The next chapter is the last chapter. This was so emotional, I won't lie and say I didn't cry. I did. I won't leave you reading this for too long besides asking you to read the notes at the bottom and to thank Angels of the Night Watchers for taking time to edit this 11, 957 word chapter.
Enjoy!
I couldn't have told you how I got from point A to point B, but somehow I managed to get back to the house. I couldn't really pay attention to anything, it was like there was some strange pounding in my head. There was some strange pounding in my head, that drowned out everything I heard by it's quick rhythm. It could have even been my heart. I could feel the sharp pains from it beating too hard against my ribs, but it wasn't as terrible as whatever sobbing animal was in the woods with us. It had followed us all the way to the house, but when I looked around me I couldn't see it. It hadn't stopped weeping since Jake and I had left the beach, though.
Even though the sound of the drums was deafening me, I could really tell that my head was foggy and I caught myself consciously thinking that maybe I was in some kind of shock, but I couldn't think of why. I couldn't think of something that had happened that would send me into shock, I could just think of the beach and the waves and some poor screaming corpse being thrown into a fire…
When we got home it seemed someone had gone ahead to warn the doctor that we were on our way. I could tell this even through my foggy mind because there was no other reason that any of the Cullens would have come so close to my house. Carlisle was standing in front of our house, a creepy leather medical bag in his hands. He stood with two other undead demons, Mom, Claire, and Nessie.
It was weird to think I had forgotten all about Renesmee - then again, with the fog that was in my head I wouldn't doubt if it had all been a dream that I had forgotten everyone. It seemed so likely, I mean, if I had lost my memory and magically gotten it back why did everyone look so fucking devastated? Renesmee looked sad too. Renesmee never looked sad. Maybe it was my emotions trying to deny the idea of vampires and the fact that Nessie wasn't technically all vamp, but Nessie and I had been great friends. We had been very close, spending a lot of time together. My life all centered around the birth of this girl, who was older than me by days. Her mom had hooked my imprint, and her dad had hooked her mom, and in the end the two hooked up and had her which was a pretty strong lure for my wolf genes to spaz out and make me into an oversized wolf pup to 'defend my people' before I was out of my fucking diapers. It had alienated me from everyone. It was why I was as brash - is brash even a word? - and bitchy, because I had been raised by those types of people because I was a werewolf and it was too dangerous for me to play with other kids, so I could only play with her for a lot of my childhood - complete the cycle of how it all begins and ends with her.
Claire and Renesmee ran to me, which made me notice that Jake was carrying me. I was surprised that I hadn't thought of complaining about it - but something told me that this was the right thing to do, that I shouldn't be walking anyway. I just couldn't remember why.
But when I saw the looks on their faces, it told me what I already think I knew - something terrible had happened.
Ness kept a cool hand on my forehead as she shot happy pictures into my head, pictures we always used to think of together. My wedding with Jake, her wedding with Nahuel, being bridesmaids for each other, going somewhere tropical just the two of us where vampire and werewolf rivalries wouldn't interfere in our day-to-day plans. Through the lazy haze of whatever shock I was in, I understood what she was doing; these pictures were supposed to help keep me calm. It told me that whatever had happened had not only happened, but it had happened to me.
They took me inside, crowding around my house that I knew would just reek later. They were saying things that I didn't understand and I was starting to get annoyed. I didn't like not knowing what was going on when I knew that it had to do with me. Why the fuck couldn't I pay attention? Why couldn't I hear what they were saying - something about the couch being too dirty and the bed being unnecessary. I felt cold hit my back suddenly and realized I was placed on my dining room table.
"Leave," Claire said harshly, I wasn't used to that bitchiness coming from her - at least, not in public. She was making people leave the room; Dad and Embry and Daniel - when had they all gotten here? I wanted to ask them to find the sobbing animal outside. Something told me that it was hurt or it was dying and for some reason that thought devastated me. Claire cut my thought process off by being a fucking moron and trying to push Jake away from me, but I held his hand and pulled him back using all my strength. He stumbled back to me. She got the idea.
"I said leave." Her words were still cruel and cold, if she used that voice with me I would have been almost intimidated. Still would have flipped her off, but I would have been impressed with her big mouth, big heart, and little sense. I turned to tell her that I didn't want Renesmee and Mom to leave . Ness was replaying some of the best memories that I couldn't remember up until today and at the same time, I was sure I hadn't thought of them in years. It was something that I reveled in - who would have thought that my shitty fucking past could mean so much to me now?
But then I realized, it wasn't them that she was shooing out. It was Bella. Bella was in my house, watching me with dark eyes. Her eyes were almost dark enough that they could pass for the human brown eyes she had passed down to her daughter, only hers still had a haunting gold varnish to them. Those sick, creepy, disgusting eyes looked down at something on my legs pointedly, as if I were supposed to look, too. I didn't want to follow her silent directions, but I was in too much of a daze to really think about who they were coming from.
I looked down to my legs, my naked legs, and saw blood - blood that was indefinitely mine. And at the same time, that blood was also certainly not mine.
What the fucking fuck was going the fuck on?
Bella was in my house.
Bella was in my house after a vampire attack.
I had attacked a vampire…had it been Bella?
No. If it had been Bella, Bella would not be here.
I had attacked Jotham.
"Fuck!" I screamed in horror, looking back down to the blood on my legs and starting to wipe it away viciously. I had broken through the fog in my brain that had tried to save my sanity and now I was left to panic and hurt. Fuck everything hurt. It was like my body had crashed against a brick wall to get through the haze of the shock. I wiped the blood away faster - it couldn't be mine. I should not be bleeding and feeling this kind of pain at the same time. It couldn't be mine.
"No, no, Franki, calm down. Calm down," my mom's voice was calm, but I didn't know why. Was I the only one who knew why there would be blood between my legs?
"No! Carlisle, Carlisle, what did I do? Carlisle-" I started, my heart was pounding again and it was trying to take over all the other sounds as it pounded in my ears - no, I would not block this out again. I couldn't go back into shock, I needed to stay awake. I needed to make sure everything was alright.
"Francine, your mother is right," Carlisle began firmly, though as he pushed my shoulder down I could tell he was trying to be very gentle with me. "I'm sorry, but if you get any more excited I will have to sedate you; we can't have you phasing again."
I could have been death for all that registered. "Is he okay? Is my baby okay? Jake…Daniel…Embry - is everyone okay?"
"You did good, Franki-baby." Jake whispered, trying to sound encouraging. I couldn't ignore that his voice sounded thick, he made up for it by taking the hand he had been holding and raising it to cracked lips. He was okay. He was alive. "You saved us. All of us."
"No, not fucking all." I whispered back, looking back to Carlisle. I could feel my eyes start to pop out of my head when I realized he had put on rubber gloves and was waiting for me to look at him to speak.
"Alright, Francine, I'm going to get a look at what we're dealing with. I need you to lean back on the table and place your legs - yes, just like that. This may sting."
It didn't sting. A sting was what you felt when a needle pierced the skin or someone pinched you. Whatever he did wasn't a pain I was used to. Whatever he was doing didn't sting, but ached and at the same time it felt like something inside of me was being torn. I was fighting back boiling-hot tears again…I realized briefly that I had already been crying and wondered if maybe that sobbing animal had only been half animal... As I fought the tears back, Jacob's eyes went from looking at Carlisle: a terrible expression pulled across his hot-as-fuck face that made it not-so-hot, to looking down at me and having his eyes soften so he could become gorgeous again. But what worried me wasn't that he looked almost ugly in his distress, it was that he had taken his eyes off of me in the first place. He squeezed my hand, I squeezed back - it hurt, but it was a good distraction. I saw his eyes flicker to Carlisle again before he squeezed my hand harder. What was he looking at?
I lifted my head slightly, trying to see what he was doing but it was an awkward angle. I didn't even have the courtesy of being bashful that I was buck-ass naked in front of so many people with my legs spread open for the doctor. Maybe I should have been. But I was too preoccupied by the fact I couldn't see properly. I had not noticed that my belly was this fucking big! It wasn't massive - hell, it wasn't even large - but I was showing. How had I not known I was showing, how had I not paid attention to that? Was head-injured Francine blind? Was it just because I knew that something was wrong that I was now taking the time to inspect every detail of myself? Either way, there was a belly showing there. I could tell because I couldn't look over it like I used to be able to.
Claire came and pushed my head back down, Mom took the time to run her fingers through my hair and shush me like she used to when I skinned my knee and she would wait with me until it healed. She was shushing me. She didn't want to let me know what was happening. They were trying to keep me from seeing and deciding anything. I started to cry. I couldn't help it and spend the energy that I needed for an ongoing freak-out to fight back tears now.
Why wasn't anyone saying anything? Why wasn't anything happening?
Ness was showing pictures of us in the sunshine. Those had been my favourite days with her because I knew we would never run into her Momster. She was trying to distract me. They were all trying to keep me from knowing what the fuck was going on and I deserved some goddamn answers. Why could this shit be between my legs and I not know what he's even looking for?
"Francine, you need to calm down," Carlisle warned me. I tried, I really did, but the more he worked in this crippling silence the more I realized something was very fucking wrong. Carlisle would have been comforting me. Ness wouldn't be distracting me with these projections. She would have started planning our next girls-day and explaining the plans. Mom would have stopped humming so that we could listen to what he had to say. Jake would feel bad about breaking my hand - even if he hadn't realized he'd let it heal and fractured my fingers multiple times since we came in the room.
"Claire, I need you to grab the box from my bag - in the top there should be syringes. Yes, I need a syringe with clear liquid - thank you." Claire had been hesitant to leave me, but she'd walked over to the leather bag and the plastic box to grab whatever syringe with clear liquid in it. A lot of clear liquid. It made me shake more, I was not afraid of the needle - I was afraid of why I would need it. "This will help calm you down."
He injected it into the top of my hand without permission or a freak out from Jake. I must have deserved it. The medicine felt cold in my veins for the minute that it surged it's way toward my heart - then I felt it spread like a web. It gave me a funny tingle in my chest that spread out to the tips of my fingers and toes, it made my eyes droop. It had a strange smell, chemical, but there was also a smell of something sweet - something that made me think of something red…
"Morphine?" I asked quietly, Jake nodded his head rigidly, pressing my hand against his dry lips again.
"We have to keep you calm, Cubs. No more phasing."
"No more phasing," I agreed, though I'm sure that the amount of morphine he had put in was the reason it came out slurred. I wanted to make a comment about how fucking ironic it was that he was now ordering me not to phase when he had been threatening that he would alpha-order me to phase however many weeks ago. I didn't. It wasn't the time to be a bitch.
"It'll be okay, sweetie," my mom whispered from above me, still fingering through my hair. Claire was beside me and as I turned my head toward her she tried to hide her tears by turning her face away. It didn't matter, I could smell them. Renesmee was concentrating very hard in projections that were beginning to turn hazy, or maybe it was my brain going hazy again. I couldn't tell.
"Wha's hap'ning?" my words had slurred terribly now. Jake turned his eyes back to me again. "Cake," I couldn't tell if I had used his old nickname on purpose or not.
"Did you know Franki got her memory back?" Jake asked quietly, not taking his eyes off of me. "Right before she tackled that leech and tore the son of a bitch apart."
"Mhm," I mumbled, trying to hold his eyes while mine drooped. It was very difficult to finish my thoughts, they kept breaking off to try and determine what the morphine was hiding. It did not numb the pain, only made me stupid enough to not care about it. "Y'pr'mised…y'promised me…"
"What'd I promise?" Jake whispered, looking toward me intensely and gripping my hand. He was scared. He was scared for me.
"Y'd paint th' house."
There was a moment that he tried to understand what I was saying before he let out a loud laugh. It was a booming laugh, one filled with pain and relief that he had that moment of trying to understand the joke rather than focus on what was happening in this room.
"I'll still paint the house," he promised with a smile.
"Y' said that for m'nths," I whispered, letting my eyes droop before pushing them open. It took a lot of effort to open them and look back toward the doctor as he pulled away from my nether-regions.
"We need to operate. I can hear that he's alive, but there is something wrong," Carlisle explained in a clipped voice. The haze in my mind didn't help me to understand what he meant, but it seemed like no one else did either.
"Operate how?" Jake asked tightly.
"I'm going to need to deliver the baby. I believe he may have separated from the placenta with the transition or movement from the attack."
"Deliver?" Mom asked in a high voice, I didn't understand what it meant but she sounded concerned. "The baby isn't full term."
"The baby isn't even close to full term," Claire corrected. It was then that it started to hit me - deliver. The word deliver meant to bring something. Like I was going to bring something into this world, into my family…Carlisle had to deliver my baby.
He had to deliver my baby three months early.
"Babies survive as little as fifteen weeks. She is over a month farther along than that - she is half term, it will have to do." Carlisle explained and though his words were all medical and heartless, his voice was sympathetic and gentle.
"What can happen? What happens when it's done so early?" Jake asked nervously. "What happens if we don't?"
"The baby will die. The blood is a warning to let us know that the baby is dying. Francine is going through a miscarriage - if we act quickly, we may be able to save him. There are possibilities of lung failure, infection, and organ failure that are the most prudent to watch for if the baby makes it past gestation...but I believe it is a risk Franki would want to take."
"What about Franki?" Jake demanded. "What will this do to her?"
Carlisle's face went into a well constructed mask he must use all the time as a doctor. "Besides the emotional aspect of losing or saving her child, Francine's body is currently going through severe trauma. She could lose too much blood, damage her uterus, or become infected."
"I don't like those options, doc," Jake winced with a strong voice, looking back to me quickly. I could keep my eyes open now, I could feel the effect of the morphine beginning to slowly wear from my body.
There was a whisper from somewhere in the room, to which Jake started hissing back. I couldn't pay close enough attention to understand what the words meant because they were so quiet and even my great hearing couldn't make sense of them and hear them, but I could tell Jake was distraught and the other person was angry.
"She made a decision to save me and risk the baby," Jake bellowed loudly - he effectively shut up what sounded like multiple voices. "I have to do the same for her. If something could happen to Franki because of this, we need to let things play out in the safest way for her."
"You've always been against this!" That was Claire. Claire was mad.
"No, I've been against Franki getting hurt - now maybe you get why!"
"Franki would rather die than let this baby die," Renesmee. Quieter. Mechanical. Factual.
"Franki could die if we do anything. She just healed from her first cliff-dive!" Jacob. Something about the hysterical waver in his voice told me he really was concerned about me and not just being stubborn. I wonder how bad I look.
"We're not risking the baby-"
"We're not risking Franki!"
The voices were getting more and more angry and even though I was fighting to try and keep up with the current thanks to the lessening drug stupor, I could make out that this argument didn't need to be had.
"Why don't we let Franki decide?" Nessie was almost as great a mind reader as her dad was. Claire was usually that in tuned with me too, not that right now was one of those times. She wasn't really paying attention to me, she was still trying to win the argument. I'm almost positive that it was her voice arguing with Jake and it was my mom who was crying over me.
"She can't decide," Jake sneered, letting go of my hand. Suddenly, with the loss of his warmth the argument made a lot more sense to me. He was back to being an asshole. And right now we did not have time to take his head out of his ass and show him what this argument looked like.
"No," I mumbled. At first, I was sure that the only ones to hear me would be Jake and Nessie with their super hearing, but no one stopped at all. "No," I said louder.
All sounds stopped.
"I want him." I looked to Jake and threw my hand toward him, it flopped off the edge of the table. It was more numb than I had realized, but it still was stretched out toward him and he quickly moved to pick it up and press his lips against it. "I want you both."
"Franki, I can't even think of losing you…" Jake whispered, looking at me seriously. I tried to smile at him; for all I knew my mouth may not have moved, but luckily the drugs were wearing off - even if it did engulf me in pain. Jake seemed to get the idea I was trying to be sweet with that smile because he took his lips from my hands so he could lean forward and pressed them against mine.
"Y'u won't," I said simply. "I'm not goin' anywh're ever again."
"You couldn't even if you wanted to," he laughed, though I could hear his throat was tight with tears he was refusing to shed.
"Could too," I mumbled. "I'mma fucking wolf again. I could fight y'u. And I c'n fight this."
"I know you can." He whispered, closing his eyes tight and kissing me again. "I know."
"I know you don' want to," I whispered, glad that I was burning off the morphine so quickly. All the pain was coming back three-fold; pain in my abdomen that I'm sure will haunt me for the rest of my life. "Lemme keep him."
"It's not that I don't want to Franki," he whispered. "That fight - the one before you got hurt - it was all a bunch of bullshit. I wasn't saying what I meant to say. It's not that I don't want to have babies with you. Fuck, Franki, I want to have a whole pack of rugrats with you, but look at what-"
"I know," I whispered, trying to ignore the mounting pain. I couldn't tell if my heart was starting to beat faster because of the emotions from Jake or from the sensations in the lower half of my body. Carlisle seemed to take it as the medicine wearing off, so he dug into his little plastic container to ready another needle. I waved it away. "Wait, I need to be able to say this right."
"Franki, take the medicine-"
"No," my voice wasn't quite missing the slur, but I knew he'd strain so hard to listen that he'd pick everything up. "Listen. That fight was stupid, we both said things we didn't mean. I'm in love with you, did you know that? Just you. And I know what you mean now, I know why you didn't want me to stop phasing. It took your worst fears for us to realize what exactly could happen. But it's okay. It's all okay now. I'm phasing again, Jake." His smile was watery, but he nodded. He was noticeably happier that I was phasing again. He wanted me to live with him forever - and in his mind forever had been a long fucking time to consider having children. He didn't want to rush me and rush our lives and our process of growing old. We had all the time in the world to do it.
Or, we did.
Then again…maybe, if nightmares come true, we still would.
"But here's what I need to know," I said again, my voice as strong as I could make it even though I couldn't tell if the tears were still streaming down my face or if he could hear me gritting my teeth against the goddamn, disturbing, tearing sensation in my abdomen. "Are you okay with a baby now that the danger's over? Because I know we can protect it. I know it. But I can't do this, any of this, without you."
He had tears in his eyes as he leaned down and placed a kiss on each of my eyelids. It was soft and he took his time even though he was obviously rushing himself to make a decision. He smiled down at me, so close I could feel his lips brushing against mine.
"I want you. Every part of you."
I smiled, remembering the recent conversation where I had explained I loved the baby because it was a part of him, though I couldn't help making him say it again for my own selfish ears. "Every part?"
"Every goddamn part."
I kissed him as hard as I dared until I felt a painful almost tug, an inch or two below my belly button. It was so intense that I pulled away from Jake so that I could yelp. He held my hand and made me look at him again.
"We're doing this. Right here, right now. We're going to make this work. I'm going to stay right here, and we are going to make this work. Got it?" It was nice to hear that he was not only supportive but passionate about it. I knew he was probably writhing inside with indecision - the baby was our baby, but I was going through the pain and the heavy consequences. The imprint did not let me feel pain without it echoed from his side.
"Okay," I panted, my body already starting to reject the pain again by sending out terrible numb bolts of lightning down my legs. Each time the numbness cleared it was as if the nerves burned. Carlisle had two needles ready, one with a white liquid, the other filled with more morphine.
"This syringe is filled with a pill I liquefied - I need to get it into your system quickly, your body will reject it otherwise. This is going to trigger your contractions." He explained to me, going up to the crook of my elbow to find a vein.
"Give me the fucking morphine," I moaned. Carlisle shook his head.
"I'm sorry Francine, I need this to take effect first to ensure that you are going into labour. If I give you the morphine now, it may numb the pain to the point you can't target where the pain is coming from and then we won't know what's going on."
"I'll be giving birth, I'm sure I'll fucking know!"
"Because the dose of morphine is not specific, or predictable for wolves, I may give you a dose so high you may not know whether or not you are pushing. That may mean life or death for the infant." I shut right the hell up. "Edward."
Edward reappeared moments after his name had been called with some of the towels from my closet. Great. Now they would smell like leech for the birth of my child. Carlisle took the time to shove the towels under my hips and pelvis, also being kind enough to take the time and cover me up with one of the towels. Now I was no longer stark-ass naked, at least. I can't believe the leech who married my boyfriend's once-crush was currently looking at my fucking vagina.
"I am here for purely medical reasons," the redhead explained. More pain triggered right around that point so I couldn't think of a smart ass response to fire back. To be more specific, I couldn't actually think of anything besides the waves of agony crippling everything below my bellybutton.
"The baby is in pain, Carlisle," Edward had meant to say it quietly, but the pain was spiking up all my senses to try and overtake my overwhelmed sense of touch and feel. I felt my heart stop as I comprehended what was being told to me.
"You can hear him?"
Edward nodded stiffly.
"Well is he okay? Is he going to make it? What do you mean pain? What's wrong? Tell me what the fuck is going on!" I screamed at him, getting more and more frustrated. He turned from me, ignoring what I said, so that he could speak to Carlisle. He did it in such a hushed voice that I wouldn't have been able to understand it had I tried.
"What the fuck are you saying, asswipe?" I hissed, giving him a dangerous glare.
"Franki's right, what's going on?" Jake asked in his strong, alpha voice. It was comforting, to know that he was behind me and that he would stick up for me when douche bags like the Cullens didn't want to answer my questions.
"The infant needs to come out," Edward explained hesitantly. "Now."
"We need to get her to a hospital," Claire was alert, ready to take the reigns. She came up to me, bending down my face. "Hear that, Cubs? We're going to get you to a hospital and get your healthy little boy into your arms."
She was being kind. Any boy being born a trimester and a bit early would be lucky to live, nevertheless to ever be considered healthy.
"No time," Renesmee said quietly, her voice was very quiet as she was focusing on everything that was happening and multitasking as she tried to distract me from the pain with her projections - which had now turned to her imagining us going to Tahiti.
"Renesmee is right, we will need to do it here." Carlisle explained simply.
"What?" Claire shrieked, standing up and moving away from me to hiss to the vampires under her breath. "We can't deliver a baby here!"
"You don't have to," Edward told her tightly, it was not rude but almost defensive.
"On the kitchen table? Seriously?"
"It needs to be done, Claire." Nessie assured.
"Jake, you can't seriously think this is the best idea - what if something goes wrong?" Claire demanded. Jake did not take his eyes off me before he shook his head.
"This whole day has gone wrong."
"Auntie Em, you can't really be considering the vampires deliver the baby here!" Claire realized she was running out of options as she turned to my mother who briefly stopped running her hands through my hair to concentrate.
"What needs to happen will happen." Mom's voice was warm, but it was oddly disconnected. It was strange to hear her like that, I'd never heard my mother so impersonal - she must be terrified.
"Franki?" Claire asked. "Is this what you want?"
"If you have any better ideas, Claire, please share them!" Jake growled, turning to center her into a blazing glare. Claire seemed to hold her ground.
"I have some ideas," I had forgotten she was here. Her voice, the voice I hated the most, decided to pipe up and give us her oh-so-wise opinion. "But I'm not sure how they would benefit her."
"Then why the hell are you offering them?" Claire hissed back.
"Then why the fuck are you here?" I snapped at her, turning my brown eyes digging through her golden ones. "Get out of my house!"
"My daughter, husband and father-in-law are here; I am not going anywhere." Her tone was haughty, but sadly her facts were right. Then again, when had someone being right ever stopped me from hating the facts?
"Get out! Get out! Get her out!" I screamed, wrestling against the hand Jake put to hold me down. I was going to remove her myself if she wouldn't leave, I decided as my mind began going into a frenzy.
The feelings coursing trough me were a mix of past hatred and primal instinct. My instincts told me not to let her be here. They told me that I needed to stop her before she became a part of this moment. This monster was not going to see my baby. She would kill my baby. I had no doubt I could take her out if she tried to hurt him - but what if that one extra vampire in the room made my baby phase, like I had?
"You have a point," Edward said quickly. "But Carlisle and I are not expendable. Bella, Renesmee, would you please go into the other room?"
"No, Ness, stay!" I ordered, turning to Renesmee, whose hand was still on my temple, and glared her down in case she had even thought of leaving. It seemed she didn't. Bella, on the other hand, looked appalled that her husband had agreed with me instead of her. Luckily it seemed like he had her whipped just like she had had Jacob whipped once upon a time. Bella was sure not to say anything while she left through the front door and slammed it behind her. The rude act only fueled me more.
"You really think that her being a wall away is going to be enough? We were in different towns and you triggered over a dozen of us!" I hissed. Jacob's grip on my hand tightened in warning.
"Franki," Carlisle almost sounded worried. "You're going to need to calm down."
"I want that bitch away from us," I turned to look at Jacob and show him how much I meant it. Show him how much I hated that fucking bitch and everything she represented - everything she'd done. Why was no one paying attention to the fact I wanted her gone? Why did no one have the instinct I have that she was going to ruin everything again?
"Calm down, Franki…" my mother soothed from behind me. Jake's eyes looked nervous again as they shifted to Carlisle and back to me again. It was almost like he was nervous for the sake of Bella - which surprised me, after all the things he had just said to me. My imprint should be worrying about me and his child, not some undead, no-good, piece of shit whore!
Edward hissed and muttered to calm down, which only got me more riled up. Even her own husband couldn't stand to hear the truth about her relationship with my boyfriend.
"I'm not going to calm down until she leaves. She wants to take my baby!"
"She would never do that," Renesmee insisted, showing me a picture of her oh-so-happy fucking family. The image disgusted me, they were unnatural - pale faced, golden eyed, and smooth as stone. There was not a single imperfection in that image apart from the fact that everything about it was a lie.
"She would - she has. First, she tried to take my Jacob. Then, when she did she threw him back to me, but then got jealous when it finally started to work the fuck out. Then the bitch was happy when I fell off the cliff and fucked with my head when I couldn't remember shit-all. And then she totally ruined how I found out about my baby and now she's going to ruin the birth of him!"
"Edward," Carlisle said softly.
"You better be taking her home-" I hissed, only to see Edward had grabbed the syringe of morphine and opened the crook of the arm Jacob was holding to shove it into my vein. It was horrifying, a stab of betrayal as Jake let it happen to me as he watched on with worried eyes. "You can't even be fucking gentle, you prick?"
I wanted to keep yelling at him, I wanted to make him take his wife away from me, from this town, and to give me this moment. Why couldn't I have this moment: the birth of my child? Why did every moment I have revolve around Bella and what Bella wants and what makes Bella happy and make sure that it all happened when Bella wanted it to?
I just wanted this moment, I wanted the birth of my child to be mine - like Bella had gotten the birth of her child. She had gotten to have both Edward and Jacob there to make her as comfortable as she could have been, to protect their daughter from the harshness of the world. What did I get? I got to worry about her standing there in my garden because this was my moment that she shouldn't have been a part of. This was my baby's moment - why did she have to ruin it for him?
Renesmee had moved on to showing me pictures of what she thought my baby might look like -pictures of infants with crude imaginations of my eyes or Jake's eyes, my nose with no hair, Jacob's smile with tuft of hair…
Yes, I want that. I want my baby to have Jacob's smile.
Oh God, don't let the baby have Jacob's smile…Bella would take him away from me, too.
"Francine, it's okay, this is all about you." Edward encouraged, while he cringed against the thoughts stumbling across my mind, they were scattered thanks to the morphine which also left them, my thoughts, as the only thing in my body to make terrible sense.
"I need you to push, Francine." Carlisle ordered, having placed an empty syringe and little bottle filled with clear medicine, morphine, on the table to the side. It was ready for me to use as I finished burning this dose off in another five minutes.
How do you push when you don't know where that part of your body is? I couldn't tell where any individual part of myself was, save for the calming cool hands on my temples, my mother's playing with my hair, and Jacob's tight grasp of my hand. Fuck, no wonder women took the epidural all the time! It was like you were flying high and it didn't matter that you were in pain. You could still feel distinguish the pain from the morphine, but it didn't matter because it didn't make sense. It was like worrying about drowning when you're flying.
"Franki, you need to come back and pay attention, you need to push." Edward encouraged. "Your son won't survive if you don't."
And very suddenly, I realized I could drown when I was flying.
Because first I'm pretty sure I crash landed into a metaphorical ocean of worry. Then, when I started really pushing - listening to everyone say that it was working - it was like I was flying with happiness and drowning in tears…maybe those two things worked best together so they could get results.
Then, pain. Pain so bad that it was so blinding me and at the same time I knew it was not my pain at all. I could feel that something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
"He's suffocating," Edward had the courtesy to sound panicked.
I started screaming. The panic he'd brought on by his words had me breaking through the morphine to try and push harder. I clutched at the table and could feel it splintering in my hands as I tried, so hard, not to phase. I couldn't calm myself the fuck down hearing that my baby was dying and at the same time, the crying and screaming and urge to run away and keep anyone from hurting my baby made me want to shift into a wolf and escape. I wanted to make sure he was safe and I knew, instinctively, that I was the only one who could keep him safe.
"No Franki, you need to stay with us. Stay with us, the baby needs you here." Edward gave me good motivation, but my body was not responding as it should have.
"More morphine!" Edward ordered, sensing something that I couldn't through my panicked and hysterical mind. I needed to save the baby - morphine would not help with that.
Even then I struggled out of shock and fear when Jake held me down, grabbing the syringe and bottle of morphine. He stabbed the needle through the flimsy lid of the medicine, pulling the plunger as far back as it would go. Like in movies, he tapped the glass and squeezed out air bubbles before he took the hand he had been holding and shoved the needle through the vein there - using the entire bottles worth of medicine.
This time I wasn't flying, I was drowning. Just drowning. There were no metaphors or other things to worry about besides he fact that I was filled to the brim with numbing medication. The morphine weighed heavy in my blood and as soon as I calmed down I could vaguely use the concentration to think that something was wrong.
Edward seemed to agree with me. "She's right, you gave her too much, she's going to faint-"
And then I did.
I couldn't have been out for long, but I couldn't time it.
Seconds?
Minutes?
Hours?
But in the end, I didn't really care to know because the sound that woke me up ripped me right from the darkness, the sleep without dreams. It was the sharp sound that all women were programmed to sympathize. It was the sound of a cry.
Not just any cry. My baby's cry.
"Give him t' me," I had barely opened my eyes before I said it. I could feel that I was still high off of the morphine, who knew how many doses later, and I could feel the sloppiness of it. It was gross. My words sounded all screwed up and my limbs felt heavy when I tried to move them.
"Put this on, Franki." He handed me material that I felt between my fingers. Corduroy. It was a little onesie of short legged coveralls I rarely wore. It would be a good choice for me now. I pulled it under my legs, gasping out when the pain of the labour ached between my thighs. I let out a whimper and looked to Jake, who was facing away from me, hunched slightly. I finished getting the onesie on and felt immediate fear.
"Jake? Is he-"
"He's beautiful." Jake whispered, turning around and making my eyes tear.
There, right in front of me, was definitely most spectacular sight I had ever seen; Jake holding a bundle wrapped in one of my puffy, navy-blue towels. The bundle was crying, stretching tiny hands up towards Jacob's face. And Jake was smiling - oh fuck, he was smiling a one thousand watt smile that was so bright it was like it lit up the entire world and suddenly I was seeing for the first time.
"Yes, I think that's a great idea," Edward mumbled to someone, who knows who it could have been considering he usually answered peoples thoughts rather than their words. "We are going to leave, Francine."
"What, why?" I asked, suddenly a little more sober while I turned to look at the vampires in confusion. "Don't we need to take him to an incubator or something?"
"We would," Edward said, eyes quickly darting toward Carlisle. "But I don't think it's necessary."
"He's only half a goddamn term!" I yelled back, the initial worry returning that these vampires were not here for the right reasons.
"Well, he is a lot like his mother." Edward said to me quietly, something smouldering in his eyes that I didn't understand. It must have been the drugs.
I needed more of these drugs for future bad days.
Jake inched forward slowly, effectively cutting him off, while he was slow in his movements so that he wouldn't jostle the little bundle in his hands - and then, he handed it to me. My baby. The towel swamped the tiny shape in my arms when I realized that the tiny shape wasn't as tiny as it should have been.
"Is this a joke?" The words were filled with disbelief and probably not the first words I should have said for the sake of this memory in future years. But the child in my hands was not a growing fetus only an hour ago - that was impossible.
He was a little smaller than most of the newborns I'd cooed over however-many months ago when I'd started planning pregnancy. He was paler than both Jake and I, but he hadn't gotten to play in the sun yet. He didn't have a tuft of hair like Nessie had imagined, but he had thin and dark little hairs combing over his skull. He was long, he was going to be tall, with Jake's ears and my nose.
But, as soon as I spoke to the others, my son's eyes opened. It was amazing. His eyes were moulded into tiny versions of my own almond-shaped eyes with my dark and curly lashes, but his eyes were not my chocolatey brown - they were the dark brown, an almost black shade of Jacob's. It left me as lost for words looking into our baby's eyes as I feel when I look into his.
"Well, fuck me." I breathed. I could barely pay attention to the laughter that rang through the room. "You are so perfect. But - why?"
There was a lot of silence that no one wanted to fill. I couldn't drag my eyes away from my baby boy, but I could tell that everyone was looking at each other, begging someone else to say whatever it was that had to be said. Something I was missing.
"He's going to be a wolf, Franki…" Jake whispered eventually. "If he isn't one already. That has to be it. Carlisle took a sample and is going to run it to check the chromosomes."
"He's going to be a wolf?" I repeated, trying to swallow the dry lump that had lodged itself deep in my throat. I'd hoped he'd never have to have this happen to him. "Are you sure?"
"Is there any other explanation?" Jake asked, placing his finger close to the baby's hand. The baby didn't take long to grab it - which was wrong. The baby should have been too young to be able to realize to wrap his fingers around Jacob's. "It makes sense, doesn't it? Two wolves made him, vampires gave him check ups…"
"I'm sorry," I whispered to him, guilt flooding me. "I didn't want this for you."
"It's what kept him alive," Edward added softly, as if he knew this was a moment when I wanted to just be with Jake. But I was glad that he was giving me a reason, an explanation as to how this would all work out to be okay. "His extra strength pushed him through it."
"How can he be so big?" How could he have been so big when I was hardly fucking showing? Hadn't my baby bump just been a little bump, not a mountain? It was like comparing an anthill to Kilimanjaro.
"He was wrapped around the placenta. When you phased, he tore it, which caused the problems and early labour. Any child wrapped around the placenta would appear small."
"He's not going to grow like you, is he Ness?" I asked, turning to her. She shook her head, looking down to the bundle in my arms with a firm expression. She understood how upset this made me.
"He shouldn't. Not until his first phase, anyway…"
We all stilled as we thought through her words, thinking about how my son had been brought into the world of fantasy so young in his life he would never have the childhood I'd wanted him to. He'd never play around turning into a superhero or fighting off monsters - because his whole childhood, he would know what real monsters know. He would know what feeling like a hero was like when he had to fight them.
"We should go," Nessie said quietly, obviously speaking to her father. She stood up, rubbing my cheek quickly to show me a picture of her hugging me. She was saying she would if I wasn't holding the baby. I gave her a watery smile.
"I agree," Edward mumbled, locking his eyes with me. I looked worriedly down at my son. "We are going to go now. You have your day, Franki. You have your time with him."
And only him. He didn't say it, obviously, but I knew it was what he meant. He went to open the front door, which that bitch was behind, so that he could take her and leave my presence until the dreaded day when I'd have to see them so I could visit their daughter again. There was a glorious moment where I thought maybe if Renesmee loved me, I would get away without ever having to speak to her again…
But that would be ridiculous.
"Jacob, I-"
And even though I was sure she was going into some long-winded apology that usually meant she was glaring at me over his shoulder and cuddling up to him, so that she could see him and manipulate him again in a few months time…that was all she could say. It was all she could bring herself to say because as she stuck her head into the room, breathing in our business and saying Jacob's name with an affection that both disgusted and terrified me. She stilled - her eyes honing in on the tightly wrapped bundle in my arms. I was terrified as I watched her topaz eyes - freaky e-fucking-nough - darkened so quickly I would have thought her pupils had expanded over her entire eye and then, she lunged.
Multiple pairs of arms shot out in time to grab her, hands that I hadn't even noticed had been waiting in the living room while I had been giving birth. Dad was there, Daniel, Embry, Paul - the whole pack was there, with imprints and retirees. Their large hands held her back as Edward went to block her vision. She hissed, cat-like, ducking her head around her husband and the hands he'd cradled her face with to get a look at my baby boy.
"What the fuck, Bella!" Jacob screamed, struggling to keep her in place. Renesmee, beside me, let out a gasp.
"Oh, no! He's her blood singer, isn't he?"
"What the fuck is a blood singer?" I repeated, baring my teeth at the woman who was still thrashing around my family, trying to get to me and my boy.
"It appears so," Carlisle grunted, obviously upset about something that I didn't understand. It looked like Bella was putting up a pretty good fight against the blockade, which sent my werewolf senses on high alert. I started to shake terribly, almost breaking and stripping the pieces of my human self to make way for who - or what - I always seemed to want to be when I was around her.
It was time. After years and years of waiting, it was finally the moment I needed to kill this home-wrecking whore.
Claire caught on quick to my thought process and took the baby from my arms, backing herself into a corner and pulling my mother along. Renesmee blocked them both protectively, ready to pounce on her own mother if she got too close. It was like everyone was going on red alert as they realized what was about to happen, as they watched my body vibrate joyously with the idea that I would finally get to take out the bitch who tried to steal my man - but why was this happening?
"His blood sings to her. It's what we call a human who is practically irresistible to a vampire," Edward explained through gritted teeth. It threw me into an alert prowl as I walked forward, people shouting at me to stop, but without a seconds hesitation I pulled back my arm and shoved my fist into her mouth.
I felt my knuckles break, I felt my skin rip, but I couldn't bring myself to care about those tiny, insignificant things. So I did it again. And again. It seemed that I had actually been able to daze the marble statue, which briefly turned attention away of my child.
"Mom, stop breathing!" Bella instantly did as she was told, not even bothering to suck in another breath as she shut her mouth and opened her creepy-ass eyes wide, looking up toward her child and mine that were hidden behind me in the far corner of the room.
"Bella, that is Franki's baby. Jacob's baby. Bella, you need to try and think through the pain…"
"Actually, you need to get out." I snarled dangerously, my body shaking like a leaf, ready to fall to the ground and come back covered in my fur that made me look like an overgrown, wolfy Australian Shepherd. Bella's dark eyes raised to me and glared as if she was taunting me to do it.
"Francine is right, we need to get her out of here." Carlisles voice was a little less calm than I was used to and it made the hair on my arms bristle anxiously - if the two fucking vampires was worried about her control, then we had a definite problem. "Edward, I think it is time for us to leave this area."
"I agree, come on Bella, we are leaving. For good. You can say goodbye to Jacob outside."
Bella looked shocked, amazed, and outraged all at once. I couldn't have guessed what I looked like. I was in a bit of shock myself - hadn't I wished for this for years? It was like music to my ears, it was a hallelujah chorus of vampires sprouting wings and leaving La Push for good. I was everything I had ever wanted wrapped into one simple sentence…and yet, it wasn't complete without a few more.
"Wait," I said loudly, clearly. My body was already healing from giving labour but I ached in an goddamn unholy way. I shouldn't be standing like I was - ready to pounce on the bitch - but I was in a protective, angry state. The wolf in me did not like the idea that she was this close to my baby and that was before she had even come close to him. There would be no calming me. "I want to say my goodbye."
Everyone went rigid, knowing that what was about to happen would not be pretty.
"Bella Cullen, you are disgusting." Edward gave a warning growl, but I held up my hand to quiet him down. I was going to say this exactly like I wanted to say this. I'd waited twenty-two years to do it and I wasn't going to let some overgrown disco ball ruin the moment. "You are a disgusting excuse for a creature: human or vampire. You have been a thorn in my side and a shadow in my fucking closet since I was a kid, always trying to get me to be scared of you. But I'm not. And I never have been. The only thing you ever held on me was the same thing I can now hold over you: I have my family and you have yours. And it's time you stay the fuck away from mine."
Bella growled at me subconsciously, a low rumble in the back of her throat that made me bare my teeth.
"I'm not leaving-" she began, but she had breathed again and seemed to realize it when she let out a painful gasp. She clenched her jaw and closed her mouth, no longer breathing in the scent of my son. I wanted to bite her fucking head off for even having that reaction to him, but an arm came out in front to block me.
"Yes, you are." Jake hissed back, his voice was strong and certain, as if he had never once doubted that Bella was a monster that needed to stay away from us all. "You're leaving and you're never coming back."
"Jake," she gasped, hurt. My mouth was hanging open. It was like Christmas. And Easter. And my birthday. And New Years. And any other holiday on the calendar! Jake was standing up for me. Jake was standing up for me against Bella. He was telling her he didn't want to see her, that his family was here with me and that she was no longer going to be a part of it. It made my confidence burn until the words just tumbled out like some vindicating kind of word vomit.
"You are going to leave and never come back here. You're never going to come near my child and you are never going to come near my family again. You tried to take everything from me - you thought you could have it all, didn't you? Thought you could have the husband and the daughter and the boyfriend on the side. Well you were wrong. Because there are things much more powerful than you. You are not a fucking God, you pretentious piece of shit - you aren't even really immortal. You're just some stupid, clumsy little brat who had all her dreams come true. But that doesn't make you special. No, it makes you lucky." I hissed. "You have never been special, Bella. You have never been anything spectacular or even goddamn interesting - you are just a stupid little girl who never learned what it was like to grow up and learn how to live on her own. You have everything done for you and still you want more - you want what other people have…like what I have. But guess what? You're never, ever going to get it. You don't deserve it and you sure as hell have never been worth it. So you can get the fuck out of my house, out of my life, and go find someone else to rip apart piece to piece - because you're never, ever going to touch my family again."
When I was finally finished, I took a deep breath and smiled. No one else seemed to have the balls to move for a long moment before a terrible sound shook the room. It came from Bella. It was a sob.
It as only one sob, a dry sob that proved what a monster she was, because Bella was crying and nothing was happening. I could hear peoples breath hitch in sympathy, as if I had actually gone too far - which I would never fucking admit to because I knew I hadn't said enough -but as she inhaled to let out another, she began to thrash against their arms yet again.
"The Cullens may have made a treaty with us, but you should watch your back." I snarled, walking forward again - ready to protect everyone she was fighting against so that she could bite my baby. "Because you'll always be plain, pathetic Bella Swan to me."
She let out a howl while the wolves dragged her back outside of the house and away from the baby. I followed her to the doorway, watching her with less contempt in my eyes than I had, but more disgust than I could say.
"Oh and if you ever come near my son again, I will kill you where you stand."
Bella screamed the entire time Edward and Carlisle dragged her out. She screamed well after she had left our yard and was being pulled back into the trees. No one moved until the sounds of her screams had died away, but as soon as she did it was like we all deflated. It was so much strain on my body and once the adrenaline wore off, I realized just how much pain I was in. It would take a lot longer to heal from labour than I had thought.
I felt my knees buckle a bit and caught myself on the doorframe, taking my time to turn around and direct my attention where it should have been - back in the far corner with Claire, Nessie, and my baby. Even so far away, I could tell that he was even more beautiful than when I'd laid eyes on him five minutes before.
"I'm so sorry," Renesmee whispered, stepping forward so that Claire and my mother weren't pinned to the wall anymore. "I know she was always bad with you and that the family has done nothing but bring trouble…I can't excuse her actions, but I am sorry. We'll stay away."
Claire came forward to hand me my bundle, which I took immediately and sat back down on the table so that if my legs gave out he wouldn't get hurt. I didn't need to curl in on myself a second time to save him from a fall. I looked at him carefully, making sure that there was no sign of damage even though I knew no one besides Claire had touched him. While I did this, Renesmee started to walk away; almost as if she wouldn't give me more of a goodbye because she didn't want to interrupt my moment with him.
"No," I whispered, waiting until she tuned around in shock. "You can come back whenever you want."
I saw Jake move awkwardly, as if to interrupt, but Emily stopped him harshly.
"Are you sure?" Nessie asked, fidgeting slightly as she looked between myself, my baby, my family of werewolves and imprints, then to the door her mother had been dragged through. I smiled at her brightly.
"Dude, you're one of my best friends. Besides, you're a lousy excuse for a vampire anyway." She laughed with me. "Just keep the psychotic hoe at home."
Nessie, though she never smiled at my insults toward her mother, kept her smile through the offer I had given her. She bounced up to me and threw her arms around me - in a display that was very Alice - pressing happy thoughts into my mind: sleepovers, dances, birthday parties, planning weddings, then back to when the two of us and Claire had all become friends.
And then, since she always came back so we never really had a reason to say goodbye to one another, Renesmee ran from the house and out of the new life I lead.
We stood there for a while, absorbing everything that happened.
I was a mother.
And Jake was a father.
And we had run the vampires out of town.
And Bella was gone.
Bella was gone.
"Two completely separate vampires attacked you today, Franki. How do you feel?" Allen, who could ruin moments like no other, was sure to be as loud and obnoxious as he could have been.
"Sore," I groaned. "And happy as hell."
"He's gorgeous," Dan smiled a little sadly, but it appeared that the statement was genuine. I felt a smile pull onto my lips at his effort.
"Glad you think so. You're his godfather."
Jake went to give me a glare, but before he could say anything and while Dan was spluttering, Allen let out a moan. "Why him? Aren't I good enough?"
"No." Everyone said at once. The tension broke, just like a hammer to the glass, before we all burst out laughing. It was long and winded, filled with all our emotions. It was amazing to laugh after everything that had happened today. Everything that had happened and had still turned out okay. It wasn't like it hadn't happened, but it was like it didn't matter. Like it had happened so long ago it was something to laugh about, not fret over.
"And you," I turned to Claire. "You're obviously his godmother."
"Me?" she squeaked. "Why not Auntie Em? She's so much better at stuff like that-"
"You're going to be a mother soon enough, idiot." I chastised. "Besides, she's already a grandma."
I smiled to my mom, who came over and held her hands out towards her grandson. I didn't hesitate to pass him off to her. She cooed and gasped when she looked at him, wiggling her finger and laughing when he was so quick to grab it.
"He's precious," she smiled, turning her head to look at the others who were starting to hover around her to try and get a glimpse of him.
"Yup," I smiled. "Jake and I make some cute fucking kids."
"You know, you're a mother now," Claire laughed. "Maybe you should cool it with the swearing."
I glared pointedly at her, giving her the finger and hissing a matching "Fuck you".
She laughed a little before she went over to the group of people coddling my baby. I watched them in almost a dream-like state. To be honest, I would have joined them were I not still in so much pain and needing the support of the dining room table. I was exhausted, I'd need to go to bed soon…who knew labour would be so tiring for a werewolf who heals at rapid speeds?
Warm arms came and wrapped themselves around my waist, pulling me over to the side, just inches farther from the baby as Jake pulled me closer to his chest. He kissed the top of my head lightly, squeezing me to him. I let out a little gasp of pain when he moved me in just the wrong position and he pulled away lightly.
"You scared me shitless today," Jake whispered to me, kissing the top of my head again.
"You scared me," I responded in the same tone. "You don't always have to be the knight in shining armour, you know. This is the twenty-first century. Women have equal rights to whoop the monster's ass."
"I'll keep that in mind," he whispered with a chuckle.
"Yeah, for next time."
"There won't be a next time." he said, and even though I would have normally labeled it as threatening, I could tell that he was relieved. It was like a weight lifted off of our shoulders knowing that the Cullens were leaving. It was like going from walking through a building for years to working outside - it was like freedom.
"You can say it, you know." I smiled up at him, he looked down with a confused expression furrowing his brow.
"Say what?"
"You know what."
He chuckled at my words, which made the others turn to listen. I opened my arms out, the only signal I needed to give to have my mom come and bring the baby to me. "You were right. You are always right."
"That's right," I mocked him, turning around to face him and handing the baby off to him. He looked so good like that. With our baby in his arms.
"What are we going to name him?" Dad asked, leaning forward to get a good look at him again. The sight of him spread a smile across his face, one that I hadn't seen since I'd fallen from the cliff but at the same time, it was the same smile I always remembered on his face.
"How about Jacob JR?" Claire asked, I pulled a face aghast by the suggestion.
"No offense, but ew."
"Frank JR!" Mom laughed with disgusting, fake enthusiasm.
"I would never be as cruel to my children as you were to me."
"Children?" Jake teased, looking down at me with a raised eyebrow. "How do you know you want more than one - you don't even know if you like this one yet."
"I have a pretty good idea," I mocked back. He smiled at me, that one hundred watt smile that I would never get sick of. "Besides, I'm not naming my child some stupid name that's as fucking gross as Francine."
"Your Aunt Francine was-"
"A cooke." I interrupted. "Aunt France was fucking insane."
I looked down at my baby, watching as his movements slowed and his heart rate decreased from all the excitement. It took him moments to fall into a light sleep - fuck I hope that he stayed like that, one of those babies who slept for hours and left his parents happy with him and without fear of getting too frustrated and giving him shaken baby syndrome.
"I like Caleb," I said suddenly.
"Caleb? Caleb Black?" Jake asked, pulling a face of concentration while he tested out the name.
"Yeah, Caleb." I smiled, there was no reason to argue the last name. I knew Jake would propose to me eventually, so eventually I'd be a Black, too. "Do you like Caleb?"
The tiny boy in my arms let out a perfectly timed yawn with a little whine added to the end as if the yawn was exhausting in itself. The girls all cooed behind me. "Well there you go, it's settled. His name is Caleb."
"You don't worry that yawn meant he didn't like it?" Jake asked with a frown.
"Do you like it?" He nodded. "And I like it, so he can deal with it. Should've given a better sign if he didn't like it."
"I think you're being a little too hard on him," Jake chuckled. "He's only an hour old."
"What parenting style are you going to choose Jake? Cause if you're going to coddle him, we are going to have an issue - I don't believe in that." I put my nose up in the air a little bit and I could basically hear his eyes rolling.
"Franki, I spoiled you rotten." He reminded me bluntly. My eyes widened as I looked back at him in exasperation.
"Yeah, and look how that turned out!"
Jake took my shoulders and put me on an angle so that we were looking into the fake, gilded mirror that hung on the wall. He at me, at my flushed face and twinkling eyes - I hadn't been this happy. I looked like myself again. I looked in the mirror and finally knew who was staring back at me: I was Francine Young; daughter of Emily and Sam, the most ill-mannered wolf in the pack, and the daughter and imprint of the two respective Alphas. I was Franki, Cubs, the bitch with the foul mouth who didn't take shit from anyone - vampire, werewolf, or human. I was Francine Young and this - the beautiful man at my side and the beautiful baby in my arms - was my family. In the background I could see my larger family, my pack, chattering amongst each other and trying to keep this moment between Jacob and I but it was all I could ask for that they were all here with me. It was perfect because I knew that we were all here. That we were all safe. That we were all together like we should be.
"I think that turned out perfect."
PLEASE READ THE NOTE AT THE VERY BOTTOM
(which is conviniently placed right above the Review button...)
To my wonderful reviewers:
Dean Winchester's Play Thing: Thank you so much for reviewing for the last chapter, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Hopefully the same goes for this one :)
PrincessK16: I figured tht they had been through enough without losing their baby, but I couldn't just give them a happy ending like that - that baby needed to survive somehow, so I dragged him into the world of the abnormal. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter!
moani-sama: I tried to describe her fur a little bit there, when I picture her I envision a werewolf bodied blue Austrailian shepherd. If you look them up they are absolutely adorable and their fur is very unique to their breed. I will try and see if I can go into more detail in the last chapter. Thanks for your review!
gleek 15: I did try to make her sound different, I'm so glad it was noticeable! Hopefully I kept the trend with this chapter, even though half the time she wasn't in her right mind. Thank you, honestly the whole reason that I had to pause so long was because I was trying to get the action scene just right, so I'm so glad to hear it was enjoyable! Thanks for reviewing - hopefully everything in this chapter met your expectations :)
ForeverTeamEdward: I couldn't let that happen, but I couldn't let it go without consequences either - so he'll be a wolf later on. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, thank you!
Angel of the Night Watchers: Thank you for everything, especially because I can only imagine how busy you must be and I decided I wanted to write a mini-novel in itself for this particular chapter. Hopefully you feel better and that everything goes well - eleven days! Bella will play a part in Adalyn's story, but I can't give too much away yet! Have you had your bachelorette party yet?
Sugar-Ice: I shed a few tears writing this, so I'm glad that other people are getting emotional as well. I tried to make it so that he was just afraid of upsetting her - hence the distance - but at the same time, I'm glad that he was there when she needed him; it's kind of the theme of the story :) Thanks for the review!
mrslisablack: Franki will never go down without a fight. I'm glad that the pain of the decision really read clear in the last chapter and I do agree with your thoughts, though I would never have straight-out said that only to be faced with scrutiny. I love hating Bella, so I unerstand what you mean. Thank you so, so much for your thoughts :)
nene82743: I couldn't let her lose him, she'd worked for months not to! I'm glad you're so attached to the wellbeing of the characters, thank you for reviewing!
anonymous: I'm so glad you liked it, thank you!
Ella710: This was a MONSTER review that was quite possibly my favourite one I have ever recieved. Yes, there is the next chapter and then the story is over - I'm quite emotional over it, to be honest. This must be how Stephenie Meyer felt when she finished and thought, 'how will I ever create something that can replace this in my weekly routine?' I adore Franki's badass attitude; it will be very sad not to write in her mindset anymore.
The baby of course is okay, I couldn't do that to them when Jake finally manned up and Franki had been so heroic. She deserved the baby - of course, I had to make him a wolf or else he realistically would never have survived. You win some, you lose some. I put in that whole "Jacob JR, Franki JR" thing just for you. I was going to name him Caleb all along, though (after Steven Strait in the Covenant, who was Meyers original casting choice for Jacob Black, though he was too old by the time they got around to filming).
In good conscience I couldn't kill Bella, considering this story originated from her (sometimes stupid) decisions and choices which made up the Twilight Saga. But at least I got to get rid of her. I ended up liking the idea of Nessie and Franki being so close, which wasn't going to be as significant as it ended up being, but Franki's voice poured through my fingers and what happened, happened.
I DID write you a mini-novel, it was crazy. I wrote down the skeleton (basic dialogue, plot points, and movement) and it was five-thousand words before I had added in any description and just went "oh shit." so I hope that pleased you. Did I miss anything that you wanted me to cover, considering you thought I would just work it all out - was there something you'd like me to expand on?
I love long reviews, it makes me know that you're not only reading, but absorbing and enjoying enough to think about it on your own time. Thank you so, so, so much!
AreYouSirius-questionmark: Thank you for reviewing! The blood was from the miscarriage, but she noticed it between her legs. Luckily, it all worked out :)
Happy2BeeMe: Thank you! You're such a great reviewer that I think I'll forgive you for missing one chapter, haha ;) I'm glad you actually had that moment of shock for the last chapter, it means that I'm doing something right. I promise you'll see some of this story line in Adalyn's story, so keep tuned in n that one. As for your question about the Cullens, I imagine they don't tell the wolves every time a vampire comes into town so long as he/they are not a threat. Jotham had no babies to hunt as no one knew Franki was pregnant, so I imagined that there was no reason to inform them and then he "left" and threw the Cullens off his trail as he started the hunt.
xtremediva13: I'm glad you're liking it, thank you for your review :)
ally0212: I tried to bring closure to the argument from Jacob and Franki before she fell, so I hope that answered your third point. As for how old Jake is, I said that Francine was born during the battle with the Volturi over Renesmee, which would have made him 16. Because Franki is 22 in this story, he would be 39 (not 38 just because Jacob's birthday falls in January. Fun fact). Also, the Sam and Emily going through phasing arguments were because Sam stopped phasing so that he could grow old with Emily. He then handed over the Ulley pack to Jacob until Jake handed it back after the accident so he could spend more time with Franki. Because Sam was phasing and didn't look his true age, Franki did not catch on that he was old enough to be her father. Thank you for your questions, I hope that helps!
Itinerarium-Maraununtium:I'm glad you like it, thank you so much for reviewing!
Wow. It's almost over. Wasn't it emotional? Maybe I'm a little bit biased, but I thought it was super emotional. Sometimes I'm mad at myself for what I put my poor characters through - I can be cruel.
The epilogue should be out shortly, it will be before May if reviews are kind, so before that time will you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review? Can it be my 'you finished the story' present? I actually used some of the reviews given here to mould this chapter (it would have been approximately three thousand words shorter without their imput) so I am not lying when I say that reviews help and make me update faster. I'd love to hear what you're thinking, what you want to see, because the next chapter is the EPILOGUE so I can write in almost any setting to tell you about what happens later.
So review and give me your thoughts! It's almost over, there's no time to do it but now!
-Egypt
