Sorry I got this in a bit late again. I was going to do it last night, but I was a little too tired. So here we are.

Anyway, about Renesmee... -sigh- might as well just tell you guys so there's no confusion. I will be keeping in a pregnancy. But it will in no way shape or form be the same as the pregnancy in the original BD. So when it happens, don't get pissed. There's a method to my madness. But I am sure as hell not calling her "Renesmee."

Three: Visitors

Bella was running. Faster than she ever had before. Yet her legs weighed her down immensely, keeping her in one place. She panted and gasped, grasping for anything to propel her forward. Her scenery was blurry; she had no idea where she was. Though she moved slowly, the world around her zipped past without effort. It took her a while to realize that she was in the middle of a forest. The air around her stabbed her insides and her mouth dried with each breath. All she could think to do was run. Run. Run. But from what? Though she pumped her body, she did not feel winded. All around her, she could hear the menacing rustle of trees and foliage. Whatever it was, it was following her. Watching with amusement at her futile escape attempts.

Finally, she stopped running in the middle of a clearing. The trees froze along with her, leaving only a serene vision of a meadow filled with poppy flowers. Her anxiety lessened as her fingers touched the wispy petals around her. That thing couldn't find her here. Not with the waist high flowers that brushed against her. It wouldn't dare. That's when she noticed something in front of her. Dark, rounded, and malevolent. It crept forward, breath huffing through its dripping teeth. Bella could not move. For all the running she was just doing, she couldn't budge. As it came closer to her, the details began to reveal themselves.

It was James. James, one of the first truly frightening monsters that she had ever come across. Standing before her, he was in his bat form, his slimy, scaly wings began to stretch out on his back. His claws on his hands and feet reacted like acid against the dainty flowers, killing them with a mere brush of his talon. His red eyes blared within his black face, his snout wet with the sweet scent of her skin. Bella remained still. With his ears twitching and his jaw unhinging, the terrible creature before her looked ready to eat her in one gulp.

And then, he froze. His red eyes, so menacing and eerie, turned to a creamy, milk white. His body went rigid, and on his chest, blood began to ooze from his pores. He didn't even seem to breathe anymore. As if he had been stuffed for a natural history museum. After a while, his body began to turn to ash. Starting from the tips of his wings and ending at the bottoms of his clawed feet, he dissolved into ash that blew off into the wind. That's when Bella saw what was behind him. Her heard thudded and her breath caught in her throat. The true monster stood before her now, with James nothing more than a past memory. His own red eyes were piercing and pure evil, his lips curled in a sinister smirk.

Alec stood before her now. Grinning. Watching. Waiting.

Bella awoke with a gasp, shooting bolt up in bed. Her entire body was covered with sweat, her eyes wide and her lungs drinking in air. For a while, her open eyes saw nothing but that horrid image of her dream. It took a while for her to blink away that picture, and readjust to the dim light of her bedroom. Finally, as her heart settled and her body relaxed, she put a hand to her breast and closed her eyes. She was able to calm herself. Turning to look down beside her, she saw the naked Edward still sleeping peacefully to her right. The sight calmed her. Wiping the sweat with her blanket, she leaned in and kissed his deathly cold temple. He didn't react, but kept sleeping.

She stayed there for a moment or two, petting his hair and remembering their night before. It had been so perfect, so wonderful. Why then did she have that nightmare? It was usually when her days were bad. Never when they were fantastically good. Yes, she had had this dream before. It had been two years since her kidnapping by a rogue vampire named Victoria, now dead. In an attempt to make good with a genetic vampire clan called the Volturi, Victoria offered Bella as a gift. She would have died had Alec, one of the Volturi vampires, asked to keep her after hearing that she came from the Cullens. Alec had formed a very bloodthirsty grudge against Carlisle (for all intents and purposes, Edward's father) for killing Napoleon Bonaparte, Alec's own father. Thankfully, the head Volturi brother Aro did not want a civil war on his hands, and so he allowed Bella to be rescued without bloodshed. Bella hadn't heard from Alec or the Volturi since.

And yet... there would be times when she would walk home at night and feel a presence of something threatening and omnipotent. Something that watched her make her usual trail from work to home. Something that listened to the clack of her work shoes, and the turn of her key. Whenever she was alone at night, and the wind would blow a certain way, the hairs on the back of her neck would stand up, and her ears became acute to every little sound and shift in her apartment. It had been this way ever since she started living on her own.

Removing herself from bed, she went to the bathroom to wash off whatever sweat she had left over and change into something a little more respectable than... well, nothing really. After getting dressed, she headed into the kitchen to make herself something to eat, switching on the radio as well. White noise from her radio always helped to calm her nerves, though she didn't turn it up loud enough to bother Edward. She made herself a bowl of cereal and thought to herself, her eyes going to the acceptance letter on her counter.

Oh yes. The nightmare merely pushed the good news out of her mind. Swallowing a spoon full of cereal, she picked it up and looked it over. She certainly didn't read it wrong. She had been accepted! This idea pushed out the horrible feelings her dreams gave her and allowed her mind to go elsewhere. However, this pushed it out only for a minute before she realized that she'd probably have to do a lot of scholarship hunting to make this happen. Sipping her orange juice, she began to rack her brains about every financial opportunity she'd been told about ever since getting into high school. But unless she had the memory of an elephant, merely thinking it over would do no good. So, after she finished her food, she set the dishes aside, pulled up her laptop and went to work.

For hours on end, she stared at the computer screen, sending emails, writing down numbers and so on. Of course, no one would answer on a Sunday, so she'd have to call tomorrow to talk to a person. Perhaps she should make up a call schedule for the next day? She scribbled a few important names, and had at least three Google searches going on at once. After hours of work, two full pages from her notebook were crammed with names, numbers, websites, offers and offices. A few were crossed out, some were circled or starred. Bella would have gone on to her third page by that point, had not two cold arms wrapped around her neck.

She almost jumped as Edward leaned in to kiss her cheek. Breaking away from her computer screen, Bella smiled and stood, stretching her stiff back. "Morning," she said brightly.

"Not for much longer," said Edward, gesturing to the clock. Indeed, it was almost noon. She didn't even notice. Edward gave her a little kiss on the lips before rubbing her lower back. "How long have you been up?"

"Uh... since nine or something... I guess." Smiling, she hugged him around his shoulders and pushed their noses together. "I'm making some good progress. Who knows? I might actually be able to get in."

"Let's hope for a miracle then." They shared a bit longer kiss before Bella heard a knock on her door. Still in Edward's arms, she looked over to it.

"Room service!" she heard on the other side. "One roast beef sandwich with cole slaw and deviled eggs!"

Her face suddenly brightened as she instantly recognized the deep tenner of her father. Rushing forward, she flung open the door and hugged him around the middle. Charlie swan laughed, patting her brown head. Ever since she moved, Charlie had done his best to meet up with Bella once a week, but there were times when they couldn't quite see each other. It had been close to three weeks since the last time he visited. Pulling away, she observed her father, getting the faintest compulsion to tweak his mustache.

Charlie Swan was a head taller than his daughter, with salt and pepper hair that was slowly coming towards the salt end of the spectrum. He had wrinkles around his face and two, dark eyes sitting at the bridge of his nose. He usually spoke in a kind but deep voice, a smile hidden beneath the bristles of his scratchy whiskers. Stepping back, she was about to let him in, when she noticed someone else standing behind him.

"What? No hug for me?"

Bella laughed out loud and in surprise. Jacob Black didn't usually come on her father's visits, but there he was. Her best friend from when they were just little kids, Jacob had grown to a very respectable size. By this point, he was already taller than Charlie, but not by much. Despite the fact that he was younger than Bella, Jacob developed into a man rather quickly, his black hair tied into a loose ponytail behind his copper face. He smiled, his dimples popping from each cheek as she hugged him as well. Though at this point in time, it felt more as though she was groping a tree.

"Come in, come in!" She invited both men in and made a space for the bagged lunch her father brought. "I tried calling you last night but you didn't pick up."

"I got the message after work," said Charlie. "So you finally got accepted, huh? Good for you! I knew you could do it, Bells!"

Bella felt a little embarrassed, but smiled nonetheless. She unfurled the brown paper to pull out one of her father's home made roast beef sandwiches with special barbeque sauce and mayo. One of her favorites. Thanking her father, she got herself a plate and was about to sit down Edward walked back into view. He had zipped out of sight when Bella answered the door, and was now in a casual pair of pants and a shirt. The two other men turned to watch as he approached them, hands in his pockets.

"Chief Swan," he said, nodding. Charlie greeted him before Edward flitted his eyes towards Jacob. "Black."

"Cullen."

"Nice day."

"Sure is. Maybe you should go for a walk later? That sunshine should do you good."

"Mm. By the way, how are you doing? I heard that it's flea season – "

"So!" Bella clapped her hands rather loudly. "Do you guys want anything? I still have to go grocery shopping, but I think I have some left over pizza..." Thankfully, her distraction was enough to end the conversation there without any questions from Charlie. Though really, the two had been rather civil with each other lately. Perhaps they'd both grown up? Bella could remember a time when the two were practically ripping at each other's throats. Now they could sit in the same room together. That was major progress for them.

Of course, there were two main reasons why Edward and Jacob couldn't stand one another. The first was the fact that Edward was a vampire. Jacob's family, on the other hand, was an ancient native line of shifters, Jacob himself being a wolf shifter. The Blacks and the Cullens had never been on perfect relations. While Carlisle and his family did promise to uphold the peace, Billy (Jacob's father) and his own have always been suspicious of the vampire clan. Ultimately, a treaty was held between the two, albeit an uneasy one. The other main reason was that Edward had been dating Bella for the better of four years, and Jacob had seemed to have a crush on her for a good chunk of time as well. Either way, it was not a good mixture.

"So, do you know where you're staying yet?" Jacob asked, watching her eat. "Do you have a dorm room or something?"

"Oh I don't know that," said Bella. "I've been researching scholarships and grants and stuff all day."

"You haven't even looked at pictures?"

"I've been there before. I know what it looks like."

Charlie smiled weakly. "You know, your mom and I are happy to help any way we can. And I think Grandpa Wilson wants to help too." Charlie never liked to see Bella go without money. If he could, he would give her his entire pay check, and Bella knew this. Which was exactly why she barely let him help with finances like bills. Every once in a while, he would go grocery shopping without her permission. Or with it.

"I'll be fine, Daddy," she said, taking his hand. "Really. I can find scholarships."

"Still," said Charlie, "I'm pretty sure your college fund can help us a whole lot. Tomorrow, I'm heading to the bank to see what we have to work with."

They continued to talk over finances, all the while Edward watched from the living room. Or listened, rather. He read a magazine in the shadow of the curtain, his eyes usually fixated on one spot so that he could eavesdrop on her conversation. At around two o'clock, however, both Charlie and Jacob had to head back to Forks. Bella walked them to the door, thanking them for the sandwich and the congratulations. Charlie gave her one last hug. "If you need anything," he said, "just call, Bella."

"I will, Dad." She waved to them both as they walked down the hallway, leaving Bella to her thoughts. Edward was silent as she shut and locked the door. Going to clean up the kitchen, she did so while humming to herself, glad that so many people cared about her. It was only after she had finished her dishes that she realized that Edward hadn't moved from his spot.

"My offer still stands."

"And so does my answer." Walking over to him, she removed the magazine from his hands and sat on his lap, facing him. "I love you, Edward. I really do. But this is something I need to do on my own. Can you understand that?"

Edward sighed. "Yes." Looking up, he placed his flat hands against her back and drew her in. The two laid their foreheads together, listening to each other's breath. Finally: "Black got chubby."

"Edward!" Bella lightly swatted his chest. "That's not nice."

"No. He seriously did. Didn't you notice? He got huge."

"Tall yeah, but not fat."

"Tall is just a nice way of saying fat."

"You're tall."

"Yes, but I'm thin, too. So ha."

Laughing, Bella shook her head. "You are horrible, Edward Cullen." His lips took on a slick smirk as he brought Bella down for a quick kiss.

So there we are... More character catch up. And maybe some foreshadowing... -cough-

~T.