43. Homecoming

Bella took slow, shaky breaths. Her shoulders were rigid, her fingers pressed into the tender flesh of her upper arm, and if her belly had not been swollen with child, her knees would probably have been right under her pointed chin. As it was, she had curled into as tight a ball as she could manage.

"Love, don't you give anything Leah said one more thought."

She shook her head and stopped breathing. Already tense, her body started to tremble from the strain of holding back her tears.

Damn that miserable wolf girl!

It was not good for Bella to be so upset. She was under enough stress as it was; she hadn't needed to be insulted on top of everything else. I was going to have words with Jacob about Leah when he returned! As he would, of course. And when Bella saw Jacob, it would only drive home Leah's accusations.

Yet still, I had no doubt that she would flash him that wide, beautiful smile... while insisting to everyone that it was me she wanted.

I shook my head in confusion, but then smirked and decided to reinforce that want. There was no way we could be intimate, but there was more than one way to express love. Slowly, so as not to jar her, I shifted onto my elbow and slid my hand from her stomach to her shoulder before letting my fingers graze down her arm.

Bella shivered and started breathing again, encouraging me to keep going.

My fingers slid back up to her shoulder so I could move her silky hair to the side, and then prised her fingers carefully away from her arm so I could link mine through hers. The tantalizing curve of her throat was exposed, and I pressed my lips along her hairline. There was a sudden surge in the strength of her scent as I began to kiss down her arm. My fingers slipped from hers so that I could reach farther and graze my hand down her hip and thigh. I barely dared to touch her, but now that I had started, I couldn't stop memorizing her new shape.

"Edward," Bella breathed.

"Yes?" I moved back up to nuzzle my favorite soft spot under her ear.

"That's..."

"Mmm?" My lips traced the round corner of her jaw, coming close to, but not quite reaching her mouth. The taste of her lips would have swept away the last of my self-restraint. The skin of her throat was tantalizing enough as it was. I made my way back to the tip of her shoulder.

"Really... really... mean."

I laughed as she started to giggle.

"I'm sorry, love," I whispered into her ear. "You're upset. I was only trying to distract you."

"Well, it's working, but I can't do anything about it right now!" She turned her head to pout at me, but her eyes were dancing with laughter.

I brushed my fingers against her cheek, wiping a few tears away in the process. It had been so long since she had lain in my arms like this, and I wondered if she could have missed my touch half as much as I had missed hers. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her as close to me as I dared. "God, Bella, I've missed you so much!"

She rocked her hips lightly, pressing her backside against me, and said, "I can tell."

"Now who's being mean?" I groaned into her hair.

We laughed quietly, as though we were back on her small bed with Charlie in the next room.

I hoped our baby would fall back asleep, but his displeasure from Leah's angry voice had yet to fade, and our whispered words were frustrating him. He pushed out with his feet, and Bella tensed against the mounting pressure. She sighed with relief when he pulled his legs back to himself, but grunted as he then began to fidget.

"Bella, say something."

"Like what?" Her voice was tense as she held her breath against reacting to EJ's movements within her.

"You need to let him know when you hurt."

"Huh?"

"How will he know he needs to be careful if he doesn't understand that his movements are hurting you?"

She frowned, but didn't argue. Her lower lip poked out, and I tried to guess where her mysterious mind had taken her.

Finally my curiosity won, and I voiced the question I had asked so many times before. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm trying to wrap my head around how he can understand anything at this point."

"Oh. Well, he has no frame of reference, so our words mean very little, but he loves the sounds you make. Your body is extremely noisy."

My teasing tone elicited a laugh, which he liked almost as much as I did. He squirmed, but this time, when his movements inadvertently hurt her, instead of holding back her cry, she let it out and pressed against the pain. He pulled his limbs back to himself as much as he was able, and Bella sighed in relief as she rubbed circles over the spot.

Moving inhumanly slowly, I scooted down to lay my head in the hollow of her waist so that I could listen to the sounds of her body along with him. I supported myself on one elbow and wrapped the other arm around her legs. My head was so close to his, separated by only a few thin membranes. My eyes closed as I concentrated on listening to Bella's body through the filter of our baby's thoughts.

Her breathing returned to its normal steady - if shallow - pace, her pulse was slow and irregular, and her belly made strange pops and squeaks as her digestive system performed its functions. Along with hers, I could hear the thrumming of his tiny heart, so much faster than a human baby's would have been beating. But it was beating! Our baby's heart beat!

In the absence of any other sounds, their heartbeats and her breathing were loud to my ears, but their rhythms didn't match. Bella's irregular pulse threw off what could have been an interesting pattern. Quite different from the steady pace which I had listened to for so many nights, her arrhythmia created a sense of rising anxiety in me as I subconsciously tried to will the two pulses into synchrony.

"Your heartbeat is pleasing to him, but he especially likes the sound of your voice," I prompted, hoping she would speak for his sake and mine. He hadn't liked her cry of pain, and hung in motionless uncertainty.

The unexpected pleasure of her fingers running through my hair made me gasp. Only slightly warmer than the air in the room, they still seemed hot against my skin. My eyes rolled back in my head as her fingers left tingling trails of warmth over my scalp. Her stomach was hotter where I had my cheek pressed against it, but there was something special in the magic of her willing touch. I sighed, content for the first time since I'd left her to hunt in the jungles of Rio.

A low groan escaped me as I wished I hadn't thought of hunting. Now I was aware of a different kind of warmth, one which burned instead of soothed.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Sorry?" I scoffed. "Whatever for?"

"Just, everything. All this."

"Do you mean you're sorry for giving me more than I could ever have dreamed, or for being willing to put up with me while you do it?" I smiled as I looked up to meet her eyes, but she shook her head and frowned. "This is about what Leah said, isn't it?" I didn't need to wait for her to answer and growled in fury, "She had no business saying any of that to you!"

"You don't mean that. It's not like you haven't said the same things before. Charlie, my friends, all the human stuff you keep telling me I'll miss."

"Like having children?"

"Well..."

"And you already have a plan for keeping Charlie in your life."

"If it works."

"Why wouldn't it?"

"What about Dartmouth?"

"Have you forgotten where we met? So our college plans will be delayed for a little while. We will go someday."

She frowned at me in silence as I traced patterns on her stomach. EJ watched curiously, but the image he held in his mind was of fingers which were much finer than mine. When I plucked her hand from where it rested on the bed beside her and placed it where mine had been, he instantly cheered and reached for the shadows her fingers made.

"Alright, what gives? I don't need you telling me what you think I wanna hear, so cut it out."

"Do you think we will never go to school again? Wouldn't that be nice. Teenagers can be so irritating."

"The last time I checked, you were still seventeen."

"No, ma'am. I am one hundred and five, thank you very much."

"Well, I'm eighteen."

"I know," I said smugly.

"Um... did you just call me irritating?"

I answered with only a chuckle.

"Edward!"

EJ jumped at her playful exclamation, but when Bella made an inarticulate noise from the unexpected pain, he started rubbing the spot he had bumped even before her hand made it there.

"Sorry, baby," she cooed. "I forgot you can hear me."

He could, though, and was soothed by her voice and the shadow of her hands.

After a short pause, she teased, "So, I'm irritating, huh?"

"Love, you have no idea how frustrating it is not to be able to read your mind."

"Well, that's not my fault."

"Perhaps not, but knowing what you're thinking would be a relief."

"You know, the rest of us can't read anyone's minds, and we get by alright."

I snorted. "I don't know how. Just when I think I've got you figured out, you surprise me."

Bella giggled. "See? And you wondered why I hate surprises."

"Mmm, no. I love your surprises. Between mine and Alice's gifts, being surprised by anything makes for a nice change. Too much predictability makes life stale."

"If you could read my mind, you do realize I wouldn't be able to surprise you anymore, either."

"Oh, I have no doubt that you," I touched a finger to the tip of her pert nose, "would still find a way."

She spent several quiet minutes combing her fingers through my hair and watching my eyes before saying, "You weren't so optimistic before."

"Isabella Cullen, I get to spend the rest of eternity married to mother of my child, and I intend to spend every second of every day trying to make you as happy as that makes me."

"Every second?"

"Well, I suppose we'll have to stop and hunt at some point."

As we laughed, I was pleased to see that her tears had finally stopped, and her eyes were drooping as she blinked sleepily. I didn't look away from her face, but my mind focused on our child's. Our laughter had pleased him, but rather than wiggle or stretch, he sought the shape of her hands so that he might touch them. I relinquished the one I had reclaimed - the other was still combing my hair - and pressed it against her stomach so he could see it again.

"What?"

"You have beautiful hands."

She gave me a strange look before frowning at where I had placed her hand. "Is that your opinion, or his?"

I shrugged. "We're in agreement." I lightly stroked a finger down the back of each one of hers while he patted her palm.

A wolf-howl pierced the relative silence of the morning. My head snapped in the direction of the windows as I reached out for Seth's thoughts. He was out of my range, but his sister wasn't, and I heard his thoughts through hers.

...coming in fast! Two of 'em, I think...

Get back here, now!

Leah was already on her way to meet him, but even as fast as she was, they would get to him first.

Bella gasped and her eyes grew wide as she recognized what Seth's howl meant. "Who?"

Seth relaxed as he caught a whiff of the now-familiar burn, and Leah slowed her headlong sprint in his direction. Seconds later, my siblings came to a halt in front of the sandy-colored wolf. Jasper gave him a curt nod, while Alice leaned around him to give Seth a grin.

"I'm so glad you howled! I've been trying to find a way around you for the past half-hour."

"If you had listened to me - " Jasper began.

"Yes, yes, it wouldn't have taken nearly that long." Alice stuck her tongue out at my brother before giving Seth a stern glare. "But you aren't supposed to be out this far!"

Seth gave her a wolfish grin in response and started chuffing as he joined them in their run home. It was a relief to have my family back, to know that they were safe. I may have protested to Bella that there was no danger, but God knew I had been wrong often enough lately.

And perhaps I was again. Why was Carlisle not home? Where were the others?

I gave Bella a reassuring smile and slid off the bed, trying to move her as little as possible. "Alice and Jasper are home."

"Just them?"

I nodded. "I'll be right back, alright?"

"Um. O...kay." The line of stress was back between her eyes, but if she wanted reassurances, I couldn't give them to her yet.

Rose had heard the howl as well as my comments to Bella and was already heading toward my room.

I let her in before she could knock and answered her unspoken questions as I reached for the door that opened onto the balcony. "Yes, please, and I don't know, yet."

Although part of me wanted to run out into the forest in order to question them that much faster, I wasn't willing to go so far away from Bella. Instead, I leaned against the railing and waited impatiently. When Alice and Jasper finally got close enough for me to hear their minds - what had Seth been doing so far out? - they both began thinking of their trip to town and why they were back without the others.

I grumbled in frustration at the humans' bureaucracy. Why were there ever shortages of blood? Didn't humans realize that donating could save their own lives, or that of their loved ones?

It wasn't as though giving blood harmed them; their bodies constantly made more and would quickly replace any that was taken. With a city as large as Seattle nearby, I'd have thought the local Red Cross would be better supplied. Or perhaps they were withholding some in case of an emergency. Sure, Carlisle had asked for quite a lot, but didn't they understand that this was an emergency? We wouldn't have asked for so much if it weren't necessary!

I went back inside to quickly explain to Bella and Rose what I'd heard before going downstairs to greet my returning siblings.

A second later, they were standing in front of me on the porch, and Alice was blowing Seth a kiss goodbye. His tail waved jauntily as he headed back out to run with his sister.

What is it now? What could have happened? Jasper thought as he sampled my emotions.

"I'm not sure where to begin..." I mumbled, abruptly dazed by the changes that had occurred in the short time since they'd left.

Alice gasped, her face going blank as a vision of me formed in her mind. My smile as they ran up to where I waited had surprised her, but she watched me laugh in her vision now in shocked disbelief. And I did laugh, with delight, as my dilemma of what to tell them was solved when I heard myself saying, "Jasper, you have to..."

"Jasper, you have to come and feel Bella's baby."

His mouth dropped open. Excuse me?

"You did feed, didn't you? Let me see your eyes."

"Y - What - Hey! What the - Get off!" He shoved me away when I pounced on him and tried to angle his head toward the light so I could see the color better. "Yes, I fed." ...measly couple o' deer, but better than nothin'.

"Good! Come on." I made to grab his arm and tug him into the house, but he evaded me.

Alright, who are you, and where is my brother? "You talk first. What happened?"

I glanced back at the house and let my emotions swell. The awe I felt toward the mind of the child and the very fact that it was mine and Bella's child at all, as well as everything I felt for Bella herself washed over my brother. Jasper groped blindly for Alice, who already had a hand held out to steady him.

"I heard him. The babe Bella is carrying. I can hear his mind."

Jasper blinked in surprise. "Really?"

I nodded.

"How? And what?"

"He's not human," I said with a shrug. "We knew that already, of course, but I think we failed to appreciate just how much of a difference being part vampire would make."

"Like...?" Alice drew the word out, making it a request for specifics.

Attempting to make sense out of the emotions he could detect, Jasper was frowning in the direction of my room as though he could see Bella through the walls and floors that separated them.

"I don't want to say anything else until you've had the chance to see for yourself."

Not needing any more prompting, he headed toward the stairs, but paused with his foot hovering over the lowest step. An image flashed in his mind of their run home. At first, Alice had lead the way, but it had not taken Jasper long before he had demanded they switch. Running after the tiny girl who was carrying a bag full of blood over her shoulders had made him feel unpleasantly like he was hunting his own mate. Nevermind that the bag was insulated and the units sealed, their contents undetectable, he'd known she had human blood on her, and that had been enough.

There's no... in the room with her... if she's drinking... He licked his lips and swallowed hard, unable to continue, but I didn't need to hear his thoughts to know what worried him. If Jasper smelled blood coming from Bella's cup, he was well aware that he wouldn't even hesitate - and that it wouldn't be the cup he would lunge for.

"No, Jazz. It's safe. Alice?" I gestured for her to precede me as he resumed his climb and followed them both up to my room. As we walked, Alice watched him with her brow puckered and her lips pursed in concentration, but her mind was frustratingly empty of any visions.

Her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed with distrust, Rose stood between Bella and the door as Jasper held his breath and edged warily inside. There might not have been exposed blood in the room, but he wasn't taking any chances. She eyed him, judging whether or not he was in control of himself and noting the color of his eyes. Though not very light, they were definitely gold and no longer flat black. She glanced at Bella over her shoulder, but one look at her expression told us all that Bella understood why I had wanted Jasper to join us.

Bella's eyes were bright with excitement as she rubbed circles over her stomach. "Can you feel him?"

He closed his eyes and opened his gift to the emotions in the room. After a moment's concentration, he looked at me and thought, It would be clearer with less people.

"Let's give them a little room," I suggested.

Irritated that both mine and Jasper's gifts worked on Bella's baby when hers was barely functioning at all, Alice flounced out of the room with a huff to deposit the few units of blood which Carlisle had been able to procure into the cooler. Rose and I followed her as far as the hall, leaving Jasper to inch closer to where Bella reclined on my bed. Alice rejoined us quickly, and the three of us tried to remain inconspicuous while staring at the two of them.

He shot us an annoyed glance; retreating to the hall had done nothing to remove us from his senses. I gave him a grin and shrug in response and gestured for him to carry on anyway. Rose wasn't about to leave him alone with her, and I simply didn't want to leave. Responding to the anticipation and excitement that Bella, Rose, and I were exuding, Jasper's lips curved into a smile, and he turned his focus toward Bella and the babe within her.

...she's happy like I haven't seen since the wedding. More, if that's possible.

Usually I was grateful for the differences in mine and Jasper's gifts. I'd seen enough of how others' emotions affected him to have no desire to experience them for myself. Over the years, I'd learned to interpret what I sensed in others' minds, but their emotions didn't affect mine in the way they did Jasper's. Now, for perhaps the first time, I wished I could feel along with him. I was aware of his gift working as he soaked up what Bella and EJ were feeling, but I was unsure of what he truly felt or from whom.

He glanced back my way, almost seeming to seek permission, before moving closer to Bella. He stopped when he was near enough that he could have touched her if he chose and closed his eyes in concentration. Rose gasped, but when he reached out to gently place a hand on Bella's stomach, I grinned, recognizing my own almost compulsive desire to touch the incredible being I could sense within the girl I loved.

He stood without moving for many long minutes. None of us spoke, the only movement in the house came from Bella as she breathed. So slowly that a human wouldn't have been able to see it, his face began to change. The frown creasing his brow smoothed out, and his lips relaxed.

Bella's face fell when he turned without speaking and strode from the room, but I saw his intentions and started laughing. My brother's eyes were alight, and a grin spread across his face as he swept Alice into his arms.

...it's extraordinary... thought the love I've been feeling from Bella was unusually strong, but I hadn't accounted for how it might feel about her!

Jasper briefly met my eyes over Alice's shoulders before I hastened to kneel by the bed where my beloved Bella lay. I couldn't speak, overwhelmed by the emotions which Jasper was picking up and broadcasting back to us. Instead, I cupped her face in one hand so that I could trace the lines of it with my other: the crease between her brows, her high cheekbones, her soft lips - one just a little larger than the other - down to her pointed chin.

"What?" Bella asked. "What happened?"

Alice mumbled something, but Jasper was pressing her face so tight into his chest, her words were muffled.

He pulled away from her and laughed when he saw Alice's disgruntled expression. Her tiny nose was wrinkled, and her lips were pursed, but her eyes were dancing with laughter.

He explained, "Bella is right about her. I believe I may have overlooked the child's emotions because they are so like her mother's."

"His mother," I corrected with a laugh.

He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. If you say so.

He'd use up all of his air, so he simply flashed Bella a grin before looping an arm around Alice's shoulders and steering her toward the stairs while she prattled at him.

"Does this mean I get to start picking out little tuxedos and sailor suits and oh! Oh! I want everyone in matching outfits for a family portrait, but they can't be anything boring maybe something from - Oh! Jazz! Dior. They're coming out with an amazing winter collection they'll be announcing next month, and I can't wait till you see what I'm going to pick out for you and Emmett and don't you dare peek, Edward!"

I met Bella's eyes as Alice's high-pitched voice faded when she and a very patient Jasper went outside to wait. "I suppose nothing can stop Alice from seeing the next fashion trends."

Bella chewed on her lip nervously. "Did she say sailor suits?"

I laughed and climbed back onto the bed where I'd been when Seth had howled. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll make sure Alice knows you have veto power over all clothing choices."

Bella breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Thanks."

"To be fair, life is much easier when you let her have her fun. Who wants to worry about what they have to wear when there are so many more interesting things in the world?" I nuzzled her hip. "Like you. And him."

"Jasper thinks it's a girl?"

I shrugged and sighed as her fingers found their way back into my hair. "Would you care?"

"No. Just, he feels like a him. Whenever I picture him, I see a boy."

"Yet another reason I wish I could read your mind. I would love to see that image."

She laughed. "Oh, that's easy. He looks like you, of course."

"Hmph. And here I've been thinking he'll look like you."

Bella's quiet laugh turned into a yawn.

"Sleep, love. Hopefully by the time you wake, Carlisle will have returned, and we can see which of us he looks like for ourselves."

She sighed and settled herself into the pillows. I had sung Bella to sleep many times, and I flashed a grin at her as an idea occurred to me. I moved so that my lips were right next to EJ's ear and began to hum the lullaby I had written for Bella when I first fell in love with her. Making sure to separate the notes clearly, I hummed the tune far slower than I normally would have, but the child listened, enthralled. When I reached the end of the song, I started over, but this time at it's normal speed. He heard the difference instantly, and recognized it as the tune that had been plaguing him.

Despite being muffled by the fluids in which he floated, EJ's hearing had improved since he'd first become aware of sound a few hours earlier. When he replayed the tune in his mind now, it was no longer disjointed and irritating, but a perfect repetition of my voice.

I kept humming even after they both fell asleep.