Okay, guys! As promised...JULES! And I did change her first name. You'll see in this chapter. I'm so excited. And a little tidbit about the third story? They won't be staying in Forks for the pregnancy! How intense is that? Does it make you drool, wanting more? Me, too! Anywhozzle! I really love Jake in this chapter. Every woman wants a man like that to father her kids. I mean, damn! So hot. Oh, oh, oh...Leah and Caden are in this chapter. Kind of sad what they talk about, but I feel it's kind of necessary.

*Disclaimer*

Please Enjoy!

April

JPOV

We were pregnant again. Four months to be exact. But this baby was growing a lot faster than our son, William. He'd progressed at a normal rate, a full nine months even though he was now developing faster outside the womb. He was eating foods that were a month or so advanced for eight months old, trying to talk, and crawling. The coffee table and our legs had become his favorite tools to help him try to stand.

But this new baby, a baby girl, was cooking fast. Nessie looked like she was six months pregnant rather than four. Almost as soon as we'd found out the sex, she was having to wear her further-along maternity clothes or my sweats and hoodies.

We were currently sitting on the couch in our normal way: her back against the arm of the couch, feet in my lap while I sat with my feet on the coffee table. The only difference from before was that our son was sitting pinned between the bar of his mother's legs and the back cushion. He was currently banging his sippy cup against her knees. She didn't seem to mind.

"Well," I said to her while she glowered, "at least you're not craving blood as much as you did with him."

She growled. Will laughed, his honey brown eyes staring up at her adoringly. Definitely going to be a momma's boy. He loved her.

On reflex, she reached out to rub her hand over his dark hair. "Yeah well, I'm blowing up too fast. I'm going to get stretch marks." I felt bad for the blackberry she viciously pulverized with those teeth. "Seriously, what was in your little soldiers this time?"

I choked on the water I'd been trying to drink. She was glaring at me and pulverizing another blackberry.

"Well?"

"What, you want me to answer that? How do you know it was my...me? Maybe that egg inside you was a super egg. Don't blame me."

She crossed her arms over her very swollen belly. "You don't have to be pregnant. I'm blaming everything on you."

Tilting my glass at her, I smirked. "Takes two to tango, baby."

Her heel dug into my thigh, painfully close to my balls.

I jumped. "Hey! Watch the equipment, woman."

"Why?" she asked dryly. "I've seen it before...in action."

I spluttered again.

Will giggled up at his mother.

I glared down at him playfully and then scooped him up, standing him on Nessie's shins. "Traitor. You won't be laughing when you piss off some girl and she makes a not so nice crotch shot."

Will laughed and shook his arms excitedly, the sippy cup catching me on the temple a couple times. Nessie was laughing while she watched us. Despite her grouchiness, she was excited about another addition to our family. My sister, Rachel, was six months pregnant with her first baby, a girl, too. She constantly said that it wasn't fair that Nessie got pregnant after her and would meet her daughter sooner, but I could tell she was kidding, that she was happy her pregnancy was progressing normally. I was happy, too, because I wasn't sure Rachel would be able to handle an abnormally fast-growing baby and all the pressures to get things ready.

We were already prepared after having one baby. Will was still in the nursery paralleling our closet, but we would move him up to the nursery I'd already put together for him on the third floor so our daughter could sleep in the nursery downstairs with us. Will was pretty good about sleeping through the night and we'd want our newborn close by to be able to reach her faster. If the baby kept growing at the rate she was, Carlisle expected her to arrive around the end of June or early July. Not very long at all. She'd be born before our son turned a year old. If our kids went to public school instead of home-schooled, we'd have to say that we got pregnant with her almost immediately after Will was born, like the month that we were cleared to start having sex again.

Like the husband and father I was, I worried about the fast development and the health of my wife and daughter. But Carlisle had assured me that both Nessie and our baby girl were perfectly healthy. I worried anyway. But despite that, Nessie still forced me to go to work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so that she and Will could have their play dates with Emily and Shelby. She didn't want this pregnancy to be like the first one where she didn't leave the house. Instead, on days that I wasn't at work, we'd take walks around the rez with Will. He loved the beach and all the pebbles, but he was in that stage where he wanted to put everything in his mouth just because he could and liked to worry us. I cold already see that mischievous little glint in his eyes. He'd probably be mommy's little angel and daddy's little devil.

But looking at him now, all I could see in him was his mother, despite the dark skin and hair. The honey-colored eyes reminded me of Nessie even though hers were milk chocolate like Bella's. He just reminded me of his mother because of how much I loved him, how much I'd loved him from the moment Carlisle had first put him in our arms. I would do anything for my son, just as I would do anything for his mother. And soon, his little sister.

A sharp pinch on my arm brought me out of my thoughts.

"Ouch." I looked over at Nessie.

She shook her head. "Wasn't me. Your son needs his nails clipped again. But what were you thinking about so hard?"

Letting Will go a little, he leaned forward against my chest, head held back as his hands searched my face. "Something like holding him for the first time with you was like me imprinting on you. I loved him immediately, more than I thought I had while you were pregnant with him. And how much I'm going to love this little girl."

Grinning, she rubbed her belly. "Yeah, me too. It's weird. Even though I had the dream, I could picture us more with a bunch of boys. Having a girl just seems...foreign."

I laughed. "Maybe to you, but I've always wanted a little girl. For my mom, you know?"

"Well, with her impending birth approaching, we should start looking at names."

Her tone told me that she'd already been thinking about it. "Any ideas?"

She shrugged. "I was thinking about the dream. In it, you called her Jules. So...maybe that was a nickname. Julie?"

Mulling it over, I shook my head. "No, I don't like that one."

"Julia?"

"Something longer than the nickname. That's what a nickname is for. Like 'Jake' for 'Jacob'."

She gave me a look. "Really? 'Jacob' is only one letter longer than 'Jake'. Anyways, I refuse to name my daughter Juliette."

I made a face. "Totally agree with that. Naming my daughter after a suicidal teenager just doesn't do it for me." Will took the opportunity to shove his hand in my mouth and grip my teeth. Giving him a look while he giggled, I pulled it out, sputtering. "That is disgusting, son. I don't know where your hands have been." He just laughed. After rolling my eyes, I gripped his tiny hands and sobered up. "I'd like to try to name her after my mom in some way."

We'd already named Will after Billy and Edward. If we had anymore kids, we'd run out of names.

"Oh, I've had that covered for ages. I just did what my mom did. I'm not negotiating on the middle name."

I looked at her. "What your mom did?"

"Combined their names. Sarabella."

I had to be the most emotional man on the planet because I was suddenly swallowing past a lump in my throat. "When did you come up with that?"

She smiled like she knew I was fighting emotion. "I think it was before Will was born. I just know that's what her middle name will be. What about Julianna for her first name?"

Holding onto Will's arms and pulling him away from my body, I held him while he bounced his legs. It was good exercise for him from what I was told, helped him build up his muscles so he could walk. "I don't know. I mean, I like it. I just don't know how it sounds with Sarabella."

She said it a few times out loud, testing it. Then she shook her head. "Yeah, you're right. It sounds weird. Doesn't roll right. Damn, I liked that one, too."

We lapsed into silence, a small frown between her eyebrows. She looked down at her belly and contemplated. I was more interested in playing with Will. Scooting out from under her legs, I went to lay down on the floor, putting Will on his back, my arms framing him as I rested on my elbows. He gurgled up at me, his four little teeth gleaming.

Making faces at him between raspberries on his tummy, he put his hands on my face while he laughed and giggled. Eventually, he got tired of being on his back. So I watched as he rolled over, putting his hands and legs under him. And then he was off, crawling and sliding over the hardwood floors. Unfortunately, he went for the fireplace. Always the fireplace.

Going up on my own hands and knees, I crawled after him. "No, no," I said and turned him around. Wrapping my arm around him, I set him on his feet so he could see Ness over the coffee table. Pointing, I said, "See Mommy? Go get Mommy."

His face broke out in a grin as she smiled excitedly at him. Laughing again, he sank down to the floor and crawled for the couch. Our coffee table was a big open space underneath so he could move under it. He did. Once he got to the couch, he used it to pull himself up on his feet.

Nessie clapped. "Yay! You did it. That's my big boy."

She picked him up and sat him down on her thighs, his legs on each side of her belly. Since he was still a little uncoordinated and tended to hit too hard, she held his wrists as she put his hands to her tummy. We both watched his face. Apparently, the baby was moving. It was confirmed when Will's face exploded with joy. Ness let his hands go and he started clapping, a move that made his whole body jump.

Crawling around, I moved to kneel beside the couch. Pressing my palm on her lower abdomen, I only had to wait a few seconds before I felt my daughter kick or punch.

Nessie winced. "She always gets active when you come closer or when you talk."

I grinned. "Daddy's little girl already."

"Oh hush," she said not unkindly, a small smile stretching her lips. "What about Julene?"

"Huh?"

"Her name. Julene. It's different; haven't heard it a million times."

"Hmmm, Julene Sarabella Black." I grinned. "I like it." Leaning down over Nessie's stomach, I said, "What do you think?" and pressed my ear to her lower belly.

To my complete surprise, the baby kicked again, three times in quick succession. Will dropped forward to wrap himself around my face, his hands in my hair. With my mouth pressed to his stomach, I blew a raspberry against him. He laughed and I felt him turn his head so that he was using me as a pillow. If it was as cute as I though it was...yep. Sure enough, I heard Nessie's phone click as she took a picture.

Giggling, she said, "I think that name is a winner, for both brother and sister."

Moving so that my lips were pressed to her stomach, I whispered, "Hello, Jules. My baby girl."

RPOV

Surprisingly, I was no longer fond of pregnancy. I just wanted my little girl in my arms, growing up with her big brother. I guessed I was turning into Shelby with her obvious lack of patience. Rachel, however, loved pregnancy. I told her to wait until she was as big as a beach ball, and then she could tell me she loved it.

Shelby and Seth were still trying for a second as well as Sam and Emily. Every couple I knew was trying for a baby, even Leah and Caden. I was rooting for them to be next. I'd started going with my gut feelings about things. Every time I thought of the next pregnant couple, I always imagined them. They deserved it.

"I gotta go to the shop for a couple hours tomorrow," Jake whispered while he rocked Will to sleep in the doorway of the nursery.

Our son was slowing down on his sucking of the pacifier, an indicator that he was close to being down for the count. He was curled up against his father's chest, fingers gripping the collar of his t-shirt. Jacob was rubbing slow circles on his back, looking exhausted himself. He'd had a long day at work, running back and forth, towing vehicles that had slipped off the road in the bad rain we'd had the other day. And then he'd come home and made dinner for us. Will and I had napped late and overslept.

Pulling back the covers on the bed, I crawled in, my body tired and achy. "Why?"

"I can't remember if I ordered some parts. And the place we have to order them from will only take an order from the store manager or assistant manager, not an afternoon manager or head mechanic. If I have to order them, I shouldn't be gone too long. I won't stay longer than two hours. Promise."

I nodded and rested back against the headboard. "That's fine. Thank you for dinner tonight. Sorry I didn't have it ready."

He gave me a look. "You need to rest and stop pushing yourself. This pregnancy is different, and I don't mind taking care of you, okay? You're a full time mommy and baby-grower. I just fix cars. Your job is more important so I'll help where I can. You know that. If I come home and you and Will are napping, I know better than to wake you up."

The pacifier fell from Will's mouth to land in the crook of Jacob's arm.

"I think he's out," I whispered. "Make sure that wolf is somewhere near him. Somehow he knows when it's not."

He nodded as he went to put our son in his crib for the night. I rolled toward the night stand to turn on the baby monitor. From the screen, I watched as Jacob put him down, kissed his forehead, and put the stuffed wolf in the bottom corner of the crib. The nightlight we had ran on a timer and it clicked on just as Jacob was closing the door.

Jacob stripped down and crawled into bed, wrapping his arms around me. "I think rocking him to sleep actually started putting me to sleep."

Laughing, I stroked my hand up his arm and managed to wiggle my other arm up so I could play with his hair. "Should I start rocking you to sleep."

Chuckling low and deep with sleep, he shook his head. "Nah, just keep doing that to head and I'll be snoring in no time."

Gently, I rubbed my nails over his scalp. Leaning forward, he kissed my jaw before falling to my shoulder and sinking into sleep. I followed not long after.

CadenPOV

All the babies. Nessie was pregnant again, to nobody's surprise. And now Rachel was pregnant. Seemed like the Black family had some kind of super reproduction organs. Of course, all the women wanted babies. Well, maybe not Morgan. She was still getting used to all the "sick lovey-dovey" stuff.

Leah and I had also started trying even though I was still heavily guilt-ridden about my dead children. But Leah was helping me through that. It was a part of my past, my history. As many times as I'd watched the Lion King because of Brayden, my godson and nephew-in-law, I learned one thing from it. Sometimes bad things happen, and there's nothing you can do about it. In Simba's case, that wasn't true. But it was in mine. I couldn't bring my dead family back, and I'd killed the bastard that had killed them. If the world had been a perfect place, the past shouldn't still be a jagged ache in my gut. It should be flat like the pages of a history book. Instead, I lived with the thought that I was trying to replace, erase, what I'd had and lost.

"Den! Den!"

Something nudged my side. It was Leah.

"Huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Brayden wants you."

Looking down, I saw that, indeed, Brayden was standing at my knees, patting my leg, trying to crawl up onto the couch. When he saw that I was looking at him, he held up his arms. A silent plea for me to pick him up. I did so and sat him in my lap. He leaned back against my chest, eyes on the tv while he drank from his sippy cup. It amazed me to think that that was all he wanted, just to get into my lap and watch his movie. It also amazed me that I was around children once more. I'd always felt that after I lost my own, I'd lost my right to be near another child again. Leah could see this because she smiled at me and cuddled up to my side, pulling her legs up under her.

We'd taken Brayden to give Seth and Shelby a little more space. They were trying for another baby and found it was difficult with Brayden around. He could walk and talk, so they sometimes didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone even in a playpen. The only time they could really be together alone was at night or when someone offered to take him for a while. So we offered to take him for the night to let them have more than just a couple hours.

When the movie ended, Brayden was fast asleep, slumped against my stomach, the sippy cup hanging from him his fingers limply. While I turned off the tv and the entertainment system, she picked him up and went to get him ready for bed. Even though, when we'd first started keeping him, she'd dressed him in his favorite pajamas, we'd come to find out that he'd strip down to his diaper at night if he became too hot. We'd asked Shelby and found out that she'd started cracking his window at night because he liked the sounds of the woods. Probably the crickets lulling him to sleep. We'd started opening the window as well. No clothes on the floor in the morning. And Leah had been able to pack away her old crib when he got big enough for a twin bed with a bar.

She came back into the room after I'd gotten into bed. With him in the house, we stayed dressed at night so I was sleeping in a pair of boxers. Leah stripped down to her underwear before slipping on one of my huge t-shirts.

Sliding in beside me, she looked down at me. "Every time he comes over you change your mind about wanting kids again."

Startled, I looked at her.

She shook her head, her stare hard. "Don't look at me like that. I can see it when you look at him, or any of the kids. You don't think you deserve it." Turning her back to me, she punched her pillow and laid down. "And frankly, it's starting to piss me off. I understand that you miss them, Caden. Really, I do, but baby, I can't keep participating in your pity party. I want kids. I want to try, and now, once he goes home, it's going to take me two weeks to even get you to touch me again."

From experience, I knew her eyes weren't closed. She was glaring at the bedside lamp or the floor. Her shoulders were tense, body rigid. It always stunned me how well she could read me, even when I didn't say anything or try to lie to her.

Rolling over to face her back, I planted my elbow on the pillow and my head in my palm. "Leah, luv, I just-"

"I don't want explanations or excuses, okay? I know all of them. But what it really is, is that you can't let go. You want Alora back, not just the kids. You miss her. She was the mother of your children. But you know what? I'm not her. I can't be her."

"I'm not asking you to. Is that what you're angry about? That you think I want you to be her, to be someone you're not?"

Moving her head, she glared at me over her shoulder. "Well, it is, isn't it?"

"No, it's not. True, I loved her. I did. And I thought we were going to be together and raise our children for a long time. I never expected to end up across the ocean to be in this bed with another woman. Ever. But it happened and here I am. I love you, Leah."

"You might love me, but you won't let yourself be happy with me. And I can't live like that." Her voice lost its edge and became quiet. "Maybe we should separate for a while."

I froze where I was, heart dropping into my stomach. "What?"

"You heard me. Live separately."

"And where do you propose I go?"

For some reason, fear pounded through me. The wolf inside me hunkered down, whining. We were losing her, our true mate. As connected with him as I was, I knew he was blaming me. Not so much in those terms since he was a wolf and didn't understand the blame game, but he held me responsible because of my human hang-ups. He'd already let go of the loss of our mate and young long ago.

She let out a shaky breath, as if she were upset that she even had to say it. I heard her swallow hard before she said, "I don't know. Maybe Walker will have a place for guests with his pack."

Without thinking about it, I moved closer to her, molding my body against hers. The only reason she didn't pull away was that I'd surprised her. When she made to get out of the bed, I wrapped my arm around her waist.

Desperately, I said, "Leah, I don't want to leave. I need you."

She went still in my arms but stayed tense. "Do you really think I want you gone? I'm not saying that we won't see each other. It's just that you being here, living here, sets the precedent that you want to make a home with me, a family. But that's not going to happen when you keep beating yourself up about the past. Look, I know it's not the same thing, but back before I phased and Sam left me for Emily, I didn't know about imprinting. He couldn't tell me. And I did some pretty stupid, desperate things to try to get him back. I tried to break them apart. I regret those actions. But I've let them go. They don't define who I am. They define a piece of my past. I learned and I moved on. You need to do the same thing."

"I can't live without you."

"You did before."

Again, I went up on my elbow to look down at her. "Yes, before I ever met you. Now, I...I just can't. Please. Don't send me away. I don't want to try to guilt you, but Leah, you don't know how...unbearable...I'll be if you send me off. And it won't be deliberate. I'll go crazy, as will the wolf. Even if it's only a couple minutes away. You don't know how much you help me."

"Clearly it's not enough. You need the kind of help that I can't give you. Maybe you should see Carlisle. I know he's not officially that kind of doctor but he's helping my brother."

"You mean a therapist."

"Yes. I know you hate the idea, but underneath the fact that you're a werewolf, you still suffered a huge loss. Even human men would need a therapist after the deaths of their families. And some of those men that don't get help go crazy." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "And I don't want that to be you."

Ah. Now I knew. She wasn't angry. She was scared and worried. Leaning forward, I kissed her shoulder. "If I were to agree to start seeing Carlisle -if- would you still want me to go?"

For a long moment, she thought about it. "You'd be doing something to help yourself, to help heal. And you'd need support. So...no. I'd help you. Even go with you if you wanted me to. But you'd have to really try, not just go because I won't kick you out."

"Luv, I wouldn't offer to do something I hate and go through all that just to fake it."

Rolling over toward my bedside table, I reached for my phone. While I wrote out the text, eyes adjusting to the sudden light, I heard Leah move behind me.

"What are you doing?"

I hit the send button before answering. "Texting Carlisle." Her sharp gasp brought my attention to her. Laying back down on my back, I stared up at her, moving her short hair behind her ear. "I told you. I love you. And as much as I hate the thought of therapy, you're right. I'm not getting better. I should be in the same mental state as my wolf, ready to mate you and have young with you. I truly thought I was but again, you're right. I draw away after interacting with the kids. Sometimes, after failing to protect my children, I feel that I don't have a right to be near any at all let alone have my own again."

Tears shimmering in her eyes, she leaned down to kiss me. "And that's what you need to tell him. I love you so much, Caden. You just don't understand how lonely it was for so many years having to watch all these wolves who phased after me to be imprinting and starting families. To watch Sam and Emily, even though I was also strangely happy for them. And now I have you. I'll do anything to help you. I'll go to Carlisle with you or let you talk to me about it until my ears fall off. Talk to me about her, about your son if it would help you. I know you say it won't be fair to me, but if Carlisle thinks it'll help you heal, then I can take it, fair or not. Besides, if we're going to be mates for a long time, then I should know about you and you about me. That's what's fair."

Smiling up at her, I said, "Should I just get 'Leah's always right' tattooed on me somewhere that the world can see it?"

Chuckling, she sank down in the blankets and wrapped her arms around me, her ear against my heart. "Nah. Just keep telling it to me behind closed doors. I'll treat it like foreplay."

I kissed the top of her head. "You know, I think if Alora were still alive, and something had happened where you and I still met, she would like you. And she wouldn't have hated me for yearning for you. She'd encourage me to leave her to be with you."

"You think so?"

"I know so. As long as I raised my children, stayed in their lives, she would have accepted it as merely a fact. A fact that you and I are supposed to be together. Because make no doubt, I would yearn for you. I'd ache for you. Even being away from you for a little while is difficult, and not just for the sex." She laughed against my skin. "When you get pregnant, don't be surprised if I never leave you alone, if I wait outside the bathroom for you. I'll become a thousand times worse than Jacob was with Nessie during her first pregnancy."

"'When'?" she whispered.

Swallowing hard, I nodded. "When. It will happen, Leah. I promise."

Her small hand came up to stroke my chest. "Don't make promises you can't keep. First, let's just work on getting you better, okay?"

Reaching up, I laced my fingers with hers over my chest. The other was stroking her back. "Alright, luv. That I can promise you. I promise that I will get better. For you. For our future."

There weren't anymore words from her, but after a moment, I felt the slow, steady drip of her tears on my skin.