A/N: As per usual, I don't own Twilight! Enjoy, sweets!
"So you can keep me inside the pocket of your ripped jeans/Holding me closer 'til our eyes meet/You won't ever be alone, wait for me to come home/And if you hurt me/That's okay baby, only words bleed/Inside these pages you just hold me/And I won't ever let you go/Wait for me to come home..."
-"Photograph," by Ed Sheeran
Wait for Me to Come Home
Jasper knew I was approaching him once I found him sitting on our bed with his phone pressed to his ear. I sat down beside him, curled into his side, and began playing with his hair while he waited for Peter to answer. I knew my presence was welcomed by the way he wrapped his arm around my waist and began to play with the ring on my left hand. The rather simple ring, a platinum band with a single, round aquamarine stone bordered by two small, oval-shaped clusters of diamonds on each side, had been my actual birthday gift from Jasper; it was my pre-engagement ring, and I already knew that my actual engagement ring would be much more elaborate. That ring would be a showpiece that's entire purpose would be to make it abundantly clear that I was taken, and Jasper's wedding band would be no different. I had an entire section of my most recent sketchbook devoted to our wedding, and at least three pages had been filled with nothing but rings.
"Pete, sl-Pete, cal- Goddamnit, Peter, stop trying to apologize for five seconds so I can tell you that you don't have to apologize at all!" I was brought out of my thoughts by Jasper's rather uncharacteristic outburst, and I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, you were pretty stupid earlier, but you've really only ever had Charlotte to think about in relation to this family and who gets my attention for how long now? Exactly my point…There's nothing to forgive because I was never mad. Frustrated, hell yeah, but not mad. I still don't think we'll need much more help up here at the moment, what with the wolves and the cousins agreeing to help fight along with a few others offering their assistance as well. However, if you guys still want to visit, I do have a birthday in a couple weeks, and your aunt and uncle are getting married again in about two months…Yes, I know how Edward's gonna be about it, but you two know better than to hunt in town…She's your responsibility as your Childe, and I would like to think that I taught you well enough that you should be capable of parenting your somewhat unruly newborn. It's not like they get much worse than you, Pete…Would you feel better about it if we made this as our current plan and I let you know if Alice sees anything that might suggest that it isn't a good idea? In that case, I'll call or text you later about your visit. Take care of your girls, Peter, and take care of yourself. Bye."
"I told you he'd come around, honey." I said as Jasper set his phone on his nightstand and pulled me into his lap.
"I'm sorry I walked out like I did, Darlin', but I realized how Peter in particular would handle my response from this morning, and I couldn't leave him with that much guilt and panic." he told me, and I shrugged.
"You excused yourself politely, and I'm sure they all understand." I replied, pecking him on the lips. "I'm glad things are better than they were with the two of you."
"Things should keep getting better once they visit…at least I hope so." he said, unable to stop himself from smiling.
Though I knew no great catastrophes would befall us if Peter, Charlotte, and their recent adoption came for a visit around Jasper's birthday, we ended up arranging for them to visit for the wedding instead. Edward wanted their newborn to have at least a few months of training and control before being around his human, no matter what my visions showed me, because he was worried about the things I couldn't foresee. I didn't begrudge him that, and neither did Jasper, so we added them to the guest list for the wedding once Rosalie and Emmett gave it their approval. My sisters told me that night, shortly before Edward drove Bella home, that the female cousins had agreed to meet with us in two weeks for dress shopping.
After Edward and Bella had left, I asked my parents, Emmett, and Rosalie how the meeting had ended. The wolves would stand with us against our enemies, whether they be nomads, newborn armies, or even the Volturi themselves. The merfolk had agreed to be our allies as much as was possible for them to do given their water-based restrictions. The witches had agreed to align with us from the start, and Rosalie had made it a point to invite all of them to hers and Emmett's wedding as a show of good faith; she already had a reputation on the rez as the member of our family most against their kind that she wanted to change that before Bree came to our family.
"I wish you could've seen Jacob's face when he asked Bella why she hadn't driven her truck here this morning and I told him that she's afraid that I'll either wrap it around a tree or completely rebuild the engine so that it'll go faster if she leaves it alone too close to me for too long." Rosalie said a little while later as we scrolled through pages of wedding cake pictures on her laptop.
"The engine thing, that one I can understand you doing, but even I know you wouldn't do anything to harm the truck. It's Bella, so she kinda needs something that sturdy until she's changed. I'd like to think I know you well enough by now to say that you wouldn't knowingly put Bella or me in harms way if there's another option." I responded, and she nodded.
"I wouldn't, you're right, but I still have trouble expressing my emotions sometimes. I can't always help what people think about me, even my own family." she admitted before showing me a ten-tiered cake decorated with an abundance of fondant roses in varying shades of pink. "What about this one?"
"Given that the majority of the guests are human if only because you have to show off a little bit and invite everyone, that ought to be big enough. The wolves and merfolk have enhanced metabolisms, too, so more is probably a good thing." I said, doing my best to give her my full and honest opinion. "The roses would be nice and fit well with the over all aesthetic, but someone, my guess would be Jessica Stanley, would say something about it being about your ego since they're roses."
"Let her. Since when have I actually put any stock in what Jessica Stanley thinks of me?" Rosalie said, but I merely raised an eyebrow at her.
"Tell me you didn't just lie to my face." I said, and she looked down at the laptop screen unable to meet my eyes. "I've seen your expression when she calls you a slut when she thinks no one but her friends can hear her; I know how you get when she makes snide implications that you sleep with all of the boys and Dad, which would just be gross, so don't you sit there and tell me that you don't care about what she thinks of you, Rose."
"How about this: I don't have to see Jessica Stanley again after the wedding except for at Edward and Bella's wedding, and maybe yours and Jasper's wedding. I want every possible surface covered in roses, and if she thinks it's all just an ego trip for me, let her; what she thinks of me won't matter because she won't be a factor in my life for much longer anyway, and she's barely a factor now. Changing her mind won't happen overnight, if at all, and I want roses at my wedding." my sister reasoned, and I gave her a short nod and a grin.
"Now that's more like it!" I cheered, giggling as my sister smiled smugly.
"I used to hate them, you know, roses. Mom wouldn't even grow them the first three years I was a part of the family because Edward told her I'd probably cut the flowers off the stems when they bloomed." she told me, chuckling. "Royce made it a habit to send me a dozen red roses and violets every day, and they became so abundant in my room that I began to smell like roses. For the first little while, it made me sick to my stomach to even catch the scent of a rose."
"How'd you move past that?" I asked, curious and concerned.
"I did it the same way I moved past most of my human life's traumas: Emmett helped me. He started out by giving me a single white rose; it symbolizes youth, purity, innocence, and eternal loyalty. We all bonded with Mom and Dad over something, and Emmett's something with Mom is gardening and floristry; I think he actually made it his personal mission to get me to quit hating roses just so I would be able to quit hating myself, so he learned the meaning behind every color of rose he knew existed. Some of them required more explaining than others, like the black roses that symbolize change more than death despite what most think, but he worked his way up to the single pink rose he gave me the night he first proposed. He's only ever given me red roses once, on our fiftieth anniversary, but that was the first time since 1935 that the mere sight of a red rose didn't have any sense of anger, shame, or fear attached to it. For all I saved him from that damn bear, he's saved me from something worse by saving me from myself." she said, and I found myself completely in awe of my sister's strength and my brother's sensitivity.
"You two really do bring out the best in each other. Bree's gonna be a lucky little girl to have you guys as parents." I said, and Rosalie's lips curved upward into a soft smile.
"I'd say the same goes for you and Jasper; he's never been as happy or relaxed as he has in the last year since you came into all our lives, and you've come a long way from that scared little girl who was terrified at the mere notion of not being accepted by another family after having already been rejected by the one you were born into, more or less." she replied. "Your babies are going to be just as lucky as mine or Bella's."
Over the next week, whenever we kids had gone to school for the day, we had discovered that the moms had started getting together to make a plan against the nomads. After talking it over with Billy, they had decided to include Aunt Catherine in the group as well given the personal nature of her interest in the ongoing events. So, it was simultaneously strange and not when Angela and I both received texts from our respective mothers asking us to meet at my house after school with Ben, Jasper, and my siblings. When we all arrived, the four moms were standing in the library with a whiteboard in front of them covered in varying shades of dry-erase marker.
"We think we have a plan, but we wanted to run it by you kids before we brought it up to the attention of the dads." Aunt Catherine said excitedly as Sam and Jacob came downstairs from the kitchen to join us.
"Esme says that you Cullens have been planning for a baseball game in the near future when the next major storm front rolls in because the sound of thunder masks the crack of the baseball bats given how hard vampires swing." Linda added, and the six of us in reference nodded.
"Jasper and I drove up to Seattle to pick up the new equipment last Saturday." Edward confirmed.
"We were thinking that this would be the most opportune time to trap the nomads, and the easiest way to do this is to confuse them by having multiple scents layered on top of one another. We do all realize that Paul isn't exactly completely okay with this whole alliance thing yet, but he'll do what he's told if you, Sam, are the one to tell him, right?" Tara asked, and Sam nodded.
"Yes, of course, but what do you mean by layering?" he asked, and my mother looked at us with a mischievous grin that I'd seen my brothers and mate make.
"How do you think Jared and Paul would feel about playing baseball with vampires?" she asked, and the energy shift in the room for once had little to do with Jasper.
Surprisingly enough, the dads had been just as on board with the plan as we kids. Carlisle agreed to call the cousins and ask if some of them would be willing to come in for the game; we had about a month before this could take place, so Tanya, Irina, Carmen, and Eleazar had volunteered to make the trip. Garrett had wanted to, we could all hear it in his voice, but he and Kate had to attend a parent-teacher conference night at Elliot's school before taking him on a weekend trip that he'd been promised for his fifteenth birthday. The fact that Irina was willing to join made me happy to see that she hadn't entirely given up on our family's ability to remain safe.
The wolves weren't initially so eager about more vampires coming to the area, but Jared and Paul both eased up after Aunt Catherine told them that all of the Denalis who would be coming in for the game had visited around Halloween the previous year and stuck to the animal-only diet that my family did. Jacob would begrudgingly be staying behind on the rez during the game despite his desire to help. Billy and Sam both assured him that he would be allowed to help much more once he'd phased while forcing him to acknowledge exactly how useless he would be against the nomads before phasing. He was being given a special assignment, however, of keeping an eye on Embry as the other boy was beginning to show signs of beginning the physical changes that preluded phasing.
As for the merfolk, this was their chance to show the other groups exactly how strong their superhuman strength actually was. They'd spoken about their powers and abilities during the part of the meeting that Jasper and I had missed, and strength was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg with what they had at their disposal. Rereading Bella's notes made me both eager to see their powers in action and terrified them all the same. It was hard for me to imagine someone as sweet as Angela being as vicious as the mermaids in my sister's notes; then again, it was just as hard for me to imaging either of my parents in a fight before seeing them train for the first time.
After school on Friday, Jasper and I drove up to Seattle to pick up Carlisle's birthday present with Edward and Bella. I had initially volunteered the two of us to do this as part of the plan that my siblings and I had worked out with Esme to keep both Jasper and Carlisle from discovering what we were truly doing. While Carlisle's birthday was on Sunday, the following Friday was Jasper's birthday. It made perfect sense for Jasper and I to be hours away from the house while Rosalie was taking care of ordering Jasper's gift to the exact specifications she and I had planned; she and Emmett would be picking it up Thursday night while I, ahem, distracted Jasper in what was beginning to be my favorite method of distraction.
"I don't think I need Edward's gift to know what you were just thinkin' about, Darlin'." Jasper said with a light chuckle as he parked Esme's Bentley in the Pacific Place parking garage.
"And what would that be?" I teased as we got out of the car, making it a point to ignore the silver Volvo parking beside us.
"Something enough to make my boyfriend almost wreck the car." Bella said dryly as she and Edward fell into stride beside us as we walked towards the mall entrance.
"I don't need mental images of my brother and sister, my older brother and baby sister, like that!" Edward contested, and I couldn't help but giggle.
"You get enough of that from Rose and Emmett, don't you?" I retorted, and Edward leveled his best glare at me which I, as usual, shrugged off as we walked straight by the parking pay counter thanks to Carlisle thinking ahead enough to pay the monthly parking fee given how often Rosalie and I went shopping.
"I hate my siblings." Edward lamented, but Jasper merely snorted before responding.
"Sure, little brother." he said, chuckling as we reached the elevator.
The shop we were going to was on the third level of the mall. It was a music shop that had been run by the same family for four generations, though the location had changed more than once over the years according to Edward who had, admittedly just because of the family, continued to buy piano parts from them every so often over the past four decades. He said that the current owner's thoughts had confirmed it when he'd come in to place his order the week before that the name Cullen was synonymous with big spender when it came to their customers.
"I think Don was actually shocked when my order didn't involve anything piano related." Edward said as we stepped into the shop, and a man in his late twenties came over to us almost at once.
"There's a first time for everything, right?" he said before shaking my brother's hand and showing no signs of being bothered by the coldness of Edward's skin.
"Most definitely." Edward replied, grinning. "It's great to see you again, Don."
"You, too, Edward." Don asked, light blue eyes traveling over to us. "Who do we have here?"
"You've heard about my siblings before, so allow me to introduce you to my brother, Jasper, and my new sister, Alice." my brother said as he introduced us. "Though I still don't quite understand how I deserve her, this is Bella, my girlfriend."
"I'd agree with you if I didn't know how self-loathing you can be." Don said with a smirk before turning to the three of us. "Don Masen, pleased to meet you."
"Masen?" I asked, looking at my brother incredulously.
"Garrett's not the only one with tricks up his sleeve." Edward said, his smirk nearly identical to Don's. "It's not like I left them without plausible deniability."
"It's true; no matter what I guess, he never gives me an answer. It was the same way with my dad, and his dad before him." Don added.
"And on that note, is my order ready?" Edward asked, but Don sighed.
"It was a very complex restoration and paint job, and it still needs about an hour before it's completely dry and ready for you to take home." he told us, and I smiled while Edward grimaced.
"That's alright; Bella and I need to pick up a few things elsewhere in the mall, and I'm sure the boys will be fine on their own for a bit. This piece is important to all of us, and we'd rather it be perfect than rushed." I said, getting confused looks from everyone but Edward.
"Alice, you know how I feel about shopping." Bella warned, but I waived her off.
"It's just a couple of stores, and then we'll go to the bookstore if we have time." I said, and she shrugged.
"Eh, you got me out of that blood typing lab the other day, so I owe you one." she relented, and I beamed before turning to Jasper.
"If I haven't found you in an hour, meet me back here?" I asked him, and he nodded before pecking me on the lips.
"I'll try to keep her from going out of control." I heard Bella say to Edward.
"Part of me fears what she'll be like in a few years." Edward responded before kissing Bella lightly.
"We'll see you boys soon!" I chirped before taking Bella's arm and leading her out of the store and down the corridor.
Bella and I started out in a jewelry store just a few spaces down from Don's shop. I knew the combined total value of the various pieces encased in the glass displays made my sister slightly uncomfortable, but she would get used to it at some point given our family's lifestyle. Bella was surprised, her expression all to easy for me to read, when the jeweler greeted me by name and I told him that we were in the shop to look for something for her.
"Alice, what could I possibly need from a jewelry store?" she asked, and I sighed.
"You're one of us, Bella, and you need something that says it. You'll have more than one eventually, as we all do, but I felt that we could kill two metaphorical birds with one or two well-placed stones." I told her with a reassuring smile.
"Two birds?" she asked, and I nodded.
"You are the only one of us without a ring, though I know you and Edward have only been a couple for a few weeks, but we know how this is going to go. You can wear it on your right hand since your ring fingers are surprisingly pretty much the same size, so it doesn't have to be super awkward with Charlie or anyone at school." I said as the jeweler brought out a small, silver ring on a black velvet tray. "Oh, Giovanni, it's perfect!"
"I do try, Alice." he replied, and I looked back at my sister to see her staring at the ring with an expression somewhere between shock and joy on her face.
"It's the family crest." she said, and I chuckled.
"We all have at least one item with the crest on it. Dad's got his wedding ring, Mom has a bracelet, Rosalie has two different lockets, the boys all have a wrist cuff and a watch, and I have both this choker and a set of layered necklaces. You're a part of this family, so you should have one too." I said, picking the ring up to examine it.
Set on an intricate, platinum filigree band, the center of the ring was a piece of garnet with platinum lion set between an open hand of the same metal and an emerald trefoil. It perfectly matched the sketch I'd done, and I already knew that it was perfectly sized as well. I turned to Bella and offered it to her.
"C'mon, Bells, you know you want to." I teased, and her lips quirked into a small smile as she took the ring from me and slipped it onto her right-hand ring finger.
"How'd you figure out my ring size anyway?" she asked, and I snorted.
"Dad paid for this a couple of days after the incident with Tyler's van. We used your x-rays from your broken wrist." I said, and we both laughed.
"On that note, ladies, will I be wrapping this ring, or will it be worn out of the store?" Giovanni asked, chuckling at the two of us.
"Oh, I'm not taking this off until after I see Edward's reaction. I'm expecting it to be that adorable smile he gets when he's happy about something, like the one he had when I told Jessica off at the dance." Bella answered before I could say anything.
"I never get her to be this happy with a shopping trip, so let her do what she wants." I said to Giovanni, and he chuckled and nodded while handing me a copy of the paperwork that went along with the ring.
"Give your parents my best, Alice." he said, and I said that I would as Bella and I left the store and continued down the hall.
"Where to next?" she asked, still giddy about the ring.
"You see that wall of bright pink glitter at the end of the hallway?" I pointed in front of us, and she groaned. "I won't make you get anything here, but I'm looking for something for Jasper's birthday, and potentially something for after prom."
"It's not like I'd use any of it before next summer anyway." Bella said with a snort, and we walked into Victoria's Secret giggling.
"What about this one?" I asked Bella a while later, showing her a baby pink silk lingerie set.
"It's cute, but I don't about the color. I mean, aside from your Sweethearts dress, you tend to wear darker colors for important moments with Jasper because you said that he prefers you in those colors when you asked me to go through your closet with you the other day." she replied, and I agreed.
"It is kinda light, and it almost makes me think of our dresses for Rose's wedding." I said, and she pointed to another set a little further down the shelf.
"What about that one?" she asked.
"Red's typically Rose's color, so I stay away from that as a rule." I told her. "That one's nice."
"It looks almost exactly like the pink and white one, only this one's blue with black lace." she said. "Isn't blue supposed to be my color?"
"You should totally get it! Even if you guys aren't intimate yet, it never hurts to tease when it's a relationship like yours. Plus, with as long as Edward's held out, he'll manage another year." I said, and she blushed before considering my words.
"If I get this, will anything change?" she asked, and I took a moment to check her future.
"Nope, it'll be fine. Wait, no, there is one thing. We're gonna go to another lingerie shop with Rose before prom, and we're gonna run into Jessica who's going to infer things about your relationship, but that would happen regardless. It's Jessica." I told her, and she chuckled.
"That sounds like Jess." she replied. "Why are we going to another shop with Rosalie in a few weeks?"
"I know what I'm getting for Jasper's birthday, but what I'll need for prom isn't here." I said, scanning the shelves until I saw what I was trying to find. "Bingo."
The garment that had caught my attention was a black teddy comprised mostly of sheer mesh and lace. Bella's eyes bugged out when she saw it, and I had to fight back a laugh. For all Edward had previously complained about how much alike Jasper and I are, he and Bella were much the same.
"That's…not a lot of coverage." she remarked, and I snorted.
"Well, it's not like he hasn't seen everything before, Bella." I said, making her blush again. "What'd you think we did after Sweethearts when we didn't go back home with the four of you?"
"I actively choose to not to think about what you do or where you go when it's just the two of you." she told me.
"Fair enough." I said, and then we made our way to the register with our items.
When we stepped outside of Victoria's Secret, we didn't take more than ten steps before another store caught both our eyes. Bella looked over at me at the same time I looked over at her, and we shared a quick nod before going into the store. As we browsed the racks, I couldn't help but think that we had a little more than a year before Bella would be pregnant. I whispered this to her, and she smiled softly before whispering her response.
"I've been thinking of names, and I've told Edward my favorite. He hates it, but he's being nice and telling me that he loves it despite what the look on his face says." she told me.
"Well, what is it?" I asked. "Inquiring aunts would like to know."
"Renesmee Carlie Cullen." she said, and I felt the pull of a vision.
I was standing with Rosalie inside hers and Emmett's bathroom in front of what was normally Rosalie's makeup table. Instead of makeup, however, that section of the counter was currently being occupied by a newborn girl in a purple onesie. She lay on a white blanket covered with purple flowers, and her tiny hands and feet were covered respectively in mittens and socks. My little niece was perfect.
"Jasper says that Bella's sedated, and Edward's finally calm. I'll get this little one swaddled while you get Jacob, okay?" Rosalie ordered softly, both of us smiling down at our niece.
"I'll meet you downstairs in a minute." I replied before leaving the room and making my way downstairs and out onto the back deck where Jacob was sitting with his head in his hands on the steps.
"Is it over, Al?" he asked as I sat down beside him.
"Jake, it's only just begun. Bella's going through the change, but she's doped up on so much morphine that she can't feel the pain. Jasper's currently keeping Edward calm, and Rose and I just finished bathing the baby. Are you ready?" I replied, and he took a moment before nodding.
We walked back inside and met Rosalie in the family room. I helped Jacob, shaking with nervousness, sit down in the L-bend of the couch before nodding at my sister. With only the slightest hesitation, Rosalie stood from Carlisle's armchair and took the three short steps needed to put herself and the baby directly in front of the wolf. With care, Rosalie settled the baby in his arms.
"If you ever hurt her, I will end you." she told him, and Jacob nodded before looking down at the baby for the first time.
It only lasted a moment for Rosalie and myself, but it looked as though time had stretched on for an eternity when Jacob's mouth quirked into a fond smile. Before he could say anything to the two of us, the baby raised her tiny, covered hand and pressed it to his cheek. She frowned, an odd look on a baby, as if something hadn't gone the way she intended. Edward and Jasper entered the room behind us, and Edward said that she wanted the mitten off her hand. Being closest, I reached over and removed the offending garment so that the baby could place her palm against Jacob's face once more. She cooed as he smiled down at her, and then he finally spoke.
"That's right, sweetheart. I'll always be your Jacob, and you'll always be my Renesmee." he said, and, glancing around at my family, not one of the people in the room disagreed with his statement, not even Edward.
"-ice, what'd you see?" Bella asked as I returned to the present.
"I saw the moment Jake imprints on your daughter. He said her name, and I think you'll be happy." I told her, and she smiled. "I also sort of saw her gift."
"She has a gift?" Bella asked excitedly, this being the first time she was finding out something about her daughter before Edward.
"She's going to have some sort of tactile thought projection. Rosalie and I had just finished bathing her while Edward was tending to you, and Jasper to him, and we put those little mittens on her hands so she couldn't scratch her face. After Jacob imprinted, she tried touching his face to use her gift but couldn't because of the mitten. Edward came into the room and said that she wanted it off, so I removed it. She touched Jake's face again, and he agreed with whatever she told him that he's always gonna be her Jacob while she'll always be his Renesmee." I explained, and Bella was practically beaming.
"As soon as I learn how to lower my shield and Edward learns how to project his own thoughts back at others, I'm going to have to have him show me that." she said as we continued browsing.
"Is there anything I can help you ladies with today?" one of the shop attendants asked, and my eyes flicker up to the large mirror just behind the woman to see a gawking Jessica Stanley near the shop's door.
"No, but thank you. We're just browsing for now, thinking about the future." I said, subtly nudging Bella and motioning towards the mirror.
"A cousin of ours recently became a first-time mom, and everyone's had a bit of baby fever ever since." Bella added, and the shop attendant left us alone after that, allowing us to leave the store and act as though we didn't see Jessica until she called our names.
"Alice, Bella!" she chirped annoyingly, and we turned around to greet her with what was hopefully convincing enthusiasm.
"Hey, Jess!" Bella greeted as the curly haired girl hugged her.
"What brings you to Seattle? Is there a sale I don't know about or something?" I teased as she hugged me.
"You know about every sale, Alice!" Jessica said with a laugh. "I'm only here because I ordered this statement necklace to go with my prom dress and have to pick it up at the store. You?"
"We drove up with the boys to pick up Carlisle's birthday present. Rosalie and Emmett are wedding planning, so it's just the four of us today." Bella told her.
"They're looking through either books or music, maybe videogames, right now because Dad's gift won't be ready for another thirty minutes or so, and we told them to go look through the stores they like instead of dragging themselves into every store we like." I added, and I watched as her eyes drifted down to our bags.
"Victoria's Secret?" she asked, and Bella rolled her eyes.
"I was bullied into buying pajamas by a certain maniacal pixie, but her purchases haven't been nearly so innocent." my sister pointed out, and I shrugged.
"I set myself a goal, and I intend to meet it. This will be the best birthday Jasper's had to date, no exception." I said, and I saw Jessica's eyes bulge out in surprise for only a moment before she managed to school her expression.
"I hope you're being safe, else you'll need the store you just left." she teased, and I chuckled.
"We're always very safe, Jess, and neither of us is eager to become a parent before graduating high school." I told her.
"Still, I mean, even most contraceptive methods are only 90% effective, so there's always a chance." she said, but I brushed her off as politely as I could manage.
"Jess, I'm not pregnant, and I won't be anytime soon." I said, sticking with Bella's story. "One of our cousins in Alaska just adopted a son, and Elliot is a popular topic as of late in our house."
"Sometimes it's hard to not think about if your future has kids in it and what you'd do then." Bella added, and Jessica smiled at the pair of us, obviously going along with what we were saying.
"That is true." she said, giggling. "It's not like I haven't ever thought of someday being a mom with a little Mini-Me following me everywhere."
"It's all fun and games until you start thinking about your daughter being old enough to date one day and then remember what teenage boys are like most of the time." Bella lamented, brushing her hair back with her right hand, and I felt that she did this purposefully so Jessica would see her ring.
"Is that what I think it is?" Jessica asked, and Bella hid what was at first a smirk behind a fake smile.
"It's a commitment ring; it's sort of like a promise ring and is supposed to symbolize that Edward and I are serious about our relationship." she said, and her smile softened a bit.
"It's also a symbol of you being a part of this family for better or for worse, so suck it up, sister. You're stuck with me forever." I teased, and Bella laughed.
"I'd rather have you for a sister than Jasper's ex. You might be slightly evil when in your natural habitat of a shopping mall, but at least you're not a manipulative bitch." Bella pointed out, and I laughed along with her while Jessica stared in confusion.
"Jasper's ex?" she asked, and we nodded.
"He and Rosalie lived with our parents off and on during childhood, and Jasper ended up spending a few years in Texas with his and Rosalie's birth father. While there, he met the girl named Maria who led him to believe that she loved him just so he'd join her gang. Thankfully, though tragically, his and Rosalie's birth parents died shortly after he realized that Maria was just using him. He moved in with Mom and Dad, along with Rosalie, not long after that in Alaska." I said, trying to bury my deep seeded rage that welled up every time Maria entered my thoughts.
"Wow!" Jessica responded. "No wonder he was always so closed off when they first moved here. It's a miracle he's able to trust anyone after a heartbreak like that!"
"Perhaps, but he trusts me. How is something only he could explain, but he does." I said, not giving her more than that to potentially attempt turning around on me later.
We parted ways with Jessica a few moments later and made our way down to the entry hallway we'd entered from to find our mates inside Barnes & Noble. To no one's surprise, we found Edward browsing classic literature and Jasper sorting through several history books. Bella and I each stayed with our respective mate, and it didn't take long for Jasper and me to walk over to the Starbucks inside the store. I saw the reflexive smirk appear on his face as I ordered my coffee, and I knew that Edward was rolling his eyes wherever among the stacks he and Bella were.
"Do I get to see?" Jasper asked as we sat down, head tilting towards my shopping bag.
"Not until your birthday, no." I told him, and he pouted as I continued. "I have some other things that you can see later, however, that mysteriously showed up on my side of the closet earlier this week, likely at the hands of our blonde sister."
"So, this is how she makes it up to me for me not being able to stand being in the same room as her and Emmett for the first ten years I was a part of this family." he said with a playful grin.
"Well, Emmett's more than made up for his half of that, hasn't he?" I giggled out before taking a sip of my coffee.
"I'm glad Bella likes her ring. It's definitely improved Edward's mood." Jasper said.
"Bella's taking to being a Cullen faster than she realizes. We ran into Jessica Stanley upstairs, and Bella made no effort to hide the ring from her; she even stressed it to Jessica that the ring is meant to be a symbol of both her permanent place in Edward's life as well as in our family." I replied, and he chuckled.
"I'm sure she just loved that." he said dryly.
"Oh, not as much as she loved seeing Bella and me walking out of the maternity store, I'm sure." I said, and he raised an eyebrow.
"Maternity store?" he asked teasingly.
"We both know that I'm having your children in roughly two years' time, so where's the harm in looking at clothes for the occasion? Besides, I ended up learning our younger niece's name while in there." I told him, and he smiled at my mention of the twins.
"We really should start thinking about names for our own babies, shouldn't we?" he asked, his expression soft.
"We can start talking about that later tonight." I replied, reverting to the playful and flirtatious nature of the start of the conversation as I spoke. "After all, I'll have to wear through this amount of caffeine somehow."
"I'm sure we'll find some way to handle that, Darlin'." Jasper said in much the same tone, golden eyes watching as I brought my coffee cup to my lips once more.
Hours later, near midnight, I let out a contented sigh as I lay in bed with Jasper in our tent. After having picked Carlisle's birthday present up from Don, the four of us had split up for the drive home. Edward said he and Bella would stop in Port Angeles for dinner, but Jasper and I had gone straight home with the present to show Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett before hiding it in our closet. We'd waited until Edward had parked the Volvo in the garage and left for Bella's on foot before we disappeared into the woods with a passing statement to the others about going for a walk. We did walk for a while, so it wasn't a total lie.
"What are you thinkin' about, Darlin'?" Jasper asked me as I traced the scars on his shoulder.
"I know when we should get married." I said, glancing up long enough to see him smile.
"When?" he asked.
"March 9, 2007." I said firmly.
"Why then?" he wondered.
"That day will mark three years to the day of the first time, whether it be with your powers or aloud, that you ever told me that you love me." I said, thinking back to the first time I'd felt how much my mate loved me.
"Then that will be the day we get married." Jasper agreed, chuckling softly before adding in one more statement. "In a way, it's kinda perfect seeing as how the next day was when you first told me about our babies."
"Our babies who still need names." I reminded him, and he let out a hum of agreement.
"What did Edward and Bella decide on, exactly?" he asked. "It's probably a name that means somethin' to both of them, right?"
"Bella picked the name Renesmee Carlie, and Edward's just going to have to deal with it." I told him.
"She's gonna be a hybrid baby, so a hybrid name suits her." Jasper mused, and I agreed.
"Would something like that suit either of ours?" I replied, curious as to his thoughts on the matter.
"I don't rightly know, but I think that would depend more so on who we'd chosen to name them after as well as how the names were worked together." he said, and I began making different name combinations in my mind until one jumped out at me.
"Eloise Rosabella Ann Whitlock." I said, looking over at Jasper whose expression shifted from surprise to delight.
"Matthew Alexander Anthony Whitlock." he replied, and I beamed at him while nodding.
"Just two more years, and then we'll have them." I said softly.
"But until then, it's just us." Jasper replied before leaning in for a kiss that I giggled into happily.
Jasper and I made it home just before dawn, and I was asleep soon after now that the caffeine from earlier in the day was well out of my system. I woke hours later only when Jasper moved from beside me. He quietly said that Emmett and Edward were dragging him hunting, and I told him to enjoy himself. Once the three of them had gone, I let out a sigh and got up from the bed. The soreness I felt from the night before was mild still, but I didn't want it potentially getting worse by ignoring it. So, I gathered together an outfit for the day and made my way into mine and Jasper's bathroom. I would feel much better after a long soak in the tub; I expected that, but I didn't expect to fall asleep. Nor did I expect what followed.
The three nomads were standing in a forest clearing under a dreary, gray sky. The woman was looking between the two men with some concern on her face. The man with the lighter hair and skin was smelling the air as though he'd caught the scent of some interesting prey. The darker of the men was scanning the trees for any sign of movement. All three turned in the same direction, obviously having heard something in the distance, and jumped into the trees above before skipping across branches headed north. When they stopped, I could see what they were seeing. Several yards off, there stood another trio that I recognized. Jasper, Emmett, and Edward were horsing around as they moved west towards the house.
"Seriously, dude, you've had sex more times in the last month than I have, and I'm the one that's actually married!" Emmett teased, and Jasper smirked at him and chuckled.
"You and Rose had already been married for nearly two decades when I moved in, and I couldn't be around you until almost another decade had passed because of how bad the two of you used to be. I think you should count this as an improvement and be glad that we both have enough sense to not let my powers infect us all." Jasper replied. "Though I do wonder how bad off it'll be once Edward's got no reason to hold back with Bella."
"I'm not comfortable with taking that risk until absolutely necessary, and you both know why. Though, if I let her go shopping with Alice again, the two of them might just find a way to kill me. Almost ninety years of self-control nearly went out the window when I saw that blue silk pajama set she convinced Bella to buy." Edward responded, and the nomadic trio shared a look before following my mate and brothers as they made their way home.
"Did you see the set on Bella or just see it?" Emmett asked, and Edward narrowed his eyes.
"Watch it, baby brother." Jasper warned, but Edward shrugged him off and responded. "I've trained you both, so I know he can kick your ass if he's motivated enough."
"Jasper, it's fine. Emmett asked a valid question, and the answer is yes. I saw it in the bag when she had me sneak it up to her room so Charlie wouldn't see it, and then she wore it to bed last night." Edward said, and both of the other two laughed. "At the very least, I got to appreciate what I saw. I'm not sure that Jasper ever takes the time."
"Alright, little brother, I guess we're going' down this road. Don't you dare accuse me of not takin' the time to be thankful that, out of all the men in the world, that beautiful woman picked me." Jasper said, and neither his expression nor his voice held any malice as he spoke despite his initial word choice. "I don't understand why she chose me half the time, especially when she looks the way she does in that little black number from last night, but I can't possibly take any more time to appreciate her than I already do; neither Alice nor I have that much patience."
The three continued goofing around, discussing their mates, and just being brothers. Above them, just slightly out of smelling range, the nomads spoke to one another about the three males down below in hushed tones.
"This is the coven with a claim on this territory?" the woman asked. "How can the be so well-groomed or have luxuries like lingerie?"
"They must be the young ones of the coven. The blonde referred to the other two as his brothers, and I've only ever heard of the much older covens using that sort of language to describe one another. They can't be the coven's leaders if the redhead is older than the brawny one but is only in his late nineties to early hundreds." the darker one said.
"Laurent, which covens have you heard of that have a number of at least six, if not more?" the plain one asked.
"The coven that killed my sisters and took Heidi has over thirty members, and Maria's coven used to be a lot larger before the Major got away; other than that, I haven't heard of or seen one with more than three or four vampires since my own was destroyed." the woman said before the darker one could answer.
"Victoria is correct on both accounts, but there have been rumors of another coven of great size for decades. They started out as two separate covens, but location and circumstance brought them together. They live apart for years at a time, but they consider one another to be a part of their family no matter the distance according to the stories I've heard. One side consists of three Slavic sisters and a Spanish couple. The other is said to be led by a husband and wife who have taken in at least four vampires changed in their late teens to early twenties." Laurent told the pair, and they looked at him in surprise.
"Why haven't you told James and me about them before now?" Victoria asked.
"I wasn't sure they actually existed. According to all the stories I've heard from other nomads, this coven has unparalleled self-control that allows them to blend in almost seamlessly with humans and live amongst them without suspicion. Some have even said that they don't hunt humans at all, preferring animal blood as an alternative. With claims like these, I didn't want to say something and have the stories I was hearing turn out to be untrue." he explained.
"Well, it looks like the stories might be true after all, Laurent." The plain one, James, said.
"And it sounds like they have our girl." Laurent, added in as he nodded. "We have to find out what we're up against before we go into another coven's dwelling."
"If we continue following them, we'll find our answers." James told the other two, and then the vision faded away.
I sat straight up in the tub, my heart pounding at what I'd just seen. Seconds later, the door burst open to reveal a panicked Rosalie and Esme who promptly rushed to my side. Esme pulled me from the tub and wrapped me in my yellow towel, and Rosalie tossed the clothes I'd unintentionally soaked by splashing during the vision into the laundry hamper.
"What did you see, little sister? Do I need to call the boys home?" Rosalie asked, kneeling in front of me.
"Don't call them; they can't come home." I told her. "The nomads found them in the forest and are stalking them to find the rest of us."
"Rosalie, send all three of them a text message and then stay with your sister. I'm going to call your father to let him know what's going on, and then I'll call the cousins. Our safest bet is to have the boys go to Denali Lodge for a night or two, that way the nomads don't find the house and more importantly don't find Alice." Esme said, and we both nodded and agreed, me more shakily than Rose.
A/N: What, you didn't actually think things were going to go strictly according to plan, did you, sweets? I promise that things will get back on track and that all vampires who deserve it will return home safely. Until next time!