Chapter 4: Are you ready for this?

I don't know anything about adoption centers. All that I know is what I've learned from books and movies, so please don't yell and scream at me if I get something wrong.

Bella's POV

I had gotten in Jasper's new SUV with Alice; Jasper was driving, and Emmett and Rosalie took Rosalie's Convertible. The normal drive, for the normal human, from our Alaskan home to Olympia, Washington was a few hours, but with Jasper behind the wheel we got there in almost no time at all.

We walked up to the front desk. The lady that was sitting there wasn't the kind of person that you'd expect to be working at an adoption center. I expected a nun or a horrible looking person like the lady off of, Annie, but this lady didn't have a habit on her head or a cigar in her mouth. She was in a league of her own.

But this lady wasn't small, a dinosaur would be a good description, but she was around my height. Short and fat. A horrible combination. Though she seemed really energetic and excited that we were there; it was annoying. And all the makeup that she had on, she looked like a clown. Somehow it reminded me of Ms. Umbridge from Harry Potter. (We call our school principal Ms. Umbrige, she can never stop smiling.) I didn't like her from the moment I saw her. I kinda got this bad feeling, like she would do whatever she said to not let my brothers and sisters adopt babies.

"Hello! My name is Ms. Peck. Do you need any help?" The lady's name was Ms. Peck. Weird name, now every time I hear her name I'm going to think of Big Bird from Sesame Street.

She asked us what we were planning on doing; she thought that we might be a couple of kids who wanted to play with the children, but she didn't show any surprise when they told her that they wanted to adopt. All she asked was if they would go into her office so they could do some paperwork. They all agreed and went into her office.

I could still hear them perfectly, even through the cement that the wall was made out of. I heard a chair scrape against the tiled floor, and I could see, in my mind, Ms. Peck sitting down, none of my siblings would make that much noise. She asked them their names and was talking to them like they were eight, eighty-eight would be closer, but the pathetic human didn't know any better. I could hear her pen as she wrote down all of their names and ages. Their older ages of course, telling this woman that they were seventeen and eighteen wouldn't have helped.

Then I heard Ms. Peck say, "You said that you wanted to adopt. Why, may I ask, do you want to adopt children?"

Alice's voice came through the cement, "Well Ms. Peck, neither me or my sister in-law can have children, and we really want o raise a baby. So we've decided to adopt, and that will make us happy, and the poor child who might've been raised in an orphanage if we hadn't found them."

Ms. Peck seemed to ponder Alice's answer before deciding that it was good enough and moved on, "So Emmett," she was going for Emmett; he must've come off as big and dumb, yeah right, "How are you planning to support your child?"

Everyone else in the room knew that if they answered for him, then Ms. Peck would write down something like, "Emmett isn't that bright, probably couldn't support a child." (AN: that one was for EmmettCullensGirlfriend)

"I'm not planning," Emmett! How could you be so stupid? "I'm already doing it," Oh… "I have a very nice paying job that will allow me to see the baby everyday. Our home in Alaska is perfect for raising a child; he would have lots of space to play and grow. He would be raised with love and care from his entire family."

Dang. That answer was perfect. It would've sounded rehearsed if I hadn't known him so well; I hope that lady isn't writing anything nasty about him.

She asked a few more questions to all of them, "How are you going to establish a loving environment for the child?" "Are you financially able to care for them?" and questions like that.

These questions went on for a solid forty-five minutes before her last question, "Are you ready for this?"

This was the question that I had been wondering ever since they told us that they were going to adopt no matter what we said. Were they ready for this? They sometime got so wrapped up in each other that they forgot about everyone else. What's going to keep them from not doing that?

I got a vision of me with a bunch of kids running around asking questions like five year-olds. In my vision I was all alone having to deal with the kids by myself. I thought that Edward would've been in there but he really doesn't like children. I don't even like kids!

(AN: Bella didn't have a vision like the ones that Alice has, but remember in Eclipse when Bella sees how her future would end up if she had chosen Jake? This was a vision like that.)

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't even pay attention to their answer, and the next thing I knew they were all walking out of Ms. Peck's office. Ms. Peck was babbling on about the children, "They are so sweet, but some of the boys can get into a lot of trouble," I glanced at Emmett who was grinning, "Even one of the babies is starting to turn out like them. I feel sorry for when he grows up because I doubt anyone is going to adopt the poor dear…"

Alice came over and stood in front of me, "Did you hear all of those questions?" she said at vampire speed so Ms. Peck wouldn't overhear, "It was like she was trying to get us to say something's wrong."

"I heard," I said remembering the questions that she directed at Emmett, "I think that she thought that Emmett was… I don't know… like the weakest link or something."

Alice nodded and I stood up. Ms. Peck was walking out of the waiting room into a long hallway. It had no color whatsoever, unless you count white as a color. It reminded me of the hospital, with the lack of things to cheer you up and how boring it is. I feel sorry for anyone who has to grow up in this place, behind each room it smelled like Windex and other cleaning supplies. It was horrible to think that these kids could never get away from that smell. Then again, most of the people in this building were human, so it probably didn't bother them as much.

"So do you want to go into the boy's room or the girl's room?" Ms. Peck asked.

"Boy's!"

"Girl's!"

Emmett and Alice screamed almost at the same time, and from my supersensitive ears it sounded like an elephant stampede. The two started silently (to humans) arguing about which room to go into first.

"Would you mind if Alice and myself went into the girl's room, and Emmett and Rosalie went into the boy's room?" Jasper said, I could feel a little embarrassment coming from him, probably because his wife and brother just yelled boy/girl really loud.

Ms. Peck considered it and agreed, she said that she would go between rooms and answer all of their questions.

She followed Emmett and Rosalie into the room marked Boys. So I went with them too; I would love to be the one who really ticked this lady off. She couldn't do anything to me.

The room was almost exactly like the way that I thought that it would look; long rows of baby cribs with blue sheets. Except, when we walked in, all of the babies started crying. Rosalie loved kids and she immediately ran up to the two loudest babies and picked them up. Her cool skin must've soothed the babies because they quieted down almost instantly.

Even through all of the noise I could still hear Ms. Peck whisper, "Amazing. Why can't the other people who come in here do that?" I laughed to myself at her surprise.

"Bella!" huh? I suddenly snapped into attention, I hadn't been watching what was going on, "Come and help us," I looked over at Rosalie and Emmett; each of them had three of the babies in their hands.

I nodded and went to pick up some more of the crying children. But when I looked down at the crib that was closest to me, I noticed that the baby in it wasn't crying. That was weird, in a room full of crying infants this one hadn't made a noise.

I couldn't think about that for long because the babies who weren't being taken care of got louder. I picked up babies from some of the other cribs, and soon we had all of the children quiet.

"Well," Ms. Peck said, she had been no help at all, "I'm just going to check on your other friends. Okay?" she ran out of the door before any of us could say otherwise.

"Wow," Emmett said, "Crying gets on my nerves."

"But look how quickly we got them to quiet down," Rosalie was grinning ear to ear, getting all of these babies to shut up must have been fun for her or something.

I walked back over to the crib that held the one baby who had been quiet, and the second I looked at him; he started wailing. Rosalie ran vampire fast over to the crib and held the baby to calm him down before the other kids started screaming too.

I looked at the clipboard that I noticed hanging on each crib. I read the paper that was on it.

This child, like all of the others will be demanding. All children are.

I read this first line and thought that the whole thing was just a stupid lecture about how difficult it is raising a child. But as I continued reading I saw that there were other things.

Child's name: Alexander Samuel McCarty.

McCarty? Wasn't that Emmett's name?

Born: December 1st, 2022 (AN: remember that it's 15 years later)

In Adoption center: December 24th/25th, 2022. Was around midnight.

Mother's name: unknown

Father's name: Emmett McCarty II

Emmett? How the heck could Emmett have had a child? And I'm pretty sure that he's not cheating on Rosalie; you know, because he lives in a house full of vampires. With my mind reading husband and physic sister I don't think that that would've been kept secret for long. He's also a vampire himself so how he could he have had a child with some unknown woman?

Rosalie had gotten Alexander to quiet down and was now putting him back in his crib. This was the first time that I really got a good look at him.

I gasped.

Then I was embarrassed and I looked away. I still acted like a human sometimes, two years after I was "born" I tripped going down the stairs. I was the only one in the family who, other than Rosalie, could still kind of remember the people from before the change. Carlisle said that I should forget most of the people from that time, probably everyone other than my parents, and eventually I'd start to forget them too.

I don't really remember much about my old friends, Carlisle was right, I remember some of their names and that's about it. I wouldn't even know those names if it wasn't for Edward and Alice. I hardly remember my mom, she died in a bad car wreck three years ago (Edward and Alice didn't really know my mom), and I remember that my dad, Charlie, never liked Edward and was a detective or something.

I only kind of remember these things, but the one person that I never in all of my existence forget was one of the biggest jerks I'd ever met. And I had fallen in love with him.

Jacob Black.

Looking down at the baby in the crib I saw the same pair of eyes that I saw when I would look into Jake's. Well not exactly the same Alexander's eyes were a bluish-greenish color, and Jake's had been your average brown eye color. But there was something, and I knew it, Alexander had this… look... the kid wasn't any older than six months old, but he already had this look that was… mischievous. Jake had that look in his eye all the time, like when we (mostly he) built those motorcycles, and once he turned into a werewolf the look turned permanent. And already this kids had that look.

I looked away from the eyes to Alexander's entire face. He looked a little like Emmett, the whole facial structure and all. His hair, even though it was only a thin layer of fuzz was as black as black could be. Maybe this kid really is related to Emmett. (AN: they only say that Emmett has dark hair, so it might be black.) Or maybe I'm just imagining things because I saw Emmett's name.

"Hey Emmett," I said softly so I wouldn't disturb any of the babies, "Come over here."

He walked over with two babies in his arms, "Yeah?"

"How are you going to remember which baby goes in which bed?" I asked; looking at the baby boys that Emmett had been holding.

"Oh, um… this one is… he goes…"

I heard Rosalie sigh from the other side of the room and run over to take the babies from her poor confused husband, and put them back were they belonged.

Then I asked the question that I had been wondering, or well kind of asked it I didn't really want to come straight out and say it, "Look at this," I handed him the clipboard that had all of the information on it.

"Hmm… Alexander… McCarty!" he yelled. That made a few of the babies wake up and Rosalie had to rush to calm them down before they cried and woke the other kids up.

"McCarty?" Emmett started talking to himself, "Could it really be? But he died when I was six… McCarty?" he read the rest of the page, "Emmett McCarty the 2nd… who the heck is Emmett McCarty the 2nd? I am, I mean, I was the only Emmett McCarty…"

Rosalie walked over, she looked at the clipboard that Emmett was reading, but just then Ms. Peck walked in to ask how things were going.

Rosalie scanned the page real quick and asked, "Do you, by chance, happen to have little Alexander's family tree? Or any information about his parents?"

Ms. Peck paused before nodding and asking us to follow her back into her office. Once we were seated she pulled out a file from the cabinet behind her and placed it on her desk, "This is the file for little Alex."

Alex… I liked that name Alex Cullen. It had a nice ring to it. Wait, what am I thinking? I took one look into his eyes and saw something from my past that I had promised myself that I wasn't ever going to think about, and now I feel like I'm falling in love with this little boy who isn't even mine. Now I really know how Rosalie felt when she saw her friend's little boy, the envy and… wanting.

I heard Alice and Jasper walk out into the waiting room outside the office and sit down.

"You're welcome to look through his file if you want to, but I don't think that it's going to have any useful information about Alex though," Ms. Peck said handing Rosalie the file. Rosalie nodded and walked out of the room.

"Thank you," Emmett said before following his mate.

I was about to leave too when Alice and Jasper walked in and sat down in the seats that Rosalie and Emmett were just sitting in seconds ago.

"Thank you so much for letting us look at the wonderful children that you have here," Jasper said with one of his dazzling smiles, his was almost as good as Edward's and it left Ms. Peck speechless. There must be someone that they really want to adopt, but Mrs. Physic must've not seen them getting her unless Jasper 'dazzled' her.

I noticed that Alice had a clipboard in her hand; like the one that had had all of the stuff about Alex and Emmett. I focused on the name at the top of the page:

Audrey Lee Davis (AN: you have no idea how hard it was to think of a name for her. I thought of Alex almost immediately, but Audrey was HARD!)

Good at least none of the girls had mysterious histories. Or Emmett's name on any of their clipboards.

I whispered at super fast vampire speed, "Is that the girl that you want to adopt?"

"Yes," Alice mumbled back, "But get out of here, or my plan won't work."

I nodded and left following Emmett and Rosalie out into the waiting room. They were going through the file together. Rosalie seemed to be really looking at everything in it, but Emmett was just glancing at everything that he pulled out; when he didn't find what he wanted, he put the paper in a pile next to Rosalie. They were searching.

"What are you looking for?" I asked so I could help.

"Family tree," Emmett muttered under his breath, to busy to really pay attention to me. I looked at Rosalie and she just nodded in agreement with her husband and picked up more papers.

I noticed that one of the papers had slid across the room, and was now resting under a chair. I walked over and picked it up. I scanned the sheet at vampire speed to see if this is what Emmett and Rosalie were looking for.

This was it! It didn't look like the way that I thought a family tree would really look like; this one just had things listed; Like father's name, grandfather's name, etc.

"Emmett, you and Rose need to look at this," I said holding up the paper, "I think this is what you're looking for, Emmett."

He ran over and snatched it out of my hands. When he first got the paper, he smiled when he read, "Alexander's Family Tree," but that smile faded once he kept reading.

Then the only look on his face was shock. He read the family tree out loud so all of us could hear.

"Father's name: Emmett McCarty II"

I heard Jasper start singing the Twilight Zone theme song under his breath. He was just loud enough for all of us to hear him. Then we heard him grunt and mutter, "Geez, Alice that hurt."

We chuckled a little before Emmett got serious again and continued reading the family tree.

"Grandfather's name: Christopher McCarty"

"That was my little brother's name," Emmett whispered he seemed really sad, "He was eight years younger than me."

"It's alright Emmett," Rosalie said giving him a hug, "Keep reading."

"Great-grandfather's name: Jonathan McCarty"

"My dad…"

"Great uncle's name: Emmett McCarty"

"…" Emmett didn't say anything. No one did; even in the office no one was talking. Emmett broke the silence, "I want to adopt him."

Rosalie was startled, "Why him?" but she already knew the answer.

"Because he's my… great-nephew… right?" he asked me and I nodded, "And I want to watch him grow up."

Rosalie understood and walked back into the room that Alex was in. She said something about getting Alex's clipboard like Alice and Jasper did for Audrey.

Rosalie came back in a few moments later and sat down next to her husband, but the second she sat down the door to Ms. Peck's office opened up and out walked Alice and Jasper. They were both clearly happy because not only they had the world's biggest smiles on, Mr. Feelings was letting his emotions free to go anywhere. Then I felt immensely happy that they got what they wanted. I felt like jumping up and happy dancing around the room.

"Hey!" Emmett called grinning like a madman, "Mr. Happy-and-We-All-Know-It (Clap your hands),take a chill pill and clam the heck down."

Jasper looked down for a moment, embarrassed. He mumbled, "Sorry," and followed Alice out of the room.

I watched them leave and I saw Emmett and Rosalie both stand up and go into Ms. Peck's office. I didn't want to wait in the waiting room by myself so I followed Jasper and Alice down the hall.

I found them waiting for me. Alice had seen that I'd want to hang out with them. We kept going down the hallway and up a flight of stairs. Alice babbled on and on about how wonderful Audrey was going to be. Soon we found ourselves in front of another office with the nameplate, "Doctor Norman Cohen," on it.

Alice knocked once on the door and went right in without waiting for anyone's say so. Jasper and I both looked at each other, and he gave me a look that said, "It's Alice," and we followed her in.

When we walked in I saw a very organized office with a large desk and comfortable leather chairs. There were two filing cabinets that were on the back wall and pushed into a corner. On Dr. Cohen's desk were picture frames with pictures of a middle-aged woman with graying hair, and a few of the pictures were of a boy with amazing blond hair and blue eyes. He reminded me of someone from when I was human… who was it? I think it was some boy named Mark… or Matt… I don't remember.

Dr. Cohen was a big man, not exactly huge like Ms. Peck was, she was a dinosaur he's more like a man who was just over weight, but diffidently not small. He had a bald spot on his head that I could just image paint a target on it and playing darts. (AN: Not real darts the foam ones that you give nine year-olds to play with). Dr. Cohen looked like a teacher, he had this look to him that screamed teacher, but why then is he working at an adoption center?

Dr. Cohen was sitting behind his desk with another file and a few papers that looked like Alice and Jasper were going to need to fill out. I looked at the file from across the room; my more than perfect eyesight saw that this file is almost exactly like the one that Emmett received for Alex.

Alice and Jasper were asked similar questions to what Ms. Peck asked them, so they just said the same answers, and then Dr. Cohen let them look at Audrey's file. I went and found her family tree. And much to my relief Audrey had normal parents and relatives with names like Cameron, and Mariana; no Emmetts were listed.

Jasper filled out some paperwork while Alice asked Dr. Cohen about his job, and what it was like working in an adoption center.

"I grew up here," that's a surprise, "When I was little it was hard to have a lot of friends, because someone might want to adopt a cute five year-old, but when I got around fourteen all hopes of me getting adopted were out of the question. I was put on the foster care list and went to live with a nice family for a few years. Once I came back to the adoption center I found that a really nice woman with a lot of money had come and took all of my friends to go and live with her in her big house. I never saw them again," Dr. Cohen told us this story, and I felt so bad for him, he never was able to get out of the adoption center.

Jasper finished the paperwork and handed it to Alice so she could sign her name on it. Once Dr. Cohen said that everything was in order, Alice jumped up clapping and I could feel more happy feelings from Jasper. Dr. Cohen said that they could take Audrey home.

Alice and Jasper had to go back to the girls dormitory, or whatever you'd call a huge room with a bunch of babies sleeping in it, so I went back to sit in the waiting room. Emmett and Rosalie left ms. Peck's office and left for Dr. Cohen's office. I didn't want to go with them, so I went back into the room that had Alex in it.

Most of the babies were asleep, but Alex seemed wide-awake. I took this as a good sign, maybe he'll sleep all night, not that we need sleep.

I took the squirming Alex out of his crib and sat down with him in one of the rocking chairs. We rocked for a little while I thought about different things; I really liked Alex, and I'm so glad that Emmett and Rosalie were going to adopt him. But there is something odd about him, who was his mother and why was I reminded of Jake every time I looked into the baby's eyes?

All of these questions were popping up in my head; I was so focused on finding the answer to all of them that I didn't notice Alice walk in followed by Jasper. Jasper was holding a sleeping baby girl. Audrey was so cute; she had a little bit of hair that was a bronze kind of color, it reminded me of Edward's hair except hers was redder. She had beautiful hazel eyes and a very pretty face, but that all might change when she gets older, she is only a few months old.

"Bella mfook mat Audreyf!" Alice almost yelled but Jasper was quick and covered her mouth before she woke up Audrey and the baby boys, so Alice had to talk in a muffled voice because Jasper would let her go, "Left mef gos Jaffper!" she said through his hand

"No a chance," he said, "You're way to excited and going to wake up at least one of the babies in here if I let you go."

"Thef clm mef dowf," she said.

Jasper shook his head and said, "You're too excited you'll just get excited again, even if I calm you down," in other words he was really saying that he liked it when Alice couldn't talk and really didn't want to try to make it so she could.

Alice saw that that was what he was doing, but she couldn't attack him if he was holding Audrey, so she just stood there upset, and glaring at her husband.

I giggled a little and then to my surprise Alex smiled and laughed as well.

Alice's frozen eyes melted at the sight of him, "If thaf Alecf?"

The confusion must've been on my face because Jasper translated, "Is that Alex?"

I nodded and held up one of Alex's little arms and made him wave at Alice and Jasper. But then Alice's eyes froze again and said, "I canf sef himb," which I took as, "I can't see him."

I held him up higher, but I knew that Alice couldn't see him with her psychic abilities. Alice glared at me and I defensively said, "Hey, you said that you couldn't see him…" I put Alex back in my lap; "Maybe it's like the thing with me. Edward can't hear my thoughts, and you can't see Alex. We'll ask Carlisle later."

Alice nodded and Jasper let go, mumbling something about how she had clamed down somewhat. I also don't think that he liked how Alice kept spitting her venom into his hand.

"Ugh!" he said handing Audrey to Alice, "I have to go wash my hand."

I laughed at him as he left, and almost as soon as he left Emmett and Rosalie came in. Emmett ran way faster then any human could ever run right to Alex's crib. Rosalie saw Alice and me sitting with babies in our hands, and she walked over to take Alex from me.

"WHERE-" Emmett was cut off by Jasper who had just walked into the room. Jasper was now covering up Emmett's mouth. Emmett glared at his brother before knocking his arm away and hissing, "Do not mess with my emotions Jazz," he was positively radiating anger.

"Sweetie," Rosalie called from our side of the room. Emmett saw Alex in her arms and rushed over to hold him. "Be careful," Rosalie said, gently handing Alex to Emmett.

Right next to each other, I could really see the similarities between Emmett and Alex. They had the same noses and chins, and there were probably more similarities, but Alex was too young to tell.

Then I was able to see similarities between him and… Jake. They both had that crazy mischievous look in their eyes. Alex's hair was black like Jacob's was, and if Alex ever decided to grow out his hair to be longer then they'd look almost identical. Alex even had the darker colored skin that all of the kids who lived in La-Push had. There's no chance for Alex to be related to Jake, right? No, not if he was related to Emmett, he couldn't be. I didn't want this poor innocent kid to be like Jake at all; I might've fallen in love with Jake, but if he hadn't been the one who helped me when I was broken then I wouldn't have thought of him as anything but my friend. And he had been such a JERK when he left for the newborn fight, I remember what he said like it was yesterday, "There's a pretty serious fight brewing down there. I don't think that it will be that difficult to take me out of the picture," then he had left, but not until he had kissed me.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn't heard any of the conversation that had been going on about Alex and Audrey. Then Alice stood up, being careful with Audrey in her arms, "Lets go," she said heading for the door, "We're all going to take the babies to Carlisle and Esme's place before taking them home."

"Alright, Alice," Rosalie said, "Bella," she asked me, "Are you going to ride back with them?"

"Huh?" I had missed everything that had happened.

Alice looked at me and spoke slowly, like the way you talk to an idiot, "Bella we are going to Carlisle and Esme's house," she said it very slow.

"I got that part," I said, "You know what, never mind. It doesn't even matter."

We got into the car and drove all the way back to Carlisle's house. Audrey slept in Alice's arm the entire time. Jasper made sure that every time she woke up that she would be tired and fall back to sleep again.

I was finally able go and be alone with Edward, when Alice claimed that it was time for the kids to go to bed and that she wanted to watch Audrey sleep, "I want to see if humans really are fun to watch when they're asleep." I really wanted to spend some alone time with Edward, so I didn't even bother telling her that Audrey is probably too young to talk in her sleep.

Once they were all gone, Carlisle and Esme told us that they needed to go hunting. I looked at their eyes and saw that only Carlisle's were even close to black, maybe they were just trying to give us some alone time, or maybe they wanted some themselves.

They left and Edward swept me off my feet and carried me bridal style into our bedroom. He started kissing me when we were half way up the stairs, and once we were actually in our room we were too far out of it to think of anyone but each other. All thoughts of Audrey, Emmett and/or Alex, or… Jacob Black was long gone.