Chapter 3- When Alice Didn't See.

"Have you found a way round yet?" I asked Jasper smugly, leaning over the back of the sofa and looking at the rapidly scrolling lines of code on the laptop on his lap.

Jasper frowned at the screen intently. "You know I haven't…this one is killer." He typed rapidly for a moment and then swore softly and shook his head at me as I smirked at him. "Give me more time."

I laughed mockingly and dropped onto the sofa beside him. Jasper was trying to disable my most recently programmed computer virus and not having much luck.

"Don't gloat too soon Rosalie," Alice said cheerfully. "He's going to get it…now," she finished.

"Ha!" Jasper said triumphantly, grinning at me. "Neutralised your threat, roseofjericho," he added, using my hacker name. "You'll have to do better than that."

He shut the laptop and pushed it towards me, the bright red Hazard tape that was stuck all over it contrasting sharply with the white sofa. Ever since Emmett had carelessly used my laptop once and nearly released a computer virus that would have disabled NASA, Carlisle insisted we had a dedicated computer for creating the viruses and challenging each other to disable them, and that we not leave it connected to the network.

"Better than that?" I exclaimed, offended. "It took you eleven hours, and that's a clear three and a half hours longer than it's ever taken me to break any of yours. Imagine how far it would have spread in that time! You cracked it much faster than a human would too, especially since you know my style so well by now…"

Jasper laughed. "Don't get all hot and bothered Rosalie! It's a killer virus, I'm sure it…" Mid-sentence his words cut out and in one fluid movement he was over by Alice's side, staring intently down into her face. "Alice, what is it?"

Alice was staring blankly ahead of her, lost in a vision, but something about her emotions had triggered Jasper's protectiveness and I felt fingers of unease running up and down my spine. Even Emmett looked up from playing Halo at the sudden chill feeling of fear in the room.

Several long minutes passed before Alice's eyelashes fluttered and she looked up at Jasper in confusion. "It doesn't make any sense…" she murmured.

"What did you see?" I asked sharply, unable to bear the suspense.

"I don't know…" Alice said distractedly, flipping her cell phone out of her pocket and punching in a number. All of listened to it ring at the other end, waiting to hear who would answer.

Just as I thought no one was going to answer I heard a familiar voice, but one that did nothing to settle my growing conviction that something was very wrong. The soft, high voice of Bella Swan. "Hi Alice."

"Bella?" Alice's tone was a mix of relief and surprise, and I guessed that she had intended to call Edward. "Bella, are you okay?"

"Yeah…um, is Carlisle there?" Bella's voice sounded more uncertain than ever.

"He is. What's the problem?"

"I'm not…one hundred percent…sure…"

I rose to my feet and moved with vampire speed to the study, where Carlisle was reading his most recent medical journal. "Problem," I said briefly, and without a word he followed me back to the living room, where Alice spoke his name and handed him the phone.

"Bella, it's Carlisle. What's going on?" Carlisle sounded calm and relaxed.

"I'm a little worried about Edward….Can vampires go in to shock?"

"Has he been harmed?" Carlisle demanded, and at his urgent tone Emmett dropped the game controller and silently came to stand beside me, his fingers curling in my hair as we waited for Bella's answer.

"No, no," Bella said hastily. "Just…taken by surprise."

"I don't understand, Bella," Carlisle said tensely.

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

Pregnant. The word, coming faintly down through the phone from Bella, had the impact of thunder as it echoed through the room. Pregnant.

No. No. No. NO!

My eyes were fixed on Carlisle. I wasn't even aware that I was moving until Emmett's arms wrapped around me and he pulled me against him, but for once the familiar and beloved feel of him did nothing to comfort me. Unlike the rest of us, staring at Carlisle, Emmett's golden eyes were focussed on nothing but me.

"When was the first day of your last menstrual cycle?" Carlisle asked.

"Sixteen days before the wedding."

I did the math, and felt my world beginning to shatter as Bella's next words came to me, in response to Carlisle asking how she felt. "Weird. This is going to sound crazy- look, I know it's way too early for any of this. Maybe I am crazy. But I'm having bizarre dreams and eating all the time and crying and throwing up and…and…I swear something moved inside me just now."

I couldn't listen to any more. Not when the words cut like knives, deep into the never healed wounds of my most long held sorrows and brought all that agony back to the surface. No. This can't be happening. It can't be. Bella Swan...she can't have THIS too! Shoving free of Emmett's embrace I turned and ran before the rising tide of rage exploded outward in destruction.

"Rosa baby, stop! Please!" I heard the steady drumming of Emmett's feet as he ran behind me and I heard the note of loving desperation in his voice but I didn't respond. I could feel nothing but hurt so deep and rage so blinding that there was no room in my heart for anything else, not even my Emmett.

It was the smell of wolf as I hit the Quileute border all too soon that made me stop, skidding to a halt and turning, wild-eyed, to face Emmett. He stood back from me, hands raised, and in his eyes I saw nothing but love and grief as he looked at me.

"Rosalie, angel girl…"

"NO!" I snarled savagely. "NO Emmett, you can't say anything to make this better, you can't…" Words failed me and for a moment I just stood there and screamed.

"Oh, sweet Christ…my girl, my Rosa…" Risking my wrath Emmett crossed the distance between us with a bound and took me in his arms. He held me close while I screamed and struggled and raged against him, until at last I slumped in his arms for a moment with the lament of a soul destroyed as he kissed my face and crooned to me, "Oh, beautiful angel girl please don't do this…I can't…I love you, I love you…I'm here with you…"

"It's not fair Emmett," I choked out, knowing I sounded like a child and hating myself, but not having words to express how deep this torment went. "She has everything I wanted and she doesn't even care, she doesn't give a fuck about any of it and is going to throw it all away…but now she is going to have that too? Bella Swan and goddamn fucking Edward get to have a baby?"

"We don't know that yet," Emmett offered feebly.

"Bella's an idiot, but she's not stupid!" I shouted. "If what she says is true, then there's no other explanation!" I was shaking with fury as I pushed Emmett away, half afraid I would turn on him as my hands clenched into fists.

"But it's not possible," Emmett said incredulously. "It can't be…"

"How do we know if it's possible or not?" I snarled. "Has there ever been a vampire male in history as uptight and as repressed as Edward who could have sex with a human and not kill them outright? Has there ever been anyone as moronic enough as Edward to want to?"

"But Carlisle said…" Emmett ran his hands through his hair, looking dazed. "When I asked him, he said there was no way…"

I narrowed my eyes. "You asked Carlisle about having a child?"

Emmett's attention focussed back on my face, and the sorrow there nearly brought me to my knees.

"Of course I asked him!" he exclaimed. "Jesus Rosalie, when having a baby is all you've ever wanted…you think I didn't ask Carlisle or do damn near anything else I could think of to find out if there was even a chance?"

"I didn't know that," I said numbly.

Emmett shook his head wearily. "Well, there didn't seem any point in talking about it since I never found anything that made it seem like we had any options at all. Stories and fantasies and legends…nothing real." He looked at me and shrugged helplessly. "I tried baby. You know I would do anything…"

"I know," I moved into his arms and rested my head against his chest, feeling the way our bodies automatically adjusted to fit together in that familiar way. "I know you would Emmett." How can I have been so lucky as to find you? I clung to that thought as tendrils of bitter jealousy climbed and curled about my heart, budding their dark flowers of pain.

Bella was pregnant. She, who had every choice and opportunity of humanity at her fingertips and was going to throw it all away, had somehow managed to defy science and sense to get pregnant with a vampire's seed. And now she was going to have a baby, Edward's baby, and I would have no choice but to watch as she got everything I had ever dreamed of for myself. I would see her grow and change and birth a baby, she would become a mother and she and Edward and the child would be their own little family…all those things that I had wanted so fiercely and had found so impossible to let go of without bitterness and a ruthless, unrelenting grief. I could not stop the cry of wretchedness that fought its way out of me.

Emmett was like the rock he had always been, standing steady in the face of my tempestuous storms, and once again he held me together as the intensity of emotion I felt threatened to tear me apart. The big, solid body I worshipped, the amber eyes that looked at me with nothing but an enduring love and belief in what I was, the steadfast heart that had belonged to me since the moment I found him bleeding in the forest…he laid it all at my feet again to tell me that he loved me, and he would always be there for me.

He waited until I was still and quiet and composed before he spoke. "We should go back. Maybe Carlisle knows more…or maybe Alice has seen what's going to happen."

I nodded wordlessly and he laced his fingers through mine as he tugged me back in the direction of home. "Whatever happens," Emmett said softly, "We will be okay. You and I, Rosa-girl…we'll be together and we'll be okay." I didn't know who he was trying to convince, me or himself, and I said nothing as his fingers tightened convulsively and our twin scars pressed together as he repeated his words. "We'll be okay."

Back at the house Carlisle, Esme, Alice and Jasper were all seated in the living room. Not talking, not moving, just sitting and waiting. Esme half rose as she saw me, her eyes creased with concern, but I met her look with a remote, emotionless expression and she silently resumed her seat.

"What's going on then?" Emmett asked. "You think Bella really is pregnant?"

"It seems likely," Carlisle's said tonelessly. "I would not have thought it possible, but…they're on their way home. We'll know more when they get here."

Emmett glanced over at Alice. "What's going on? You losing your touch pipsqueak?" he said lightly, trying to induce some levity with his teasing. "What does your crystal ball tell us is happening?"

"I can't see," Alice said flatly. "That's what I saw- or didn't see- earlier and why I called Edward. Bella just blurred right out of the future and I thought…well, never mind. She's clearly still alive, but no matter what I do I can't see her…"

My eyes met Emmett's in mutual shock. We were so used to Alice's visions guiding our lives that her blindness came close to inducing terror.

"What about Edward?" I asked slowly. "What about the…the baby?"

"I can't see him properly either!" Alice said in frustration. "It's just flickers, never more than a moment or two ahead and it all changes so rapidly! I just don't know!" Jasper put a soothing hand over hers, and she smiled at him a little forlornly before she swung back to face me, her eyes hard. "As for the…thing…I have no idea."

Baby. I thought silently, the knife twisting in my heart. It's a baby.

Emmett shook his head, bemused. "So what now?" he asked the room in general.

Carlisle's face was tight. "We wait until they get home, and I can examine Bella and see what we're dealing with. I'm having an ultrasound scanner and various other pieces of medical equipment and drugs overnighted so we'll be prepared for…whatever we have to do."

"But it's just a baby," Emmett said uncertainly. "I mean, if Bella's pregnant, she's gonna just get big and have a baby…right?"

"It's not a baby," Alice said harshly.

"We don't know," Carlisle said impassively. "We don't know yet what we're dealing with. It's a half human, half vampire hybrid being gestated by a human and that's unheard of. There is no precedent here as far as we know, and we have no idea at all what we're going to be dealing with…or what we will have to do in response to it."