Author's Note: Sorry for the delay everyone. This is mostly a transition chapter and I've been finding it kind of hard to write while still keeping things interesting.

I got a review requesting longer chapters so I'm going to try to work on that too. This chapter is average but the next one is going to be pretty extensive as are the ones that follow. I really hope to wrap up The Gift soon but there's still a lot of events to cover.

Enjoy!


BPOV

Edward and I had a few more things to arrange and discuss before we started work on our family. We weren't sure how quickly the situation might develop, so we wanted to be as prepared as possible before we tried to get pregnant.

First of all, there was the matter of my health, which Edward and Carlisle were dedicating a lot of time to. I thought I was healthy before, but I was the epitome of health now, perhaps with a few extra pounds since they thought that I would lose, rather than gain, weight while pregnant.

Second, although we knew the baby would always be loved and cared for should something happen to us, we wanted to try to figure out the god parent situation.

Third, we knew that we would have no choice but to move away from Forks. Carlisle had gotten news that some of the Quileutes were shifting into werewolves again, including my childhood friend Jacob, and we didn't want to make them aware of our baby. We planned to move in advance of my pregnancy and never return.

Finally, there was how we wanted to say goodbye to my parents. Renee would be happy with regular emails and occasional phone calls from anywhere, with little to no suspicion. Charlie would miss me though and I really didn't want to hurt him again.

Edward and I wanted to discuss some of these things privately, and thankfully, we could. We were sitting on our bed, listening to one of his favorite records.

Edward, what do you think about making Rosalie and Emmett the baby's godparents? I don't want to make the others jealous but-

It's perfect!

You really think so?

Yes, definitely. Rosalie has always wanted a baby and Emmett is like a big child himself. Edward smiled and showed me some of his memories of Rosalie talking about how much she wanted a child to love and her sincere desire to be a loving, caring mother, followed by some of Emmett's crazier antics. I cracked up laughing.

The others won't be upset?

No, they will understand. Have you given any more thought to where you would like to move to?

As long as we're together, it doesn't matter. I'd like to let everyone else decide since they're moving for us anyhow.

Alright. Me too. Those were, unfortunately, the easier topics.

Now about my parents. I think my mom will be fine with just emails and phone calls, but I don't know about my dad. I don't want to pretend to be dead. At least, not until we absolutely have to.

Do you think your dad would let you go so long between visits?

No. Maybe a year or two. That's what I'm afraid of. Can we start with just calls and emails and then hold him off a few more years at least? We can be traveling when he wants to visit or pretend to move out of the country.

I'm alright with that for right now. But what if he gets suspicious?

I wish we could just tell him.

I know, love. But then he'd be at risk too. It isn't fair to him.

But we can spend a lot of time with him before we go and then we'll talk on the phone and such.

Of course, we can.

The major issues were settled then, and I felt a lot better at least having some plans in place.

I understand what you mean now about what I would be giving up for this, but I still don't have any regrets. Although I do hate to lie to Charlie.

Me too. Changing someone isn't a decision to take lightly.

I see that now, but you know now how much I love you.

I do, but you can always remind me. He smirked and kissed me. I happily kissed him back, scooting closer to him.

One more thing before we get too distracted.

Quickly? He asked. His eyes were starting to darken just slightly in his arousal was present in his thoughts.

When do we want to do this?

Maybe after we move? Just to be safe and make sure we're settled. We don't know how long the pregnancy might last exactly.

I nodded my agreement and pulled him back to me, returning to our kiss. He pulled me into his lap, and I could feel his hardness brushing against me. It was clear that the time for talking was over for a bit, and that was perfectly fine with me.


"Rosalie?" I asked, stepping into the garage where she was working on Carlisle's Mercedes. "Can we talk to you and Emmett for a minute?"

She looked at me, her blonde hair in a high ponytail and her flawlessly manicured nails still looking as polished as a supermodel despite the highly physical work I was interrupting. She stared for a minute before she said a soft "Alright." and followed me back into the main house.

Edward and Emmett were seated at the dining room table, although mostly for my comfort. I sat down beside my husband as Rosalie joined Emmett.

"As you both know, we have decided to try to have a baby together." Edward started. He paused, and I didn't want Rosalie to be upset or feel uncomfortable knowing her human memories, so I continued for him. "And we wanted to ask you two to be the godparents."

"Really?" Rosalie asked, looking at us with a face that was impossible to read.

"Absolutely. Although, that may sometimes involve changing diapers and handling human food."

"Gross! Alright!" Emmett was enthusiastic at least. Rosalie sat still for a moment, not even appearing to breathe. Edward squeezed my hand and we waited quietly.

"I will love it like my own." she said quietly, but determinedly. "Why did you choose us over Esme and Carlisle?"

"Because they will always be its grandparents, special in their own way, but when we talked about godparents, you were our choice. Both of ours." Edward answered.

"You would trust a couple of vampires with a half human baby?" she asked me directly.

"Not just any vampires. Our family. We know that you two would never let anything harm your family."

"Thank you. And I'm sorry, Bella, for how I've treated you. I've never understood how someone would willingly choose to be a vampire. You're giving up so much more than you understand. But it makes sense now, knowing that you do really love my brother, and it means everything to me that you would choose us to protect your child. We are honored, and of course, we will love and protect the little angel at all costs."

"Thank you."

Rosalie stood up, squeezed mine and Edward's shoulders and then returned to the garage with Emmett on her heels, smiling his usual goofy smile at us on his way out. She was never one for long drawn-out conversations, and it made her sincere apology all the more precious.


Packing was easy. The rest of the Cullen family had done it at least every decade for as long as they could remember. We decided to move to Canada at first, making sure to go far enough the wolves wouldn't follow. We convinced my dad that we were going to go to college on the other side of Canada, making a visit a little difficult, but not impossible.

I spent as much time with my father as possible before we left without it seeming suspicious to him. We cooked him plenty of dinners and froze them and Esme saw to stocking up his house as well. He thought we were fussing over him too much, but he felt loved and that was really important to me. Sue Clearwater was hanging around him more, which made me feel better about leaving him alone.

Victoria was still out there somewhere, but we had decided to come home with the family now that the Volturi were involved and the newborns were taken care of at least. We were confident in their ability to track her down, or if not, in the family's ability to defend ourselves as long as we stuck together. Alice wasn't seeing her in her visions, but we weren't really concerned, assuming that it likely had something to do with the Volturi or perhaps a talented member of their guard.


Each of the Cullen couples drove either one of the cars, or a large moving truck towing one of the cars, to save some of the trouble of shipping them. Edward and I were in his Volvo. My truck was sadly left behind for now. I certainly wasn't going to be allowed to drive it while pregnant, so there wasn't much point in bringing the old girl, no matter how much I loved her.

"Are you alright, love? You're quiet."

"I'm a little sad about what I'm leaving behind."

"It's only natural. I hate that you're making sacrifices for me." he was frowning, and he reached out to hold my hand.

"I don't think you hate this one being a sacrifice."

He looked at me, adorably confused and I cracked up laughing. "My truck. I am reminiscing about my truck."

"Oh!" he shouted, chuckling along with me now that he realized it wasn't anything serious, his face returning to the normal happy glow he usually wore these days.

"I'll miss my dad, but I know he's got plenty of friends and family and that he's happy. My poor old truck however…"

"I'm sure it will survive."

"It has no one to love it. It's all sad without me."

He just shook his head and grinned, reaching to put on some music for us. I held his hand in mine and happily relaxed, thankful he didn't need it to drive. I was a little nervous about relocating, but it was hard to be afraid of anything with him by my side.


Carlisle and Esme had made a few trips to the new house ahead of us, making sure that it would be mostly move in ready when we all arrived together. They had managed to find an older house, although mansion would be more like it, surrounded by woods and ready for Esme to happily renovate it.

Alice needed no guidance at all to know which room was hers and Jasper's, happily skipping up the stairs talking about the size of the closet. Rosalie and Emmett went to examine the garage.

"Edward, Bella, follow me." Carlisle said, leading us upstairs with Esme walking behind us. This house was three stories just like the one in Forks, and we were on the top one.

Carlisle opened the door to a large bedroom with plenty of shelves already in place for Edward's extensive music collection and even a small reading nook for me. There was an attached bathroom and what I assumed was a large walk-in closet, but I was a little puzzled when I noticed there was another door on the other side of the room.

Esme walked ahead of us and opened the last door. "A nursery." she said with a smile. "I painted it a light grey for now, but you two are welcome to change it."

"Mom!" I exclaimed, excited as I ran to hug her. Edward told me once that she loved it when any of her kids called her mom. She was beaming. "It's perfect."

Edward came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. "It's not something I ever thought I would need, but a great gift. Thank you, mom, dad." Carlisle smiled at the casual name as well and they left us alone to get settled.

"This is incredible." I said.

"They've outdone themselves." he added.

"It's like our own apartment up here."

"Pretty much. It's nice not being the odd man out when the whole family moves for once."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, usually the new couples go to break in their rooms and I'm up here…unpacking music." he grinned his crooked grin at me and I cracked up laughing.

"I'm surprised you didn't just go for a run when that happened."

"I did the first few times, but after that I learned to pretty much tune everyone out."

"Sorry, but I think joining in their celebrations would be a little weird. I'm getting used to the lack of privacy, but something about knowing everyone else is doing it is a little off putting."

He laughed and pulled me in his arms, holding me tightly to him and resting his head on my shoulder. "I'm beyond thrilled to have you. That's all I need."

I closed my eyes and relaxed. "Me too." It was impossible to stop yawning once they started creeping up on me. It had been a long day.

"How about a shower and bed for the human?" he asked.

"Join me?"

"I thought you said you didn't want to join the celebration."

"Maybe I'm afraid I'll fall asleep in the shower if you don't come with me."

He laughed and shook his head. "You still surprise me."

"I figured you would have been in my head enough by now that you would know me better than I know myself."

"In some ways, I believe I do. I know how you will react to certain things, but predicting what will come out of that pretty mouth of yours-" he paused to kiss me softly. "is entirely unpredictable."

I moaned quietly when he kissed me before I could stop it. He started running his fingers through my hair. One of the benefits of sharing thoughts is he knew exactly what I loved for him to do the most, but it also meant he knew how to tease me in unimaginably, painfully sexy ways.

"Shower time." I said. He laughed and followed me. Joining the family moving celebration wasn't at all what I had intended, but one look at my gorgeous naked husband changed my mind. Thankfully, we could be mostly quiet and Edward found it much, much easier to tune out everyone else's thoughts when we were connected.


We were unpacked before I woke up the next morning and Alice had stocked our closet with new clothes without waking me during the night. She still didn't see any news from Victoria, and that was actually more of a worry than our potential pregnancy thanks to Carlisle's preparations and research, although Alice still couldn't see many details about the pregnancy either. Edward was doing his best to not worry, and we spent a lot of time just being together.

We were extremely happy just to have each other and to be at peace, without the burden of work or school or anyone interrupting our time together. We spent a couple of days resting and getting settled and then decided it was time to remove the IUD.

I was nervous, but it didn't really hurt, especially since I was relaxed knowing that it was Edward doing it and not some strange doctor. Our decision was to let whatever happened happen at that point. We were nervous, but confident that we made the right choice.

Afterwards, he treated me to a large banana split, reminding me of how he cared for me on Isle Esme. Emmett held back his innuendos at me eating the bananas, but there was a mischievous smile on his face. I simply winked back at him, causing him to crack up laughing.

"Edward, your wife is making faces at me!"

"So?" Edward asked, grinning.

"Make her stop!"

"No." he paused to chuckle. "And why are you looking at my wife?"

"She's eating food! It's so gross. I can't look away."

"Do you want a bite, Emmett?" I asked, playfully holding my spoon out for him.

"Oooh, Edward! Your wife offered me some of her banana split." He wiggled his eyebrows and both of the men, or boys rather, disappeared in a fast moving, laughing blur.

I heard crashes in the woods and was glad to see them acting normal. I was also grateful to the family for helping distract Edward from his fears and always being there to support us.

"How are you feeling, Bella?" Carlisle asked, sitting down beside me.

"Amused." I smiled. "Just a little sore, but alright."

"Would you tell me if you were hurting?"

"For something like this, yes. Edward has really grown a lot and learned to let go of some of the guilt he always feels if things aren't perfect for me, so I don't feel bad admitting when I need help anymore."

"I've noticed that lately as well. You've changed him so much, but in a good way. He's so much happier than I ever imagined he would be." There was a particularly loud crash and then fits of laughter echoing in from the yard. "Exactly." Carlisle added with a short laugh. We smiled towards their direction.

"What is it like constantly handling all of us teenagers? Or, more specifically, Emmett?"

Carlisle just smiled gently. "I wouldn't trade it for the world."

"Are you sure we can handle a baby in all of this chaos?"

"Oh yes. In fact, everyone is excited. As soon as you have a positive pregnancy test, I'm going to give the others a medical refresher and start teaching baby care classes to the family."

"That's probably a good idea. I'd imagine most of you don't remember the human parts like how often it should be fed and what things it won't be able to do at first."

"True. Although, we have to consider some other things too, like, babies can't swim, don't flush soiled onesies down the toilet, babies need sleep so don't tear the house up when it's napping…" he trailed off and I giggled.

"Emmett." we said at the same time.

"Who else?" he laughed. "It will all be fine. More than fine. You bring so much joy to the family, Bella. This is an experience we never thought we could have. Honestly, I think it will go a long way towards helping Rosalie and Esme with their pasts as well. They both have always wanted a baby to care for and spoil. You and Edward will always be its parents, but we are all going to love and care for it with great enthusiasm."

"I never thought I wanted children, honestly, until it became possible to have Edward's child. Then, it just felt like a natural extension of us. And I know it's going to grow up with more love than it can handle. I'm already so happy for it."

"We are as well. No pressure though. We love you just as much no matter what happens or doesn't happen. Please remember that."

"Thank you."

There was an even louder boom in the woods and Carlisle decided to go and break up the play fight before they attracted human attention. I washed my bowl and happily picked out a new book to read from the family's shared library, stretching out on the couch. Edward returned a few minutes later and covered me with a blanket, then made me some warm tea.

"You spoil me."

"I love you." he answered.

"I love you too." I said, kissing him softly. "Who won the fight?"

"Me, of course."

"Because you cheat, mind reader!" Emmett yelled from upstairs.

"I can't help what I hear."

"If we rematch, I will win! I'm about to go hunting anyhow. You in Jasper?"

"Hell yeah!" was his enthusiastic reply, also from upstairs.

Edward looked conflicted but didn't respond. "Go. I'm just going to relax with my book for a few hours anyhow."

"I want to be here if you need anything. I don't want you to be uncomfortable at all while you recover from removing the IUD."

"I'm fine, besides, Carlisle and Esme are here. Alice will be home from shopping soon. I'm safe. Go have fun. You may not have a chance to be wild in the woods with your brothers for a bit."

He smiled at me, kissed my head, and then took off running upstairs after Emmett. There was a loud crash and a shout of "Boys!" from Esme before I heard three vampires jump out of an upstairs window and take off at a run. I settled back in with my book and relaxed, grateful that Edward was out enjoying himself instead of worrying about me.