We sat in the sitting room. Carlisle and Esme were watching the TV. Emmett, Jasper and I were sitting looking at everything, yet nothing in particular. Alice was curled up at Esme's feet, head in her knees, deep in thought.
Since Alice had told us what she had seen, no one had spoke.
"It could be a fluke, couldn't it?" Emmett asked, "I mean, we know that Alice's vision is only temporary." We all looked at him, "What?" He asked.
"Emmett," Alice said, wearily, "Don't you understand? I've never had a vision so clear. It's practically set in stone." We all fell silent again.
"But…" Emmett began again. I put a hand on his hand and looked at him. He stopped, and looked down at his feet.
"We'll just have to wait." Carlisle said. So we did.
Two hours later Carlisle's cell phone rang. He stood up and paced to the windows. Everyone else stood up as well.
"Hello?" Carlisle said. We could hear Bella's voice at the other end.
"How long ago was your menstrual cycle?" Carlisle asked. We all groaned, Alice's vision had been correct. Everything was set in stone. Then Bella's voice stopped and we could now hear Edward.
"I don't know Edward," Carlisle spoke, "There has never been a case like yours before. It is possible." Edward said something in reply.
"Yes, yes," Carlisle murmured, walking further away, "Yes, bring her here as soon as possible. I'll call Charlie and think up a reasonable excuse. Yes, goodbye Edward." The line went dead and Carlisle shut his phone. Turning to face us, he looked grim. He nodded once and we all knew. Nothing could save us now.
Mostly we stayed in the sitting room. Now and again one of us went to the toilet, went for a quick hunt, or even just stretched our legs. But time seemed to drag on so slowly, I thought it had stopped altogether.
Carlisle spent a lot of time reading. Reading books. Medical books. Medical vampire books. But came up with nothing. The pile at his side was slowly getting higher and higher. It almost reached the top of the sofa. There was nothing in those books about a vampire/human birth. Nothing that could help us at all.
Alice kept having visions. Visions that lasted only a few seconds but were very brief and clear. A baby, almost perfect in every way. But it was nothing like we had come across before. A vampire yet, it had a heartbeat. No one could explain it and Alice could not see anymore.
Suddenly there was the sound of a car coming up the drive. We all stood up and ran to the door. When we reached it, Edward was out of the car, carrying Bella, who was limp in his arms.
"Carlisle," Edward managed to say, "Help…"