree, and there are so many options available to me. I could even do courses online, if I needed to. Whereas my biological clock is only going to keep ticking for so long. And to be honest, I really don't want to be pushing any closer to forty before we have this discussion."

I gazed into her eyes as I traced the backs of my fingers along the side of her face. I really do love this woman, I thought as she scooted up the bed a little to kiss me before settling her head beside mine on the pillow. "Do you want to have another baby, though? There's always the chance that it could be twins again, small as it might be. And taking courses online would kinda defeat the purpose of it all, wouldn't it? You wanted to be able to get out of the house and interact with people, have a break from these four walls, and you wouldn't get that."

"Since when did you become the uncertain one?" Bells asked, her eyes flickering between mine. I sighed and stared at the ceiling, and the room was eerily silent for a solid minute. She had told me many times in the past that the one thing that got her through the pregnancy with the boys was how calm and rational I remained, even in her moments of emotional turmoil. Where was that man now? I felt Bella's leg drape over mine and her fingers lace through my hair, and I turned my head to look at her. "I love our boys and being a mother more than anything in this world, and I love being your wife. What I needed more than anything was to find Bella again, not an escape from my life here. Just a little balance, that's all. I found it, and having another child is not going to change that. Even if, by some freak chance, we end up with another two for one package, which I doubt, it's nothing that I can't manage. Besides, they have a pretty amazing dad, too. I'm not in this alone, you know."

"That doesn't answer my question, Bella. Do you want another baby?"

"We wouldn't still be having this conversation if I didn't," Bella answered in a somewhat sassy tone, wearing the hint of a smirk. "Of course I want another baby. Aside from wanting to be a mom again, and as much as I love you and our sons, there is way too much testosterone in this house. Need to at least try to even it out a little."

She giggled as I tickled her sides and rolled our bodies until I hovered above her, and then kissed her soundly. "And if we have another boy?"

Bella gazed up at me with a content smile on her face. "I will still be blissfully happy in my cuckoo's nest."

I was just about to kiss her again when a little knock sounded at the door.

"Mommy? Daddy? I'm thirsty," Bradon called out to us, rattling the doorknob, which was thankfully locked.

"You ready for this again?" she asked as I stood from the bed to pull on my sleep pants.

I slipped a T-shirt over my head and quickly returned to her, long enough to brush a kiss on her lips. "Absolutely."

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that Bella was sufficiently covered before I flipped the lock on the door, opening it to find my son rubbing his still sleepy eyes. "Didn't you just have a drink before bed, Bradon?"

He gazed up at me with his big brown eyes and gave me a small shrug. "I'm thirsty again."

"All right, big guy," I started, bending down to scoop him under one arm and holding him to my side like a football, which caused a giggle to erupt from him. "One small glass of water, and then it's back to bed with you."

"Okay, Daddy," he replied, still laughing as he kicked his feet.

That sound was like music to my ears, something I could never hear enough of—my child's laugh. Oh yeah, I was definitely ready to do it all again.

.

.

.

Bella had her IUD removed that September, after the boys started school, and we found out a few days before Christmas that we were expecting again. While it wasn't twins that time around, she did give birth to another beautiful baby boy, Noah Benjamin, in late July, but she was blissfully happy nonetheless.

Even if she did tell me about a year later that she wanted to try one more time for a girl.

Having two children under the age of three again was definitely hectic, but our family was finally complete when little Kenna Grace joined our family the week before my thirty-ninth birthday. We thought the boys would have a tougher time adjusting to having another baby in the house, especially given how much sibling rivalry took place after Noah was born. Yet, even the two-year-old was fiercely protective of their little sister, wanting to help feed and take care of her, and making sure that Bella and I weren't being too rough with her, even if we were just burping her after a bottle.

Despite the busy nature of our lives with four children and all the changes that brought about, Bella finally completed her master's degree two years later, and took the bar the following July. She decided to go into family law, mainly focusing on adoptions. While we had been blessed with four beautiful, healthy children, she knew there were others out there who were not so lucky.

I could not have been prouder of my wife, or the family and life we'd built together.

The End

A/N: I do have an futuretake in mind, thanks to ericastwilight, I just need to find the time to write it among everything else I have waiting in the wings at the moment. Hopefully will be soon. Thank you so much for all your support and lovely reviews you have left! I appreciate it so much! Hope to catch you next time!