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Chapter 33

Dream Weaver

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Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod

** By: Eugene Fields **

Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod, one night sailed off in a wooden shoe;
Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea.
Nets of silver and gold have we," said Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden shoe.
And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.
Now the little stars are the herring fish that live in that beautiful sea;
"Cast your nets wherever you wish never afraid are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three - Winkin', and Blinkin', and Nod.

So all night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling foam.
'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fisherman home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be.
Some folks say 'twas a dream they dreamed of sailing that misty sea.
But I shall name you the fisherman three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

Now Winkin' and Blinkin' are two little eyes and Nod is a little head.
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.
So close your eyes while mother sings of the wonderful sights that be.
And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.

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Sarah sat at her work table; the nearly finished sculpture in front of her was destined for a charity auction. Papa had been approached by Chief Swan, in his capacity as vice-president of the Rotary Club, and enlisted to help organize a fund-raising event for the building of a rescue center for neglected and abused children. Her father tried to balance his position as a prominent doctor and pillar of the community with the safety and security of his family. He preferred his privacy, but when it came to children in need, he would do almost anything to help.

Papa in turn approached her with the idea of doing a sculpture piece to be auctioned off at the event. Her mother had already engaged the services of several well known artists from the community, but in her Papa's eyes none could hold a candle to his Kitten. She was his personal Bernini, and he extolled her talents to whoever would listen.

Arrangements were already in place with a reputable local foundry to cast her finished work in bronze. She really preferred sculpting animals, but since children was the theme of the charity event, she went with that. Her sculpture was of a group of kids giving their dog a bath. Compromise she thought to herself with a smile, she got an animal into the composition, the organization got children in it, and the adorable factor was through the roof.

While she worked on the sculpture her mother and was helping Bart with his home work. Shortly after their return from Italy, Bart celebrated his 11th birthday. When the new school year started in late August, her father helped her enroll him in the local middle school. Papa had his reservations about letting Bart go to regular school, but Esme insisted he needed the social interaction. With that, Bartholomew became the town's newest sixth grader.

"Can we please do something else, Grandma, this is boring," Sarah heard her son plead.

"Boring or not, it's an assignment and you have to finish it Bart." Her mother's voice was smooth and calming. "Once we're done with it, we'll do something fun."

"But Grandma, I've got this. I already know how to work these math problems," Bart protested. "The teacher showed us a couple of times on the overhead; I felt something in my head just sort of . . . click, and then I knew it. I can do the problems backwards and forwards. So please, can we do something else?"

"How about a music lesson?" Sarah heard the tinkling ivory keys of her brother's voice as he and Bella descended the stairs. Except for her mother and Bart, they were the only other people in the house.

"Edward, he has to finish his homework."

"It's ok Esme, he's going to finish," her brother insisted, "but a music lesson might help settle his restlessness. You know, the piano always helps me concentrate."

"Thanks, Uncle Edward, but Mrs. Davis wouldn't let me check out an instrument for the weekend. The school only has five cellos and the eighth graders needed to practice for a concert next week."

"No problem," Edward answered smoothly. Sarah wondered if anyone else heard the hint of a surprise ringing in his voice. "Wait there, I have something for you."

She listened as her brother disappeared down the basement stairs. Her father's lab was down there as well as some extra storage. Her curiosity was piqued, what could her brother possibly have in the basement? When Edward returned she could tell by the sound of his gait that he was carrying something.

"Wow! Is that what I think it is?" she heard Bart gasp.

"Well, I don't know, what do you think it is?"

"My very own cello, Uncle Edward . . . just for me?"

The symphony of sound that was her brother's laughed tickled her ears. "That's right; it's a gift from your Aunty Bella and me."

"Awesome!"

Sarah listened with great pride to the ensuing ruckus as Bart unzipped the cello case and examined his new instrument. As he drew the bow lightly across the strings to test the sound, she couldn't help her smile. The room soon filled with the deep warm resonance of Bart's new cello. It had a voice that was much purer than the ones he brought home from school.

Sarah's hands moved with newfound joy over the surface of the clay as she listened to Bart warming up with his scales. Suddenly Edward's phone rang and the house was plunged into graveyard silence. She bumped up the volume of her hearing and was surprised to find Jacob on the other end of the line.

"Is Carlisle home?" he demanded of Edward. The amount of panic in the young man's voice startled her.

"No Jacob, his shift at the hospital doesn't end for another thirty minutes, why, what's wrong?"

"Call him; tell him to ditch the end of his stupid shift. Tell him to high tail it home and . . ." Jacob's voice was cut off by the sound of a painful scream in the back ground.

"Was that Nessie?" Edward's voice was almost a growl. She'd never heard that much fear in brother's voice before.

"Yes, she's in labor. We're on our way to your place now."

* * * *

Carlisle looked at his watch as he finished the last of his notes in the patient's chart he was working on. Thirty more minutes and his shift would be over. Edward and Bella were going to keep an eye on Sarah and Bart while he and Esme took a much needed weekend vacation. They were going to spend the next two days together in a little mountain cabin he bought a few months back. His wife had made renovating their new hideaway her special project. He couldn't wait, it had been far too long since they had enjoyed any alone time together.

He smiled and looked at his watch again, T minus twenty seven minutes and counting. If he could just manage to look busy, perhaps the nurse wouldn't hand him another case. He put on his most convincing look of deep concentration as he focused his attention on the paperwork in front of him.

At T minus fifteen minutes and counting his phone rang. He grinned, his wife was getting impatient. Don't worry my love I won't keep you waiting much longer, he thought as he took his phone from his pocket. As a matter of habit he glanced at the caller ID and was surprised. Edward's name appeared on the backlit screen.

"Hello Edward, what's up?" he answered pleasantly.

"You've got to hurry home; Jacob and Billy are on their way here with Nessie. She's in labor."

His weekend plans were instantly forgotten as his mind shifted automatically into doctor mode. "Let me grab a few things and I'll be on my way."

* * * *

Sarah listened helplessly to the firestorm of activity as Nessie, Jacob, and Billy arrived at the Cullen home. The expectant mother was ushered down to Papa's lab which had been set up over the past several weeks for this very event. Her father had prepared for every eventuality including emergency c-section.

Alice called shortly after Edward got off the phone with Papa. She and the others would stay away until after the birth. Although they had all recently hunted and had excellent control, they didn't want to take any chances with that much blood.

When asked what outcome she saw, Alice could give no clear answer. The presence of the Quileute around Nessie clouded her sister's ability to see the future.

"I know this is going to sound really nuts, but ask Bart," she heard her sister tell Edward over the phone. "Ask him about the girl who visits him in his dreams."

Sarah held her breath as her brother hung up the phone. Bart hadn't mentioned any dreams.

"Hey, Bart Man," her brother called the boy's name softly, "have you been dreaming about a girl recently?"

"Yes, Uncle Edward," he answered honestly. "She tells me lots of secrets when she visits."

"What kind of secrets?" Billy asked.

"Well, the first night she came, she said she was cousin Nessie's daughter," Bart told them shyly.

"And when was this?" By the sound of his voice the Quileute elder was obviously intrigued.

Bart was silent for a while. The only sound that disturbed the quiet was the occasional groan that filtered up from the basement. Jacob, Esme, and Bella were below with the mother-to-be, comforting her as they waited for Papa to arrive.

"Well," he began slowly, "do you remember the Sunday everyone was here for the football game, and you nearly fell on me?"

"Of course," Edward answered. "That was the day your gift surfaced. Go on."

"Well, later that afternoon Nessie said the baby was moving and I asked if I could touch her stomach and feel it. She smiled at me and said yes." Bart paused briefly before continuing. "When I put my hand on her belly the baby kicked and then I felt this tingling run up my arm and then it was all over me. It was like a whole nest of honey bees all buzzing at once. That night she came to me in a dream and told me she was cousin Nessie's daughter."

"Did she tell you her name Bart?" Billy asked in awe.

"Yes, she said her name is Abigail."

"What else has she told you?" Disbelief echoed in Edward's voice.

"When she comes to visit, we play a lot."Bart sounded a little more relaxed now. "The dreams are always on a playground. She likes to swing, but we play on the slide too, or the see-saw or we sometimes build sand castles in the sand box.

"She has a little gray wolf puppy that always comes with her. Mostly she tells me things about herself . . . her favorite color is turquoise."

"It's never happened this early before," Billy mumbled. Sarah could tell the elder was in shock. "She hasn't even been born yet, why is this happening now?"

"You're not suggesting that . . . Bart and Abigail . . . ." Her brother allowed the question to die unfinished.

"Imprinted," the elder whispered reverently. "She imprinted on Bart when he touched Nessie's stomach."

* * * *

Seven hours after he arrived and found his granddaughter in the throes of labor, Carlisle emerged from his basement lab a proud new great grandfather. There was a certain lightness in his steps as he ascended the stairs; bringing a new life into the world was definitely the most satisfying part of his medical career. When that new life just happened to be Nessie's beautiful, healthy, baby girl, it made the joy he felt even sweeter.

He emerged to find Billy, Edward, and Sarah gathered in the living room. Bart was stretched out asleep on the sofa, his head resting comfortably in his mother's lap. It always amazed him how the boy never seemed to mind his mother's rock hard, ice cold skin; in fact he seemed to prefer it.

"Well?" Billy and Edward asked in unison. The sudden chorus of their voices made the two men look at each other briefly.

Carlisle chuckled before answering. "You are now the proud grandparents of a healthy six pound thirteen ounce bouncing baby . . . girl."

Though Billy and Edward both smiled broadly they somehow seemed to lack the level of enthusiasm he thought they should have exhibited. Perhaps they were hoping for a boy.

"Both mother and daughter are doing very well and there were no complications during the birth." He continued with his doctor's speech, it was the same one he gave with practiced regularity at the hospital except this time it was more personal. "Just as soon as Esme and Bella finish cleaning mother and daughter up, Jacob will move them to one of the upstairs rooms. You may visit then, but only briefly, labor isn't called labor for nothing and our new little mother needs some rest."

"Did she lose much blood; is it safe for the others to come back yet?" Edward asked. He still didn't look as excited as the doctor had expected, it was unnerving.

"No. She delivered naturally and she lost no more blood than I had anticipated." He shifted into his clinical voice. "Still, I would prefer it if your siblings would remain away from the house for a while longer. We need time to clean up the mess and for the smell to dissipate some."

"That sounds fair," Edward agreed. "I'll phone Alice and tell her."

It was the last straw; Billy still had the same unimpressed look on his face and Edward's cavalier attitude raked at Carlisle's last nerve.

"Alright, what's going on?" he demanded. "I've just given you the happiest news I can imagine and you two act as though it's nothing."

Edward and Billy shared another knowing exchange of looks and Carlisle found himself growling. He suddenly wished he hadn't as he saw poor Sarah flinch at the harsh sound. He was about to say something soothing to her when Edward interrupted him.

"We knew Nessie was going to have a girl, Carlisle, and that the baby was going to be healthy. It wasn't a surprise."

"Alice told you?" he questioned. "I thought she couldn't see anything because of the Quileute presence."

"Not Alice," his son answered. Both Edward and Billy suddenly cast their gaze toward his sleeping grandson. "Bart told us. I think you better sit down Carlisle, we have some pretty potent news for you."

"Sit down," he scoffed. "If you're afraid I'm going to faint dead away from shock at whatever you have to say, I'll have you know I haven't done so in over three centuries. Now talk."

Edward sighed heavily, "Abigail . . ."

"How did you know her name?" the doctor insisted. "I don't recall telling you that."

In fact, the baby's name was a small point of contention between Nessie and Jacob after the delivery. His grandson-in-law was sure that his wife was carrying a boy, a son which he intended to name William Edward. He was so convinced of this fact that he hadn't bothered with selecting a possible girl's name. When Carlisle announced the birth of a daughter Jacob was stunned and wanted to name her Isabella Marie after her grandmother. Bella protested vehemently, she hated the name Isabella and refused to have her granddaughter saddled with such a hideous moniker.

In the end it was his granddaughter who decided things. Over the past three months she had been visited in her dreams by an eight year old girl with jade eyes, bronze skin and chocolate brown hair. The girl told Nessie that her name was Abigail Marion, which was the name his granddaughter gave to her new baby girl.

For a long moment Edward only looked at him. "Well I could lie to you and tell you that I picked the information from your thoughts and it would probably make you feel a lot better, but I won't. Bart told us. Now can I finish?"

Carlisle took a couple of deep cleansing breaths and then nodded.

"As I was saying," Edward sighed. "Abigail imprinted on Bart several months ago when he touched Nessie's stomach. She's been visiting him in his dreams ever since."

It was Carlisle's turn to be stunned. It didn't surprise him that Nessie had dreamed of her daughter, mothers-to-be often reported such phenomenon. The fact that Abigail visited Bart in his dreams was another matter entirely and made him wonder if this was his great granddaughter's emerging gift. A dream weaver in the family, he thought, and a powerful one at that if she could enter Bart's dreams even before she was born.

And as if the emergence of a new powerful member of the Cullen extended family wasn't enough, Abby was now imprinted on Bart. Perhaps Edward was right to suggest he sit down. Absently he found his favorite armchair and lowered himself into it.

"Of course you understand the ramifications of this?" Billy's somber expression matched his solemn tone.

He understood them all too well. When Jacob imprinted on Nessie, his family had put off a much needed move in order to keep everyone together. Bart and Abigail would be forever bound to each other, playmates and semi-siblings for now, but they would be much more to each other later on. They would have to remain close to each other or else neither one of them would be happy.

This posed a serious problem as his family desperately needed to move. People were starting to ask in earnest for the name of his plastic surgeon, and the children were too long out of school. It was time to start over, yet a fractured family wasn't what he wanted. It wasn't the Cullen way.

"We'll come up with something," Carlisle responded as he looked into Sarah's worried eyes. "I never planned for us to get too far away from Forks anyway, Abigail is going to need a good pediatrician for the next few years and I honestly can't see anyone else doing the job. It'll all work out somehow, it always does."

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Footnote: Sometimes I lean heavily on past books I've read to come up with cool new powers to give to characters and then invent nifty names for them. In Abigail's case, a dream weaver is a powerful telepath who can enter and manipulate the dreams of others. This is not a new concept, Sci-fi and horror novels abound with both heroes and villains with such gifts.