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.


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Travel Plans (Breaking Dawn)

Nessie stared up at us from the ground, the broken wooden slats of her crib strewn around her. She'd gone up and over the side panel this time, instead of going straight through it. The result was the same.

Bella sighed and Nessie flashed her brilliant smile and giggled, knowing exactly what she was doing.

Built-in baby monitor and all, it wasn't the first time she'd beaten us getting out of bed.

Bella picked Nessie up and kissed her cheek.

"Would it be wrong to make it into a cage?" Bella asked, staring at the abused crib.

"Well, we could condition her to like it."

"That makes it sound worse."

A wrought-iron crib and a little more attention on my part did the trick. No cage necessary.

The first three months of Bella's new life were the best I had known. My wife was safe and strong and endlessly happy. Beautiful and enchanting.

My nights with Bella were sacred, protected time... so, of course, I'd had to have a discussion with Jacob...

The wolf came to a sudden stop. He was startled seeing me in the woods at this time of night. Everything okay with Nessie?

"Yes. She's sleeping. Shouldn't you be?"

His good mood returned after my reassurance. Hyper, he bounced on his paws like a jogger waiting for a walk signal. Got about six hours. Woke up feeling pumped, you know? Thought I'd do a couple laps. Make sure the coast was clear.

"Clear of what?"

I don't know. Anything. Everything. I think about it all the time. All the things that could happen...

Ah. A nightmare. About Nessie. That's why he woke pumped. I winced at the images in his head.

"I can assure you she's perfectly safe and dreaming pleasant things as we speak."

Good, good. But I could see he had no intention of ending his patrol.

This could not become a habit.

"Besides, Bella and I are more than prepared to protect her if a real threat arose. So your patrol is unnecessary..." I hinted.

Oh, I know, but you can never be too cautious.

"Actually you can."

What do you mean?

"I mean your patrol route is taking you within a mile of my house."

Sort of the point...

He was missing my point entirely.

I took a deep breath. "Jacob, I mean this with the utmost respect: stay away from my house. In fact, it's probably better you just stay on the other side of the river once the sun sets."

Why? he demanded.

"Boundaries," I answered simply.

I turned and left him there to sort it out. Back to Bella and her waiting arms.

My craving for her refused to let up, always tempting to distract me as I moved through the daylight hours.

Could you at least attempt to control your thoughts? Jacob asked one day when my eyes lingered just a little too long, a little too thoroughly on Bella standing across the room. Her laughter was a bell and the sage green dress she wore hugged every curve. Her hair was red with afternoon light... She caught me staring and winked.

Keep that stuff on the other side of the river, Jacob complained, ruining the moment with his loud thoughts once again. Boundaries, remember?

Jasper, too, stared at me disapprovingly.

Boundaries. Balance. Though she still pouted at daybreak, an end to another perfect night, Bella's grief was forgotten the moment she looked into Nessie's large brown eyes.

Entirely unsurprising was how easily motherhood came to Bella. She spent each of Nessie's waking hours doting on her. Together they explored the woods, read endless books, and watched Rose tinker with the cars.

Jacob was almost always there, too, and I wondered sometimes how it would look to someone on the outside. Nessie holding Bella's hand in her left and Jacob's in her right.

But it did no good linger on petty, jealous thoughts. I had work to do. Nessie's rate of growth continued to slow almost identically to Carlisle's calculated trajectory. The future was racing towards us much too quickly.

Nessie was only a week old when she first spoke.

She touched Rose's face, thinking of Charlie, of her impatience to see him. She thought of him walking through the front door, wondering when he would get here.

"I'm not sure," Rose murmured.

Though, in her own voice, Nessie thought words and phrases to herself now, she hadn't shared them through touch yet.

I supposed I'd been expecting that first, because I froze just as the rest of them did when Nessie called, "Momma, where is Grandpa?"

I dropped the book in my hands at once and appeared at Bella's side downstairs, taking her hand. Nessie took in our startled expressions, confused.

"Ness!" Jacob exclaimed from the doorway. He'd been outside conferring with Leah - his newly appointed "beta" - when he'd heard Nessie's ringing soprano. "You - you talked!" He had a smile on his face, though he, too, was uneasy.

Nessie shrugged, but there was a smug turn to her lips.

Their exchange gave Bella enough time to recover.

"Wow, baby," Bella cheered softly. "Grandpa will be here this afternoon. He's working this morning."

A similar scene played out a couple weeks later. Nessie and Jacob were on the floor completing a large puzzle when Nessie started to get bored. She was watching Alice, admiring the graceful way she moved about as she filled the vases around the house with fresh flowers.

I could hear Nessie's intention to get to her feet, but I was surprised when she did so fluidly and then immediately moved with her own dance-like gait.

Alice froze, hearing the soft approach. Nessie hugged her aunt's leg and smiled back at the rest of us.

Jacob broke out in enthusiastic applause all the while thinking, too soon, too soon, too soon. He met Bella's worried eyes, while Alice met mine. We joined Jacob with our own numb applause.

Rose and Alice took thousands of photos of Nessie a week to capture her growth. To make days look like weeks, Alice started every day with a fashion show. Nessie strutted theatrically around the living room in at least a dozen outfits.

It was obvious Alice's intentions were not entirely pure.

"Your brainwashing her," I accused one morning under my breath.

I don't know what you're talking about, Alice lied.

I raised an eyebrow at her.

You owe me.

I frowned at her. "Are you sure about that?"

Don't you dare tell Bella.

I twisted my mouth as though weighing her request.

I'll owe you, she promised quickly.

"Deal. And its working. She wouldn't let Bella dress her in jeans this morning."

Alice smiled like the evil villain she was.

Every morning the little diva would tire and curl up for a nap, taking the levity with her.

It was my cue to retreat to the third floor where I spent the vast majority of each day. As did Carlisle when he wasn't at the hospital. We scoured academic journals and books following the clues Jasper and Emmett had already found and then looked for more. What texts we couldn't find online we had shipped to a PO Box held under a false name. We made contact with the authors, posing as fellow experts - perhaps posing was the wrong word; we were certainly experts by now - to pepper them with questions. We reached out to translators frequently, often encountering languages we had only a rudimentary grasp of if any at all.

I wasn't unaware I'd become something of a workaholic. Nessie's childhood was flying by and I was witnessing too much of it secondhand.

But if missing time with her was the price to figure this out, to save her...

It was Nessie who demanded a little more balance in the end.

Alice had dragged Bella on her first hunt without me - "I need girl time," Alice had insisted - with the ulterior motive of finally getting in her long delayed closet tutorial for Bella on the way back. Rose and Esme joined.

That had left Nessie stuck downstairs with Jacob, Jasper, and Emmett. She was in a bad mood with Bella gone and had little appetite for watching football especially with Emmett's hollering.

She was laying on her stomach, sketching a scene of foxes in the woods when -

"NO! Are you kidding me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Put your glasses on ref! Bullsh - "

"Hey!" Jacob interjected sharply.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Emmett muttered.

Nessie unfroze and continued adding needles to her remarkably detailed cedar -

"UGH! OH, COME ON!"

Nessie slammed her colored pencil onto the floor.

Emmett looked up at the sound to see two fierce brown eyes glaring at him.

"Oh, er, sorry, Ness."

She rolled her eyes and huffed one quick, angry sigh as she stormed up the grand staircase.

"You are truly your father's daughter, that's all I'm saying," Emmett mumbled.

Nessie knew she'd find Carlisle and I on the third floor, but she paused at the bottom of the narrow staircase leading from the second floor to the third. She'd never gone up it before.

In her mind she thought of the places her mom had read to her about. Stairs could lead to all sorts of exciting and mysterious places. An attic with a dusty treasure chest, a treehouse with talking animals inside, an airplane. She decided she liked the attic idea best.

Creeping low to the floor she imagined the wood creaking beneath her, dust puffing up around her bare feet. She poked her head around the little wall at the top of the stairs, spotting me. She immediately drew back and flattened herself against the wall. She breathed heavily, pretending I was a fearsome monster.

Not wanting to ruin her fun I kept my eyes on the computer monitor.

She set her shoulders determinedly and sprinted past the opening to the library to stand in the little nook just outside of it.

Carlisle and I smirked at each other.

Silently I moved to the corner by the door.

On the other side of the wall Nessie again braced herself. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and went to attach it to her bow string. But -

Shoot! The arrow clattered to the floor. She grimaced, fearing detection. Pull it together, she coached herself. She carefully picked it up, successfully placing it this time.

My lips were pursed, my eyes closed tightly as I tried not to laugh. Carlisle, watching me, also had to fight the urge. He buried his face deeper into his book to hide his smile.

Her father's daughter? Such a vivid imagination had to be from her mother.

Nessie took a deep breath and then she charged. "Hands up!" she ordered.

Carlisle dropped his book immediately, raising his hands in surrender, but her bow vanished and her face fell as she took in the room and saw I wasn't there.

"AARGH!" I ran out of the corner slow enough that she could see me coming.

Her eyes widened comically - she looked just like Bella in that moment - and she screamed as I scooped her up in my arms and twirled her around. Her shrieks turned into giggles.

"Should have kept your bow and arrow, little one," I chided, proceeding to dangle her from her feet. "Now you'll never escape," I growled with playful menace.

A great eagle swooped beside her, dropping a sword into her hand.

"Ha!" she retorted. The wild thing, her long spirals nearly touching the floor where she still hung upside down, thrust the sword into my stomach.

I pulled her up, clutching her to my chest as if in agony, and staggered once, twice. And then I fell to the floor and lay there in perfect stillness.

An audience had gathered, the football game abandoned for a more captivating performance. Our spectators rejoiced loudly in her victory.

She cheered and laughed with them where she kneeled on my chest and then patted my face twice. She imagined me getting up now. "I healed you," she whispered.

"Oh, thank you," I said agreeably.

But you have to promise to be a good monster now, she ordered shaking her finger at me.

"For now," I agreed.

She jumped off of me and ran to Jacob to brag about my embarrassing defeat. She wanted him to see it as she had. The bow and arrow, the eagle, the sword...

Alice and Rose were furious with me later when Nessie showed them exactly how her hair had come to be so knotted. But Bella didn't mind. She laughed so hard at the memory I was sure she would have been crying were she still human. Esme stared at me with so much tender, motherly love I had to look away. I was sure she, too, would have been crying.

After that I took more breaks - usually to play pretend as I was the best at it - and often Nessie joined Carlisle and I upstairs, enjoying our quiet company as she sketched and started reading on her own. A nice perk was that Jacob felt timid about following her there.

In truth, Nessie was more than a little spoiled. Fortunately, she was good-natured and eager to please so she hadn't turned into a little monster, but she was lacking in some basic courtesies.

She still preferred to communicate through touch and communicate her wants and needs visually. That in itself was not the problem.

"That's who she is," Jacob argued while Nessie slept.

It infuriated me that I had to defend my parenting to him, but he wasn't the only one who felt that way, he was just the only one brave enough to voice it, so I took the opportunity to clear the air.

"I understand that, Jacob. My point is, how is just showing you what she wants any better than a child stamping her foot and pointing to a cookie jar? All - "

"Her way is much more advanced than that - "

"All I'm saying is that she should accompany the message with a please or a may I etcetera. She doesn't need to say it aloud - she can communicate it silently. But imagine when she interacts more with the human world. Imagine her going to Charlie's and just demanding things."

"That's true," Bella sighed as though conceding. I realized for the first time that her earlier silence had not meant agreement but perhaps an unwillingness to disagree with me in front of the others.

"Still - "

Bella cast her red eyes on Jacob and his protest died in his throat.

I was grateful Bella took the lead on mealtime etiquette. I honestly felt terrible forcing Nessie to eat human food and argued half-heartedly that maybe we should abandon the practice, but Bella turned my same argument on me. "What about when she's at Charlie's?" she'd challenged.

With time Nessie learned to eat everything on her plate and to make less of a face as she did it. I cooked her a lot of egg-based dishes and rare steaks. That seemed to help a little.

Jacob hadn't been pleased with these rules either, but he'd kept his mouth shut, much more afraid of Bella than he was of me.

The day came, however, that he got his shot to try out a little parenting. It wasn't exactly what he'd bargained for...

He and Nessie sat in front of the TV watching a documentary about penguins. She watched fascinated as the chicks hatched from their eggs.

I half-smiled, half-grimaced remembering her coming out of her shell-like amniotic sac.

She touched Jacob's face. Where did I come from?

Jacob gulped.

"From your momma's tummy," Jacob mumbled, trying not to catch Emmett and Rose's attention in the corner.

But that was a lost cause. Emmett had heard, of course. He eyed my tense posture.

Nessie rolled her eyes at Jacob and showed him her first memories. She knew she'd come out of her momma's tummy.

But how did I get in there?

I could feel the heat of his blush two yards away.

"What did you ask him?" Emmett asked with obvious delight.

"How I got in my momma's tummy."

"I've been wondering the same thing, kid."

I narrowed my eyes at him. He was toeing the line.

Gonna tell on me? He winked.

"Well, Jacob?" Rose asked sweetly.

Nessie frowned at Emmett and Rose. She was smart. She knew her question was funny to them. But she wasn't easily embarrassed, so she turned expectantly back to Jacob.

He looked up at me. Um, help.

I wanted to - he was the last person who should have been fielding this question - but I hadn't really prepared for it. This seemed like Bella territory...

Jacob gave up on me.

"Um... so you... well, your mom and dad..." And then a brilliant idea came to him. What his mother and father had told him. "Prayer!" he exclaimed.

Emmett and Rose's laughter was deafening. Other chuckles could be heard around the house.

Nessie knew about prayer - Carlisle had explained it to her when Nessie found him praying one evening. Prayer wasn't the scientific explanation she'd been anticipating. And the others' reactions raised a red flag.

"Prayer?" Nessie asked dubiously.

"Yeah," Jacob muttered. "Your mom and dad prayed together..." His voiced trailed off.

I was laughing by this point, too.

He stood up and made swiftly for the door before Nessie could interrogate him further. Gonna go find some bushes to throw up in...

"I knew you'd never baked before!" Emmett shouted after him.

"What's wrong?" Bella, just returned from the cottage with a new book for Nessie, grabbed Jacob's arm as he passed her looking miserable.

He shook his head and kept walking.

She glared at Emmett, still hysterical, when she walked in. "What did you do to him?" She looked at me, poorly disguising my own humor. "What did he do?"

"I'll tell you later. Trust me."

Emmett loved Jacob. And not just because he was one of the few people around that he could make blush. Emmett's upbringing had been closer to Jacob's. The rest of us had enjoyed quite a bit more privilege. And, just like Emmett, Jacob lived for a good fight. Finally Emmett had a fair - fair enough; Jacob won more often than he lost - and willing wrestling partner.

Initially they held their matches during Nessie's morning nap, but Rose, tired of Emmett smelling like a dog, brought Nessie out to watch once when she woke early.

Nessie had had words for Emmett - how dare he try to harm her Jacob. It was the only time we'd ever had to put her in timeout.

From then on, the boys' matches moved to the evenings when Nessie had gone to bed.

After only one wary week of joining Jacob's pack, Quil wanted his shot at Emmett, too. He wasn't as successful as Jacob, but that didn't ruin his fun. Embry, despite Quil and Emmett's mockery, declined to participate in the matches himself.

Like Jacob and Seth, it wasn't long before Quil and Embry felt like part of the family, too.

Leah, not so much. Though Nessie was wearing her down - her smile was just impossible to resist.

Charlie visited several days a week, Sue along with him. He was growing more comfortable. He'd have moments of unease - seeing Nessie had grown taller after missing only a day's visit, being certain he'd seen her reading a book right before Alice subtly pulled it from her hand - but in those moments Sue would squeeze his hand and eye Seth meaningfully, thinking what she had clearly said to him aloud many times: well, mine explodes into a giant wolf...

Sue was fairly distrustful of us. She was the only one of our regular company who declined to eat food I'd prepared, even growing resentful as the others gushed over it. I was shocked by how much my cooking softened Charlie. Of course, I should have known the way to his heart was through his gut. He was generally fairly polite to me now, though he didn't go out of his way to interact with me more than he needed to.

Billy came to visit a handful of times as well, but never at the same time as Charlie and Sue - I wasn't sure the damage there was reparable.

At Billy and Jacob's urging, Sam finally accepted an invitation from Carlisle to visit and meet Nessie. I did not join the short visit on the front lawn. I had not forgiven Sam as easily as Bella or Jacob had and Sam didn't think much of me either. It was better I kept my distance.

But I did listen.

Nessie charmed Sam and his fiancée Emily, as did Bella. The couple had arrived resenting her, but quickly rediscovered their fondness - they were startled by how very much the little vampire was still Bella.

Carlisle and Esme were the only vampires to join Bella. My siblings took off hunting so as not to overwhelm the hesitant alpha. I didn't want to admit it to myself why I lingered to listen rather than disappear into the woods as the rest had, but I was trying to be more honest with myself.

Most of the time I tried not to think about Nessie's future other than finding a way to ensure she had one. Jacob didn't, and so he was still alive. But Rose continued to, anxiously. And Alice - I'd caught her considering which type of veil would best suit Nessie's bronze curls. Jasper had situated himself between me and Alice and didn't take his eyes off of me the rest of night.

Because she was a little girl. Not a bride. It was too soon for anyone to be thinking that way. But Alice could see it as clearly as one of her visions. No point in being in denial over it, she'd thought.

So, how could I not seize the opportunity? The chance to hear Emily's thoughts, the recipient of one of these agitating wolves' imprinting...

Was she happy? Did she feel obligated, trapped - her wings clipped? Was it pity that kept her with him? Genuine love? Love because of circumstance as it had seemed to be for Bella and Jacob or love because of true compatibility? Were they soulmates, if such a thing was real?

Alice could offer no true glimpse at Nessie's future, but Emily...

Emily was happy. She didn't seemed diminished or burdened. Rather she seemed very sure - she felt no uneasiness in the company of vampires, certain of her Sam and his protection. And though she marveled at Bella's beauty, often reminding herself not to stare, it wasn't with envy. She felt Sam's frequent glances and she never doubted that she was enough. There was no evidence of the sickness that Jacob and Bella had carried leading up to Nessie's birth - love birthed of addiction rather than love come purely.

Did it answer all of my questions? No, certainly not. Would I have been happier to find Emily dissatisfied? Had I been hoping to hear justification for Rose's fears? Justification to disrupt the trajectory more obvious than Nessie's frantic growth...

Jacob Black.

The looming threat to Nessie's happiness. The man trying to forcibly co-parent my daughter with me.

Jacob.

Obnoxious and foul-smelling, my wife's ex-... ex. Now living on my couch.

And Jake.

Jake who fought shoulder to shoulder with me to save Bella. Jake who loved Bella as his sister. Jake who knew me better than even my own family at times - raising no blinders to my faults - and yet still liked me and craved my acceptance.

Our relationship was more complicated than ever.

It made my relationship with Rose seem downright simple.

We'd obviously hit a low during the pregnancy. For all of Rose's selfishness and cruel fantasies of having our child for herself, in retrospect, I could see her good intentions, too. In her positive regard and happiness for Bella now, I could accept that she had truly treated Bella as she would have wanted to be treated herself and had done so knowing there might not have been any gain.

And of course, without her actions, we would not have Nessie. I also truly believed that if Carlisle and I had been successful in forcefully ending Bella's pregnancy, Bella would have found a way to follow after her baby daughter.

"So... thank you," I told Rose.

She walked with me along the river.

Several things crossed her mind. Retorts, mostly. But in the end she played adult. "You're welcome. And, I'm sorry that it took me so long to come around to her..." Rose's lip turned up. "She's spunky. I like her." And she's humbled you - you're less of an arrogant ass now. That's been really nice.

I smiled ruefully.

"She's humbled Emmett as well, wouldn't you say?"

She scowled. That's been less fun. He always smells like Jacob now.

"I'm sorry." I laughed. "I know a bit about what that's like."

Speaking of Jacob...

"It's too early to think of that," I said quickly, trying to close the subject before she could really open it.

"Root it out now," she warned.

"It doesn't work like that."

"All the more reason to get him away from her." We should disappear.

"When the time comes she will have a choice," I said, controlling my tone.

"As long as she doesn't find out and feel she owes him. It's an awfully big secret. A secret too many people know."

"Even if she were to find out, she would still have a choice."

"You're softening towards him," Rose accused. And you owe him a debt already.

I stopped walking and turned to glare at her. "How dare you suggest that. I owe him my life, Rosalie. Mine. Nessie's life is hers and hers alone and it always will be." I left her there, biting back harsher words than that.

Perhaps our relationship was still quite complicated.

Smoother were my amends with Esme.

"Edward," Esme exclaimed, exasperated. She'd been worried when I asked to speak with her privately. She hadn't expected this. "You don't have to apologize to me!" Her arm was firm around my shoulders. "I understand why you acted as you did."

"I was so angry with you," I whispered. "So cruel. And you were right."

She shook her head. "You were just trying to save her. She is your life. I know that."

"You're a part of my life, too. I'll never forgive myself for how - "

She put her hand over my mouth.

Edward, I am so weary from watching you berate yourself for every little thing. Actually... "I rescind my forgiveness until you agree to forgive yourself."

I frowned at her and she shrugged, pulling her hand away. "Do you accept or not? And don't you dare lie to your mother."

"But then what will I do with all of my free time?" I asked.

"Much," she answered, grinning.

"Fine." I kissed her cheek. "I accept your terms."

Family. So much family all around us. Wolves and humans and vampires. Just as Bella had willed it.

Alice even saw a possible reconciliation with Irina on the horizon.

I knew how much Bella loved our ever-growing extended family, so it surprised me one evening when she started complaining about Jasper of all people.

"Yeesh! If I haven't killed Charlie or Sue yet, it's probably not going to happen. I wish Jasper would stop hovering all the time!"

I smiled, understanding. "No one doubts you, Bella, not in the slightest. You know how Jasper is - he can't resist a good emotional climate. You're so happy all the time, love, he gravitates toward you without thinking."

I hugged her tightly, overwhelmed with relief and joy.

Her euphoria in this life was everything to me. She was happy. I'd made her happy.

Bella pushed lightly on my chest so she could look up at me.

"I missed you," she whispered.

We hadn't been more than a hundred feet apart at any point during the day and yet I knew exactly what she meant.

"And I you," I said, my breathing growing ragged with anticipation.

"I keep expecting it to get easier," she said wistfully.

"Expecting what to get easier?" I asked a little anxiously.

"Keeping my hands off of you all day."

I tightened my hold. "But it only gets harder," I agreed.

We drowned in one another for a long moment before my eyes slipped down to her full lips. They parted as I stared and I inclined my head until our mouths were no more than an inch apart. I breathed deeply, pulling in the taste of her. Very lightly, I bit her bottom lip and let the perfect satin slip slowly out from between my teeth.

She whimpered quietly and the night consumed us.


It was well into Fall and the evidence map Carlisle and I had constructed was thin. Any mentions or clues possibly related to legends of the creature Nessie was, to the creature Kaure had imagined, were brief. None spoke of the creature's mortality.

I buried my face in my hands. "Carlisle..."

"Don't lose heart." He patted my shoulder.

How could I not? My daughter was nearly three months old and she was reading Tennyson and playing the piano. In another year or two she'd be as tall as Alice and probably writing the next great American novel.

I looked up at him. "What about..." I paused, scanning one more time for Jacob's thoughts. He was a ways from the house, far enough that he would not hear my quiet murmur, so I continued. "Maybe we need to re-look at using... venom." The distaste was obvious in my voice.

Carlisle sighed. The risks...

"I know, I know," I groaned, dropping my face into my hands again.

How would her system react to venom? What if her anatomy wasn't built to withstand transformation? Could it kill her?

We knew so little about her. Clearly she had organs at work. Were they composed of human tissues, or something more like our skin? And her circulatory system - that was a mystery, too. It was unlikely the blood in her veins was purely human. Likely it contained at least traces of the venom-like fluid that our bodies used.

Even if we knew it was safe, how would we get to her blood? Her skin was nearly as hard as ours. And after we figured that out, there was still the matter of the venom equaling torture...

I shuddered.

"We still have time," Carlisle reassured me. "Let's exhaust the evidence first. It's pointing us very clearly to Brazil. I feel optimistic about what the oral legends can offer us."

It was soon after that a courier delivered a package addressed to Bella.

Packed carefully in several layers of foam and bubble wrap was an ornate wooden box adorned with gold and millions of dollars worth of gemstones. Inside was a necklace with a diamond the size of a golf ball.

"I always wondered where the crown jewels disappeared to after John of England pawned them in the thirteenth century," Carlisle murmured. "I suppose it doesn't surprise me that the Volturi have their share."

Alice and Nessie delighted in the sparkling jewels while Jacob watched uneasily as Bella and I exchanged a wary glance after reading the note.

It turned out the priceless items were wedding gifts. While Bella and I were on our honeymoon, Alice had foreseen the Volturi intended to send a hunting party to confirm Bella's transformation. To delay and confuse them, Alice sent them a wedding announcement. (I wasn't going to stress you out on your honeymoon - that wouldn't have been fair to Bella, Alice had argued when I'd complained about not being told at the time.)

However, the parting line of Aro's congratulatory note made clear the Volturi would not delay much longer: I so look forward to seeing the new Mrs. Cullen in person.

Away from Bella, Nessie, and Jacob, I consulted Carlisle and Alice.

Alice scrunched her hair between her fingers as she looked ahead. "We still have a little time, I think..."

"We need to leave for Brazil. As soon as possible," I said. "Eliminate one threat and then we'll worry about the other."

"I don't know if we have that much time," Alice answered, her forehead wrinkled with concern.

Carlisle sighed. What will Aro think of her?

"He will covet her, just like Alice," I said bleakly.

Alice wrinkled her nose.

"But what usefulness would she offer him?" Carlisle wondered. "She is certainly talented, but her gift offers no real benefit to his purposes."

"Even Heidi uses her beauty as a tool to feed them," Alice agreed. "She's not there for decoration." Not exclusively, at least.

"Nessie would fascinate him," I murmured. "That would be enough..."

The thought occurred to Alice at the same time it occurred to me. We met each other's eyes, wearing matching expressions of horrified disgust.

"What is it?" Carlisle asked.

I couldn't find my voice for a second.

"Nessie is already more beautiful than Heidi," Alice murmured. "She's warm and pink and can go out into the sunlight..."

"Better bait," I whispered bitterly, knowing exactly how Aro would see her.

"No," Carlisle challenged. "Nessie would have to choose that. She is of you and Bella. Raised in our way of thought and Jacob's, too."

"Exactly," Alice said, "she is the daughter of two martyrs. And a Cullen. All it would take is a threat against her parents one day. Or Jacob..."

"We won't ever let her out of our sight," I said. There was a familiar roll of panic in my stomach. She was Bella's daughter - would a grown Nessie tolerate anything akin to confinement? And she couldn't spend her life hiding. What kind of life was that? Especially if she might have so little of it... "Alice doesn't see them coming yet and there is no time to waste," I argued. "We can't squander precious time sitting around waiting for them."

But it would not be so simple.

"Oh," Bella said simply when I suggested expediting our trip to Brazil. The only emotion she betrayed was in an anxious glance at Nessie as she laid her in bed.

"You don't like the idea."

"It would be hard on Charlie. For us to take off right before the holidays."

I pursed my lips. I knew Bella's fears and priorities were the same as my own, so I couldn't understand where she was coming from. Her very deep concern for Charlie's feelings was nothing next to her daughter's life.

But I also knew Bella kept her distance from the library where Carlisle and I did our research and carried on heavy conversations. Was she turning a blind eye and looking away in an effort to cope?

That sounded like Charlie, not Bella.

Bella, unsubtly but quite successfully, pulled my attention to other matters and my confusion was forgotten until morning.

I was surprised at sunrise when Bella was the first to pull away.

"I've been thinking... about Aro's note."

I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "We don't need to worry about that yet, Bella. Alice will see - "

"She'll see when they decide to come."

"Yes," I answered, my eyes narrowing slightly at the tension in her body, at the strangeness of her tone.

She took a deep breath and met my eyes. "We can't let that happen."

"What do you mean?" I whispered.

"I need to go to them. Just me."

I shook my head angrily and slid quickly out of bed. Unwilling to even entertain her suggestion - and not sure I could do so without shouting, even if I did - I walked straight into the closet.

She sighed.

It was a few seconds later that she came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"It's the only way I can live with. If - "

"No," I said coldly.

She stepped away from me and I regretted my response at once. We hadn't argued once since her transformation and it hurt to do so now.

When I turned around her arms were crossed over her chest.

"I wasn't exactly asking permission," she muttered.

"Perhaps you're right," I said calmly. "Maybe it's better we go to them. Let's discuss it with Carlisle."

She wasn't going to let me shuffle this away. Her controlled expression hinted at exasperation. "Only my thoughts are safe - "

"You're not going alone," I insisted through clenched teeth. My hands curled into fists at my sides.

Her expression softened and she held my face between her hands.

"They won't hurt me." There was a slight catch in her voice, betraying her uncertainty. "They have no reason to. I'm a vampire. Case closed."

But all I could see was Aro's face. He'd been fascinated with Bella, too. So curious about her silence. He knew the leverage he would have over me and Alice if he were to keep her in his possession.

And then there were all of his devoted servants. I remembered the way Felix had ogled her. The way Jane had plotted against her. Walking into that alone, Bella was mortal again.

"No. Absolutely no."

"Edward, it's the only way to protect her."

What could I say when only the day before I'd been so desperate to find a way to protect Nessie from him? If there was a way for him to never know about her...

But I would not risk Bella's life. We would find another way.

I was determined to put off the conversation as long as possible. We didn't need to rush this.

Bella seemed to sense my intentions and took the matter into her own hands.

Nessie was with her aunts trying on outfits when Bella broached the subject with Carlisle. Jasper and Jacob, sitting with us, listened intently.

Carlisle had just enough time to note my tense silence when Jacob interjected.

"Wait, what? Why the hell would you do that? Is this about that thing? The thing the Volt- Volt-whatever sent you?"

"The Volturi," Jasper murmured.

"Yeah, them. Why would you go back to them, Bells? What's going on?" He'd been suspicious since he watched us read Aro's note. He remembered Carlisle's grim nod as he handed the stiff paper back to me.

Suspicion was now anxiety. He didn't want the Volturi anywhere near Nessie. What would possibly inspire us to engage with them again?

Bella bit her lip. "I may have left some parts out of the story I told you about Italy."

The shaking that started in his hands spread to encompass his entire body as she filled in the holes for him.

"That's how you got out?" he demanded in a furious whisper. "You promised to change into a vampire?! Didn't think that was important to mention earlier, huh?" He shot me a glare.

It was a little refreshing to have him angry at me over putting Bella in harm's way again.

"That's crazy, Bells." We can't let her go alone.

"It makes sense," Jasper quietly disagreed. "All they want is confirmation that their instructions have been heeded. Then we can finally move past this threat." Any plan that kept Alice on a separate continent from Aro would have made sense to Jasper.

Jacob and I glowered at him.

"I think Jasper's right," Bella said.

"Well, I think Jake's right. This is insane." Four pairs of eyes - red, black, gold, and deep brown - fell upon me. I'd never called the wolf 'Jake' out loud before.

Jacob's anger evaporated for a moment and the corner of his mouth turned up. You like me.

I rolled my eyes and his smile grew bigger.

"You're comfortable with the alternative then, Jacob?" Bella demanded, interrupting his humor. "You want Aro to know about her? Because that's exactly what will happen if I don't do this alone."

Jacob was as stumped as I had been.

Carlisle didn't want to pick a side, though he saw the obvious logic in her decision.

And it was that, a decision. Bella had made up her mind and I could not stop her. I knew that.

Alice could do little to assuage my fears. Though she saw no problems with Bella's trip, her visions had a certain haziness to them reflecting some uncertainty... outside decisions with the potential to conflict. She checked again and again, but there was only the mundane: a snowstorm weeks away, a call from Renée, Irina again.

I didn't like it.

"I'll go with you as far as London and wait for you there," I told Bella.

"And leave Renesmee without both of her parents?"

So Carlisle was going instead.

With tickets to Italy purchased I dug myself even deeper into preparations for Brazil. That much was in my control. Bella had compromised on this one detail. She and Carlisle would be gone for three days and as soon as they returned we would be off to Brazil rather than wait for the new year as she had wanted for Charlie's sake.

Jacob wasn't happy.

"Please," he begged me outside one evening. "I need to be there. Let me come. Please."

"Jacob..." I was fighting the pity, the understanding I had for his situation. Rosalie's words had stuck with me more than I liked. Even without them, though, my impulse was to put as much space between child and man as possible. I'd been around too long, I'd seen too much. Every day I was fighting that impulse and choosing to trust Jacob. "It's not... normal - "

"What's not normal?" he demanded.

"She will have plenty of protectors. We will keep in touch as we can... But she's a child, Jacob. It's not normal."

"What part of this freak show is normal? I've done nothing wrong. I stay in my place" - I raised an eyebrow - "most of the time," he corrected quickly. I can be better about that. "I will be better about that. I'll stay out of the parenting and I'll try not to piss Rosalie off too much."

"I'm sorry, Jacob, but - "

"I can help. These people will recognize what you are, right? Don't you think they'll be a lot more willing to talk to you with me there?" His eyes were brighter now - hopeful knowing he had a solid point.

Solid enough, but the answer was still no.

So I didn't object when Jacob weaseled his way into a hunting trip with Bella and Nessie. It was slow going weaning Nessie off of donor blood - she didn't understand why it was a problem when it hurt no one - so Jacob had challenged her to a competition to see who could take down the biggest kill. Ordinarily he wasn't allowed to go on hunting trips - it more than bothered me, knowing his participation would require him to strip down in close proximity to my daughter - but Bella would keep her safe and Carlisle and I needed the privacy to plan. The more details Jacob overheard, the more empowered he would feel to try to follow on his own.

Unfortunately, Carlisle had been swayed to Jacob's view. Rather than ironing out details, Carlisle used Jacob's absence to advocate for him. Jacob had been very busy - Alice and Emmett, though they were silent on the subject, thought Jacob should go, too.

"But how much use would he actually be?" I argued. "He doesn't speak Portuguese or Ticuna. What - we just have him knock on doors and shout basic phrases? 'Hi, my name is Jacob. I like to run. Do you like to run?'"

Carlisle chuckled. "We can certainly write him a better script than that. But consider how..."

He trailed off, looking up at Alice's pinched face where she'd suddenly appeared behind me.

Edward... She saw Carlisle and I sprinting away from the house imminently. East. The way Bella, Nessie, and Jacob would have gone.

"Something's wrong," I told Carlisle. "We have to go."

He followed through the window, trusting Alice and I without question.

My phone buzzed as my feet hit the ground.

"Bella?"

"Come," she said anxiously. "Bring Carlisle."


A/N: Thank you for reading! Up next... Alice's grim vision. Don't forget to check out the latest chapter of volume 1, updated last week.

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