The Day The Earth Stood Still

by Sare Liz

An AU rewrite of the entire series, largely from Edward's POV. -Winner of two Mystic Awards.- Outtakes found in DVMR.

37. The Flow

Title: The Day The Earth Stood Still
Author: Sare Liz
Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga belongs to Stephenie Meyer.
Continuity: Midnight Sun, EPOV, Canon pairings, Canon ontology, AU.
Rating: M.

Book Three: The Adventure Continues
Chapter 1: The Flow
Beta: Colleen P, bless her heart. She has a constitution of iron; she's still with me.
Author's Note: My, it's been a while, huh? Well, I've changed jobs, downsized, and moved, but you know... I think I'm back. You can be the judge of that. :)

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I love running.

Twelve steps for every one of Bella's resting heartbeats was the soft tattoo that set me on a pace manageable for her. Her thoughts were quiet just now, but mine were racing. It wouldn't be long now, just a few more moments. We'd stopped just ten minutes ago at Bella's request so she could 'use the dirt' - her lovely euphemism for urinating in a hole in the ground - as well as stretch. Her reasoning was sound - she wanted to reach whatever situation awaited us at her best advantage. I agreed with her entirely, even as my thoughts tumbled over themselves.

Would there be a physical threat?

Was I taking Bella into an inherently dangerous situation?

Should I remain partially in Bella's head? Probably not - I would need to monitor not only Nahuel and his companion, but Jasper as well to get a full picture of the situation. I decided to come out now. I reached a hand back and scratched my nails ever-so-gently on the back of her neck and slipped out of her mind as gently as I could manage. It hurt less that way.

Alice had a migraine, and she couldn't see anything - not even things she'd been able to see before. She was still trying to, however, and that was apparently the source of her frustration and physical discomfort.

Esme's thoughts were consumed with worry about the upcoming meeting. I watched memories circle through her thoughts of interactions with Nahuel. He was a strong, tall looking fellow who looked completely adult, and yet still in his prime. I tamped down my slight envy. There were days I didn't enjoy looking seventeen, though it did sometimes work to my advantage . In Esme's thoughts I was able to see the distrust in his eyes as he listened to Carlisle patiently explain what he had undoubtedly already heard in some form from Alice and Jasper. It was all to no avail. Nahuel's father, with whom he was somewhat acquainted, fancied himself a doctor with a specialty in research. This research was apparently carried out by impregnating unsuspecting young women in the jungle, among other things. That Carlisle had at some point self-identified as a doctor did not help his case with Nahuel.

And then suddenly I was in range. At our current speed, the presence of their mental voices - Carlisle, Jasper, Leah, Nahuel, and Huilen - happened quite suddenly. Had we been walking it would have been a gradual increase in volume...

They couldn't hear us yet, but it would only be a moment or two more before they could.

Nahuel's mind was what I was chiefly focusing on, though I also monitored Jasper and Carlisle quite closely to see if there was anything useful, or anything they particularly wanted to communicate to me once they knew we were coming.

And suddenly, I knew from their thoughts that they could finally hear us.

Carlisle told me that no one knew of my abilities, or the depth of my connection with Bella, though they'd tried to convey the depth of my devotion. My mentor also went through the entire conversation he'd had with Nahuel before the latter shut down completely.

Jasper reported that Nahuel's emotions had been utterly chaotic - joyous and hopeful one moment, filled with envy the next, deeply suspicious and distrustful the next, and though they still circled around, the suspicion and distrust were manifest. Jasper had resisted using his talent too blatantly lest Nahuel mark him as antagonistic and thus refuse any and all cooperation, permanently.

Leah was deeply annoyed, and her thoughts raged with it. She was annoyed with Jasper, who had tried to calm her down without her consent. She was annoyed with Carlisle for not being more effective. She was annoyed with herself for not being enough of a people person, for not being able to single-handedly solve this problem for me and Bella. Leah's ability to castigate herself for situations she did not create and for which she bore no true responsibility is unparalleled, I have discovered. Of course Leah was also annoyed that it was taking us too long.

Huilen was less suspicious than Nahuel and seemed much more inclined to help us, but I almost stumbled when I saw the scene of Nahuel's birth in the grainy reel of human memories within her mind. He'd had to... oh, God. I could barely process it. The image of...

I stopped running.

Almost instantly Esme and Alice were next to me, looking at me with concern. Concern was also in Jasper, Carlisle, and Leah's mental voices when they realized almost at the same moment that our party was no longer moving toward them. Only Bella vocalized anything.

"Baby, what's wrong?" she murmured against the shell of my ear even as her arms wrapped tightly around my torso.

I shook my head, though whether or not to indicate that I couldn't say anything, or that I was fine, or that I was completely overwhelmed I wasn't sure.

Nahuel had had to rip his way out of his mother's womb using his own teeth. She was dead by the time he'd finished. Huilen had been bitten by him shortly afterwards, and had woken up a ravenous half-mad newborn who also had the care of the infant half-vampire who had afterwards grown at an alarming rate - almost three times as fast as a normal human.

Nahuel ate the flesh and drank the blood of whatever he'd hunted, and while he was in utero, apparently his late mother had similar cravings.

It was hard after that to concentrate on Nahuel's mind. If Alice hadn't once seen my unborn children so clearly with Bella in the same picture I would have absolutely refused to have children at all in that moment, refused to put Bella through any of that.

The image of the infant Nahuel chewing his way out of the womb that had surrounded and nurtured him still took a preeminent and horrific place in my mind, and nothing could shake it.

Still, we needed to gather all the information we possibly could and then Bella and I would sit down and have a very difficult conversation in which we would decide - together - whether or not having children together was possibly the worst thought we'd ever come up with.

Together. Together, together, together. It was my mantra. I took a deep breath and nodded to Esme and and Alice before craning my neck around and giving Bella a peck on the lips.

"Let's go meet Nahuel, love," I murmured in reply, knowing that we were close enough for him to possibly hear.

And he did hear. His thoughts turned to the somewhat monstrous image of me that he had in his head, and his thoughts of Bella - some strange, vacuous, seduced girl with stars in her eyes. There was not much in his mind that was positive, and I wasn't entirely sure how we should proceed, save with caution.

And then we were before him. He and his companion were twenty or so feet away from the family, where we stopped. Backpacks were piled on the jungle floor and the running harness came off. Bella's legs slipped off my body and her hand slipped into mine. As Bella passed them, she reached out her other hand to silently touch them and be touched in return - first Leah, then Jasper, then Carlisle. Then it was Bella and I as we slowly picked our way through the trees, across the twenty feet that separated us from the tall, dusky skinned half-vampire and his companion.

"Hi. I'm Bella," I heard her say softly in her strong, clear voice, the voice she used when she was feeling particularly confident and calm. I could hear the smile in her voice, and I could see it in Nahuel's mind. She wasn't what he'd expected, and neither was I.

"And I'm Edward."

It confounded him that Bella spoke before me. That simply didn't compute in his world view. I wondered how long it would be before Huilen said anything. I didn't need Jasper to tell me how our simple presence was confusing the two of them.

We waited in silence but nothing was forthcoming from the individuals opposite us.

"Nahuel," Bella started in the same clear tone, "I know you must have questions for us, and we'll be happy to answer anything you like. We were hoping that you might feel comfortable enough to share with us what it's been like for you, and anything Huilen might remember about your mother's pregnancy and your birth. You see, Edward and I would very much like to have children, but we are afraid of what might happen to me in the process, and before we heard about you we were afraid of what sort of child we could have, a human and a vampire. So please, ask us anything you like."

Nahuel was silent. Huilen was silent. The family was silent. Everyone's mind was uncharacteristically and momentarily silent, leaving only the sound of three heart beats and the jungle around us.

Tomorrow, was the thought that accompanied the vision of growing dawn in the jungle and it was the only response we received from the couple before they left. Nahuel turned around and ran, Huilen right behind him.

"Huh," Bella and Leah commented at the same moment.

I turned and hugged Bella with my free arm, and slipped my fingers to the back of her neck. I sunk into her mind in the same moment as I rubbed my fingertips gently over the soft skin below her hairline.

Well. That was interesting. Did that just go as badly as I thought it did?

I shook my head and addressed Bella and the family both. "They'll be back tomorrow. We weren't what he expected. I think he was slightly overwhelmed," I said as we walked back to the family. He wasn't the only one, actually.

"I'll second that," Jasper said, giving me an odd look. He knew I'd seen something that had set me on edge. He knew I was still there.

"I have a good feeling about this, though," Alice said. "It's going to make a world of difference, just you two being here."

"Yeah, but you don't know that," Leah remarked.

Alice only shrugged, undimmed.

I said nothing to anyone about why I'd stopped while running, and it was a testament to how preoccupied Bella was that she didn't pick up on my distress. Either that, or I was hiding it better than normal, which I honestly thought to be an unlikely scenario.

We set up camp right there, even though it was still early in the afternoon. Two large hammocks - one for Leah, one for Bella and myself - complete with tarps and mosquito netting near a fire-safe area we cleared for cooking. A ways off we dug a simple latrine and showed Bella and Leah how best to use it. We rigged our packs to hang securely in the trees and fetched enough water for the day, and two showers in the morning. Alice rigged a privacy curtain made of sarongs between the trees for the shower itself when it was necessary, and I caught Bella staring at it blowing in the breeze. At first I thought she was interested in a shower, and she was, slightly. She was slightly weary from the journey, and I hesitated to mention my need to talk with her, to talk this out, but I knew she'd berate me if she found out I'd refrained from saying anything at all.

Leah was lounging in her hammock reading a book and the others, save Carlisle, had gone hunting and likely would not be back until morning. Carlisle was also reading, sitting on a tree branch above Leah.

I approached Bella and ran my hand lightly up her back, wishing for an impossible moment that I could speak to her in my head, the way she could of me. It was fleeting.

What is it, sweetheart? she asked, turning her head so she could meet my eyes.

"I should to hunt," I said. I omitted the other part of my distress. The thought of what the twins might have to do to get out of Bella once it was time for her to give birth was still an image horrific to me. I tried to shut it up in a separate part of my brain and shut the door, as I'd watched Bella do. I wasn't anything like as successful as she always was.

Okay. Where did we put the harness? Are you going to try and get some of that monkey like the others were talking about earlier? Hmm. I wonder what that tastes like. I look forward to your opinion on the subject.

"Bella," I said, interrupting her. "You don't have to come with me if you're too tired. You'll be safe with Carlisle and Leah, and I'll be back as soon as I can. I just need to take the edge off. This is all stressful enough without adding the hunger to it as well," I said.

It was strange. Firmly ensconced in Bella's mind I didn't feel the burn of the thirst, or the pangs of hunger should I go too long without eating, and yet I still managed to get grouchy and short-tempered when I was hungry. Bella's words. And as stressful as this situation was, and as much time as I will probably need to spend outside of Bella's head... I really needed to hunt.

She turned and wrapped her arms around my neck and my own came around her waist quite naturally.

"It's four o'clock in the afternoon, Edward. We crossed no time zones. I'll admit this has been a somewhat emotionally fraught day and it's true that I could be easily persuaded to go to sleep early, but not this early. We'll feed you, then we'll feed me, and then I'll sleep, if you don't mind."

I grinned despite myself and kissed her lightly. Against her lips I whispered, "I'm sorry, is that a trace of the sassy cat, I hear?"

No. No sassy cat, here. Her mind was racing with the last time that phrase was used between us - I'd handed her a serving of sarcasm and she hadn't enjoyed it at all. She'd neatly avoided recognizing her own nagging behavior in that past moment, and I hadn't called her on it at the time, but sarcasm hid something, and I wanted to know what it was. Also, the implied threat of withholding sex... well, it was mean, but that's why I only implied it. I'd never go through with it.

Bella hid her face in my chest as she held me tight.

"Then what's going on? Just tell me." God, I was such a hypocrite. I would tell her after I'd fed. Well, after we'd had sex, after I'd fed.

Don't leave me. Seriously, don't leave me for an instant out here. What I said before about that being okay? Like, if you needed to catch up with Alice or something? I changed my mind. Nahuel gives me the creeps, ditto Huilen, to say nothing of the rest of the Amazon Jungle. And I'm not tired enough to even think twice about going hunting with you, but honestly? Even if I was? And yes, I would tell you, but even if I was, even then you'd have to pry my cold, dead fingers off you to get away from me. Even tired I'd want to go with you, and given what seems to happen each time you hunt, even tired I'd probably still want you, at least a little bit...

I stroked the back of her head and pressed my lips to her crown. "Thank you for telling me," I said softly.

Thanks for calling me on it. I mean, I guess it's better to just be clear, I mean for me to just be clear about what's going on inside of me instead of being snippy to you. It's just... it's... nothing has happened, I mean, I said 'hi' and he ran the other way, and yet this is all really stressful and stuff. And have I mentioned lately that I don't like camping?

I continued to hold her and stroke her back. "I'll never make you go camping when we can avoid it," I promised her. "And you're right. It is stressful." Dear God in Heaven, it's stressful. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who was feeling it. It's not that I want you to be stressed and upset, but sometimes you seem so perfect to me that it's... a little daunting. It's nice to know you're still human," I whispered to her.

Bella snorted and mumbled against my shirt, "That makes one of us."

I sighed and smiled. "That's not what I meant, and you must know it. But regardless of your perfection or lack thereof, I adore you. And I'm hungry. So let's go get the harness and get me something to eat, hmm?"

You got it, handsome. But the harness is up to you. God only knows where you stashed the thing.

I'd retrieved the harness and returned before she had time to blink twice.

Hunting was hunting, and I was not enough of an aficionado to appreciate the differences in venue and menu, particularly with the images of a savage infant mauling its mother to death from the inside out, then attacking his aunt immediately afterwards still haunting me. It was true, the monkey did taste different, and certainly better, but after a steady diet of Bella's blood, the difference was minute at best. I only took one. I only needed to keep the hunger at bay. After putting some distance between ourselves and the remains of my meal, I put Bella at some distance from her clothes. I checked first to make sure it was what she wanted. We were in the middle of nowhere, after all, and conditions were not ideal for much of anything, but she assured me in no uncertain terms, so I continued.

It was the least savage of all of our post-hunting sessions to date, and I wished that I could be inside of her mind at the same time, though that was not our custom. To ask would have produced more questions than I wanted to answer just yet, so I refrained and instead took solace in my love's embrace.

I stood in the jungle, holding Bella to me, supporting her in my arms as her legs flexed around my hips. The feeling was exquisite and I made no effort to hold out for anything. I wanted to come as quickly as possible. I wanted to come, and then slip inside of her head and help her reach her release as I came again to the instant and erotic stimulus of her blood.

I could hear her gentle mind softly, beckoning me as she moaned and took deep, gulping breaths. I imagined all that was erotic so I could finish quickly and thus slip into her mind.

I imagined myself chained to our bed, again, except this time I was face first in her pussy, easing her cramps the way I enjoyed best.

I imagined a more durable Bella screaming out orgasm after orgasm as I unrelentingly ate her pussy for days on end.

I imagined taking her in every single one of the classrooms we've shared over the last year. By the time I was fucking her in the emptiness of the boy's locker room shower - with all the showers near us on, naturally - I was spilling my seed into her scorching heat. I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the orgasm. Normally thoughts of getting Bella pregnant were happy ones, slightly sensual ones if I was being totally honest, but now it only left a dreadful feeling inside.

I held her in stillness for a moment, my face buried in her neck.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I can't... I need..."

What do you need, sweetheart? Anything you need. Anything. Her mental voice was soft, as I was still outside, but it was clear.

"Inside. Please." Why I couldn't form coherent sentences I didn't want to consider. "Please," I added with feeling.

Of course. Before she'd actually finished the sentiment, however, I'd slipped in and groaned. Oh, God, I was home.

Bella was curious about my behavior, but she was assuming for the moment that it was just stress in general. She had no inkling that something more specific may have occurred. But I was hard again, and my Universe consisted of Bella. I brought her to orgasm forthwith and followed swiftly afterwards, filling my mouth with two ounces of the sweetest nectar on earth.

She was still cooing to me out loud and from within when I rearranged us so I could sit on the forest floor and she could make herself as comfortable as could be expected in my lap. I held her then, our naked bodies pressing against one another as she curled up on top of me. I did my best to create a comfortable seat for her, holding my torso at such an angle as might be best for her. Perfectly ensconced in her mind, the animal sounds of the jungle were returning full force now that my predator was put away, and had been for some moments. I could hear the heart beats and shuffling of jungle creatures of all sizes. There were four large monkeys that I was keeping one track of my consciousness monitoring, but nothing that seemed slightly threatening.

I suppose we should put our clothes back on and head back. She was kissing my neck as she thought this. Kinda hot and sweaty, though. The cold feels so good, baby.

I stroked her absentmindedly and sighed. Before she had a chance to ask, I told her what was on my mind.

"I saw something very disturbing in Huilen's mind as we approached. It's why I stopped running. There wasn't time to mention it before we met them, and then after... Honestly, after I just couldn't go into it with the family there, not with only half the picture. I mean, I saw a lot. Enough, perhaps, but I'm sure there's more and it might... well, it might make the overall picture better, or it might turn out to be worse."

Bella raised her head and I saw the growing fear in her eyes. "Tell me. Everything."

I nodded and tried to make sense of it all as I told her. I was clear about what I'd seen, and I was clear as I made inferences that might not necessarily be true.

Okay, okay, okay. What do we know? Then she answered her own question. "We know that the birth itself is difficult. We know I'm going to have some weird-ass cravings, but we'd suspected as much. We know that the twins are going to be fine. We already know I can survive this, or at least... I... I can survive it long enough to be turned." She was quiet for a moment, and I heard her swallow. Her heart beat was fast. "We suspect that the birth might be easier with a midwife who knows what's happening, as opposed to one poor, confused human with no medical training at all. We have Carlisle. We can have... we can have a c-section, or something. I mean, we have a lot more options than they did."

She was quiet for a while.

"Bella," I said quietly. "You didn't see it. Nahuel had to eat his way out of his mother. It was something out of a nightmare, or the most terrifying horror film. And the first thing he did when he was out was bite Huilen and turn her. She hated him for years. I don't know how old they are, but I'm guessing they're older than I am. And his mother, her body - it was broken, and torn, and... Bella." My arms tightened around her body. "I can't ever see you like that. Nothing, nothing, could tempt me to want something that could leave you like that. Not even the twins." I paused then, and added in a whisper, "I don't know if I can do this, Bella. The possibility... I don't know if I can do this."

We held one another naked on the jungle floor, and in her mind we were in the same position in our bed.

That's bad. That's really bad. Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry you had to see that. That's horrible, even standing alone, that's horrible. I mean, even without our own questions, and us having children, if you'd just met them because of whatever, and you saw that, or if Alice had seen something like that... Wait, what did Alice see? I mean, think back to the vision, and what you saw. Did my stomach look ripped open, or... um, oh it so gross even to think of it... um, did it look... chewed? Oh, God, that's disgusting. Anyway, did it?

I shook my head. The cut was clean - not so much as to suggest a scalpel, mind, but much cleaner and neater than I imagined possible for anyone tearing in with their teeth over such an area. The area wasn't ripped and torn, as would be necessary if someone had used their teeth from the inside or out. It wasn't a wound from a set of teeth; it was clearly a cut done by something singular and sharp, like a knife or... or a claw? I told Bella as much.

Okay. Okay. Let's remember that Nahuel's poor mother was obviously abandoned by his father who was the only one who might have had a clue about this at the time. She had no prenatal care. She was uneducated, living in the middle of a jungle, and it was at least a hundred years ago, but maybe more. She went into labor in order to give birth to something not entirely human and she did it either alone, or only with her sister who knew less than she did. She died. It's horrible, and it's tragic, but under those circumstances, could we really have expected her to live? The cards were stacked against her.

The cards are not stacked against us. You are not going to abandon me. We are going to have the best prenatal care that Carlisle can provide, and I promise to you right now - "and I'll even say it out loud, I promise to you right now Edward, and you can hold me to this, that whatever Carlisle says I need to do to stay healthy, I'll do, without complaint." And we don't live in the middle of a jungle, and we know a lot about fetuses and gestation, and you and Carlisle have so much medical knowledge, and I get that the twins wouldn't be human and they wouldn't be vampire, but something between, but we've got humans, and we've got vampires, and we've even got shapeshifters.

I wasn't sure what it was that clicked in my head, but just then I connected something in the vision to an event today.

"Huilen. Huilen was there. In the vision, she's there when you give birth to the twins."

"Well, that makes sense. She was there when Nahuel was born, it makes sense that if she's willing we'd want her there. Still slightly creeptastic, I'll grant you, but let's hope that will pass. The red eyes really are seriously freaky. I noticed that Nahuel doesn't have them." Isn't that strange? A half-vampire can make a full vampire? That's weird. I wonder if she's not quite a full vampire. That's weird. But I got side tracked. "Let's revisit the most important point. You're not going to abandon me. Our family is not going to abandon us. That really is the most important part, because if something happens, even if something bad happens, then you are going to get those children out of me yourself, and you are going to change me into a vampire a.s.a.p., and it's going to be crazy and stressful and scary, but three days later you'll still be a daddy and I'll still be a mommy, and I'll be awake and I'll have won my bet. Don't think I've forgotten."

I smiled and laughed just a tiny bit, even despite the seriousness of our conversation up until now. Leave it to Bella to think of sex even now. Then again, I was capable of no less, really.

We were both quiet for a little while before I broke our silence.

"I love you so much, Bella. And I'm so happy that we could be parents, that I could be a father... not even in my wildest imaginings did I ever think it was possible. And I'm so terrified, knowing how badly it could turn out. But... you're right. We searched out someone like Nahuel because we wanted to learn everything we could, so we could avoid fatal mistakes. I suppose... I suppose I just didn't think I'd witness the memory of those fatal mistakes, unavoided in someone else's experience. I suppose I assumed that if we found someone... their story wouldn't be quite so tragic."

Bella's hands in my hair felt wonderful. "I know, baby. It sounded horrible. I'm so sorry you had to see that. And you know, this might have occurred to you already, but if Nahuel and Huilen do in fact decide to help us out, it's only going to get worse. I mean, we're sort of asking Huilen to relive a bunch of memories that can't be wonderful for her, and you're going to get to see them all, too. And maybe they won't be so emotionally loaded for you, but they might be pretty moving anyway. Just remember that I'm here. I'm here, and I love you, and I want to know. And if we need to discuss it in private, we can go for a run and get some privacy that way, or we have your journal. There's always time for it, Edward. We can make time. You're important to me. We'll make time."

She was thinking of earlier today. She surmised rightly that I'd put off telling her anything for convenience sake. She'd figured out that if she hadn't gone hunting with me, I might have put off telling her about my discomfort and my experience in Huilen's mind indefinitely. I didn't know whether I should apologize or declare my devotion.

I decided on both.

"Let's get dressed and we'll see what happening for dinner for you and Leah. Are you certain you don't want to try some monkey? There are several in the trees around us even now."

Bella made a face as she reached for her shirt and shook it out. No, thank you. It was... weird, when you caught one. I mean, its face looked so... expressive. Deer's face? Not so much. Even that jaguar wasn't so bad, and I get that monkey tastes, like, worlds better than anything else, but it was creepy. Too close to humanity on the evolutionary tree for me.

Oh, fuck. Does this mean that Bella thought less of me for eating something that was so close to human beings? For one irrational moment I wondered what color my eyes were. Hell. Was it just going to be one thing after another in this god-forsaken jungle? Suddenly wary and perhaps just slightly paranoid, I slipped back out of Bella's mind and scanned the area as she was slowly dressing, and as I had just finished putting my own clothes on as quickly as I could.

Oh fuck.

My mind spiraled in several different directions all at once.

How long had Nahuel been sitting in the trees, his heartbeat masked by the monkeys, his scent downwind? Not when my mind had been unencumbered whilst I was hunting. He hadn't been around then. Not when Bella and I had been having sex - I still wasn't in her mind. Or, probably not then. Come to think of it, I might not have noticed. No, I probably would have. Shit.

Where was Huilen? She could be hiding just as easily, knowing how to mask her scent and with no tell-tale heart to expose her. But no, I would be able to taste her mind if she were within five miles of us.

Where was my family? No one was in range. Damn. And Nahuel was with us, so Alice couldn't see. Then again, if Alice had been monitoring us, she would have seen when we disappeared. She would know that I wouldn't like the 1:1 ratio I had at present. I had no idea how fast he could run, how strong he would be, what his style of attack might be like, if he even came in peace...

Was he going to attack? Did I need to run? Could I be stronger than him - would his hybrid nature be a help or a hindrance for him in this situation? He was bigger, and possibly older than I was. It's likely he's spent more of his life fighting than I have. We wanted his cooperation, but if we never got anything else out of him, I really did think we had enough to go on, just from Huilen's spontaneous recollection alone. How far on the defensive should I go? As it is he was spying on us - he might not have meant that as offensive behavior, however much I understood it to be.

Protect Bella. Protect Bella. Protect Bella.

His mind yielded nothing. He was observing us and not thinking just at present, unless he had some unforseen mental ability.

I crossed the few feet that put my body between his and hers, and even though he was fifty yard away and in the trees, I felt better for it.

Still, Nahuel's mind remained blank.

"Time to go, Bella," I said. He had undoubtedly heard the majority of our conversation. I had to assume he had. This meant that he probably knew of my gift. Fuck.

I could hear Bella's mental voice whisper something about her other shoe. "Carry your shoe. It really is time to go."

She wanted to know what was going on, but at least she was thinking that even as she climbed onto my back. I strapped her in quickly, as quickly as I was able and reached around to support the back of her head. "Don't move your head, arms in, tuck in the shoe, close your eyes." I was stalling. I didn't like the idea of turning my back on Nahuel, but neither did I want to spend any time at all with him when I didn't out number him. Still, once she did all of these things a better plan hadn't come to mind. Her heart was racing and I think she figured out I wasn't in her head, and she was in danger.

I was off like a shot, and to hell with starting slowly. I held the back of her head and ran faster than I ever thought I could, carrying an extra hundred pounds. I was almost as fast as I normally was, and I would guess, still faster than Carlisle and Jasper. A small part of my brain wondered if I was producing adrenaline.

He wasn't following. I didn't slow.

Three minutes later we were back at camp and I felt better for having Carlisle and Leah near at hand. I slowed to a stop and unbuckled Bella, spinning quickly to catch her as she slid off my back somewhat unsteadily. I slipped back into her mind as my fingers gently caressed the back of her neck, partially to let her know, partially to ease the tense muscles.

Edward, what is going on, tell me right this instant, what was that back there, and you weren't in my mind, and I'm totally freaked out right now so you'd better start talking-

"Shhh, we're safe now," I said, hugely relieved and holding her close to me. I walked her over to the hammock and we sat in it together, as if it were a couch. At my words, Leah perked up and laid her book on her stomach, and Carlisle was in front of us with a worried look on his face.

I still had an arm around Bella when I started to speak. "Just before we left, I got a little paranoid, and so I came out of your mind, love. It was then that I realized that Nahuel was in the trees around us. The wind was such that I didn't smell him, and he'd masked the sounds of his arrival, I think, as well as the sounds of his heartbeat with the presence of the monkeys around us. I believe he was only there when we started our conversation," I said, mostly for Bella's benefit, so she would realize that he had most certainly missed the spectacle of our intimacy, or, well, most of it. Granted, he was privy to the spectacle of our naked conversation afterwards. I didn't like that.

Neither did Bella, I was unsurprised to find out. She spluttered in her mind as Leah asked her question.

"He hear anything good? Or bad, as the case may be?"

I sighed, nodding. "It's likely he knows about my gift." I decided to wait on saying anything about what I saw until the others returned. It wasn't a story I wanted to repeat too many times.

That's not all he knows about! But okay. This... this could turn out to be a good thing.

"What?" I gasped.

"What?" both Leah and Carlisle echoed at the same moment.

"This could turn out to be a good thing."

"I'm listening," I said, unconvinced.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe. First, tell me what you heard from his mind."

"Nothing," I said. "I think he was just listening. Sometimes it's like that. And I didn't like the odds, so I got us out of there before I heard anything at all."

Bella nodded beside me. "Okay, yeah. So, here's how I think this could maybe be a good thing. Think about the parts of our conversation that were out loud. They were all about, like, how worried you are, and how you and the family would never abandon me no matter what happens. And at least at the tail end of this, Nahuel wasn't thinking, he was listening. I'm going to go ahead and guess that he was still listening - and intently. That kind of listening you do when your mind isn't somewhere else, or where you're not judging and weighing everything that gets said, you're just soaking it all in. I really don't think it's ever a bad thing when someone really, really listens to someone else. I mean, that's the only way we can ever get out of our own provincial thinking - isn't that what you called it the other day?"

We were silent for a moment as we digested that.

"Look. No matter what, we have maybe enough to go on with what you saw in Huilen's mind-" At this I got sharp and concerned looks from both Carlisle and Leah. "But this is probably a lot for Nahuel to swallow. I think we should give him some time." As much as it pains me to say that. 'Cause you know I really am not the jungle type, baby. "But not too much time. But let's give him a few days, at least."

I nodded, and at the inquiring looks I got, responded to the questions in their gazes. "I saw Nahuel's birth from Huilen's perspective. It wasn't at all pleasant, but it was... instructive. I really don't want to have to explain it twice, however, so I'd prefer to save the details for when Jasper, Alice and Esme return."

Carlisle nodded his understanding and Leah acquiesced as well, though not without some small amount of petulance.

We sat in a sombre silence for only a few moments before Bella broke it, giving me a squeeze and grinning up at me. "So. What's for dinner? Trail mix and dried jerky?"

Bella had been sleeping quite fitfully for the first six hours, but in the last two she had finally calmed somewhat. I curled myself around her and when Jasper, Alice, and Esme returned several hours into her hushed sleep, we woke Leah and spoke briefly and quickly about my earlier experience. They'd come around Bella's hammock to do this, however, as I refused to leave her even that much. It could be that I was being over protective, and it was possible I was paranoid, but I wasn't willing to take any more chances than already necessary.

When Nahuel and Huilen arrived at dawn, they arrived not running on the ground, but running and jumping through the trees. Huilen stopped a few trees away, but Nahuel was on the tree to which the head of our hammock was secured. He climbed down and effectively hung upside down less than twenty feet above us. By this point the family surrounded us as well, Alice and Leah keeping their eye on Huilen. I readied myself to curl protectively around Bella if the need should arise.

Nahuel was quiet as was everyone else for several moments. I slipped out of Bella's mind as gently as I could and braced myself for the bombardment of five anxious multi-tasking vampire minds and two additional ones that came awfully close.

Alas, there was no preparing for that sort of thing.

Finally, Nahuel spoke.

"You are full vampire, yet you lay with her as she sleeps. Why?" I didn't sleep, and it didn't compute for him why I should, in essence, be pretending to do so.

Honesty. I knew if Bella were awake, she would insist, or at least hope, for me to answer honestly.

"Because I love her," I said. "Because it calms me to be with her like this. Because this place is unfamiliar and frightening to her. Because I could not be anywhere else."

"Love," he said. Jasper reported his confusion, not that it played out at all in his voice. He was remembering an interaction with another vampire - his father? - and other vampires - or half-vampires, his sisters, perhaps? "Join us, Nahuel, my son. We are the ones who understand you. We are the ones who love you."

"Bella is my mate. She is the other half of who I am. The rest of my family have found their mates, and I am the last to do so. Bella will be with me for the rest of both of our lives."

Nahuel looked like he was digesting that, but quickly his eyes darted to Leah, awake and grumpy.

"Leah is the most recent addition to our family, but she had discovered her mate before she came to us. He was unable to accompany us." True, all true... in a manner of speaking.

"What is she?" Nahuel asked me, still staring at her. I could hear Leah bristling. I looked over to her and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a shapeshifter," she said more or less politely.

I watched Nahuel's brows furrow in confusion. He didn't understand. When Leah glanced at me I quirked my eyebrow at her again.

"I turn into a big fucking wolf." And if you so much as move a inch toward Bella and Edward, you're going to see just how fast I can do that.

"We did not expect you to return so early in the day," I said, bringing the attention off from Leah, lest she do something rash and wonderful, like transforming on the spot.

Ah, yes. And that was the other reason for changing the subject. Nahuel's thoughts revealed that he had meant to catch us while Bella was asleep. For whatever his reasons, he felt uncomfortable speaking to her, and being spoken to by her, but it was something more than simple misogyny. If I wasn't very much mistaken, he was starting to understand Bella as something of a mother figure, and he was intimidated and fascinated by her in turns.

Just so long as he didn't get too fascinated.

His thoughts quickly returned to my declaration before he'd gotten sidetracked by Leah's presence. He quickly looked around himself and noticed, perhaps for the first time that Jasper and Alice were a couple, and that Carlisle and Esme were a couple. Leah was spoken for. He glanced back at Huilen as well, and thought about the fact that they were together, family, but not a couple. He wondered if that was how it was supposed to be, how vampires were supposed to be; coupled.

Knowing how disconcerting it can be when I answer aloud questions posed silently in someone else's head, particularly when the person in question wasn't used to it, I kept quiet. I waited for him to decide to say something.

His thoughts ranged, and I wondered if he remembered that I could hear him, or perhaps he considered that it was only applicable between Bella and I. He'd come across us just as we were finishing yesterday, only moments after I'd sunk into Bella's mind and come a second time. He'd half hoped he could manage to catch us again this morning. He found it fascinating and arousing.

I was annoyed by this short round of thinking, but not so angry as Bella might have been. I was used to witnessing other people having sex, and having my family inevitably witness in some form or another, Bella and I having sex. The fact that it aroused him when he had no other outlet but a continued voyeuristic episode with Bella and me bothered me, but as I had no intention of offering him a repeat performance, it was only bothersome and not reproachable.

He was also thinking about his two encounters with his father. Judging from Nahuel's memories, he was a seriously unpleasant fellow.

"You say that you saw my birth. You read Huilen's mind. How do you do this?" he asked, shifting his perch slightly. The way he shifted made me think that he had to shift rather than the shifting I and my family do to try to fit in with others. That was something to consider. His heart beat, though obviously not at a human rate, he seemed to need to breathe, and he couldn't maintain the sort of stillness that we could. He really was human. Perhaps he was not entirely human, but he was definitely human.

I considered my answer for a brief moment before responding, but I opted to go with the truth. "It's what I do. I see and hear what is in other people's minds, when I want to do so," I said very softly. "Bella helps me to control that," I added, but as I feared, she began to wake. Undoubtedly it was as I spoke her name. I mused that this was the first time I hadn't woken her in some decidedly intimate fashion since she started hunting with me on my birthday. Six months. I wondered if she would be discernibly crankier this morning for the change.

Without waiting for Nahuel's response, should it be immediately forthcoming, I turned to the fragile love I held in my arms. I slipped back into her mind, secure for the moment in the family that surrounded us.

Her mind was soft and foggy, and she'd been dreaming of something of which I only caught the edges. I was sad to have missed it. Holding her close to me I shifted slightly so I could brush my lips by her ear as I whispered softly to her.

"Bella, wake up, love. We have guests."

Edward. Guests. Edward. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep...

"No, sweetheart, don't go back to sleep." She was a little closer now. "I promise that when this is over you can sleep as long as you want and no one will bother you. But for now you need to join us in this waking world."

Bella moaned a little and shifted, wiggling the hammock and causing it to swing even more than it already was from my own movements. I resumed my position to the side, still holding her closely, still ready to cover should Nahuel do something stupid - unlikely, but not unfathomable. Bella turned toward me and when her eyes opened, and her dazed mind joined us I knew I was the only thing that filled her vision. I knew she didn't yet realize that we were literally surrounded by people. She smiled at me, a soft curling of the corners of her mouth, and it disarmed me. Smile still in place, her eyes darted upwards and all hell broke loose.

Bella screamed.

The sound pierced the air in such a startling and blood curdling manner that Leah shifted on the spot, shredding her clothes around her until she stood on all fours, growling, with nothing but the thick platinum chain around her neck that held her crest. Nahuel instantly jumped from his perch to much higher up and several trees away. Alice, snarling, had jumped onto the tree, facing Nahuel just above where our hammock was tethered, and I had curled my body around Bella's head and torso, snapping myself out of her head and diving head first into the shattered morass of the minds of the assembled company. I admit, I was growling too.

Bella's heart rate shot up instantly and her body went rigid in that moment, only to loosen slightly five seconds later. Her fingers clutched at my shirt as her heart fluttered. A very, very small part of me was happy that Bella had this reaction. It was a visceral, unmistakable and totally honest response to how bloody inappropriate Nahuel's presence was at this hour. I was only ashamed that I had hadn't called his visit to a close earlier.

Carlisle was speaking with Nahuel, coaxing him to give the family some time - concepts of minutes and hours were lost on him, but he understood 'a part of the morning' - and Jasper was calming us all down with incredible subtlety. If I hadn't experienced it myself several times before, I would have thought it was uncanny, but natural. Esme was attempting to make contact with Huilen, but it was all for naught. Huilen was busy disapproving of Nahuel's fascination with Bella and was secretly smiling at the girl for her response to him. It's the response she wished her sister had had to his father. But at the same time she worried what effect this would have on him. She cared for him, as much as she seemed to loathe him, or have vivid memories of loathing him.

They left quickly.

I managed to tame my growl until it was nothing but the last hum before silence. After that it was almost completely silent. The mammals and reptiles were silent, causing no noise in the presence of such predators, and it was only the insects and the movement of the trees themselves that caused the sound around us. It was very quiet, indeed, save for the minds surrounding us.

I felt Bella's hands move around me even as I shifted off of her and returned to her side, pulling the thin blanket close about her body.

I could still hear Nahuel and Huilen - they were a few miles away and whispering to each other. If they spoke in a normal tone we would be able to hear them, but as it was I could still hear their minds. Huilen was furious at her nephew. Whatever it was she was saying to him, I could hear her thoughts quite clearly.

You do not know good people. You have never known good people, so perhaps I should not be so angry, but these are good people! That boy loves her, loves her like I wish your mother could have been loved, like I wish I could have been loved. If you do not help them, that is your choice. I am ashamed of you, but it is your choice. But I will help them, if they are still willing to receive it.

And then I could tell that she was approaching alone. I spoke quickly to my family, but slowly enough that Bella could process what I said.

"Huilen is returning in order to help us."

"I still haven't brushed my teeth," Bella said softly, into my shirt.

Nor have you had your coffee, I thought privately to myself.

"I think I'd like to have this conversation sitting up," Bella said, again softly.

I shifted with her until we were sitting in the hammock as if it were a couch, facing the direction from which Huilen would be approaching. Bella tucked the thin blanket around our hips and bare thighs - we were both wearing clothes, but there wasn't much to them to be honest. I had my left arm around Bella's upper back, giving her a little bit more support so she could be comfortable for longer in this position. I turned to her and smiled when she snuggled into my side and put on hand on my left thigh, over the blanket.

Leah padded around to the other side so she was directly in front of us, only two feet away. Achieving her ideal location, she sat down.

"Leah, could you move to one side or the other?" Bella asked quietly. Neither one of us could see to where Huilen was likely to be, past the hulking form of Leah as a wolf.

The wolf cub let out a low grunt that didn't sound promising. No.

"Please? Just a little?"

Leah shifted two inches to the left before settling again.

"Leah," Bella said, her tone conveying her repeated request.

The wolf snorted and sighed and moved two feet to the left, still partially obscuring Bella's form and providing a physical barrier for which I have to admit I was grateful. Still, Bella would be able to see.

"Thank you," Bella said softly, just as Huilen joined us again. She slowed from a run to a walk when she came into sight through the trees and thick vegetation just over twenty feet away from our assembled group.

We watched as Huilen's eyes darted around to each of us.

Is this true, that you can hear me, now? she asked silently, her eyes lighting on me, her mind a whirlwind, but that question at least clear and steady in the midst of the chaos.

"Yes, I can hear you," I answered clearly and distinctly. I ignored Leah and Alice's disappointed thoughts. I would tell them everything, later.

Good. I will tell you this way. And then I was bombarded with everything she'd experienced, everything she could remember about the secret seduction of her sister, the ensuing pregnancy, the traumatic birth, her own change, raising Nahuel and the eventual return of his father.

The flash flood of memories were almost too much to process, but I caught them all in the net of my mind and managed not to feel swept away. My sense of time was compromised, but I was anchored by Bella's heart beat. According to my anchor, only forty seconds had passed.

I took a slow, deep breath then and pulled Bella just a tiny bit closer to me. I felt the pressure of her hand on my thigh increase slightly. Whatever it is, baby, I'm with you, I heard her soft mental voice whisper across me.

"Thank you, Huilen. That will be very helpful for us. Bella and I wanted to know if you would be willing to be present for the birth. It may still be a year or two, yet. We haven't decided, but we would be honored if you would join us for it."

Yes. Someone will come for me?

"Yes," I said simply. "Thank you."

She left then, and the family was bursting with questions.

I took a deep breath and shifted, taking Bella with me as I sunk back into the hammock, laying down in it properly and cuddling her to me. She wiggled and squirmed until she was comfortable and I was glad that her comfort seemed to involve her hands combing through my hair over and over again. It was quite relaxing.

"Will someone please make Bella and Leah some coffee while we do this?" I asked quietly. Jasper started making a small campfire almost immediately.

I took another deep breath and plunged in. Leah shifted and changed as I told the story of Huilen's confusion at her sister's initial disappearance and odd behavior. I tried, as I continued on, to parse out what was personal information and what could be generalized to our situation - matters of physiology, hormones and the like. I described the physical toll that the pregnancy, short though it was, took on Nahuel's mother, and I could hear Carlisle making detailed notes in his head about his own theories and possible ways to mitigate the pain and suffering. Once Nahuel started kicking, he started doing significant damage to his mother and I couldn't help but to imagine the same happening to Bella. I described the look and feel of the pregnancy, and everything that Huilen found odd or strange, from the firmness of her sister's abdomen to her propensity to eat raw meat and lap at the blood. I skipped the birth, as I had already described it once and could not bear to do so again. I continued with Huilen's recollections of Nahuel's very abbreviated childhood. Midway through we shifted so Bella could sit up and drink her coffee.

When I was finished, Bella piped up. She squeezed me tightly before she began.

"I vote we pack up and get out of here. We can discuss this on the way, and I know that I, for one, will be able to think much more rationally when I have had a real shower and food from an actual kitchen. No offense, Jasper. The coffee was a life saver."

I saw as Jasper smiled silently at her. No problem, little sister, he thought.

Leah was in agreement, and as most of the rest of us did not have a preference, my only one being Bella's comfort, we packed up quickly and were on our way. While this happened, Carlisle was forming plans of action, which he would periodically share with the group.

"Bella, you might still be receptive to ultrasound. We can get one in the house. Everything we need should be in the house, I think. But we have plenty of time to prepare."

A moment or two later, he added, "Bed rest is going to be key, after the first few weeks. It may be tiresome, Bella, but the last thing we'll want to do is provide extra moment and extra strain on your body. There will be enough strain quite naturally as it is. No lifting, no bending over, and really, I don't see that you'll need to walk. Stand, occasionally, perhaps to be showered, but the bathtub in your and Edward's room should suffice. It may be a tiresome six weeks for you, my dear, but we want you around for much longer than that, so I hope you will be willing to put yourself out in this way."

Bella responded in the affirmative from her place on my back as we all ran toward Manaus, air-conditioning, hot water, and flush toilets.

"This also means, quite obviously, no hunting with Edward, or running for that matter, and absolutely no vigorous sex. Exceedingly gentle sex should be alright for the first few weeks, but once the babies start moving, you might want to consider manual stimulation, only."

A few moments later, Carlisle continued. "Edward, I have a feeling that you will not want to leave Bella's side during this time, but I must insist that you feed, and perhaps it would be well to keep to something like your normal schedule - weekly, that is. And it seems as if Bella will need alternate sustenance in addition to her usual diet almost immediately."

Some time later, Carlisle continued. "I feel that we should be ready, Bella, to change you at a moment's notice, anytime from the moment the twins are out of you. Is this agreeable to you?"

"Absolutely," she said quietly. "Edward and I haven't talked much about when to change me if it's not an emergency, but we're both pretty clear that if it becomes an emergency, that's... you know, priority number one."

"What about an injection of venom straight into the heart? From a syringe, I mean," I said.

Carlisle was thoughtful for a brief moment as he ran to my left. "I like it." Morphine. Morphine might also help with the pain of it, if we could get enough into her bloodstream before the venom, if there's time.

"I've been thinking about the c-section part," Bella said softly. "I mean, about what Alice and Edward have seen, and what Huilen said about her sister's abdomen being super hard." And about our plans to have Leah tattoo Edward by cutting through his skin with one of her claws...ever so carefully. No way is my tummy going to be harder than Edward's skin. Maybe just as hard, but certainly not harder. Wow, that's going to be weird. But no weirder than actually getting pregnant in the first place, I guess.

"Bella, you're brilliant." Her mind really did make connections that astounded and humbled me. Why didn't I think of that?

"Share with the class," Alice said calmly from behind us.

"Leah, how do you feel about midwifery?" I asked the wolf who loped along next to me on my right side.

What do you mean? Like breathing coaches and cutting the cord and stuff? You know I'd do anything for you guys, but I don't want to fuck it up, you know?

Carlisle was on the same page with us, but he was the only one.

"There are only a few things that could tear or cut into a vampire's skin. I think we can safely say that Bella's abdomen might be as strong as that, but probably no stronger. We will need to perform a c-section, and we will need to do it before Bella goes into labor, as that seemed to be the beginning of the end for Huilen's sister. Of all the things that could cut through something as resilient as our skin, the thing that has the most accuracy, the most delicacy, is probably going to be one of your claws, Leah."

She stumbled slightly in her lope, but quickly made up for it.

You can't be serious. No. No. I'd end up hurting Elisabeth or Sebastian. No. There's got to be another way.

"You can practice. We'll help you. There will be plenty of time. Would you really rather we ask Jacob?"

Oh, hell no! That idiot's not getting anywhere near Bella, pregnant.

Now wasn't the time to go into just who we suspected was going to become imprinted on Elisabeth sooner than later. We'd break that to both Jacob and Leah soon, but later.

God, this is so weird. How did my life get so fucking weird? Leah mused.

"So, can we take that as a yes, then?"

Practice. Lots of practice. More practice than you ever imagined. Practice till you roll your eyes at me. Deal?

"Lots of practice, deal," I said.

"Thank you, Leah," Bella added.

Midwife to my future husband. So fucking weird.

Weird was relative, I mused. Everything could end up being weird and scary and non-starting if you let it. And then you become a hermit and never leave the house. Then again, you could think of life like a river filled with all sorts of interesting goings on. Good things, bad things, it was all relative and it was all in the flow. And so were we, I thought.

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