The Phone Call

A/N: Rosalie's point of view begins just before Alice rings Bella, when she's just realised she's pregnant. A lot more interesting than Bella's.

RPOV

I was seething, but at the same time utterly consumed with grief. I didn't see how this day could get any worse.

It had been nice without Bella and Edward for a couple of weeks. Don't get me wrong, I loved my brother, but whenever Bella was around there was trouble, and it broke the rhythm of this life that I tried so hard to like. It also infuriated me that the girl was so ready to throw away everything I wanted, everything I had nearly had, with no more thought than Alice used when tossing out a pair of last season's shoes. In herself, Bella didn't annoy me any more – I couldn't fail to appreciate how understanding and forgiving she was and above all I had to appreciate the change she'd made in Edward. However, I still couldn't bring myself to like her. I had hoped that this would change over the next decades of living with her; otherwise this non-life would truly become a living hell.

I knew now I would never like her.

This morning, it had all been relatively peaceful. We were all round the house, just generally relaxing in the lounge. Carlisle had just headed upstairs to go read some book or other (I didn't understand how he could reread a book when he had a perfect memory) when all of a sudden Alice had sat up, with a blank look on her face that we all recognised immediately. At first it wasn't cause for concern – Alice's visions were frequent and rarely foreshadowed anything too terrible (with the exception of the last couple of years with Bella, of course). So why didn't it surprise us that the first word she choked out was "Bella".

The family's reaction was both instantaneous and predictable. Esme gasped in fear and concern, and Jasper took Alice's face in his hands, ready to question her and calm her mood. Even Emmett looked up with worry. I didn't move. What did Bella mean to me?

"What do you see, Alice?" Jasper's voice was carefully calm and composed.

Alice's tone could have been more of an opposite if she tried. Horror and terror coloured her voice as she gasped out another single word.

"Nothing."

For a second, we were all utterly confused. Jasper's eyebrows furrowed, but he continued to steadily interrogate his mate.

"What do you mean, Alice? You looked for Bella…"

"And saw nothing," she finished.

A brief pause. "And Edward?"

"Still there," Alice whispered.

Even I was afraid now. We had all seen the consequences when Edward lost Bella. Heaven knows I knew more than most what that would lead to.

Before anyone had a chance to react, Alice had whipped out her cellphone and was ringing Edward's number. The tension seemed to multiply tenfold for every millisecond that he didn't pick up. We could all hear the dial tone as it droned dully on. Esme was growing frantic as we waited in silence, and Jasper had to calm her down.

After an eternity of nothingness, the phone finally stopped ringing. There was another everlasting moment of anticipation, and then a voice spoke on the end of the line.

"Hi, Alice." It was Bella. Alice was dumbstruck for a moment. So were we. Why wasn't she visible to Alice when she was so obviously alive?

"Bella?" Alice asked in blatant disbelief, mixed with relief and confusion. "Bella, are you okay?"

"Yeah." It didn't sound convincing. "Um. Is Carlisle there?"

Why did she want Carlisle? Emmett and I exchanged a confused look as Alice answered. "He is. What's the problem?"

Bella's reply reassured no one. "I'm not… one hundred percent… sure…"

"Is Edward all right? Carlisle!" Alice called. He appeared instantly, but Alice ploughed straight on with another question. "Why didn't he pick up the phone?"

"I'm not sure," Bella said again.

Alice was getting irritated. "Bella, what's going on? I just saw-" she cut herself off. Best not to tell a girl already prone to worrying too much that she had no future.

"What did you see?"

Alice didn't answer. Carlisle held his hand out for the phone.

"Here's Carlisle."

Carlisle was speaking immediately. "Bella, it's Carlisle. What's going on?"

"I… I'm a little worried about Edward." Everyone tensed. "Can vampires go into shock?"

"Has he been harmed?" Carlisle asked. No one breathed for a moment.

"No, no." We all exhaled. It would have been comical if it wasn't so serious. Esme sank back onto the sofa, relieved, until Bella spoke again. "Just taken by surprise."

I was beginning to get very annoyed. Why couldn't she just spit it out?

"I don't understand, Bella."

My sister-in-law's next words froze me all over again.

"I think… well, I think that… maybe… I might be… pregnant."

Impossible. It couldn't be. Unless she had cheated on Edward. But he would know, wouldn't he? Was it that dog's? Had Edward forgiven her?

Or was it… could it be Edward's?

No. Vampires couldn't have children. I was a testament to that. Esme and I, born to be mothers, killed to never have a child.

My view on being a vampire was closer to Edward's than Carlisle's. I didn't believe we lost our souls, since I didn't believe in souls in the first place, but I did believe it was a fate that no one should have. When I had brought Emmett to Carlisle, the guilt I had felt was unbelievable. It took years for him to convince me that he only felt gratitude. Edward's initial refusal to change Bella had only brought back that guilt. Did that mean he loved her more than I loved Emmett? I had never told him, but I knew Edward had heard my thoughts on the matter, and he knew that this was a huge part of the reason I couldn't accept Bella. I was grateful that my brother had never told Bella that.

While Carlisle spoke to Bella about her symptoms, I frantically re-evaluated everything I had ever held to be true about vampires and children. I had never questioned that vampires were, without exception, infertile. Yet the dates of Bella's menstrual cycle suggested it had to be Edward's child. So it seemed that it was only the women who were unable to bear children. No menstrual cycle, no hormones, no change. Ever. But men… when they were frozen, most likely everything froze with them. You could almost compare them to a sperm bank. Except we knew that every bodily liquid was replaced by venom, and presumably that included semen. What effect would that have? Would that alter the baby's development? Judging by Bella's accelerated pregnancy, it did.

Even while my mind was rationalising the science behind this impossible situation, my emotions were going wild as they had not done since I was a newborn. First, the injustice of it struck at my heart like a flaming sword. Vampire women, with all their maternal instincts remaining intact were infertile while men were not. Next, jealousy. Bella had always had what I wanted, and now she had this too! The anger followed on from the jealousy. It simply wasn't fair. Bella didn't deserve this. Then, though, I began to wonder how it would feel when the child was born.

The child. My niece or nephew. Family. Even though it wouldn't be my child, it would be living in my house, with my family. With me. In a sense, I would finally have a child.

Suddenly, I felt a rush of warmth, joy, happiness, overwhelming ecstasy, and I was staggered to find that this was the strongest emotion of all. I was flying, until my cursedly perfect hearing dragged me firmly back down to earth, and through to hell.

Carlisle was speaking to Edward now. "… I'm sorry, Edward, but I didn't know to warn you. Even the Volturi have never experienced this, I think. I'm afraid I don't know anything about how the foetus will develop. I don't know what it will be or even if it will survive, though the accelerated pregnancy suggests that it will be strong enough."

"And Bella?" Edward asked, his tone eerily subdued.

"I'm sorry, son, I don't know whether she could make it either. It's a huge risk, allowing the pregnancy to develop any further. If the foetus is too strong for her, she could die. I suggest you terminate the pregnancy as soon as possible."

Terminate? Was Carlisle seriously suggesting that the baby be aborted? Murdered? No. They couldn't.

But they could.

Carlisle always said that he had never taken a human life, when asked, but now I wondered if that was true. How many children had he killed before they could be allowed to live? How many babies had died at his hands over his centuries of work? And how easily would he slaughter his own grandchild?

Barely a second had passed as I thought this through. Then I heard Edward say, "Yes. Yes I will."

He had agreed to murder his own son or daughter. That was one of the rare times that I agreed with Edward. Not over the abortion, but a belief he had long held to be truth, something I had always fervently disagreed with until this moment.

He was a monster.

Carlisle put the phone down, and breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to head up to his study, presumably to prepare the sacrificial room, but I stood abruptly.

"You're a murderer."

Carlisle's face twisted in pain, but I didn't let him answer. "This child will be unique! The only one of its kind! The only possibility any of us will ever have to introduce a new generation! Our niece or nephew, your grandchild Carlisle! An innocent child! And you're going to kill it! I don't care what you say about preserving human life, this is murder!"

I was shaking with rage. Esme made to get up and put a hand on my arm, but I wheeled and turned on her.

"Esme, you've made do with us for all these years! Are you going to take this away from your children? How can you condone this? Don't you dare, Jasper!" I added, snapping at my brother who backed away with his hands up. The wall of calm which had been threatening to smother me vanished.

Esme looked almost scared at my volatility. "Rosalie, darling, normally I wouldn't. But this isn't our choice to make. It's Edward's and Bella's, Rose." Her tone was soft and beseeching.

I snatched at her words, scrambling for more points. "Bella's choice? And has anyone asked her what she thinks about murdering her child?" I carried on before Carlisle could interrupt. "You didn't ask her that. And we all heard what Edward said: 'Yes, I will.' He hasn't asked Bella about this!"

Alice was the next to join the fight against me. "Rose, you know Bella's never wanted to be a mother. If this threatens to take her away from Edward, she'll choose him." I could see that I was fighting a losing battle. Alice continued, "She would never hurt him. If Carlisle is right and this could kill her, she knows it would kill him in the same stroke, and Bella would never do that."

I could hear the double meaning behind her words; whether it was intentional or not, I didn't know. She was asking me if I cared that it would kill them both. But I was desperate, and I knew that if it got me a child I would do anything.

Emmett moved from behind me to put an arm round my shoulders. I looked at him, the man I loved with the face that reminded me of my best friend's baby, and I asked myself: if I were in Bella's position, would I still keep the baby? Even if I knew I could die? Even if I knew it would hurt Emmett? Even if it could kill him?

I didn't even have to decide. Of course I would.

"You don't understand, Alice," I said, and my voice was quieter now. "You don't know what it's like to have that potential, and then to have it snatched away from you."

It was a harsh blow, to bring up Alice's painful and forgotten past, but she didn't quail. "Maybe I don't," she replied calmly. "But I do know Bella."

I looked from one face to another, each pair of golden eyes set firmly against me. I stared at the murderers. My family gazed back. "Emmett?" I finally asked, my voice pleading now. "You understand, don't you? You agree with me?"

My husband paused.

I didn't give him a chance to answer. I darted for the door and ran out into the forest, vaulted over the river, and disappeared into the trees. I didn't go far. Just far enough that my family wouldn't hear me crying.

It was irrational. I had known for seventy years or so that I could never be a mother, never have a child. I had accepted it, or so I thought, maybe fifty years ago. And yet the smallest thing had the power to bring back the grief I felt for the children I had never lost. When I first heard that Edward was in love with a human girl, when she asked to be changed, when they married, when they had their honeymoon. But also when I saw a toddler in a park, a baby in a pram, when I heard children's laughter, a child crying… anything and everything provoked the grief that was as familiar to me as my thirst. The news of this impossible pregnancy hit me as hard as when Carlisle had explained my loss for the first time. It only compounded the pain that this was Bella, and she had decided that her child could not live.

For an hour I sat there, weeping quietly to myself, bemoaning my dry eyes, curled up in a foetal position as if I were the poor, doomed child myself. None of my family came to look for me. Too busy preparing to murder an innocent baby, no doubt. Or maybe they knew that they couldn't comfort me. I was just beginning to consider returning to the house – after all, there was nothing I could do – when my phone rang shrilly, cutting into the soft sounds of my shaking sobs. I sat up, pulling it out and staring at the number for a second. Why on earth was Edward calling me? To apologise? Strange, when he didn't know my reaction. Had he guessed?

I was tempted to ignore it, but my curiosity won over my anger. I flipped the phone open. "Hello?"

Bella's voice startled me. "Rosalie? It's Bella. Please. You have to help me."

My anger, so temporarily abated, surged to the surface; my tone was as cold as my empty womb. "Oh?" I asked bitterly. "And what do I have to help you with?" The funeral? If she bothered. "After everything I said to you, you still make the wrong decision, Bella!" I almost spat her name. "Will you ever make the right decision?" I went to end the call.

"Wait, Rosalie!"

Against my better judgement, I did. Her voice was so emotional, so desperate. She sounded… she sounded like me. "That wasn't my decision!" It's Edward who wants to… abort… our baby. I need your help to stop him!"

"I…"

So Alice had been wrong. Maybe she did know Bella better than me, but she didn't know what being a mother meant.

Only two minutes ago, I had been crying over yet another lost opportunity for a family in the true sense of the word, and I had blamed Bella. Of course I blamed Edward and Carlisle too, but Bella had the power to stop them if she truly wanted to. It had hurt me so deeply when Alice had said that Bella wouldn't decide to do that.

But she had.

If I helped her, if we formed an alliance, we could save this child. Emmett would be on my side at the slightest hint of a threat. Esme had said it was Bella's choice. Maybe even Carlisle would come round. Alice and Edward would form the main offense, I was sure, in order to save Bella's life. But if Alice couldn't see Bella, she would have no advance warning of this. Jasper would side with Alice, but he still had difficulty being near Bella for any length of time. Hopefully that would neutralise his involvement somewhat.

I realised that I was looking at this from a cold, military perspective, but in my defence, this was as much a war as fighting the newborns had been two months ago. Except this battle had much more incentive for me to fight for.

Bella was still waiting for my answer. "Oh, Bella, of course I'll help you. I'll stop them."

I heard her exhale in relief. "Thank you so much, Rosalie. You can't know how much this means to me."

Wrong. She couldn't know how much this meant to me. Seventy years of waiting… "I'll have to disagree with you there. I know exactly what this means. If I can't be a mother, thank you for letting me be an aunt." And if she did end up dead, I would be a mother. I hated myself for thinking it, but I couldn't entirely deny it. It was that thought more than anything that prompted me to continue. "In fact, you know what, Bella? Even though I know you'll still want to be changed after this, even though I'm insanely jealous of you, I'm glad you're my sister."

"Thank you," Bella whispered. I wondered if she knew what I was really thinking. No, of course not.

"I have to go," she hissed urgently. "Edward-"

"I'll be at the airport," I said, planning it out. Hopefully enough of them would want to go that I wouldn't be incongruous. Then I would protect Bella and her child – our child – from its father and grandfather. "We'll get through this, Bella."

I flipped the phone shut with a triumphant click, and burst into metaphorical tears all over again.

A/N: The next Missing Moment will be Edward's POV, from the journey home from Isle Esme to Jacob's visit at the beginning of Book 2. That's a lot of stuff, and I haven't finished it, so I'm going to apologise now for the loooong gap in between chapters 2 and 3.