Chapter Three: Revealed

I breathed nervously as Renee marched towards the Cullens' front door resolutely. She must have been thinking about something positive, because she was smiling as she climbed the steps to the beautiful house with purpose in her gait. She stopped at the door and knocked.

We'd been expecting her for a while now, so as soon as she knocked, Alice opened the door.

"Ms. Dwyer, it's nice to see you again!" Alice said, wrapping her arms around Renee in a gentle hug. Renee hugged Alice back.

"It's nice to see you too, Alice," my mom said, before breaking away from the hug and scanning the room. "Where's—"

Her words got stopped up in her mouth as her gaze finally found me. I steeled myself, gulping in a supply of speaking-air.

"Hi mom," I said weakly, waving my hand. As I had with Charlie, I couldn't help but cringe from the difference in my old, distorted, human voice and my new, crystal, musical voice. "You didn't have to come all the way up here to—"

Renee didn't even listen. She just walked straight up to me, and fell down on her knees in front of me as I sat on the couch. She took my face in her hands as she studied me carefully.

"Bella," she said, after a moment's study. She didn't add anything else to it, having said it as though it was simply a fact.

"Renee," Carlisle's warm voice said from behind her. Renee spun around, standing, as Carlisle walked into the room, all smiles with Esme on his arm. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, doctor," Renee smiled, standing to greet them. "How has everything been around here?"

I very nearly frowned, and I could tell that Edward was considering the same thing as I was. This… this was all too easy. She was simply too at ease with the vampires around us. Even Charlie had a hard time, though he didn't even know what we were. He was always jittery whenever he visited us, and even when he brought Sue, who DID know, the both of them were always on edge.

But Renee… she moved among the family of vampires as though she was one of us. A vampire.

Just to check, I listened carefully. There was definitely a heartbeat in her chest. I frowned. What on earth?! How had my mother so intuited what I was, what all of the Cullens were, just based on the lilt in my new musical voice alone? From our call yesterday? Answer: She couldn't have. It was impossible.

So I just stared in confusion as she made small-talk with the other Cullens, occasionally turning and including Edward even. She still hadn't said anything to me other than my name.

But the easy part was soon done. Carlisle had everyone sit down, and Renee turned on me.

"Bella, honey?" she asked very sweetly. "Would you care to explain?"

"Well," I began, a knot forming in my throat automatically. "You see, I got really sick a few months ago—"

"Is that a granddaughter I see, hiding behind that hair somewhere?" Renee asked with a feigned gasp of surprise. She brushed my hair out of Renesmee's face and smiled. "She's gorgeous!"

Before I could say anything to stop her, Renee had already scooped up Renesmee and was holding her in her arms, completely infatuated already. Renesmee was equally infatuated, meeting her Grandma for the first time. Even if she was also a little confused, like Edward and I.

"Yeah, Edward's niece. We adopted her, because her parents—"

"Don't lie to me, Bella," Renee said, not breaking her gaze with Renesmee. "I know Charlie's eyes when I see them. And Edward, your bronze curls! They look beautiful on her!"

Renee turned her face towards us as both Edward and I were mentally scrambling to figure out what the heck was going on. Everyone behind Renee seemed to be watching in various tones of delight, ranging from mild humor (Rosalie) to hiding their mouths behind their hands and shaking with silent laughter (Alice).

"When was she born? She already looks about… two? Two years old," Renee decided, playing with Renesmee in her lap. She waited patiently, staring at us for an explanation.

Edward was much faster at coming around from our shared stupor than I was. "Well she's the size of a two-year-old, but she's more mature in some ways and less in others."

The same excuse he'd given Charlie, give or take.

Renee glanced at him, studying Edward carefully.

"That's only a half-truth, and it didn't answer my question," Renee said.

I was still blown away. Where was this super-lie-detector side of Renee coming from? Why did it have to be my mother who could sniff out the most well-thought out stories? Dang, this was so hard!

"Mom…" I began uncertainly, "…there's the public story and the truth…"

"And I want the truth, Bella," she said, looking me in the eye. "I'll know when you're lying, because I already know the truth, dear. I want to see if I can trust you to tell it to me of your own volition."

And with that, I fell back into my stupor, Edward joining me. At this point, Alice had to excuse herself from the room, and Jasper followed her. I heard sounds of restrained laughter coming from the woods outside the house a few moments later.

"You… know the truth?" I finally gasped, realizing I had used up my supply of air. That's when I finally found my tongue again. "How on earth could you know the truth?! Was it when you called yesterday?!"

Renee laughed. "No, no no dear, that was only a jog of my memory. It's been quite a while since I've visited the Cullens, or since the Cullens have visited Forks, hasn't it doctor?"

Carlisle nodded, his usual warm smile betraying his amusement at Edward's and my shocked and confused expressions.

"Nearly two decades, I'd say," Carlisle agreed.

Edward stiffened on my right. "You didn't tell me you came here!"

"At that point in time, son, Forks didn't hold what you value about it so much," Carlisle said, an amused twinkle in his eye from our twin expressions of confounded wonder.

I felt Edward wince a little next to me. Something about the way that Edward moved, and the tone Carlisle used told me that there was something else that Edward had been doing when Carlisle and the family moved here. Something Edward was not proud of.

I'd worry about it later. I turned to Renee.

"To make sure that I'll be safe telling you, how much do you know?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at my mother.

Renee sighed, as though bored. She pointed over her shoulder at Carlisle first. "In the sixteen-forties Carlisle was born, and his father was a religious nut who went on a 'vampire'-murdering spree…"

She went on to describe the transformations and backstories of almost all vampires present. She definitely used the word vampire, and I was so shocked that I didn't even hear most of her words. I just stared. I felt the room heat up, and it took much too long for me to realize that it wasn't the blush in my cheeks, since I didn't have blood anymore. I looked around as Renee wrapped it up again.

"So I want to know the truth, Bella," she said, looking me straight in the eyes. My contact lenses had long since disintegrated as she told the story, and I could immediately tell that she knew what my dark golden eyes signified, and was very proud. "First, when did it happen?"

Edward was the first to speak. "Which one, Renesmee or the transformation? Because actually, it's a strange turn of events."

Renee's attention, despite her strange attitudes today and yesterday, was diverted as soon as Edward said Renesmee's name.

"What's her name?" she said, staring down at Renesmee in her lap, who was still happy to finally meet her grandmother.

"Renesmee," I said, my voice thick. I was still in shock, to put it bluntly. How had my mother known? "Her name is like Renee and Esme, put together. Ruh-nez-mee."

"Jacob calls her Nessie sometimes, and the nickname stuck," Edward adds at my side. I sigh in defeat at the reminder.

"I like it," Renee approves, bouncing Renesmee on her knee like she didn't weigh any more than a normal toddler would. The air seemed to grow steadily hotter, and I wondered if something was wrong with the AC. Not that it should have been on… "So, I guess I'll ask about Renesmee first," my mother said, relishing the sound of the name.

"Well mom, after Edward and I left on our honeymoon, I quickly found out that I was pregnant. But, like, it appeared to be several weeks in, sort of pregnant. By the time we got back from the tropic island that Edward had borrowed—" I said, but here Renee interrupted again.

"Tropic—" she began in awe, but then shut her mouth and waved. "Sorry, interrupting. I want to hear the story. Continue."

I smiled at my mother's personality, and did as she asked. "By that time, I already appeared to be about two months pregnant. There was a hard time between everyone here, and I wish I hadn't stressed everyone out so much—"

Here Edward interrupted, leaning over and taking my hand, planting a kiss on my cheek. "None of us were stressed for ourselves, love. We were all only concerned about you."

I continued anyways, despite the intense distraction Edward was creating. After a thought from Jasper (Thank you, Jasper), Edward realized what he was doing and backed off with a grin. "—anyways, it only took days for what should have taken months. We still don't really know what happened, but Renesmee was born… about eighteen months ago today. She's half-vampire, half-human. It wasn't very pretty, and… well, to tell you the truth, I almost died."

Renee was engrossed. So engrossed, she hadn't even had enough outside attention to ask me the millions of questions she normally would have.

"And the transformation?" she asked worriedly, still hyped from my last sentence. "What happened?"

I smiled over at Edward and squeezed his hand. "Edward saved me by injecting my heart with his venom, and a little over two days later I was—" I said, waving at my body to finish what I meant. "—this."

Renee sat up, her eyes shining with mixed emotions. As I studied them, I became increasingly surprised as I found not one negative emotion. Curiosity, Pride, Relief, Joy… All of her reactions seemed almost opposite to what Charlie's first reactions had been.

"Your daughter," Edward spoke up, evidently going to add more to the story, "is the strongest, most controlled, and the most graceful person I've met since her transformation. She caught the scent of two hikers in the wrong place-wrong time, and ran away."

Here, Renee's mouth finally dropped open. There was absolutely no doubt. She knew everything; which left me one question. I shifted uncomfortably, the heat in the air reminding me of when Jacob was sitting too close to me, now that his skin felt flaming hot.

"Mom, now it's your turn," I said, staring into her eyes. "How did you know about all this?"

My mom looked slowly at me, her eyes taking their time to rest on my own. It felt like all of time had slowed down as her mouths formed the words.

"I know, because I used to live here. Your father met me at La Push, on a simple robbery case.

"I am a Quileute."

Esme was gone only for a few minutes, three at the most. Then she reappeared with towels, and a large bowl of cool water. Carlisle washed his gloves in the water, sanitizing them, and put the towels on a nearby pine branch, ready for when he would need them.

"Okay, I'm going to need you to push soon," Carlisle said softly, addressing the she-wolf.

The she-wolf yelped in agony, but did as he asked. This was it. This was it. She could do this.

Esme walked around the massive she-wolf, occasionally pouring some of the cool water across her fur to cool her off, and whispering soft words as the she-wolf did the hard work. Esme had even brought some human things to make it as easy as possible, laying a pillow down under the she-wolf's head so she wouldn't need to worry about pine needles and leaves getting stuck in her eye.

"One, two, three, push," Carlisle said, his breath soft like a breath of wind. The she-wolf did this, every few seconds. It hurt. This was agony. Pain.

'AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH' the she-wolf screamed into her thoughts, 'MAKE IT STOOOOP!'

The she-wolf whimpered again weakly, her breath catching. Spots danced before her eyes…

…then it cleared.

She gasped, her lungs swelling with air of her own, pain-free for the first time in a few months. She heard a baby human's crying, as Carlisle wrapped the startled infant and cleaned it in the towels.

Esme was nowhere in sight, and the she-wolf sighed. She was eternally grateful that the vampires knew what they were doing in this, and that Esme, despite how much mutual affection they had for each other, was out of range of smelling the blood covering the she-wolf's daughter.

"Renee, it's a girl," he said softly. He held up the infant, and placed it down between the she-wolf's legs.

Renee just stared down at her dark-haired daughter. Her eyes were a beautiful brown, like her father's, but her hair was already longish for her age and brown like her mother's.

'Did…' the great brown she-wolf thought with mixed emotions, all positive. 'Did I just throw a girl?'

Suddenly, as though she had NOT been howling in agony only seconds ago, the she-wolf got up on her paws and danced around the quivering human child, jumping and bouncing in her excitement.

'HA, HA, HA!' she thought. 'I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT— I ACTUALLY THREW A GIRL!'

Carlisle smiled, though he could not hear Renee's thoughts. He enjoyed the celebratory prancing. It was very amusing, and Renee knew it, but she couldn't help herself.

"What would you like to name her? Have you thought of a name?"

Renee nodded, calming down a little and walking over to her wide-eyed daughter, who giggled and stared up at her wolfish mother.

'Isabella,' the giant she-wolf thought, licking her daughter's face once. The tiny baby girl squealed and wriggled in the cool towels. 'Isabella Marie Swan; the werewolf's daughter.'

That's when it all began to turn south.

'Renee!' came a chortled bark. Renee stopped dancing, and looked over at the approaching black wolf, two other wolves flanking his sides. The wolves were all staring at Carlisle, who was standing there easily, a warm smile.

"It's a girl, gentlemen," Carlisle said, leaning down and beginning to pick up his doctor's equipment that Esme had brought him. "I'm sure that the mother would like some alone—"

The grey-haired wolf flanking Billy's right snarled. 'Stay right there, doctor. You're not going anywhere.'

'Quil, stop it!' Renee huffed back. 'While you three were off doing who-knows-what, the only one who was of any use to me or my daughter was Carlisle! So just back off!'

Carlisle could read the situation. The three new wolves did not look happy. The largest, black wolf in the front was staring icily into his golden eyes, though Carlisle smiled warmly back at him. Renee was at Carlisle's side, halfway shielding her new daughter, and halfway in front of Carlisle. She was defending him, that much was certain.

'Renee, stand down,' Quil thought back. 'He's a Cold One, why on earth would you defend him?'

'Oh, I don't know, let's see!' Renee growled back. 'He's saved my life at least twice now, he delivered my baby, he's actually one of the nicest people I know, and I love them all! Why can't any of you see that!? They're honest, decent people! ALL OF THEM!'

Billy took a step back, though he was the Alpha of their pack. Renee didn't get angry often, but when she let her temper loose, it was deadly.

'Renee, I can't just let him walk—' Billy began, but Renee cut him off again, howling loudly in challenge.

'I WON'T LET YOU TAKE ONE MORE STEP!' she barked loudly. 'BACK! OFF!'

The clearing grew silent, and tension grew steadily. Billy fumed.

'Which will it be then, Renee?!' he snarled out, aggressively. 'Your pack, your family, or this bloodsucking leech!'

Renee's hackles rose. Her teeth exposed themselves, and her eyes burned with fury.

'So this is it, hm? You're giving me an ultimatum?' she thought, her voice deadly calm.

'I am,' Billy's thoughts came back.

Renee stood still for a moment. She glanced angrily between Carlisle and the wolves; her innocently accused friends, and her secondary family.

After a few short minutes, her hackles slowly lowered, and her frame went limp with sudden exhaustion and fatigue. She breathed heavily as she stood up straight.

Suddenly, she phased back into a human, her clothes melting into place as she transformed. She stood up, retrieved her daughter, and stood in front of Carlisle, obscuring him from the wolves' view.

"Then I choose me," She said, staring with hard eyes at the black wolf.