A/N

This is my 6th writing challenge entry. As always, I don't own Twilight, I just appreciate the loan.

Challenge #6 – The Inanimate POV

Date Posted: 2/27/2013

Fandom: Twilight

Rating: K+

Genre: Canon

Content Descriptors: Mostly Fluff

Character Pairing: Bella's Rocking Chair

Bella's Rocking Chair's POV

I wasn't a young chair, by any means. It had been a half century or so since I was made for Marie Higginbotham. My seat and back had been replaced once, before I was moved into Bella's room in Forks, and my rockers were worn to a smooth satin finish by years of use.

I'd been moved about a bit in that time, but I had never been moved anywhere like where I now stood. This place was a castle, with stone walls and floors, completely different than the cottage and houses where I'd been before. Enormous windows looked out onto a balcony rather like the one from Romeo and Juliet.

Ah, yes. I remembered that play. Bella had spent hours reading it, and then Edward had leafed through its pages for several nights while keeping vigil over her sleeping form. Both had muttered favorite lines to themselves, trying to make the story fit into their own lives.

Like the doomed star-crossed lovers in the play, Edward and Bella were never meant to be together. They came from two entirely different worlds. To live, Bella would have to die. The Volturi had demanded she be turned into a vampire to protect their secret. Edward tormented himself every hour of every day about what he'd have to do.

He delayed the inevitable with his condition of marriage, but Nessie's arrival changed everything. During the birth, Bella's body was damaged to the extent that it was beyond repair by human means. In order to save her, Edward had shot his own venom into her heart.

Bella turned out to be a natural mother. It was as if she was born for it; although, up until the day her daughter came into the world, she never knew that being a parent was what she wanted.

She moved me from the house where she'd lived with Charlie to her cottage so she could rock her baby, Nessie, to sleep. I sat in the nursery, next to Nessie's crib. Bella insisted that Nessie be called by her full name, Renesmee, but just about everyone else used the nickname Jacob had given her, including me.

As Nessie grew, Jake sat in me to keep watch over her sleep when her nightmares of the Volturi raged. In time, she outgrew the terrors, and Jake went back to his father's home.

In this new place, Volterra Castle, Nessie would rock her twins to sleep. I found it rather ironic that Nessie now filled the shoes that once filled her with dread. Until she could find others to take the reins, Nessie had to become that which she detested.

I sat between two hanging bassinets ¬ one draped in blue and the other in pink. A four-poster bed on a pedestal was placed directly opposite from me. Floor to ceiling windows were set into the stone walls on either side of the bed. Carpets, blankets, pillows, and tapestries tried to soften every surface they could, but this was still a space that had clearly not been built with little ones in mind.

My attention perked up as soon as I heard the babies stirring. Nessie and Jake were just waking up for the day but hurried out of bed as they heard the cries of their twin children.

Sarah and William were impatiently demanding to be fed, so Nessie settled down onto me. She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders in case of early morning visitors and then brought one baby, then the other, to her breast to nurse.

Jake took care of their soiled diapers before the rest of the family bustled in for the day. Alice was brandishing matching outfits, and everyone else was bickering over whose turn it was to hold the babies.

Nessie went back to recline on the bed. Two days after the birth, she was still a little sore and feeling rather worn out. Having seen both Renee and Bella, I knew one baby could be quite a handful; two were exhausting.

Jake held up a hand to halt the onrushing crowd. "Let's settle down so Nessie can sleep a while longer. These two could use a bath before getting dressed for the day. Bella, Rosalie, and Esme, you can help. Alice, you can get them dressed when they're clean."

Everyone left the room. I could see the family just inside the bathroom, and I heard water running as Jake started the bath.

Since I couldn't hear or see the group in the bathroom very well, I turned my attention back to Nessie.

She'd curled up on the bed, bronze curls spilling over the pillow. The eyes that so perfectly matched Bella's human eyes fluttered softly as she faded back to drowsing. As her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother had learned before her, Nessie had found it best to rest when she got the chance.

After a few minutes, the group came back out of the bathroom with two freshly cleaned and happy babies. Jake pressed a kiss to Nessie's forehead, and she rolled to look up at him.

"All ready for the day?"

Jake nodded. "If you don't want to go, it's okay."

Nessie shook her head. "I'll be fine. We just need to take it slow."

I'd watched Nessie on her laptop earlier, pulling information up about the Boboli Gardens in Florence. I didn't see the point in running out all over the place, myself, but Nessie thought the fresh air might do her and the twins some good. She was starting to go a little stir crazy with everyone hovering.

Jake handed Nessie a shirt and jeans. "I snuck these past the demon pixie."

Nessie swatted him on the arm. "She's not that bad, most of the time."

He chuckled. "You didn't see what she was trying to put Sarah into earlier. I forgot for a moment that my Alpha voice doesn't work on vampires when I was laying down the law about no more than half a pound of ruffles and lace."

Nessie's eyes widened. "Ugh. I do agree with you on that one. If she hadn't listened to you, recovering or not, I'd have flattened her."

Alice's objection could be heard floating down the hall, but it was soon quieted by the rest of the family.

Nessie called, "Uncle Jasper, no messing with my mood today. In fact, no changing anyone's feelings unless it's an emergency."

Jasper poked his head around the door. "We're going to have some new vegetarians along for the ride, darlin'. You will have to give me leave to deal with them as needed."

Nessie nodded. "That's fine, but that must be the extent of it for today."

I didn't understand what Nessie was talking about at all. Messing with moods? Nothing that Jasper ever did had changed the way I felt.

Perhaps I'd picked up more over the years from Bella than grubby fingerprints. Maybe people found me so calming because I was a shield like her.

I settled back into a doze as, having dressed for the day and packed their diaper bag, Nessie and Jake gathered up the twins as well as any still lingering family and left.