Disclaimer: Don't own any of the Twilight series. SM is protective when it comes to her baby.
A/N: I wasn't going to post this. Yeah, I wrote it, but it was only because I was bored. It's Edward's point of view during Bella's vampire transformation in Breaking Dawn. Eh. I know there are probably some inconsistencies with this and the actual story (like Edward never once leaving Bella's side) but whatever, I wanted to have fun.
I couldn't believe it. I absolutely could not. What did that mongrel think he was doing?
Jacob Black, an idiot who I couldn't admit to liking, was actually holding my daughter. My baby girl. My angel. Besides Bella she was the most precious thing in the world to me - and this mutt actually believed he had the right to hold her. To smile warmly at her before I had even gotten the chance to touch her. Damn him.
"Jacob," I growled. I knew that he had been planning to kill her. It was hard not to notice. Reading his every thought would never be boring; disturbing at times, but never boring.
Yes?
He sounded so friggin' happy. Bella, the love of my existence, was up stairs turning into a bloodsucking monster and this dog was happy. How dare he.
"Give Renesmee to me."
Rosalie was standing in a corner, leaning against the wall, and glaring at everything that moved. Jacob grinned and practically skipped his way to me. It suddenly clicked. I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts of Bella, of her pain, that I hadn't been able to see it before. He...he....
"You imprinted on my baby." The words came out smoothly, like they always to, and it sounded so wrong.
His smile didn't fade but instead only changed into something a little bit more uncomfortable. "Sorry, I didn't mean to!"
I searched his thoughts, trying to find anything that made sense. His devotion to her made me want to vomit, if I'd still been human and had any contents in my stomach. He was thinking of the first time he saw her, maybe half a day ago. I stopped breathing. I had lost her before I had even...It suddenly occurred to me that I had held her. When I took her out of Bella. I forced my legs to unfreeze beneath me and set down. Was I losing everyone?
Jacob was by my side when I looked up. Could he have had Renesmee in any safer a position? His arms were wrapped around her protectively, careful to make sure that it was impossible for her to fall. She was sleeping. His dark eyes stared down at me in worry. "You okay?"
I cleared my throat, just realizing how it oddly ached. "Just fine. I only just lost my daughter and my wife."
He sat down next to me and crossed his legs, still holding Renesmee against him. "You didn't lose Bella, and Renesmee's right here! Bella's gonna turn into a bloodsucker and then spend eternity with you. Renesmee's going to be safe, I promise. She's right here, just fine."
A spark of anger settled in my stomach. I couldn't register it. My mind felt so clouded. I decided that speaking my thoughts, however simple they were, would be best. I always got to listen to everyone else's thoughts, with one exception, so why not let them hear mine for a while?
"I meant I lost Renesmee to you, and we don't know if Bella will be all right. She's not moving, and because of the venom her heart has stopped. It's nearly impossible to tell if she's..."
"Bella's going to survive," he hissed. I suppose he hissed simply because he couldn't scream. I bet he would like to scream a whole lot more, but that would wake the child in his arms. "She wants to be with you. She wants to be a vampire. I know Bella better than anyone, so I can tell you just how stubborn she is. Trust me, she'll pull through."
"Trust you?" I whispered. It made sense that I should trust him. At one point or another I had trusted this boy with everything important to me. He had held the weight of the safety of my family upon his shoulders. He had taken care of Bella when I...left. He had given up his home and his pack to help protect us. And now he was taking care of my daughter when her mother was possibly dying and her father was falling apart. I owed Jacob more than trust, and yet trust felt like so much more than he deserved.
Jacob nodded, answering my question that had never been meant as a question. "Yes, trust me. Bella is up there changing right now. I can smell it."
He managed to sound so confident. So strong. I didn't even realize that I had now not only given Jake my trust but my faith as well. My hopes were bound by his words.
"Rose, where is everyone?"
"Hunting," she mumbled. I didn't fully recognize any emotion displayed in her voice, but skimming through her thoughts I saw that it was her concern for me that had stopped her from growling her answer. Another quick skim and I saw what was bothering her. Jacob was holding Renesmee. Rosalie didn't like it. Of course, Rose had been the one protecting Renesmee from the very beginning. It made sense. Sort of.
I might have laughed at Jacob's thought had I been in any happier a mood. He was debating whether or not to call me Edward or Bloodsucker in a situation such as this one. It wasn't like Jacob to doubt himself like that. I had full access to just about anyone's thoughts. I knew them better than they knew themselves half the time. Jacob was strong, for lack of better descriptive words on my part at the moment.
"Hey, Bloodsucker," he said finally, sounding a lot more like the mongrel I knew, "quit moping around. You'll depress everyone if you don't pull yourself together. Do you want your daughter to see you like this? Do you want to be the cause of some negative point of view she might get?"
I took a deep breath and stood up, following a dog's orders. My body felt stronger, my mind clearer, and my heart more confident in happiness. He was right. I had to be strong. Not only for Renesmee and my family, but for Bella. For the hope that I could live up to the man she saw me as. Just don't think about losing her, I chanted for approximately fifteen seconds.
When I looked down to stare Jacob in his eyes he smiled. It looked so natural. Maybe this was how he had helped Bella before. He was so...purely happy that it spread. His confidence had surely seeped through. Unlike when he was upset or hateful, when he was glowing like he was now he could heal people.
I had so many things to be grateful for from this man. Yes, man, not boy. Somewhere along the lines he had grown out of being a pup, although sometimes he still deserved to be called such.
"Thank you," I said smoothly, surely. It was true. Emmett or Carlisle would not have done the same thing as Jacob to help me. Carlisle would have been serious as he talked to me, repeating over and over in his quiet, soothing tone that Bella would live. Emmett would have called me a little punk and forced me to see things through his eyes. Jasper was another story. He could have forced my feelings to be brighter. But Alice and Jasper weren't with us right now.
So Jake got my gratitude, just as he now deserved. Unfortunately, with or without my blessing, he also got my daughter.
"Sure, sure, no problem."
Nice one Bloodsucker, you pulled that off pretty fast.
"Quie,t pup."
Heh, good to have you back Edward.
I noticed how he used my name instead of his preferred nickname for me.
"You're still not getting Renesmee."
Hey, I was thinking, could we call her Nessie or something? Renesmee's kinda long and using that name multiple times in a sentence should be counted as an ultimate tongue-twister.
He had completely ignored my warning, yet I laughed. "Ultimate tongue-twister, huh?"
"Well, yeah," he answered out loud.
"I'll think about it."
Whatever.
Alright, fine. I'll admit it. Not only was I thankful for everything that he had done for me, but I was also grateful for Jacob Black's existence. I may even like the guy. A little. There, I thought it.
Renesmee's eyes slowly fluttered open, her brown colored irises matching her mother's so perfectly that I stopped breathing for a moment. Her eyes finally focused, falling on Jacob's grinning face. She smiled back happily, like waking from a dream only to see it continued. That spark of anger was definitely recognizable now.
"Have a nice nap Nessie?"
Jacob's joyful tune was fouled by the nickname. What surprised me however was her nod to the answer. Not only was my daughter able to give a response, but able to respond to the new nickname as well. Unless...
"You gave her that name before asking didn't you mutt?"
He was silent for a moment. Uh, no? Well, yes, but...It's not like it was on purpose. It just fit so perfectly, alright? Besides, Nessie likes it.
I sighed loudly, taking Renesmee from Jacob's arms easily. Looked like he wasn't going to fight it. Good, he was actually capable of having survival instincts then. "How do you know that?"
My daughter placed her small, soft, doll-like hand on my cheek. It burned. In the next instant I was hit with images of Jacob playing with her, trying out the new nickname and watching her smile and nod in agreement to it. Then I found myself recounting her flowing images into Jacob's mind, showing him her view of when he called her that. He grinned, asking her if she liked the name. I was thrown into even more confusion.
"Makes sense that you wouldn't get it," I heard Jacob say as Renesmee removed her hand, the images stopping.
"What was that?"
"In short?"
I nodded.
Basically, she can send her thoughts into other people's head. You normally read everyone's thoughts anyway, so when she did that you were thrown off. You hadn't been paying attention to her thoughts, which is her way of communicating, so she decided to fix that.
"Oh," I said after a second, processing the information. "Is that why you let me hold her?"
"Yep."
"And she told you this through her thoughts?"
"No, I already knew."
Ah, I'd almost forgotten his uncanny ability to read the wants and desires of the two most important females in my life better than anyone else in the world. I sighed again. Even though he was no competition when it came to Bella's affections, I believe I might actually have to work to keep my baby girl on my side instead of his.
Jacob put his hands behind his head, but didn't lay down. He only leaned his head back a bit. Wish I knew what he was thinking, I heard ring through his head. He would never know how thankful I was that he would never find out.
"You mind looking after Nessie for a few hours? I haven't slept in almost four days." He emphasized it with a loud, almost echoing yawn.
"No problem."
Oh, wait, there was a problem. Nessie--no, her name was Renesmee--was reaching her arms out towards Jake. It was easy to see that he was exhausted but he took her from me with a smile.
She pressed her palm on his dark cheek, probably transferring thoughts, and he nodded, still smiling. I tried to ignore whatever was passed. It was probably just an image of him sleeping. She pouted a little before patting his cheek and leaning over towards him. If I had a heart that was beating, I'm sure that it would have stopped at this point.
She pressed her perfect, beautiful, clean lips to the undistinguishable line that separated his cheek from his jaw. In short, she kissed him. One of my two perfect angels kissed a dog today. And that dog was beaming.
As I took Renesmee from him I started making a list of reasons why I shouldn't be grateful for Jacob Black's existence. It went something like:
1. He gave my daughter a name before consulting either of her parents.
2. He tried to take away Bella, my love for eternity.
3. He was a dangerous, teenage wolf who already had my day old daughter in line for marriage.
4. He hates my sister. Ok, this one doesn't really count since I know that Rosalie can be a real bitch at times, but I'm running out of things to list.
5. Oh yeah, he's a jerk.
6. He planned on crashing my car.
7. Renesmee kissed him. He was already on the list of future boys that I would have to kill.
All right, now on with reasons why he should live:
1. He saved Bella from my worst mistake. That one's a big one for me, even though I really want to be mad at him right now.
2. He fought to protect us. Well, technically he was fighting for his own reasons, like saving his home and family, but I have to give him credit for this because he essentially helped protect Bella from Victoria. Not only that, but without the wolves we might have all been killed. Ok, so this one was another big one.
3. He gave me permission to change Bella. Well, the treaty would not have been broken because I didn't bite her. I injected her with my venom. But I don't think that the wolves would have liked smart-assed excuses from enemy vampires.
4. He left his pack to help and protect us. Whether I hate him or not wouldn't matter when it came to this. He gave up his brothers to save us.
5. He hasn't killed Rosalie yet. I add the 'yet' though I know that if it hasn't happened yet, it probably won't.
6. He didn't order an attack on us. Or follow an order to attack us. It was for this reason that Renesmee and Bella still had a chance.
7. He didn't wreck my car.
A tie, how very wonderful. Oh wait, one more to add to the reasons why I shouldn't be grateful for Jacob Black's existence.
8. He forced Bella to kiss him. Twice.
When Bella was done transforming, turned into a fresh, hungry, uncontrollable newborn, I'm going to set her loose on Jacob. Then I won't be the one to take the blame, and no one will blame Bella because she's a newborn.
Perfect. It's only a matter of time.
Do not bash Jacob. I love him. I respect it when people hate his character and I understand why they might, but don't ruin my day, please. Thank you. I hoped you enjoyed the story.