****************EDITED VERSION*****************

Hi guys! I'm back!

First of all, I am soooo sorry this took over a year to get done. I've grown to despise the Twiverse a bit, and on top of life's bunch of bullshit, I didn't want to ever write again. Well, to give myself a kick in the pants, I decided to read Retribution, and ended up falling in love with the world I have created. I found my spark again! YAY!

This chapter is shorter than what I'm accustomed to writing, but if that's what it takes, then so be it. I don't want to put any stress on myself as far as word counts go, because that was a major problem for me to overcome as well. Also, this hasn't been cleaned up by my sweetheart of a Beta, Laurie, but once she has a chance to work her magic, I'll replace this chappy with the clean one.

I've missed you all so very, very much, and I hope this chapter was worth the wait!

Sincerely,

Tracey

BPOV

My thoughts were scattered all over the place as I cracked several eggs into a bowl and stirred them with the whisk. So much happened in the last seventy two hours, and it was hard to focus on just one event to process through.

Would Emily be able to keep her thirst fully under control?

Would Peter ever recover from the torture and starvation Maria put him through?

Would Brady relapse back into the reclusive state he just overcame, due to his mothers impending death?

"Just focus on cooking, Bella." I muttered out loud to myself, unaware that I was no longer alone in the kitchen.

"Can I help with anything?"

My nerves were so frazzled that I jumped at the sound of Caroline's voice, dropping the bowl of whipped eggs in the process. It hit the marble floor with a crash, and shattered into a bunch of little pieces, splattering egg all over the cabinets.

"When I was younger, I was hopelessly clumsy. Guess I still am" I chuckled, picking up pieces of ruined bowl.

Caroline went over to the sink and grabbed the dish rag, and a short time later, the kitchen was clean once more, and I began anew with making everyone breakfast.

"How was your shower?" I asked, not knowing how else to start off a conversation with the young woman Jacob and Emily saved.

"It was great. I can't tell you how long it's been since I last bathed. Those vampires weren't too concerned about my hygiene while I was held captive. Thanks for the clothes, by the way," she said as she watched me cook.

I could practically see her salivating at the sight and smell of the bacon, eggs, and fresh fruit I was preparing, looking as if she was about to snatch it out of my hands and eat it raw.

Maria probably didn't feed the poor thing either, that inhumane bitch…..

"You're welcome. I have a bunch more for you back at my house, so we can take a ride over there later if you're up to it. Hungry?" I asked, handing her a small bowl of fruit.

"Starving! Thanks." she replied, and began eating the pieces of watermelon, oranges, strawberries and honeydew.

I handed her the pitcher of orange juice and a glass, then went back to work making breakfast. Caroline was quiet as she watched me, glancing occasionally at the door that led down to the basement medical area, where Carlisle, Jacob, Felix, Edward and Jin were with Peter.

"Has he woken up yet?"

I looked up at the pretty blonde girl, whose face was etched with worry. I could tell that she genuinely cared for Peter, which made me wonder how long they were locked up together for and how close they had grown during their imprisonment.

"No, not yet. They gave him three bags of human blood, so hopefully it works soon," I replied with a tentative smile.

"Make that five bags." Jacob sighed as he walked into the kitchen and over to me, pecking me on the lips before settling into one of the wrought iron stools.

"I don't know that much about….supernatural people like you guys, but shouldn't it have helped a little bit by now?" Caroline asked, her voice wavering.

"I would think so. Felix….he's the expert in this area, and even he's not sure why Peter hasn't responded yet. We still have two more bags to feed him, so maybe after he drinks those…." Jacob responded, losing his train of thought as he watched Caroline wolf down the entire bowl of fruit.

"Wow, you eat as much as Jake and the other wolves do!" I commented in awe.

She blushed in embarrassment, then nudged the empty bowl away.

"I've never eaten that much before, and I'm still hungry. My stomach is rumbling like crazy, too. Weird," she muttered, placing her palm against the slight swell.

"I'm sure Maria didn't feed you a proper human diet while she had you, so it's understandable. Here, these eggs are ready. I'll make you a plate," I said, glaring at Jake so he would stop staring at the poor girl.

"Have you called your family yet?" Jacob asked while he devoured his food.

Caroline tensed up, looked down at her feet, and shook her head.

"I don't have anyone. My parents were killed in a car accident ten years ago, so my grandmother raised me. She passed away last year…" she softly responded.

"I'm so sorry." I said, and gave her a comforting hug.

"Thank you. So yeah… no family to call. It's just been me and Jack for the last year. You know, maybe later I can use your phone to call some shelters back home? I don't know what happened to him after I was taken…he's probably all freaked out, locked in a cage somewhere, surrounded by strangers."

"Poor puppy! I'll help you find him!" Alice cheerfully chirped as she, Jasper, Joey, Rosalie and Emmett walked into the kitchen.

"Smells good, Bellsy-boo! Looks like we're right on time" Emmett said, pecking my cheek as he brushed by to grab a plate.

"I'm Bella and Jake's daughter, Joey. How are you holding up?" Josephine asked the nervous girl beside me.

"Still trying to wrap my head around all of this. I have so many questions, but I have no idea where to even start" Caroline replied as she glanced from me, to Jake, and then back to Joey, trying to comprehend how he and I could have a daughter who looked only a couple years younger than he and I were.

"Well, we have all day to fill you in. I'm Alice, by the way. This here is my husband Jasper, and our daughter, Parker. That's Emmett over there, and Rosalie" Alice said, and reached out to shake the blonde girl's hand. Immediately she froze, and her eyes got that far away look that signaled she was having a vision.

"Are you ok?" Caroline confusedly asked as she stared at Alice after jerking her hand away.

Alice snapped out of the trance, her face etched with worry. Her eyes darted over to Jake and I, and I could see the fear in their dark depths, and it scared me.

"I'm sorry. I'm still not myself after having the baby yesterday. It's just a little headache" Alice lied, then took a step back and glanced down at Caroline's stomach before returning to Jasper's side.

Everyone got quiet as they helped themselves to the food, especially Alice, who kept looking over at Caroline, watching her closely. I was just about to pull her out of the room to ask her what she'd seen, when the remaining, weary looking men came up from the lower level.

"Any change yet?" Jacob asked the bedraggled men.

"No. Angelo is bringing more blood by later, so hopefully by then we will see some progress" Carlisle replied.

"Can I go see him?" Caroline asked.

"Sure. Maybe if he hears your voice, it will help him come out of the coma" Edward said, hearing the unspoken affection Caroline felt towards our injured friend.

"I'll bring you downstairs," I said with a reassuring smile as I got up from my seat.

"You care for him." I stated once we were out of the kitchen.

We walked together down the hall, stopping when we reached the door that led to the basement. I turned to look at her and saw the tiny smile that graced her bow shaped lips.

"You know, it's strange. We've only known each other for such a short period of time but I feel like I've known him forever. I…. I really think I love him," she quietly stated.

I searched her eyes for any inkling of doubt, and saw none. She truly believed that she loved him, and that was good enough for me.

"Peter is a great guy, and he's been through a lot in the last few years. Regardless of the circumstances of how you met, I'm so glad that you came into his life."

"Yeah, he told me pretty much everything that he's had to go through while we were locked in that awful cell together. I can't imagine having to kill someone I once loved. I just hope he wakes up soon…." Caroline softly replied.

"Me too."

I opened the door to the basement and quietly we walked down the stairs. His still form lay covered by a sheet from the chest down, his perfect skin pale in the light. Dark circles marred the porcelain skin just underneath his eyes, and he showed no signs of life.

Caroline slowly made her way over to his still form, a quiet sob breaking the stony silence. I held back, wanting to give her privacy, and watched as she sat down in the chair next to his bed, and took his icy hand into hers.

"Peter, it's Caroline can you hear me?" she softly asked.

No response.

"I remember what Maria said, back when were locked in that little room. She said that even though you could not move, you could still feel. Please Peter, squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

My heart broke for the young girl because I could hear the desperation and despair in her voice. She had been through so much, and the only person familiar to her was laying in a coma, unable to bring her comfort. I wished there was some way I could help, and like a light bulb going off, I had an idea.

"Caroline, I'm going to try something, but I'm going to need you to step back," I said as I rolled up my sleeves.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

I walked over to the cabinet where Carlisle housed all of his surgical supplies, and searched around until I found what I was looking for. I picked up the shiny scalpel, and walked back over to Peter, with Caroline warily watching me.

"My blood…. let's just say it's very powerful to a vampire. Maybe if I feed him some, it will help pull him out of this," I replied, bringing the scalpel to my wrist.

"Bella wait. Are you sure this is a good idea? What about the venom?"

My eyes met hers, and I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.

"I'm immune to the venom, so it will not hurt me."

I could still see that my decision troubled her, so I placed my hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes.

"Hey, if you sense something isn't right, or if I lose control of him, I need you to run upstairs and get Jake," I said, hoping I got through and eased her worries. She glanced down at Peter's pale face, then gave a small nod of acquiescence.

Carefully, I brought the scalpel to my wrist and hissed when the cool steel effortlessly sliced through the delicate skin. Caroline quietly watched as I brought my bleeding wrist up to Peter's lips. At first there was no reaction, but eventually his lips surrounded the wound and he took a few tentative sips. Gradually he began to suck harder, pulling my life force into his body.

I allowed him to continue to feed until I began to grow lightheaded, and tried to pull my wrist away. He let out a feral growl and his hands shot up from the bed, encircling my forearm with a vice like grip.

"Bella, maybe you should stop. You're starting to get really pale," Caroline shakily said.

"He's too strong….. get Jake. Hurry!" I said as spots began to dance before my eyes.

I could hear Caroline's footsteps as she ran off, but they sounded like they were coming from far away. My body began to slump in the chair as darkness began to cloak my vision. Just before I passed out, I felt strong arms grab my shoulders, and a sharp, stinging pain in my wrist, and then everything faded to black.

JPOV

I watched Bella and Caroline walked out of the kitchen, and once I knew they were out of earshot, I turned to look at the little pixie.

"Okay Alice, spill. What did you see?" I asked.

Alice looked at Jasper for support, then turned to face the rest of us. Her eyes had a haunted look, a look I had only seen a few times since knowing her, so I knew it was bad.

"Caroline is pregnant." she said.

"Okay, she's pregnant so what? I'm sure she has a boyfriend up in Canada, so he'll be glad to know that he's going to be a father," I replied.

"No Jacob. It's not a human child that she carries. Caroline….. She's pregnant with Peter's child."

I looked at her dumbfounded, not exactly sure I heard her right. Peter? A father? As far as I knew, they had only just met during their captivity. Heck, I never even knew that vampires could procreate until I met Sophie.

"Seriously? Peter's gonna love this," I said with a shaky chuckle.

Alice glanced at Carlisle and Edward, who both wore the same grim expression as Rosalie and Emmett. My stomach got bit uneasy feeling it always did when I knew something bad was coming, but just how bad, I didn't know.

"How bad is this?" I asked.

"Jacob, while going through Aro's journals, we came across a passage that described Sophie's birth," Carlisle started.

"And?"

"Caroline will never survive the birth. Basically, the fetus uses the mother's body to nourish itself, to the point that the woman's body is near death," Carlisle continued.

"Okay, so we find some way to keep Caroline fed so that the baby doesn't deplete all of her resources. How hard could that be?" I said, not sure I was liking where the conversation was going.

"It's not that simple Jacob. Even if we did find some way to keep Caroline's strength up, she will never survive the birth. It's not the same kind of labor that Bella, nor the other women went through. When the baby is ready to be born, it tears its way out of the womb, shattering bones and causing a massive hemorrhage."

I felt the bile rise to the back of my throat as visions of the scene from the movie 'Alien', when the creature burst through the host's chest, instantly killing them.

"There has to be something we can do, Carlisle. What about Felix? Maybe he will know some way to keep her alive. Back when Sophie was born, medicine was not as advanced as it is now. We have to find another way, because that poor girl has been through too much, survived whatever torture Maria inflicted, only to die having a baby? It's unacceptable." I angrily said as I began to pace the room, wishing the former Volturi guard and Jin hadn't left to go check on Emily.

"Jacob, nobody wants to see her die, and we will do everything in our power to save her. Once Angelo and Felix return, I'll call Jin and together we will try to figure out a way. I promise," Carlisle convincingly replied.

"Alice, what kind of outcome did you see?" I asked the tiny brown haired girl.

Her large doe eyes met mine, and they were filled with sadness and grief.

"I don't know Jake. One of two things will happen, that I saw. The first, Caroline died in childbirth. The second, she was a vampire, holding a tiny blonde haired baby," she answered.

"And Peter? Was he there? Does he come out of the coma?" I pressed.

Alice got that faraway look in her eyes again, then spun around to look at the kitchen entry just as Caroline burst through, out of breath and frantic.

"Help!" she panted.

"What happened?" I asked as panic gripped me.

"She gave Peter some of her blood…. Cut her wrist…. He won't let go," she sobbed.

"God dammit! Why in the hell would she do something like that without any of us around?" I snapped as we all rushed down to the basement.

Peter still lay on the gurney, but he had Bella's limp body sprawled across his as he sucked greedily from the wound on her wrist. Carlisle, Emmett and Edward grabbed Peter, while I grabbed onto Bella and tried to wrench her arm free from Peter's vise-like grip. He snarled and hissed, but was no match for the three men who fought to get him under control.

"Alice! The panic room, now!" Carlisle barked, stumbling from a blow to his head.

Alice raced over to the thick steel door and threw it open just as the others were able to shove him inside. Carlisle slammed the door shut and locked it, but not before Peter's snarling face filled the small glass window.

"More! Give me more! You mother fuckers! I will kill you all when I find a way out of here!" he shrieked while banging on the door.

Peter's reaction shook me badly, but my only focus was Bella and trying to find a pulse.

"Thank God." I muttered, slumping in relief when I found the weak flutter.

"Edward, she needs blood," I said to my shaken friend, who sustained several cuts and bruises from his struggle with the rabid vampire.

While Edward went to get everything needed to transfuse my blood into Bella, Carlisle came over and helped prep my arm.

"What the hell was that, Carlisle?" I angrily asked, glaring at Peter as he continued to slam against the panic room door.

"He's running on his baser instincts right now. Between the starvation, the blood we gave him, and Bella's blood, his body is in overload and the reptilian portion of his brain has taken over. The remaining parts of his brain need to awaken before the stem retracts control," he explained.

"Yeah, if it takes over!" I muttered to myself.

Edward worked quickly, and a pint of blood later, Bella's color was coming back to her alarmingly pale face. Once the needles were removed from our arms, I brought Bella upstairs to the family room, and gently laid her down.

"Bells, wake up baby," I whispered while holding her shivering body against mine.

"So tired and cold" she barely whispered, then snuggled against me, seeking warmth.

I grabbed one of the many blankets strewn around the room, leftovers from the chaos of the last few days, and wrapped it around us both, entrapping my body heat in hopes of warming her up faster.

"Honey, please don't ever do something like that again, especially with nobody around. You could have died," I gently chastised while I rocked her trembling body.

"He needed my blood," she murmured before falling asleep.

"Stubborn, headstrong, bull headed, silly girl. What am I going to do with you?" I asked myself while she slept.

Better yet, what was I going to do about Peter? He had absolutely no control over the beast that roared inside of him, and it worried me that he wouldn't be able to come back from what he'd endured.

You know what you have to do, Black…..even though you don't want to…..

I closed my eyes and tried to shake the dark thoughts from my mind, to no avail. The mere thought of having to end his life made me sick to my stomach. He was one of my best friends, he had saved me so many times. Plus, he was going to be a father soon, more than likely left alone to raise the hybrid child that now grew inside of Caroline's fragile human body.

"Are you ok?" Rosalie asked the shaken girl as she sat on the other sofa, across from me.

He eyes were so distant and haunted from what she'd witnessed, yet she somehow found the strength to nod her head before bursting into tears.

"I…I never saw him react like that before…not even when he was so hungry, trapped in that room with me." she sobbed.

Both Rosalie and Alice sat down on either side of the traumatized girl and tried to console her the best they could.

"Is….is it true? Am I going to die when the baby is born?" she forlornly asked.

I looked over at Carlisle, not sure on how to answer her question, but before I could answer, he swiftly made his way over to the girl, and knelt down in front of her.

"Caroline, I promise that I will do everything in my power to keep you alive, should you decide to go forward with the pregnancy," he gently said.

Immediately, Caroline stopped crying, and stared at him, devoid of emotion.

"Are you saying I should abort this baby?" she asked.

Carlisle looked extremely uncomfortable with her question, due to his religious beliefs, but he was not one to inflict them onto others, and answered her question in an unbiased manner.

"It's an option, but only if you choose it. Nobody is going to force you into something you do not want to do, sweetheart."

"You wouldn't be able to abort the fetus, even if you chose to," a somber Felix said, having returned from the cottage in the woods.

"Then what can we do, Felix? What can we do to keep the baby from killing her?" I asked frustration clearly evident in my tone.

Felix stood there, fixed his eyes onto Caroline, and gave answers nobody wanted to hear, yet needed to.

"There are ways to keep your body from fully depleting, but you will gradually grow too weak to care for yourself once the thirtieth day reaches. After that, you will have to be heavily sedated with powerful pain medication, because the baby will begin breaking your bones as it prepares to be born. On the fortieth day, the child will then enter this world, taking your life with it. That is, unless you wish to become one of us, which I will help you with." he honestly replied, which angered me.

"Really, man? Couldn't you sugarcoat it just a little bit?" I seethed, wanting to kill him.

"She has a right to know her fate, Jacob Black. There is no time for lollipops and rainbows. She needs to start thinking about her choices; either die when the baby comes, or turn so she can raise the child with Peter," he calmly stated.

"This is so fucked up, man!" Emmett said, visibly rattled.

With all the tension in the room, the one person fate had dealt the hopeless cards to stood up and walked over to Felix.

"You can change me before I die?" she asked, searching his face for any deceit.

"There will be only a small window of time before your heart stops, but yes. I can get my venom into your heart before it ceases to beat," Felix confidently replied.

There was a deafening silence, and an overwhelming tension in the room while Caroline mulled over her fate. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she gave her answer.

"I'll do it. Anything to be with my baby and Peter, no matter how difficult it may be for me to adjust. You just need to make me one promise," Caroline said as she turned to look at me.

"You cannot let me hurt a single human being. I don't care if you have to take me all the way to Antarctica, you do it. I refuse to be a monster, and until I learn how to control myself, I will not be a threat to anyone."

I stared at the young girl, amazed at just how strong she was, in light of what she faced in the upcoming days, and felt my respect for her grow ten-fold. While I wasn't ok with another human life lost, and another newborn to handle, I knew it was the right thing to do. I learned a long time ago that it wasn't up to me to play God, and I sure as hell didn't want to attempt to fill his shoes.

"You got it."