A/N: This is mid-Eclipse through the end of Breaking Dawn from Edward's perspective. Thanks for reading!
These characters are not mine and all belong to Stephenie Meyer.
Thank you to everyone who voted for me for a Golden Onion Award in the WIP category and a special thanks to Guiltypleasure82 for nominating me!
Thank you to my lovely reviewers!
ReeceK, Guiltypleasure82, jujubooboo23, masen-cullen96, Jenren77, dburrows, and myspunkette
Need to Know, Only II (Breaking Dawn)
"Hello, Charlie." Carlisle looked appropriately abashed given a handful of us were supposed to be in Atlanta at the moment.
Charlie looked at Carlisle's face intently. Focusing on each of the features that were other, all the things he'd trained himself not to attend to like so many humans before him.
He shuddered. "Carlisle," he said coldly. "Where's Bella?" Her name was laced with pain.
Charlie wasn't doing well. He'd lost weight - probably ten pounds or more - and his hair was thinner.
"Right here, Dad!" Bella called.
Charlie's face was blank. Of course Bella sounded very little like she had before. The prosody of her voice was much unchanged, but her pitch was higher, like bells. Her vocal quality smooth, like honey.
Bella's expression twisted with awareness. She gulped another quick breath.
Dad? Nessie recalled Bella's words. Right here, Dad. This was her mom's dad. Her mom's protector. She trembled, fearing whatever creature existed to protect someone as fierce as her mother.
It was such a sweet, innocent thought that I almost smiled.
Charlie turned his head, staring past Carlisle's shoulder.
He saw Bella's long brown hair first. The same as it always was. And then he really looked at her.
His familiar brown eyes were huge.
Jasper felt each slap of Charlie's emotions: shock, disbelief, pain, loss, fear, anger, suspicion, more pain.
Charlie zeroed in on the same peculiar features we all shared, but now belonging to his daughter. Her skin so pale it was nearly silver. The straighter, accentuated angles of her face. Her most prominent features before, her large eyes and full lips, even more prominent now.
She was other. But was this woman really Bella?
What had happened to her? His mind flipped through image after image of her. Infant, toddler, child, teenager. Pink glow and brown eyes.
These were not her brown eyes.
He thought of Jacob. Amid wariness there was a sense of trust. I guessed trust that what Jacob had told him was accurate. That this was not a farce.
Under his scrutiny, Bella bit her lip in the same way she always had. Just with perfectly straight, blindingly white teeth.
"Is that you, Bella?" Charlie whispered.
"Yep." She winced, perhaps tasting him in the air. "Hi, Dad."
He took a deep, shaky breath.
So much pain. I didn't need Jasper to know that. It colored every thought. And so much regret. Insufficiency. Failure.
"Hey, Charlie," Jacob said brightly from the corner. He sounded as if he'd bumped into Charlie at the grocery store rather than at the vampire crypt. "How're things?"
Charlie reacted to Jacob's warm smile as if the boy was baring his teeth at him. That's what he saw in his head. Giant dagger teeth. Another shudder.
He looked back at Bella and seemed disappointed that she had not somehow morphed back into the old Bella. He suppressed his desire to run from her, cringe from her as he had Jacob, and slowly crossed the room to stand only a yard away.
Charlie shot a quick glare at me and I knew almost certainly what he was thinking. I was rotten. Rotten for her and he'd always known it.
I held his gaze, resisting the urge to cast my eyes downward in shame because this was right. Bella and Nessie and I. It was right.
He searched her face again, this time looking for what was familiar. Her chin. Her top lip, still out of balance with the bottom. It wasn't enough. It would never be enough. So much had been lost to... to what?
"Bella?" Charlie asked again, watching her unblinking.
"It's really me," Bella assured him, her voice pitched lower now.
It wasn't her human voice exactly, but it was close enough. This was his daughter and something grim had happened to her.
Charlie's jaw locked and he fought back a sob.
We all felt pity for him. Except for Alice. She'd seen life for him if Bella had never returned to him and this was far better. He'll be fine. Jacob's right. Almost as tough as Bella.
"I'm sorry, Dad," Bella whispered.
"Are you okay?" His voice was rough with tears.
"Really and truly great," she said earnestly. "Healthy as a horse."
I could feel her tension. She was out of breath.
"Jake told me this was... necessary." He said the words bitterly, believing he was being lied to again. "That you were dying."
He suspected something else. Plastic surgery? That the doctor had a little cult. Going under the knife was the price of entry. A price Bella had paid to be with me.
But I was less focused on the images of science fiction moving through Charlie's head, and more focused on Bella. This was the big test. And even if she didn't hurt him, if we could prevent that, any monstrous reaction would send him running. Bella would lose her father. He would be too terrified of what she'd become. And then there was the danger he'd be in, knowing too much.
Bella leaned into me, gripped Nessie tighter, and took a deep breath.
Jasper felt her desire, a very different kind of desire than earlier, but he felt, too, the warmth of her love, her calm amid pain. Her emotions painted a portrait of her strength.
I squeezed her shoulders, knowing this would be the greatest pain she'd felt since transformation. Both physically and emotionally.
Jacob noticed my show of support and he understood what was happening. Bella was hurting now. Thanks to him. His eyes were round with apology when she met them briefly.
Bella swallowed. Her pause only a moment too long, she answered Charlie, "Jacob was telling you the truth."
Dying. Nessie didn't know this word, but whatever it was, she knew it was bad. Something bad had happened to her mother. Her mother had affirmed it.
"That makes one of you," Charlie retorted angrily.
His frown softened slightly, touched by the heartbreaking remorse in Bella's new face.
Nessie lifted her face from Bella's hair and Charlie's scent registered with her.
He smelled delicious. Not as delicious as her mother's blood has been - no, nothing yet had compared to that, not by a long shot - but it was close enough. A distant second best.
Bella tightened her grip on Nessie, glancing down nervously. She must have guessed why Nessie fidgeted.
Charlie followed her gaze to the child she held.
"Oh." The anger left his face, replaced by shock. "This is her. The orphan Jacob said you were adopting."
He was just honing in on her hair when I interjected.
"My niece," I explained casually.
Charlie looked at me reluctantly. His tone was unkind, accusatory. "I thought you'd lost your family."
"I lost my parents," I corrected. "My older brother was adopted, like me. I never saw him after that. But the courts located me when he and his wife died in a car accident, leaving their only child without any other family."
Nessie wasn't following my explanation, she wasn't really trying, much too interested in the scent of Charlie's blood. She peeked up at him through the strands of Bella's hair and sniffed again.
Nessie met Charlie's eyes - brown like hers, like her mothers had been - for half a second and then slid, adorably, back under her mahogany cover.
Charlie melted a little.
It was so peculiar to see Nessie act shy. She hadn't been that way with any of us. I wondered if this was how she would always be with strangers or just this stranger. The one who set us all on edge.
"She's... she's, well, she's a beauty."
Nessie didn't miss that. She was flattered he thought so.
"Yes," I agreed simply.
It was true - Rosalie had already decided, free of bitterness, that Nessie would exceed her own beauty one day - yet it seemed an unhelpful thing to constantly remind the young, impressionable child. I didn't want to foster vanity in Nessie as Rosalie's parents had. It would only inspire unhappiness.
Charlie, softened by Nessie's presence, spoke calmly now. With only parental concern as he forgot the outrageousness that surrounded him for a moment. "Kind of a big responsibility, though. You two are just getting started."
With his speech, came his breath, his scent, and Nessie longed for a taste.
"What else could we do?" I brushed my fingers tenderly along her cheek and touched her lips briefly - a reminder.
You mustn't bite him, she recalled. He won't heal like Jacob.
"Would you have refused her?" I pressed, seeing how entirely moved he was already.
"Hmph. Well," he grumbled, shaking his head. He didn't want to converse with me at all, let alone express agreement with anything I said. "Jake says you call her Nessie?"
Under Charlie's gaze, I was careful not to react, but the rest of room tensed with dread.
"No, we don't," Bella said, her voice sharp as a knife. "Her name is Renesmee."
Her tone set his hair on end, but he found something comforting in it, too. At the center of it, under the extra layers of menace, was Bella. He thought of arguments he'd had with her. Probably arguments over me.
He refocused on her. "How do you feel about this? Maybe Carlisle and Esme could - "
Bella cut him off. "She's mine. I want her."
He frowned, seeming to think of cults again. I wasn't exactly making sense of his train of thought. Maybe he was afraid Bella was too attached to the child and would lose her when I disappeared again. Or maybe it was the opposite. Maybe he hoped that she would leave me one day, and the child would cause her to stay.
"You gonna make me a grandpa so young?" he asked with a hint of humor.
Grandpa. Nessie thought. She knew Carlisle by that name, but she hadn't really thought of him as my father before. She found this development interesting. She wondered why we were all so intimidated by this man if he was anything like Carlisle.
I smiled at him. "Carlisle is a grandfather, too."
Charlie glanced back at Carlisle, still standing by the door. He snorted, then he laughed. "I guess that does sort of make me feel better." He squinted, trying to make out her face through Bella's tresses. Who was this new little member of his family? "She sure is something to look at."
I resisted grimacing at his shallow accolades.
Nessie inhaled and leaned unconsciously out from under Bella's hair. She gave Charlie a long look. What an interesting creature he seemed to her. A wonderful smelling grandpa - with her eyes - who thought she was beautiful.
Charlie gasped, seeing the resemblance now, too. He was hyperventilating, trying to understand how a pregnancy and then some - Nessie was no newborn in appearance - could have fit into the last month.
This new understanding was enough to dispel his plastic surgery theory. We were as other as Jacob, if not more so.
Jacob moved to Charlie's side and patted him on the back. "Need to know, Charlie," he whispered in his ear. "It's okay. I promise."
Charlie's stomach lurched and he swallowed back vomit, nodding. There was violence in his eyes as he stepped toward me, his fists clenched. He knew I was a monster now. A literal one. And I had singled out his daughter. For what purpose? His imagination had grim guesses at that. But the gist of it all seemed to be a belief that I had planned this. Used Bella.
"I don't want to know everything," he raged. "But I'm done with the lies!"
Nessie took in his purple face, his fiery eyes. The creature more fierce than her mother.
"I'm sorry," I said calmly, trying to chase the lingering image of his firearm from his thoughts. "But you need to know the public story more than you need to know the truth." The apology slipped from my face as did the show of pleasantness and youth I typically wore around him. I was just myself. A century-old vampire who would protect his family at any cost. I was setting the rules now, not him. With seriousness and an even-tone, I continued. "If you're going to be part of this secret, the public story is the one that counts. It's to protect Bella and Renesmee as well as the rest of us. Can you go along with the lies for them?"
He did not miss my ultimatum. Nor did anyone else. All stared at him, awaiting his decision.
Charlie huffed, disgusted by the idea of showing deference to me of all people. He turned his glare on Bella.
"You might've given me some warning, kid."
"Would it really have made this easier?" she asked sympathetically.
He frowned, overwhelmed with regret. With warning he could have saved her. He could have tried harder. He could have killed me.
But he seemed aware of the permanence of her new situation. That this was the reality now.
He sank to his knees, wanting to get closer to his new granddaughter. To look into her eyes again to make sure it wasn't just his imagination playing tricks on him.
Nessie was no longer afraid. She was connected to this man just as she was connected to her mother, she could feel it. She was on the in. Within their circle of protection rather than outside of it.
Nessie flashed an endearing smile. Her pink palm reached for his face, not to share her thoughts, but out of curiosity. Was he cold or warm? Hard or soft?
Bella drew her closer.
It was with mild annoyance that Nessie touched her mother's neck trying to clarify her intentions.
"Whoa," Charlie breathed, eyeing Nessie's full set of teeth. "How old is she?"
"Um..." Bella glanced at me.
"Three months," I answered. He didn't buy that. I hesitated. It felt uncomfortable to do so, but I wanted to honor Charlie's request for honesty as much as was possible. Besides what age could accommodate her? Charlie was in deep now. There was no coming back from it. "Rather," I continued slowly, "she's the size of a three-month old, more or less. She's younger in some ways, more mature in others."
Nessie knew we were talking about her. She could see the wonder in Charlie's eyes stronger than his fear and she knew he was hers now, just as the rest of us were. She waved at him. A smooth, intentional movement like that of a mature child.
Charlie must have blinked a dozen times when Jacob elbowed him.
"Told you she was special, didn't I?" Jacob's voice was swollen with pride as if he'd carried and birthed her himself.
Charlie cringed away from his touch.
I couldn't deny I found satisfaction in that and Jacob's subsequent hurt. Charlie repulsed by Jacob, the golden child. The son he'd never had.
Ha.
"Oh, c'mon, Charlie," Jacob complained. "I'm the same person I've always been. Just pretend this afternoon didn't happen."
Charlie's skin took on a greenish hue as he nodded once.
But he couldn't make sense of it. He remembered Jacob and I, our standoff on his front lawn. Bella's tearstained face the night Jacob was hurt.
"Just what is your part in all this, Jake?" he demanded. "How much does Billy know? Why are you here?" He took in the gentle calm and happiness of Jacob's face as, again, he stared at Nessie as if she were his own child.
Charlie's gun was in the car. I had a hunch he'd love the imprinting business as much as Bella had and wouldn't it be an exciting experiment to see how quickly the wolf could heal from a shotgun wound?
"Well," Jacob began, "I could tell you all about it - Billy knows absolutely everything - but it involves a lot of stuff about werewo-"
"Ungh!" Charlie covered his ears "Never mind."
Nessie smiled in amusement at Charlie's clownish reaction.
Jacob grinned, too. "Everything's going to be great, Charlie. Just try to not believe anything you see."
"Can't believe anything anymore..." Charlie's grumbles grew unintelligible.
Alright, enough doom and gloom, Emmett griped. There are pressing things on our agenda today. Like a little education...
"Woo!" Emmett thundered. "Go Gators!"
Charlie, Jacob, and Seth jumped, while everyone else froze.
After a moment Charlie's heart settled and he seemed relieved by the distraction. If anything was real, football was.
Emmett unmuted the TV and the sound of male commentators leaning into machismo as a crutch for their insecurities soothed Charlie like a lullaby.
Charlie glanced at Emmett over his shoulder. "Florida winning?"
"Just scored the first touchdown," he boomed. He turned in his chair to lock eyes with Bella. Wagging his eyebrows, he said, "'Bout time somebody scored around here."
Her teeth clenched, her nostrils flared.
Jasper wasn't concerned, rather he was pursing his lips to keep from laughing.
"Edward, Bella, pay attention." Emmett looked over at Charlie. "See, I'm a big football fan, but these two are absolutely clueless."
"Uh-huh," Charlie said absently. He was too busy trying to make sense of the last two years of his life - or Bella's, rather - to pay any attention to the game.
"Ed, what that guy did right there - not a fumble 'cause he didn't have possession to start with. We actually call that a muff. I don't think you've seen one of those before."
Jacob choked on the water Esme had brought him while Seth blushed. Jasper seemed to be having a coughing fit as well.
The commotion drew Charlie's attention to Jacob. He glowered at him, seeing the features of the giant reddish-brown wolf in his human face. That ushered in an unpleasant memory. Sam Uley carrying Bella out of the forest. Then the same night - Sam Uley, Jared, and Paul staring at Bella on the couch as Dr. Gerandy treated her. Seth came to mind. Seth maturing rapidly just as Jacob had. And Sue's face. Betrayal and hurt were heavy in his thoughts at her image. I guessed he had made the leap that she had known what was going on with his daughter. He pictured Billy and his thoughts were even more furious.
Nothing, however, inspired more rage than my face. He came back to me again and again. Certain memories ran through his head several times as he tried to work things out - the last time he saw me in his living room before I disappeared last year, when he'd shouted at me outside his house the day I came back, me asking for his blessing for Bella's hand in marriage, Bella's flat stomach, Renesmee's brown eyes and bronze hair, my face again, his gun...
Jasper looked at me. Charlie okay?
I winced but nodded.
Charlie thought of me, then Jacob, and finally... ugh, Mike Newton? Charlie's thoughts rang with glowing approval as he imagined Mike Newton's arm around my wife.
Disgusting. Jacob, dog breath and all, would have been far better for her than Mike Newton.
"Now, Edward," Emmett's voice cut through my concentration. "You see Harrison penetrate deep into the backfield? That's a whole hell of a lot more interesting than old-fashioned pound it-up-the-middle, don't you think?"
This is so uncomfortable. Worse than Paul. And Edward can hear everything I'm thinking... Seth stood suddenly. "I think I'm gonna go make a sandwich. You want one, Charlie?"
"Uh." Charlie blinked a few times coming back to himself. "Yeah, sure. Thanks, Seth."
"Gah," Emmett growled. "Carter leading with the head again. Always laying the wood. Maybe he'll put those nimble hands to work next time, eh, Bella?"
"I'll help you, Seth," Jacob said quickly.
"No, no. Jacob, you stay and enjoy the game," Carlisle said smoothly. "I'll make your sandwich."
"I'll join you two," Esme said enthusiastically. "I've been wanting to try out Edward's pasta salad recipe. It will go great with the sandwiches."
Traitors... Jacob glared at my parent's backs as they moved at a quick human clip to the kitchen.
"You know, Bella," Emmett met her eyes, somehow still fierce even with the muddy contacts, "Edward has a great cream pie recipe, too."
Rosalie pressed her hand tightly to her mouth as Bella glared at him. I gave him a tired look, but he ignored me.
"You ever try it?" He pressed.
Jacob smirked. "You seem awfully familiar with that recipe, Emmett."
Jasper coughed again.
Emmett looked at Jacob superiorly. "Have you ever even baked before, Jacob?"
"Not with Edward," Jacob quipped.
I snorted and Bella turned her glare on me for half a second before fixing it on Emmett again.
"I think I'd like to go back to talking about football," Bella said pointedly, menace slipping into her tone.
Her voice sent a chill down Charlie's spine, pulling him from his musings again.
Emmett sighed. "Fair enough." He pointed to the TV. "They usually have Henry playing in the slot. That's not uncommon when you've got a guy whose fast but on the smaller side..."
Between Emmett's commentary and Charlie's pained and murderous thoughts, it was a very long day.
"So much has changed so quickly," Bella told Charlie outside. "My head hasn't stopped spinning. If I didn't have you now, I don't know how I'd keep my grip on - on reality."
On what? I wondered. What had she meant to say?
I watched them from Seth's eyes where he waited in the passenger seat of Charlie's cruiser. After an uncomfortable morning and afternoon spent in front of the TV, he'd all but dragged Charlie from the house, reminding him that they had dinner plans with Billy and Sue. He'd assured him that Bella and Nessie would still be here tomorrow.
Bella had assured him of the same after Charlie mentioned Jacob's claim that we'd planned to take off on him. He seemed to believe her.
Knowing it would bring about more than he needed to know, Charlie had bravely extended his arms for a hug. Sorrow choked him feeling his daughter hard and cold, corpse-like. But Nessie was warm in his arms when Bella grudgingly allowed him to hold her and he was comforted.
Charlie's stomach growled.
"Go eat, Dad," Bella said, a smile in her voice.
I registered his surprise, probably wondering how she'd heard the quiet sound.
"We will be here," she vowed.
He nodded and, with reluctance, returned a sleeping Nessie to Bella. It seemed she calmed him, too.
His eyes lingered over her shoulder, staring into the house where we were consumed by various activities - me at my piano, Esme sketching, Rose and Emmett constructing a house of cards, and so on - and something was off about it to him. We weren't trying as hard and he was not oblivious.
He shuddered, shaking his head and looked back to her with a sigh. "See you tomorrow, Bella." He frowned, something in her face inspiring guilt, and added, "I mean, it's not like you don't look... good. I'll get used to it."
"Thanks, Dad."
He joined Seth and the cruiser disappeared up the drive. It would be an interesting dinner with Billy and Sue - I'd wager a very unpleasant one.
Bella remained outside for several minutes. I resisted going to her, supposing she needed a moment alone. Her conversation with Charlie had not been light.
"Wow," she whispered.
I ripped my hands from the keys allowing the song to drop off awkwardly. The reverberations of those last notes were still humming as I wrapped my arms around her waist and rested my chin on her shoulder.
"You took the word right out of my mouth."
"Edward, I did it!" she squealed, her eyes glimmering with excitement.
"You did. You were unbelievable. All that worrying over being a newborn, and then you skip it altogether." I chuckled, caressing her cheek with my own.
Emmett formulated a number of inappropriate remarks before selecting his favorite. "I'm not even sure she's really a vampire," he called from the house. "She's too tame."
Bella's eyes narrowed and she snarled under her breath.
"Oooo, scary," Emmett taunted. Scary as a little bear cub.
Nessie startled awake to the sound of her mother's hiss. Confused, she looked around trying to orient herself. She was no longer on the sofa and - she sniffed - where was her new grandfather?
She touched Bella's cheek, showing her his face.
"Charlie will be back tomorrow," Bella assured her.
"Excellent," Emmett cheered. He and Rose laughed.
Alice rolled her eyes. He's a twelve-year-old, I swear.
She wasn't wrong. How incredibly inappropriate his commentary was. Besides the ship had sailed. Sure, last night had been different than before, but that didn't erase our island of Eden. The total sensuality of our soft and gentle caresses. The fragile human girl with untamable hungers, so eager to seduce the vampire whose throat burned for her blood, whose every cell ached for her body...
Jasper sighed, agitated.
But I was getting distracted. Essentially, our innocence was long lost by the time we returned to this continent, so his tasteless humor wasn't even relevant.
Of course, that was expecting too much of Emmett. As long a he got his reaction, had his fun, the quality of his jibes was unimportant. And if he got a fight out of it, all the better...
"Not brilliant, Emmett," I said disdainfully.
Bella eyed me suspiciously when I extended my arms to take Nessie. Nessie did as well. She wanted to stay with her mom.
I winked and Bella reluctantly surrendered her to me.
Nessie touched my cheek, concerned. Her mom was upset again and she didn't understand why. She thought of Jacob and searched for him through the open doors and windows.
"What do you mean?" Emmett demanded. His eyes were alight with anticipation. Are you saying what I think your saying? Didn't think he'd ever let me...
"It's a little dense, don't you think, to antagonize the strongest vampire in the house?"
Or it was completely intentional that I antagonized the second strongest vampire in the house. He snorted, throwing his head back. 'Strongest' vampire in the house...
"Please!" he countered dismissively.
Bella's nostrils flared as she ground her teeth together.
"Bella," I leaned close to her ear, feigning discretion, "do you remember a few months ago, I asked you to do me a favor once you were immortal."
Jasper drew closer. He could tell from my smugness that whatever this was, it was going to be good.
After a moment Bella gasped, "Oh!" Her face lit up with a massive grin at the same time Alice broke into a fit of giggles, seeing the outcome of my plan.
Definitely going to be good, Jasper thought.
Nessie's eyes darted between her aunt and her mother, eager to understand the source of their merriment.
Please tell me your giving this boy a dose of his own medicine. Esme patted the top of Emmett's head where he sat, her expression both tender and disapproving.
"What?" Emmett growled, annoyed as ever at being left in the dark.
"Really," Bella asked breathlessly, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Trust me." I smirked, meeting Alice's delighted eyes.
Rose glared at me. Unlike Emmett, she could read the tea leaves. Whatever this was, it wouldn't go his way.
Bella took a deep breath. "Emmett, how do you feel about a little bet?"
There was no hesitation. Almost faster than my eyes could detect, he was on his feet. "Awesome. Bring it."
Bella bit her lip, sizing him up.
Not just any bear cub. The runt of the litter, he thought, pleased. "Unless you're too afraid...?"
Jacob chuckled. She won't take that well.
Of course he was right.
Bella raised her chin stubbornly. "You. Me. Arm-wrestling. Dining room table. Now."
Ah. Kiddie wrestling. But Emmett's smile had never been wider. I'll take it.
Esme frowned.
With her thirst finally under control following her transformation, Esme had been quick to rectify our home's dull and barren aesthetic. Carlisle and I had never attended to decorating or staging beyond what was absolutely necessary for our charade. Esme had shaped our hideout into a home.
Starting with the dining room table. A centerpiece in our various homes for decades.
"Er, Bella." Alice disrupted Esme's internal debate on whether she should speak up. "I think Esme is fairly fond of that table. It's an antique."
"Thanks," Esme mouthed to her.
"No problem. Right this way," Emmett said.
His big, stupid grin should have been agitating, but instead it made things all the better. He was so unshakably certain of his success. He would just have that much farther to fall when reality hit.
Bella followed after him without hesitation and the rest of us fell in line.
Jacob was right alongside us, amused and pleasantly surprised vampires seemed to have some sense of fun. He was contemplating whether he could take Emmett in a wrestling match.
Emmett would probably die of happiness at the chance to wrestle a wolf. Maybe I'd tip him off to lift his spirits later.
He stopped at a large boulder between the garage and the river. Confidently, he settled his elbow against it and waved Bella forward.
Nessie watched the scene, curious, a little crease forming between her eyebrows.
Bella's eyes were sharp on Emmett's flexed bicep, giving away the nerves that were absent in her blank expression.
Carlisle smiled at me. Do you think he'll ever recover from this? It seems almost cruel to break his spirit this way.
I pursed my lips to keep from laughing and focused on Bella as she rested her elbow opposite his.
Cover her ears.
I took Alice's advice unquestioningly, holding Nessie's head between my palm and my chest. The sensory deprivation irritated her.
"Okay, Emmett," Bella said, her voice more smooth, menacing than I expected. "I win, and you cannot say one more word about my sex life to anyone, not even Rose. No allusions, no innuendos - no nothing."
He stared her down. "Deal. I win, and it's going to get a lot worse." She'll have no choice but to go for my throat.
Bella froze, her breath stopped.
He smiled and looked down at her villainously. "You gonna back down so easy, little sister? Not much wild about you, is there? I bet that cottage doesn't even have a scratch. Did Edward tell you how many houses Rose and I smashed."
What is wrong with him? Jacob complained. None of us want to hear about him getting freaky with Blondie. And why the hell is he so interested in whatever Bella and Edward are doing? Maybe he really does have a thing for Edward...
Bella's jaw clenched and she grabbed Emmett's hand. The tips of her long graceful fingers could barely curve around the width of his massive palm. "One, two - "
"Three," Emmett grunted. He had every intention to slam her hand into the rock the moment he finished uttering the word. But sometimes intentions are ill-informed.
Bella's expression was one of quiet wonder as she stared down at their intertwined hands. Neither had given up ground. The only movements were the ripples through Emmett's arm, the contorting of his face as he strained against the only thing that had ever not moved as he willed it.
The corner of Bella's lip turned up and Jasper felt her pleasure then, a few moments later, her boredom. With it Emmett lost an inch. She was merely toying with him.
Fuck. He just needed to push himself harder, he reasoned.
Bella laughed and the sound was both heartless and lovely.
Everyone's eyes were on Emmett, curious to see if the taunt would rally him.
It did. A fierceness came over him and he found reserve, channeling more force than he'd ever had to use.
But only I detected his increased effort because nothing changed. Except, perhaps, Bella's smile. Downright cocky now.
"Just keep your mouth shut," Bella said with calm authority. Without missing a beat, seemingly effortlessly, she slammed his hand into the rock. A fissure erupted under the impact and, adding insult to injury, a chunk of stone broke off from the mass, landing on Emmett's foot.
Bella snickered.
Nessie was entertained, but entirely unsurprised. Her Uncle Emmett should have known better.
I bowed my head, trying to muffle my laughter against Nessie's curls. Jacob, too, tried to cover his laughter, his fist pressed tight to his lips.
We shared a look of comradery. That was our Bella.
Esme and Alice, each with an arm around the other's waist, hugged closer with giddy excitement at Emmett's defeat.
Emmett was frozen for a second in disbelief before he launched the rock fragment on his foot clean across the river. It took out a tree.
Livid, he turned back to Bella. "Rematch. Tomorrow."
"It's not going to wear off that fast," she told him with false pity. She sounded as though she was comforting a disgruntled child. "Maybe you ought to give it a month."
He growled, baring his teeth. "Tomorrow."
"Whatever makes you happy, big brother," she said, sugary-sweet.
You're perfect for each other, Emmett cast at me bitterly. Just a couple of self-impressed, cheating, obnoxious...
Pretty sure she did permanent damage, Jasper mused. Can't imagine he's ever felt more defeated in all his life.
Emmett punched the granite, the altar of his failure, and stalked away.
Thanks, Rose thought sullenly.
Bella examined the shards and powdered granite that tumbled from Emmett's impact. She laid her hand, fingers spread, against the smooth surface of the boulder and curled her fingers, carving out a large depression. Her expression was thoughtful as she stared down at the pile of gravel in her hand.
"Cool," she mumbled to herself. With a thousand-watt smile, she abruptly whirled and slammed the edge of her hand against the center of the rock. It split as though sliced by a knife.
Nessie watched with wide, impressed eyes.
Bella threw her head back, giggling, and then proceeded to decimate the remnants of the boulder with kicks and punches.
We all chuckled, unable to help ourselves. If she noticed, she didn't care.
She seemed so free. As if this was her natural form. Her mortal body had been so confining, limiting. It was amazing to see her unfettered in this way.
What a dork, Jacob thought.
I was listening to the melody of Bella's quiet laugh as she continued her work when another sound joined her creating the most beautiful music in all the world.
Nessie, enchanted and thrilled by her mother's performance, was filled with so much joy that it overflowed, escaping as a little giggle from her lips. The high-pitch sound was warm and sweet.
We were all so thoroughly charmed, I thought Jasper might melt right then and there, overwhelmed by a mountain of tenderness and light.
Everyone was pressed in tightly around me, gawking at Nessie.
"Did she just laugh?" Bella demanded.
"Yes," I answered, amazement in my voice.
"Who wasn't laughing?" Jacob rolled his eyes. Most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.
I stared at him knowingly. "Tell me you didn't let go a bit on your first run, dog."
Jacob could hear the friendly teasing in my tone and understood he had been forgiven for today's incident - mostly. He smirked sheepishly, playing along.
"That's different," he disagreed, mock-punching my shoulder.
Was the touching really necessary? We could do this - what were we? friends? family? I didn't know - thing and keep our hands to ourselves, couldn't we? But I suppressed my distaste knowing it was just his way.
"Bella's supposed to be a grown-up," Jacob continued. "Married and a mom and all that. Shouldn't there be more dignity?"
Nessie touched my face, thinking of her disappointment. For once, she didn't want to be the center of attention. She wanted to see more of her mom's tricks.
"What does she want?" Bella asked eagerly.
I smiled. "Less dignity. She was having almost as much fun watching you enjoy yourself as I was."
"Am I funny?" Bella asked in a sing-song voice. She darted to me and pulled Nessie out of my arms.
Bella handed her a rounded shard of rock. "You want to try?"
Nessie flashed a smile, taking the rock. She pressed it between her fingers, her brow furrowed with her effort, but only a little dusting of rock fell away.
Disappointed she held the rock up to Bella.
"I'll get it," Bella reassured her, pinching the tiny rock into sand.
Nessie clapped her hands together and her laughter was contagious.
To me, my strength had always been just one more mark of the monster. Certainly convenient, but just one more thing separating me from humanity. For Bella, it was something to marvel.
Among my family - with the exception of Emmett sulking nearby - there was calm and there was hope. I wasn't the only one questioning my basic understanding of what I was and what I was worth. Bella and Nessie made it impossible not to.
Abruptly our gathering was bathed in ruby and gold - bright beams finding us as the sun slid into a break between the clouds.
I was left speechless, entirely mesmerized by the rainbows thrown from the facets of Bella's skin. I watched the tiny prisms dance along her cheekbones, the tip of her nose, her collarbones.
She wasn't human. Far from it. But she wasn't alien either. Not the fearsome other I'd imagined the first time I'd seen my own skin in the sunlight.
Rather, Bella was something divine, seraphic.
I was feeling like humanity was pretty overrated.
Nessie stroked Bella's arm before holding hers out beside it, her thoughts not so different from mine. For the first time, she recognized she was something distinct from the eight of us. She hadn't spared much thought about our cool skin, but this was impossible to ignore. She found her self dissatisfied with the difference. Underwhelmed by the faint luminosity of her own skin.
She touched Bella's face, sharing as much.
"You're the prettiest," Bella promised her.
"I'm not sure I can agree to that."
The reactions to my admission were sudden and sharp.
Edward! My name wrapped in disapproval was Esme's first thought.
What happened to your sense of inhibition? Alice complained. Like a demented old man lately. Saying whatever comes into your head...
Seriously? She's your daughter. You're going to give her a complex, Jacob thought unhappily.
Rose's reaction was profane.
But the child was fine. She was in complete agreement. In fact, I was certain she would have been deeply offended if I'd said otherwise. She loved the way I looked at Bella. My utter adoration. It was all she knew - practically a law of the universe.
And besides that, Nessie was the most beautiful creature my family - Charlie and Jacob included - had ever seen. I had a feeling the rest of the world would see her that way, too.
So if my honesty inspired a little humility, that wasn't a bad thing.
Bella turned, surely to deliver her own retort, but her angry expression evaporated the moment she saw me. She was dazzled.
Reflected in her round eyes was my own wondering expression, shimmering with diamond light. Amid my awe there was understanding. Understanding of the impossible way she looked at me that first day we spent together in the sun. I could perceive now the beauty of my own skin. How incredible it would have been, as a human man, to have had her lure me to a desolate meadow. I would have fallen to my knees and worshipped her the moment she stepped into the sun. I would have pleaded and begged to join her and willingly burned for years, decades, centuries for the chance.
There was a swelling in my chest, pride at the marvel she'd become by my venom. My creation. My wife. My love.
Mine.
Jacob who had memorized her human features with incredible fidelity studied her now, too. Flashes of light from her skin burned into his retinas leaving temporary stains across his vision. He mumbled something about Bella that I didn't entirely catch in my abstraction, but, given his attention to the sparkles dancing along her skin, I was certain it had been a compliment.
"What an amazing creature she is," I agreed.
Around Bella and I, lost in our own little sphere of fascination and discovery, was more love.
Jasper caught up in our quiet bliss pulled Alice tight to him. They stared into one another's eyes.
Carlisle studied Esme's shimmering skin with no less wonder than if he were seeing it for the first time. Esme took both of his hands and stared up at him with gratitude. There was a new sense of richness to her immortal life. Richness because of his faith in creating each of us, her family. Faith that continued to give, yielding her new daughter and granddaughter.
Rosalie stroked Emmett's face, imploring him with a kind yet intense gaze, to buck up. His recovery from this wound would not be so simple, but it was hard for him to stay focused on his defeat when he looked into her eyes.
Jacob was content to distract him from the gooey scene by watching Nessie, still tucked in Bella's arms.
The same could not be said of Nessie. She studied each perfectly matched diamond pair with concern. Her luminous skin was not like Bella's or Jacob's or, she guessed, like her Grandpa Charlie's.
She felt a sense of otherness. Who would match her?
Only days old and she was worrying about this already... It seemed my hopes about the convent were probably out.
I couldn't admit it to myself yet, but I felt something growing in a corner of my mind. A bit of relief, a bit of gratitude that one day when she was ready, hopefully a very long time from now, an individual would exist that wasn't too strong or too weak, that wasn't her natural prey or a hunter of innocents... Someone who was much like her - belonging to both the human world and the supernatural...
But I couldn't stand to think of it now. To accept that now.
Besides, she was just a child and already her mind was onto different things. The sparrows flying overhead, the breeze lifting her curls, and the smile - like the sun - on Jacob Black's face.
It would have been sacrilegious to use the word sexy for anyone or any thing that wasn't Bella. With one exception.
The Ferrari F430.
Vivid and unapologetically red, the sports-car rested beneath the garage's fluorescents, reflecting cool light along its defined lines and elegant curves. It was a masterpiece inside out. Immensely powerful yet graceful, carved with the mastery of classical Italian sculpture.
It was a chariot worthy of a goddess.
Jacob had actual tears in his eyes as he took it in.
Rosalie, too, with Emmett trailing behind her had come to watch the unveiling. She gazed upon its beauty with quiet awe, as if she was looking out over an incredible vista. It didn't matter that she had seen it before.
And Nessie - my precious daughter - her sweet, lovable face somehow managed to look severe with the burden of emotion upon it. The Ferrari was prettier than Rosalie's hair, the brilliant sunrise, her mother's blue dress. It was even prettier than her mother's sparkling skin. She leaned away from her Bella to get a better look.
Alas, the goddess herself was unimpressed.
"Oh." Bella pursed her lips and nodded. "It's, er... red."
"Yes," I agreed, while Rosalie and Emmett snickered.
"Huh. Well, it's very nice. Thank you," she said, her tone similar to one complimenting a five-year-old's rudimentary artwork.
I was torn between amusement and disappointment. Of course I'd known to expect this - even without Alice's advanced warning - but I still hoped. How could she be so blind?
"Ugh," Jacob groaned. "What is wrong with you?"
"What?" Bella demanded.
He threw up his hands in frustration, looking at me in disbelief. Apparently she lost a good chunk of brain cells in her transformation. What the hell?
"Well," I shrugged, "she cried when I replaced your father's old truck with a Mercedes, so this is an improvement."
She glared at me.
"Bella..." Jacob was beyond words.
"I suppose," I said sadly, "I should have just paid you to restore the Chevy for her." I turned to Bella. "Tell me honestly that you wouldn't have preferred that."
Jacob's desperate eyes bored into hers. Please don't tell me your taste is that bad?
But he already knew. Even before she twisted her hair around her fingertips in her awkwardness.
"I mean, that would have been less conspicuous... but I said this one's very nice, didn't I?" she asked defensively.
Jacob turned to the wall and theatrically bowed his head against it, groaning again. Emmett patted his shoulder.
I laughed, shaking my head. "Let's take it for a test drive. I think that will change your mind."
Bella scrunched up her face and took a step back. Nessie, still fixated on the car wasn't pleased. She wanted to get closer.
Bella's stubbornness shook my good humor and I felt suddenly as exasperated as Jacob.
"You will drive it at least once, won't you?" I asked.
"Yeah," she agreed unconvincingly. "Tomorrow maybe..."
"Bella," I said impatiently.
Rosalie sighed. I'll leave you to your marital discord. She slipped out the side door.
Emmett stayed, entertained.
"Jacob can drive it," Bella proposed.
Jacob looked over at me hopefully. I'm sorry I ever considered destroying your Aston Martin and I would guard this car with my life.
"Sure," I told Bella. "After you've driven it."
Jacob's face fell.
"Look how disappointed he is," I said.
Jacob pouted at her.
"He'll live," she said dismissively.
Even in my annoyance I smiled a little, still not used to his guilt trips falling flat with her.
Jacob rolled his eyes and stalked out of the garage. This is gonna take a while.
"Renesmee would love to see you drive it," I argued.
Nessie smiled up at Bella, touching her neck. Though Nessie wasn't sure what driving was, anything that brought her closer to the Ferrari was a good thing.
"You could take her for a ride," Bella suggested brightly, wanting to please Nessie. Then she frowned. "Hm... does she need a car seat?"
I sighed.
Emmett, still here, still enjoying the show, cackled.
Which gave me an idea...
I leaned close and whispered into Bella's ear, low enough so only she would hear.
She stiffened as she listened, shuddering once. And then she turned to Emmett. "Take the baby," she told him urgently.
"What - ?" He took Nessie from her and watched as Bella all but ripped the keys from my hand. She was in the driver seat revving the engine in the next second.
I smirked.
She leaned out the window. "Edward, get in the car."
I complied without delay, grinning widely as she tore down the drive, the Ferrari responding to her every whim.
When we returned an hour or so later, Emmett was there to greet us.
Bella popped out of the car, biting her lip to try to keep from smiling.
"So, liked it more than you thought, huh?" Emmett asked.
"You could say that." She winked at me.
I joined her, wrapping my arms tight around her waist.
"Uh-huh," he answered confused.
She glanced once at him and then smiled mischievously at me. "It's very agile. And the seats, I never would have guessed they could recline so far back..."
"Ample leg room, too," I added with overdone innocence.
What - His eyes bulged. OH - Oh! You guys - you -
He opened his big mouth and then froze.
Bella turned slightly towards him. "Something you wanted to say, Emmett?"
He closed his mouth. This is so not fair. Evil. That's what she is. He opened his mouth once again, contemplating breaking his word, but finally decided against it. He had integrity, if nothing else. Something she obviously lacked.
"I hate you guys. Tomorrow, Bella."
She saluted him as he marched past her to the door.
"Not much tame about you, is there?" I murmured against her neck when he was gone.
"Mmm..." she sighed. "I could say the same about you. And... I like the Ferrari."
"Good." I smiled. "I do, too."
A/N: Up next... Irina pays a visit.
I was so sad we didn't get this last part with the Ferrari in BD, but of course it could never be left out of an EPOV account of events.
