Goodbye, Renée

A/N: I felt weird writing "my husband", but I got over it. By the way, Dallas told me the names for the OCs, who can guess the origins? I wasn't able to.

Isabella

I dashed through the woods, my bloodlust high. I glanced beside me, to my husband Edward and "sister-in-law" Alice. Alice glanced back with very dark eyes. We hadn't drunk in a while, and were all craving blood.

I drew my attention back to the hunt. We were approaching the target. There were four alligators lying calmly by a lake directly ahead. Putting on a burst of speed, I got there first. After tackling the largest animal, I sunk my teeth into its neck. It struggled for a moment, but then relaxed as my poison paralyzed it. Seconds behind me, Alice and Edward each tackled another gator. The lucky fourth slipped quickly into the water.

We gouged on our prey for a minute. As I finished draining the blood from mine, two large shapes came up. My grandchildren. William and Mason, the Vampire/Human/Shapeshifter hybrids dashed out of the woods.

I thought about them. When William turned into a wolf, his fangs lost their poison, but as a "human", he appeared to be a full vampire. Mason didn't show any vampire traits, except the white, impervious skin, but also had the ability to transform into a wolf. Even his vampire-like skin ran about 108°.

"Aw man," William complained as he watched me shrug off my prey, "No blood left?" He sniffed, and then spun in the direction of the escaping alligator.

"Waste not, want not," I reminded him.

William sighed, then stripped and became a wolf. His brother was already eating the carcass of Alice's prey.

I shuffled over to Edward and put his hand in mine, watching the grandchildren devour three large, green predators. I know, touching moment, right? It was kind of strange watching the animals bloodlessly getting ripped to shreds, but I was fairly used to that by now.

Suddenly, in my peripheral vision, I saw Alice stiffen. A millisecond later, so did Edward. "You have two hours," Alice said.

Without hesitation, Edward nodded, "Follow me." Moments later, Alice was the only humanoid in the clearing.

Edward

My stomach tightened as I heard Alice's declaration, but I had already seen what she saw in her head. I tracked Renesmee's mind, and ran to her, followed closely by Bella, William and Mason. After a few seconds, we had run the mile to where Renesmee was laying, full of blood, next to her husband, who was finishing off their indistinguishable prey.

"Let's go, now." I ordered and kept running, only checking mentally to see that my following had gained two members. When we reached the edge of the woods, I stopped, slipped off my backpack, and withdrew more decent clothes for the three shapeshifters. We waited silently for the three to get their clothes on. I could hear Leah and Seth thinking in the woods, but also knew that Jacob had already told his pack of the situation. They would wait with Alice, as we had planned.

After we were all human (like) again, we dashed to my car and slipped in. Jacob took the wheel, Renesme took shotgun, and Mason squeezed between them. Bella, William and I all took the back seat. Minimum shining skin exposure. When we reached the hospital, Jacob stopped under the overhang next to the door to let the rest of us out, and then parked the car. After he caught up with us, a little too quickly by human standards, we went inside.

Renée

I was spending my last hours in a hospital bed. Alone. Phil was long gone, as were most of my friends. My child, grandchild, their significant others, and my great-grandchildren had gone "hiking" this morning. I remember that Bella used to hate anything outdoors. Just one of the many strange changes Edward had instilled in her. I hated the secrets, the lack of explanation for how quickly Renesmee had grown and had children. The coldness in most of them. The burning heat in Jacob and Mason. What was wrong with them? Why didn't they trust me? As much as I loved them all, the questions had brought irritation, which had, in turn, forced a good bit of anger upon me.

How dare they lie to me over and over! I remember once, when he was small, William had almost cut his arm to the bone with one of my kitchen knives. He struggled, refusing to let me tend to it. When I had finally forced his hands away, there was no blood! Then the five year old shrugged me off, nearly throwing me against the far wall! When I had returned seconds later, the cut was merely a fading bruise. By the time his parents came that afternoon, there was no evidence at all. I tried to tell them, but they insisted that they couldn't explain it to me "for my own good!" How dare they!

My thoughts were interrupted by the door being gently pulled open. Again I was struck by how Bella was in her late fifties, but still looking as young as ever, like the rest of them. William looked nervously at the blood flowing into one of my numerous IVs, and I saw Edward place a strong grip on his arm.

Anger and love intermingled in my mind, both struggling to get out at the same time. Just before the anger was about to win, Edward spoke.

"Do you want answers?"

Shock and excitement grew up inside of me, canceling out the anger. Those four, simple words brought years of craving for answers fresh to the surface. And a little fear. With a forced calm, I replied, "Yes."

Edward cleared his throat, "I was born in 1901. At an age of 17, I was dying. In my last moments, Carlisle made me a vampire."

Amazing, I thought, how three sentences could overwhelm me. A vampire? Seriously? How dumb did he think I was? Wait, was he serious? He was serious! As my knowledge of the world fell to pieces all around me, I couldn't speak. After a few minutes, I calmed down. "So I take it my daughter is one too?" I said, my fake casualness starting to break.

Bella nodded, "Three days before my nineteenth birthday."

I considered the date. "And Renesmee?"

"Half human," the girl in question replied.

Just accepting the facts now, I slid my gaze over to Jacob. "Let me guess, are you a vampire too?"

He raised he head and laughed loudly, making all in the room tense up. "I am proud to say, no."

His wife lightly slapped his shoulder. "Be nice," she said teasingly.

Jacob grew serious. "Nope, your grandson-in-law is a werewolf. Or, technically, a shapeshifter spawned to kill the evil race of bloodsuckers."

"And you married one." I stated, the side of my mouth tugging upward, despite myself, at the absurdity of it all it all.

"Yep!" Jacob declared, but then explained, "Cullens don't count. They're 'vegetarians'." Jacob used his fingers as quotation marks for his last word. "Half an hour ago Renesmee and I were feasting on a gator."

I nodded, seriously contemplating this new fact. "Okay."

Edward burst out laughing. After a moment, he explained, "You are taking this so calmly! You are in a room with six predators, each of which could easily dice you into a billion pieces and you just accept it?"

I shrugged, "No, I am in a room with my family. That's what counts."

Bella snuggled into Edward, "Like mother like daughter, huh?"

I looked at the faces around her with a sudden sadness. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Well, you see, there are those that would kill anyone who knew about vampires, so we had to for your sake." Bella stumbled out.

"Then why are you…" I started to say, but then I remembered.

"Yes," Edward said, confirming the fact. You have less than an hour and a half to live.

Even though I knew it, the confirmed fact chilled me to the bone. I asked one last question, "Are you all immortal?"

Mason nodded.

I forced a serious face on, and then reached out my old, wavering hand. "Come close," I ordered, "Let go of William, Edward, he's fine."

My family gathered near me for my last hours.

Bella

I held my mothers hand until she died. It seemed painless and she left this world smiling. As we left the room, I looked over at Edward. As much as I loved my mother, I felt a slight, guilty pleasure about her death. My only remaining friends would live forever. Edward and I were left in what might be the first real happily ever after.