As he looked out the window at his family playing in the snow, Carlisle Cullen could not help the content sigh that passed his lips. He never thought that he would see them all looking so happy, but then again, no one had counted on Bella or Renesmee. He had to admit, while they had never been unhappy, he had never seen his family look so happy all at once. Usually, there was one argument or another that started to ruin the fun, but they had been out for hours, and they still had the happy smiles of teenagers enjoying a good snowfall. Sometimes, he found it easy to forget how young all of them had been, and this was a nice reminder.
He could not help but reflect on how much things had changed since they had met Isabella Swan. In the beginning, half of the family had been content to remove the threat to their happiness in this town without another thought. It was not that they didn't value human life, but Jasper was a soldier, which gave him a very cut and dry outlook on life, Emmett always sided with Rosalie, and Rosalie was Rosalie, protective of her family to a fault. But, he supposed they were all like that.
Smiling, he turned from his window, still deep in thought. He could not help but think of their encounter with the Volturi, which had happened but a week ago. He felt remorse for the fact that his friendship with Aro had been broken, but his family would always come first. He remembered how he felt that day, when it had seemed that a fight had seemed inevitable. He had been ready to rip to shreds any vampire who thought of laying a hand on his family, especially the newest and most unique addition to their family. Normally, such violence repelled him, as it did when he thought back on the day, but at the time, it had seemed the most reasonable and likely course of action.
He was broken out of his thoughts as Bella and Renesmee, who now looked to be about 5 years old, burst into the house, still smiling from their activities outside. Renesmee's cheeks were red from the cold, and Bella's now topaz eyes were twinkling with happiness.
"Grandpa, guess what! We were having a snowball fight, and Mommy helped me sneak up on Daddy, and we dumped a bunch of snow on his head, and then ran off! He tried to chase us, but Uncle Emmett tackled him so we had time to go hide in our fort! It was funny, because Daddy got a bunch of snow in his mouth, and Uncle Emmett made him eat it!" I chuckled at the thought of poor Edward being picked on by the rest of the family. Renesmee had a huge smile on her face as she wiped her boots off and told me of her time outside. We had been encouraging her to speak more, so she would be used to it by the time we decided to bring her out in public.
"That sounds like fun. How come you decided to come inside, if you were having such a good time?" Bella answered as she helped Renesmee out of her jacket and snow pants.
"Renesmee needed a bit of a potty break, and I promised to also make her some hot chocolate." She shot me a smile as the little girl in question ran upstairs to go to the bathroom, most likely eager to get back to her fun. Bella stared after her, a little content smile on her face. It made me so happy to see Bella adjusting so well to this life. It seemed as though she had been made to be a vampire, as odd as that seemed. She seemed so much happier as a vampire than she had ever been as a human.
"So what made you all decide to gang up on Edward?" Bella looked over at me with a very Emmet like grin on her face.
"Well, ever since I've been having such an easy time expanding my shield, Emmett had been begging me to shield him so he can have a fair fight with Edward. I've said no each time, but when the snowball fight started today, I decided to shield my team, at least. Jacob and Emmett enjoy not having Edward peek into their heads, even for only a little bit. Though Edward isn't enjoying it nearly so much." I laughed of the thought of how Edward must be reacting to this newest development.
"Yes, I can't imagine he's enjoyed eating snow due to his lack of his gift." Bella just smiled, and turned back to the stairs as Renesmee came racing down.
"Hot chocolate time!" Renesmee declared, which made Bella and I chuckle. We headed into the kitchen to prepare her snack. "Grandpa, why don't you come out and play with us? Daddy's team is missing one, and their getting trounced!" I could only imagine: with Bella blocking Edward, and Jacob blocking Alice, it was the first fair fight to be had.
"Well, I had some work from the hospital to finish up, but I'd be more than happy to come join you all now. I'd like to see you dump some more snow on Daddy's head." I winked at her, smiling as she giggled. "That's not something I think I've ever seen."
So as Bella puttered around making her daughter some hot chocolate, I left to go get ready. I stopped in the doorway to the kitchen and watched my newest daughter and granddaughter, and sent up a silent prayer to God, thanking him for giving me the gift of the family. I still wasn't sure if there was anything after life for us vampires, but I found I didn't care too much. I was happy enough where I was, and for the first time in a long time, I felt no guilt or regret for changing each of my sons and daughters. We were all finally a family, and it was in large due to these two people before me.
With a smile still upon my face, I left to go get some proper clothing on, ready to enjoy a day in the snow with my family, completely happy for the first time in a long time.