Chapter 2
Unusual Development
Ambrogio's POV
"What a marvellous surprise!" my father cheered, as he walked forward towards us to lovingly stoke my hair and kiss Renesmee's forehead. "As soon as I read the letter…" Father nearly ran speechless as his hands contently soothed Renesmee's stomach; and words alone could not express his level of excitement. "Oh goodness, this is such a remarkable occasion."
"Ambrogio Cyrus Voltago, my son, I am so proud of you." Came Mother as she hugged me before turning to Renesmee and kissing her hair. The Cullens hung back defensively as my family embraced us equally.
"Nesmee!" screamed my cousins.
Didyme was the first to congratulate Renesmee, her beaming chocolate brown eyes matched Renesmee's excitement of seeing her again. Orithyia shadowed Didyme while still griping onto Alec's arm; both of my cousins were now just physically over fifteen and a half, but I smiled at Alec mockingly, and he replied it back when he knew that I had seen what he and my cousin had been up to in their blossoming relationship.
Afterwards Renesmee followed Carlisle up stairs and they began her next check up. The two families awkwardly tried to mingle as well as they could but there always had been an invisible line between them – and I honestly believed it could never fully be broken. But my cousins did their best in exchanging pleasant conversation with Alice and Edward, where as I began a small discussion with Jane and Alec, before we joined a conversation Esme was having with our parents.
That night as Renesmee was settling down to sleep with Bella, Alice, Rosalie, and Jacob all standing around her; my father-in-law, Edward pulled me aside to talk, just outside in the front garden. At first Edward's face was happy but slowly as the conversation carried on it became a slightly worried expression.
"Gino, no words can begin to explain how happy I am for both of you. Fatherhood is a wonderful but trying experience; I know it's too soon to tell but what do you think it is?"
I smiled, "I don't know. I'm hoping it's a boy."
"Any particular reason why a boy?" asked Edward.
I shrugged my shoulders, "Call me old-fashioned, but I think it's just to, you know, keep the family name going."
Edward nodded, but then the atmosphere of the conversation changed, just as I could hear my father walking through the front door to join us.
"Gino, you don't need me to tell you why I am concerned with my daughter being pregnant. You know what happened with my Bella; and, even though Renesmee is far from being human, we still don't know if this kind of pregnancy won't put her life in danger."
Looking back through Edward's mind I saw what he witnessed through Bella's horrifying delivery.
"Yes, but as Renesmee is half-vampire; would not that make her more stronger and less out of danger than Bella?" Came Father.
"Perhaps, Aro, but the baby is the offspring of two vampire hybrids," replied Edward, "So it is possible that the child could be slightly stronger than what Renesmee was for Bella; because it is nestled inside a nearly flawless being, with a stronger, healthier food source."
"So what do you suggest my son do?"
"I don't know?"
In the days that followed the baby was developing rather slowly – not nearly as fast as a regular hybrid – but its brute strength was improving, which was beginning to be a worry for me; like a true hybrid, it had the strength of a vampire and Renesmee was beginning to show more of the pain she was actually in.
I tried to ignore it, for Renesmee's sake of not adding to her worrying family, but very dark bruises were beginning to form around her stomach and it pained me to see my Nesmee suffering; my aching heart was so thankful that my mate was not human. After observing what Bella had been through, this event would have been impossible for me to bear; but it seemed that, from the dramatic damage it was causing Renesmee, the child was stronger than we first expected.
But now something else was really starting to annoy me, it was understandable how Bella – as the grandmother-to-be – wanted to help out when it was needed but it deeply disturbed me the way Rosalie tried to weasel herself into helping with everything. We tried to move Renesmee to the family villa in Tuscany but she implored that pain was completely bearable; even though she was starting to show signs of a struggle to walk around the house.
The foetus was still growing at a steady rate, at two weeks into the pregnancy; Carlisle was expecting Renesmee to have the infant very soon but the baby-bump was too pre-mature to be ready. Carlisle started running more tests but all signs assured that the baby was perfectly healthy; safely tucked in its vampire-skinned case, it naturally fed off Renesmee's blood supply, just as we hybrids did with our mothers.
But luckily her heart was pumping fast enough to sustain both of them; which was why the child was so strong. Though Carlisle and Edward were rather shocked of how bruised Renesmee's body was due to the baby's kicking, and how often this was occurring; thankfully Renesmee's bruises were healing fast but they were only to be replaced by new ones almost immediately.
But what worsened was that Renesmee's good condition was slowly starting to deteriorate because the baby was starting to drain too much blood; the faint rosy hue in Nesmee's cheeks were fading and her muscle structure was starting to thin. Jacob was not happy, and neither was Rosalie, the baby seemed to be weakening her; Jacob was constantly blaming me for getting Renesmee pregnant, but this was something that Renesmee and I both wanted and so finally I muscled up the courage to confront him outside.
"Jake, I understand your concern but I am under enough stress as it is so can you just lay off!" I yelled,
Jacob retaliated, "'Enough stress?' Nessie is the one knocked up with that demon child inside of her,"
It was only then that Rosalie protested again Jacob, but I knew it wasn't on my behalf. "Jake, it's just a baby! This is exactly what you said about Renesmee before she was born, and look what came from that."
"Yeah, Blondie; look what came from that! The love of my life was brain washed by this half-cast, son of a blood-sucker, and now she's carrying his demon child."
In my rage I lashed out at him, "And you think her situation would have improved if she were to be carrying the offspring of a bitch!"
Jake jolted forward – even though I was aware of Jacob's move before he made it thanks to my gift of telepathy – I swung my right arm and punched his jaw, no matter how hard we tumbled Jacob couldn't lock his teeth around me but then Jake got the upper hand when Bella jumped in to help him. She grabbed my arms and Jake was about to strike until Jane stepped in; staring at Jacob, the great dog immediately wined and backed down a few steps before completely collapsing to the ground.
Felix then came into the fight and pulled me from Bella's arms; protecting me slightly, from my own mother-in-law who was enraged from my behaviour.
"Voltago, you apologise to Jake this moment!" shouted Bella, actually defending Jacob after he had just insulted her grandchild.
And although my behaviour had been most un-gentleman like, I refused.
"My son will do nothing of the sort, young Isabella," came Father, "If anything it should be the shape-shifter apologising to my son... and yours."
But as I looked at Bella there was something non-directive about her anger towards me; as if she wasn't blaming my but merely just blinding fear for Renesmee.
"My daughter is dying...!" Edward went to comfort her, but, unlike Bella, Edward felt he knew exactly who to blame.
But then we heard someone screaming.
"Stop! Please!" we looked up and Renesmee was shouting from her bedroom window, "Enough!" she whimpered.
Suddenly she fell back from the curtains and collapsed.
"AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
