Thanks to nattylovesjordy for a very helpful beta and my wife for her read, too.

This story will change point-of-view a few times (probably 5 POVs total). This is the first switch.

Part II: Bella's Story

The day started the same as days had been starting for about a month now. I didn't start by waking up in a bed, as I had less than a year ago. I did start the day in a bed, with an awakening of sorts. But it was an awakening into awareness that night was passing and morning was upon us.

I say 'us', because I was not alone in my bed. Edward was there with me, where he belonged. I hated the morning, because it meant that another night of passion was at an end. We had only been together like this a few months, Edward and I. And we had lost too many of those nights. It was also a wrench to let go of the night.

I loved the mornings, though, because it means our darling daughter would be awake. I flew into my museum-sized closet and followed my nose to jeans and a cotton t-shirt, my preferred style of clothing. Such normal wear was hard to find in my closet, where one-of-a-kind dresses were the norm. But I hadn't stocked my closet.

Dressing quickly, Edward and I left our private cottage and ran the short distance to the main house. We ran for the sheer joy of running, and we ran because we were, as usual, late in leaving each other's private company.

Renesmee waited at the door to the main Cullen house, with barely-contained impatience. Barely-contained was a huge improvement and remarkable for a child only a few months old. But Renesmee was not a normal child. She was the rare result of a union between a male vampire and a human female.

I was still human when I bore her. Edward and I were only recently married, and I went from Isabella Swan, recent high-school graduate, to Isabella Cullen, human wife to a vampire I loved with all my heart and soul.

As happens after weddings, I was soon pregnant. It's a long story, but Renesmee was born a few weeks later. To save my life, Edward helped me on a journey I had been anxious to complete. I became a vampire.

Behind Renesmee, Rosalie stood, taking pictures. Rosalie was sort of an adopted step-sister. Other than Renesmee's biological linkage to Edward and I, all the Cullens were family by choice and not be genetics. Rosalie adored Renesmee and hardly left her side.

I ignored Rose, however, and scooped my daughter up in my arms. Renesmee lit my days like Edward lit my nights. She now appeared to be about four years old, though her true age was only a few months. We now knew, however, that her maturity would stabilize in a few years and she would join us in a state of unchanging immortality.

While her physical growth was slowing, her mental growth continued to astound us all. I feared that she would pass me in learning any day. I was only a high-school graduate, having put off college for the reasons above. Oh, and to help my new family prevent a terrible vampire-on-vampire war. So it was no surprise that Renesmee already seemed to know as much as I did.

The camera clicked again and again. A baby in the house was an event to be captured, since vampire females can never bear children. Every day Rose took hundreds of photographs and every night she arranged them. Renesmee would not lack for albums of her brief childhood.

Unfortunately, Rose was so intent on this task that her husband Emmett was feeling quite out of sorts. Emmett had left about a week ago, taking Jasper, another adopted brother-in-law, with him. The two would be gone for a month, to the Amazon. They were going not only to escape parenthood but to hunt the giant snakes that inhabited the region.

Their interest in the large snakes is explained by the fact that the Cullens are a family of vampires who do not hunt humans. We jokingly refer to ourselves as 'vegetarian vampires'. Even though we are perfectly designed to hunt humans – super-fast, super-strong, hard as rock, mesmerizing breath, heightened senses, venom, razor-sharp teeth, etc. – we recognize the value of human life and work to preserve it whenever possible. It makes us outcasts in the vampire world.

Carlisle was the first vegetarian vampire and the founder of the Cullen family. He was our adopted father figure. With Emmett and Jasper gone, he was also the only male in the house other than Edward. Since he worked long shifts at the hospital, he was gone a lot, too. That meant lots of female vampires around.

Besides Rosalie, there was Alice, Jasper's wife. Alice was as girlie as I wasn't, as evidenced by her stocking of my closet and my reaction to it. She loved dressing up in fancy clothes, dressing others up, and making every event as big as possible. She had a willing ally in Renesmee, who loved changing clothes. This provided even more fodder for Rose's ever-present camera.

I stayed out of such nonsense myself, as did Esme, Carlisle's mate and my adopted mother. I preferred to read to my daughter or play music to her, though I wasn't really very good. Esme took on much of the practical tutoring – cooking, sewing, cleaning, responsibility, and such. It was a nice arrangement that left me with enough free time to hunt, to prepare for college in a year, and to be with Edward.

Unfortunately, today was not quite my normal day of walking from bliss to bliss. Oh, no. Christmas was coming up and Alice had decreed that we would be having the 'biggest Christmas ever.' Having heard of some of her earlier Christmas parties, that seemed impossible, but apparently the presence of two new members in the family was spurring her to never-before-seen heights.

Now, the fact that it was already late January also would seem to pose a problem to Christmas coming soon. The date barely fazed Alice, however, who stated that "Two twenty-five looks enough like twelve twenty-five for everybody." Thus, it came to pass that our Christmas party was scheduled for February 25th. Nobody dared argue with Alice when it came to parties.

My only job was to buy Christmas presents for everyone. This was a bigger challenge than it might appear on the surface. I used to have trouble buying presents for my human friends and family. Trying to find something that suited them but that they hadn't already purchased themselves was always hard.

It was a million times harder with a vampire family. Not only had they all lived for a very long time, thereby accumulating a ton of stuff, but they also had access to nearly unlimited wealth.

I had my work cut out for me.

Today, Edward and I would be trying to tackle one of the trickiest people on my list – Alice. Alice complicated everything even further by being able to see the future. Once a person made up his or her mind about something, Alice could see the effects of that decision before they happened.

Yeah, that made buying her a surprise present so easy! How was I supposed to buy her a present, wrap it, and put it under the tree without her seeing my decision? It seemed impossible.

But what really made me depressed was what she'd asked for. Clothes. She already had a closet bigger than my first house filled with things she'd never worn. And she knew how hopeless I was when it came to fashion.

At least it was better than facing death. Even if only by a little bit.

I didn't need any breakfast. Edward and I had hunted just yesterday, to prepare for today. This was also my first planned day-long expedition into the human world as a vampire. I'd been around humans a number of times, but only in very controlled circumstances. Normally, newborn vampires are too unpredictable, too thirsty, and too dangerous to send near any humans. Not me.

The concern about newborn vampires wasn't just because of our vegetarian tendencies. About the only law vampires really observed was the necessity of keeping our existence secret. Newborns were generally bad at keeping their existence secret. The lust for human blood was too strong.

Before we left, though, I was going to spend some time with Renesmee, since we were going to be apart almost all day. Just last night, I had started reading Ready Freddy to her (she loves stories about human children so Rose had bought her about a thousand of them, literally. We had an entire 12-foot bookcase filled with children's books). We snuggled together on the couch and opened the book. I had just started to read when Alice came bounding down the stairs in a big hurry.

Even in a hurry, Alice always looked like she was dancing. Instead of a normal ballet or tango, though, this looked more like a mosh pit move – running and jumping at high speed.

It was only then that I noticed that Edward had already collected all the members of the family into the living room. I knew I should have been able to detect that, but I still tended to focus on one thing and get distracted by details instead of monitoring the major activities around me. Edward assured me I'd get better over time, though.

Esme spoke first. "What did you see this time?" With Alice's flair for the dramatic, it could have been nothing more than the circus coming to town.

"I'm not sure exactly. But I saw the Volturi slaughtering every one of us, while we were powerless to resist them. They incapacitated us while Bella's shield was still up, though, so I don't understand it."

"What changed? I thought they were going to let us be." Rosalie was indignant that anything would interrupt her only chance at motherhood, even surrogate motherhood.

"I don't know. I can't see it all. There are big holes and gaps, like multiple possibilities lead to that outcome." Alice sounded frustrated. I wondered if she was always this frustrated or if all the chaos I'd brought into their lives made things worse.

"Tell them everything." Edward said. Of course, he had already seen the entire vision. My Edward can read minds, which is another huge complication in the whole Christmas present thing. He couldn't read my mind, though, unless I worked very hard to let him. That was my shield that Alice had mentioned – a very handy little ability in itself.

"It's hard to put into words. I've never seen anything like it. A stunningly beautiful blond human woman was writhing in pain on the ground. I could tell she'd been bitten by a vampire and was becoming one of us."

Alice's eyes got this far-away look as she continued her tale. "The next part doesn't make sense, though. I watched this vision woman reach into an ankle sheath and draw a knife. Her suffering was almost visible, but her concentration was unbelievable. Somehow, she managed to pull the knife to her breast and plunge it into her heart." Alice looked up, then, catching each of our eyes.

"Of course, stopping her heart stopped the transformation. She died immediately."

We were all completely dumbfounded by the story. I am sure every one of us was reliving the pain of the venom-induced transformation from human to vampire. The torturous agony was beyond all-consuming. How could anyone act on their own behalf to stop it? It defied all logic.

Renesmee spoke then. She was still getting used to speaking instead of simply showing everyone what she wanted, using her talent. She could project her thoughts to anyone, by the simple act of touching them, but her gift was limited to communicating with one person at a time. "Two visions or one?"

I knew she was smart. She reached the core issue quickly, while the rest of us were still picturing the scene Alice had described.

"One. They are tied together. Only by saving the blond human can we prevent our own destruction."

Non-Twilight readers -- followable? Everybody, reviews appreciated.