Chapter Nineteen

Inside the Volturi Castle, safe away in her private chambers belonging to her and her newlywed vampire husband, one could find Isabella "Bella" Marie Volturi holding a goblet of human blood.

She still was not a vampire, though she knew it was only a matter of time before she would become one. The baby inside her stomach was rapidly growing. Each week was a month in pregnancy, her stomach had begun to swell even larger now and her body was beginning to become battered and bruised from the baby kicking around inside of her. Her cheekbones were shallow, and her hair was always unkempt, her eyes were tired, but she still smiled at those around her.

She had been pregnant for three weeks now when she learnt she was pregnant.

She had only gone a few days after she arrived back home from Rhodes before realizing she had to drink human blood. The disappointed expressions upon her ex-family in the background as she took the first sip of human blood aggravated her.

They didn't want her to have accepted the pregnancy immediately, for though she had been nervous and worried she had come to love the baby inside her. It was hers. Produced by love from her and Alec, how could she not love it?

They had learnt she must be giving birth to a gifted baby, for every time that her bones would break from the rapid growing a few seconds later they would heal back in their normal places. The weight loss and tiredness couldn't be completely taken away, the pregnancy was still taxing for her. It still was taking everything out of her.

Her eyes went towards the doors of the chambers as they opened, revealing Carlisle drifting into the room with a clipboard to take notes on the pregnancy as it would progress while wearing that stupid doctorate coat. It made him look as though he knew better than she did about the pregnancy all because he went to medical school. Yeah well, what was happening right now wasn't something that they could cover in medical school, could they? (Note Bella's heavy sarcasm)

He hadn't been one who was on her side when it came to the pregnancy, he had said it would be best if she took care of the embryo before it would kill her. It didn't help when he had Edward join in and claim the same thing, but neither of them was the father of her baby so she saw no reason why they should be the ones who would decide what would happen with the baby.

"Good morning, Bella."

Bella pressed her lips together, behind her was Jane.

Jane was picking up things that were throughout the chambers to put them away in their proper places. She made sure to help bathe Bella, had told her it was her body and her choice if she wanted to keep the baby. She, herself, would not have kept the baby if she were the pregnant one instead of Bella. Still, she would be here for Bella through the whole pregnancy and would still be there for her if she decided in the end to abort the baby instead of keeping the baby after all.

"Hello, Carlisle," Bella said before she took another sip of her blood as soon as she could have the opportunity to do it in front of his face.

She pulled the goblet away from her lips and allowed Carlisle to pick up some napkins for her to clean off the blood from her mouth. She could see the disappointment still upon him.

"Are you certain you want to drink human blood? I–"

"Carlisle, I insist that you stop trying to change my blood diet, because I was going to drink human blood after I became a vampire. Nothing's wrong with getting a little practice in, isn't there?" Bella joked, earning a snicker from Jane behind her in amusement. She enjoyed the fact that Bella had gotten sassier each day she was pregnant.

Carlisle looked as though she had slapped him harshly across the face for the statement that came from her was the honest truth.

Maybe once upon a time she would feel guilt for the statement she had just said, or the annoyance that was clear on her face. She didn't feel any guilt, he had easily abandoned her along with the rest of the family after the whole ballet studio, amnesia, and James thing.

She brought her hand up and touched her stomach, her eyes widening when she swore, she could feel a little hand press up against her stomach. She smiled some and looked up once again, finding that Carlisle was standing near the open balcony to look out at the rolling Italian hills in the distance. It was quite a view that Bella would admit she would never grow tired of, even in immortality, along with sharing that immortality with her husband and infant.

The doors of the chambers opened once more, making Bella groan in annoyance. She swore she would yell at the next person who would enter these chambers without her permission. She calmed down when she noticed that Alec was coming with a little bit of irritation coming from him, himself, when he turned and saw Carlisle still in the chambers. He was in the sitting room of the chambers while Bella still laid on her bed, with some of the windows opened to let in some fresh breeze.

Alec reached his wife and Bella grabbed his cold hand as soon as he got close enough for her to do so. She placed his hand on her growing stomach, where he could sense his baby inside of his wife.

Again, the baby moved, and Bella smiled as Alec gave a gentle smile towards the belly. He didn't touch her belly unless she was the one who was insisting him to, as though he was afraid that if he touched her belly, he would cause her immense pain, or the thing was a fever dream in the end.

"He's a little fighter like his daddy, isn't he?"

Bella joked from her spot on the bed, making Alec arch one of his eyebrows up before he sat down next to his wife. In the background Carlisle went to gather his medical supplies and leave the chambers all entirely. At least he knew when to read the room finally, even if it happened to take longer than they wanted him to.

"What makes you think that it's a boy? What if it's a girl?"

"It's a boy because I said it's a boy. I know that we haven't really talked about names in the past…are you okay with doing that now?" Bella probed, earning a conflicted expression upon her young husband's face.

"I haven't really thought about naming the baby to be honest. I thought that if we named the baby something would happen to it and then…"

Bella reached her hand out and placed it on Alec's, allowing him to know that she understood what he said. She didn't know if it was possible, she could have a miscarriage while pregnant with a half vampire baby, but she did know that she couldn't just let her future child not have a name regardless of if they weren't born alive.

"I was thinking Atticus Oliver if it's a boy," Bella started, earning a nod from Alec to let her know that he didn't think the name was horrid. In fact, he smiled some.

She added what she thought of what to name their baby if it was a girl, "and if it's a girl Birdie Wren. Though I don't think a boy would care to be called Birdie Wren."

Alec chuckled at his wife and rolled his crimson irises at her before he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. He leant his nose against her throat and just took in the sweet floral scent that was always concentrated at the pulse points. His mouth began to fill with vampiric venom, but they had promised he'd change her after they would perform the cesarean.

There was a hardened shell around the uterus that wouldn't allow them to see what sex the baby was. It was odd, they could see a vague outline of the baby, but nothing too concrete and they could tell there was only one baby. So, there weren't going to be any surprise twins that were going to come out when they thought that they only had one.

And so, they decided that the baby's name was going to be Atticus Oliver if it was a boy and Birdie Wren if it was a girl.

They didn't tell anyone else in their odd family, finding there was no reason why they couldn't just keep it to themselves for the time being. They deserved to have their own secrets, their own things to keep away from others for a while. It was only fair for them, Bella was the one who was pregnant, and Alec was the one who was the father, it was the least of what they deserved from their strange family.

There was one time that Carlisle switched out the human blood with animal blood without the Volturi thinking he would go over their heads and do this.

It had an effect on Bella.

One that they hadn't thought could happen, then again this wasn't a situation that was common in the vampire world. She had thrown up all the blood that Carlisle had given her, and some of her own blood also. She had to be strapped to her bed and forced a blood transfusion to bring back some blood to her blood stream.

It was Bella's decision on what to do with Carlisle after she had recovered some from the blood transfusion. She had peered up at Carlisle with confusion in her brown eyes, wondering why he would think that it was okay to go over her head and do this.

She wasn't religious in any means, but she let him pray over her, she let him use his faith for her when she found no reason for it. So, she thought that he would accept her beliefs and let them happen even when he thought that it was wrong of her to have those beliefs, but she was extremely wrong.

Alice was the only saving grace for Carlisle, for Aro would have sent the Volturi after any patient of his that he had taken care of in the past decade that were still alive and slaughtered them (except for children and babies, those were never killed by the Volturi). Carlisle had cared for so many people, and the thought of him ending their lives because of his selfish beliefs on how the baby should get its source of blood from was enough for him to lock himself away in a few days and starve himself. He had learnt his lesson and kept his opinions to himself.

Today, Bella sat outside on the balcony that overlooked the garden and the rolling Tuscan hills. A sun umbrella was over her head, and she wore sunglasses. Her wedding ring had gotten too big on her wedding finger (the extreme weight loss had shrunk the size of her fingers), so she wore it around her neck in a chain. She was dressed in a white long sleeve cotton dress that had nothing special to it, just something easy to wear if she grew too tired and needed to take a nap for a while.

She was nearing the end of the pregnancy and no human servant of the Volturi knew what she looked like now. She had claimed she didn't want them to see her like this, as though she was some walking corpse. She also didn't want them to know about the pregnancy because of the fact that some of them would think they would need to get impregnated by a vampire in order for them to become vampires in the future.

Her hand reached down and touched her protruding stomach, her fingers lovingly brushing against it. She hummed some, a little lullaby she remembered Renee singing to her when she was very little. She didn't know if she would remember the lullaby when she would become a vampire in order to continue it for her own child but that didn't matter. She had long since accepted the fact that she would lose some more memories after she would become a vampire.

"Bella."

She closed her eyes and took in the sweet scent of the flowers that were still growing and blooming around her despite the fact that it was nearing mid-November. She leant her head to the side and allowed what little sunlight touched her to warm her up some more. She needed this energy from the sun, she needed these vitamins. She needed out of the damn bedroom chambers of hers, and if this was the only other place, she could go then so be it.

"It's time for your blood transfusion again."

Bella could hear her sister-in-law's footsteps coming towards her. She moaned in annoyance and opened her eyes, ever since the incident with Carlisle she actually needed blood transfusions because the baby took some of hers whenever she drank blood of the Volturi victims. The baby never did that before, her precious Atticus never did this before. She didn't know if she would forgive Carlisle for doing that, for making her son hurt her without meaning to.

"No. Go away. I'm sunbathing while I still have the chance to."

"It won't take too long, Bella. You've become a pro at it. Kind of a surprise though, you are being pro at something, huh?" Jane joked, as she helped her pregnant sister-in-law up from the chair and into the wheelchair that was used most days to get her around the chambers and into the bathroom or onto the balcony.

"I want him gone."

Silence.

"I…okay, well I–"

As though she remembered she needed to be more specific, Bella quickly added, "not Atticus, never Atticus. I want Carlisle gone from this castle after I have Atticus. I won't have him jeopardize my child after he is born. I won't be surprised if he is researching what's happening to me and seeing if there's a way to kill the baby during the cesarean. As soon as it's possible for you to get the baby out of me I want Alec to use his powers in Carlisle."

"I was wondering when the Volturi in you was going to show up. If it's one thing that our family is good at, it's revenge. I won't let him hurt you or my nephew. I promise you that," Jane vowed, her teeth gleaming some from the venom that was drenched in her mouth.

The way her eyes twinkled in excitement at the thought of kicking Carlisle out of the castle made Bella know for certain that her sister was going to follow through with her vow. It made her even more glad that Jane had been her designated helper through all of this. She was going to be by her sister's side when she would be having the surgery done.

Bella didn't know why the urgency to tell Jane what to do once Atticus was born was so important. She still had a week to go. She didn't have to worry too much about it, but with being on bedrest constantly all she could do was worried because she was alone in her thoughts. Being alone in her thoughts was the last thing that she needed to be.

Then the surge before the death happened.

Bella was gaining weight again, slowly but surely. Her body did not bruise much anymore, and she didn't need to have so many blood transfusions. She was smiling and color was appearing upon her cheekbones. She was happy, she was like any other pregnant woman out there waiting for her baby. The sun shined down within the bedroom chambers and the balcony, whichever of the two places she always was. She didn't have limp, messy hair that she had to have brushed out by other people because her arms were too weak. She could do that herself, thank you very much.

She was handed a cup of blood despite her assurance she didn't need it right now, only for her to bring the cup up to her lips. She took a sip and knew some part of her mind should be telling her how disgusting and degrading the act was. She would do it over and over again for the rest of eternity if it meant she would have her baby boy in her arms. She would drink blood, and not feel as though she should be damned for it–looking at you, Carlisle.

Rumors turned positive among the human staff of the castle. There were talks of a halfling about to be born, and from the talks of it the mother was getting better. They never spoke aloud about the baby nor about the mother, in fear that the kings would learn of their knowledge. They did not fear the baby, nor did they fear Lady Isabella Marie Volturi. She was a kind, formidable woman. She deserved to have a child…at least the majority of the staff thought this.

If sometimes a certain white-haired vampire king took care of the few humans that spoke ill of the health of his adoptive niece and future great-nephew, then so be it. He would clean the castle of the human filth and go to be with his said adoptive niece if she ever bid for him. She did not know of his doings, but he was certain if she knew she would have approved.

Bella started to lose grip on the cup as she drank from it, enough for it to fall out of her hands and onto the bed, coating the beautiful and expensive sheets in blood. Bella cried in despair and embarrassment for having done the clumsy act. She didn't know what had come over her, she had just lost strength in her hands and arms. She couldn't hold the cup, why couldn't she hold the cup?

Opening her mouth to call for Jane or for Alec, or any of her vampiric family, what came out of her mouth was not a name. In fact, what came out of her mouth was not a word at all. Instead, blood gushed out of her mouth and her back snapped, breaking her spine and paralyzing her at the same time. She could not move, black splotches appeared in her vision.

The doors of the chambers slammed open, where Alec saw his wife on the ground next to the bed. Her eyes were open, and she was stuck in a trance. Her body was twitching, and he could smell her blood mixed with the other human's blood on the floor and the sheets on their bed. He fell onto the ground next to her and went to wrap his arms around her only for him to hear a loud, "don't!"

Growling, Alec snapped his head away from where his dying, pregnant wife was and noticed that Carlisle had just arrived in time. He would be glad to get rid of the vampire right now, but it was the only time that they really needed him. His Isabella and his Atticus were dying, damn it, and he had waited over a millennium to have them.

"Why ever the fuck not?" he roared, making Carlisle sigh before he came over and crouched down next to him. His golden irises, a mockery of what they stood for, made Alec clench his jaw some but he didn't comment on the obvious fact that their diets weren't the only things that were opposing.

"I need to check on them really quick. It will be fast, then we can head to the surgical room we've set up," Carlisle informed him, making Alec nod his head and focus his attention on running his fingers through Bella's hair as though to let her know he was there with her. He wasn't going to leave her.

"A-Alec?"

Blood spilled out of Bella's mouth as she spoke, making her choke some on the blood. Alec shushed her but Bella shook her head. She couldn't feel anything from below her shoulders, she was paralyzed but he needed to know.

"Yo-You save Atticus. You-You he-hear me? You s-save our son."

Then Bella let herself float away from everything. Her eyes closed and she could feel herself being scooped up. She knew the person that was carrying her was Alec, and she knew he would protect their son. She wasn't going to die; she would be saved. Her family was strong, and they were going to make sure she would survive this. She would live to be a mother.

She was led down hallways, corridors, and she couldn't care less where they would end up. As long as she would have Atticus in her arms at the end of this, she would be fine. She didn't open her eyes, nor could she find the strength to do so. She was tired, her body ached, and she was certain she lost a lot of her own blood in the mix of dropping the cup of blood. At least the person she drank from was already dead, even though their death was a waste if she couldn't even drink the remaining blood that had been left for her.

Eventually they stopped moving and she was laid down on a medical table. Her cotton dress she sometimes wore was ripped open in the middle. Sharp, acidic pain went across both of her wrists and against her neck–even in the paralyzed state she could feel the moment that her husband had put his venom in her body. He was making sure that every bite he gave her it was his venom that was going into her body and not anyone else's.

"Wait, shouldn't we numb her?"

Jane.

Oh, sweet Jane.

She was concerned about her.

Of course she would want to make sure that Bella would have the opportunity to be numbed up before they would start the cesarean.

"No. There would be no point. She's already experiencing the pain from her spine breaking, and the venom is already in the process of starting so she'll have pain that would be worse than if we cut her open without any anesthesia. Besides, venom doesn't work with anesthesia, it would eat away any attempts of numbing the body."

The venom began to travel throughout her body as Carlisle cut her stomach open before he continued the many layers till, he reached the sack. Bella's eyes slowly opened, and she let her eyes land on the floor next to her, the cool air was welcoming, and she smiled some. She only tore her eyes away from the floor when she heard the crying of an infant.

She couldn't open her mouth; she had no idea how she was actually still conscious during this whole process but maybe it was Atticus's healing abilities that made it to where he was healing what he had done when he was coming out of the womb. The venom was the least of her problems, sure it hurt like hell, but her son was alive.

"You were right, Bella. It's a boy. I shouldn't be surprised, you knew from the very start that he'd be a boy," Alec chuckled.

The moment that Atticus was out of her body the venom continued its route. Bella's eyes widened in shock and pain at how the venom decided to strike her with a vengeance. Atticus had managed to keep the venom at bay due to the part of him that had a vampiric presence.

Now that he was out and all that was within Bella was flesh and bone…well it was obvious that Alec's venom was determined to finalize the mating bond between her and Alec. To make her his wife for all eternity, that was the goal. She opened her mouth and sobbed without speaking, for she couldn't imagine what it was like to go through this all alone and not wanted.

Eventually the fatigue came, and she passed out.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Yep, Bella had a baby boy! Little Atticus Oliver. :)

as always: Twilight doesn't belong to me

-Emmy