I picked up the phone and, like a lightning reflex, dialed Edward's number. I pressed the phone to my ear, anxious. This wasn't right; people didn't just disappear from my visions. Were they failing me? A shudder passed through me at the thought. Jasper came to stand behind me, rubbing my back in soothing circles that helped ease the tension a bit. But not all of it.
Smiling, I gave him a quick peck on the lips and snuggled into his strong chest while I waited for Edward to pick up. I didn't want him to feel bad for me; I couldn't trick him though. He tried to put on a calm mask for me, yet his smile faltered. My emotions were affecting me as much as they were affecting him.
But really, Bella didn't fade out of my sight like that! Something was wrong. Maybe I wasn't crazy, perhaps she was...I couldn't think of anything to explain this in a rational sense. I couldn't see creatures that I wasn't familiar with. I could see humans well because I once was one, and I could see vampires even better because I was one. The only thing I couldn't see was the wolves, but I was positive that they weren't on Isle Esme.
To make sure I wasn't paranoid, I tried looking into Bella's future again. A white flickering came, but then stopped, going blank again. Nope. It was still all fuzzy. Was I losing my ability? I could still see the rest of my family.
The only sound on the other line was a dial tone. I frowned; Edward was usually more responsible than this. I was about to give up and try again when someone picked up. Patiently, I waited as they stumbled with the cell phone before speaking.
The one person I didn't expect to hear on the other line was now there. "Hi, Alice." Bella's voice was uncertain and hoarse on the other line. She cleared her throat noisily. Fear immediately clouded my face. Was she okay? And if she was most definitely alive, then why couldn't see her?
Jasper saw my expression and leaned in. "What's wrong?" he asked, worry etched into his handsome face. That, besides pain, was the worst emotion I could see. He spoke in soft, rushed whispers, but I held up my index finger, motioning for him to wait.
He leaned back, obedient but worried.
There was no answer on the other end of the phone. Complete silence, except for the fluttering of her heartbeat. It was going too fast. "Bella? Bella, are you okay?" More unbearable silence as she contemplated her answer to me.
Understanding flashed in Jasper's eyes. His tensed muscles relaxed, and he leaned back in his chair again. He lightly twirled a wisp of my spiky hair with a finger. He hadn't realized I was talking to Bella, why I would be upset. Hopefully for him, this cleared most of his worries up.
The majority of me stayed focused on Bella, waiting for her to answer. Even for a human, she was very slow. Ahem...even for her.
She swallowed noisily. I could practically see the gears in her brain turning, like a clock. "Yeah. Um. Is Carlisle there?" She didn't usually ask for Carlisle. Something was seriously wrong; she couldn't hide it from me. Was she sick? And why didn't she ask for me? Yes, yes, surely she must be sick, because Carlisle was a doctor.
"Alice, sweetie. Alice!" Jasper's panicked voice broke through my head, thick with thoughts. I smoothed out my expression; the one I had just worn had obviously worried him. The last thing I wanted was for Jasper to be worried, too.
Carlisle rushed into the room at Jasper's tone of voice. "Is everything alright?" he demanded, looking between Jasper and I. I nodded; my head moved rigidly, mechanically. Not naturally.
"Everything's fine, Carlisle," I choked out. I was starting to worry myself. In a hushed tone, Jasper told Carlisle I was on the phone with Bella. He waited for me to continue. Great—now I had an audience.
I turned back to the phone, answering her previous problem. "He is. What's the problem?" Carlisle's eyebrows scrunched together.
"I'm not...one hundred percent...sure...." She trailed off. There was shuffling in the background as she walked around. My head swam; I was so confused. Did Edward hurt her? Even a little bit? If he did, I felt sympathy for both him and her.
"Is Edward all right?" If he did, he would be ridden with guilt. Of course! This was the perfect explanation, but it didn't hold the answer as to why I couldn't see Bella. Yet this was a more rational one, and I could accept it more easily. Edward wouldn't be able to even touch his wife; poor Bella. Maybe her honeymoon was over already.
As I let her think over an answer—after all, the question was random in a way—I called Carlisle over to my side. He was over her in a second, towering over Jasper and I, as we sat on the couch.
Before she answered, another question spewed out of my mouth without warning, totally unpredictable. "Why didn't he pick up the phone?"
Why did I ask those questions? A vision floated into my head, answering them for me. It was too quick for me to process it. My eyes glazed over; I was not aware of Jasper calling me back to reality. "Alice? Alice!"
Edward sat on the floor of the bathroom, staring blankly out into space. It was as if time was frozen. Lost in his thoughts, he was unmoving; he was a statue.
"I'm not sure," Bella croaked as I snapped out of it. My dead heart was pounding out of my chest, and I clutched it, actually afraid. My free hand balled up the fabric of my flimsy yellow sundress, twisting it.
My face was now strained with worry; something was definitely wrong. Terrible. Something life-changing—I could sense it. Everything would've been so much easier if I could just see!
"Bella, what's going on?" She knew, and she wasn't telling me. Bella was always like that. So stubborn. "I just saw—"
She interrupted me, driven by some crazy worry, too. That sent me reeling with the same emotion, but intensified ten thousand times. "What did you see?" I scratched the previous idea of her knowing—obviously she didn't. Or else she was challenging me. But I doubted that.
I bit my lip, not knowing what to say. After a long moment of awkward silence, I finally decided to hand over the phone to someone else.
"Here's Carlisle." He would know what to do, if anyone. I handed the phone to him, praying desperately my little sister was alright. If she wasn't, I didn't know what I would do. More than anything, I wanted to yell at Edward, but he would already be so insanely guilty at the prospect of hurting. And what if he didn't?
Carlisle, undaunted, answered the phone confidently. "Bella, it's Carlisle. What's going on?" He shot a calm glance at me.
He turned his back to us, and started to pace up and down the length of the room, a habit of his. My vampire ears picked up on all the voices that came crackling through the speaker.
She hesitated, and I could just imagine her in an interesting conundrum. "I—" Bella stopped suddenly. Why was she stopping? The room was tense with anxiety, the air thick. Obviously, Jasper was struggling under it. Frantically, he threw a desperate wave of calmness at me. I let out a sigh, so glad for his presence.
Bella continued after a brief pause. "I'm a little worried about Edward....Can vampires go into shock?" I sucked in a breath through my clenched teeth, creating a hissing sound. I knew it! Oh, I felt so bad for Edward. Bella was obviously worried about him. Then the second part registered.
"Can vampires go into shock?"
Carlisle's neutral disposition disappeared immediately. "Has he been hurt?" he demanded, suddenly urgent. His voice came out rougher than he meant it to. Edward was his first 'son'. He cared as much for him as he did Esme. Not in that context, but if anything were to happen in which Edward got hurt, Carlisle would never forgive himself. As if it were possible, the room's tension went up a level.
"No, no." Bella's words were rushed, and a slight hint of being shocked seeped into her tone. Some other emotion, a powerful one, was conflicting with the present, lesser one. "Just...taken by surprise," she added.
Carlisle bit down on his lip, something he never did. "I don't understand, Bella," he admitted, ruffling his honey hair.
"I think...well, I think that...maybe...I might be..." She sucked in a breath, causing the tension to skyrocket again. "Pregnant." She breathed the last word out.
My mouth fell open with a pop. No. No. NO. It wasn't possible. Somebody would've found a way to do it before, with all the desperate female vampires whose ability to procreate had been snatched away from them. It was unfathomable. Edward and Bella had sex on their honeymoon, obviously, but Bella...pregnant? The two words didn't match up; they couldn't. Vampires couldn't have children...could they?
Carlisle's medical training kicked in after a long gap of utter silence. "When was the first day of your last menstrual cycle?" His voice was robotic; this wasn't Carlisle. This was someone who was still in shock.
"Sixteen days before the wedding." Her voice was hoarse; was she crying? I wanted to snatch the phone away from Carlisle, to find out, but I was too numb.
A quick intake of breath on Carlisle's part, but then he continued with his planned-out questionnaire. "How do you feel?" This question was bound to be the one that determined whether Bella was...pregnant...or not.
"Weird," Bella choked out, her voice breaking on the last syllable. "This is going to sound crazy—look, I know it's way too early for any of this. Maybe I am crazy. But I'm having bizarre dreams and eating all the time and crying and throwing up and...and...I swear something moved inside me just now." Impossible. This couldn't be happening. It was all a dream. But vampires couldn't have dreams. Yet maybe I was in one, after all. The seemingly impossible had just happened. Everything that I had been taught about vampires had become wrong. They couldn't become pregnant, for one....
She sighed in relief suddenly. Was it because she had gotten it off her chest? No. "Um, I think Edward wants to talk to you."
Carlisle was known for his ability to cope in difficult situations. However, this was a first. The calm, cool, and collected father-figure I had come to know was now a nervous mess, his knuckles turning whiter as he gripped the phone. Carlisle's eyes locked with mine for a moment and I saw a wild, worried look in them. It was over as quickly as it had started. "Put him on," Carlisle urged in a quiet voice.
What state would Edward be in? I didn't get the chance to really think about it before Edward was talking to Carlisle. "Is it possible?" my brother breathed.
"Yes, well of course anything is possible, Edward, but I--we--can't really determine anything until we have a good look at her. If what she's saying is true, then I most definitely believe that there is a fetus growing inside of her. We don't know what the baby is like, if it's more human than vampire, or vice versa." I could tell Carlisle had done some speedy thinking.
"And Bella?" There was rustling on the other line.
Carlisle paused and took a deep breath. "I doubt that the baby will be born in a nature way. If it's more vampire than human, then...she probably won't survive childbirth. The best option at this point is abortion." His face crumpled for a moment. "You know I don't like killing anything, but if this is the only way Bella will survive, it's the only way. However, nothing has been determined yet. There's still a possibility that the process could go smoothly. I personally think you should come home as soon as possible. Bring Bella home promptly, will you?"
There wasn't the slightest pause before Edward responded. "Yes. Yes, I will."
The line went dead.