A/N: Twilight is Meyer's. No copyright infringement intended. Thanks for reading, and for reviewing.

This takes place not long after the end of BD.

EPOV

I pulled the Volvo into a parking space in front of the restaurant. The same parking space.

It seemed like another life.

I sat for a moment, staring blindly out the windshield with my hand still wrapped loosely around the steering wheel. Letting myself remember.

Finally, a much smaller and much warmer hand lightly touched the back of mine. An image flashed into my mind: the front of the restaurant, then my pensive expression. The vision was underscored by a faint confusion, a question.

Renesmee knew that she didn't have to touch me for me to be able to read her thoughts. But she touched my hand when she wanted my attention, because she still preferred showing her mind over speaking it. I must have seemed out of her reach, I realized. I played the memory back in my mind. Yes. I did look extraordinarily distracted.

Not unusual when I was thinking of her mother.

I smiled over at her. "This is the place," I told her.

Nessie's thoughts still reflected a pale confusion as she pulled her hand away. She glanced toward the sign in front of the building. "La Bella Italia" popped into my mind, with a special emphasis on "Bella." An image of her mother, threaded with an intense affection, was paired with the word. My smile broadened.

"Yes," I agreed. "The same name. Coincidental." Or perhaps not, now that I considered it; perhaps it was fate. I believed in fate much more these days.

As Nessie began to mull over the idea of my taking her to a human restaurant, I explained, "We'll be leaving Forks soon. I wanted you to see this place before we do." I looked past her to examine the front of the restaurant with my own eyes. "It is very important to your mother and me."

Renesmee spoke then. "Was this where you had your first date?"

I should have known that she would understand the concept. Just as she knew so many other things, like how to act around humans, and how to be inconspicuous, she understood ideas that were beyond her physical age. That was a large part of the reason I believed we could do this now.

"Not exactly," I answered. I paused. "I want us to go inside. But I need you to remember that these humans may recognize me. We can't draw attention to ourselves." I considered her. She appeared to be around seven years old physically, and I knew that there was no possibility that the resemblance between us would go unnoticed. So it was the niece storyline again, I decided. "When they can hear, you must play the part of my niece. They must not know that you are my daughter. You understand?"

She nodded. I nodded once in return and got out of the car. When I opened her door for her, Renesmee jumped out and took my hand. I escorted her inside the restaurant and immediately was grateful for my warning.

The hostess was the same woman. And she remembered me.

Her eyes lit up when we walked in. He looks as good as ever, her thoughts practically sighed. She leaned against the podium as she gave me a quick once-over.

And she noticed Nessie.

"Hello," she said, straightening quickly and trying not to ogle me too openly while Nessie was watching. "Welcome to La Bella Italia."

"Hello," I returned. "My niece and I would like a table. I was hoping we could have the booth in the back?"

"Of course. Follow me." She turned to lead us through the restaurant, and I rolled my eyes at her chaotic thoughts. His niece? So much like him… Cute little ringlets the same exact shade as his hair… Wonder where the girl is he had with him last time… Maybe he's single?

It was a relief when she escorted us around the dividing wall to the private booth in the corner and turned to find Nessie smiling up at her. Her mind immediately was distracted. No one could deny Nessie.

"Here you are, sweetie," she crooned. "Would you like some crayons?"

"No, thank you," Nessie replied politely. She climbed into the booth, moving a little less agilely than usual, more clumsily, like a human child. She was good at the charade.

I sat with her. "Would you please ask the waitress to give us a few minutes before she comes by?"

The hostess's attention dragged back to me. Her mind became a jumble again when she met my gaze. "Sure. I'll let her know."

She placed our menus on the table and walked away. I watched her leave, making sure she and everyone else was out of earshot before I turned back to the table. Renesmee was surveying her surroundings when I looked down at her. Her eyes drifted to me. Her head cocked to the side, and she replayed in her mind the last part of our conversation from the car. She wanted the story.

I took a moment to collect myself. The memories were overwhelming, here in this booth in the corner. Sitting here with Bella, fragile, human Bella, on that night so long ago… Worrying about her health, about her future, about her, as I tried to come to grips with the desires she had stirred within me… And wondering, always wondering, what she was thinking, what she thought of me, of what I was.

I'd found out exactly what she'd thought that night. And it had changed everything.

My smile had turned wistful as I'd been lost in thought. Renesmee pondered my expression, and I realized that the waitress would arrive soon. I needed to begin my tale.

I drew in a long breath. "Your mother came to Port Angeles with some friends," I said quietly. I was surprised by how strained my voice sounded. It deepened as I went on carefully, "She got separated, and she ran into some… unpleasant… men."

Renesmee noticed my slight snarl. "You would have killed them to save her," she commented simply.

There was no hesitation in my reply. "Yes."

"But you didn't…" She studied my face. "Because of her."

My anger faded quickly. A memory of Bella's human face, her wide eyes chocolate brown and trusting, flashed into my mind. My voice was soft when I spoke again. Reverent. "Because she saved me."

Renesmee was unsurprised. "Momma's kind of heroic like that."

"Yes." I smiled, warmly this time. Lovingly. "She is." I paused, then resumed my story. "I brought her here because this was where her friends were to meet her. But she let them go home without her. She stayed with me."

I was silent for a moment then, lost in my memory. I went on slowly, almost to myself, "She had already figured out what I was. And she wasn't afraid. She… wanted to be with me." It still amazed me. Even now. "She sat in this booth with me and ate while I answered her questions. We talked candidly about my abilities. On the drive home, she admitted that she knew what I was. And she told me that she didn't care, that it didn't matter to her.

"That was the night I decided she may be crazy," I added with a grin. "But I knew that, even if she were, I would take care of her. Because I loved her."

Nessie glanced around again. I could see her piecing it together in her mind, trying to picture it all. "You knew she loved you, too, that night?"

"I realized that she cared for me then. I didn't fully understand the depth of her feelings until later, because I believed that she couldn't feel as strongly about me as I did about her. I was wrong about that." I'd been very wrong, I thought. I'd underestimated Bella in the beginning. There was nothing I didn't believe her capable of now.

Renesmee's eyes – Bella's human eyes – were intent on me. "Momma surprised you."

"Constantly." I turned toward the kitchen, my attention drawn toward a vaguely familiar mind. It seemed the same waitress still worked here, as well. The hostess had told her I was here, and her thoughts were every bit as lewd now as they had been that first night. Even without seeing me in person yet. "The waitress will be here in a minute," I cautioned. "You'll need to eat a little."

"What did Momma order?" Nessie asked curiously.

"Coke," I answered instantly. "And mushroom ravioli." Nessie wrinkled her nose, and I smiled softly. "She seemed to like it. Or at least, she pretended to."

Nessie fell silent. Her mind was a swirl of images. She was playing back our conversation and filling in what parts she could with what she knew. I was impressed by how clearly she could imagine Bella as a human. Her only memory of her mother before Bella's change was immediately following Nessie's dangerous birth. All other images came from pictures she'd seen. But she had a very solid vision of the Bella I had first fallen in love with.

It made me smile to see that Bella again, even this way. Nessie's thoughts made my memory, perfect and vivid, pick up again, tracing every human feature I'd memorized here in this very booth. Vulnerable and blushing and clumsy, but strong and brave and sure…

The waitress's arrival pulled both of us out of our reveries. "What can I get you?" she asked, her thoughts shouting suggestions I was glad Renesmee couldn't hear.

"Nothing for me." I indicated that she should focus on Nessie.

She turned reluctantly, then she smiled widely when she saw my daughter's face. "And what would you like, honey?" she asked with sudden enthusiasm.

Nessie pushed her unopened menu on top of mine. "Coke," she said. Her eyes, Bella's eyes, were bright on me as she smiled. "And mushroom ravioli."