*NOTE* Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. Eek! The first on set photos of Breaking Dawn were released this week and I for one am very excited. Makes me want to re-read the book. LOL.
Is everyone excited for the DVD release of "Eclipse" this Saturday? I am. I have it preordered at two stores because of the free gift with purchase. This time around I get a film cell and a set of magnets. Christmas will come early for me this year!
Please don't hate me for taking so freaking long to get this chapter posted. In the beginning this chapter was literally the chapter that did not end and when I originally had it done I wasn't happy with it.
Chapter 54
Things over the next few days were...odd. Everyone in the house was very careful with their choice in words. We were all walking on eggshells whenever any of us spoke to or were around Leah. Carlisle warned us not to upset her if possible because it could send her into labor before it was time. At all times someone was sitting with her, keep her company during the time she was awake.
We didn't have to worry about Sky upsetting her dreams. Since that night we found them together he had once again dropped off the radar. She had made us all promise that when Sky came home that we won't hurt him, but we all knew that the likelihood of him ever showing his face again was very slim. At first Jacob thought this was a good thing, but every morning that Leah woke up the light was in her eyes faded. She said she was fine with not getting out of bed because there was nothing to get out of bed for. The only one of us that was able to make her smile was Finn. When this was figured out, Finn was happily promoted to birthing coach rather than helping with the actual delivery.
At first I thought Finn getting so close to Leah had something to do with the fact that his sister didn't need him to care for her anymore, but one day during training things became clearer.
"I want you to focus on both your parents and the space between them," Marcus said as he tried to teach me his gift. "Tell me, what do you see?"
I did as he told me and focused on Edward and Bella as they sat at the piano. She listened while he played. At first there was nothing but the out of focus piano keys between them that made me want to complain when suddenly I saw it. It was so faint, like the rays of sun that would burst through the windows in the morning. There was a red line that connected my parents together.
"Red," Marcus interrupted my awe once he knew that I saw the connection, "usually represents a strong love. You'll see it between your grandparents and your aunts and uncles."
When Seth and Quinn passed by the line connecting them was a golden one that seemed to shimmer, Marcus told me that that was the color between an imprinted pair. Sure enough I saw the connection between Kit and Kris and between myself and Jacob.
There was a different color for every relationship. White represented familial bonds. Purple stood for friendship and as best I could understand green stood for tolerance. That was the color I saw between Finn and Jacob and Seth and Marcus.
Later that day when I was done with my training I decided to spend some time with Leah to give Finn a break. I walked in on the two of them watching a movie. Finn was sitting in a chair next to Leah with both of his feet resting on the edge of the bed. To say I was shocked by what I saw would have been an understatement. Not because there was a rather large hole in Finn's left sock. It was because there was a golden line connecting Leah to Finn.
Instead of relieving Finn I ran to find Kit. If anyone could explain things to me, it was him.
"When a wolf imprints it is a onetime thing. That is what makes it so unique. Leah has all ready imprinted..." a wave of sadness came over him then that made me wish that I hadn't brought it up. "There are some cultures that believe that when we die we are reborn. If a wolf were to imprint more than once then perhaps that is what would have to happen."
"Finn isn't exactly a baby," I said, "he might act like it sometimes," I added hoping to lighten the mood.
A small family meeting was called to try and figure out what it all meant. Leah and Finn weren't included because it was unsure how they would react. Carlisle was concerned that if Kit brought up the whole reincarnation theory that Leah would panic thinking Sky was dead.
"Let's just wait until the baby is born before we go to Leah."
"I agree," Alice said. "I have put too much work into Leah's baby shower to have to postpone it."
"You're all heart Magic Eight," Jacob
"Insert peg A into slot B," Jacob read out the instruction, "and I swear if you say that's what she said one more time..."
Instead of using his favorite line, Seth snickered and continued to assemble the crib. It was the present they had gotten for Leah. Alice had planned a huge, over the top surprise baby shower and they were struggling to get the crib put together before Kit and Cris brought her home.
Getting Leah out of the house without raising suspicion, Alice had a full on production planned that required the mommy to be to be out of the house for a couple of hours. So it was arranged that Kit and Cris would take Leah for a doctor approved drive. The car wasn't even out of site before Alice went into dictator mode.
Bella, Esme and for some reason Marcus were assigned to the kitchen while those of us who were assembling presents were busy decorating.
"If you idiots had taken me up on my offer to help the crib would have been put together by now," Rose gloated.
"Yeah, yeah Barbie," Jake hid his smile as he pushed a useless Seth out of the way while he worked on the crib himself. I sat beside him and took over reading the instructions.
"You aren't finished yet?" Alice shrieked as she saw the state the crib was in.
"Well if chuckles would take things more seriously then maybe we would," Jacob glared at Seth who had sat himself next to Quinn.
Alice then turned her sights on Rose, "Why aren't you helping him?"
"Seth said that they didn't need my help."
"For the love of Berkus," Alice threw a bag of balloons at Seth, "Seeing as how you have so much useless hot air, fill these."
"That's what," Seth started to say, but quickly decided that he valued his life more than his humor.
"Don't worry," Quinn sat next to him and offered to help with the balloons only to get told that her ribbon curling needed to be redone because her curls weren't tight enough. It took every ounce of Seth's strength to keep quiet.
"Rose, you have just as much hot air. You are on balloon duty. We are running out of time people, move, move, MOVE!"
"Quinn!" Alice's bark caused the poor girl to jump. "Do we have an ETA on Finn and the special delivery?"
"Ah...not yet I tried his phone, but it goes straight to voice mail. I think he has it turned off."
Alice yanked her cell out of her pocket and began to leave the room, but not before we all heard her threaten the worst if Finn ruined her big day.
"I thought this was Leah's big day?" Seth muttered.
"Please," Jake laughed, "Any event in which Alice has had a hand in planning automatically becomes Alice's."
"There are times when that woman scares me."
"You aren't the only one," Emmett said as he, Jasper and Edward came out of the kitchen. "We have officially been kicked out of the house until Leah gets home."
"Apparently we are in the way," Jasper smiled.
"Marcus however is a whiz when it comes to making garnishes," Emmett groused. "O-M-G Marcus, this tomato rose is just the cutest. You have to show me how it's done," Emmett was doing his best impression of Alice.
The sound of a car pulling up in front of the house caused us all to freeze. But thankfully, it wasn't Leah. A frightened looking Finn came into the house carrying a large suitcase in each hand.
"Alice is pissed because you wouldn't answer your phone," Quinn stood up from her spot getting ready to meet Sue Clearwater for the first time.
"It's against the law to use a cell phone while driving," Finn gave her a weird look; "you know that."
"Since when do you care about the law," I laughed until the reason for Finn's new law abiding ways came in through the door.
Either Sue Clearwater had gotten herself a serious sex change or someone else from Forks decided to tag along.
It took a second for my brain to register that my Grandpa Charlie was standing in the doorway. I jumped up and ran to give him a hug. It had been so long since I'd last seen him.
"Let me get a look at you girl," he took me by the shoulders and held me at arm's length. "You're okay?"
"Aside from being at the mercy of the baby shower Nazi, I'm great."
"Oh," the happiness in his eye disappeared, "So you weren't kidnapped and brutalized?"
I was at a loss for words. Bella had kept Charlie in the dark about the kidnapping, not wanting to upset him anymore than necessary. He already had a hard enough time dealing with the whole vampires and werewolves being real.
"I'm sorry Renesmee," he sighed, "I'm not mad at you." He pulled me into another hug and asked to be pointed in the direction of my mother and quickly took off to give her a piece of his mind. Before any of us could begin to worry the doorway was filled again with Sue Clearwater. She was pounced on by Seth who was happy to see his mom. She greeted us all then turned her sights on Quinn.
"You must be Quinn."
"H-hello Mrs. Clearwater," Quinn said, her nervousness was made clear by her stutter.
"Mrs. Clearwater was Harry's mother. Please call me Sue." From that point on Quinn was able to relax and saw Sue as another mother.
"He brought a gun on the plane," Finn hissed. "I didn't even think that was legal. And the moment we got in the car he started lecturing me on the rules of the road and told me he was keeping his eyes on me. I know he's your grandfather Ness, but he scares the shit out of me."
We could all hear the argument coming from the kitchen.
"What exactly was I supposed to do, call you up and say hey dad, how are things in Forks? The fish still biting? Oh by the way your granddaughter was kidnapped by crazy vampires and there's a chance we may never see her again?"
"Some information would have been nice to get from you instead of getting it from Sue after the fact!"
"And what would you have done?"
"I could have been here."
"Oh that would have been perfect," Bella laughed, "Cause you showing up with your gun and your badge would have solved everything."
"I'm not saying that, but being kept in the loop from time to time would be nice." Charlie let out a tired sigh, "I know that I haven't exactly handled your lifestyle very well, but I'm your father. There shouldn't be secrets between us. Not when it's something like this."
They walked into the living room where we pretended like we all hadn't heard their conversation. Bella welcomed Sue causing Sue to apologize for telling Charlie about everything. She then playfully tapped Charlie, "And you need to settle down. Renesmee is just fine."
"I just don't like being kept in the dark," he grumbled.
"How do you think Bella's going to feel when she finds out we're getting married."
Since I had started training with Edward, I had learned that it was rude to eavesdrop on the thoughts of others, plus there was always the danger of hearing impure thoughts. But because this was all new to me there were times when I would hear random thoughts.
"Renesmee," Bella saw the look of shock on my face, "What's wrong?"
"Errand thought," was all I needed to say. Edward scanned my thoughts and a shit eating grin spread across his face.
"Charlie something else you should know is that like me, Nessie can hear people's thoughts."
"Oh dear," said Sue who looked suddenly guilty.
"What did you hear?" Bella was getting paranoid the longer she had to wait for an answer.
"You want to tell you daughter what you've been keeping from her Charlie?"
If looks could kill then Edward would have felt a little queasy.
"Bells, there's something I...we need to tell you," Charlie confessed as he took Sue by the hand. "Sue and I have been seeing each other for awhile and about a month ago I asked her to marry me and she said yes."
"You're getting married," Bella said.
"I'm not calling him dad!" Seth was less than thrilled with the news.
"Um can everyone relax," Alice did her best to calm everyone down, "Leah will be here any minute and I swear if you ruin this for me...I mean her."
"I don't expect you to call me dad."
"Well that's good cause it ain't going to happen!"
"Seth, watch your tone, werewolf or not I will tan your hide," Sue wasn't happy with her son response.
Jacob asked me if I was going to do something to help I took a deep breath and remembered everything Jasper taught me and within seconds everyone had mellowed out and stopped yelling.
Alice smiled and was about to order everyone to get back to work when Leah walked in through the door.
"What's going on?"
"Surprise baby shower!" Alice tried jumping up and down, but the surprise was a bust. She flopped on the couch and swore off party planning forever.
"And this one is from me and Seth," Jacob pointed to the half assembled crib that had a large red bow stuck to the top.
Leah smiled, "I'm sure it will be great once it's done. Thanks."
I was sure that the nearest Babies R Us warehouse had a serious dent in its stock. There was two of every outfit. A pink set in case it was a girl and a blue if it was a boy. Rose explained when Finn asked that because we couldn't see anything on the ultrasound to tell us if the baby was a boy or a girl. Then came the unfortunate story of how while pregnant with me Bella was convinced she was having a boy. This of course led to Finn calling me Nester.
"Thank you everyone," Leah said. "The kid's not even here yet and it's already spoiled."
"Wait!" Quinn jumped up and ran out of the room only to return holding a gift bag in her hands. "I almost forgot. I saw this last week and thought it was perfect." She handed Leah the bag telling her that this gift wasn't for the baby.
Inside the bag was a beautiful handmade poncho. With help Leah stood up and tried it on while Alice rushed to get the full length mirror from the bathroom.
"It's beautiful," Sue commented. "I wish I had something like that to wear when I was pregnant. You can't even tell that you're about to have a baby."
Seeing her reflection upset Leah, I could hear her thinking that she looked like she used to before she met Sky.
"Leah?"
"I think I'm going to get some fresh air," she forced a smile that asked me to let it go, "a little too much excitement."
We all wanted to say something, but there was nothing any of us could think of to make it better for Leah. Even with her family here, she still felt completely alone.
As organized and bossy as she was putting the party together, Alice was just as efficient in taking it all apart. Only this time she had Sue and Charlie acting as extra slaves.
"Do they make Ritalin for your kind?" Charlie asked Carlisle, "Because you might want to look into some for Alice."
"Believe me chief, if there was a way to rein Alice in," Carlisle stopped mid sentence, his head snapping toward the door. He wasn't the only one. Every member of my family, including me all focused on the front door, the same door that Leah had gone out through.
At that moment I wasn't sure what I was more bothered by. The fact that all I could smell was the scent of spilt blood or the fact that it made my mouth water. When it seemed like no one was going to make a move, Quinn opened the door and out onto the porch. She didn't stand there for long as she slipped in the huge puddle of blood that had formed on the steps.
"Seth," Alice voice was soft, but held a great deal of fear. Without having to be told twice, Seth ran out the door, scooped a blood soaked Quinn up in his arm and ran as far as he could. Once they were a safe distance away Carlisle went outside to check on Leah only to come back holding her portable IV in his hands. Leah had run off god only knew where.
"Dammit Leah," Jacob stormed out of the house. After telling Sue, Charlie and Finn to stay put, we all followed and went in separate directions hoping to find her before something bad could happen.
In the distance I could hear Leah's name being called, but she never answered. Instead of shouting myself I stood in one spot, took a deep breath and closed my eyes hoping that I'd be able to pick up a trail. It took a few seconds, but I hooked on to something that lead me right to Leah's side.
She was standing in the field where my party had been held. Her eyes darted around like she was looking for something, waiting for something.
"Leah what are you doing," I grabbed her left hand and pressed the bottom of my shirt against. She was still bleeding from where she had pulled out her IV.
"Ineededtogetoutofthere." Her words all ran together. "I needed to come here."
I was about to ask why when a light breeze blew a familiar scent towards us. Leah's face lit up and I knew the reason why before I turned around to see him.
His gaze was focused of Leah and there was a look of sheer joy, but the joy disappeared when he looked at me.
"Hello Renesmee."
"Oh Sky," I sighed, "you should have called." The words were just out of my mouth when Jacob barreled out of nowhere in wolf form ready to kill Sky right where he stood.
The prodigal son has returned. Too bad there's a line of people wanting a piece of him that resembles the line up to see Santa. Please feel free to send me your reviews. And hey, if you want to yell at me for my turtle like ways go right ahead. I can take it!
When Alice said "For the love of Berkus" she was referring to Nate Berkus; talk show host and interior designer. I think Alice, being the decorating freak that she is would see this guy as her god.
CHAPTER 55 TEASER
"Well Leah," Carlisle said once he finished his exam, "I think this baby is ready to be born."
***What the hell kind of teaser was that? A good one, that's what kind. Geesh! LOL.***
