Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight

Chapter 26

I was terrified. Pure fear was making my heart beat faster and my palms sweat.

I was about to take three babies on a plane. For five hours.

Adam had pulled all the strings he could and had gotten us a first class upgrade so at least we could piss off the rich people if we were going to piss of anyone. I was sure Annaleigh would be fine; we had flown with her a few times before back and forth to La Push and she was generally okay. Ellen, I wasn't so sure about. On previous journeys she would be alright for an hour or so, then she'd start fussing. And with Lacey, I had no idea. She had been born in San Francisco and in the first six months of her life she'd never left.

Juggling three children was even harder than I had expected it to be. There was one point, in the departure lounge, when I considered the legal and ethical implications of drugging them so they'd sleep through the flight. Adam managed to talk me out of this and instead encouraged Anna to run and scream and jump on everyone and everything she could find with the intention of wearing her out so she'd sleep later. It was a good plan. Lacey was doing the screaming, but not the running, and Ellen was trying to keep up with her.

"Three kids?" one woman asked as she bravely took a seat next to us. She was wearing a cream business suit, looked to be somewhere in her mid thirties and she had impeccably styled blonde hair; I wished she'd move if only to save herself.

"Tell me about it," I muttered. "Remind me again why we're doing this?"

The woman laughed. "I have five at home," she smiled. "I know what you're going through."

"Five?" I asked her, incredulous. "Seriously, five?"

"Yes," she said. "You both have beautiful children."

"We know," I smirked.

Lacey was sniffling again so I picked her up and hoisted her onto my shoulder to try and calm her down. "Could I have a cuddle?" the woman asked.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. "I mean, you're very… clean." She shook her head and grabbed the blanket, throwing it over her shoulder then taking Lacey from me.

"Come on, sweetheart," she cooed. "Aren't you going to be a good girl for your Daddy?"

I was grateful for another set of hands and left Adam running after Anna and Ellen had sniffled her way to sleep, so I kicked my feet up on to the table and took a long pull of my beer, the first I'd had in ages. "Thanks," I said to the woman as Lacey stopped fussing. "No, seriously, thanks."

"No problem," she said and sat down next to me, still rubbing my baby's back. "She just needed a woman's touch."

"Well, she doesn't get that very often," I laughed.

She looked from me to Adam, then back again. "Oh," she said softly. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize. You don't see two men together with children very often."

"For a good reason," I said. "It's hard work."

"Oh, gosh, I couldn't imagine what I'd do if my husband didn't stay behind with the kids," she said. "I think it's becoming more common."

I smiled and nodded. "That's Lacey," I said, gesturing to the nearly asleep baby. "The eldest one, in the yellow dress, is Annaleigh and this is Ellen."

"They have beautiful names, too," she said. "Marilyn," she said, extending a hand to me.

"Jake," I said and took her hand. "You have no idea how nice it is to meet you."

-x-X-x-

Marilyn sat with us on the plane and helped keep the kids entertained. Adam's plan for exhausting Anna worked and she fell asleep before we were really up in the air so we only had the two babies to deal with. And the fact that we were now at a reasonable adult to child ratio helped.

We left Marilyn with hugs and an excess of thanks at the airport after she helped us load the appropriate kids into our stroller as I tracked down our luggage. It was snowing outside; something that caused excitement bordering on hysteria in Annaleigh who had never seen it before.

And there, cold as snow themselves, were two exceptionally beautiful teenagers, leaning against a black Mercedes estate.

"Jake!" Bella squealed and flew into my arms, almost knocking me back with her solid weight. "Oh my god, Jacob Black, it's so good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Bells," I said and spun her around. After I had set her down and stepped back, the weirdness set in. "You look…"

"I know," she said. Exactly the same, I was about to say. She looked just like as I had always known her to look; young, beautiful, and eternally eighteen. "Come on," Bella said and I realized while I had been ogling my old best friend, with Edward's help Adam had already loaded most of our things into the car. "We should get back to the house."

Bella sat twisted in her seat during the hour long trip to their newest home, chatting about every subject we could think of; where they'd been, what they had been doing for the past nine years, how everyone was. We carefully avoided subjects such as her father, and Forks; I knew that this would still hurt.

"Are you still going to stay for two weeks?" she asked and Adam nodded.

"This is my last holiday before I head back to work," he said in apology.

"Esme is so excited to see you again," Bella smiled. "I know Jake is freaking out right now, but Esme looks the same too."

"Shut up, Bells," I said. "The rest of us are pushing thirty and you're still a fricking teenager. I'm allowed to be freaked out."

"Seriously?" she said. "Thirty? Jeez, Jake, that's old."

"But I've got my babies," I said to her with a smirk. "I don't care how old I get any more, there's nothing that ages you more than having kids."

"I'll second that," Edward said from the front seat.

"Do you ever wish you could have had more?" Adam asked.

"No," Bella said at the same time Edward said "Yes."

"It would have been nice for Grace to have brothers and sisters, but I'm aware Bella and I will probably be more like siblings to her than parents in the next fifty years or so."

"She wants to be like you?" I asked Edward, genuinely curious.

"Oh, god yeah," Bella said.

"Grace is incredibly like her mother," Edward said with a touch of humor. "She can't stand being the odd one out. Her seventeenth birthday can't come soon enough as far as she's concerned."

"You know there are still people in La Push who would be very unhappy with you doing that."

"She's my daughter!" Bella exclaimed.

"Even so…" I trailed off.

"La Push?" Annaleigh asked from behind us. "Grandma?"

"No, we're not going to see Grandma at the moment," I told her. "But we do get to see Aunty Bella and Uncle Edward for a few weeks." Anna didn't look particularly impressed at this.

Lacey and Ellen slept while we drove out to the house and I wondered how much babysitting Esme would like to do over the next few days. The idea of someone else watching the kids while I got some blessed sleep was almost too good to be true. Especially someone who never got tired and never slept.

"Don't get mad at me," Edward said from the back seat, "But both of you are thinking the same thing right now, very loudly. Esme would be thrilled to watch your girls while you get some rest."

Adam laughed and I scowled at Edward from behind his back.

"Since we adopted Lacey sleep has been a precious rarity," Adam said. "Mom offered to move in with us but we decided to go it alone."

"I still consider myself lucky that I never had to deal with the sleepless nights," Bella said. "I'll watch them for you as well, I don't mind. How old is Lacey now?"

"Six months," I said and twisted in my seat to check her. She was still sleeping deeply. Shame she couldn't have done that on the damn plane. "Annaleigh is starting pre-school in September, aren't you, sweetheart?"

"Yes," she said obediently. "I want to go now."

"Not yet," Adam laughed. "Soon."

"She's very like you," Edward said and I couldn't help my laugh.

"Go on, tell me."

"If you're sure," Edward said, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. I could see the edges of his smile and I nodded for him to go on. "She's strong and independent and stubborn, already. I imagine she's going to make one hell of a teenager; but my sister could probably tell you more about that than I can. She's very sweet and very loving and the two of you are the most important things in her whole world."

"You got all that from a two and a half year old?" I laughed.

"Children are easy to read, Jake," Edward said. "They're not as complicated as adults. She has strong reservations about me and Bella though; the natural human instinct to shy away from our kind coupled with a Quileute's innate sense of wariness. Don't be surprise if she's clingy for a few days."

I thanked him silently, knowing that he'd hear me.

A few minutes later Edward turned into a partially obscured driveway that lead down to an enormous house. It was a relief to be back to some sort of civilization, trying to maintain routine while we were travelling was almost impossible and I was desperate to try and get the girls settled again.

Esme and Alice were waiting for us at the door as Edward pulled up in front of the garage and I was pulled into hugs with both of them, trying to hide my discomfort at the way they looked exactly the same. It was really disconcerting even though I knew what to expect.

"We've set up a couple of guest rooms for you," Esme said as I unloaded a cranky Anna from the back seat. "I don't know if you want to go and get comfortable first and then come down and catch up with us later?"

"We could use a hand," Adam laughed as he unbuckled the car seats.

"Oh, of course," Esme agreed and lifted up Ellen's car seat and two suitcases.

Between Esme, Alice, Edward and Bella we managed to hike all of our luggage and children up the stairs to the three rooms they had set out for us.

"Anna's got mine and Jasper's room," Alice said as she opened the door for me. "We don't really use it for sleeping, anyway."

"Thanks for that visual," I said with a groan and Alice giggled.

"I meant we keep our clothes and stuff in here," she said, mock indignant. "Is Anna okay in the bed?"

"She'll probably end up in ours anyway," I shrugged. "I don't know if she'll sleep in here tonight, but I'm definitely going to try her. She needs a nap for a couple of hours anyway."

Esme was helping Adam get Ellen and Lacey down in the next room and I felt a little guilty for abandoning him, but Edward seemed to be spot on with Anna's mood- she was clingy and tired and fussy. I kicked off my shoes and crashed out on the bed, pulling her onto my chest so her head was tucked under my chin. Her thumb found her mouth and it only took a few moments of blissful quiet before she was asleep.

Once she was snoring I rolled her over and tucked her in, getting up to find Adam. He was only in the next room; both Lacey and Ellen were changed and bottles were firmly lodged in hungry mouths. I was touched to see that someone had set up two cribs side by side like we had them at home, meaning they could see through the bars and keep each other company. Esme was standing and rocking Ellen as she fed her, my daughter cushioned in several blankets.

"She didn't like the cold," Esme said in a quiet voice as I tried to wrap my tired brain around what was going on. "Or how solid I am. But she seems to like me, I think."

I smiled. "I'm sure she does."

Walking over to Adam, I brushed his hair back and kissed his head. "Is Anna asleep?" he asked.

"Out like a light," I told him, lifting Lacey from his arms as he put her finished bottle to one side. I laid her down in the left side crib as Adam drew the curtains for a little more dimness in the afternoon sunlight. When Esme had put Ellen down I grabbed our monitors and set them up, not that I'd likely need them with present company. They could probably hear the girls better than the monitors could anyway, but I'd gotten a bit obsessive about keeping them on me.

"Come on, let's go and say hi to people," Adam said, taking my hand and squeezing it. I was used to battling the tiredness, I barely even felt it any more.

"Oh, get some rest if you need to," Esme interjected quickly. "We won't mind, I promise. The others are still out, actually. I think Edward drove home a bit quicker than they were expecting."

"Our flight landed early," I told her. "We were lucky."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Adam asked. "I feel rude just going to sleep as soon as we get here."

"Of course not," Esme said with a smile. "I'll come wake you up in an hour if you like."

"You're a saint," Adam said.

"You're an angel," I agreed.

"I'm a grandmother," she laughed.

As soon as the door to our bedroom clicked shut, I was tearing my jeans off and crawling into bed. Then I realized I was still wearing socks, and kicked them off under the covers. Adam joined me seconds later and after a few quick kisses I put my head on his chest and fell into a blissfully easy sleep.

-x-X-x-

"Tell us more about Lacey then, Adam," Carlisle asked as we settled in with mugs of hot coffee. We'd slept, been woken up and I knew I'd need to go and get Anna soon but the temptation was strong to stick with adult conversation for just a little longer.

"Yeah, how is Becca?" Alice added. Adam looked to me, and I shrugged.

"It's difficult," I started. "She's living with Rachel still and she's in therapy twice a week. Most of our updates come through Rach because Becca isn't really talking to many people and she doesn't seem to want to just, you know, chat with us."

"We've had long letters from her," Adam said, "telling us more about what happened with the guy who got her pregnant, but there are still big gaps in time that she's not telling anyone about. Rach says that letting this stuff out is part of the counseling she's getting and to just read what she tells us and not push her."

"Like the four months before she turned up on our doorstep," I picked up the story easily, used to the easy rhythm of talking with Adam. "We know where she was when she met this guy, and where they were living when she fell pregnant, but she won't talk about anything past when she found out she was pregnant."

"I wish I knew," Alice said, sounding frustrated. "I wish I could find out for you."

"It's okay," Adam said quickly. "It's really Becca's story to tell if and when she's ready. The most important thing is for her to get healthy again." I smiled, marveling again at how wonderful this man was.

The other Cullens were all back from wherever they had been, hunting, I supposed, and we had all gathered on deep leather sofas in their family area. Bella had gone out with Edward; they were going to collect Grace from her friend's house. I had learned that there was a fair amount of 'human' food in the house already for Grace so we weren't going to be imposing on them too much. There was a fire on low to keep the cold out of the air and I was still battling my discomfort at seeing these perfect, unchanging people again. I felt like I was in some time warp where I had been pulled back ten years; I felt like I should be hating Edward for loving Bella, and be jealous and angry and full of teen- angst.

But it was nice in some ways to hang out with the Cullens without all of that drama. They were good friends to us and now, I could barely even smell that awful sweet vampire smell. Sometimes, when one of them appeared too quickly I could, just about, but most of the time I got nothing. I suppose I still had the wolf gene inside me, even if it was dormant.

"I saw her have the baby," Alice interrupted my thoughts. "I was going to call and tell you but Bella told me not to meddle."

I laughed. "Bella was probably right. I went nuts at her."

"I saw that too," Alice said, sounding guilty.

"Don't worry," Adam told her, reaching over the couch to grab her hand. I battled old instincts to grab him and drag him back. Alice was sat with Jasper, he was playing with the ends of her hair. "Becca needed to do things her own way. I think if we'd tried to tell her what to do it would have had an even more negative effect on her."

Jasper nodded. "I agree with Adam," he said to Alice. "Becca might have made some poor decisions, but they were hers to make and to live with. She can take her time in therapy coming to terms with her own actions now, not resenting others for making them for her."

Our conversation drifted back to what we had all been up to for the past eight years. Esme was still teaching Grace and there was a strong home schooling community in the area they were living in; she told us about how groups of home school Moms would get together to do 'class trips' and such.

"I can remember when you first met Grace," Rosalie laughed. "You just freaked out."

"I'm better around kids these days," I joked with her. "Wait til ours wake up- then you can see how much fun it is to juggle them all."

"Speaking of which, do you want to go and get Anna?" Adam asked me. "We should let the little ones sleep a bit longer."

"Yeah, I'll go wake her up," I said, standing and stretching. I kissed Adam on the top of his head before I wandered back through the big house to go and get my girl. It was similar to the house they had had in Forks; wide, open spaces and lots of artwork, some of which I recognized, but this house was slightly more rich and opulent than the last one. Where their house in Forks was white and clean and modern, this one had wood paneling and heavy drapes and fine, gold and crystal chandeliers. I guessed that this was either coming back into fashion, or just a change from what they were used to. Or maybe it hadn't been redecorated since they moved back here and they had owned it years ago. It was spotlessly clean, though.

Anna was sleeping when I got to her room so I climbed onto the bed with her. She'd wake up naturally then with me next to her, hopefully not realizing that I had left her while she slept.

"Come on, girlie," I whispered to her as she stretched and yawned, her cheeks all red from sleep. "Hey sweetheart, lets get up and go meet some new people," I told her as she opened her eyes. Anna did not look particularly impressed at being woken up, or at the prospect of meeting the Cullens. I didn't blame her. I gathered her up and cuddled for a few moments before getting up and deciding to get her changed; she had gone to bed in her travelling clothes and her hair needed to be brushed or something, it was a mess.

I let Anna choose her clothes to try and get back in her good books and it worked, sort of. She ended up in a pair of jeans with a dress over the top, but I figured if anyone asked I would either claim she was very fashion conscious at two and a half, or play the Dad card. We weren't supposed to know how to dress little girls.

I heard Edward's voice as I descended the main staircase again; it sounded like he was arguing with someone.

"It's just not fair on the poor thing," he scolded. "It's terrified of us."

"He's only scared 'cos you're shouting," a small, petulant voice told him. "Be nice, Daddy, and he'll like you."

"It's not as simple as that Grace, as you very well know. Take him up to your room and get him settled. Jake and Adam are here so come down when you're ready, please."

I slowed my steps as a small girl ran up past me, clutching a tabby colored kitten in her hands. Edward was right, it did look scared shitless. Grace looked at me then blushed an old, familiar shade of pink as she dropped her head and scampered past. Anna's eyes followed the Cullen's newest pet and I could tell she wanted to play with it but she was too shy to ask. Instead she hid her face in my neck.

I met Edward at the bottom of the stairs and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Just wait," he said in a warning tone. I laughed and followed him back through to the family room where Bella was sat with Emmett; Edward quickly found his place next to her.

"Grace has adopted a kitten," Bella announced to Carlisle. "I told her to give it back right away but she doesn't seem to want to do that."

"A kitten?" Emmett asked, then cracked up. "No way. Poor thing. It's going to be scared to death of us."

"It already is," Edward said in a low, resigned voice. "Grace is taking him upstairs for now until we decide what to do with it."

"Okay, place your bets," Emmett said, clapping his hands then rubbing them together. "Who dies first, Grace or the cat. Five bucks says the cat. Alice, you're excluded from this."

"That's not fair," she exclaimed.

At the same time, I told Emmett: "That's disgusting."

At the same time, Adam said "Five bucks on Grace."

I hit him on the shoulder, and Anna giggled. "Hey," he said, rubbing his shoulder. "I have daughters. I know what Edward's feeling right now."

"Stressed, frustrated, bemused and annoyed," Jasper added, somewhat helpfully.

"Speaking of dinner, is Anna hungry?" Rosalie said. Esme and Bella groaned, Alice giggled and Carlisle dropped his head to his hands.

"Rose, that's obscene," Emmett said as I stood to take Anna to the kitchen with Bella, and his voice rose to a shout as we walked away. "A kitten is only tiny. It's more of a light snack than dinner!"