It's that time again! And I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all think of this chapter. I've never written in Rosalie's perspective before, and it was really fun. I hope I was able to capture her as a character, and I'd really like to know if you think I did.

I'm working on a new chapter already, and I'm honored by the response I've gotten for this story. I hope you all keep it up.

So without further ado!

Warning Signs

Rosalie

Even though it was well passed midnight, I was still more excited than I'd been in fifteen years. I knew very well that this baby Edward was bringing home was human, and I knew it wasn't his baby. But I was still looking forward to taking care of her. When Nessie had been born, I'd been virtually beside myself trying to cope with the preparations for her birth. The circumstances of Bella's pregnancy had shocked everyone, but she'd called me to help her, and the thought of being there for her and her baby had filled me with the deepest desire I'd ever had since before I'd become a vampire. The desire to be a mother.

I barely had to drag Emmett out of the brownstone house we were staying at in the city to go shopping. He was excited about having a new baby coming into the house, and it didn't seem to bother him that this baby had the potential to drive Bella over the edge with her scent. I was worried about how Bella would be able to resist something like that after fifteen short years as a vampire. I remembered when I'd found Emmett being attacked by a bear. Blood had been everywhere, and I'd felt so tempted to taste his blood. But he'd reminded me so much of Vera's little boy Henry, and I'd wanted to control myself enough to get him to Carlisle. I'd wanted him to live, no matter how it was necessary. I wondered if Bella would want that for this baby.

Carlisle, being the forward-thinking person he'd always been, had called ahead to Macy's to pull a few favors with one of the managers who'd apparently owed him a favor. It took Emmett and I only a few minutes to arrive there, and a petite redhead was waiting at the entrance for us. She smiled when she saw us, blushing when Emmett smiled at her and leading us into the store as it set partially lit. It was a nice way to shop, actually. No humans around to stare at us, and no screaming children to annoy me while I was trying to concentrate.

"Mr. Cullen is a very valued customer," the redhead, whose name appeared to Shannon, commented as we walked through the store toward the baby department. "We're happy to accommodate him for any reason. So if you have any problems finding anything, please don't hesitate to call for one of us."

"How many associates are here now?" I asked, gazing around and knowing instantly that there were three woman and two men on the several floors above us.

"There's me, Isabel, and Amanda here for you and two security guards for policy purposes, but Mr. Whitmore assured them there shouldn't be a problem. Please follow me this way."

As soon as we were in the area we needed, Shannon left us to our browsing, and I started looking at everything I could since I knew we didn't have very long to find enough things to last until Edward and Bella were able to do it themselves.

"This sure is gonna be different from when Nessie was a baby," Emmett said as we looked through jumpers and little socks. "She grew so fast. This little baby's gonna be a baby for a lot longer than Nessie."

"Yes, she will," I agreed, picking up a little package of socks and feeling like I was looking for clothes for my own baby even though that was absurd. Though I'd been engaged to be married, I'd never really had the chance to have a child of my own even though I'd always wanted one.

I moved on to where the bodysuits were laid out, and I picked up several of those. It was going to be getting colder, and we would need to keep the baby warm. She would need lots of socks and caps for her head. I wondered if she would need mittens for her hands. Newborn babies were prone to scratching themselves with their fingernails, and normally, that wouldn't be a problem, even in a house full of vampires. But this particular baby needed to stay free of any cuts or scrapes. For Bella's sake.

"What do you think she'll be like when she grows up?" Emmett asked, holding everything I was handing him with an adorable smile on his face. "We'll have to wait a long time before then."

"I don't know what she'll be like," I stated, gazing around the area and seeing a blond less than twenty-five meters away. She was watching us, but she wasn't interfering so I wasn't worried about her.

"Aren't you a little curious?" he pressed.

I sighed softly, laying another set of clothes on top of what I'd already picked up. "Of course I'm curious," I admitted. "I couldn't be more curious about her. I can't wait for her to get to the house where we can spoil her and lavish attention on her just like we did with Nessie. But this baby's going to be different. We're going to have to be so much more careful with her than we were with Nessie. She'll be like . . . a porcelain doll, Emmett."

"Well, I know that," he said obviously. "But we all know how to be gentle, don't we? And it's not like we've never had a human in the house before. Bella was human when we met her, remember?"

I grinned at him, nudging him playfully and moving around to another display. "I remember," I acknowledge.

After I was sure we had plenty of clothes for the baby, Emmett and I moved on to the accessories to find blankets, towels and a carrier for the baby. Even though we didn't usually go out of town in the vehicles we kept near the house, I knew we would be taking the baby for walks. Babies needed fresh air, and since we would have to do that on cloudy days, we would need a stroller and maybe even a car seat. Emmett found a really cute bag, and we moved through the store with as much ease as we would if we were shopping for ourselves. And as soon as we had enough things for the baby to wear and have, I decided it was time to look for diapers and formula. After all, she would need to be fed, and unlike Nessie, this baby would need to be fed human food all the time.

It was nearly four in the morning before I felt like we'd purchased enough things for the new baby, and I made sure to thank all the sales' girls for their help even though they didn't really do anything but watch me and Emmett from a distance. Since we'd driven from the house, I asked for the clothes and everything to be packed nice and tight so it would fit in the trunk of my car. Ours was the only car in the whole of the parking lot, and even though we were moving into the wee hours of the morning, I could see it was going to be a rather pleasant day.

I couldn't read the thoughts of the women who watched us leave the store, but I could see by the annoyed looks on their faces that they hadn't enjoyed getting dragged out of bed to assist a couple of young-looking "rich kids" out shopping for a newborn baby. I didn't care one way or another. Whatever they thought of us, they'd been told to be discreet, and I knew it would cost them their jobs if they talked to anyone about it. I knew our privacy would remain intact, and I also knew I would be shopping somewhere else the next time I felt the desire to do so.

The stars were still out when we made it to my car and packed everything into the trunk, getting in together and then pulling out of the parking space to leave while the streets were still relatively deserted. Since the guard station leading to the outside street was currently unattended, the gate was up, and I pulled out onto the street without a backward glance to get back to the house. It was easy to relax and watch for all the traffic lights without worrying too much about . . . well, traffic, and as I pulled up the first one, I looked up at the sky which was still dark blue with the little twinkles of bright light dotted around to make shapes.

Most of these shapes, I knew just by looking at them every night for the last eighty years of my vampire life. I recognized several constellations and noticed several bright stars over several light-years away that weren't even visible to the human eye. But some of the stars were brighter than others for no real reason. And I'd never noticed them before. It was strange.

"Green light, Rose," Emmett stated, bringing my attention to the street light.

I moved forward without thinking, crossing the intersection and gauging the distance between there and the next traffic light before I looked up again. Still there, and even stranger.

"What is it?" Emmett asked, looking up with me.

I pulled up to the next light and turned right. "The stars," I said. "They're strange."

"They look like stars to me," he commented.

"Well, I've been looking at them for nearly 86 years, and I can see them different tonight than they've ever been."

"Well, I can see Ursa Major up top, and it looks like it's going to be a wet winter," he joked, and I laughed softly.

"Emmett, you know that's an old wives tale," I commented.

"Well, somehow, those old wives always seem to be right about lots of things. So how do you know the sky's different now than it has been in eighty years?"

I pulled up to the last light before arriving at the house, and I stopped, looking up again between the buildings nearby. "That one there," I pointed to the bright star beneath Ursa Minor. "It's brighter now than it was last night. It shouldn't be, but it is, and I don't know why."

"I think you're overthinking it, Rose," he teased, and I pulled through the light to drive the two blocks until we arrived at the garage where our cars were all being kept.

I didn't say anything again until we were walking down the sidewalk to the house with our purchases. It was close to four-thirty now and still dark, but it was close enough to the start of dawn that a lot of stars should've faded by now. But that one was still bright as ever. It was just so strange.

I didn't know why, but something about that star was making me feel like something was wrong. I wasn't usually prone to these kinds of feelings, especially these days when everything was so near being perfect. Edward was usually the first one to feel any sense of dread with a place or person, and since we hadn't really been out in the public eye much, he hadn't really sensed anything. But I was feeling this now. Foreboding and warning about something happening in the future. It was so odd.

We made it to the house with a few moments of peace to spare, and Alice was waiting at the front door when we got there, holding it open for us with a big smile on her face. She scoured through our purchases before we had a chance to set them down, and she giggled at some of the things we'd bought, but I could tell by her tone of voice that she was happy with what we'd been able to find.

"Ooh, you bought the stroller!" she exclaimed. "I knew you would. Bella! Come look at everything! It's so adorable."

Jasper came in from the front parlor, gazing over everything as Alice laid it out and speaking softly. "She told me I wasn't to tease either of you for making a few odd choices in clothing or accessories," he told me with a deep grin imbedded in the left side of his face.

"I would love to see you do any better," I challenged, and Emmett chuckled.

"It was fun," he admitted. "And when the baby gets bigger, we get to do it all over again," he grinned as Bella came down the stairs slowly.

"Gosh, Rose, do you think you got enough?" she asked, moving to Alice's side as she still sifted through everything.

I looked at the little clothes and socks and towels, and I realized we were going to be needing a lot more. "No," I said, rather seriously, only to have her laugh along with Emmett and Jasper.

"This is all perfect," Alice said with a little bodysuit in front of her with little white stars over the fabric. I didn't remember picking it out, but then again, I had been going through a lot of it at a more than quick pace. "Bella, you can help me carry it upstairs. We'll have everything ready when Edward and Carlisle get here."

"I'll take all the formula into the kitchen," Emmett said, retrieving that bag and carrying it through the moderately sized dining room we still used for "family meetings" as Carlisle liked to call them.

"The play pen can stay down here," Alice said, handing it over to Jasper. "It should be a lot easier for you to put together. But I'll be watching you."

He smirked, taking the large box and moving back off into the front parlor to get started on that.

I separated the car seat, stroller and bouncer from the clothes, towels and diapers while Alice and Bella carried everything else up to the spare room that had since been designated the baby room for the time being. It was still larger than any normal sized room could be, and I was sure the baby would grow up there until she was old enough to decorate it herself. The thought of having another little baby in the house was a little overwhelming, but I knew we'd all adjust. We always did. I hoped Bella would be okay. I hoped that more than anything.

It only took me a few minutes to get the car seat, stroller and bouncer put together and placed in their designated spots. The car seat and stroller would obviously need to stay next to the front door, and I carried the bouncer into the kitchen were Emmett was moving aside dishes to make space for the bottles and formula. Once he was finished with that, he followed me back into the parlor where Jasper was currently attempting to put together the play pen. I could see the frustration on his face, and I took the instructions from him to see what he was doing wrong. He didn't seem to like that, but he didn't object.

Instead of taking the project away from him, I showed him where he'd messed up and allowed him to fix it, and Emmett helped him with the side guards before they both pulled it up to make it look like what it was supposed to look like. After that was finished, I moved upstairs to see how Alice was coming with the baby's room. I walked passed a window on the way and was instantly stopped by what I saw as yet another bright star shined where it wasn't supposed to be. This time it was a star between Cassiopeia and Cephus, and as far as I knew there wasn't supposed to be a bright star between those two constellations.

I started to move away, and just as I did, another star started shining bright just above Corona Borealis. And I knew something strange really was going on. I couldn't be sure exactly what, but there was something happening in the stars tonight that wasn't supposed to be happening, and even though I never really paid attention to such things, this caught my attention. I couldn't move away from that spot for several minutes, watching as several other stars began shining brighter than they should've been. It was a truly captivating experience, and I was witness to whatever was happening in the skies that night.

I thought about telling Carlisle, but surely, it wasn't something that important. They were just stars, and maybe all it meant was more were simply coming into my vision since I was paying closer attention to it now than I really had in a while. It was an interesting thing to say the least, but certainly not something to be up in arms about.

I left the window slowly then to climb the stairs to the new baby's room, thinking we were eventually going to have to give the baby a name if she was going to be living here with all of us. Certainly, we couldn't continue to call her "the baby."

Bella was folding little bodysuits and putting them in the drawers of the changing table we'd had in storage, and Alice was meticulously arranging outfits for the baby to wear, and I looked around for something to do before moving to Bella's side to help her. She smiled when she saw me, graciously stepping over a little so I could start folding.

"We need to talk about names," I said. "I know we're only really supposed to be keeping the baby until Children and Family services finds her father, but I think we all know how difficult that will be. And after six months, she can be adopted. So I think we should all come up with a name for her."

"What about Ashley?" Alice said. "That's a modern sounding name. She needs a modern name for these modern times."

"Alexandria," I said. "It's classic and still modern."

"Emma," Alice offered. "That's a traditional name."

"Elizabeth," Bella said certainly. "It was Edward's mother's name."

I looked at Alice, and she looked at me. "It's perfect," she said. "It's not too old and not too new-sounding. And I think Edward would really like that."

I eased my arm around Bella, and she smiled again. It was good that she was getting involved. The more she interacted with the baby, the easier it would be for her to build up a tolerance for her scent. I wanted Bella to be a part of this baby's life. Now that we'd decided on a name, the only thing left to do was welcome her into our home.

And there we have it! More clues. I wonder if anyone will pick up on all of it. ;-)

All the constellation names are real, and you can look them up. I've always had a thing for star-gazing, and I especially like doing it in the winter.

Next up is a surprise, also someone I've never done before, and I'll let you guess who it might be until I post again.

Catch you later! And thanks to everyone who's reviewed and put it on your alerts and faves! You all deserve cookies!