The Twilight 25 Round 6
Tell Me About Mommy
by SqueakyZorro
Summary: Renesmee is insatiably curious, and one topic is definitely her favorite. The Cullens—and a few others in the know—recount their favorite memories of Bella for the child they love. Be warned: not just fluff; some angst, too.
Chapter 1
Prompt 18: meadow
I lay in bed under my light blanket. Even at my age—chronologically six months but appearing like a five-year-old human child—I understood it was more for emotional comfort than physical; with my body temperature, I was never cold. After a day of playing hard with Uncle Emmett and my Jacob, I was ready for sleep, and Daddy was here to tuck me in.
I loved bedtime stories from Daddy. He knew so very many stories from all over the world. He was even good at making them up. Unless I asked for a particular favorite, I never knew where his tale might take me.
Tonight, though, I had a request.
"Tell me about Mommy."
Daddy raised his eyebrows. I saw his love for her shine in his eyes, even as a shadow passed over them.
"What would you like to know?" His velvet voice was tender.
"Umm..." I thought hard for a minute. "When did you know you loved each other? I mean, wasn't that weird, a vampire and a human falling in love?"
He chuckled. "Very weird."
"Well? Tell me."
A strange half-smile appeared on his face. "As you wish." We both giggled at the reference to The Princess Bride, my very favorite movie, and I snuggled next to him to listen.
"Your mommy and I first knew we loved each other one warm, sunny Saturday afternoon, in a spring meadow filled with flowers."
I smiled. I liked how this story began.
"I'd been driving her crazy for months. I told her we shouldn't be friends, but I couldn't stay away from her. I kept her from getting hit by a van, but I wouldn't tell her how I did it." Daddy laughed. "If she could have, I think she'd have killed me when I blocked her car in the high school parking lot."
I didn't laugh. I was confused. "Why did you do that?"
He stopped laughing, but he was smiling. "I could hear one of the other boys thinking about asking her to a dance, and I desperately wanted to know what she'd say to him. By blocking her car, I gave him a chance to ask her, and I was close enough to hear what she answered."
"She said no," I said firmly.
Daddy nodded. "That's right; she said no. To every boy in that school...But she said 'yes' to me." His voice was very quiet. Then he reached into his pocket. "I still carry this with me—a token of the first time she said 'yes' and sat with me at lunch."
He handed me a small metal circle. I realized it was the top from a bottle of lemonade. "Is this what she was drinking that day?"
"Yes." He paused. "But you asked about when we knew—when we both knew."
"Yes!" I settled to hear the story.
"Well, that dance I mentioned, she didn't want to go. She told everyone that she was going to Seattle for the day. I offered to drive her, and she accepted—even though she didn't like what I said about her truck."
I giggled. I'd heard about Mommy's old red truck from Uncle Emmett and Jake.
"Between the day I asked her and the day of the dance, though, she went to LaPush, and Jacob told her enough that she guessed what I was. She asked me if I would burn up in the sun." We both laughed at that.
"I told her no, but we couldn't go out in the sun where we could be seen. When Aunt Alice said it would be sunny the day of the dance, we decided not to go to Seattle; instead, we'd go where she could see me in the sunlight without worrying about other humans."
I put the pieces together. "You went to the meadow so she could see you?"
He nodded slowly. "She was so lovely, so brave," he whispered, lost in his memories.
After a moment, I took his hand. "Don't be sad, Daddy. You can tell me another story if you want." I hated when his face looked like that. He mostly tried to hide it from me, but I knew he missed Mommy a lot.
He refocused on me and smiled. "No, sweetheart, it's okay. I want to talk about her."
He squeezed my hand and shifted on the bed so I was cuddled against his shoulder.
"I was so worried I would hurt her, even perhaps kill her. A part of me wanted to scare her away, so she'd be safe, but I wanted to be with her every minute...I couldn't stay away. She said it was the same for her. She knew she was risking her life, just being alone with me, but the pull, the bond between us was already so strong..."
His voice trailed off before he grinned suddenly. "I really did try to scare her, though—running so fast she couldn't even see me move, throwing trees around the meadow—and she was scared, but she wouldn't go."
I held my breath, waiting to hear what happened next. I tried to imagine how I would feel, a human who was used to thinking that vampires were just legends, seeing one in front of me and telling me how good I smelled to him. I was pretty sure I'd be running as fast as I could.
"She just sat there and watched me, her eyes huge."
He kissed my forehead and looked at me. "Such beautiful brown eyes, just like yours."
I smiled. I liked that my eyes were like hers.
"So I came back across the meadow to where she was sitting, and we confessed our feelings for each other. I said, 'You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever.'"
I sighed. It sounded so romantic.
"And she said she felt the same way. Then we looked at each other and laughed—it was so utterly impossible, yet we were so happy. I held her, and she held me—the closest I'd been to a human since my change. It felt...amazing."
He sighed in remembered pleasure, and I could almost feel the warmth.
"Later, we kissed. And that felt even better...as though our souls touched, and I didn't even believe I had a soul then."
I was getting sleepy, but I thought about that: souls touching. It sounded wonderful.
"We knew it didn't matter how weird it was, or how hard it would be. We loved each other. In that moment, we knew we belonged together."
I could picture it, and I put my hand up to Daddy's cheek, showing him the images in my head. "Like that?"
He hugged me close. "Just like that, sweetie." Then he loosened his arms, laid me down on the bed, and pulled the blanket just so.
"Sleep well, baby. I love you."
I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. "Love you, too. G'night."
"Goodnight, my angel."