Grateful
Summary: BREAKING DAWN SPOILERS! A while after BD, Jacob has a bit of a revelation regarding some events that happened on Bella's wedding day. Oneshot, Jake's POV.
"Uh, Bells?" I called through to the next room, where my friend and "relative", Bella Cullen, was giving dinner to her daughter. Nessie seemed a little put out that it wasn't her attention I wanted, for once, but her mother's instead.
Bella turned to face me when she heard me enter the room. It still caught me off-guard a little how different she looked now, even though it'd been years since she was human. I regained composure and continued.
"I was thinking, this morning, about the day you got married," I prompted her.
Nessie's face lit up. "I remember you telling me that story, Mommy," she said brightly. I subconsciously moved closer to her, almost within touching distance. She seemed to be pleased with my small advance.
"I don't remember much of it any more," Bella sighed sadly. I knew she was unhappy about losing many of her human memories; they apparently seemed very 'dull' compared with her vampire ones. I just pretended to understand. Everything looked much the same to me.
"Anyway, you know when I turned up? We danced together, you remember?" Bella pulled a face, like she was trying to dig for something she couldn't see, while taking Nessie's suddenly empty plate from in front of her and washing it up at an inhuman speed.
"I think so," she murmured. I didn't believe her.
Bella crouched low enough so that her eyes were at the same level as her daughter's. "Renesmee, why don't you go find Daddy? I think he wanted to teach you how to play chess."
"Okay," the beautiful girl agreed, and skipped off to find Edward, very content. I smiled after her.
"If you're wondering why I did that," Bella interrupted my thoughts, "I do remember what happened next."
"Y-you do?" I stuttered. I had to admit, I wasn't expecting her to remember this, of all the human memories she could have chosen to savour.
"Yes. You told me I couldn't have a 'real honeymoon'," she quoted.
"And you told me you could do whatever you wanted."
She paused for a moment. "So why are we remembering this again?" she asked, placing an immaculately clean plate back into a cupboard.
"Well, I wanted to tell you…" I stopped, momentarily embarrassed. Her earnest look encouraged me to go on. "I wanted to thank you for disobeying me."
She just smiled, looking pleased and confused at once. "What do you mean?"
"I just mean that, if you hadn't… Y'know, then, well, Ness-- Renesmee wouldn't be here. And I'm really grateful that she is."
She smiled more sincerely then. "I'm glad I disobeyed you, too. It was one of those situations when you don't really know how much you want something until you really have a chance of having it, you know?"
I did know, so I nodded. We stood for a while in comfortable silence.
"Hey, I had a revelation of my own this morning," she revealed.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. I was thinking, you imprinted on Renesmee… Well, it was because she was 'part-me', right? She had some 'Bella' in her."
I agreed. I had always thought this was my main reason for loving Bella's daughter like I did. I needed some 'Bella' in my life, even if it wasn't Bella herself.
Bella continued, oblivious to my thoughts. "Well, you do know that Renesmee's 'part-Edward' too, right?" She grinned mischievously.
I froze for a moment. "Are you trying to imply that I was secretly a little bit gay for Edward, even before Renesmee was born?" I tried not to laugh.
"…Maybe," she responded, also attempting to keep a straight face.
At that moment, Emmett decided to burst in on our conversation. "Are we talking about Edward being gay? Because, no offense Bells, but I always kinda thought he had a few too many pink shirts, if you know what I mean."
I caught Bella's eye for a moment, and we both burst out laughing. Once I'd caught my breath, I crossed the room to envelope Bella in an embrace.
"I'm glad we're still friends, Bells," I told her.
"Me too," she agreed. "Even if I do want to kill you for imprinting on my baby girl."
I grinned boisterously. "Can't blame me, right?"