Quick update! Yes! I'm sorry, it somehow got serious as I was writing this... Also, any views on touchy subjects such as abortion are not expressly mine. They're my interpretation of the characters'...

Disclaimer- Not mine. Never was. Never will be. Except in the alternate universe where in actuality I wrote the Twilight series, and in the other alternate universe where I married Stephenie Meyer when she was old, then when she died got all the proceeds off of her work... Not mine here.

Chapter Nine

Carlisle did not want to deal with Charlie Swan right now. He was busy setting up for Edward's first ultrasound, and things were complicated enough, what with Jasper acting out again, Alice slowly coming to terms with her feelings for Bella, and Edward and Jacob seemingly unable to drive home from a movie without dealing with their feelings for each other indiscreetly. He would have to talk with Edward quite firmly about keeping his hands to himself in public.

"How are you faring, my dear?" Esme asked from the top of the basement stairs. "Do you need any help?"

"No, thank you," Carlisle smiled at his wife. "The machine will be in working order for Edward's ultrasound tomorrow."

"Oh, how lovely," Esme gushed. She loved babies and children in general, which was why Carlisle had made an entire family for her.

Carlisle smiled again at her radiant happiness for Edward, and let his mind wander to Edward and Jacob's relationship. Would they ever be able to love each other as much as Carlisle loved Esme? Right now Carlisle could see that it was only Edward's sensibilities that were stopping him from even internally accepting Jacob as his partner. Then again, Edward's sensibilities were very strong, one of the only things he could trust in, to be honest. So much had changed for him that he had clung to everything he had been taught when he was mortal, from the chivalry and his outdated speech patterns to his stringent social beliefs. Some part of Carlisle knew that Edward probably subconsciously kept to homophobic sensibilities, and these were even now eating away at his conscience...

"Dear? are you profiling Edward again?" Esme huffed. "Don't. It will only drive you mad. You know that."

"Yes, of course my dear," Carlisle said, and wiped his hands on his shirt as he finished with the ultrasound. "I just worry for him. His situation would be alien to any boy his age... I mean mentality, but his..."

"He'll come to par with it. He has to," Esme assured. "One thing you know about Edward is that he adopts well to things he can't control."

"Which is why he controls everything he can," Carlisle muttered, almost to himself. "I worry for the child inside him, as well. It is still young enough that he could..." He left the thought hanging.

"He would do no such thing," Esme said vehemently. "He knows that the life inside of him is a gift. He has seen my pain, and he has learnt well from it. He would not do something so senseless."

"I'm sorry Esme. I do not doubt your parenting abilities, nor do I doubt Edward," Carlisle murmured placatingly. "Let's turn in for the night. Charlie Swan is coming over tomorrow and I'm still stumped about what I'm going to tell him."

"We'll figure it out. We always do," Esme smiled assuringly, and they left the basement together.

Meanwhile, in his room, Edward listened to Carlisle and Esme's thoughts. He know they had discouraged this as much as they could when they learned of his talent, but he sometimes couldn't help himself. Bad habits died hard. At first, he felt indignation that Carlisle would think him capable of killing a child, especially when that child was so helpless. Edward might have hated his situation, but not enough that he would willingly murder a child! Then he remembered how he felt when the final, unescapable truth had been presented to him. He had felt doubt, of course, and a lot of humiliation, embarrassment like he had never felt before. But most of all, he remembered the anger. The anger with himself, with Jacob Black... with their child.

"Jacob, wake up," he hissed, whacking the pillow against Jacob's head. Jacob swore incoherently and opened his eyes.

"There's got to be a better way of waking me up," he said, annoyed until he saw the look in Edward's eyes. "You look like it's the end of the world. What's eating you?"

"Nothing. I'm at the top of the food chain," Edward jibed weakly, inexplicably feeling the need to quote the Lion King before he asked the question. "Jacob... do you think I should have this baby?"

"Whoa. Where the heck did that come from?" Jacob asked, now fully awake. He sat up and gestured for Edward to sit down.

"I was thinking... well no, not really. Esme and Carlisle were thinking, and I drew some of my own conclusions... but I don't know if I'm prepared, Jacob! If you're prepared! I'm going to live forever, and maybe our child will too, and you'll die, because you're mortal and I don't want to doom you to a fate worse than death because ithinkiloveyou and I know it's wrong but it feels so right but at the same time if I smell another cup of coffee, I'll throw up, you know? And what if our child is mortal? What if I have to watch you both die?" Edward said all in a rush, wringing his hands in dismay. "And I don't know how I'm even going to have the baby! I mean, I'm not scared of a Caesarean section or anything, especially not by Carlisle's able hands, but what if it dies? What if I die, somehow?"

"Hang on a minute, leech!" Jacob all but yelled. It seemed the only way to get Edward's attention when he was being irrational was to insult him. "Come on, think about it for a moment. First of all, do you really think I would have stayed if I wasn't willing to look after the baby with you? I'm telling you I'd be more than capable of getting out of this place without you guys noticing. I'm cool like that. Second, I know you've been through this immortality thing about a thousand times with Bella, and if she doesn't care, then neither will I. The point of life is that things die. Even if you were mortal there's always the possibility that you'd have to endure my death or the baby's death. That's the way things go. I know technically it's impossible for you, but live a little," Jacob grinned a little. "Take this for what it is."

"And what is this?" Edward asked, a tear dripping down his cheek. "I've never been so scared in all of my years, Jacob."

"It's life, Edward," Jacob said softly. "Life scares people. That's how we know we're living."

Edward grinned through his tears, and glomped Jacob gratefully. Jacob patted him on the back, trying not to think of how good the vampire smelled at that exact moment, or how soft his copper hair was between his fingertips.

Meanwhile, Alice was rubbing her temples. She never got migraines outside of her visions, but Jasper was close as he'd ever been to giving her one.

"Jasper..."

"Lestat!"

"Lestat... you need to stop this," she pleaded. "You know how this behaviour escalates and gets out of hand. You also know we all love you. There's no need to vye for our attention. You're the ineffable Jasper Hale, not the vampire Lestat. That's good enough for anyone."

"Not good enough for you. You like that brunette bimbo over me," Jasper pouted. "I don't understand it, Alice. If I got you knocked up, Carlisle would throw me out within the second. When the goody two-shoes gets pregnant, we practically welcome the in-laws with open arms. And if I were gay, I would so get the safe-sex talk. Eddie's probably been boinking Jacob since the mutt moved in, and there's narry a condom being forced on him. It's not fair."

"Well, condoms are a little bit redundant, Jasper... I mean Lestat. I mean, Edward's already pregnant, isn't he? What more could happen?" Alice reasoned.

"Yeah, but it's the principle of the thing!" Jasper exclaimed, taking Alice by the shoulders and shaking her briefly. His Southern accent was really coming out now, and his hair was coming loose of its gigantic blue ribbon. "You don't see it, because you're so common-sensical, but I do! It's special treatment for the golden boy! Again!"

"You're allowed to go around in Post-Revolutionary drag, Jasper. You're not so far done," Alice said snappily.

"This isn't drag! This is a waistcoat!"

"Yeah? Well, you're not in love with a mortal who was until very recently lusting after your pregnant adapted brother, and your one true love's father is most certainly not coming over tomorrow to denounce what-all's going on around here, and your one true love's father is probably not going to discover what you painted on her fingernails, and use that as hard evidence attesting to our family's perversion, and you probably don't care if we move again..."

"You saw all that?" Jasper asked open-mouthed. His fangs fell out. He didn't care.

"No. Not really. I was just speculating," Alice admitted, wrapping her arms around herself. "The point is, Jasper, we've got enough on our hands without having to deal with your silliness. Please stop?"

Jasper looked at the ground for a minute in disappointment, and finally said, "Only if you promise to read The Vampire Lestat to me each night for a month."

"I promise, Jasper," Alice smiled. It was small compensation for the peace that was now guaranteed to the household on that front.