Oh, The Places You'll Go!
So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
You're off the Great Places!
Jasper was, possibly, the calmest person that Rosalie knew. He was simply at ease with everything, dealt with stressful situations calmly and left those around him feeling relaxed. He was a good person to work with.
When he got a phone call at the office saying that Alice had gone into labour nine days earlier than expected, Rosalie saw a new side of him.
He hung up the phone without a word and lunged across his desk to grab his keys, sending files and papers everywhere. By the time the last piece of paper had floated to the ground, he had vanished. Esme swept across the office and picked everything up cheerfully.
"Call us when you have news!" She called after him.
Rosalie smiled over at Edward, who was beaming and phoning Bella, who had apparently been with Alice as her water broke and had driven her to the hospital.
Carlisle closed the office a little early and they set off for the hospital.
Emmett was already in the waiting room, chewing on a sandwich. He waved to Rosalie and wrapped his arm around her as he swallowed his mouthful.
"I worked through lunch so that I could get here quickly."
"How is she?"
"Nearly there, I think. Jasper's come out a couple of times but she doesn't want anyone in there until it's all done."
Alice gave birth to Maria Isabella Whitlock less than two hours later.
As an exhausted Alice talked quietly with Bella and Edward, Jasper proudly handed Maria around. Rosalie watched as Emmett picked her up, manoeuvring her with surprising delicacy for a man of his size.
The way his large hands held her tiny body and the way his smile widened as he looked into blue eyes that rivalled his own made heat blossom in her stomach and her heart pound desperately.
"You want to hold her?" Jasper asked and Rosalie nodded silently. Emmet moved towards her and they awkwardly passed the baby. Maria's head settled into the crook of Rosalie's arm and she whimpered a little. Rosalie stroked a gentle finger over her petal-soft cheek before pressing the tip of it into the tiny hand. Maria's miniature fingers tightened around her and Rosalie's heart constricted and released in a rush of emotion that made her want to laugh and sob at the same time.
This tiny being was amazing.
She looked up. Everyone was talking with the new parents apart from Emmett who was staring at her the same way that she must have been staring at him only moments before.
With unadulterated, impossible, hopeless love.
When they went home, Rosalie followed Emmett into the bedroom as he began to undress. As his shirt fell to the floor, she stood behind him, her arms around his waist and rested her forehead between his shoulder blades, kissing the skin there.
"I am in love with you." She whispered and she could feel his smile. He turned and wrapped her in his arms.
She told him that she loved him three more times that night.
She told him as he moved towards her in the bed and pressed his mouth to her neck.
She told him as she came, falling apart in his arms.
And she told him as she started to drift into sleep, the image of a tiny baby with black curls and blue eyes floating in her mind.
A/N: I'm very glad that Alice and Jasper did not call their baby Buxbaum.