Chapter Two: Relations and Relatives

As we walked out of the theater, both of us still laughing, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was still early yet for Jacob to be calling us. I brought the phone to my ear as we walked to the car.

"Hello?" I asked, not looking at the number on the screen.

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few moments. "W-Who is this?"

I inhaled sharply. Crap, crapcrapcrap… It was Renee.

"Hi Mom," I said hesitantly, cringing on the inside for her response. Edward's eyes widened as he realized the significance of this call. "How are you?"

More silence.

"Bella?!" My mom asked. "What happened, honey? You sound—very different…"

"It's a long story, Mom," I said. "I'm not entirely sure you'd want to—"

"Bella," my mom's voice said on the other end of the phone. She sounded suddenly serious, and not at all incredulous anymore. It was strange to hear those tones on my mother's voice. "I'm coming to Forks tomorrow. I want you to tell me everything."

"Mom, I—" I began, but Renee cut me off again.

"I'm not taking a no for an answer, sweetie," she said, still serious but not so businesslike as her previous sentence. "I'm concerned, as you probably know, but we'll talk about it when I get there."

"Mom, I think you're just overreacting again," I said casually, biting my lip. Honestly, her reaction couldn't have been less than perfect if she had known. I was a vampire. What parent wouldn't be shocked by that news?

"No, honey," Renee said, surprising me. "This time I'm not. Just wait there for me, okay? I'll be in tomorrow."

The line went dead in my hand.

Edward glanced at me as we slid into the car. He knew that this would be the final real break that I had with my old life. This was… monumental, to say the least.

"Bella…" he began, and instantly I knew where he was about to go with this.

"No, Edward," I said, rubbing the sides of my head. The only downside to having a larger space in my brain was having more room for headaches. "I want to keep going on this date. We'll worry about my mom coming to Forks afterwards. For now, I just want to be here with you."

Edward seemed pleased that this was my choice. He began driving to another location as I silently pondered over my mother's call, knowing that I was worrying even though I had told Edward I would wait until after the date.

Why had she sounded so… calm? She had heard my voice, that much was certain, but she had also not even recognized it at first. All that was clear.

But then she suddenly switched tracks, contrary to everything I'd known of her and expected her to do. Suddenly Renee, my mother, was serious, and straight to the point. She'd not wasted time with poking around the edges, she said she's coming straight here. She hadn't even bothered to worry about if she had been being silly, she'd somehow known she wasn't.

So… why—?

Edward saw my contemplative look and sighed.

"I don't have to be able to read your mind right now to know what's going on inside your head, Bella," he said, looking at me and not even paying attention to the roads. "Your mother's visiting tomorrow. We'll give her the same story as Charlie, and if she really doesn't let up, we'll even ask Jacob to explain things his way. I'll bet that after she might see what Jacob is, she may want Charlie's attitude of need-to-know. I'm sure everything will be fine, love."

"I know," I said, sighing. "But frankly I'm just surprised. Renee didn't even pause to wonder if she was overreacting to this. Every other time she panics about something, I could always tell her when, and she'd calm right down, but… Edward, I don't know if I'll be able to hide everything from Renee. When she's actually paying attention, she's the most intuitive person I know."

"I know. I was reading her mind when you two had that conversation in Florida. On the beach," he clarified. "I was surprised to see how her mind worked. Like a detective's, but also with the simplicity of a child, in a way. She picked up on our relationship within a few guesses."

Then Edward turned to face me again. "But do you think that she'll honestly jump straight from, 'my daughter sounds different', to 'my daughter fell in love with a vampire and got turned'?"

I gave him a pained look. "Maybe?"

Edward chuckled and turned back to face the road, though it was more habit than anything else. "Then your mother will be the most observant person even I know."

"Don't jinx us," I said, shivering. If Renee were to guess what we were—

Wait. If Renee was to guess what we were, and even if she got it exactly right, then that wouldn't really be our fault, would it? I mean, it would be our fault if we gave her a hint, but if she just happened to guess, then the Volturi wouldn't have any real reason to attack us… right?

Edward realized I was smiling.

"Did you figure it out?" he asked nonchalantly.

I forced my shield down so he could read my mind. A thoughtful expression crossed his face as he drove and listened to my thoughts.

"Not technically, I suppose, but the Volturi live and breathe technicalities. Only if she somehow managed to stay absolutely inconspicuous and drew no attention to herself would the Volturi leave her alone."

But I couldn't stop feeling like I'd solved the problem. I didn't even know how I could get Renee to guess correctly.

Edward parked at the top of a hill, overlooking the city. The sun was beginning to go down, and it set a rosy glare over everything I saw, including Edward and I. Nobody was up here, so we removed the sun protection we had. We sat on the hood of Edward's car and simply stared at the fading sunset. Our glimmering skin slowly died down as the day drew to a close, and it wasn't long before I felt the phone buzzing in my pocket again. This time it was Jacob, I was sure. Sure enough, as I lifted the phone, I heard a husky sort of voice answer.

"Heya Bells, we're coming to Carlisle's place," he said. "Renesmee is just fine, had a lot of fun today with Claire. Can she do this again sometime?"

"Of course," I said, partly without thinking. I rolled my eyes, regretting the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. "We'll see you there."

Edward rolled over to me and looked in my light amber eyes. "Time to go?"

I nodded, before leaning down and giving him a kiss. "Unless, of course, it's not time to go yet."

Edward kissed me back, before sitting up and rolling, landing on his feet next to the car. He walked around and held the door open for me again and gestured for me to enter.

"I think that we should wait for that, Mrs. Cullen, and pick up our daughter, first."

I climbed in, somewhat upset that I still had to wait until Renesmee was in bed.

"Thank you," I said, leaning over and kissing him when he sat down in the driver's seat. "I love you."

"I love you beyond all," Edward said, kissing me back.

It was already 'dark' when we got back, which was to say that to all of my new family's eyes, it was purple instead of yellow outside. Renesmee was already asleep in Rosalie's arms, which reluctantly surrendered her to me as we appeared.

It was a very, very comforting thing to be holding her in my own arms again. Everyone laughed as they watched my frame shift automatically with relief, as unknown tension that I had gathered over the day melted out of my body. I was embarrassed for only a moment, before I was once again completely preoccupied with Renesmee and Edward, the two brightest lights of my new 'life'.

Renesmee was still fast asleep, so Edward and I carried her home and put her to bed. We closed the door softly, then, quieter than a whisper, we glided across the floor.

"Now, love," Edward said, grinning as he glided closer to me, shutting the door to our room behind him. "We can begin where we left off."


The she-wolf howled again. Where had Billy gone to, Connecticut?

She heard the approach of footsteps coming from the forest. She smelled the sickly-sweet aroma on the wind as the breeze shifted.

Vampires. Two of them.

The she-wolf began to struggle to move. She wanted to be on her feet, if they weren't friendly. She doubted she could run, and with Billy gone… she was defenseless.

What to do, what to do?

But she visibly relaxed, and nearly crashed back to the forest floor in exhaustion, when the two vampires rounded the corner.

'Carlisle,' the she-wolf thought. Then she thought of something with no small amount of shock. 'Did Billy send you?'

The vampire did not answer, though his eyes were only full of the same kindness she had always seen. Oh right, he couldn't understand her thoughts without the other one… Edward was his name.

She was only slightly shocked to see that it was not Edward with Carlisle, but Esme. The she-wolf opened her mouth and panted, lolling her tongue out one side in a sort of pain-induced friendly grin to show her relief and pleasant surprise.

"We heard the sounds," Carlisle said softly, "and we thought we'd come to check on you. How are you feeling?"

The she-wolf whined and put her paws over her head. 'It hurts,' she thought, narrating her own movements.

"Well, that's to be expected, dear," Esme said, her calm voice suggesting experience, though the she-wolf knew she had had none. "It's only natural."

"I don't suppose you can phase back right now?" Carlisle asked.

The she-wolf only whined again and shook her head, before another contraction ripped through her, and she reared her head back, howling loudly.

Carlisle nodded. "I thought so. I'm only going to gently examine you now, alright?"

The she-wolf nodded, though the pain was her main focus right now.

Carlisle's touch was more like a whisper of cool wind, rather than a prodding that any other doctor would make. He barely caressed her fur as he moved around her, studying her swollen belly.

"He's close," he simply said. He looked at Esme, meaningful gazes flowing between them. Esme leaned down next to the she-wolf's head, and whispered full of compassion and sympathy for the pain.

"The baby is almost here, dear," Esme repeated gently and slowly, but not shakily, for her benefit. She was very reassuring, as though having a baby was going to be no more painful than getting a papercut. "Would you like Carlisle's help?"

The she-wolf, with great effort, turned and looked at Carlisle, who stood near her tail, and nodded slowly. Then she fell back against the ground, another contraction ripping through her.

"Let's begin, then," Carlisle said warmly, producing rubber doctor's gloves from nowhere in particular.