Chapter 21

I was mesmerized by the eyes of Elizabeth and Anthony, a steely blue almost grey, they seemed to look right through you. Elizabeth had a spell over me that no one would be able to deny. Their tiny hands and feet were absolutely perfect just like them. Her brown hair wasn't quite as dark as mine. Between the full set of hair of her and her brother, I was quite sure that their birth mother must have had a lot of heartburn. Isn't that how the tale goes?

My two little angels slept peacefully in mine and Edward's arms for the next few hours. I never let Elizabeth out of my arms. Edward on the other hand, left Esme to care after Anthony while he helped Carlisle with the body. I found out later that they placed her body relatively close to the accident site so that her family could give her a proper burial.

I heard Jasper downstairs on the phone with somebody named J. Jenks, who was helping us obtain the necessary paperwork to go with our new additions. Once the papers were in our hands, it wouldn't matter what we purchased or when, but just on the safe side of error, we agreed that all purchases should be made in cash.

Hilary and Jordan made it back to the house roughly the same time. I heard Edward groaning when Alice walked into the house. I walked down the steps only to find her carrying a crib set over her head.

"Alice dear, I thought we were going to hold off on the big purchases for a while?"

"Esme don't worry. I already checked it out, we'll be okay. I drove out of state to find another Wal-Mart that was twenty four-seven. Now, Hilary you should hurry up with the bottles, they'll be waking up in a few. Alice ran upstairs to set up the in one of the spare bedrooms.

As if on cue, just as Hilary handed me a bottle for Elizabeth, my babygirl started screaming louder than any baby should be able to scream. Jordan gave a bottle to Edward before Anthony had a chance to open his mouth. Elizabeth very greedily drank from her bottle while Anthony took his time with the formula. It was amazing how similar and yet completely different they were.

Both children starting falling asleep even while drinking their bottle. I had never had much experience with newborns, but I knew that they must have been exhausted.

"Bella, let's let them sleep. We can use some time alone." I looked up at my husband's irresistible amber eyes and agreed. We took them up to the spare bedrooms and I laid Elizabeth in the crib next to her brother, and me and Edward headed out of the room, when we heard a faint sucking noise. I turned around and I wasn't sure what I was more astonished at: the fact that Anthony was now sucking on a pacifier or the fact that there was a transparent, light bubble covering the twins.

"Carlisle!" Edward muttered. I knew Carlisle would hear him, but I wanted him here sooner.

Carlisle came in the bedroom, followed by Esme who wanted to see what all of the commotion was about. The both of them were just as astonished as me and Edward. I took a step towards them but Edward tried holding me back, but I fought my way from his grip. I walked over to the crib and saw their arms grazing each other, oblivious to what was going on around them.

I slowly inched my hand closer and closer to the bubble and almost immediately an unseen force flung me backwards into the wall. If I was human, my head would have been cracked and there would definitely be a broken arm or a couple of broken ribs. "Bella, love, are you okay?" Edward asked as he rushed over to me. I looked back at the crib when I realized that one of the babies was screaming, and I saw that the bubble was gone.

I hurried over to the crib and scooped Anthony up, his pacifier falling out of his mouth. Edward grabbed Elizabeth and started humming my lullaby. Alice chimed in with the harmony and the twins were drifting back to sleep.

Anthony let out the cutest little yawn as I put him back in the crib. I looked for the pacifier, I thought it fell back in the crib, but I couldn't find it. Edward held onto Elizabeth a little bit longer while Carlisle looked her over. I smiled as I watched Anthony laying on his back with one arm behind his head as if he was lounging on a hammock. When Carlisle was convinced that Elizabeth was unharmed, he placed her in the crib again as well.

Everybody stood in the door frame, waiting to see if the bubble would return, and it never did. For ten minutes we stood as complete statues, unmoving and staring straight at the crib. I hadn't even noticed that Jasper and Alice had shown up behind us, until Jasper left completely bored. We waited a few more minutes but nothing happened, so we started to file out one by one, when it happened again.

Everyone who left, immediately came back. My eyes were open very wide at the sight before me. Again the bubble was loosely around the children. Having learned my lesson, I didn't dare touch it, but I walked to the other side of the crib and looked on in awe. There was another pacifier in Anthony's mouth, and this time there was one in Elizabeth's. Where were they coming from? "Carlisle."

"I see. I don't know what any of it means though." Carlisle replied.

"Hey where did the pacifiers come from?" Jordan asked while peering over Esme's shoulder.

"I don't know." Was all that Edward muttered.

"Weird, I was just thinking that we should have bought some for the babies. But I guess Alice picked them up." Jordan was talking out loud, oblivious to the fact that everyone was staring at her now.

"What did you say?" Carlisle stepped closer to her. Jordan looked up and saw the shock on everybody's faces.

"What? I said I was thinking we should have had some pacifiers for them. I wasn't even thinking about them when we were in the store, I was too focused on getting formula. But it was a good thing Alice got them."

"I didn't buy them any." Alice whispered as we looked back at the two sleeping, oblivious children. Elizabeth shuddered and moved her arms so that her hands looked like she was in prayer, but as soon as she did so, the bubble disappeared and so did the pacifiers.

"Oh my God!" Was the collective response from everyone as we went closer to them. Carlisle reached in and moved Anthony's leg so that he was touching his sister with it. Immediately, the bubble appeared, this time we saw that it started from Elizabeth and made its way over to include Anthony and Carlisle.

"Elizabeth is a shield?" Hilary said in the form of a question, but it was the obvious. She was definitely a physical shield at that.

Carlisle removed Anthony's leg from Elizabeth and the shield was gone, but as soon as he placed it back, the shield was around the three of them. There was also a teddy bear in Elizabeth's hand.

"Amazing. But the teddy bear?" Carlisle wondered. He removed his hand from around Anthony's leg and the bubble no longer included him.

"Elizabeth was dreaming about one. She remembers her mom mentioning one and was curious as to what it was." Edward was pinching his nose in thought. "Carlisle, she remembers?"

"Well it's the general assumption that once a child starts developing in the womb, they for a bond with the mother. They hear, and feel everything that the mother goes through when in her body. It would only be natural that they remember some of the things that she had said out loud. As the child gets older they forget the memories from the womb."

"That's just weird." I heard a voice come up from behind me and I rushed over to it. Emmett stood there with a cheesy grin on his face. "So where are the bambinos?"

Rosalie walked in behind him, also with a smile on her face. I was a little worried how she would react to the babies being in her proximity. But one look at Alice's nodding head, comforted me knowing that Rose was okay with us being the parents. "Congratulations Bella. Alice told me about everything, including your worries. I'm completely fine, I promise." Who was the mind reader of the family? :What is that?" She asked when she saw the bubble.

"We were just discussing that." Carlisle noted. "My theory is that Elizabeth got the shield from Bella." I looked at him like he was crazy.

"From me? How?"

"You were the first person that held her Bella. And Edward you held Anthony first as well. I think they absorbed your gifts and made them physical, and through contact with each other, the gifts manifest themselves."

"No Carlisle, your theory is wrong. You handed me Elizabeth. You were the first person to touch her."

"I know, maybe because I don't have a gift? Or it could be possible that my contact with her was brief versus you who held her all morning. I don't know. But whatever the case, she's a shield and he can read minds and I think it has to do with you two." Carlisle said firmly.

"Whoa, pause for the newcomers here." Emmett bellowed. "We have two mind readers now?" There was a collective groan throughout the family. I smirked at Edward who merely turned his head away from everyone.

"Well I'm under the assumption that their gift only works when their touching each other."

"Well he's broke then." Emmett said, and everyone looked at him puzzled. "I keep thinking, 'I want an ice cream cone,' but I don't have one." He held up his hands to show that they were empty. Rose smacked him upside the back of his head.

"And what the heck would you have done with some ice cream?" Emmett just shrugged his shoulders with a goofy grin on his face. He definitely knew what he was planning, and it was something mischievous.

I looked at my sleeping children and a blanket started to materialize around them. "Carlisle, maybe only when the thoughts of others concern them, will Anthony's gift do something." I knew I wasn't explaining myself correctly, and I assumed correctly when Carlisle looked at me puzzled. "I was just looking at them, and wondered if they were cold, and then the blanket showed up." He looked down at the blanket.

"Bella I think you're right."

"Okay, as my husband stated earlier, we're the newcomers. Why do they have gifts? I hear their hearts beating, their human. How come nobody has mentioned that?" Rose said directly.

"Actually I've been thinking about that very same thing. Carlisle, I think what may have happened is that when that vampire was feeding on the mother, the venom spread through the bloodstream and was introduced to the children that way. Maybe the venom reacted differently since it was given to them differently?" My handsome husband was so clever.

"Hmmm, maybe you're right." Carlisle entered deep thought. "Maybe since the venom was fed to the kids via the placenta, it acted as a filter? I'd need to run some tests to be sure. I only wish I kept the placenta to further the studies."

"It's okay Carlisle, we'll know more soon enough. Let's just let them sleep." Edward ushered everyone out of the room, including me. I couldn't believe how attached to them I was despite the fact I never gave having children a second thought.

"Bella? Would you like to go hunting with us?" Hilary and Jordan were standing by the front door.

I nodded, acknowledging the burning in my throat. I had been depressing the scent of the blood from the babies for too long. I could only imagine how dark my eyes were.

Alice and Rose joined us as well, and we had a nice time with just the girls. Hunting was just as fun and we each took down two deer.

As we were getting closer to the house, I could hear Elizabeth waking up from her nap. I took off running and without bothering to wait for anyone else. I was about to pick her up when I noticed something drastically wrong.

"Elizabeth, Anthony. How did you get like that babycakes?" The both of them were sitting up at opposite corners of the crib. I turned to Esme who had just walked in the room. "They shouldn't be able to do that. They're only a day old, not six months." But it was true they looked to be six month old babies.

"We can't take them to Carlisle, he left for the hospital."

The hospital? I thought you guys were leaving for Isle Esme." I was shocked.

"No. We discussed it while you guys were out. We're not going to leave you with two babies. And besides, there may be things and items that they'll need that can only be given to a doctor. We're needed here, and from the looks of things, it may be a while before we aren't."

I gave Esme a hug. Esme was the only one that I looked at as my mom. I loved Renee so much and I know that she was my mother, but honestly I spent more time taking care of her than vice versa.

"Oh dear." Esme slapped her head as we stepped out of the hug. "I have to call Edward. The guys went to the mall to buy clothes for them." We watched Esme pull her cell phone out of her pocket and dial Edward's number.

"Theywentshopppingwithoutme?" Alice fumed into one word.

I couldn't imagine the boys would have knowingly unleashed the pixie monster by refusing her a trip to the mall. Seconds later, I saw an angry little female figure walking across the side of the crib. I knew it was angry because she was stomping her feet, the same way Alice does when she doesn't get her way.

"Who thought that?" Alice gasped as I covered my mouth to hide my smile. I looked over to Anthony who started cracking up at his invention. It seems he figured out that he needed to be in contact with his sister to conjure up things, and promptly scooted back to his corner of the crib. And since pixies don't actually exist, they don't necessarily have to be real for them to be produced.

"Edward, is returning the items that he bought and exchanging the sizes." Esme said as she placed the phone back in her pocket.

"NO seriously, who thought that." Alice stomped her feet in determination. I looked around the room and sheepishly put my hand up.

"Alice I didn't mean it. I promise."

Alice shrugged and gave me a hug. "I know. I do want to know how he knew what a pixie looked like. I doubt that his mom was talking about pixies."

"I don't know, I guess he pulled the image of one out of my mind. That means his gift is getting stronger."

"Ha, I wonder what my monkey man wants to do with that ice cream cone."

A/N: It's a bit long, but next up is a chapter for Morning Moon.