Chapter 3: Choices

Jasper smelled the human the moment he stepped into the house and immediately venom began to fill his mouth. Alice placed a hand on his arm, her calmness calming him in return.

He swallowed. Alice looked up at him, a concerned look on her face.

"Will you be all right?" she asked in a whisper.

He forced himself to smile.

"You need to ask?" he asked, knowing her answer already. She had given it to him half an hour ago while they've been driving homewards.

She returned his smile and nodded. "No, I don't need to ask. You'll be all right."

They had been hunting a good 300 miles northeast of Chicago, when Alice suddenly had a vision of Rosalie holding, surprisingly, a baby with a happy smile on her face.

As they all had made a kill and sated their thirst they immediately decided to turn around and drive home. A phone call had revealed the surprising story that Rose had found a baby and had decided to keep him if she could.

With a deep sigh, Jasper cut off his breathing, minimizing, as he hoped, the risk. The first whiff hadn't been too bad, really. Right now he wasn't thirsty and the venom had simply been a reflex, no worse than what he endured every single day he was among humans, maybe even less so.

Alice let go of his arm and danced ahead into the den where he knew the others were waiting He heard delighted squealing from his one true love, as he followed her.

Rosalie was sitting on the largest sofa in the room, one arm wrapped protectively around a small bundle. With the other hand she held a small baby bottle filled with infant formula. She was feeding the baby, contentment coming off her in large waves. Jasper couldn't remember ever feeling so much happiness coming from her.

Emmett was standing next to her, watching the baby, watching her. When he looked up, he locked eyes with Jasper, clearly communicating that if Jasper would try to take this happiness away from Rose, he would never forgive him.

Esme had greeted Carlisle, then had also moved over to Rosalie, doting on the child in her arms. She was happy, too.

Jasper closed his eyes, then took a deep breath. He had to know if he could take it, if he could stay in the same room as the baby without turning into the monster he knew he was. Suddenly, Alice was at his side again, wrapping her arms around his middle, holding him tight. Not to hold him back, but to give him all the support he needed.

The scent hit his throat and again venom began to gather in his mouth accompanied by the familiar burn, but it wasn't quite as bad as he had expected. He breathed again, and again the pain was less than he thought it would be.

He opened his eyes once more, swallowed, then nodded. "I'm fine."

The atmosphere in the room relaxed noticeably.

Carlisle cleared his throat, focusing their attention away from the baby and towards him.

"You all know that Rose wants to keep the baby. And you also know that this means we all have to make a choice."

He gestured at them and following his lead they all sat down in the various couches and chairs. Emmett sat down next to Rose, still looking warily at Jasper. Carlisle and Esme found their place on the smaller of the two sofas. Jasper settled into one of the armchairs and Alice leaped into his lap, wrapping her arm around his neck, placing a small kiss on his cheek.

"I'm so proud of you," she whispered into his ear, too low for the others to hear.

"Rose," Carlisle began, "please tell the others how you found the boy."

Rose looked up from the child in her arms for the first time since Jasper had stepped into the room. With a low voice she told how she and Emmett had walked home from the opera and how they had heard the soft cries in the alley. As she told them how she had discovered the baby anger flowed off her, on how somebody could even think of casting away something as wonderful as the baby in her arms. She didn't understand how a mother could do something like this when she, who always had wanted a baby, would never be able to have one.

"I want him," she whispered. "I want to be his mother. Nobody else wants him, but I do."

Emmett put an arm around her shoulder, squeezing her gently. "I want him, too, my love. I will always be there for you. And for him."

They looked at each other and for a moment their love for each other – and for the child – was almost unbearable.

"I'm not saying that it will be easy," Carlisle now picked up the thread, "but I believe we can make it. If there ever was a coven that could make it, it's us. All of us."

He looked at Jasper, searching for an answer in his eyes.

"Can we?"

Jasper took another deep breath, tasting the air that was saturated with the human baby's scent. And found that he had no problem to control his thirst – at least for the moment.

"I believe we can," he said. "It is not as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe I can get used to it … to him.

"But," he went before the others could interrupt him. "There are other things we have to consider. Other vampires. And the Volturi."

"We can stay away from them," Emmett said. "Alice can give us a warning when they show up. This will give us enough time to disappear if we have to."

"You know my visions are no guarantees." Alice said from her place on Jasper's lap. "I can't see everything. There always will be some remaining risk.

"We will be careful," Emmett countered. "Move around more, if we have to. Get off their radar, so to speak. It will work out. It has to."

"I say we put it up to a vote," Carlisle offered.

"Rose wants the child," Emmett began, "and where I am concerned Rose gets what she wants."

Rose smiled gratefully up to Emmett.

"You know what I want," was all she said before her attention returned to the now sated baby.

"Esme?"

"I won't deny that I see problems with that boy in our future, but I think we can do it. I want to see Rose being happy. I know what she feels. I say he can stay."

Carlisle nodded then turned to Alice and Jasper.

"You think you can do it?" he asked Jasper directly.

Jasper swallowed, noticing with surprise that there was only a very small amount of venom in his mouth.

"I'm willing to give it a try," he said. "Besides, I'm afraid Emmett will rip me into tiny pieces if I'd said 'no'," he added with a grin.

"Yes!" Alice screamed, jumping up dancing around the room. "I knew it. I knew it."

"If she knew it already, why didn't she just say so from the get go?" Emmett muttered, the corners of his mouth twitching. "Would have saved us so much time."

"I guess that means we have decided," Carlisle said with a smile, his arm around Esme. "The only thing left for now is a question I have to ask Rose."

At her name, Rose looked up from the baby, a puzzled frown on her face.

"What question?"

"What name do want to give him?"

Her face lit up and she breathed a happy sigh.

"I was thinking we should call him Edward."

The end …

… and a new beginning

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is the setup for a story I'm hoping to write eventually. Basically the Twilight setup, however Edward is human and grew up with the Cullens (all vampires) since he was a baby. Please let me know if you think this would be interesting to continue.