Family Night Out

I watched as Esme walked into the living room of the Cullen family home. I was currently residing in one of their plush chairs with my legs hanging over the side while reading a book. The boys, which consists of Emmett, Jasper, and Jacob were all hanging around the sofa in the room playing a video game. Since the guys always take their games way too seriously, they would go from sitting to standing in seconds with the occasional jumping around. I tried my best to block out their shouting and cursing at each other as they tried to shoot everything that came in sight on the television screen.

"Boys, watch your language!" she warned and she came to stand by my chair.

I glanced up to see if she needed me to help her with anything and saw that she had a smile on her face.

"Bella, I'm so excited about the family night that Alice has planned for all of us tonight," Esme told me before I could even ask.

"You mean the night at the movies?" I questioned.

"Yes, it's been a long time since Carlisle and I have been to see a movie," Esme told me. "It's also been a while since the entire family has done something together. Usually, somebody is off hunting or doesn't want to join in with the others."

"Did Alice tell you anything about what this movie was about?" I asked her.

"Nothing other than it was going to be a double-feature," Esme replied.

"Okay," I said. "Alice didn't say anything to me either."

Based on past experience, I thought it might be likely that this was going to be another one of those movies that seemed to be based off of our lives. I wasn't really sure if that was the case since it was a double-feature. I decided that I wouldn't say anything to Esme about my suspicions just in case they were wrong.

"I should probably get ready before Alice decides I've wasted too much time sitting here reading," I told Esme.

I hurried out the door to the cottage that I share with Edward. Inside the closet is all of my Alice-approved wardrobe plus a few extra items that I've added for myself over the years. I ended up grabbing my favorite pair of jeans with an Alice-approved shirt and adding flats.

I didn't bother taking a look in the mirror because Alice will always fix me if I'm looking too bad. Instead, I hurried back to the house where everyone had managed to gather in the few minutes I was away.

"Bella, what are you wearing?" Alice asked with a grimace. "Well, let's not worry about it now. I don't want to be late to the movie."

"What are we going to see?" Carlisle asked.

"Oh, it's a new double-feature that's opening tonight," Alice replied vaguely.

Edward gave me a quick kiss in greeting before both of us got into his car. Jacob and Renesme also piled in the backseat, so that we could drive together as a weird vampire, werewolf, half-blood family. Emmett drove his massive Jeep with Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper. Esme and Carlisle took another car. In seconds, all of the vehicles were turning off the little road leading up to the house onto the highway that led to the local movie theatre.

In less than ten minutes, we reached the vibrantly lit movie theatre. Without even looking at the sign to see what movies were out, I already knew that there was something big going on just based on how many vehicles were already in the parking lot. I wouldn't say that we struggled to find a parking spot, but it wasn't like we found one anywhere near the entrance.

Edward and I walked hand in hand through the parking lot with Jacob and Renesme following behind us. It's been a few years since they've been together and I think both of us have finally grown somewhat accustomed to their romantic behaviors. I try not to pay attention anymore. Unfortunately, I think Edward is still Edward and mentally thinks he can have some kind of control over his daughter. When he catches them in an extremely passionate kiss, Edward tends to completely lose his composure and usually breaks something if he's holding anything in his hands at the time. I smile to myself thinking about how he's going to handle them getting married and doing "other" things.

As we reached our meeting point near the entrance to the movie theatre, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there wasn't a huge line like there has been every other time Alice got us to go to a mystery movie.

"Maybe this won't be so bad after all," I murmured just loud enough for Edward to hear.

Edward chuckled, "I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"Wow, with the number of cars out here, I really expected there to be a massive line for tickets," Jacob said.

"Don't worry, I ordered all of us advanced tickets, so we don't even need to wait in the line they have," Alice exclaimed as she skipped up to us.

I saw that all of us were together, so as a large family, we walked into the theatre. Alice handed the teen boy the tickets for all of us and he pointed us in the direction of theatre 14. We started walking toward the right-hand side of the theatre where all of the even-numbered theatres were stationed. I didn't see a huge number of people in the theatre until we got close to the restrooms. For some odd reason, there was a considerable line of people, mostly women, waiting to use the restroom.

We entered the room where the double-feature would be showing and found that it was pretty crowded. Since there was so many of us, we couldn't all sit together in a single row. We ended up sitting in two separate rows that were back to back. I was happy as I took my seat between Edward and Renesme that we were able to sit close enough together that we could talk amongst ourselves without the humans overhearing us.

"So, what are we watching Alice?" Esme asked from her seat between Carlisle and Emmett.

"It's called "Breaking Dawn"," Alice replied from her chair between Rosalie and Jasper.

"What's the movie about?" Jasper asked.

"It's a love story about three people who were bound to be together as a family," Alice answered.

"It's got a three-some?!" Emmett asked excitedly as Rosalie smacked him in the head.

"Of course not," Alice sputtered indignantly.

As the movie theatre began filling up with more humans, I could tell that there seemed to be a lot of excitement in the air. Of course, that's a common theme when attending any Hollywood blockbuster after it's been recently released.

I kept waiting to pick up some sort of conversation that would give some insight into the movie we were about to be watching, but there was little chatter going on around us. Most of the talking involved people talking about what time the movie would be over or how indecent the honeymoon scene would be.

Since Alice knows how to plan things out so well, the lights had already begun to dim and the previews began to play. Even though Edward and I don't always make the time to go see movies, I've always enjoyed watching the trailers for new movies. I try to remember the names of any movie that seems to be pretty good based on the trailer so that I can watch it later. As usual, there were a couple of movie trailers that caught my interest and I noted the names for a later date.

While I love watching the trailers, I was excited and a little nervous when the movie finally began. Of course, I had already prepared myself for what the movie might be about as soon as Alice told us that we would be having a family night out to see a movie. I didn't recognize the title "Breaking Dawn Part 1" as anything meaningful, but the accompanying music was the same theme that had been playing along with the other movies that were all about our lives. I heard Edward groan softly beside me and gave his hand a squeeze.

I heard Esme gasp loudly as soon as the opening shot panned out enough to determine that we were looking at Jake's house at the reservation. Watching him run out the door and throwing the piece of paper, which turned out to be our wedding invitation, down into the wet ground made my heart ache a little.

"I'm sorry Bella," Jacob whispered to me from his seat next to Nessie as I felt her hand give mine a comforting squeeze.

I watched as I practiced walking in Alice-approved shoes. Even though I still don't care for high heels now, I'm glad that I at least have good enough coordination that I don't have to worry about falling in them like I used to when I was human.

The movie quickly moved into the night before the wedding. I watched as the actor playing Edward was telling me all about his former life when he rebelled against Carlisle's food choices.

I found myself laughing along with most of the audience again as Emmett and Jasper came to drag Edward away for his bachelor's party.

"You call hunting a bachelor's party?" Jake asked in disbelief. "I'm definitely going to have a stripper when I get married."

Rosalie and Nessie both saved me the trouble by each smacking him on the head. I saw Edward give him an angry glare out of the corner of my eye. Jake just gave a sheepish smile and slide a little deeper into his seat.

Then on to the wedding. I was happy to see our wedding ceremony again, or at least something as close to it as possible. That's one day that I truly love to relive as often as possible. The movie seemed to capture my emotions of the day fairly well. Edward leaned over and kissed my cheek while whispering, "I love you."

Most of the speeches after the wedding could go though. I'm so glad that those didn't make it into my real wedding. It would have been so embarrassing to hear my mother singing a song to me completely out of tune. Not quite as bad would have been Charlie standing in front of everyone talking about shooting my husband. Then of course it leads into Mike talking about how he was so sure I would fall for him, which is crazy, and Jessica talking about her jealousy of me being with Edward. Even Emmett had to allude to the life-altering existence I would be having after Edward and I were married. The only problem is that everybody in the assembly that was human assumed he was talking about sex, which was really embarrassing.

The scenes then changed to the honeymoon. I almost covered my eyes when we got to Esme's house on the island because I knew what was coming next. I heard the others around me muttering about something and knew that if I could, I would definitely be turning a very tomato red.

"Oh, I soooo don't want to see this," Nessie said from beside me as it showed me preparing for the big night in the bathroom.

"I wondered what took you so long," Edward told me.

"I can't believe you were that nervous Bella," Emmett said chuckling behind me.

"Come on, stop picking on Bella," Rosalie told them.

I hazarded a glance past Nessie to see Jacob's reaction to this scene. What I saw surprised me and caused me to split my attention between him and the movie. Jake was almost leaning forward in his seat as he watched the actress playing me get for the big night. It looked like he was hanging on to every detail that was going on in the movie. I really didn't think it was because of the young girl playing me, but it was definitely intriguing.

I almost couldn't contain my laughter as soon as the scene transitioned into the actress playing me going skinny-dipping with the actor playing Edward.

"Oh God!," Nessie called out covering her eyes. "I need bleach!"

"Would you tell me when we get past this?" I heard Carlisle whisper to Esme. I didn't look but I suspected he was also covering his eyes.

"Oh man, somebody should have warned me before they showed that pale white naked man on the screen," I heard Jake groan and then make some gagging noises.

"Hey Eddie, do you need me to help give you some pointers?" Emmett asked from behind us.

"I've got it, thanks," Edward grumbled.

I heard someone else behind me make some gagging noises and suspected it might be our dear family empath. I kind of hated to see poor Jasper suffer, but it was kind of funny.

"I am so going to get you back, Bella Cullen," Jasper warned from behind me.

Edward growled a little bit at Jasper while I ended up letting a giggle slip out.

I watched as the morning after scene slowly unfolded. I heard Esme's gasp as the bruises on the actress's body were shown. I squeezed Edward's hand and opened my mind to him to show how much I love and adore him. I knew that watching this would still cause him some anguish.

Luckily, the scene was over quickly and the movie started showing how the rest of our honeymoon on the island went.

Emmett chortled so loudly that I'm pretty sure we caught the attention of a decent portion of the audience. "Chess, really?!" he said.

I laughed along with everyone else but Edward knowing that playing Chess all day is really not the way to spend a honeymoon. "He also took me on day-long trips to tire me out, so I would fall asleep really early every night," I told them quietly enough to not bother the humans around us.

"Thank God for my knowing you needed the sexy lingerie," Alice chimed happily.

"Yes, thank you Alice," I told her smiling.

"Jasper," Edward warned as we started feeling some lustful vibes.

"Dude, that is so not cool," Jake said while trying to cover his eyes as my wardrobe became more and more revealing.

"Sorry," Jasper apologized as Alice smacked him on the head.

I watched as the actress later made chicken and was throwing up in the toilet while the actor playing Edward came up behind her to comfort her. As scary as it was during the moment it played out, it was actually really fun to watch Edward completely fall apart in shock on the screen.

There was very few comments from the group of us during the pregnancy portion of the movie. I did kind of miss the fact that they didn't show the altercation between Rose and Jake when Rose through the bowl with food in it out to Jake.

I think Jasper began influencing our emotions again unconsciously during the birth scene. I was feeling really jittery and scared while watching a scene in a movie that I had lived in real life. Granted, I wasn't really all there at that point, but I don't think I should be feeling all of these emotions at the strength they were running through my body.

"Jasper, cut it out," Emmett said through gritted teeth.

"Jasper, she's fine," Edward finally said. "Everyone is fine. Just remember this is a movie."

I glanced back to see Alice rubbing Jasper's back with one hand while holding the other hand. He closed his eyes for a brief moment to collect himself, and then re-opened them with an exhale. Our emotions immediately lightened up, so I flashed him a smile grateful that he got control of everything.

As I watched the body change into a vampire, I asked, "Is the transformation really like that?"

Edward replied, "It's the same, but think of all of these changes you're seeing on the screen happening in slow motion over a period of about three days. If you were still human and observing the transformation, you might not even notice some of the changes unless you left for a day and came back due to the nature of it and the poor human eyes."

"So Bella," Carlisle began, "you never did answer my question about whether the transformation was free of pain. Did the morphine injection work as we had anticipated?"

I squirmed a little in my seat, which brought Edward's eyes to me. "Well, you could say it works on the outside," I answered trying to continue being as vague as possible.

Unfortunately, that method didn't work this time.

"What do you mean 'on the outside'?" Edward asked.

I sighed heavily, "Basically the morphine just meant that while I might have seemed to be calm and collected on the outside, I still felt all the burning pain on the inside from the transformation."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Edward asked softly.

I looked between Edward and Carlisle and spoke, "I wanted you to think that I had been in no pain because it made you happy thinking that the morphine had worked as planned."

Edward reached over and held my face with both of his hands while staring into my eyes. "Please don't ever hide something from me because you're worried about my happiness. My only concern is making sure that you're safe and happy for the rest of our existence together."

I nodded silently knowing that if I had still been human, tears might have shown on my face. Edward leaned forward to give me a brief, but loving kiss before turning to face the screen for the last few minutes of the movie.

When the movie credits finished rolling on the screen, the lights came up. Most people began standing and stretching.

"I thought this was a double-feature Alice?" Nessie asked.

"There's a fifteen minute intermission between the two movies," Alice replied happily.

Since we were all comfortable sitting in the same place for long periods of time, the only people to get up from our seats were Nessie and Jake, who went to get some more snacks and drinks for themselves.

The fifteen minutes flew by and we were all back together as the lights dimmed once again and the next movie began playing. I was thankful that the second movie didn't come equipped with as many trailers as the first one. Once again there were a couple of trailers for movies that I was somewhat interested in, although it would most likely be a rental.

Finally, I settled back in my seat and found a comfy position leaning against Edward's shoulder with our hands holding each other's. The movie title came up as "Breaking Dawn Part 2" and I waited to see what the first scene was going to be of this one.

Unfortunately, I ended up watching the movie version of my transformation all over again. Since we had all seen this part before, there were no further comments or questions asked for which I was very thankful.

When my red eyes just popped open suddenly, I had to ask, "Did my eyes really open up that fast?"

Edward chuckled softly, "Yes, love. You weren't accustomed to your new movements at the time."

"Wow, freaky," I said.

"I think one of the things that still amazes me is how I managed to jump out the window with heels on," I said shaking my head.

"They didn't even capture them in here," Alice asked with a little bit of disgruntlement in her voice. "Since you realize how easily you can wear them, I still don't understand why I can't get you to wear some more often instead of those silly tennis shoes of yours."

"They're comfortable," I argued.

"Cheap," Alice chirped.

"Don't bother talking her out of it," Rosalie told Alice. "You're not going to ever beat fashion sense into her."

"So?" Alice asked with a shrug.

"You really did have such amazing control as a newborn," Jasper admired as Carlisle agreed when we were watching the first hunting scene.

"I really thought you might tear my head off," Jake said when the movie Bella found out about him finding his soul mate in my daughter.

"I was really considering it," I replied back smirking.

"I can't believe you did that to my Jake," Nessie scolded me.

"Your Jake?" Edward asked with eyebrows raised.

"I was protecting my child from a furry wolf," I defended.

There were few comments as the movie briskly passed through our lives as Nessie grew up until Alice had her vision of the Volturi coming for us. Even though we knew how the events played out, I'm pretty sure all of us were watching with our full attention. I'm pretty sure that Esme even forgot to breathe like a human as the movie unfolded.

"I still can't believe you went to Jenks all by yourself," Edward said with another headshake.

"You know it was necessary at the time," I told him.

"Not only that, but Jenks only wants to deal with Bella now," Jasper grumbled. "I don't think you bargained hard enough with him, Bella."

"Sorry Jasper, but I'm just not the type to scare the man to death," I replied lightly.

The movie went through the scenes so fast that all of a sudden, the face-off between the Volturi was playing out in front of us on the screen. Even though we all knew the outcome, I could feel myself become very nervous. Of course, this could have been due to Jasper not controlling himself again.

I was so focused on the Volturi before, that it was surprising to me to actually see the number of vampires and shifters we had to stand with us against them. I will forever be thankful to those that came to help. Heck, I would even be thankful to the Romanians who were basically just there to kill the Volturi and take over in their place.

As I watched some of the movie play out, I remember how nervous I was for Edward and then Nessie to approach Aro and allow him to touch them. I knew it was something that had to be done at that time, but I hope I never have to endure anything like that again for the rest of my existence.

I breathed a happy sigh of relief as the actress playing Alice showed up on the screen. I watched with a smile on my face as Alice came up to Aro and touched him so that he could see her visions knowing that this was almost over.

Then, my breath caught and I grasped Edward's hand so hard that if he had been human it would most certainly have crushed it. I heard the others around us gasp as the next scene was of us fighting with the Volturi.

I looked wide-eyed at Edward because this didn't happen! I felt my un-beating heart squeeze tightly as I watched my family being torn apart. Each of us lost our other half, our mate and I wanted so badly to close my eyes from the horror that was showing on the screen in front of me.

For the first time, I really understood why Alice had me go to Jay Jenks on behalf of Jake and Nessie. As I watched Jake grab Nessie and run away through the forest, I breathed a sigh of relief that at least they would be okay. At least until they were intercepted on the way. At that point, I really did close my eyes and couldn't watch any further. I couldn't bear to know that something might have happened to either of them if things had turned out a little differently.

Edward gently, but firmly pulled my hands away from my eyes just in time to see that the whole fighting scene was supposed to represent the vision that Alice showed Aro. I was immediately happy and relieved to know that perhaps the producers had made that whole bit up just for a good show.

The movie was anti-climatic from that point on, which allowed me to regroup and enjoy the rest of it. I mainly watched as all of our guests left to go their own ways, and our family got back to as normal a life as one could have if you're a vampire who hangs out with wolves.

The credits began rolling and all of us remained seated as the humans around us began getting up and gathering their belongings as they moved toward the exits. Once the majority of the theatre had cleaned out, we all got up and glided toward the exit.

Once we were outside, Emmett asked the question that I didn't have the courage to ask.

"Alice, did you really see that?"

Alice tried to keep a poker face, but I already knew the answer before she sighed heavily and replied, "Yes, it was one of the possibilities."

Esme walked over and gave Alice a big hug. "Oh honey, I can't believe you've kept that from us for so long. You know you could have told us."

While I knew Esme meant well, there was no way that our family would have stood as strong against the Volturi if we had heard her vision. Hope would have been lost by everyone before the Volturi even arrived.

"Alice, please try to take us to a happier movie next time," Carlisle told her.

"It ended well!" she defended.

"Hey, is that Jacob?" we heard from nearby.

All of us turned at the same time to see a flock of girls both young and old wearing Team Jacob t-shirts with a picture of the actor that played Jake in the movie on them. I think our ear-drums were blown away as we hear screams from two different directions at the same time. In the other direction was another group of girls both young and old wearing Team Edward t-shirts. All out once, they began running toward us.

We looked at each other for a split second in confusion and then horror as we realized they were about to surround us. Then we ran for our lives.

Not really. We actually just started running to our cars in a pace that was faster than any of the humans, but not so fast that there would be actual evidence caught on the phones that had camera flashes going off every second that we might not be human. As soon as we reached our vehicles they were peeling out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed because I think we all wanted to get the hell out of there.

With the speeds that were driven, we were back home in minutes. Everyone spread out in the living room to relax after the excitement.

"Alice, did you know those girls were going to come after us?" Esme asked.

Alice gave a huge smile and replied, "Of course. That's all you're going to think about for the rest of the week. I bet you and Carlisle never expected to have to run away from a bunch of women wearing t-shirts with Edward and Jake's faces on them."

Carlisle gave a shake of his head as he smiled. "No, that's definitely not something I expected. I guess it's one more thing to knock off my to-do list."

"How long is your list?" Nessie asked.

"Well, the list doesn't really exist, but it's not everyday that a father can say he watched a double-feature with his family that was about his family, had to endure sex scenes, scenes of loved-ones dying, and just when everything seems to be settling back down, I get chased by a crazy bunch of women with my son and son-in-law's faces stamped on them," Carlisle explained.

"Just wait until the next family outing I have planned," Alice said mischievously.

I looked over at Edward, who I could tell was reading her thoughts and then groaned. I knew then that there was no telling what Alice had planned up her sleeve, but I probably didn't want to be a part of it.

"Honey," Esme said to Alice after looking at Edward's reaction, "I think you can count Carlisle and me out of your next family plans."