The Twilight 25 Round 6

Tell Me About Mommy

by SqueakyZorro

Summary: Renesmee is insatiably curious, and one topic is definitely her favorite. The Cullens—and a few others in the know—recount their favorite memories of Bella for the child they love. Angsty fluff/fluffy angst (if there is such a thing).

~TT25R6~

Chapter 3

Prompt 20: parking lot

The brush pulling through my bronze curls should have felt soothing.

It was part of my evening routine: dinner with Grandma Esme (even though I still didn't really like human food very much), brushing and girl talk with Aunt Rosalie, stories with Daddy, and then sleep. Often Aunt Alice joined in the girl talk, but tonight she and Uncle Jasper were out somewhere. I normally enjoyed the pampering, but I just couldn't settle down.

My mind kept repeating what I'd overheard Jacob say. We'd spent most of the afternoon playing, and then he'd brought me home while he went on patrol with his pack. As he'd crossed the yard to the forest, where he'd phase, he'd exchanged a few words with Uncle Emmett, who was on his way into the house.

"Is Rose in there?" Emmett asked.

"Yeah. She homed in as soon as Ness walked in the door, but then she stalked off when I tried out my new blonde joke." Jacob laughed.

Emmett moaned. "Dude! Why'd you have to get her in a bad mood? I was gonna get lucky tonight."

I heard a wolfy snort. "She'll be fine. She'll be in the kitchen before you know it, and Ness'll soften her up."

"She can't resist that kid." I could picture Emmett's grin.

Jake laughed again. "Who can?"

"No one around here, that's for sure." There was a pause, and then Emmett continued. "Funny, if you'd asked me two years ago whether Rose would have anything to do with anything about Bella, I'd have said you were nuts."

"Yeah, she sure hated Bella's ass."

I was stunned. I'd barely spoken while Grandma Esme made my dinner. When Rosalie pulled me onto her lap for our nightly ritual, I let her, hoping it would relax me like usual. It wasn't working.

Had Rosalie really hated my mommy?

That couldn't be right.

All my memories of them together showed them to be close, and I knew Aunt Rosalie, more than anyone, had helped Mommy before I was born. She wasn't the type of person to fake being nice to someone she hated, so she couldn't have hated Mommy.

Could she?

But Jacob never lied. And Uncle Emmett seemed to think it, too. At least, he hadn't corrected Jacob.

I loved Aunt Rosalie more than anyone but Daddy and Jacob—and Mommy, even though she couldn't be with me. Was that right, if Aunt Rosalie didn't like her? Was I a bad daughter if I loved someone who hated her?

Should I even let her brush my hair, much less let myself enjoy it?

I was afraid I was going to cry, so I put my hand up to stop the brush and jumped down from Aunt Rosalie's lap.

"Nessie? What's wrong, honey?" I could hear the concern in her voice. I'd never behaved like this.

I stood in front of her, looking into her golden eyes. I couldn't pretend nothing was wrong, and I needed to know the truth.

"What did you think of Mommy when you first met her?" My voice trembled.

Aunt Rosalie sat back quickly, like I'd slapped her. "What?"

I sniffled. "Did you hate her?"

Her mouth firmed into a line, and her brows drew together in a frown. "No, of course I didn't hate her." She sighed. "But I didn't like her, either. Not at first, and not for a long time."

My lips quivered. "But...why?"

She tilted her head and looked at me. "It's a little hard to explain; I'm not sure you can understand."

"I'm really smart," I said.

A smile lit up her beautiful face, and she chuckled. "Yes, you certainly are. Okay, I guess I can try." She held our her arms. "Can you come back, though? I miss you."

I ran to her and climbed back in her lap. She hugged me close. After a moment, she began.

"The first time I saw your mommy was in the high school cafeteria. I noticed Edward looking at her, and I looked, too, to see what he found so interesting. And...I just couldn't see what it was about her. I didn't pay a lot of attention, and all I saw was an average human. When he said he couldn't hear her, I thought that's all it was—he was confused and fascinated because he'd never met anyone he couldn't read."

I frowned. "You couldn't see why he'd love her?"

She chuckled. "At that point, even your Daddy didn't know he'd love her. He just knew he couldn't stop watching her. Then, when he almost exposed us to stop that van...I was terrified."

I nodded. Daddy had told me about the van, and one of the first things I learned, when I was only days old, was to keep the secret.

"Then, when he realized he was falling for her, that she was his mate...well, I guess you'd think I'd be happy for him, but I was still scared."

That surprised me. "Really? Why would Mommy scare you? A human couldn't hurt you."

She smiled sadly. "Not physically, no. But if the Volturi found out that a vampire was getting that close to a human...the whole family could have been destroyed. Between what I'd heard from Jasper about how they handled the southern wars, and what I'd heard from the Denalis about their mother...well, I just wanted the Volturi as far away from us as possible."

I remembered what I'd learned from Uncle Jasper about vampire history: the southern newborn wars for territory and how the Volturi had gone in and destroyed scores of vampires, any who they'd suspected of involvement, and the immortal children, who'd been ruthlessly cut down along with their creators and, again, anyone suspected of involvement. I guessed I could understand why she'd fear them, but...

"Would they really have destroyed the whole family over one human? Even if Daddy loved her, and she loved him?"

She snorted. "They wouldn't have thought twice. The only ones who might have stood a chance at being recruited rather than destroyed would have been Edward and Alice, maybe Jasper. And Carlisle, I guess, since Aro likes him, and possibly Esme, if Aro wanted to keep Carlisle happy. But Emmett and me? We're not gifted, we're not old friends—we'd have been ash before you could snap your fingers."

I was shocked. I was so used to thinking of Aunt Rosalie as one of the strongest people I knew; it was strange to think that she could be scared, too.

"So you didn't hate her; you were just scared of what might happen?" I asked hesitantly.

"Pretty much," she answered with a hug. "And it wasn't just the Volturi. I didn't see how a human could really love one of us, and I was afraid she'd break your dad's heart. As much as he annoys me sometimes—" we shared a giggle—"I love him and didn't want to lose him. It wasn't until she saved him—while still a human—that I started to realize how much she loved him back."

That was another story I'd heard about, a little—Mommy going to save Daddy when Daddy thought she'd been killed, but I had a feeling there was more to it than I knew. Someday I wanted to know all of it, but just then, I was more curious about something else. "So why does Jake think you hated her?"

A fierce frown darkened her face. "What has that mutt been telling you? I have no idea where he gets any strange notions in that furry head."

I gave her a stern look. "Aunt Rosalie, what did we agree about Jacob?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed, muttering, "No calling him a mutt."

"That's right. You can be polite," I said firmly.

"It's not like he's here; I'm not being rude to his face..." I could tell she was faking a whine to make me laugh, and it was working. I had to try hard not to smile.

"No. No 'mutt.'" A giggle escaped. "But here, let me show you." I placed my hand on her cheek and replayed for her what I'd overheard.

For the first time, she looked troubled instead of mad, and her voice was uncertain. "Well, I can certainly see why that upset you, sweetie. I'm sorry you felt so bad."

Now I was worried again. "So...did you hate her?"

"No. I never hated her. I wasn't very nice to her for a while, but I never hated her. I'll tell you exactly what I told her: I envied her."

I was shocked. "You were jealous of her? And you two talked about this?"

She nodded.

"But why?"

A sad expression crossed her face. "Why does anyone envy someone else? I wanted what she had: I wanted to be human, with my life before me, a chance to have a happy life with children and grandchildren, growing old with the man I love. I didn't hate her, but I hated that she wanted to throw all of that away to be a vampire."

Confused, I said, "But Aunt Rose, she didn't want to be a vampire just because. She just wanted to be with Daddy. How could she grow old with the man she loved when he was never going to grow old at all? Being a vampire was the only way to stay with him."

She smiled wistfully. "That's almost exactly what she said. She just wanted your daddy. Nothing else mattered."

I thought about all of this for a few minutes, absently playing with a strand of Aunt Rose's hair as I leaned back against her.

"But in all of my memories of you together, you're friends. Did something happen?" I looked up to see her response.

Her smile was brilliant. "You happened. She asked for my help when she found she was carrying you. I was so honored she trusted me, especially when I hadn't been nice to her. When I saw how much she loved you, right from the start, I realized we had more in common than I'd thought. We got to know each other a lot better, and we became friends—no, more than that. We were sisters."

I nodded and said slowly, "You don't pretend, do you? If you hadn't really liked her..."

She agreed. "I would have been polite to my brother's mate, nothing more."

"So you really did love each other."

"Yes, we really did."

A comforting warmth spread through me. I couldn't really explain why I'd been so upset or why I now felt so reassured, but it was true. I snuggled in a bit closer, and her arms closed around me protectively.

"I'm so sorry you were upset, sweetie. But you can ask me anything. I won't lie to you."

"I know."

"Do you want me to brush your hair?"

"No. Let's just sit until it's time for Daddy's story."

I felt a little squeeze. "You bet, honey. That sounds perfect."

~TT25R6~

A/N: I'm getting some questions about what happened to Bella. All in good time, folks. *evil grin*

Oh, and for the curious, here's the blonde joke Jacob told Rosalie at the beginning of this chapter:

Q: Why do blondes smile during lightning storms?
A: They think they're having their picture taken.

Thanks so much for reading!