Jacob can practically feel the sigh of relief when they step into the diner. Bailey rushes over to them like she'd been waiting, menus at the ready before she can even say hello. He's sure his smile is a little subdued, but he's trying to adjust to the fact that this had accidentally become something real to him. If he scared Edward off, it was actually going to matter more than him being put on desk duty. So, he tries not to be too obnoxious.

They're seated quickly and Bailey waits for them to find what they want on the menu despite it being a busy Saturday morning. He orders what he usually does and Edward just orders coffee. He can see the remark on the tip of Bailey's tongue before she can even purse her lips.

However, something makes her swallow her comment, instead giving him a polite smile before scurrying away.

He wonders what that was about. 

Truly, the plan was to stop being so intrusive. It really was, but as soon as Edward places one of his hands on the table, Jacob scoops it into his own and holds it. It was almost second nature despite the fact that he's done it a total of two times now. Edward hasn't objected to it yet, eyes too busy checking in on Bear who is making little noises in her car seat. 

Eventually, his food arrives, but before he can take a bite, Bailey tilts her head and takes in a  deep breath like she was preparing herself for something.

"Can I talk to you about Bill and the kids?" She mutters. 

He can feel Edward's eyes on him now and he tries to school his face, giving her a stiff nod, before letting go of Edward's hand. She leads him over to a corner where there are less people milling about.

"Why are we talking about your ex-husband and nonexistent children?" Jacob asks as soon as they're out of earshot.

"I heard about you two having a spat at the station." She says and it takes everything in him not to roll his eyes. Of course it got back to them. Everything he's ever done gets back to them. He couldn't go to the supermarket without it getting back to them. That's what happens when your sister owns a diner and you've known every employee since you got your first chin hair. 

"Lee, I already talked about it with Quil." He says, hoping she'll drop it at that. 

"Yeah, I know. Just...promise me you won't fuck this up."

The statement makes Jacob reel back a little. Was his love life that big of a mess that he was having to make promises like this to people who weren't even involved in it? 

"You love him, we can see that," Jacob tries his best not to look around him at the rest of the staff, "I don't think I need to explain this to you, but imprinting on someone is a bigger deal than just your run of the mill love." 

This felt a lot like an intervention. One little misstep and they were stepping in like he'd done something abhorrent and unforgivable.

"Leah told you?" Jacob huffs, quirking an eyebrow. He can feel the flush running up his neck as he tries to focus on something else.

Bailey stares at him so long that he eventually ends up having to return her gaze. He immediately regrets it, not liking how amused she looks.

"Hun, we could smell it on you the first day you brought him in here. Could hear it in the way you talked about him before we'd even met him." She says it as if it's the most casual thing in the world. 

Jacob's not even sure how he's supposed to respond to that.

"Pretty sure Mikey could see it too," she says, leaning in like it was a secret, "you might want to do that boy's heart a favor and make sure it's clear, though." 

He blinks a couple more times before giving a slow nod. She gives him a big smile before sending him off on his merry way. 

He settles back into his seat, mind repeating her words in his head. Mike? 

His appetite is all but diminished, so he just ends up sipping at his coffee. Edward looks at him for a long moment when he asks Bailey for a to-go box, but doesn't say anything, taking it upon himself to link their hands when it's time to go to the register.

As soon as they step out of the diner, Jacob gets a call. The name on the caller I.D. gives him pause.

"Ma'am?"

"Black, please tell me you're with the doctor and the baby." 

...and that's how Jacob finds out that they were going to be getting a second officer patrolling the house and even crashing in the guest room if need be. Apparently, the person who was lying in the lab was someone of significance, which put the baby at an even higher risk.

Edward doesn't look too happy. In fact, he looks absolutely miserable. 

"Has she chosen someone already?" He asks, mouth morphing a scowl at the thought of yet another cop roaming around his house. 

"Yeah, Newt."

Newt? Newton? Blondie?

Edward's not exactly a fan of shopping. It's probably one of his least favorite things to do, would prefer just throwing everything into a virtual cart and having it shipped to his house. Though, he couldn't do that when he needed the thing he wanted immediately. Instead, he had to drive to a store, get out, put Bear into a cart, and wander around said store with people staring at him. 

Currently, he was staring at a onesie that says "Daddy's Little Girl" and wishing that he'd stayed home. Bear's going to be with him for more than the week that he'd originally thought and so he was going to have to actually stock up more than he had previously. He was going to have to buy her more than a few onesies and an outfit or two. He was going to have to buy her storage bins and maybe even decorate her room with more than new furniture that has never been used. He was going to have to take out an arm chair that was stiff due to the lack of sitting done in it and maybe replace it with a changing station of some kind. Maybe he could take out the fancy lamps and replace them with nightlights. Maybe she deserved something on her walls that wasn't random, overly expensive minimalism paintings that'd he'd framed on the wall to make it look like he cared. In retrospect, the room made no sense and had no theme. 

He should buy some paint, maybe paint the walls a different color. 

He's so caught up in his own head that it almost startles him when Jacob eases up behind him and wraps his arms around his waist. He rests his chin on Edward's shoulder and begins to whisper.

"If you stare at that any longer, the woman three diaper boxes down is going to start getting a little concerned." He informs Edward before placing a swift kiss to the side of his neck and letting him go. 

He blinks a few times, before taking a deep breath and turning to face Jacob.

"Pink, blue or purple?" He asks, trying to ignore the woman who was definitely pretending not to watch them.

"For?"Jacob seems genuinely confused as his eyes skim over the baby clothes behind Edward.

"Her room." He says, glancing over at Bear, who is definitely staring at Jacob.

Jacob looks like he's really thinking hard about it as he looks over the other stuff in the cart.

"What about yellow?" 

Yellow. 

Edward peers over at the car seat she'd shown up in. Almost everything about it was gray except for the little, yellow polka-dots on the hood and the yellow blanket she'd been wrapped in. Yellow makes sense. He gives an affirmative nod, that was more for him than anything, and starts looking for anything in the shade that felt right to him. 

He can feel Jacob watching him over his shoulder, but he decides to ignore it in favor of getting as much as he can find and getting out as quickly as he can. 

By the end of the trip, Bear is on Jacob's shoulder, wrapped in a blanket, and definitely sleeping and her car seat is buried deep underneath a pile of plastic bags. 

He has Bear sleep in her car seat in his room while he tries to quietly move as much furniture out of her room as possible before laying down a tarp. He's still aware of Jacob lingering in the doorway as he places down blue tape to make sure no paint drips get on the baseboard. He gets about one swipe in before Jacob's wandering in and grabbing a paint roller of his own.

"This is a lot considering she may only be here for a couple of months." Jacob informs him even as he dips the roller into a pan of mustard yellow paint and rolls in on the wall. 

Edward only hums as he continues to work. 

It is a lot. Everything is a lot. Taking in a baby was a lot. The play acting was a lot. 

Hell, they weren't even good at it. The fact that they'd been stuck to each other for a week and Edward didn't even have Jacob's phone number until yesterday was ridiculous. If anything, it felt like they were a caricature of what a real relationship should be. Despite somehow fooling a department of police officers, he didn't think they were going to be winning an Emmy anytime soon. 

A little yellow paint was the least of his worries. 

He's about to say as much when Jacob's phone starts ringing. He picks up the phone and cushions it between his shoulder and ear.

"Mike?"

Edward frowns at the white peeking out in between the streaks of yellow paint. He was hoping this would be enough to distract him from the inevitable. 

"I'm not at home, Newt." 

Edward can't help but pause his rolling and listen as the other man puts down his own roller to head for the door. 

"I get that, but I'm with Eddy." He hears even through the now closed door as Jacob makes his way to his own bedroom. 

Edward freezes at the nickname. It doesn't sound foreign rolling off of his tongue as if he's said it before. Is that what he called Edward when he wasn't around?

As soon as the door is closed to the guest room, Jacob must put him on speaker because he can now hear the officer on the other end. 

"I didn't realize you were visiting your boyfriend. You two makeup or something?" He sounds distracted and Edward can hear the sound of paper flipping and the light chatter of other people talking coming through the phone. 

"Yeah, um, we're good now," He hears Jacob respond, "did she say anything else?" 

"Yeah, not sure how much you're going to like it though." It wasn't an enthusiastic answer, as he lets out a sigh, voice monotone. He almost sounds like he regrets calling.

Eventually, Jacob inches back into the room and is looking expectantly at Edward.

"Mike's going to be in the guest room." It's a statement that's somehow phrased as a question.

Edward gives a nod, not really paying attention to what's being said as he continues to paint on autopilot.

"So, I have to move my stuff to your room." 

Another nod.

Edward has a headache. 

He listens as Jacob packs up what little belongings he'd brought and transfers them across the hall while he continues to slap yellow paint on the wall. He decides to speed the process up a little and manages two walls before Jacob comes wandering back in with the phone up to his ear.

"I've only been gone for ten minutes." He says as soon as he gets a good look at Edward's work. 

"Mhm, and you can finish painting the other two while I go lay down." He says, handing off the roller to Jacob who's still staring, clearly dumbfounded by the progress.

Edward pulls himself onto the bed and shoves a straw in between his lips as he tries to not think about the fact that Blondie was most definitely pulling into his driveway. He's not in his cop car and, by the sound of his shoes, he's in civvies. 

Edward lets out a sigh and turns on the TV to drown them out.

Mike follows Jacob upstairs. 

"You know I never pinned you for the type to like rich guys." He says, as he looks out into the hall at the fancy furniture that was being moved out of Bear's room.

Jacob walks into the now empty room and grabs a roller so he can continue working on one of the walls Edward had left for him. Something about this task was more bearable when Edward was standing next to him. 

"If you're going to stand here and annoy me, at least grab a roller." He huffs.

"Don't you ever get tired of being bossy?" Mike asks, smirk on his lips as he grabs for the second roller and gets to work.

Type to like rich guys? Edward wasn't a typical man with money. Sure, he owned a large house and a fancy car, but that seemed to be where the money trail ended. He seemed to only own work attire, he didn't throw obnoxious parties, he wasn't macking on a different person every night, he wasn't looking for attention, hell, he'd taken in a baby that he found on his doorstep. Jacob can practically see him standing outside of his house with that car seat clutched to his chest asking for help. His instincts were right, he should've kept his distance, but they could've been a bit more specific about why. 

Jacob doesn't respond. He can hear Mike babbling, but he's too busy focusing on the sound of water running. It's the bathtub in Edward's room. He's hopping into a bath and Jacob's having his ear talked off by Newton. Didn't seem like that fair of a trade. Honestly, the third wall is almost done, that seemed like a good enough excuse to fuck off and see if Bear was still asleep, maybe see what Edward had been watching.

He's about to turn around and deliver his excuse when he realizes that Mike's basically shoulder to shoulder with him, looking at him expectantly.

"What?"

"I asked if you two were serious?" He somehow moves even closer to Jacob, turning so that they were chest-to-chest. 

He's about to say something, anything to get him to backup, when he hears the sound of clothed feet moving down the hall before they step into Bear's room. Edward's standing there, Bear on his shoulder, appraising their work. He can hear Mike shuffling away a little and putting enough space in between them for plausible deniability. Though, eventually Edward's eyes drop down to them, and Jacob can all but feel the mood shift as he and Jacob stare at one another. Jacob moves to take a step back, only to feel the paint can hitting his calf too late and falls ass first into a tray of yellow paint.

Honestly, just one day with his pinky toe outside of the doghouse would be great.