38. Similarities

With the syringe full of my venom stashed in a drawer in the exam room, I headed back downstairs. When I reached the living room, I leaned against a wall and tried to still the trembling in my hands. Deliberately calling up memories of some of my best hunts might have allowed me to overcome the revulsion which had been inhibiting my venom production, but not being able to sprint into the forest where I could sink my teeth into the first creature with fur that I found - barring the werewolves - left me without the release which hunting naturally provided. Keyed up and on edge, my efforts had heightened the thirst I had already been denying.

"Are you alright?" Bella asked.

I laughed bitterly.

Rosalie was seated beside Bella with an arm around her shoulders. Bella's hairline was damp with perspiration, and the blankets had been piled behind the couch. I guessed she'd gotten too hot again.

Eyeing me suspiciously, Rosalie asked, "What was all that about?"

"Don't worry about it."

You and Carlisle are up to something. Don't try to deny it.

"We were only discussing ways to try and save Bella's life. It's nothing you need to concern yourself with."

Whatever plots you're concocting are my concern when they involve Bella and her baby!

"Give it a rest, Rose," I groaned.

Though she seemed hesitant to press me for the same information which I had been refusing to tell my sister, Bella's ever-present curiosity won, and she asked, "So... what did you and Carlisle come up with?"

I had no desire to discuss the syringe with any of them. Either they would be all for the idea, in which case I didn't want more of their incomprehensible certainty to complicate matters, or they would be revolted. I didn't want them to find flaws in my plan or to reject the idea based on its repulsiveness. If it worked, then I could explain it later, and if it didn't, then it really wouldn't matter.

"Please don't let it worry you, love. Just concentrate on keeping your heart beating, alright?"

The crease formed between her eyebrows and the look of confusion that was so familiar to me returned to her eyes.

"That's all it was, sweetheart, truly. We're only worried about your heart. No matter what else happens, you keep it beating for me." I fixed her with a firm stare. "Do you hear me? Just... stay alive."

"Yes, Edward. I can do that. I will."

She nodded with a gentle smile, as though trying to instill some of that certainty into me. Hearing her speak the word I had so longed to hear in the months before our engagement caused my chest to ache. I closed my eyes, held my breath, and tried to rein in the overwhelming need to go hunt.

Ah, God, Bella smelled good!

My throat was a parched desert, begging for the quenching which only one liquid on Earth would ever fully provide. Even though I had no urge to drink her, the room was full of her flowery sweetness, the smell of the blood in her plastic cup, and the enticing sound of her beating heart. Add to that the knowledge that there were more bags of the rich, red liquid sitting unopened in the refrigerator upstairs - waiting to be drunk! - and more to come if Jacob determined Carlisle could safely leave, and I was hard pressed to resist snatching the cup from her hands, like the bloodsucking savage Jacob believed me to be.

"Rose?"

"Again? Already?" Rosalie laughed.

"I'm sorry," Bella said in a small voice.

"Don't be. I'm only surprised, though I suppose I shouldn't be with all you've been drinking." Carefully, almost as tender with the girl I loved as I would have been, Rosalie lifted Bella into her arms and headed for the bathroom. My eyes drifted shut after they left the room.

When we had built our first houses, we had not bothered to include toilets. What need did vampires really have for them, after all? It hadn't been until we'd decided a return to Rochester was unlikely for many decades, and that it was better to sell the house we'd built rather than keep it for use later, that we'd regretted that lack. Trying to correct the oversight had kept us in the city where we'd found Rosalie for a few months longer than it should have, had the house been built with human needs in mind. Since then, we'd made sure our human facade was missing nothing, even to the point that we'd installed them in the house on Isle Esme.

Almost, I could see the hand of Fate on my life. Without Rosalie in our family, I wondered if we would ever have included toilets in our houses' floor plans. How horrifying it would have been to try to come up with something hasty to accommodate the introduction of a human into our lives when first Bella and I had fallen in love if our house had not already been prepared for human habitation. Shaking my head ruefully at such fanciful thoughts, I thought it more likely that if Fate truly had a hand in any of this, it was with the intention of our family's total and complete destruction. That was where this was headed, after all.

It was Bella's fate to die, and it was mine to kill. My fate should have been death, and not this lingering half-life, but Carlisle had stepped in and snatched me away from the destiny which Fate had mapped out for me. It seemed she was ready to correct that intervention. We should all have died long ago.

Wasn't that a fable by the Brothers Grimm? Seven in one blow? Only instead of a brave little tailor swatting pesky flies, it would be a fragile human girl unintentionally bringing about the deaths of seven vampires. Well, perhaps the fetus's birth would not bring about the death of the entire family. If Rosalie got the child she had always wanted, no doubt she and Emmett would live through the fallout of Bella's death - assuming I didn't kill her myself for the part she had played.

Edward...

I opened my eyes to the sound of my mother calling my name.

Are... are you alright?

My head shook back and forth slowly.

No. I know you're not... What I meant was... An image flashed through her mind of me stalking through the living room with a flute in my hand. I had thought you were going to play?

Not wanting to admit to what had become of the flute, but feeling the need to explain somewhat, I strode slowly over to sink onto the couch where Bella had been seated. "Sorry, Mom. I tried, but I just... couldn't."

My head dropped into my hands as I tried to hide my shame.

Esme was beside me in an instant, her cool arm encircling my shoulders. I'm sorry, Edward. I shouldn't have asked you to play.

I shook my head, but didn't raise it from my hands. "It's fine, Esme. You were only trying to help."

...walk in like I own the place... prob'ly piss off Blondie...

Perfect. Just perfect. Jacob returning was exactly what I needed right now.

When I caught the alarm in his mind as his eyes flickered all over the living room after taking in my position, I sighed and said, "She's alright. Or, the same, I should say."

She is, Esme agreed firmly. And she's going to be alright!

I nodded in acknowledgement, but not agreement.

She hummed under her breath in disapproval of my pessimism, but turned to greet the wolf as though he were an old friend. "Hello, Jacob. I'm so glad you came back."

"Me, too." With his return, the blur which Alice kept trying to see past was now an absence of any visions, and she joined us with a relieved smile. She may dislike being blind, but at least the blank future didn't cause her head to ache like the blurry one did.

"Uh, hey. Where's Bella?"

"Bathroom. Mostly fluid diet, you know. Plus, the whole pregnancy thing does that to you, I hear," Alice explained.

"Ah."

He seemed at a loss without Rosalie to taunt or Bella to tease, but he wouldn't have long to wait. Rose was already on her way back with Bella in her arms.

"Oh, wonderful," she said with a sneer. "I thought I smelled something nasty."

Jacob's head snapped toward my sister's voice. Bella's expression changed from the unhappy worry she'd been wearing all afternoon to one of delight.

It was supposed to be me she looked at like that! I was her husband, her lover, and - however unwilling - the father of her child. I should be the one to make her light up, to make her smile with pleasure just by walking in the door, not the young man she'd rejected over and over again.

...so unfair.

I couldn't have agreed with Jacob more.

"Jacob," Bella said. "You came."

"Hi, Bells."

Esme and I stood so that Rose could return Bella to her place. Her face as pale as my sister's, Bella held her breath while Rosalie repositioned her on the couch. She had removed the traces of sweat from her face, and her skin was covered with raised bumps where she'd been pressed against Rose's cold skin. Her temperature fluctuations were happening so rapidly; she must have gone from being too hot to too cold again already.

My skin felt strangely warm once more, as though I were sucking her vital warmth away without even touching her. I brushed my hand across her forehead and down the pulse in her neck, and it seemed to me as though our temperatures were far too close.

"Are you cold?"

"I'm fine," she denied with a small shake of her head.

I sighed, frustrated with her refusal to admit that anything was wrong.

"Bella, you know what Carlisle told you," Rosalie said. "Don't downplay anything. It doesn't help us take care of either of you."

I may have been angry with my sister, but at least she was doing her part to see to it that Bella allowed us to care for her, which was something the stubbornly independent girl had rarely done before the pregnancy.

Bella nodded sheepishly and admitted, "Okay, I am a little cold. Edward, can you hand me that blanket?"

As I started to reach for it, Jacob said, "Isn't that sort of the point of me being here?"

"You just walked in. After running all day, I'd bet. Put your feet up for a minute. I'll probably warm up again in no time."

At any other time, I would have laughed. That was so like her, thinking of the comfort of others when she was the one in the greatest need. Jacob knew the girl we both loved even better than I did and ignored her protest. He'd seen her reactions when Rose had placed her on the couch and seemed to be unsure how to warm her without moving her. Deciding she was too fragile to risk even sitting beside, he sat on the floor and rested his arm against hers.

"Thanks, Jake."

"Yeah."

Trying to ignore the fact that he had laced his fingers though hers, I concentrated on watching her expression. She shivered, and he put a hand on her cheek. I was forcefully reminded of another time when the mutt had kept Bella alive just with the heat from his body. I'd been the one to put her in danger then, too. At least this time they weren't cuddled together in a sleeping bag, but it didn't escape my notice that her lips were curved into a true smile for the first time that day.

It also didn't escape my notice that her heartbeat seemed to have gotten stronger. It certainly sounded louder, though no one else reacted to the change. I thought they must have heard it, though I couldn't be sure, but I definitely didn't seem to be hearing it through my ears alone. Whether they heard it or not, I doubted anyone else could feel the ghost of her pulse against their skin as I could. I glanced around, but no one seemed to think anything was amiss.

Then again, they weren't reacting to Jacob's temperature either. From where I sat on the couch, I could feel the heat pouring off his skin, so they must have been able to feel him, too. Finally deciding I was only overly-aware of the girl I loved, I ignored the strange warm pulsing I shouldn't have been able to feel and after a while it faded away.

From where she sat behind the couch, almost exactly opposite of where Jacob was seated, Alice said, "Rosalie, why don't you get Jacob something from the kitchen?"

My lips twitched with amusement at Rose's expression. Alice could have asked Esme, who would have been more than happy to bring him some of the food she had made earlier, but instead she'd chosen Rose. My pixie sister had never been spiteful, but I had to wonder if she hadn't asked Rose simply because she was the one responsible for the fact that Bella was still pregnant. If not for Rosalie, Bella would already be a vampire. If not for Rose, Alice wouldn't be seeking out the company of a werewolf to block her visions.

And if not for Rose, our family would be in Alaska hunting polar bears that very minute, not under siege, unable to go hunting while forced to endure the constant scent of human blood. I could taste it in the very air, could smell the enticing aroma from the cup Bella held, and could feel an echo of fire from the throats of all six vampires, not to mention my own.

Swallowing hard, I held myself motionless. My thirst was unimportant. It wouldn't be too many more days until the creature was born. Whatever happened afterwards - whether that was my death or not - I wouldn't be thirsty for much longer.

"Thanks, anyway, Alice, but I don't think I'd want to eat something Blondie's spit in. I'd bet my system wouldn't take too kindly to venom."

"Rosalie would never embarrass Esme by displaying such a lack of hospitality," Alice assured him.

"Of course not," Rose said in that sickeningly sweet voice she used whenever she wanted to needle me without getting caught.

He turned to me after she left the room and said, "You'd tell me if she poisoned it, right?"

I didn't blame Jacob for mistrusting that tone. If I hadn't been able to read her mind, I might have feared the same thing, just from knowing how much she disliked the wolves, but there was no reason for him to worry, so I said, "Yes."

He nodded to himself.

...have me waiting hand and foot on the mutt... may just find her Porsche without tires... or doors... or an engine... I choked at the image of Alice's Porsche completely dismantled and spread out for display in the garage. She nearly ripped the door off the fridge - and likely would have but for the fact that Bella needed to eat the food stored within it. Slamming the cabinet doors as she got a plate for his food, she piled it high with the steak and potato Esme had fixed earlier and shoved it into the microwave to reheat.

Instead of taking her fury out on Alice, she grabbed a large metal bowl and applied just enough force to invert the bottom of the bowl, reshaping it so that it resembled a dog's dish. Jacob's eyebrows raised up to his shaggy hair at the sounds of banging doors and screeching metal coming from the kitchen. Although I tried, I couldn't hold back a small smile as she used her fingernail to write Fido on one side. For some reason, it reminded me of the way she'd broken Bella's truck, something which she had done for my benefit, though I never would have asked it of her.

She returned to the living room with the metal bowl in hand, having dumped the steak and potato into the new dish. "Enjoy mongrel," she said as she placed it on the floor beside Jacob.

He blinked at it in surprise. ...quick craftsmanship... nice attention to detail... and excellent handwriting too...

"Thanks, Blondie."

There was a smirk on her lips as she snorted. ...why I even bothered bringing him utensils... probably prefers to eat with his fingers, or right off the ground...

"Hey, do you know what you call a blonde with a brain? A golden retriever."

Her smirk disappeared immediately. "I've heard that one, too."

"I'll keep trying."

Rose threw herself into a chair and turned the television on. As she flipped through the channels, her angry thoughts were directed at Jacob, that he would dare to compare her to a dog when he was the obvious mutt in the house. I considered warning him not to antagonize my sister, but decided against it. Jacob was well able to take care of himself, and since I couldn't take out my anger on Rosalie for her part in Bella's continued pregnancy, I was more than happy to allow Jacob to do so for me - and to face the repercussions. It was nice to have her taunts directed at someone else for a change.

After Jacob had finished his meal, he spent a long moment imagining the look on Rose's face if he were to lick the bowl clean. The smile that my lips started to form was erased when Bella began running her fingers through his hair. I froze in place as I recalled the way it had felt to me when she'd done the same thing. Her fingers, so warm and gentle, gliding across my scalp and teasing the tangles out of my perpetually messy hair had felt incredible. Even the roots had been warmed by her touch, however brief, and I could have counted every strand she had ever touched, just by the memory of how it had felt.

He seemed oblivious and unaffected by her attention as he contemplated the empty bowl he held. "Time for a haircut, huh?"

"You're getting a little shaggy. Maybe - "

"Let me guess, someone around here used to cut hair in a salon in Paris?"

"Probably," Bella agreed with a quiet laugh.

"No thanks. I'm good for a few weeks." ...wonder how long she's good for... polite way to ask... "So... um... what's the, er, date? You know, the due date for the little monster?"

If that was his definition of polite, I would have shuddered to hear what he considered rude. Thankfully, Bella took offence at his question too, and smacked the back of his head. Unlike the time when she'd punched his face, she hadn't - or perhaps couldn't - put any force behind the blow, and wasn't hurt.

"I'm serious. I want to know how long I'm gonna have to be here." ...how long you're gonna be here...

My breath caught, and I turned my face away, trying to control myself. The rest of my family were more or less convinced by this time that Bella would survive the pregnancy, if not the birth as well. Again and again they had argued that Bella was going to be fine, that my concerns were groundless, that the blood she was drinking would keep her alive, and that my venom was going to save her. With my venom-filled syringe now waiting upstairs, even Carlisle's thoughts held a ring of hope they hadn't before. I didn't agree with them, but hearing Jacob callously ask how much longer before she died was somehow far worse than hearing them insist to me that she would live.

Jacob turned to look at her, allowing me to both see her face and hide mine at the same time.

"I don't know. Not exactly. Obviously, we're not going with the nine-month model here, and we can't get an ultrasound, so Carlisle is guesstimating from how big I am. Normal people are supposed to be about forty centimeters here when the baby is fully grown." She traced a thin finger down the middle of her swollen stomach. "One centimeter for every week. I was thirty this morning, and I've been gaining about two centimeters a day, sometimes more..." She trailed off thoughtfully.

A strangled noise escaped Jacob as he gaped at her. ...two weeks to a day... days flying by... gives her, what, four?! Four days left to live?

"You okay?"

Jacob nodded, but it took no mind reading to know he was merely placating her. He was no more okay than I was.

The memory of Seth's voice flowed through his mind as he thought of those four days and how I'd told Seth that we wouldn't be leaving, at least, not until after the birth. Jacob remembered his conversation with the young wolf in brief snatches, how Seth had explained that our family wouldn't be leaving and why.

...glad he asked... be intolerable to have to wonder if they were about to go... take any of those four days away... my four days... almost over, her hold is only harder to break... like it's connected to her expanding belly... gravitational force... 'cause she's dying? ...even if she doesn't, she won't be Bella... won't be anything I would know or understand...

"It's going to be okay," Bella crooned as she wiped the tears from his face that I had been unable to shed.

...words mean nothing... "Right."

Bella curled close to him, pressing more of herself against his warmth. "I didn't think you would come. Seth said you would, and so did Edward, but I didn't believe them."

"Why not?"

"You're not happy here. But you came anyway."

"You wanted me here."

"I know. But you didn't have to come, because it's not fair for me to want you here. I would have understood."

Of course she would have. Self-sacrificing to a fault, she wouldn't have blamed him for staying away. We were such a strange trio. I'd rejected her, even after we were married. I loved her more than my own life, and because of that, I rejected her and pushed her away, but somehow, she always came back to me.

She had rejected him, and he always came back to her. Yet as much as she seemed to need him now, I had no doubt that if he were to ask her to leave me, she would refuse.

There was no logical reason for Bella to have rejected Jacob. There was nothing for her to protect him from, nothing that she could do to hurt him except for rejecting him - which she had done, time after time. There wasn't a cruel bone in Bella's body; why would she keep indulging in this push-pull? In wanting to keep him around, she was hurting everyone involved, and that just wasn't like my Bella at all.

Staring blankly at the television, not really seeing the channels as Rosalie searched for something to distract us from the tedium of waiting, I tried in vain to understand the girl who had surprised me at every turn. It was Jacob who had always seemed to understand her. Yet even he seemed to be at a loss to explain her actions as far as his presence in her life was concerned.

Bella spoke quietly, her voice slightly slurred from lack of sleep. "Thank you for coming."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why do you want me here? Seth could keep you warm, and he's probably easier to be around, happy little punk. But when I walk in the door, you smile like I'm your favorite person in the world."

"You're one of them."

"That sucks, you know."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Why, though? You didn't answer that."

For once grateful for the wolf's persistence, I pretended to study the woods through the wide windows while I waited for her to explain her actions. So many times I had wondered why she chose me when she so obviously loved him. From the moment I'd entered her life, she had seemed to prefer to risk it to be with me rather than to go with the safe choice, the sane choice.

How I wished I could read her mind! Would she even answer his question? Would she tell him the truth, or would she edit? And if she did, would it be for his benefit, or mine? She had a habit of not saying things she thought I didn't want to hear. She was a terrible liar, so I would have been able to tell if she wasn't truthful, but that didn't mean I would be able to discern the truth.

He was watching her face intently, though he glanced at me several times to judge my reaction. Mimicking the calm mask Bella had learned to pull over her features to hide what she was feeling from me, I made sure not to let the turmoil I was feeling show. He wasn't fooled by my apparent disinterest.

"It feels... complete when you're here, Jacob. Like all my family is together. I mean, I guess that's what it's like - I've never had a big family before now. It's nice. But it's just not whole unless you're here."

"I'll never be part of your family, Bella," he said in a low, husky voice. ...but I coulda been... I would've been good there... just a distant future that died long before it had a chance to live...

"You've always been a part of my family," she insisted.

"That's a crap answer," he said through his teeth.

"What's a good one?"

"How about, 'Jacob, I get a kick out of your pain'."

It was all I could do not to snarl at the mutt. How did he dare? Bella, the sweetest, gentlest creature I'd ever met, would far rather harm herself than cause another person pain. I thought he knew her! Surely he had to know how much that statement would hurt her!

"You'd like that better?" she whispered.

"It's easier, at least. I could wrap my head around it. I could deal with it."

My fury faded slightly. I supposed if she had been a cruel or callous person, that might indeed have made more sense to him. Rosalie probably would have loved it if another man had sought her affections while she had been engaged to Royce King. She would have enjoyed rejecting him.

Though Bella had never made a secret of the fact that she desired his presence in her life, neither had she hinted that she desired anything more. It had always been me she had chosen. I was the one she had said yes to, time and again. But there could be no denying that if I had never met Bella, her destiny would have lain with him. Her destiny should have been with him.

Jacob had been watching my expression for a reaction, but when he looked back at her at last, the sadness she felt was easy to read. Her eyes were closed and the crease between her brows was deep. Her mouth twisted down and to the side, and when she spoke, there was an ache in her voice for the future that should have been.

"We got off track, Jake. Out of balance. You're supposed to be part of my life - I can feel that, and so can you." She paused, no doubt hearing his silent agreement as clearly as if she were the mind reader, not me. "But not like this. We did something wrong. No. I did. I did something wrong, and we got off track..."

Though I kept my face expressionless, my hands clenched into fists. Why did she always feel the need to take the blame for my actions? She had done nothing wrong! I was the one who had snatched her away from the path her life had been meant to follow. Hearing her acknowledge that being with Jacob was where she was supposed to be tore at me. She knew being with me was wrong! I wondered how long she had known it, or if she had only just admitted it to herself.

She didn't speak again, and after only a few seconds of silence, began to snore.

Keeping my voice low so as not to wake her, I explained, "She's exhausted. It's been a long day. A hard day. I think she would have gone to sleep earlier, but she was waiting for you."

"Seth said it broke another of her ribs."

"Yes," I agreed tensely. "It's making it hard for her to breathe."

"Great."

Given the way my skin was reacting to her rapid temperature changes and the strange warmth I shouldn't have been able to feel, I wasn't certain that I would know when she would need to be cooled off from Jacob's excessive heat. Not wanting to have to wait for her to start sweating again, I said, "Let me know when she gets hot again."

"Yeah."

His eyes moved away from her face and came to rest on her arm, where her skin was covered in tiny bumps. As he raised his head to look for one, I grabbed a blanket to cover her. I may not have been able to warm her with my body, but at least I could do something.

...mind reading thing saves time... might not even have to make accusing him for this mess with Charlie into a big production... hear just exactly how furious -

Bella's rib must not have been the only thing Seth had told Jacob about. "Yes. It's not a good idea."

"Then why?" Why would Bella tell her father she was on the mend when it would only make him more miserable?

"She can't bear his anxiety," I said.

"So it's better - "

I interrupted his angry growl. "No. It's not better. But I'm not going to force her into anything that makes her unhappy now. Whatever happens, this makes her feel better. I'll deal with the rest afterward."

Jacob eyed me with a frown and a shake of his head. ...not like her to put Charlie's pain off 'till later, even dying... must have some other plan...

"She's very sure she's going to live."

"But not human."

"No," I agreed. "Not human. But she hopes to see Charlie again, anyway."

Jacob's eyes widened and his jaw dropped open. ...just getting better and better. "See. Charlie. Afterwards. See Charlie when she's all sparkly white with the bright red eyes. I'm not a bloodsucker, so maybe I'm missing something, but Charlie seems like kind of a strange choice for her first meal."

Can he be any more offensive if he tries?

For the first time in days, I found myself agreeing with Rosalie. As if I would allow Bella to kill her own father.

"She knows she won't be able to be near him for at least a year. She thinks she can stall. Tell Charlie she has to go to a special hospital on the other side of the world. Keep in contact through phone calls..."

...way to be supportive, Edward... exactly what I meant about not trusting her...

Annoyed with Rose, I trailed off, but I, too, could hear the skepticism in my voice. That was hardly going to help me convince him that her idea had merit.

"That's insane."

Supportive as I was trying to be, I was also realistic, and couldn't argue with his opinion. "Yes."

"Charlie's not stupid. Even if she doesn't kill him, he's going to notice a difference."

"She's sort of banking on that."

My words echoed in his head several times as he stared incredulously at me.

Determined to do Bella the courtesy of explaining her idea without seeming dismissive, I said, "She wouldn't be aging, of course, so that would set a time limit, even if Charlie accepted whatever excuse she comes up with for the changes. Do you remember when you tried to tell her about your transformation? How you made her guess?"

My knowledge of their interaction seemed to anger him, and he grumbled, "She told you about that?"

"Yes," I said with a slight smile. "She was explaining her... idea. You see, she's not allowed to tell Charlie the truth - it would be very dangerous for him. But he's a smart, practical man. She thinks he'll come up with his own explanation. She assumes he'll get it wrong. After all, we hardly adhere to vampire canon. He'll make some wrong assumption about us, like she did in the beginning, and we'll go along with it. She thinks she'll be able to see him... from time to time."

"Insane."

"Yes."

...weak to let her get her way on this, too, just to keep her happy for now... must not be expecting her to live long enough to try out her crazy plan... just placating her so she'll be happy for a little while longer... like four more days...

He was still watching me, but I didn't think I could keep my face expressionless while casually discussing her death and angled myself so that he couldn't see. "I'll deal with whatever comes. I won't cause her pain now."

"Four days?" he pressed me.

"Approximately."

"Then what?"

Then what? What the hell did he think was going to happen? The demon child would be born, and Bella would either begin her transformation... or not. Surely he knew that! Forcing myself to speak, I said, "What do you mean, exactly?"

He didn't speak, but I heard the memory of Bella's voice in his mind as she had told him of how the fetus was surrounded by a material that resembled vampire skin.

...so how does that work? How will it get out?

Unable to make my voice louder than a whisper, I said, "From what little research we've been able to do, it would appear the creatures use their own teeth to escape the womb."

Jacob swallowed reflexively several times. "Research?"

"That's why you haven't seen Jasper and Emmett around. That's what Carlisle is doing now. Trying to decipher ancient stories and myths, as much as we can with what we have to work with here, looking for anything that might help us predict the creature's behavior."

...stories? If there are myths then...

"Then is this thing not the first of its kind? Maybe. It's all very sketchy. The myths could easily be the products of fear and imagination. Though... Your myths are true, are they not? Perhaps these are, too. They do seem to be localized, linked..."

"How did you find..."

"There was a woman we encountered in South America. She'd been raised in the traditions of her people. She'd heard warnings about such creatures, old stories that had been passed down."

His eyes were wide as he watched me, and I was momentarily reminded of young boys sitting around a camp fire swapping scary stories. Only, in our case, we all knew the monsters were real. "What were the warnings?"

"That the creature must be killed immediately. Before it could gain too much strength."

...what Sam thought. Could he be right?

"Of course, their legends say the same of us," I muttered darkly, remembering how she'd imagined myself in a pyre as she sped Bella away from the murderous creature who'd lured the innocent human girl into his clutches. "That we must be destroyed. That we are soulless murderers."

Two for two.

I laughed humorlessly.

"What did their stories say about the... mothers?"

My sour amusement fled the instant I heard the question in his mind, but as he said it aloud, I couldn't stop myself from reacting. The burning pain of Bella's death took me again and it was all I could do not to start screaming - at him, at my family, at Bella - for allowing it to happen.

"Of course there were no survivors." Rosalie snorted in disgust. "Giving birth in the middle of a disease-infested swamp with a medicine man smearing sloth spit across your face to drive out the evil spirits was never the safest method. Even the normal births went badly half the time. None of them had what this baby has - caretakers with an idea of what the baby needs, who try to meet those needs. A doctor with a totally unique knowledge of vampire nature. A plan in place to deliver the baby as safely as possibly. Venom that will repair anything that goes wrong. The baby will be fine. And those other mothers would probably have survived if they'd had that - if they even existed in the first place. Something I am not convinced of."

How dare she! It was bad enough that she was feeding Bella such nonsense, but was it really necessary to be so callous about what was likely to be Bella's bloody and painful death?

With a glance at my furious expression, Rose sniffed dismissively and turned her back to me. A low growl built in my chest as I watched the images in her mind of Carlisle administering morphine at the first sign of the creature's imminent birth, of him handing the bloody, screaming child over to my sister even as I sank my teeth into Bella's flawless skin, of her triumphant face as she strode from the delivery room with her prize, not bothering to care enough to stay and see if Bella would live.

...Mister Overreaction himself will probably end up just killing her instead of changing her, and then have the nerve to blame me for it! ...as if I haven't tried to prevent that fate from the start... have just let the van crush her and been saved all his melodrama...

As the image of me with bright red eyes standing over Bella's bloodless corpse flashed through her mind, I decided I'd had as much of her attitude as I could stand. I didn't care what Emmett or Carlisle or even Esme would say about it. I had wrestled with my brothers countless times, and there was nothing I could do that would really hurt her, but if it got Rosalie to shut the hell up with the mental taunts - which none of them could hear to even care about - then it would be well worth their censure.

Aside from that, I wouldn't need to do more than tackle her to the ground. The sting of humiliation which that alone would cause her for being caught off guard by me, of all people, would be immensely satisfying. My fingers curled into claws and my muscles coiled to spring as I strategized. One hand grasping an arm and the other snagged in her hair - just for the fact that that would bother her the most - I could heave her off the chair and pin her to the floor so that I could lean close to whisper into her ear -

Allow me.

Surprised, I paused and glanced at Jacob. He could tell from my expression and position that I intended to launch myself at Rosalie, but he was smiling grimly and picturing her storming from the room in a fit of rage, while I stayed where I was. My curiosity piqued by whatever he was planning, I decided any action he chose would be just as sweet a revenge. Rose and I at least loved each other; she and Jacob had no such connection.

Relaxing my posture gave him tactic permission to act. Jacob took the bowl she had shaped into a dog dish and with a flick of his wrist nearly as powerful as a vampire could have accomplished, he flung the bowl directly at the back of my sister's head. The bowl rebounded and flew across the room where it broke the end off the stair rail. I was quite impressed by the force he must have used, but even that hadn't hurt Rose in the slightest. I was aware of her moment of outraged shock as bits and pieces of food which had clung to the metal bowl rained down on her, but that was all.

The noise from the metal bowl impacting Rosalie and then breaking the wooden post penetrated Bella's sleep enough that she twitched, but she didn't wake.

"Dumb blonde," Jacob muttered.

Slowly, showing herself the master of her emotions in a way I had never been, she turned to face him. She seemed to feel that rising to his attack would give him the upper hand, but maintaining her apparent haughty calm would give her the advantage. Allowing her fury to show in her eyes, but not in her voice, she said, "You. Got. Food. In. My. Hair."

Jacob leaned away from Bella to avoid jostling her and let loose with a laugh that brought tears to his eyes.

Though Bella had slept through the noise the bowl had made, Jacob's amusement woke her. "What's so funny?" she asked in a slurred voice.

"I got food in her hair," Jacob explained.

"I'm not going to forget this, dog," Rose promised.

I held back a smirk of pleasure. I'd have to remember to thank Jacob for his intervention.

"S'not so hard to erase a blonde's memory. Just blow in her ear."

"Get some new jokes," Rose snapped.

"C'mon, Jake. Leave Rose alo-" Bella's eyes widened, and she hissed through her teeth.

As Bella began to react to the motion of the fetus within her, I snatched the blanket out of the way. Her back arched and her stomach moved, but Bella locked her teeth against the pain she must have been feeling.

"He's just stretching," she said as her breaths hitched.

Looking for any signs that the sudden movement of the fetus meant it was trying to be born, I placed my hands carefully against her petal-soft, slightly sunken cheeks and stared into her eyes. There was a crease between them and a hint of fear within them as she locked her gaze with mine. I'd used my charms to dazzle her many times and wondered if it were possible to use them to distract her from the pain my spawn was causing. She panted and gripped the couch, but showed no indication that she believed the child to be coming now.

Attempting to maintain at least an outward calm for her sake, I spoke my father's name in a low, steady voice.

"Right here," he said as he appeared beside me. ...be a difference in her reaction when it's simply moving and when it is ready to be born? ...hard to gauge a timeline without the other indicators... hate being forced to guess based on her size!

The tension left her shoulders and she smiled slightly, though she continued to breathe shallow and fast. "Okay. Think it's over. Poor kid doesn't have enough room, that's all. He's getting so big."

...really hard to take that adoring tone for the thing that's tearing her up... throw something at her, too!

Although I wanted to snarl at Jacob for thinking of throwing something - even a pillow - at Bella, I couldn't help but agree with his disgust for her obvious affection for the creature that kept hurting her.

"You know, he reminds me of you, Jake," she panted.

"Do not compare me to that thing."

Her smile faded. "I just meant your growth spurt."

...guess I hurt her feelings... good.

This time, I didn't bother to stop my low growl at his insensitivity. How could he be glad that he had hurt her?

"You shot right up. I could watch you getting taller by the minute. He's like that, too. Growing so fast."

My mouth was unexpectedly filled with a sour, burning taste. It was all I could do not to spit in automatic reaction, but there was nothing there for me to spit out. Jacob swallowed hard and as he worked his mouth, the taste disappeared. I guessed he had bitten himself and held back a shudder of disgust. Even through the filter of his senses, werewolf blood tasted horrid.

Bella breathed deeper and collapsed back into the cushions as the fetus settled down. I took a step back, expecting Carlisle to examine her stomach, but he turned his eyes onto Jacob instead.

"Hmm." ...we were once human, but we are no longer... always considered ourselves to be a different species, the venom having changed us at a fundamental level, but modern technology has not been up to the task of experimenting with exactly how... must be more - much, much more - to vampire physiology than any of us had ever guessed at... impossible to test our venom without destroying the machinery... unlikely to ever make any laboratory equipment out of pure silver... always enjoyed a complicated medical mystery, but not one that will never be solved! Wonder if I will be able to test its blood when it is born... will it even have blood? ...be an opportunity to explore vampire genetics indirectly through the medium of the fetus...

"What?" Jacob seemed defensive and uncomfortable under Carlisle's probing gaze.

"You know that I was wondering about the fetus's genetic makeup, Jacob. About his chromosomes."

"What of it?"

"Well, taking your similarities into consideration - "

"Similarities?" Jacob interrupted.

"The accelerated growth, and the fact that Alice cannot see either of you," Carlisle explained calmly.

Oh yeah... Forgot about that one... The hostility left Jacob's face at that reminder.

When the wolf didn't challenge him, Carlisle continued, "Well, I wonder if that means that we have an answer. If the similarities are gene-deep."

"Twenty-four pairs," I said with an uneasy frown.

Jacob snorted. "You don't know that."

Ever the scientist, Carlisle agreed, "No. But it's fascinating to speculate."

"Yeah. Just fascinating."

He hadn't liked being compared to my spawn at all, and much less the possibility that they were alike in multiple ways. I wondered what the mutt would say if I were to tell him that he had more in common with us than just his physiology. Emmett shared Jacob's disdain for Carlisle's insatiable curiosity. His mental complaint of ...boooooring! matched right up with Jacob's inappropriate sarcasm. Bella added her unconscious agreement with a light snore that almost made me smile. No doubt if she were awake, she would find Carlisle's thoughts on her child to be riveting.

Jacob, however, had already dismissed the topic from his mind and returned to thinking of Rosalie's earlier points on the birth of the creature. His mind conjured a sight I would rather not have been privy to: Carlisle with his mouth opened wide - sporting a huge set of ridiculous, gleaming fangs, no less - leaning down toward Bella's swollen stomach. It seemed he had realized why the demons were said to use their teeth to free themselves from their mothers' wombs. There weren't many things which could tear through vampire skin other than vampire teeth, and the material which surrounded the fetus was very like vampire skin.

Meaning there were only two ways for the child to be born: either it would bite its own way free of Bella's body, or we would do so.