Chapter 8 - Release
"Of course we will, Dad. We'd love to come to dinner." Renesmee said, wrapping her arms around her father.
"Shouldn't you check with Jacob first?" Edward wasn't overly bothered if Jacob couldn't come, but having Renesmee over would be great.
"Nah, he isn't doing anything on Saturday; he said so last night." She loved cuddles from her father, despite his firm cold skin.
It had taken a bit of getting used to at first, flitting from Jacob's scorching skin to her father's frozen arms, but somehow they both comforted her in different ways. They balanced each other out, making it just perfect for her mid-range temperature.
"It will be great. Grandma and Grampa will be excited to use the kitchen again. Any meal requests?" Edward placed a light kiss on top of his daughter's brunette curls.
"Um..." She puckered her brows together, deep in thought.
"How about cottage pie? I know that's one of your favourites." Mari sat cross legged on Renesmee and Jacob's sofa, watching their sweet bond.
"Great, that sounds yummy!" Renesmee's eyes lit up as she could practically taste the food in her mouth.
Seeing Renesmee's innocent expressions, Mari fought to show her sadness. She had always wanted children. This was another reason for her bitterness towards Michael - he had torn that away from her too. She had never got the chance to truly live.
Mari had spent some time a while ago chatting to Rosalie about their feelings on the painful subject.
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Flashback:
Rose and Mari sat outside on the back steps leading down to the garden.
"I really didn't hate Bella. I just didn't understand her reasons for wanting to throw her life away." Rosalie tucked one of her own auburn locks behind her ear.
"I guess love makes you do many weird things," Mari said, shrugging. "Edward's enchanting. I can see her pull to him, vampire characteristics aside. His demeanor, his understanding, his patience - he's very magnetic in that way."
"Yes," Rosalie agreed, "but she was also very young and naive. Bella was made to grow up extremely fast in an extremely short space of time. Nobody her age should have to deal with what she did."
"I can imagine. I've only met the Volturi once, and they scared me stupid."
"Bella was stubborn. She stood her ground, I'll give her that much. But I wish I'd have had the choice. I didn't choose this life for myself." Rosalie's thoughts drifted to her own past and how much she herself had sacrificed.
"No neither did I." Mari sympathized with her friend.
"I watch Edward with Renesmee and I always feel a pang of jealously. I always wanted children, from a very young age."
"I feel your pain. I had dreams of growing old swinging on the bench on my old rickety front porch, bouncing the grandchildren on my knee. That's the way it supposed to be."
"Were you changed against your will too?" Mari turned her head to Rosalie, seeing the hurt in her eyes as she spoke, told her Rosalie's story wasn't as clean cut as the others had been.
"No. I was attacked by my boyfriend's gang of friends. They left me for dead, bleeding in the street. Carlisle was driving home from work and he found me. Taking pity, he took me home with him. He and Esme tried to save me, but with little improvement they decided they had no choice but to change me."
"Oh, Rose, that's awful. That's some boyfriend?!" Mari rubbed her arm supportively.
"Sometimes I thought I would have been better off dead."
Mari gasped at Rosalie's honest outburst. "No! Rose, don't ever think that."
Rosalie continued "At least I wouldn't have to live the rest of my existence without a family of my own. Every woman yearns to have babies of their own, don't they? The desire doesn't cease along with your heartbeat. It's always there." Rosalie held her hand to her chest in desperation.
"Carlisle gave you a life back Rose. Sure, maybe it wasn't the one you envisioned, but a life nonetheless. I've not known the Cullen's nearly as long as you, and I don't pretend to know them as well either, but one thing I am sure of is that would have tried their upmost to get you back, I don't think they would have decided on that course lightly."
"No, I know they tried their best. I'm content now and Emmett has been wonderful. I can't imagine waiting as long as Edward did for Bella. And in a way, they granted my wish when Renesmee came along. We all took turns cradling her so sleep. And this gave me my own time with her. But sometimes … sometimes I pretended she was mine." Rosalie's forced smile pulled on Mari's solid heart strings.
Mari reached over and embraced her. "Renesmee is extremely lucky to have so many of you looking out for her, especially you, Rose."
"She has Jacob now," Rose reminded her.
"She will still need her family around her, especially where boys are involved."
And this time, they both smiled.
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Renesmee's squeal brought Mari out of her thoughts and back to the present.
Edward was twirling her around like he used to do when she was smaller.
"Dad! Stop! I'm going to throw up!" Renesmee held her dizzy head, feeling quite faint. Placing her back on both her feet, Edward pulled her close.
"Aww, I've missed you Beautiful!" He gave her a controlled hug, taking care as he always did as to not squeeze her too tight and hurt her.
"Missed you too. I'm glad to see you both getting along. I've missed seeing you happy, Dad." Renesmee grinned and turned to the woman who was the reason for her father's joy. "Thank you for coming into our life, Mari."
"It was fate. I'm sure of it. The conveyor belt just stopped at the right place, that's all!"
"I'm sure glad it did." Edward agreed and joined Mari on the sofa, placing a long arm around her neck and pulling her in to kiss her stone temple.
Time was getting late and seeing that Renesmee was getting tired, they decided to head for home.
As they rose to leave, Jacob returned. The pack never usually went far, but as they knew Renesmee didn't need constant watching anymore, they did more thorough searches to flush out any unwanted newborns.
"Hey bloodsucker!" Jacob greeted Edward as he always did but in a jovial voice that evening.
"Mutt!" Edward joked back, giving him a slight wave.
"Dad's invited us over for dinner on Saturday. That's okay, isn't it?" She looked with wide hopeful eyes toward Jacob.
"Hmm ... as long as you're not main course ... yeah?" He grinned at Mari.
"Jake!"
"I'm joking!" He held up both his hands. "Yes, that's fine. We have a pack hunt on Friday, but Saturday is fine."
"No trouble, I hope?" Edward said referring to the hunt, sensing a hidden agenda.
"Not really." Jacob played down any details for Renesmee's sake. "Seth said he saw something on the news about a missing boy in Lopra. We just want to check out the area that's all." He shrugged, seemingly innocent.
Mari heard Edward's thoughts and thought she'd lend her support. "I will come over to keep Renesmee company if you like."
When Renessmee grinned at her, she thought of an all-girls sleepover. "Maybe we can do each others nails?"
"Oh wow! Yeah, that would be great! Please, Dad? Jacob?" Renesmee's face lit up as she looked between both men, pleading for their permission.
Jacob eyed Edward wearily. "I'm sure it's nothing. You don't need to all come. We'll be fine."
"Sometimes the thrill of a chase is good for this dead vampire's soul." Edward replied.
Renesmee was the only one in the room unaware of the thoughts being shared between everyone else. Another clan could be invading in the area, and that missing young boy could just well be the victim of their greediness.
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As a joyful Renesmee walked Mari out to the door, Edward spoke quietly to Jacob. "Don't leave her side until we come back to sort this. You just never know what will happen."
"You know I won't..." Jacob replied matter-of-factly.
Meanwhile, Renesmee and Mari giggled outside, lounging on the porch. "I knew it would happen, you two were made for each other. I'm so happy for you both."
Mari hugged her gently and replied in her new motherly tone. "Well it's still early. We're in no rush and I'm happy that you approve. Everyone's always looking after you; it's about time someone looked after your father."
"I saw that he took his ring off. To me, that speaks volumes. He's changed so much, you know? It killed us all to see him so unhappy." She smiled weakly at Mari.
"I didn't make him remove it, you know that right?" Mari reassured Renesmee, rubbing her arm.
"Yes, I know. I'm fine with it honestly. We all are. After his miserable last few years it's good to see his whole aura lift again. He deserves to be happy. You both do."
Edward joined them both on the porch. "That's right, he is happy."
Mari kissed Renesmee's cheek and silently made her way to the Volvo, leaving Edward to have his moment with his daughter alone.
"I'm glad you are. I'm only happy when you're happy," Renesmee said, as he pulled her into a hug.
"Listen ... I have something for you." Edward pulled away from the hug and took out an old battered box from his pocket.
"Dad, that's not ..." Renesmee gasped and held a hand to her open mouth.
"It's not what you think, I mean. Well, just open it!"
She slowly opened it and gasped again. "Dad!"
"I wanted you to have it. I don't need it anymore and since your Mom gave it to me, it belongs to you now." His smooth white gold wedding band glistened under the incandescent porch light.
"Dad, I can't!" She protested.
"Yes, you can and you will," he insisted, closing the box and wrapping her warm pink hands around it. "Just don't go using it anytime soon, okay?"
Renesmee giggled and she couldn't resist popping the box open one last time. "I promise, I won't."
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After a mostly silent journey home, Mari broke the stale air. "That was a beautiful thing to do Edward."
"Yeah, well I just hope she doesn't use it on him anytime soon." He stared ahead at the road as he drove through the dark woods and along the dusty track that led up to their house.
"Your daughter's got a good head on her shoulders, she'll be fine."
"I wish I had your optimism," Edward joked and shot a smiling glance over to his new mate.
His Mari.
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"Uh-oh! You're in trouble!" Alice said in a sing-song voice as she greeted them.
"Again?" Edward asked, rolling his eyes. Alice snickered as she led them through the adjoining lounge to the kitchen area.
Esme's rambling voice grew louder from the kitchen as they walked closer.
"What did I do now?" He already knew it was about taking Mari out of work early.
"You know damn well what you did! I turned up at the yard and no one was there!" Esme was beyond livid and it didn't take being a vampire to read her mind.
"Sorry Esme, it was my fault..." Mari tried unsuccessfully to cover for Edward.
"It's both of your faults!" Esme glared from Edward to Mari and back to Edward. "Mr. Solana tried to return Blue Bounty, and ended up dropping the keys in the letterbox. What if he had been some holiday maker? They would have run for the hills with it! Work takes priority you two! Your father and I will start taking away your cars if you continue to bunk off work ... and this goes for all of you!" She cast a pointed finger at all the youngsters one by one that were now all gathered in the room.
"Sorry Mom. I won't do it again and I'll promise to do a leaflet drop tomorrow." Edward despised doing them. Esme used leaflet drops as punishments and Edward only offered before she laid it down to butter her up. It helped bring in the business too, which could only be a good thing.
"Trust me, you will be. And that goes for you too, Mari. End of discussion!" With a whip of her hand, she sped off out of the room.
"Ouch!" Emmett winced.
"Shut it you! You didn't even show up today at all. Let's say I tell Esme you forgot your shift today, hmm?" Edward knew this would shut him up.
"No! Don't. Please? She's already made me do a drop for being lazy last week!" Emmett's sheepish confession caused a ripple of laughter throughout the group.
"Then you owe me big time, bro! Guess what you'll be doing tomorrow?!" Edward chortled aloud as Emmett pleaded with folded hands.
"Dude!"
"Sorry Emmett. Fair is fair! You did kinda leave me in the lurch today. I had to work all day by myself because you never showed up!" Mari smirked cheekily.
"Naah! Babe! Don't you start!" Emmett's whine fell on deaf ears.
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"Have you both eaten? We're about to go hunt." Rosalie glanced at Edward and Mari, making sure not to leave them out.
"Yeah, we went before we went to see Renesmee." Edward smiled.
"Is she okay?" Rosalie cooed and saw the image of Edward giving Renesmee his wedding band. "Oh, you gave her your ring? How sweet, Edward. "
"Yeah, well, I didn't need it anymore and I thought she would like it. It was her mother's after all. And yes, she's fine. She and Jacob will be joining us for dinner on Saturday." Edward pulled Mari in by the waist. "Cottage pie, wasn't it?"
"Yep! And you promised to be on best behaviour with Jacob too, didn't you?" Mari grinned back at him.
"Hmm...if I must?!" Edward grimaced and Mari slapped him playfully on the arm.
"Let's go, peeps, I'm starving!" Emmett smacked his bulging stomach muscles through his beige V-neck sweater and they all filed out the door.
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A/N: Aren't you lot Lucky? I'm spoiling you! Hope you are all full of festive spirit?! And you wonder why I haven't updated? *HIC*
I'm all outta cupcakes...don't tell my BETA, ThisIsReallyHappening...she will cry oodles. *COUGH* Thanks for everything Hunny Pie xx I love you lots and lots ...just like jelly tots!
Thank you for all my wonderful reviews. It makes me all warm and fuzzy. :o)
DeathToBeReborn xx