To my supportive fans…. I apologise for the great length you have waited for this… sadly school is growing more and more demanding with each additional month. This chapter is pushing the boundaries a bit, but I wanted to bring in a twist. Xavvi and other readers may argue that it moves the story on too fast, but I want something to interrupt the current plotline and spice it up. For this reason… please be open minded.

Chapter 7

Being half-vampire is full of unexpected surprises

NPOV

It has been just over a week now since I told Jake about our upcoming weekend together and with only a week and a half more to wait, I am filled with an excitement and anxiety. I am mostly scared because I don't know what to expect and neither of us really truly know what we are doing. Of course we know the mechanics of it and physically and biologically what to do and what will happen, but neither of us has ever made ourselves so emotionally vulnerable in that way before. I am excited for all these reasons as well. I'm not worried about it being awkward; Jake and I know each other too well.

I woke up after a blissful sleep, in which, to be honest, I was imagining the weekend Jake and I would be having exactly 11 days from now. I lay in bed for a short while longer, prolonging the thrilling fantasy of my dreams, in my comfortable bed, when I was distracted by a strange feeling… down below.

I pulled back the covers to see a deep red stain of blood expanding slowly. I couldn't understand it. Nothing was clear, so I did the only thing I could.

"Dad" I thought through my mind, trying desperately to keep my predicament from him. "Could you send Mom and Carlisle up to my room please. Don't worry, I just need to talk to them."

I tried to sound calm and collected whilst panicking slightly. This wasn't in the 'What to expect as a half-vampire' manual. Carlisle had never thought to consider that what I think is happening, would in fact happen. If I am right in what I think it is, then my life just got a hell of a lot more difficult.

Momentarily, a knock sounded at the door.

"Ness, baby, can Carlisle and I come in please? Jake is here too, he wants to know what is wrong." My mother's voice was clearly audible and clearly worried.

"Don't let Jake in yet. I don't want him to see me like this. You and Carlisle can come in."

"Ness, I am not standing out here when something is wrong." Jake responded indignantly.

"If you come in here right now Jake I won't be able to look you in the eye ever again and forever with someone who can't look you right in the face is not pleasant. You will stay outside and I will call you when I want to." I rebutted sternly.

My mother and Carlisle came in without Jake following them. Lucky he listened to me.

"What is it darling?" Mom asked anxiously. But I looked straight to Carlisle. I was embarrassed to have my grandfather in this situation, but he wouldn't be my grandfather in a minute.

"Carlisle, I think, I think I may have started, my… period." It sounded so natural for a girl to say. Just not a half-human, half-vampire girl.

Carlisle went straight into 'Doctor mode' and his expression changed. He looked shocked, but from a medical perspective. I pulled back the sheet and from his line of sight he would have been able to see that the blood was coming from my now soaked pyjama shorts.

"Bella, my dear, could you just stand over there while I examine Vanessa. I know she is your daughter, but it is a little embarrassing."

Mother obediently turned away to give me some privacy and stood by the window.

As instructed by a very formal Dr. Cullen, I remover my shorts and underwear and Carlisle gave me a quick examination. It really wasn't comfortable, but I would rather someone I trusted than a stranger, and vampires can't really go to the gynaecologist's anyway.

"It is as you suspected, Vanessa. You have indeed begun a menstrual cycle as far as I can tell. The family will not be able to be near you until it has terminated; the blood, you know. Jasper may stay elsewhere for the duration of your period. I know that may be appallingly embarrassing but he will undoubtedly already smell the blood."

I was mortified at the thought of telling Jasper once a month to live elsewhere for a week because I was bleeding through no fault of my own.

"I will run out to the pharmacy and pick you up some sanitary attire." Mom said as politely and as delicately as possible and left the room. She said nothing to Jake because I could hear him shouting questions after her as she descended the stairs.

"What do you think could have triggered this Carlisle? I mean, some human girls get their periods in their late teens, but I am part vampire. It never crossed my mind that my mother would have passed on this unfortunate curse upon the female race, but maybe even the ability to conceive. Could I potentially have children of my own?"

Carlisle sighed, returning to grandfather mode.

"Nessie, my dear, the signs suggest that this will be as much a part of your lifestyle as any other human girl. The ability to conceive and bare a child is another matter. Many thousands of women undergo fertility treatment every year because, though their menstrual cycle is regular as clockwork and they are healthy, they cannot conceive. You may share their fate, but like the majority of women, you may be able to reproduce normally. This means that when you become sexually active" I cringed at those two words that were coming from my Grandpa, "with Jacob, you need to use protection in case conception is possible. My mind boggles at the thought of the kind of fabulously unique child you could bring into this world. It could have been triggered by the serious emotions and hormones brought about by the romantic development of your relationship with Jacob. Just as full vampires are significantly changed through love, so could you have been. As soon as your mother returns and we wash your sheets, you should talk to Jacob. You have some very serious things to discuss."

I lay back against my pillows and began to absorb the happenings of the last 10 minutes. I could have babies with Jake. I could have a family with Jake. Jake who was standing outside my door worried sick.

Mom returned within 15 minutes and showed me how to use the tampons she had brought me. It was pretty simple, but it was a right of passage for a mother and daughter to go through. Once my room was free of bloody sheets and my mother and grandfather, Jake was granted entry to my room. But how do I tell him such news?

"Ness, baby, are you okay?" Jake asked as he rushed through the door and pulled me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. Our lips moulded together and moved passionately, before we broke apart. He picked me up and sat me on his lap once he had situated himself on the bed, his back against the headrest. This was the perfect position because he couldn't see my face clearly from this angle.

"Jake, I started my period today." I blurted out. I had meant to say it in a nicer way, but maybe this was better.

"Right. What is so wrong about that?" He seemed unabashed. "I had sisters you know, before they crossed the country, and I grew up unfortunately hearing them complain about them. I saw when tampons got added to the grocery list. So what is the big deal?"

I turned and looked up into his hazelnut eyes in annoyance.

"Well, I'm half vampire aren't I?"

"So?"

"You are such a plank. Vampires don't get periods."

He looked, again, confused; still completely missing the point.

"I figured, seeing as it would be a waste of the blood they leeched from some poor innocent human."

Now he was just being thick. He obviously missed the biology lesson on reproduction.

"Yes, but periods are just 7 days of a monthly cycle and during the rest of that monthly cycle, at some point, women can become…. Pregnant."

Now he got. His eyes widened and his heart rate increased slightly.

"So are you saying that because, unlike Alice, Rosalie and your mom, you… bleed, you can have children?"

"Carlisle doesn't see why not." I said, overjoyed as I watched his mouth stretch into a beaming grin and he jumped up, still holding me and bounced joyfully on the bed.

"Do you know what this means Ness?" He laughed in triumph, "We can have a family. We can have a normal life and when we move out of the house and get a place of our own, it will be like neither of us are supernatural beings, just Jake and Ness."

I thought it through. I may have the ability to reproduce; that remains to be seen, but I know for a fact that I am immortal. Jake is immortal to an extent and kids will definitely make him too stressed to stop phasing for long enough to age at all. But what happens when the kids are grown up and Jake learns to stop phasing. My babies are not likely to inherit the immortality gene from me when I am only half vampire, which means they will be mortal. My babies will grow old and die. I will have to watch as they are buried, and then when it comes to Jacob's time, put him next to them. I will be left to… what? Live with my parents again and wait for love even though it will probably never come again?

I can't have children. I can't marry Jacob.

"Jake, we can't have a family and we can't get married."

He looked destroyed. I had broken him in one sentence. He won't ever forgive me for this, no matter how strong imprinting is. Can imprinting be undone if the object of a shapeshifter's affection rejects them? He didn't even stay to hear me out. The space in front of me was empty and my door had closed before I looked into his eyes again.