Another chapter for ya'll! I appreciate the reviews by the way, thank ya'll.

Thank you also ma'am, Sobriquet, she's an awesome Beta. Always there when I need her,

Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, I just shamelessly use the characters.

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Chapter 12: The First Couple of Years

Being a single mom was hard but worth it. Even with the fortune Alice gave me, I still kept my job at the paper while being able to stay at home with Alicen. I loved my job and I didn't want to give it up. When I did have to go into the office to meet with my editor, Rosalie would come over with Jackson and watch Alicen for a while.

After Rose had Jackson, she quit her job to stay at home and raise him so she didn't miss anything he did, and I couldn't blame her.

Alicen's first year was memorable. When she found her hands, she would hold them together like women in those old movies would. I got to watch her roll on her tummy and do the army crawl, as I like to call it, to doing the baby crawl. She was eventually pushing and pulling herself up and crawling on her hands and feet so she wouldn't scuff up her knees, with her butt straight up in the air.

Rose and I met for lunch at least once a week and when we were in the car driving, Alicen would talk gibberish ninety miles an hour. If there was ever any doubt whose daughter she was, that proved she was her mother's.

Yet, unlike her mother, she was a very good and laid back baby. She slept all through the night and took everything coolly.

Her vocabulary consisted of "momma", "mine" and "no." She loved "no", that was her favorite word and somewhere along the way she learned to say "no way", but then combined it to "noy". Emmett had been trying to teach her his name but she didn't want to say it yet. Jackson, on the other hand, said "daddy" all the time, like it was his personal mantra. I couldn't blame him though, Emmett is a great dad.

On the day of her first birthday, Alicen started walking as I was finishing her cake, earning much praise from me and we ended up running a little late. We met the family at the Italian restaurant in town.

"Hey guys," I said, hugging Rose and Emmett and placing a kiss on Jackson's curly head.

"Hi, Bella. Hi, Alicen. Happy birthday little one," Rosalie said, kissing us both on the cheek.

"Hey little sis, Alicen! Happy birthday munchkin!" Emmett said, making Alicen squeal.

She loved my bear of a brother, just like everyone else I knew did. She lunged into his awaiting arms and snuggled up to him while I picked up Jackson.

"Hi little man, how are you?" I asked, earning a dimpled grin he no doubt inherited from his father. "Where's Mom and Dad?" I asked Rosalie.

"In traffic. They should be here in a few minutes."

I nodded and then focused my attention back on Jackson.

"Hey kids!" I heard a few minutes later from behind me. I turned to see my parents walking up.

"Hi Mom, Dad," I said, giving them a hug.

We ordered and while we were waiting for our food, Emmett was trying, yet again, to get Alicen to say his name.

"Come on Alicen, say Uncle Emmett. Come on, please?"

"I don't think its working Em," I said exasperated.

"Come on please?"

She crossed her arms. "Noy!"

"Say Uncle Emmett. I'll buy you something if you say it. I'll get you a brand new outfit. Please?"

"Come on Em! You can't bribe her like that, she doesn't know what you're doing." I said amused.

"It worked with Alice."

"Yeah, and Alice was an adult, you can't expect Alicen to-"

"Unca," Alicen interrupted, a smug look crossing Emmett's face.

Rosalie laughed. "Oh, she is Aly's kid. This could help you later, Bells."

"Uncle Emmett," he encouraged her. "Say it or no clothes."

"Oh that's low," I said

"Unca Emmy." Alicen said.

The table fell silent then everyone started laughing uncontrollably except Emmett.

"Emmy?" Emmett asked, shocked.

"Hey, she said it. You owe her an outfit Uncle Emmy," I teased.

Alicen grinned at Emmett, a little bit smug.

~*~

As she grew, she was more like her mother. On the morning of her second birthday we were eating breakfast and I was reading the morning paper. I was reading an article on my favorite author that Alice introduced me to; her books were becoming major motion pictures.

"Momma!" I heard from behind the paper.

"Yes, Alicen?"

"It's my birfday."

"Yes it is, happy birthday again. Finish your breakfast and we'll go meet Auntie Rose and Uncle Emmy."

"Okay Momma."

I almost finished the article when this little hand crumpled the newspaper down to the table.

"Alicen!"

"I'm done Momma!" She smiled, showing off her dimples.

~*~

"Momma!" Alicen squealed as she ran into my room and jumped on my bed.

"Yes, baby?" I mumbled from under the covers.

"It's my birthday, I'm three years old!"

"Yes, you are. Happy birthday."

"Get up Momma! Up!"

"Okay, Alicen," I said sitting up. "I'm awake, now why don't you go pick your outfit, okay?"

"'Kay, Momma!"

I got ready and walked into her room to check on her. She was staring at the urn and the picture beside it. Some of Alice's ashes were spread over the lake and the rest were in the urn in Alicen's room.

"Hey honey, are you ready to see everybody?"

She nodded and turned to me. "Momma do you miss her?"

"I do. At times you remind me of her."

"Like how?"

"Crumpling my paper is something she used to do, and waking me up in the morning, but most of all, you look like her. She was beautiful, just like you are."

She smiled. "I like hearing your stories of her."

"Well you will be hearing a lot of them later. Right now we need to meet everyone for brunch."

We met at the local Ihop and after we ate, we went back to my place for cake and presents. I grabbed the mail as I walked into the house and threw it on the table before setting Alicen down. Rosalie walked in after me and grabbed a letter out of the pile.

"You're gonna want to open this one," she said handing the envelope to me.

"Why?"

"Just open it."

I sighed and took the envelope from her and opened it. It was an invitation from Angela.

"Oh it's from Angela...for her bachelorette party," I said, scrunching my nose. "Angela doesn't do this sort of thing."

"Well it's a joint bachelor and bachelorette party. Emmett and I are going and Mom and Dad are watching Jackson. You should go with us."

"What's this Eclipsed Moon that it's being held at?"

"This new club downtown. Come with us, please?"

"Fine, I'll go. Who's gonna be there?"

"She invited everyone; Jessica, Austin, Tyler, the Denali sisters, and some other people I don't know."

"What happened with Austin and Jessica? Are they still together or what?"

Rosalie shook her head, "No, they broke up in college."

"Really? Why?"

"Because he cheated on her."

"With who?"

"Lauren."

I gasped. "No!"

"Ugh," Emmett said, disgusted. "He must have been desperate."

"Why do you say that?" I asked

"Because it's Lauren. In high school there were rumors and every guy that got with her said she was nasty."

"No one knew who she was until my Sophomore year, your Junior year."

"Yeah, but she got around."

"Ew, but Jessica and Lauren were best friends."

"That's what made it worse," Rose said. "She was stabbed in the back by her best friend and she really cared for Austin."

"Poor girl."

"I know, so Friday should be interesting."

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