Bella's due date was, by our calculations, just a little under two weeks away.

We began preparing for the birth. Carlisle's office had begun its transformation into an operating and delivery room. While Bella had been improving on her new diet we decided to not take the risk of a natural delivery, given that we had no idea if the baby was going to be able to break the almost vampire-like skin of his amniotic sack.

I was going to help Carlisle with the surgery. While my knowledge was purely theoretical, my father said that I could be of great help once the baby was delivered. My child. Something I never thought I would get to experience.

"What if I'm not going to be a good father?"

'I don't think that's possible, son."

"There are so many things I don't know. What if she's going to hate me?"

'I don't think Bella could ever hate you.'

I smiled, while I was adding the mattress to the baby incubator, "I'm not talking about her. I kind of think the baby it's going to be a girl."

'I don't think your daughter will ever hate you; not if you do the best you can."

"And what is that?"

'What are some things that your human father did… or didn't do?"

I searched back through my cloudy and sparse human memories, "I don't remember much, but I know I wished he would've been home more often. And that he would've shown my mother how much he loved her. I know he did, but I'm not sure how much she was aware of it."

'Then make sure you are there for your child and show Bella how much you love her.'

"Do you have any advice?"

'You know my father was not an affectionate man… so I would say show the child that they are loved and… that your love is not conditioned. Don't use your love as a means of obedience."

Carlisle's memories slipped away in time to the night he was turned. He'd wanted to make his father proud and, finally, all his hard work would be proven fruitful when he found the small coven of witches gathered by the water just after midnight. Six women and a baby.

His men were close by; all he had to do was to give them a sign to gather. Yet, he couldn't do it. The women were not wicked temptresses or agents of the devil; they had seen hardship in their lives. Thin wrists and gaunt faces. While he didn't know any of them personally, they all resembled the women in his life: the kind grandmother that he remembered so little of, the pious woman that when she saw him always gave him a treat, the young woman that he may have grown up alongside. All of them were women that might have graced his life and that, most importantly, hadn't done anything wrong to him, or anyone else, as far as he could tell.

They cowered when they saw him; they knew of him and of his father and of the many the parson had led to their death. The youngest one of them dropped to her knees and begged for their life and if not, at least for the life of the babe.

Carlisle had been disgusted with himself; who was he to decide their fate?

"Go," he whispered.

"Ye be blessed, sir," said the youngest before fleeing.

Carlisle wondered if that blessing saved his life, as, not two night's after, he found the vampires hiding and hunting in the poorest and dirtiest places in London. He'd been one of the few men that survived their vicious and frenzied attack.

It had been a while since Carlisle had thought about the events of his transformation or about his father. So many centuries and my father still wished that he'd gotten to improve his relationship with his own.

'And don't forget, my son, you have a village."

"And what a village it is."

What, one day was a respectable office, became overnight a sterile delivery room with the best and most advanced equipment money could buy. Carlisle and I looked proudly at our work and knowing how well prepared we were I felt some of my anxiety ease.

Since Bella's improved health, we had talked about her staying human for a while longer, but that decision would come at the moment of birth after we'd assessed how traumatic on her body the experience would be.

We were not going to wait until Bella's due date and we were going to deliver the baby just two days after her own birthday, "no child wants to share a birthday with their parent," Jasper informed us. He'd been born on the same day as his father and when it came to celebrations, Jasper was always left out in favor of his father. Despite his charisma and good looks, Jasper had always been the forgotten child. He had four older siblings to compete against, just as tall, suave and good looking as him.

Esme and Rosalie had agreed. Esme because she loved to have the opportunity for as many celebrations as she could and Rosalie because a unique child such as ours deserved its own day.

With everything decided, our family let us have a romantic night together, while the rest of them went hunting. It had been a while since she and I had been truly alone.

The night began with a candlelight dinner cooked by the loving husband and consisted of Bella's favorite dishes. It was followed by a few rounds of chess. In the last few years I began to win as much as I would lose when I faced against my wife. Bella attributed it to practice, but something on her face told me that there was more to the story. My guess was that Alice had been coaching her behind my back, little traitor that she was.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Bella asked after taking another sip of blood, while I was taking out the desert. She signed at the cup in her hand.

"No. Not to say that I am not tempted, but I have constantly been tempted in the past years. Nothing compares to your blood."

Bella blushed, "still, haven't you ever thought about just drinking blood from a bag?"

"I have, but I don't need it. And, in a way, it goes against all that we are."

"How?"

"I'm not sure how to explain it, more than it feels wrong. We did take a vote on this several years ago, and we decided not to do it." I paused, "there is also the practical side of it. If we were to go back to a solely human blood diet we would go through copious amounts quickly; we would have to find a way to keep a constant supply. It might be stolen from a hospital or it may be taken forcefully. There are a lot of variants that we can't control. But most of all, we don't want to do it."

I gave Bella a kiss on the temple, "Of course, we'll have to put it again to a vote after you become a vampire. And who knows? Maybe things will change."

"They won't. I'll stick to the family diet."

"I have a gift for you," I said when she was halfway through her peach cobbler.

Bella tensed up slightly, before saying, "I don't need any gifts."

"In this case I think that you do. It's a push present. It's a very human thing to do."

"Is it inherited?"

"This one is new; a new gift for a new baby. I do think that you'll like it. It's unique but understated, like you.

Bella blushed, "you shouldn't have."

"Maybe, but I wanted to and you deserve it. In case you didn't know this about me, one of my biggest passions in life is lavishing my wife with diamonds."

"Diamonds?" She whispered, terrified.

"It's a figure of speech. Though your gift does have diamonds, they are quite small. Can you please look at it and if you don't like it, I promise I will get you a pair of sweatpants on sale? Deal?"

"Deal."

"Wait here."

"Will do my best not to silently waddle out of here."

I quickly went to Esme's office, where I'd hidden the box containing Bella's gift. Just as I looked at the gift once more, I heard something drop on the floor. It was followed by a blood-curdling shriek of agony.

I was by her side in less than a second.

She was on the floor, clutching her belly. Her eyes had rolled back into her head and her body was twitched as if she were electrocuted. She only calmed for half of a second before she arched and vomited a fountain of blood.

I took her body in my arms and I went up the staircase to the second floor. I laid her on the surgery table and looked for the syringe and the vial of morphine.

She let out another blood curdling scream before I injected her. I knew she was not going to come out of this a human. Or if she was going to come out of it at all.

I took a half a second to calm myself and analyze the situation. Her placenta must have detached, which meant that the baby was suffocating. I brought at the front of my mind all the information and diagrams I knew about birth and prepared to start the procedure for a C-section.

"Edward," she whispered.

I grabbed her hand and brought it to my lips, "Yes, my love?"

She struggled to get the words out, "please, please…," she coughed up blood before she continued, "promise me that you'll save the baby!"

I looked into those deep chocolate brown eyes that I loved so much and my first instinct was to lie. But no matter how much of a damned beast I was I could not, "I will."

I waited another moment for her to lose her consciousness before I took the scalpel in my hand. Deep dark patches of purple and black bloomed acros Bella's pale skin. Deep red was seeping beneath the skin over the bulge of her stomach. I could sense the distress the baby was in and I knew I had to act fast.

Another shattering crack inside her body, the loudest yet came before I made my first incision. She had no reaction. Her legs, which had been curled up in agony, now went limp, sprawling out in an unnatural way. Her spine had been broken.

My hand came down and I made the first long horizontal incision, not worrying anymore about her pain. I knew she would feel none. The next cut was smaller and made in the wall of her uterus.

In all of the agitation I failed to realize that someone had (for a human) quietly slipped inside the house. His thoughts might have given him away if they hadn't been almost like his daughter's.

The moment Charlie opened the door, Bella stopped breathing.

Charlie's face fell and his mind began racing trying to understand the sight before his eyes.

My torso and hands were covered in blood, while I held a scalpel over his unconscious daughter. My face: a mask of frantic desperation.

"What is going on?" He yelled, but my attention was already back on Bella. I had less than four minutes to deliver the baby and start CPR. I tried cutting through the placenta with the scalpel, but it barely made a scratch. Without hesitation I bared my teeth and I bit through the skin, creating an opening large enough for the baby to come out.

I heard a loud noise and I felt something hit me in the back, but I paid no mind. I gently slipped my hand through the opening and I brought our daughter into the world. I bit off the umbilical cord and I looked at my girl. She wasn't breathing.

"Charlie, get here and start CPR!" I yelled while I turned around and bared my teeth at him. He aimed the gun at me again, before he registered the baby in my arms.

"There is no time! If you want Bella to live, start doing CPR right NOW!"

Charlie dropped the gun and made his way to the operating table. He placed his hands on her chest and started pushing.

Renesmee's skin was much paler than it should have been and she had a very low heart rate. I quickly cleaned her airway and placed her in the incubator. I gently put an oxygen mask over her face and I turned my attention back to my wife.

"Move," I growled at him.

"No."

"I said move! I can save her, Charlie, but only if you move."

He took a step back.

I grabbed the syringe that I placed just a day before in the medical refrigerator and I sunk the needle straight into her heart, before resuming the CPR.

"Tell me how the baby is doing, Charlie!" I growled at him.

"What?"

"The baby," I motioned with my head towards the machine that was helping my daughter breathe.

Charlie quickly went to the machine and read me the information it displayed. She was improving. Bella was not. Her beautiful eyes were empty of all emotion, like a doll's.

She needed more venom. Firstly I bit her neck, then her arms and wrists before moving to her thighs, calf and ankles. Her skin was cold and her scent had changed. It started to lose its appeal.

"What are you…" he tried to ask but I turned around, mouth bloody and I growled at him. I saw myself reflected in his mind. Arched above his daughter I looked like a veritable monster.

"You're not dead, you're not dead," I prayed to her. "Come on! Come on!"

I kept on pressing her heart and blowing air into her lungs, but nothing was happening, "She's not dead! She. is. not. dead!" I growled at Charlie who'd already begun to crumple into his grief.

"No, it will work. It will work. Please, please, please, please," I prayed again before desperately adding another round of bites.

I felt a universe of grief rise up in my chest; a hole large enough to swallow me and return me to my wife. "Come back to me, please, baby," I whispered. "Bella… Bella, please."

I don't know for how long I kept trying to revive her; eons, maybe, but at last I could hear her heart starting to beat again on its own.

It was frantic.

Racing.

Changing.