21. Myth-Conceptions

"Emmett, Jasper, I would appreciate it if you two would go into my study and gather my collection on vampire legends. There may be something there that will tell us about the fetus. Alice, I would like you to search the internet for the anything regarding unusual pregnancies and births. No matter how outrageous the legend, print a copy for us to read. Esme, please go grocery shopping. Bella will need to eat. Make sure you get eggs. Apparently, Bella has been craving them."

I watched gratefully as my father took control of the situation. My family members dispersed to the tasks which Carlisle had set for them. Immobile once more, I stood in the middle of the room, feeling useless while I waited for him to tell me what to do. When he and I were the only ones left in the living room, he walked slowly to the couch and sank onto the cushions with a sigh that sounded as ancient as he was. He closed his eyes and rubbed his hand across his forehead, deep in thought.

Do no harm. Above almost all else, doctors are taught to do no harm. Yet how to decide which course of action to take when every one of them risks harming us all? If Edward is right, and I fear that he is, Bella will not survive the pregnancy.

He looked up and saw me watching him.

And if she dies, so will you. She knows this. Everything Bella has ever done has been to protect you, just as you have always sought to protect her. Why the change now? What is it about the fetus that has made her so instantly and completely attached to it to the point where she would sacrifice everything she has fought to obtain for its sake?

"I don't know," I said in a flat voice. "I don't understand, either."

Your wife is stubborn, Edward. God, what could I have done to be blessed with a house full of such stubborn teenagers for all eternity? He looked toward the sky and rolled his eyes.

"Lucky you, that's not something you'll have to worry about should Bella get her way."

"I did not mean it like that."

"I know. Doesn't change the fact."

Our family was finally complete. We all had each other and our chosen mates. I know what it is to be lonely, my son, and I suffered along with you all these years. You nearly lost Bella before, and I know what an effect that had on you. Can you believe that losing any of you would affect me the same way?

Slowly, I nodded. I remembered all too well the affect my rebellious years had had on us both. It hadn't been just the guilt that had driven me to return. I'd missed him just as sorely as he'd missed me. "Coven ties are easily broken. The same isn't true for family."

"No, it is not."

"Help me, Carlisle. I can't lose her."

He breathed in deeply and sighed with a frown. But you need to consider what it would mean to her if she were to lose it. She already considers the fetus her baby, though she has known of its existence for less than a day. You have seen what losing her baby did to Esme.

"That's not the same thing!"

"Is it not?"

From upstairs came the thumping of feet sprinting across the floor, followed by the sound of Bella getting sick again.

I strode over to a chair opposite the couch and sat down, perched on the edge. Balancing my elbows on my knees, I rested my head in my hands.

"Morning sickness is a normal part of pregnancy, Edward. Even to the point that it rarely limits itself to the morning for many women."

"I know," I muttered.

"You asked for my help."

I nodded.

What would you have me do? Remove it against her will?

I looked up at him, shocked at his tone. His mouth was creased in a tight line, and his frown had deepened. Thinking of his words and what they would mean, I pictured all too easily Bella's anger and sense of betrayal were I to do that. I opened my mouth to deny it, but found myself saying, "If that's what it takes."

"She is a forgiving person, Edward, but I fear even she would never forgive you for that."

"I'm responsible."

His face softened, the lines of anger melting away. "My son, you did not know it was possible. None of us did."

"That's not what I mean. I'm her husband. It's my responsibility to care for her, to keep her safe, even to protect her from herself if necessary. If an individual seeks to do themselves harm, isn't it up to their family to put a stop to it?"

"Is that permission to keep you from killing yourself if she dies?"

I growled at him. "You're twisting my words."

"Am I?"

The restless energy returning, I stood and began to pace. I found myself getting closer to the steps with each turn. Part of my problem was that I missed her already. We had spent the last week in near constant contact until I had left her to go hunting. She had barely let me touch her on the plane, and now she slept in my sister's bed, not mine.

Not ours.

Ah, God, I wanted her.

The past week hadn't made up for the century of loneliness, for the seven months I'd spent away from her, for the months when I had kissed her without truly knowing what it was to be surrounded by her love. Not when the promise of an eternity spent loving her was within my grasp.

Why was she doing this? From the start, she had cared more about being with me than her own life. Was that the answer? Was she doing this for me? Because I had expressed a desire for a child? But I didn't want one at the expense of her life!

I sprinted up the stairs and found the hall blocked by Rosalie. "I need to talk to her."

"She's sleeping."

"That's fine; I'll wait. It won't be the first night I've spent watching her sleep."

She didn't budge.

Exasperated, I rolled my eyes. "Rose, what is it that you think I'm going to do?"

"I don't know what you aren't capable of where Bella is concerned. You've proven over and over that when you believe her safety is threatened, all bets are off. You think her baby threatens her life - "

"I know that it does!"

" - and therefore, you can't be trusted."

"Put yourself in my place and try to imagine that someone was keeping you away from Emmett. Would you stand for it?"

Her mouth twisted to the side, but her eyes softened. No. No, I wouldn't.

"Come with me if you must. But don't stand in my way, because my patience is rapidly running out."

"Fine. But don't wake her."

I scoffed. "Rose, I have never disturbed Bella's sleep. Trust me."

She opened the door and flitted into her room to stand by Bella's head. I followed more slowly, afraid that if I moved with any speed, I would rush over to my beloved human girl and scoop her into my arms, or scoot onto the bed to lie beside her where I could press her back against my stomach. I missed the feeling of her curves tucked against me, of her warm skin on mine.

Instead of giving into my need for her, I positioned one of the chairs so that it was facing the bed, rather than the fireplace, and sank into it, prepared to watch her until she woke. With a slight smile, I wished Rose had chosen rocking chairs for her room. A vampire's natural state might be motionlessness, but I had always enjoyed the human feeling of movement that came with sitting in Bella's rocking chair.

Like she had done on the island, Bella slept quietly, neither moving nor speaking in her sleep. For several hours, I watched her, and Rose watched me. Most of that time my sister spent mentally reviewing all she knew of pregnancy and trying to think of things that it might need or want once it was born. A montage of babies passed through her thoughts: strapping boys with curly black hair and delicate girls in frilly dresses. I repeatedly saw an image I was all too familiar with: herself, looking down at a rounded stomach.

I sighed, frustrated with her. "You're a selfish brat, Rosalie."

I don't think you're being rational here, Edward. Weren't you the one who wanted Bella to have children?

My eyes flickered to Rose's face and I felt my mouth twisting into an unhappy grimace. I nodded in acknowledgment.

Then shouldn't you be happy?

"Happy!" I growled below my breath.

You have everything you've ever wanted. They say you should be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

"Shut your mouth, Rose."

Me? You're the only one talking here. I haven't said a word. It's not my fault you're a nosy snoop.

"You know very well I have no control over it!"

How convenient. Hmm. Your lack of control seems to be all-inclusive these days. Should Carlisle be checking your eye color?

"How dare you - " I started to yell. At the same time, Bella twitched in her sleep.

"Shh!" You'll wake Bella!

A moment later, Emmett opened the door to find me half risen out of the seat with a chunk of the chair's arm in my hand and my teeth bared in a fierce grimace. He looked back and forth between me and Rose with a frown.

Is there a problem here? "You know, that's my chair you're breaking. You wanna mangle some furniture, you've got your own." His face broke into a grin and he wiggled his eyebrows. You're just gonna have to wait a few weeks.

"You are so obnoxious, Emmett," I muttered, sinking back into the chair. I tossed the broken arm into the cold fireplace, and folded my arms across my chest, my eyes glued to Bella's face.

So now you yell at me, break my furniture, and insult my husband? Remind me who's the selfish brat again?

Unaware of Rose's mental taunt, Emmett casually leaned against the wall and smirked. "Yup."

I heaved an angry sigh, but refused to rise to her taunts again.

"You should go downstairs. Me an' Jazz have been doing all the work. Don't you think you should contribute to the cause? I mean, more than what you've already given Be - "

"Emmett," I growled in a low whisper, interrupting him. "You really don't want to finish that sentence. Or that thought, for that matter."

He rolled his eyes. "Look. Sitting here staring at her isn't doing any good. You wanna save her? Go help Carlisle figure out how. You wanna watch her, look through Rose's eyes. She's not leaving Bella, and Bella's not going anywhere." Go on, kid. Git.

Scowling at the idea of not being able to see her for myself, I grunted in acknowledgment of his logic and rose from the broken chair. Ignoring Rose's hissed warning not to wake Bella, I leaned over the bed to brush my lips against her hair before returning downstairs to help my family find a way to save the life of the woman I loved.

The smells emanating from the kitchen told me that Esme had returned and was already cooking. I was aware that she had chosen foods that were normally considered healthy for pregnant women to eat. I was also unhappily aware of a similar kind of excitement in her mind like what I had seen in Rosalie's.

Great. Just great.

Deciding to forgo confronting my mother until I had some evidence to back up my convictions, I joined the rest of my family in Carlisle's study. Emmett returned to his position on the floor across from Jasper moments later. They were surrounded by books, and Jasper was thumbing through an old text on succubi.

"She's not a succubus, Jasper. Whatever are you reading that one for?"

"It still relates. Carlisle said not to overlook any possibilities. And there's more in here than the Denali sisters, you know."

Cursing myself for my abstraction, I realized I should have been watching my brothers read in order to help myself tune out Rosalie's thoughts, as well as to search for hidden meanings in what they were reading. Prompting him to tell me what I'd missed, I gestured for him to elaborate. "Such as?"

"None of us would have thought Bella could get pregnant because, well, Tanya and her sisters have been with human men for a millennium, and they have never conceived. Rose, Alice, and Esme; Sulpicia, Didyme, and Athenodora; Victoria - "

"Get on with it!"

"Um, sorry. What I mean is, no vampire woman any of us have ever met or heard of has ever gotten pregnant. We all knew there was some truth to the legends of the succubus, because they do exist. But as for the incubus... well, that just seemed a bit far-fetched. At least, in the sense that any woman would survive to tell the tale."

"A lotta men the Denali sisters were with sure didn't." Emmett snorted and remembered a dim picture of Rosalie as she'd carried him back to Carlisle to change, and how she'd looked like an angel to him, even then. ...but man! What a way to go!

"Emmett," I groaned.

He looked at me with wide eyes, affecting an innocence we both knew he didn't have. "What?"

"Tell them about the vampire you killed in Seattle," Carlisle prompted me.

"What vampire?" Jasper looked back and forth between us.

"That third vampire that I killed this year; the one that was not self-defense."

"What about him?"

"Well, he would - " I sighed and pointed at the book Jasper was holding. "Like Tanya. He would take the women before drinking their blood. But his intention was always to kill them after. And even if it wasn't, they would not have survived."

A look of disgust crossed Emmett's face. ...man, that's sick... teased Eddie 'bout doin' that to Bella... but I never meant it!

Jasper blinked at me, feeling my anger, directed both toward the predator I'd killed, and toward myself for my own lack of restraint.

"Huh." ...guess it's not surprising you killed him. "There're stories that've been told throughout history of women taken by demon lovers. Personally, I've never met a demon like these books describe nor heard of anyone who has. Horns and tails and forked tongues. It's all a bit ridiculous."

"Before this year, had you ever met a shape-shifter?"

"Well... No. But I'd never met any supernatural creatures, aside from other vampires. I'm not convinced any of these creatures ever existed."

"If we exist, who's to say every legend isn't based on fact?"

He eyed me skeptically. "Really. Every legend."

Emmett snickered. "So, if I was to ask you to go catch me a dragon to snack on..."

"I don't know," I muttered, annoyed. "There's more to this world than the humans know. Surely there's more than what we know, too."

Carlisle gave a low chuckle, and when I glanced at him, seemed strangely pleased. Before I could ask what was so amusing to him, Jasper snorted and asked, "Are you suggesting there really are such things as zombies?"

"Or mummies?" Emmett added.

"Aliens?"

Emmett started to shake with laughter. "Giants?"

"Bigfoot?

"The Abominable Snowman?"

"Atlantis?" Jasper was feeling the effects of their amusement, and his lips pressed firmly together as his eyes danced.

"Maybe I should go take a swim in the ocean and see if I can find me a mermaid, yeah?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

Jasper fought off Emmett's humor and threw his hands into the air. "Because it's ridiculous! We may not have had much experience with supernatural creatures other than the Quileutes, but the Volturi would know if things like that existed. From what Carlisle has said, Caius regularly hunts werewolves, or did before he drove them to the point of near extinction. He studied their libraries for decades and would know if they'd ever found evidence of anything else."

"I may have studied there, but that hardly means that I read every book. And I was not exactly interested in mythical creatures at the time. I did go through much of their vampire lore, but I was looking for information on animal drinkers, not succubus or incubus. The castle in Volterra is massive, larger than the city itself when you include all of the underground rooms and corridors. I doubt I saw a third of it. I was there as Aro's guest and was treated as such, which means there were sections of the castle to which I was not invited, and many of the guard whom I never met."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Like Jane?"

"Exactly."

"Yes, I doubt Aro would have wanted to advertise her role in their politics when courting your good opinion."

"That is neither here nor there. The point is, the library in which I studied was one of many. Who can truly say what they may have discovered over the millenia?"

I smiled smugly at Jasper. "See?"

Jasper rolled his eyes. "And that helps us... how?"

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. "It doesn't."

"At any rate, what I'm finding doesn't fit your situation. The mythology here states that the creature was actually both a succubus and an incubus. That first she would have sex with a human male to obtain his sperm, and then he would use that to impregnate a human woman. The child would have been genetically all human, and the pregnancies would last the normal length of time. The offspring, despite being human, would supposedly have magical powers." He closed the book with a snap and tossed it aside, disgusted. "It all reads like an excuse for an extramarital affair, if you ask me."

I grunted in agreement.

"So unless you've been secretly turning into a woman..." Emmett waggled his eyebrows when I shot him a dirty look.

"Then this doesn't apply," Jasper finished for him.

"Tell me what Kaure told you," Carlisle said.

I snorted. "She thought we were shape-shifters."

His eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really?"

I shrugged. "We don't match any of their legends. Not really. She had thought we were Libishomen, especially once she saw Bella with me. But when she realized Bella was pregnant, she called me a Boto. Some kind of river dolphin they have legends about."

My father pressed his lips together, but couldn't hide the amusement in his mental tone.

"Yes. Very funny, Carlisle. Were-dolphins, indeed," I scoffed.

"Aw, c'mon, Eddie! After everything with the Quileutes, you've gotta admit that's funny."

"I have to do no such thing, Emmett. And this isn't helping Bella!"

Carlisle reined in his amusement and nodded. "No, you are right. Forgive us, Edward."

I shrugged. "The Boto legend didn't fit regardless."

"But did the legend include pregnancy?"

"Er, yes. That's why that's what she thought I was when she saw Bella's condition. But it sounded to me like nothing more than a legend to explain pregnancies and warn young women against having relationships with men they knew nothing about."

Carlisle gestured to the books that surrounded us. "I do not really expect us to find much here. I have read every single one of these books, and do not recall any of them containing information that matches Bella's condition nor the circumstances of the fetus's conception." He heaved a sigh and rubbed his hand across his mouth, scanning his memory of various birth legends. "I took several theology courses in my rounds as a college student."

"As have I."

Jasper nodded in agreement.

"Me, too," Emmett grumbled. Booooring...

"Several of the ancient legends revolve around unusual births. Zeus's offspring were not just conceived in magic; their births were rarely normal. Athena was said to have been born directly from Zeus's head."

Jasper snorted. "Yeah. They believed Prometheus cracked his skull with an ax to get her out."

"Perhaps as an explanation for why raising children always results in headaches?"

"Vampires don't get headaches, Carlisle."

"Dealing with your siblings makes me question that belief daily."

I clenched my fists in fury. "Can we please return to the topic at hand?"

Emmett pointed at me. "And Eddie has to be exhibit number one."

Carlisle's mouth fought to hold back a smile.

"If you three are done making jokes, I'd like to remind you that Bella's time is limited," I said through clenched teeth.

Carlisle shook his head. "She is in no danger at the moment, Edward. I think it would do you and her a great deal of good for you to relax a little bit."

"Relax!"

"Your worry is only going to cause her stress. That is never a good thing for a pregnant woman, who is already under stress no matter how normal the pregnancy." He eyed me as I scowled at him. Shall I ask Jasper to intervene?

I snapped, "I don't need his help."

But you do need mine, and I need you to stop letting your fear control you.

It wasn't their fault Bella was pregnant, and taking my anger out on them wasn't helping anyone. I took a deep breath and held it as I attempted to do as he asked.

He nodded his approval and went on with his recollection of pregnancy myths. "Zeus's child, Dionysus, was said to have been born twice. Once from his mother, who died at the sight of Zeus in his god form, and once from Zeus himself, who attached the fetus to his thigh to complete the gestation."

"Helen of Troy was supposed to be one of Zeus's, too." Jasper quirked an eyebrow at me. "He took the form of a swan to impregnate her mother, and so the legend says Helen was hatched, not born."

"A swan," I muttered.

Carlisle grunted. "However, none of those pregnancies were accelerated, regardless of the strange legends surrounding their conception."

"And the mothers?" I pressed. "Didn't most of them die?"

"Yes, but according to most of these legends, it was not from the births. It was vengeance in some form or another since the children were conceived by humans, and not his wife."

"But we're still talking myths here. Ancient gods and goddesses and the ignorance of people who believed lightening came from a being who hurtled it toward the earth in anger. So who's to say that 'vengeance' wasn't just the women bleeding to death and them blaming their gods?"

"We are not going to find any factual account of a human conceiving a vampire's child, Edward. All we can go on is myth and legend."

"Maybe so, but I don't think the Greek gods are going to help us."

Alice entered the room holding a stack of papers. "Well you're in luck, because there're lots of other cultures with weird birth stories out there." Shoving the papers into Carlisle's hand, she went to Jasper and sank down beside him with a grimace.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he put an arm around her shoulders.

"These blurry visions make my head feel funny. I keep trying to make them get clearer, but they won't."

"This is good, Alice," Carlisle said as he read the first in the stack. "The founder of the Liao Dynasty was said to have been born with the body of a three year old."

"And he could see the future," Alice said with another grimace.

"His mother claimed he was conceived when the sun fell from the sky and into her bosom, and when he was born, the room was filled with light and an extraordinary fragrance. Hmm." He inhaled, concentrating on the various scents each of us gave off.

"Does it say what happened to his mother?" I asked.

"No," he said after scanning the printed paper, "but he was the oldest of many brothers, although they could have been related solely through the father."

"Still, I can't imagine any woman surviving the birth of a three-year old," Alice said with a shudder. "Or being pregnant for three years!"

"She may not have been. It says here, he was walking within three months. That suggests an acceleration akin to Bella's pregnancy."

Sighing, I peeked in on Bella, who was still in the same position she'd been in when I'd left the room. I skipped back out of Rose's mind quickly, uninterested in listening to her thoughts. "What else did you find, Alice?"

"Well... Unfortunately, most of what I found was about the conception and the children, and not the births or the fate of the mothers afterwards."

Carlisle nodded. "Hmm. The Aztecs have many stories surrounding Quetzalcoatl's origins, but they still indicates a nine-months-long gestation."

"Let me know when you get to the one of the Tikbalang."

Holding up a strange picture of a creature I didn't recognize, Carlisle raised an eyebrow skeptically and said, "This thing?"

Alice shrugged. "You said any legend, no matter how unusual."

"Unusual is the word," Emmett muttered. "Doesn't look human at all."

"It's has red eyes and will take a woman and leave her pregnant with more creatures like itself."

Carlisle sighed and laid the stack of papers onto his desk. "Yes, but as with all of these others, there is nothing that really matches what Bella is carrying."

We all paused at the sound of Bella's feet thumping toward the bathroom. Without a word to my family, I sprinted upstairs to talk to her. As I had done on the island, Rose was holding Bella's hair out of the way, though there wasn't really much need. She had nothing in her stomach that could come up, and was merely gagging over the toilet while her stomach clenched.

Eventually, her mouth cleaned, and dressed in fresh clothes, Bella was escorted by Rosalie into the living room where Esme and Rose made a fuss of seeing to her needs. Bella was embarrassed, but they ignored her protestations and brought her water and a bowl of the oatmeal Esme had prepared. Esme had added fresh blueberries and a light vanilla flavor. Leaning against a wall, I watched in silence as she hungrily ate every bite.

Done at last, Bella finally met my eyes, and I flinched at the fear in them. Forcing my face into a smile for her sake, I crossed the room toward where she sat, curled on the couch. Rose eyed me, wanting to warn me away from Bella, but at my angry look, she backed off, though she refused to leave the room.

I sat on the couch beside my pregnant wife and reached for her hand. It didn't feel as warn to me as usual, but that might have been because we had just left the very warm island only the day before.

Carefully keeping my voice even, I said, "If I asked you a question, would you answer it honestly? The whole truth, not sparing my feelings?"

She laughed softly. "Why does that sound familiar?"

"Please, Bella?"

"You want to know why I'm keeping the baby."

Unsurprised that she saw through me so easily, I nodded.

"I love him, Edward. I could no more kill him than I could willingly kill you."

Grinding my teeth together, I growled, "You love it."

"Him."

"And you know that it's a boy, how?"

She shrugged. "I don't, actually."

"Not three weeks ago, when I mentioned having children to you, do you remember what your response was?"

She rolled her eyes and looked away from me. Reaching for her face, I turned it back so that she looked me in the eyes again. Trying harder to dazzle her than I'd ever done before, I stared into her lovely chocolate eyes.

"Your response was one of disgust, remember? I believe your exact word was 'Gah'!" I imitated her exclamation as closely as I could. "Why the change now?"

"And I thought you were the one who actually wished for a shot-gun wedding."

"Is that the answer? Are you doing this for me? Because you think it's what I want?"

Oh, please. Typical Edward. Everything always has to be about you.

"No. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do."

"How is it right? How is taking yourself away from me right?"

Didn't you think taking yourself away from her was right at one point?

"I'm not." Her eyes widened as she leaned toward me. "If I believed that, do you think I would still want to keep it?"

"Yes, Bella! I do. You've never acknowledged the danger I pose to your life. How is this any different?"

Bella tore her eyes away from mine and muttered, "It's not."

Taken aback, I frowned. Was she admitting that she knew it would kill her? "Then you'll let Carlisle take care of it?"

Oh nice. 'Take care of it.' Like her baby is some new disaster you've gotten us into instead of a life.

"Of course not! That's not what I meant."

"Then what?"

"I was right before, wasn't I? You didn't kill me on our honeymoon."

"That's different," I said through my teeth.

"I don't see how."

"I am capable of controlling myself - "

Hardly.

" - but no one will be able to control that thing. It will have to be destroyed, eventually. Please, Bella. Let us take care of it now, before it takes you with it."

She took her hands from mine and folded them over her stomach. "No."

"What exactly do you think is going to happen to the thing after it kills you? Do you think any of us will let it live once you're dead?"

It's not a 'thing'! It's a baby!

"It won't happen like that. You can change me after he's born."

"There's just one problem with that idea, Bella," I said impatiently. "You have to still be alive for the transformation to occur."

"I will be. I can do this. I can do this!"

And if she doesn't... I'm still not going to let you kill him!

Rounding on my sister, I shouted in fury, "Will you please shut up, Rosalie? This does not concern you!"

"Oh, yes it does!" she yelled back. "Bella specifically asked me to save her baby from you, Edward! I'd say that makes it my concern."

"What universe do you live in, Rose? That thing is not going to be the pretty baby you keep imagining!"

"I live in reality, unlike you! Stop calling it a 'thing'! It's a baby, Edward. Bella's baby."

Only vaguely aware that the rest of our family had joined us in the living room, or that I was on my feet with Emmett's hands wrapped around my arms, I accused my sister. "You have never thought of anyone else, in all the years I have known you! It's always, 'poor childless, futureless Rosalie,' isn't it? You've always been the center of your little universe, self-absorbed and selfish without a care what you do to anyone else. Don't you even pretend that this is about Bella! So long as Rose gets what she wants, to hell with the rest of us."

"And what about you? Like you're any better? How many times over the past year have you put us in danger because you were too scared to face reality? If you'd listened to Alice and changed Bella in the beginning, none of that would have happened. Stop blaming me for your cowardice!"

"Cowardice? Bella is going to die, and you're actively helping her do so! How would you feel if I were to put Emmett's life in danger?"

"Edward, stop," Bella hissed. "I'll be fine. We'll be fine."

"Are you kidding me? You have put Emmett's life in danger! Or was that army that was after Bella a figment of my imagination? We've all risked our lives for hers because of you. And now she's having your baby, Edward! Your baby! Something none of us would have believed possible. This baby is a gift, a miracle, and the first thing you want to do is to kill it?"

"A miracle? It's a demon. The spawn of a vampire, Rose. Of course I want to kill it!"

"Well I'm sorry, but that's not going to happen."

"Oh, we'll see about that," I hissed. "And if I were you, I wouldn't stand in my way."

"Is that a threat?"

"I'm not going to let it hurt Bella."

"Naturally, little Eddie has to blow everything out of proportion as always," she sneered. "Well I've got news for you: the girl you fell in love with actually wants to spend eternity with you and your child. She knows it's a miracle and loves it. And for some reason, she loves you, too, instead of seeing you for the killer that you are!"

Alice and Esme were pulling Rosalie into another room even as she screamed the hateful words while Emmett, Jasper, and Carlisle dragged me outside. Trying to dislodge Emmett's arms from around me, I struggled to reach my sister, my fear and fury overwhelming what little sense of reason I had left.

I fought against them, not even sure of what I was trying to accomplish at that point, only that they were there, and that they were real and tangible beings whom I could fight against. Ignoring their repeated attempts at calming me, I shoved against their arms and snapped my teeth at where Jasper was gripping me. I only just missed adding yet more scars to my brother's arms because of the hold Emmett had on me. My legs shot out, trying to kick theirs out from under them or at least push them away from me. I ignored the pain that flared across my shoulders and back as I pitted my strength against that of my brothers. That physical pain meant nothing to me, compared with what I knew I would feel when Bella died.

Carlisle grabbed my face in his hands, forcing me to meet his eyes. "Stop! Stop this right now, Edward."

As I had done so many times to various humans over the years, and especially to Bella, he held my gaze with his penetrating glare. In his mind, my expression was deranged, my eyes wild, my teeth bared and glistening with venom.

"I'm killing her," I managed to choke out.

Understanding that it was Bella I meant, and not my sister, he shook his head firmly. "You are not. We will find a way to get it out without hurting her. I have not even had the chance to examine it yet. Yes, it is growing rapidly, but... this does not have to end in Bella's death." He glanced back toward the house, and I followed his gaze to see Bella there, on the steps, watching us with wide, tear-filled eyes.

Instantly stopping my struggles against my brothers, I blinked in surprise. "Bella, love." I moved to take a step in her direction, but Emmett and Jasper were still holding me. "You can let me go," I said coldly.

They waited until Carlisle nodded to them, and I strode over to where she stood. Abruptly ashamed of losing my temper, I carefully wiped the tears from her face and whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Rosalie is wrong," she said firmly. "I see exactly what you are."

Warily, I watched her, waiting for her to say the words. To say that she'd made a mistake, to say that the blindness which had hidden what I truly was had finally been lifted.

"You see yourself as a terrifying monster, but I see someone who's capable of courage and sacrifice." She swallowed and placed a warm hand on my cheek with a smile. "And love."

Holding back the sob that wanted to break from me, I pulled Bella into my arms and buried my face in her hair. My sweet wife wrapped her arms around my neck and clung to me. She was shivering, and the scent of her adrenaline flowing in reaction to my shameful display was a thick cloud around us. What had it looked like to her as I'd screamed at my sister and fought against my brothers? I was only grateful that we'd been fighting at vampire speed; I doubted she'd caught much of it.

Yet how did she not see me for what I was? Rose was right, and I had always known it. By the time Bella did, it would be too late. With Bella's body pressed against mine, I could feel the firm bump in her belly between us and realized what I'd been trying to deny all day.

It was already too late.

Before I could say anything else to her, I felt a hard thump from where Bella's protruding stomach pressed against mine. We gasped at the same time, and Bella pulled away from me, lifting her shirt out of the way. The rounded bulge between her hips had a small discoloration on it, and as I watched in horror, it darkened slightly.