Bella held the stick in her hand, shaking with fear while she stared at the result.
As soon as she had noticed that her period late, she had driven to the drug store to get a pregnancy test. She hadn't told anybody, but now, with the results in, she picked up the phone and dialed Edward's number. He was on a hunting trip with Carlisle and Esme. She hoped he would take the news well.
"Bella? Is something wrong?" his velvet voice answered the phone. But just as he began talking, The whole scene changed. Nothing was visibly different. But Bella felt a soft little nudge at the sound of Edward's voice. She was rendered utterly speechless. At that moment, she saw the angel-faced, green-eyed child from her dreams. She smiled dreamily.
"Edward, I have wonderful news," she said. They weren't married yet, but they could deal with this. They were prepared. "I'm pregnant."
~O~
She'd never really understood Rosalie's pain and resentment before. She'd never imagined herself a mother, never wanted that. It had been a piece of cake to promise Edward that she didn't care about giving up children for him, because she truly didn't. Children, in the abstract, had never appealed to her. They seemed to be loud creatures, often dripping some form of goo. She'd never had much to do with them. When she'd dreamed of Renée providing her with a brother, she'd always imagined an older brother. Someone to take care of her, rather than the other way around.
But now….. Now she couldn't stop picturing her little nudger. She wanted to be a mother. She wanted a life where she could raise her child.
But Edward wasn't going to provide. He was coming to murder her little nudger. She found her notebook filled with emergency numbers. She quickly dialed Rosalie.
~O~
"Hello?" she answered the unknown number.
"Rosalie? It's Bella. Please. You have to help me."
"What? Bella, what's going on?"
"Rosalie, I'm pregnant. Edward- Edward wants to kill our child because they might be dangerous to me. I don't think he'll listen if I say that I don't want an abortion. I don't think he'll listen to me until I do abort. That's what he's always done- eliminate the threat and then talk later..." Bella was starting to ramble and Rosalie could hear her starting to cry.
"You're pregnant? How is that possible?" Rosalie asked. "Never mind. I don't need to know. Bella, listen. Go to the SeaTac airport. There will be a flight to Maine. Emmett and I were going to go on a vacation there to hide from Jasper after he pranked him, so there are two tickets already reserved, with dozens of connecting flights. I'm going to send someone to go with you, and they'll have the tickets. They'll also know where the Cullen house in Maine is. Just go with them, and they'll handle everything. Meet them at the Starbucks at the entrance. They'll take care of you. Do not contact me again. Edward will know."
"Thank you, Rosalie."
"It's no problem. If my idiot brother wants to kill his own child, he'll have to get through me." Rosalie thought for a moment. "We'll have to fake your death."
She could practically feel the shock through the phone. "Al-Alright," Bella answered.
"I have to go. Charlie's coming."
"Oh, and Bella?"
"Yes, Rosalie?"
"My friends call me Rose." And with that, Rosalie hung up the phone. She knew she didn't have much time if she wanted to help Bella. Bella would need someone to take care of her and surely it wouldn't hurt to have more than one person. Rose wasn't sure what a hybrid child might entail, but better safe than sorry. She dialed a different number, one with an area code thousands of miles away from the phone that had just called her.
"Hello?"
"Kate! You have a medical degree, right?"
"Umm, yeah, why?"
"Kate, I need you to help a friend- no, a family member- with a problem. Meet me at the Seattle airport. I wouldn't call if it wasn't important. Tell your family that you'll be gone for a long time. Don't tell them I called you. Make something up. Please."
"Rose, I'll go, but what's this about?"
"This is about helping a family member whose husband has failed her. Bring Irina, too," She hung up. Rose knew that both Kate and Irina were desperate for a chance at motherhood, though not as desperate as she herself was. She figured that Bella needed at least two vegetarian vampires to take care of her during her pregnancy. She just hoped that Irina would be able to put aside her differences about Laurent.
She went into Carlisle's study and thanked whatever higher power that he was hunting with Esme. But Edward had probably already called Carlisle…
She walked towards the bookshelves and drifted towards a shelf with binders full of research. She pulled out one labeled Amazonian Studies. She continued to the computer and booked a flight straight to Maine for Irina. She hoped that she was doing the right thing, and that she was doing fast enough. Bella and Kate needed to be on that plane to Houston* yesterday.
~O~
"Irina, please!" Rose begged as Irina was starting to stalk off. "Laurent was killed by werewolves!"
"And it was her fault that he was even there!" Irina snapped.
"Irina, wait, she's pregnant!" Rose cried, a last-ditch effort. Irina slowly turned around. Her face betrayed her shock.
"What?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"The child will be half vampire." Rose continued, as if Irina had not spoken. "Edward, the idiot, thinks it will hurt Bella and wants to give her an abortion. Against her will."
Irina didn't move. "So the child will die if she stays?"
"Yes," Rosalie replied. She waited.
After a moment, Irina spoke. "Fine. I will go."
~O~
Afterwards, Rosalie ordered medical machines and food to be delivered to the Cullen house in Maine through Jenks. She paid extra for his silence, and new that she would be safe going through him, as Jasper, not Edward, usually dealt with Jenks.
Later, she sped through five car dealerships looking at car models. Her vampire brain would allow her to slow down the memories and give Edward an excuse as to where she had been.
*Houston will be the first of many connecting flights. As Emmet would have been hiding from Jasper, who has Alice at his disposal, he would book two flights at the same time, and decide which one to take in a split second. This also works for Bella, because then Edward can't trace the receipt trails or manifests, and they can't trace her scent because she will be crisscrossing the country until they get to Maine.