Chapter 9: A Mother's Worst Nightmare

Bella's POV

It was 5:15 in the morning and both Edward and I were on our way back to the main house. I could not have been more happy then I was right at this moment. It was Nessie's 7th birthday. Today she will officially stop growing and aging for the rest of eternity. Although I think that it is safe to say that she stopped aging months ago. In a way I kind of feel bad that she looked about 14/15 years old and she was pretending to be in her early 20s. Then she was only a little over four feet tall. I'm sure that might have raised a few eyebrows over there in New York City. Oh well, it was just something that my daughter was going to have to deal with for the rest of her life.

I was also sad because this was Nessie's first birthday that she wasn't spending with her family. It guess it wasn't such a big deal because we had tickets to fly out there on Friday and have a big birthday celebration then. But I was still a little sad that we weren't going to spend her actual birthday with her. Especially because it was her 7th birthday.

"Bella are you okay?" Edward suddenly asked me.

"I'm okay" I told him. "I'm just a little sad that we won't be spending the day with her today like we always do on her birthday"

"I know. I am too and so is the rest of the family. But at least we will be able to visit her on Friday. That is good news" he said as we were about to walk into the house.

"Yeah, that is good news" I said.

Everybody was gathered out the house today, even Jacob was. I saw several of my family members on their cell phones calling my daughter. Nessie appeared to have forgotten her phone when she left for work today so we couldn't talk to her. Instead we all had to leave voicemails. Hopefully Nessie would call us back later and we would at least get to talk to her today.

Jacob looked a little upset. He had been completely understanding when Nessie had told him that she just wanted him as a friend, but I knew that it still bothered him. He never said it but I could just tell.

Someone had turned on the TV and left it on the news but no one was really paying attention to what the reporter was saying.

"How do you think Nessie feels about today?" I asked Edward.

"Probably excited and nervous at the same time. She has been looking forward to this birthday for a long time" he said.

"Do you think that she misses us as much as we miss her today?" I asked him.

"Oh my god!" my whole family said at once.

I turned around to look for the source of everyone's sudden panic and then I saw it. The news. It had changed. On the news was a live picture of the world trade center. There was a big gaping hole in the upper towers of the north tower. Smoke was spewing out of it. What the heck happened? The news people were talking about a possible plane crash.

Then my whole world came crashing down on me as a sudden realization came to me. Nessie was there. She worked on the 99th floor of the north tower of the world trade center. Exactly where that huge gaping hole was.

"No Nessie!" I screamed, suddenly hysterical.

Then the rest of my family also became hysterical.

"Oh god I hope she wasn't there yet!"

"No Nessie please be okay!"

"Oh god! Please Nessie, please be okay!"

Jacob was crying and shaking uncontrollably. My whole family was screaming like you've never heard us scream before. Meanwhile I, words can't even describe the terror that I felt right now. I didn't even know if my daughter was alive or dead. She worked in the area that was impacted. I'm sure of it. All I could do was hope and pray that she wasn't in her office yet when it happened.

I swear if vampires could have heart attacks I would have had one right then and there. The terror, not for my own safety, but for my daughter's, was eating me alive. My daughter was in real danger right now and there was nothing that I could do to help her. To save her. I would have died for her if it meant saving her right now. And that is even if she was still...no I couldn't think that way. For my own sanity I couldn't think that way.

Then we all watched as another plane suddenly appeared on the television screen. We all watched in stunned horror and silence as this plane slammed into the south tower and caused a huge explosion of smoke and flame.

That's when I knew, I just knew that something deliberate was going on. Our country was under attack. My horror and worry for my daughter increased even more, and I didn't even think that was possible.

My daughter is in real danger if she is still there. New York was under attack and my daughter was there and there was nothing I could do to stop it or to save her.

I tried to call her, just hoping in some way or form that I was wrong about her having forgotten her cellphone. That she would answer and tell me that she was okay. That she wasn't there, or that she had made it out of the building. But nothing. No answer. No voicemail.

All we could do is watch hopelessly as our world fell apart around us. All I knew is that I had never been so scared in my life. Scared that my daughter was dead. Not knowing. As a mother this is my worst nightmare. The idea of my daughter dying. Not knowing if she was alive or dead. Not being able to do anything about it. It was around 7am (our time) when we watched as the south tower began to shake before it started collapsing.

Oh god I hope that Nessie wasn't around. I really hoped that she had made it out of the area safely.

Then around 20-30 minutes later the north tower collapsed.

That's when I officially lost it. I wasn't even aware of what I was doing as I got up and started destroying things around the house. No one tried to stop me. I just let out all of my horror, my worry, my grief, and my anger.

When I finally calmed down about half the house was destroyed. I didn't care. Nobody else appeared to care either. Material things didn't matter right now. What mattered was finding out if Nessie was okay.

Things didn't get any better throughout the day. We tried calling Nessie and she just wouldn't answer. It only made me panic even more.

I vaguely paid attention to the news. Two more planes had also been hijacked and crashed in other states. When I first heard the planes had been hijacked and deliberately crashed into the towers I lost it again. Of course I already had my strong suspicions, but to have it confirmed was something else entirely.

It wasn't until around 4pm when I heard my cellphone ring. I answered it quickly when I saw that it was Nessie.

"Nessie is it you?! Oh thank god-"

"I'm okay mom, I'm fine" she said. Then she broke down crying. She cried like she had never cried before. Physically she was fine, but emotionally she was not.

I made a snap decision right then and there. I had gotten a notice earlier in the day that the airline had cancelled our flight on Friday because of everything that happened but that wasn't going to stop me from getting to my daughter when she needed me more then ever.

I was going to run all the way across the country. And I was going to leave tonight. I got off the phone without saying another word and began to pack a bag.

"Bella where are you going?" Edward asked me.

"I'm going to our daughter Edward, she needs me right now" he said.

"Okay I'm going with you" Edward said.

"As is the whole family" Carlisle said. Even Jacob agreed to go.

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