This story was co-written with wolfpackgirl.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
I was standing in our special spot in the middle of the forest that surrounded our home, right at the edge of the beautiful lake. The forest stretched all the way to the horizon and had me completely mesmerized by its beauty. It all looked so peaceful, complete opposite to the knots I felt screaming from every cell in my body. I'm not sure why I was so nervous, there was really nothing to be nervous about. They are my family, they love me and they are going to love the news we are about to share with them too, right?
Suddenly I felt familiar eyes watching me. I couldn't turn away from the view in front of me; I needed to immerse in this serenity for a little longer.
"Everything is about to change soon," I said.
"But in a good way," Jake answered.
"Yes." A smile spread across my face.
"It's time to go," Jake said.
"Yes I know," I replied, still unable to take my eyes off the horizon.
"How are we going to break the news to the family? They are going to flip especially my dad. Maybe we should wait a little longer? We don't have to do it today," I said with a nervous tone.
"It needs to be done today, there isn't much time left. How long do you think you can keep it from your mind reading father anyway?" Jake replied with a small chuckle and little fear in his eyes that didn't really help to calm down my nerves.
I finally turned with a sigh and leaped into his open arms, my favorite place in the world. I loved the warm and safe feeling it gave me more then anything.
"I love you," Jake whispered, pulling me closer to him.
"I love you too," I mumbled right before I felt his soft, warm lips crushing mine with such heat I almost lost my balance.
After we broke off our kiss, I said half jokingly, "Maybe we should ask Aunt Rose for help with this, she may be more open to this than the rest."
"Sure, why not, but if she decides to move in with us I am out of there."
I punched him lightly and giggled at the thought.
As Jake and I entered the family home, hand in hand, I noticed that the house wasn't fully decorated yet. That's really not like Alice. I wonder what's going on. We walked into the kitchen and came across what seemed to be a very disturbed Alice. My favorite aunt was pacing back and forth, mumbling incoherently to herself. I knew better than to bother her when she was in this state.
As we walked passed her, Jake couldn't help himself. "Hi Alice."
No answer.
"Hi Jake," he replied to himself as I rolled my eyes at him.
"Don't even bother," I said. We kept walking to the back yard, following the familiar scent of my parents.
We found them looking over a huge table full with enough Christmas decorations to open their own store.
"Merry Christmas," I said with a big smile. I started humming "Jingle Bells" in my head, hoping Jake was using the same tactic to block my dad. The last thing we needed was for dad to hear of our news through our thoughts.
"Merry Christmas sweetheart," my dad said, looking at me and raising his eyebrow questioningly. Dad squeezed me into his arms and then went to shake Jake's hand. When my mom leaned in to hug me, I was tempted for a second to just say it and get it over with, but I was going to let him keep guessing, at least for now. It had to be in the right moment, and for that we needed to have everyone here. Instead, I reached out to touch Jake's arm and took us back to our kiss this morning by the lake. From the corner of my eye I noticed dad grimacing at us.
Sorry dad you're going to have to wait a little longer, I thought as I smiled timidly at him.
"Why isn't the house ready? Aren't the guests coming soon? And what is going on with Aunt Alice?" I asked. Jake rolled his eyes at my usual stream of questions.
"Oh, you know your aunt. Alice is just being Alice, trying to plan the perfect Christmas as usual, but all her plans seem to vanish. Every time she starts a new plan, something ruins it and the future dissolves and she gets more annoyed. So she's too disturbed to arrange everything by herself and she won't let any of us touch anything either. It makes being around her very uncomfortable, especially for poor Jasper," my mom replied.
"Jasper tried calming her down for a few hours than gave up and took off with Emmett to buy some food for our guests," my dad added.
"I hope you have enough tranquilizers in the house. She looks like she's going to need it." Jake chuckled. Dad didn't take the joke too well and hissed at him. Good thing Mom's hand on his shoulder calmed him down.
"Do we know what it is? Is that something we should be worried about? Can we do anything to help?"
"No," my dad replied. "Don't you worry, I'm sure it's nothing, I didn't hear anything to be concerned about."
"Your Grandpa should be here soon, and there is really nothing to do here. Why don't you go and see if Alice can help you get ready? That should distract her for a while and give us a chance to start organizing the house. Now what do we do about all this decorations?" Mom said with a laugh.
I couldn't believe Grandpa Charlie was actually coming to Christmas dinner.
I missed him so much. I turned to Jake with a huge smile on my face. "Christmas is going to be awesome. I'm going to find Alice and ask her to give me a makeover. She's going to love this."
"Goodie, let's go play with some makeup," Jake mumbled with a sarcastic tone. I stuck my tongue out at him and laughed.
The sun was beginning to set as we made our way down the stairs. Our mission to distract Alice was a moderate success. She seemed happy to take a break from her own head, but I could tell she wasn't entirely focused on the task like she usually was.
I could hear and smell that some of our guests had already arrived. As I descended the stairs, I said hi to Sue, Seth, and Leah, then rushed into Grandpa Charlie's awaiting arms, almost knocking him over. I saw Dad from the corner of my eye giving me a disapproving look, but I didn't care, I haven't seen Grandpa Charlie since the wedding.
Billy was already there too, beaming at me.
"Can I get one of these too?" he asked. I ran over to Billy, hugged him and kissed his cheek. I was so happy to have everyone there, it had been a while since the last time we were all together. At that moment, Uncle Emmett walked into the room with a huge smile on his face, wearing a Santa's elf suit.
"Nessie, how was Isle Esme? I hope the pillows are all in one piece?" he asked in his booming voice, causing me to blush.
Jake burst out laughing. "Don't worry it's all still in one piece."
Mom looked like she was about to strike him, but Dad put a calming hand around her waist and she relaxed into him, leaning her head on his chest.
"What's with the suit dude?" Jake asked.
"What's it to you mongrel?" Aunt Rose said, coming down the stairs wearing a Mrs. Claus costume. Everyone stared at the two of them in shock, trying not to laugh. If only the bear Emmett eat last week could see him now, he would die all over again laughing.
"OK I give up." Alice stormed into the room. "Christmas is ruined and I am just going to have to deal with it," she said frustrated. "I wish I knew what is causing all this chaos though," she mumbled too low for human ears to hear and glared at me and Jake with suspecting eyes.
"Where is Uncle Jasper?" I asked her.
"He is doing the finishing touches of the tree decorating with Carlisle and Esme, which I would be supervising if I wasn't so busy trying to save this damn Christmas," she said with a huff.
We all moved to the next room.
"Carlisle, get those dirty thoughts out of your head right this second!" Dad yelled in horror as we walked in on Grandpa Carlisle and Grandma Esme making out. Unlike themselves, they moved slowly away from each other, as if they were having hard time tearing away.
"Get a room… or an attic, we got rid or the bat there years ago." Uncle Emmett, just having to joke about everything, commented and winked at Aunt Alice. Carlisle glared at him.
"Now that everyone are here, we should toast to kick off the celebrations," Grandpa Carlisle announced.
"Is it safe to come back in now?" Jasper poked his head in, looking around the room.
"The tree looks great guys," I said when Aunt Rose got back with two bottles of red wine. I could smell it immediately, one of the bottles was actually the blood of bear. That was obviously put in there for the vampire part of the family. I noticed Jake make a face and gave him a small smile; my dad seemed very pleased with himself for some reason.
After everyone got their glass of "wine", Grandpa Carlisle made his toast. "To family and surprises that leave an imprint on our lives. Merry Christmas everyone."
"And to all of Santa's little helpers," added Seth as the round of toasts ended, raising his glass in Emmett's direction.
My dad had drifted toward his shiny new piano that my mom got him for Christmas and started softly playing "Silent Night". Grandma Esme accompanied him in singing and soon we all joined, singing one Christmas Carol after the other.
In the mix of all the singing voices, I could hear Uncle Emmett singing completely different lyrics. At first I wasn't sure what he was singing, but than I realized he was singing the songs and changing the lyrics to profanities. Aunt Rose was trying very hard not to gouge his eyes out by the look on her face, and Uncle Jasper was trying to contain his giggles. Mom looked like she could almost blush, just like in her old human days. I noticed Dad was about to get up from his piano and finally punch him, but Grandpa Carlisle put a restraining arm on his shoulder and Dad kept on playing, trying to ignore his annoying brother. Thankfully he sang too low and fast for the humans to hear anything, or I think nothing would have stopped my dad.
The last song my dad played was a special one, a new song he had written for my mom as part of his Christmas present. His beautiful soft voice carried around the room and got everyone, especially my mom, emotional. I'm sure tears would run down her face if it was only possible. All the couples around us seemed to be absorbed in each other. I looked into Jake's loving eyes and touched his hand softly, letting him know how much I loved him too.
Hold on to me and promise me
Promises that never die
You were the one I couldn't read
A diamond unspoiled
You were the one who got me to breathe again
I swear you healed my bleeding heart
We will carry our love to forever
The promise in your eyes it's true
It makes me feel alive beside you
And now I'm whole once again
The better side of me
Hold on to me
Keeping me grounded 'till forever
Let me prove you are my cure
It drove mom crazy that he refused to tell her what the second part was, but at that moment, she looked absolutely beaming and I could hear her sigh in delight.
My dad's head shot up toward Alice when she suddenly announced dramatically, "I foresee things are going to get complicated tomorrow, we should open the presents tonight."
Grandpa Charlie chuckled while shaking his head at her announcement, not knowing of my aunt's talent. The rest of us knew to take her more literally. I saw dad shaking his head in Carlisle's direction in response to his unspoken question. I heard mom whisper to dad, asking him what Alice saw, but I couldn't figure out his response.
Confused, we all started moving toward the Christmas tree, where all the presents were arranged in perfect order to Alice's satisfaction.
"Me first, me first," Alice said, jumping up and down.
"Well, you already know what most of your presents are," Dad teased.
"Yeah, and that's why I want them first," she retorted, sticking her tongue out at him and ran to grab her presents from under the tree. Alice seemed really pleased with all our presents surrounding her. Wrapping paper started flying everywhere when all the others joined her in opening presents; it was a mess.
"Wow guys, thank you, I love this camera, and this is exactly what I wanted. Can't wait to try it out," I said to my parents. A new way to show photos to everyone and I don't even have to touch them now.
I had received so many presents for Christmas, but the one I cherished most was a gorgeous silver chain Jake had given me. It held three charms with small sparkling beads between them. On the one side it had a wooden carved russet wolf, the other side had the shape of a palm and in the middle laid a crescent moon, the connection between my two worlds. When I saw it, tears started welling up in my eyes and I leaned my head against Jake's chest and whispered to him, even though I know almost everyone could hear. "This is amazing."
Everyone around us was still very much into the task of opening their presents when I squeezed Jake's palm and made my announcement to the family.
"Jake and I have big news to share with all of you." Jake gave me a reassuring smile and I was about to continue when I heard my dad gasp. I looked at him anxiously and blurted out, "We're pregnant." I felt Jake's arms wrapping around my waist and I leaned into his chest, my sanctuary.
The room went deadly silent, no one moved at first. The first one to come out of the shock was Grandpa Charlie.
"This is wonderful news kiddo," he said as he hugged me and then proceeded to shake Jake's hand.
"Grandpa Ha? Just don't call me that yet," Billy said and hugged the both of us.
"I want to plan the baby shower," Alice finally chimed.
"Oh great another one to run around our forest." Emmett chuckled.
"We have a little wolf coming our way?" Seth chirped.
My mom sobbed tearlessly and hugged the both of us at once, unable to utter words. Dad was just panting and glared at Jake, shooting daggers at him with his eyes. A growl grew in his chest.
Mom walked to my dad's side and put her hand around his waist "Isn't this wonderful news Edward?" she said to him.
Suddenly the room felt calmer; Jasper's handy work no doubt.
Dad cautiously hugged me and murmured, "So this is what the two of you have been trying to hide from me all day. I love you Nessie."
"I love you too daddy" I murmured back and leaned dipper into him. The rest of my family congratulated us and I was hugged from all directions. I saw Esme and Carlisle beaming at us and than they hugged me too. I was a little surprised when Leah congratulated me and we embraced.
"Time for dinner," announced Esme when the excitement started to fade.
"For the Humans," added Emmett with a low voice for only us with sensitive hearing to hear.
We all moved into the dinning room, which normally was used only as props. Tonight the room was overly decorated in green, red and silver. There were flowers everywhere and the most gorgeous wreath was hanging on top of the fireplace. A huge table filled with gourmet food was dominating the center of the room and was decorated with little edible Santa figurines and candy canes. On each plate laid a small, red and silver trimmed bell. At the center of the table in a silver candlestick, sat three candles, one red, one green and one silver.
"Hmm." I heard a deep voice next to me, it was Seth. He pointed above our heads with a huge smile on his face and I looked up to see mistletoe hanging from the door frame. Jake and Dad both gave him a warning glance, but he paid no attention to them as he leaned toward my stunned expression and kissed me gently on the lips before proceeding to enter the room. Jake jokingly punched him on the shoulder and Dad just grumbled and took his seat beside Mom, holding her hand.
We all took our seat at the table. "It all smells really good Grandma Esme," I said. Being a part of Jake's world, I started to actually enjoy human food.
"Thank you dear," she replied.
Everyone was talking on top of each other and stuffing their faces with the food that was just as delicious as it smelled. The vampire side of the family did their very best pretending to eat the food, so it would not upset Grandpa Charlie.
Dinner was still full on when suddenly Dad's face looked strained. "We have company," he said, smoothing his face looking at Grandpa Carlisle.
"Is this what's been ruining everything?" Aunt Alice asked alarmed. Dad didn't answer.
"Everyone stays here," Grandpa Carlisle ordered as he and Dad left the room. Of course almost no one listened to him and we stormed right after them to the next room. I noticed Sue shaking her head at Grandpa Charlie and they both remained seated.
"We need to get the humans out of here, now," Dad said.
"What's going on? Who is coming?" My mom asked.
"I can only hear one voice, but there could be more on the way, she can't be alone," he answered.
"Who is not alone?" Emmett asked impatiently.
"Jane, she is almost here," was his ominous reply.
Everyone started talking all at once. Most of it was: what does she want? Where are the others? We need to send our guests somewhere safe, but they can't go outside alone.
"There is no way I am leaving just when things are getting interesting," Seth grumbled.
"You need to take your mom and Charlie home Seth," Dad replied to him.
"We trust you to keep them safe," Jake added.
"Leah will take Billy home," agreed Carlisle.
"We don't know what she wants, this could be very dangerous for them," Dad said.
Leah seemed about to protest, but Jake gave her a warning look and she just nodded and wheeled Billy, who didn't protest, out the back door to her car. Seth dragged his feet to the dinning room and I could here him say to his mom and Charlie it was time to go home.
"Get the others ready in case we need them," Jake yelled after Seth and Leah.
Carlisle opened the front door and went to wait outside for our unwelcome guest. Everyone looked tense.
"If it's really just her, I can take her all by myself," Emmett said with his booming voice.
"This is interesting" Dad said suddenly. "There will be no fight, at least not with Jane," he continued.
"What did you hear?" Carlisle asked from outside.
"She seems to want shelter from the Volturi. She left them three month ago, deciding to become a vegetarian. She has been moving around hiding from them. She thought we could help her stop hiding," was his surprising reply.
"This could be a trick," said Jasper and we all nodded in agreement.
"We will have to wait and see, her eyes can not lie, if they are golden we will know," Carlisle said calmly.
"We need to send her away Carlisle; we don't want a war with the Volturi," said Jasper.
"If that's indeed the case, she needs us; can we really turn her away?" Carlisle retorted.
"They won't dare to start a war over this. She didn't break any rules, did she?" I said.
"I agree with Carlisle," Dad said.
"We should help her," Esme agreed.
"We should put this to the vote," Carlisle concluded quietly. "We already know Edward, Nessie and Esme's answer is yes. Jasper I assume you vote no. Bella, what about you?"
"Do what you think is right, just keep her away from me or I won't be responsible for my actions" Mom responded.
"I don't trust her, I can't see her true intentions and our future is so hazy right now," Alice commented. "I am with Jasper on this one," she added.
"I think Alice is right, I don't trust her one bit," said Rosalie.
"I'm with Blondie," replied Jake, making a disgusted face at his own statement. "I don't like her, she looks mean," he continued.
"Bring on the fight," said Emmett with excitement.
"I guess it is six to four," Carlisle concluded "She is staying, at least for now." He ended this discussion.
"She is here," announced Alice as the littlest Volturi guard (Ex-guard now, I suppose) came out from between the trees. She looked so different from the way I remembered her. Without all the others she seemed less sure of herself. I think I even saw a little fear in her eyes.
Carlisle descended the few steps from the porch to welcome her and Dad nodded at my Mom, a sign for her to raise her shield.
"Welcome Jane," Carlisle said, as if welcoming an old friend.
"Is it true? Did you really go vegan?" Emmett interposed.
"I know it sounds unbelievable, but yes, I no longer feed of off humans," Jane answered, looking around hesitantly.
"She does have our golden eyes," I decided to intervene. I wanted to move closer to her but Jake stopped me before I could make one move.
"We should all go inside," Carlisle said, motioning her to the house. We all entered the house.
"Please sit down," Carlisle said pointing at the couch in front of him. Jasper stood protectively next to Alice. Esme and Rosalie stood behind Carlisle, staring curiously at her. Emmett and Dad sat on either side of Carlisle, ready to respond at the first sign of a threat. Mom sat on the edge of the spiral staircase looking a little annoyed at the unwelcomed guest. Jake and I sat on the other sofa and waited to hear what she had to say.
"I feel in love," Jane begun her story with a pained look on her face. "I meet Nicolas out on another of the Volturi biddings. He was like your family, only he was all alone. He got me to start questioning the Volturi's way of living. I started to believe there is another way. My poor brother thought I had gone crazy. He doesn't understand what love can do, how it changes you. At first Aro tried to hide it, but I knew he wasn't happy about it. I had started to experiment with feeding off of animals. Nicolas had shown me how to hunt, we loved hunting together. At one point, Aro couldn't contain himself any longer. He said I was drifting from them and not complying with my obligations anymore. We argued and Alec stood by his side, against me. A while later Nicolas disappeared. Though I have no proof, I know they had something to do with that. I took off right away." She ended her story and her eyes swept the room.
We all sat there staring at her, not knowing what to say. I had a million questions running in my head but I kept silent. It looked like forever before Carlisle finally spoke.
"You will need to show us you are sincere," he said. "We want to trust you but you can't blame us for being cautious."
"You have every right not to trust me," she said, cautiously looking around the room. "But I'm telling you the truth."
"She is telling the truth," my dad said decisively. "I don't hear anything to suggest otherwise."
Everyone seemed a bit more relaxed now. Everyone but Mom. She still hasn't moved from her place on the stairs, looking suspiciously at Jane and refusing to let her guard down. I looked at her trying to get her to move closer to where the rest of us were. Dad reacted to my attempt and reached out his hand toward Mom and she finally got to her feet and moved to sit on the edge of the sofa next to him.
"I can't go back to live with them, I don't belong there anymore," Jane said with despair in her eyes. "Please help me."
I fumbled my fingers nervously, not knowing what to say to her. I started to have doubts about my hasty approval earlier. She is basically asking my family to confront the Volturi on her behalf. It's so much to ask of us. I knew we should probably help, but this was my family she was putting on the line.
"This is a lot you are asking of us, don't you think," Aunt Rose said sneeringly, mirroring my thoughts in a way. "We owe you nothing, why should we risk our lives for you?"
I saw my mom nodding in approval. I guess I can't blame her after what happened in Italy. I'm sure the memory of the pain Jane had inflicted on my dad is still very much alive in her mind.
Carlisle and Esme both looked disapprovingly at Aunt Rose.
"Of course we will help you" Esme said with a motherly tone. As always, Grandma wants to protect everyone. But I was still not convinced that it was a good idea. The Volturi are powerful. Why do we need this unnecessary confrontation with them? But on the other hand, she didn't really do anything wrong and she looks really desperate and alone. Who else can she turn to? We are probably the only one she knows who can help her. I looked at Jake and tried to pass my concern to him, but he just smiled at me with reassuring look in his eyes and gently squeezed my hand.
"I know it's a lot to ask, but I don't have anyone else to turn to. You are the only ones who can understand my choice and the only ones who successfully stood up to them before," Jane replied.
I looked at Carlisle trying to guess what he was thinking.
"Yes," my dad answered Carlisle's unspoken question.
Yes what? I hated not knowing. Carlisle stood and reached out his hand to Jane. "We'll do the best we can."
"We can take them." Emmett was grinning with excitement. Aunt Rose's irate look made it pretty clear she didn't share his excitement.
"That's all I can ask for." Jane breathed with relief. "Thank you so much"
"Well, the party tomorrow is ruined anyway. Now at least I know why," Alice pouted.
Jasper was doing his best not to breach in laughter. But I couldn't help myself and started to giggle. It didn't take long for everyone else to join in. It seems we all needed some relief from all this tension.
Ok we need to calm down and focus on what awaits us soon; facing the Volturi is not something to take lightly. Nevertheless, the little break was very much welcomed. Questions started to run trough my head again. When are they coming? How many of them will come? What are we going to do? How can we reason with them? I couldn't understand why Dad was looking at me so strangely. I looked into his eyes as I was wondering, why are you looking at me like that, don't you have the same concerns dad?As if reading my mind, Carlisle suddenly turned to Alice and asked, "Do you know when we can expect the Volturi to show up"
Everyone looked at her waiting for her reply.
Dad got closer to me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't you worry, everything is going to be ok sweetheart," he whispered into my ear, too low and fast for anyone else but me to hear.
"They are going to be here tomorrow morning," Alice finally replied.
Not enough time, but it'll have to do. Hope we can come up with a good plan. I hated that my family, the people I love the most, were in danger. I guess Jane is going to be a part of our family now too. That just sounds so strange. Jane as part of my family? Huh, who would have thought. But when it will all be behind us, she was going to need a place to stay and she doesn't really have anywhere else to go.
"We need to discuss how best to handle them" Carlisle said. Everyone nodded in agreement, Even Aunt Rose. Although she still stared with a sour face at Jane. Oh, come on Aunt Rose, give the girl a break. She's done nothing wrong."We don't know how many of them are coming, Alice can you try and see this? It is significant to our strategy," I heard Jasper state as I was walking back to sit on the sofa.
"Probably. If the wolf was out of the picture. Jake, go sit in the corner for a while," she ordered. As soon as he did, Alice's face turned blank as she was trying to see into the future. All the while Jasper sat there looking at her anxiously, rubbing her back. The rest of us waited quietly.
"I don't see many of them. The only ones I can see clearly are Aro and Alec. But they do have some of the guard with them."
"I can have both packs ready in no time. Just in case," Jake said immediately.
"I hate to put them all to risk once more," stated Carlisle with an exhausted tone "But unfortunately, I think we might have to rely on them all once more." Grandpa Carlisle looked so old to me at that moment despite the impossibility and I couldn't stand seeing him like that. "Unfortunately, we have no time to bring any of our friends here this time. We will have to take care of it on our own."
Jake nodded, got up and I walked him to the door. "I'll be right back," he said to me and kissed me softly on my lips.
"You better," I whispered, mostly to myself. Jake was already gone.
After Jake came back, we sat there for a few hours, trying to figure out the best way to handle the Volturi. After a while I was starting to feel heavy, the room slowly started to fade away and then I realized that Jake was carrying me upstairs to one of the bedrooms. I couldn't understand how I could fall a sleep at such a time, but my human part gave in, really needing to get some sleep before the big confrontation. This was probably for the best. I think I just annoyed everyone with all my questions. Jake cradled me in his arms as I drifted quickly to sleep.
The room turned into a field of daisies. I was running through it, anxiously searching around, when suddenly I noticed something that got me to stop on my tracks. I finally realized where I was, remembering the last confrontation we had with the Volturi in this very field. It looked a little different now, no longer the gloomy empty field we had once been in. Then I saw a beautiful little girl with big brown eyes and curly black hair running toward me. She was saying something but I couldn't hear what it was. I was scared for that little girl. I wanted to protect her. I hurried to get to her and she sprung to my arms. I held her closer to me when she mumbled the one word that chilled me. "Momma."
"Where is she?" Aro's piercing voice echoed around the house and woke me up. Oh great, I thought, what a "wonderful" way to start Christmas morning.
A.N
Hope you enjoyed our story. Please review.