Chapter 29

Rated M

Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

Thanks for sticking with me. This is by far longer than I imagined and I feel like it's lost a bit of its original momentum.

Bella and Jacob stayed in the NICU until 4 in the morning or so. Another baby was in distress and they had to leave. It was just as well because Jacob didn't think he could pry Bella out of there with a crowbar. He was worried about her and wanted to make sure she rested.

They walked back down to the entrance and started to cross the street. Jacob scooped Bella up into his arms and jogged with her to the hotel door. The lobby was closed, but his key card opened a side door.

The room was comfortable and both parents were exhausted from the long day. They slipped into their sleep clothes, and laid down. Jacob promised Bella that he would leave his cell phone on. Exhaustion took them both into a deep sleep.

Jacob could hear a quiet debate in the room next door. The room darkening curtains left the room pitch black, but Jacob could see a sliver of light around the outside edges. It was at least after sunrise. Without stirring, he listened to the discussion between his pack mates.

"There's a breakfast buffet until 9, but one of us needs to stay up here with them. So why doesn't Seth stay here, while we go eat first? Then he can go eat when we get back?" Quil suggested.

"No way, asshole. Then you guys will eat all of the food and I'll get nothing," Seth whined.

"What if we bring you back a plate?" Embry offered.

"You can all just go and shut up," Jacob finally said, just loud enough for them to hear.

Embry peered into the room. "Sorry, dude. Let us know if you need us."

The trio walked out in the hall talking about the buffet, wondering if the hotel could really fill them up. Seth talking about Belgian waffles was the last thing Jacob heard.

"Everything okay?" Bella asked through a yawn.

"The 3 Stooges are going to the breakfast buffet."

"Oh, they'll be there until they get kicked out," she laughed, thinking of how much the pack could eat. The staff would probably think they were starving since they were in such good shape.

"When can we go back to see Joseph?" she asked, stretching out.

"After you take a shower and eat breakfast," he answered her, kissing her forehead. "But I'll call now if you want and see how the rest of the night went."

Bella got out of bed and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day. She looked at the bags under her eyes and muttered they looked like suitcases. When she pulled off her nightgown, she was surprised at how swollen her belly still looked. Her breasts were tender as well. In the warm shower, she leaned into the spray enjoying the feeling. Jacob stepped in close behind her without a word or a sound. Instead of jumping, she leaned back into him.

"I'm on complete pelvic rest for 6 weeks, Jake. I can't do anything." She sounded disappointed.

"It's okay, honey. I only wanted to be close to you." He kissed her shoulder and grabbed the bar of soap to wash up.

Breakfast was a quick affair for both of them. They were both anxious to get back to the NICU. Jacob had hoovered his breakfast and Bella only shook her head. She ate a little bit, but not enough according to Jacob. He grabbed a few granola bars from the hotel gift shop before they left.

In daylight, the road was busier and they had to find the crosswalk to get to the other side. They signed in with the receptionist, getting their stickers before going upstairs. When they went into Joseph's pod, his new nurse greeted them and introduced herself. Her name was Clara. Jacob noted she looked quite like a grandmother and asked how long she worked in the NICU. She smiled widely and said, "Probably longer than you've been alive."

She talked to them about his cardiologist appointment that would occur sometime that morning. The doctor was doing his rounds, but hadn't made it there yet. She thought he was looking a little jaundice, so blood tests had been ordered and if needed fluorescent lights would be added to the isolette.

Bella reached in and caressed her baby. She noticed that he was agitated when she rubbed his skin, so she just wrapped her fingers around his tiny hand instead. They stayed for hours awaiting the arrival of the doctor. Bella was leaning back in a chair, when Clara gasped a bit.

"Oh, Mrs. Black, I think your milk has come in. Have you pumped your milk? We have bottles that we can store the milk in until he's ready to bottle feed."

Bella and Jacob looked down at her shirt and saw two round wet spots. Bella groaned and covered them in embarrassment. Clara tried to comfort her and tell her it was only natural. She called one of the hospital lactation consultants to come show Bella the nursing room. The hospital had quality pumps set up for the mothers of NICU babies.

Jacob tried to follow the women into the room, but the dark skinned woman stopped him. "Oh no, Sir. This room is for mothers only." She closed the door and he sat down right outside of it.

Pulling out his phone, he texted Embry and asked him to bring a clean bra and shirt for Bella to wear. He said he'd explain later, but everything was fine. Embry called him about 10 minutes later and Jacob gave him directions to the area they were in. Just as Embry walked up to Jacob, the door pulled open and Bella smiled at Jacob.

"Look, I did it!" she exclaimed excitedly, holding up two small bottles with milk inside. Her face burned with embarrassment when she saw Embry staring at her. Quickly, she snapped her arms down over the wet shirt she was wearing.

Embry reached out with the plastic bag of clothes and handed them to Jacob, and left without saying a thing, equally as embarrassed. Jacob laughed at his friend and handed the dry clothes to Bella.

"Here, Em brought you dry clothes. I'll hold all that stuff," Jacob took a plastic bag from Bella and the two bottles of breast milk.

Bella turned back into the room and was back in a few short minutes with her clean clothes on.

"She gave me my own equipment to hook up to the machine. Although I'm going to have to rent one of those until I can feed Joseph." Bella held open the bag so Jacob could look inside. His eyebrows raised at the cone shaped plastic and tubing in the bag.

"Huh," was all he could say.

They were able to reenter the NICU without going through the buzzing door from the nursing room. It was designed so the nurses could check on the babies while mother's fed them, and also so mothers could express milk and bring it to the nurses.

Clara clapped softly when Bella came back with bottles in hand. "This will be just the food he needs when he's ready. We'll put it in the fridge with these labels on it. If you'll put the date and the amount on each one, I'll show which place is his."

The cardiologist came shortly after Bella and Jacob had returned from lunch. He was a down-to-earth kind of guy, explaining everything to them in a way they would understand. Joseph had a common preemie condition with a hole in his heart. They would first try medication to close it and if that didn't work, they would talk about surgery.

As for his lungs, the tiny community hospital didn't have the medication they would normally give a preemie within the first few hours of birth to help with his lungs. The doctor thought that after they were able to get his heart repaired, they could try letting Joseph breathe on his own with just the nasal cannula.

He also warned that often preemies made strides and fallbacks. It seemed like it was always two steps forward and one step back. It didn't mean he wouldn't get well. The man shook their hands and left, examining other babies in the pod.

The wolves traded out shifts with each other every day. They stood outside the hospital, looking for any sign of Cullen or the Volturi. Rose still hadn't heard from Carlisle or Esme, so she was worried about their well-being.

Leah had come to the hospital and offered to go upstairs with Bella, while Jacob dealt with some business outside on the phone. Bella's eyebrows rose at the offer, surprised that Leah would be nice about anything. To her further surprise, Leah had softened at the sight of the little baby, hooked up to monitors and machines laying so helpless in a tiny bed.

"He's beautiful, Bella. He really is," she'd said. "I can't get over how little he is. I don't think I've ever seen such a little guy." She leaned over the bed and started talking sweetly to the baby. Bella smiled down at him too.

"I need to go pump. It's over here," Bella pointed toward the nursing room. Leah followed her in and when Bella pulled out the attachments and lifted her shirt, Leah left the room.

"Oh hell no," were the words Bella heard last out of her mouth. Bella shrugged and sat back in the rocker, letting the machine do its job. She glanced down at the little bottles and saw she was filling up the bottles. Joyfully, she turned the machine off and added two new bottles.

She came back to the pod with 4 full bottles of milk. The nurse congratulated her on it and Bella put them in Joseph's bin in the fridge. He still couldn't take a bottle by mouth. But he did have a feeding tube and they were using her milk to feed him. She was amazed that her body could provide the nourishment her son needed.

Glancing around, Bella didn't see Leah anywhere. The hairs on her arms stood straight and she felt goosebumps cover her body.

"I'll be right back," she told the nurse, stepping out into the hall. She was nervous about leaving the locked unit, but thought she would just peek around the hall a little.

When she passed a door, it opened and she panicked as ice cold hands grabbed her. A frozen hand was over her mouth, so she couldn't make any noise. Fighting as hard as she could, she tried to get away. The marble arms just closed tighter around her.

"Love, please settle down, it's me. You'll hurt yourself."

She squirmed even harder trying to get free.

"Stop, now, Bella," he told her coldly. Fear struck in her heart so she did as he said. She knew he could crush her. "Now, you will walk with me calmly or I will make sure the ones watching the dog kill him. Do you understand, Love?"

"Mmm. Hmm," she answered through the hand over her mouth. He slowly let go, testing to see if she would misbehave.

"Good. Now, follow me and remember what I said." Edward led her down a hall and a hidden stairwell. Bella kept her head up and her eyes moving, analyzing everything to try to make an escape. She knew this was bad.

They walked out what was surely some kind of employee door as she could see the loading docks. Carrie, Joseph's first nurse, was walking by.

"You'd better be believable, Bella," he warned.

"Mrs. Black, hi!" she greeted her, looking warily at Edward. "How are you doing? How's Joseph? I haven't been back in his pod this week."

Bella tried to take a calming breath. "Oh, he's doing okay. Waiting on the doctor to decide if he needs heart surgery."

The nurse's eyes kept darting to Edward and back to Bella. "This is my brother, Edward. He was in town on business and wanted to see my son before he left. This is his black car," she gestured toward a car with darkly tinted windows. "He's leaving now."

Bella tried to give the nurse some clues so that Jacob would know what happened to her. The black car was waiting at the bottom of the stairs and Edward pulled Bella into the backseat with him.

"Drive, before the dog figures out where we are!" he barked out. The car took off from its parking spot and whipped into traffic.

"Where are the others?" Bella asked.

"What others?" Edward asked her, looking at her innocently. "Oh, you thought I really had other vampires waiting to attack your husband? No, it's just us and Jane, here. She couldn't hurt a flea." He laughed a sinister laugh.

Bella was freaking out inside. She didn't know what to do or how to get a hold of Jacob. She needed him to come save her. She couldn't die now, not after just having a baby. Curling up in a ball on the seat, Bella started to cry quietly. Her bag had been on the floor by Joseph's bed. She planned on going right back, so now she was without her cell phone or any identification.

They pulled into a private airfield and Bella watched as Edward arranged a plane for them. Her eyes continued to dart around trying to find some way to escape or leave information for Jacob.

"Where are we going?" Bella asked Jane, trying to sound as casual as possible.

Jane wasn't fooled though. She scoffed. "We are going back to Italy. Master Aro has demanded that Edward bring you to him."

Bella's heart beat doubled and Jane simply laughed at her fear. Edward returned to the car, having secured a small jet to take them to Seattle for the international flight. Bella silently cheered knowing that without identification, she wouldn't be able to get on a flight out of the country. As if he could read her mind, Edward pulled a passport out of a bag.

"Don't worry, Love. I have everything you need, right here."

Feeling even worse than before, she sat back and tried to keep positive. Once they had boarded the Seattle flight to New York, Bella noticed that her breasts were feeling very full. She asked Edward what time it was, and she realized it had been 4 hours since she pumped. She usually pumped every 3 to get herself ready for regular feedings. Staring out the window into the blue sky, Bella thought about her son and what would happen without her milk. Tears streamed down her face.

Edward started sniffing the air. At first, Bella ignored him, but when he leaned closer to her, she could no longer pretend he wasn't there.

"Bella, what is that awful smell?" he asked, turning his face, trying to pinpoint the odor.

Glancing down, Bella saw that she had two quarter-sized circles on her shirt.

"It's my milk, Edward. I needed to pump the milk an hour ago and didn't. It's going to come out whether I want it to or not," she warned him.

"Ugh. That's disgusting. What can you do about it?" He looked down at her with a look of disdain.

"The only thing I can do is get the milk out, Edward," she snapped at him, completely pissed off. She turned away from him, her back to him, and stared out the window, hoping and praying that Jacob would be able to help her. She also prayed for little Joseph, the wonderful little son she was leaving behind.

Meanwhile, Jacob was frantically searching for Bella. Quite by accident, he ran into Carrie in the hall.

"Oh, Mr. Black! I just met your brother-in-law with your wife a little while ago downstairs."

"My brother-in-law?" he asked.

"Yes, she said his name was Edward," his heart stopped at this news. No! Edward had gotten her.

"That is not her brother. Tell me everything you can remember," he begged her, listening to each detail, relieved that Bella had given him something to work with.

Jacob had his pack mates meet up with him at the hotel so they could figure out what to do. Someone had to stay with Joseph, but Jacob couldn't stand the idea of leaving the search for Bella to someone else. There had to be some way to do this.

"I'll stay here, Jake," Leah volunteered. "I promise I will take good care of him and I don't need as much sleep as somebody else. I can smell any vamps coming."

Unsure, Jacob looked hard at her face. She didn't reveal anything that made him think she was being dishonest. Stonily, he nodded his head. Then he turned and started discussing what to do next. They all agreed he needed to call Rosalie.

"Rosalie, it's Jacob. Edward has just taken Bella from the hospital," he told her, his voice low, trying to contain the tears.

"That fucking bastard!" she screamed on the other end. "We've got to go Jacob. We've got to find Carlisle and Esme. Alice? Alice?"

Jacob listened but there was no response from Alice.

"Where the hell did she go?" Rosalie wondered. "Jacob, let me call you back. Jasper just walked in." She clicked the phone off, not giving Jacob a chance to say anything.

He sat staring at the phone, willing it to ring and give him good information about his wife. The phone only rang half of a ring before he answered.

"Tell me good news, Rosalie."

"If you want to call it good news, I, at least, know where they're going. Hope you guys can get a passport because we're going to Italy. Oh, and most of my family has gone insane!"

"Please tell me what that means, Rose. I'm really upset here!" Jacob growled out.

"Alice finally saw Bella and ran out of here squealing with excitement. Luckily, Jasper heard her blabbering on about meeting up with them in Volterra. Esme and Carlisle are still MIA and my so-called brother has kidnapped a mother!"

"Where do we meet?" Jacob asked, all business.

"Seattle. As soon as possible."

Jacob and the other wolves thrashed through the Olympic Forest at top speeds. Their thoughts were once again silent as they followed their leader back to La Push. If they were to go to Italy, they would need documentation and clothing. It didn't take them long to grab what they needed. Jacob hoped Rosalie would be able to do something about the lack of passports.

They all hopped into Paul's truck. Jacob yelled out in frustration. "This will take too long! We need to run!" They jumped back out and dashed into the forest. Quickly they changed and stowed their loose things into the backpacks and duffle bags they'd packed. Somehow they managed to secure it to each other's bodies.

"I feel like a pack mule!" Xander laughed mentally. The guys started to laugh, but Jacob closed all other thoughts out. He led them through the night to their destination-SEA-TAC. Rosalie didn't waste time finding them in the airport. She'd already secured a private charter to get them to New York, where they'd take a commercial jet to Italy. Since she didn't know who was flying, she couldn't book them out of Seattle.

It seemed like a week had passed, but in reality it was less than 24 hours before they touched down in Italy. Two SUVs had been reserved for them and they piled in them, Rosalie in the first vehicle barking out directions. Emmett sat in the backseat, not saying a word.

When the pulled up outside of Volterra, Rosalie spoke to Jacob about what they were getting ready to walk into. He prayed Bella would still be alive and unharmed. He thought of his 3 children back home and what would happen to them if he didn't survive.

The macabre thoughts had to be pushed from the forefront of his mind. His focus was solely on getting Bella and getting the hell out of Dodge!

Meanwhile, Bella was terrified. At first, she had been very relieved to see Carlisle and Esme. The father-like figure would help her escape, she was certain of it.

"Edward! I knew you could do it! I told Aro you would bring Bella back here. He was worried that you were too wishy-washy after the experiments we've been conducting. But I knew you would bring her back. You haven't failed me yet, have you?" Carlisle smiled, Edward stared frozen and Bella sucked in a cry, as she was horrified.

"Carlisle, what do you mean? You've been behind the shipments?" Edward asked, looking confused. Bella tried to shrink into herself, hoping she would be invisible.

"My experiments have required a lot of volunteers, and you've done so well at finding beautiful young women. I'd think that you would have recognized a few of them by now. But sadly, many of them didn't survive."

Trying hard to be silent, Bella choked back the vomit in her throat. Carlisle was behind some kind of human experimenting? Could it be?

What have you done to thank a teacher this week for Teacher Appreciation Week? ;)

Letters of thanks are so meaningful, but chocolate is tasty.