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Chapter Thirty-Six

What's the date?

CPOV

As soon as I was able, I rushed over to see Isabella. She assured me it was nothing, just the stomach flu, and that she would be fine. She was probably right, but I wasn't going to take any chances with her health. When I arrived I was greeted at the door by Esme, who was wearing an apron and holding a broom. I couldn't help chuckling at how domestic she looked.

"Cleaning?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes and opened the door wider so I could step inside. "Obviously, though it shouldn't take me more than an hour as small as this house is."

"You mean with the help of your abilities?" I questioned her as I walked further into the house.

She nodded, placing the broom against the side of the couch. "As long as I close all the blinds it shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, Bella is in her room. The last time I checked, she was sleeping."

"You've been checking on her?" I asked, not even bothering to hold back a bit of a smirk.

She cleared her throat and averted her gaze, "Yes, well, Charlie asked me to."

Somehow I doubted that.

"Hum, are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that perhaps you are starting to develop maternal feelings for her."

Esme scoffed as she retrieved the room. "Don't be ridiculous. I tolerate her for your, and Charlie's, sake, but that's all."

Right.

Someone is in denial.

Deciding not to push it, I simply nodded before heading upstairs. When I entered her room, she was, in fact, sleeping. Deciding not to wake her, I carefully examined her while she slept. I checked her glands, they were normal. Her face wasn't flushed nor did she have a fever though she did seem slightly more pale than usual. I wondered if perhaps she had eaten something spoiled.

Deciding to let her finish resting I leaned down to press a soft kiss of her forehead. At the feel of my cool lips on her skin, however, her eyes fluttered open. Her perfect lips pulled into a smile as she breathed by name.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, brushing a stray piece of hair from her eyes.

"Much better actually," she said, slowly sitting herself up in bed.

"That's good to hear. I examined you while you slept. You don't seem to have any typical symptoms that accompany the stomach flu. Perhaps you ate something bad."

"Maybe," she closed her eyes, exhaling a long, deep breath, "I just hate being sick."

"It won't last forever," I reassured her, kissing her hair. "I'm really more inclined to believe you ate something that did not agree with you, which means it should be out of your system within 48 hours at the most.

She just nodded burying her head into my chest. "Stay," she whispered into my shirt.

"I had no plans to do otherwise."

I stayed with my Isabella until the sun set that evening. I read to her from some of her favorite books and we watched a movie on her computer, but mostly we just talked. She admitted that Esme had been easy enough to live with, and they had for the most part just stayed out of each other's way, that morning being the exception. Deep down, I think Bella knew Esme was right to stop her from leaving for school, but I seriously doubt she would ever admit it, at least aloud.

I left shortly after six, just before Charlie was expected to return.

Isabella returned to school the next day, feeling slightly better than she had the day before or at least she claimed to. While she was still somewhat pale, she had promised me she hadn't thrown up since the morning before.

Her physical recovery from her accident was nearly complete. All that remained were a few scars which were diminishing rapidly. At this point I estimated she would be back to the state she was in before the accident in a matter of weeks, maybe even less. I still did not see how my sperm could have any sort of healing effect on her body, but at this point I can see no other way this had happened.

So far we had not heard any news from Denali, nor had Alice seen anything, so it would seem that whatever James and Victoria were planning, they had yet to finalize any decisions. For now, Alice and Jasper continued to stay in Forks, attending school and participating in keeping watch over Charlie and Esme.

BPOV

It had been a couple of weeks since the day I was forced by Esme to stay home. While I hadn't felt that sick since then, I still haven't felt great. I was starting to worry that whatever was wrong with me was more than food poisoning, or even the flu. I mentioned it briefly during my recent phone call to Renee, who was quick to blame Forks for my illness.

"You never got sick when you were with me. But I suppose that's what happens when you live in a town that has so little sun vampires could happily live there."

I nearly lost it when she said that. Renee was a lot more perceptive then she gave herself credit for, even if she was only joking.

Our lighthearted conversation took an abrupt turn, however, when Renee brought up the topic of Charlie's supposed eternal bachelorhood. "He's never going to meet someone if he spends all his time working and fishing." It was something she had said hundreds of times before, of course this time I couldn't really just glaze over the topic.

At that point it had been a month since they had eloped, and the only reason I found myself on the phone, telling my mother that Charlie married a woman after knowing her for less than a couple of weeks was because he 'forgot' to call and let her know. I had brought it up the other day with Charlie at the dinner table, just curious as to what Renee's reaction had been when he had told her. Charlie had blushed before staring down at his plate of pot roast. He then shrugged and said "Not really sure, I hadn't really thought to tell her."

He hadn't thought to tell her, yah right.

Liar.

Coward.

Surprisingly, Esme had even backed me up on this one. This was mostly because her beloved husband had promised her he had already taken care of it. My dear old dad spent the night sleeping on the couch that night. Okay, so Esme did have her good points, and putting my dad in his place when need be was certainly one of them, but she still drank from humans, well, normally. Apparently she'd been living off of animals since the day she'd met my dad. Carlisle said it was the longest she'd lived the 'vegetarian' lifestyle since she'd left his company nearly six decades ago.

Anyway, back to being forced to telling my mom Charlie had ran off to Seattle and got hitched without telling anyone.

I cleared my throat and shifted myself to a more comfortable sitting position on my bed before slowly breaking the news. "Actually, Mom, Dad's not exactly single anymore."

There was a long pause of silence before she asked me the oddest question, "Is it someone from the reservation?"

What?

Why would she jump to that conclusion?

"Uh, no. Why would you think that?"

She let out a long sigh before saying, "He always spent a lot of time there when we were together so I just… um, guessed, I suppose."

I had a feeling there was something she wasn't telling me but I let it go. That wasn't the time to deal with Renee and Charlie's past.

"Actually," I continued, "she's a friend of Carlisle's, they met at his house on Christmas."

"Oh, so it's only been a couple of weeks then," she gave a breathy laugh, "I wonder how long it will last," she finished.

"Well," I stretched out the word and then paused briefly before hedging into the subject, "I think they're going for 'until death do us part'." Even if said death will most likely never occur.

Renee gave a snorted laugh, and I could just picture her rolling her eyes, "They've known each other half a month. I don't think they're considering marriage plans just yet, Bella."

I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts. I didn't think Renee would have a problem with Charlie getting married. She had gotten over him long ago, but I was pretty sure she wouldn't exactly be thrilled with him eloping with a woman he not only barely knew, but also one that she had yet to meet and deem good enough to be in the same house as her daughter.

"Well, what's her name?" she went on. "How old is she, what does she do?"

"Um, well, her name is Esme." And let's see, she's an eight-four year old nomadic vampire who, until recently, wandered the earth searching for depraved humans who she then killed and drank their blood.

"I believe she's around thirty and she's a personal shopper," or at least that's what she had told Charlie.

"She's only thirty?" Renee gasped, clearly shocked that her ex-husband could get a woman that young. Yah, Renee just wait until you see what she looks like.

I could only imagine what her reaction would have been had I told her Esme was twenty-six, which is technically when her body stopped aging.

"Has she ever been married before, does she have any kids?" She continued to drill me about the new woman in my dad's life.

"Um, well she was married once, but he… passed away," probably around fifty or so years ago. "But no kids."

Of course she did have one child, a little boy that only lived a few days, but that really wasn't any of Renee's business.

"Look, mom…," I really didn't want to beat around the bush anymore, nor did I want to have to continue to answer a stream of questions, so I decided just to get down to the heart of thing. "I don't know an easier way to say this and please don't freak out but, well, Dad and Esme eloped about a week ago."

With this sudden revelation I figured one of two things would happen, either she would laugh thinking it was all some ridiculous joke, or get really pissed off and scream and rant, perhaps even threaten to fly me to Florida. Instead she took a long, deep cleansing breath before asking to speak to my dad. Then, after I handed the phone to a very anxious looking Charlie, she started to scream and rant. After a thirty minute shouting match over the phone, Renee decided to come for an early visit to meet the new Mrs. Swan.

XXX

CPOV

I was finally going to get to meet Bella's mother, and despite the circumstances surrounding the visit, I was looking forward to getting to know her. She was coming out the last week of February, and only for the weekend, as she would be heading to an away game with her husband Phil the following Monday. In the meantime things had seemed to settle. Bella seemed to be feeling better and was back at school, along with Alice and Jasper.

Esme seemed to be more than happy with her role as wife and homemaker, at least for the time being. I was actually quite impressed she had been able to continue to sustain on animals alone these past several weeks. When I mentioned this to her she scoffed and told me not to get used to it. I was hoping that once she changed Charlie, he may wish to follow my choice in diet and somehow convince his wife to do the same. As hopeful as I was, however, I was not delusional and was quite aware that would most likely not be the case. As a newborn, his craving for human blood would be difficult to curb, especially with his mate encouraging him to do the opposite.

I supposed there was no need in worrying about it right now anyway.

While I had friends who chose to live on a more traditional diet, it made it difficult to have them as close friends, our lifestyles being too different. Charlie was not just Bella's father, he was my friend, and I would truly have hated to lose the close companionship that we had built. Just the other day he was confiding in me of his future plans with Esme, and while I knew they could never come to fruition, I felt honored that he confided in me.

XXX

BPOV

I groaned as I sat in the passenger side of Alice's Porsche, then forcing myself not to slam the car door shut. I had run out of excuses. I had promised that once my leg was healed I would let her take me shoe shopping. So here I was, on my way to Seattle with my shop-a-holic best friend.

Alice giggled as she started up the engine. "Come on Bella, this will be fun."

"Fun for you!" I shot back. She just laughed as we turned to make our way down the street. "I don't see why we have to go all the way to Seattle. Couldn't we just shop in Port Angeles."

"Better selection," she responded simply.

Right. Better selection.

"Okay, we'll since we're going to be in the city I want to stop by Elliott Bay Book Company. There's a book I've been wanting to get for Carlisle, and they carry it."

"Fair enough. Speaking of Carlisle he's going to call you in about 15 seconds."

Laughing I pulled my phone from my purse, and sure enough a few seconds later Carlisle's name popped up on my screen.

"Hello Dr. Sexy," I answered.

Alice let out a loud bust of laugher while my boyfriend gave a small chuckle before adding, "Hello Bella, do you know why I'm calling?"

"To tell me you love me."

"Hum, well that is true. However, the reason for this call is because it would seem my naughty patient apparently missed her last physical therapy session with Dr. Wong this morning."

Well, crap!

"Um, I forgot."

He laughed at my awful lie before adding, "Bella, I know at this point you no longer require the therapy, but you need to keep it up for appearances sake."

"Come on Carlisle it was just the last secession, no big deal."

"Maybe not, but when Dr. Wong asked me about your absence, I told her that you simply must have forgotten and would make it up this coming Saturday morning."

I sighed shaking my head. That was not his decision to make. "You should have asked me first."

"Perhaps, but you really shouldn't have played hookie in the first place."

I giggled at his use of the term hookie. It just didn't sound right coming from him. He rarely used slang.

"Honestly, I just overslept. When I woke up I was already running late so I just decide to forgo it."

"You could have at least called."

I sighed in frustration. For the most part, Carlisle was the essence of everything perfect; but then there were moments like these, when he acted more like a father then a boyfriend, that truly tried my patience with him.

"Look, if the only reason you called was to chastise me, then I really should go. Alice and I were in the middle of discussing shoe designers anyway." My blatant lie was followed by a squeal of excitement from Alice.

"That's right, Carlisle," Alice called out, "now hang up and get back to work."

Carlisle chuckled before saying, "Very Well. Isabella, I love you and I will see you tomorrow."

"I love you, too."

We said our final good-byes, I hung up my phone and placed it on my lap.

"I know Carlisle can seem a little… authoritative at times, but it's only because he cares about you so much."

I knew Alice's words were true, but it didn't really change anything. "I know that. And I know that while he may have centuries of experience and I only have eighteen human years, I am still his girlfriend, his mate, and he needs to treat me accordingly all of the time, not just when he wants to. If he doesn't agree with something I did, I don't mind him pointing it out, but he needs to approach me like an equal, not like a child."

She nodded, her eyes still focused on the road in front of her. "Have you told him that?"

"Of course I have." Well that was sort or true. I had told him not to treat me like a child and that my opinion was important as well. Of course that was during our argument over Esme, and I didn't exactly word it the way I just did with Alice.

My best friend sighed and shook her head. "He has been alone for a very long time Bella, and as wonderful as it is for him to have you in his life, this is a very big change for him. Change can be very difficult for vampires to deal with. You really do need to communicate with him better. I know you're a private person, but he's never going to be able to understand your exact wants and needs if you don't tell him what they are. You want to be treated like his equal, tell him that; exactly that, in very black and white terms. He'll understand Bella, I promise you."

I didn't reply, but just nodded. Maybe she was right. Maybe I just needed to sit down with him and tell him exactly what I am feeling and why. My mom always said that part of the reason they ended up splitting was because Charlie never told her what he was feeling, and when you don't communicate as a couple things fall apart. Not that I thought Carlisle and I would ever separate. We we're soul mates, destined to be together for all eternity. But I suppose that eternity would go a lot smoother if I was more open and honest with him.

At that moment my phone chimed, indicating I had a reminder. Picking it up I glanced at my calendar that had appeared on the screen. In big bold letters it read: REFIL BIRTH CONTOL. I had set the reminder for three days before I needed it refilled, but for some reason I thought I had more time, so I looked at the date. It was the 28th.

The 28th.

Of January.

No. It couldn't be.

"Alice," I said forcing myself to take a calming breath.

"Bella, are you okay, your heart rate just shot up really fast."

"I don't know," I swallowed, "What's the date?"

A huge, extremely petrified part of me prayed to God that for some reason my phone wasn't working right, and that I may have rolled over on it in my sleep and somehow changed the date settings. Then there was the tiny part of me that said, what if… what if it was possible… even if I was young and still in school and un-married…

"It's the 28th, why?"

Oh God.

Oh, holy, mother of God!

"Bella, what's wrong? You're scaring me."

Slowly I turned to look at her and I suddenly realized she had pulled over to the side of the road.

"Alice… I'm late."

She gave me strange look, but only briefly before her eyes widened in understanding. She knew there was a possibility it could have happened. She had seen my birth control pills on my dresser one day and asked why I was taking them. She had already known the theory Carlisle and I had about his sperm healing me, and so I quickly explained that while the possibility of me becoming pregnant was unlikely, we'd decided we didn't want to take the chance.

"Are… are you sure."

Closing my eyes I nodded, "I'm never late, Alice," I breathed slowly opened my eyes and looking my friend directly into her golden eyes, "never."

"Okay, wow. Um, well, maybe we should get one of those home pregnancy tests, just to be sure."

"Okay," was all I could come up with, my eyes diverting to my lap as Alice pulled back onto the main road.

Now that I thought about it, it started to make more sense. I hadn't been feeling well, I've been more tired than normal… As scared as I was at the idea, a small part of me wanted it. It was something I'd never thought possible. A beautiful tiny, miraculous piece of me and Carlisle.

Carlisle.

What would he say? Would he be happy? Or worried? He had expressed concerns of me being able to handle carrying a half-vampire baby. Then again, maybe it was nothing. Maybe I really did just have the flu or food poisoning. Maybe I was late because of stress. Maybe…

My hand drifted to my stomach, a small smile pulled to my lips.

Maybe, I'm going to be a mommy.

A/N: Okay, there you go Bella's probably prego's and yes a lot of you guess she was. You find out next chapter for sure. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please feel free to let me know. Thanks