Chapter 4

"Where have you guys been," Renesmee yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Honey," I said running to her side. "We were at the cottage, like we said. What's wrong?"

"I got up and nobody was here. I got really scared and I was about to call Jake."

"What do you mean nobody's here?"

"I woke up like 30 minutes ago and I came upstairs expecting to see someone doing something but no one was here. And usually you guys are back by sunrise."

"I know baby, we just got a little caught up."

"Mom, dad, don't mention that stuff around me. Don't think that I didn't know what you two were doing last night."

"Nessie, are you okay? Honestly."

"Honestly," she questioned. I couldn't tell if she was upset or pissed off. "No," she yelled. "Last night I got woken up by nightmares again and then I saw all of you at the conference table. I know that something is going on and I want to know what's going on. I'm not a little kid anymore and I demand to be told the truth."

She stomped her foot on the porch and it was quite funny to see her try to be tough. She was far from being intimidating or scary but she wanted to act that way to get what she wanted.

"Let's go inside," Edward said. "And we'll talk. Then we can go hunting. I think that we need to get a little energy in our systems."

Edward put his hand on Renesmee's back and we went into the house. Renesmee went to the dining room and sat where Carlisle had sat during the night. I sat to the right of her and Edward sat to the left of her. She placed her hands on her lap and looked towards Edward.

"Daddy, you have to tell me what's going on."

Edward looked at me cautiously and I once again extended my shield away from me. Tell her absolutely everything. Go back to last night and repeat what every single person said. Tell her that we came to the decision that Esme came up with. We will prepare for a while and see how everything goes with the Volturi before we do anything. We are still going to school in the fall and she will be normal. Edward smirked towards me and put the shield back to myself. It was good to have him be able to read my thoughts and for me to work more on controlling my powers without exerting myself.

"We, the family," Edward started. "We have gotten news that the Volturi have gone wild. They aren't following the rules that they set down and they are massacring people in Italy." Renesmee's face went from anger to sadness. She didn't really know how to process the information. I saw Edward's expression as he read her mind. I took my shield and formed it around Renesmee. He stared at me.

No cheating. I thought in a calm voice. She needs to process this without you prying into all of her thoughts. Keep going and tell her the plan.

"So, that's why we all sat down last night. We were trying to figure out the best way for us to proceed. We want to protect this family first and foremost. We aren't going to do anything quite yet. However, we are going to start planning and training incase something does happen. We need to recruit everybody that we know in order to keep this going smoothly. So, what do you think?"

Renesmee sat silently for a while. I kept the shield protecting her and me. I wanted Edward to have silence while she pondered over everything. It took her a few minutes to process everything. I knew that she was strong and she was like me with the fact that she was fearless when it came to this stuff. I was never afraid of the fact that the Cullens were vampires and that was okay with me. I wasn't afraid of becoming a vampire or any of the consequences that went with it.

"I'm okay," she said quietly, not sure that she was convincing herself of that. "I think that you need to do what you need to do. I want to help."

"What?" I yelled loudly. It broke my concentration and my shield snapped back to me. "You are not helping."

"But I can help."

"How? By telling people things with your thoughts? You're not getting that close to anybody."

"No momma, I've got another ability."

Edward and I both glanced at each other and then back to Renesmee. Edward smiled as he read her mind.

"What can you do?"

"Well I kind of came across it one day when I was upset in New Hampshire. While you and dad were at school, I was really angry that I was left at home alone again. So I was looking at a vase and it just snapped." I looked at Edward confused. "So after that I've been practicing on a few things. I just wanted to see what I could do without telling anybody. I've destroyed a tree before, that's the extent of which I have tried. It's like I have telekinetic powers. I can move an object with just my mind and throw it at a wall. However, I do have the ability to also just shatter the object with my mind."

I was dumbfounded. My daughter was a super-genius. I looked at Edward and he still had the image in his mind.

"Can you show me Renesmee," I asked softly. "With your memories first." She outreached her hand to my forehead. I saw the living room of our old house as the memories floated by her. The vase that just levitated into the air and then shattered into pieces in mid air. The plate was then picked up from the cabinet and then thrown at the wall shattering into pieces on the floor. I saw her walking into the woods behind our house. She looked at a tree and sure enough, the sheer thought of breaking it, it snapped in half. I couldn't believe it. I knew that she couldn't lie but still this was remarkable. I had never heard of such a thing with any vampire. Let alone a half-vampire, half-human mix.

I looked at Renesmee for a long time before she lifted her hand off of my forehead. I was still in disbelief as Edward cleared his throat. I looked at him and couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I knew that her powers would be completely useful but I didn't want my daughter in battle.

"Edward, why don't you guys go hunting? Renesmee."

"Yeah momma."

"You are absolutely amazing."

I got up in a hurry and kissed the top of her head. Edward looked at me and couldn't tell what I was doing. I went over to the drawer of keys and grabbed the Ferrari keys out. I took my shield away for a second. I've got to go see Carlisle. And in that moment I was out the door and at the garage. Carlisle's Mercedes was gone and I knew that he was at work. Rosalie's car was gone and Jasper's motorcycle. I really wished that I had known where everybody was. The phone in my pocket vibrated as I turned the car on. It was Alice.

"Hello."

"Bella, what's going on? Why are you going to see Carlisle? Is everything alright?"

"Umm, I'm not quite sure. Renesmee shared something with Edward and I."

"What?"

"Apparently my daughter is just full of little surprises. Now she knows how to move things with her mind and smash them into pieces."

"What," Alice asked in a screechy tone. "How is that possible?"

"Maybe her mind is more trained then we thought it was. I don't know how she did any of this."

"Well let me know how it goes."

"What's going on with everyone?"

"I don't know I haven't been home."

"Are you and Jasper alright? I'm worried about you."

"We just got into a little bit of a fight."

"You guys don't get into fights."

"I know. I just, I don't know he's really upset because we don't agree on the whole fighting issue. He thinks that I'm overreacting because for once I can't see what's going to happen and that really upsets him."

"Are you two together?"

"No. He went off on his own."

"And where are you?"

"Rosalie and I are on a shopping trip."

"Ah retail therapy, great thing."

"Yeah I guess so," Alice said depressingly. I had never heard her talk like that before and it was a little disturbing. She was depressed and it was all because of the Volturi.

"Are you worried about him?" Alice and Jasper never went anywhere without each other.

"I'm just worried that he is going to do something that he regrets because I'm not around to control his cravings."

"Alice, don't worry about. Jasper is probably just clearing his head. Sometimes that is the best way for guys to calm down. He will be all right. He'll be back in a few days, at the most, and nothing bad is going to happen."

"I've seen differently, but right now he is just driving to no where."

"Did he think that he was going to hurt someone?"

"There was a close encounter at the gas station but he resolved himself. I was very proud of him. I just wish that he would call me back, I know that he is ignoring my calls."

"Tell you what, let me go talk to Carlisle and then I'll call Jasper alright? I don't like to see you two like this. It really hurts me."

"It hurts me too."

"Well try to have a little fun with Rosalie."

"I will. Is there anything that you need?"

"Maybe a little something. I kind of ruined another, umm…last night."

"No problem. I will get a few more."

"Thanks. I just didn't want to buy that sort of stuff with Nessie around. It's a little too personal and she already knows way too much about what her dad and I do."

"It's still a little weird for you to say that."

"I know, I know. Just have a good time thinking about the torturing that you are going to do putting me into those things and you'll have a great old time."

"Yes I will. Take care Bell."

"You too Alice. Love ya."

"Love you too. Bye."

With that, I hung up the phone and backed the car out of the garage. I already had a hard enough time driving fast cars without talking on my phone as I did it. I really wanted to speed through Forks. I didn't want anybody to notice me. Nobody had seen me since Charlie's funeral and I really didn't want to run into anybody. I drove down the road doing about 60 and I was at the hospital in no time. I parked next to Carlisle's car in the parking lot and rushed inside. I went to the receptionist desk.

"Is Dr. Cullen in?"

"Why hi Bella? You look well."

"Thanks. So do you."

"How have you been?" The receptionist looked sadly towards me. I couldn't remember her name but I knew that she had been at the funeral.

"I'm doing alright. I'm just back here for the summer and then I'm going back east."

"Oh yeah, for what?"

"I'm going back to Dartmouth to get my masters in business. Edward and I just graduated a few weeks ago but we missed the family so we came back."

"How are you doing with that?"

"Umm, alright I guess. I drove by my dad's house today. It was just so weird. I can't really describe it." I really didn't want to continue with this conversation. I knew the receptionist was just trying to be nice, make small talk. However, the last thing that I wanted to do was talk about my dead father. It was a sore spot for me still and it made me think of the house that I had driven by so fast that it was just a blur. I decided to keep the house. I couldn't bare to sell it and Esme had kept it up so it didn't look abandoned, even though everybody knew that it was. I guess that Carlisle had heard the desperation in my voice because at that moment he popped through the door.

"Oh hi Bella, what are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you for a minute."

"Sure. Becky, can you hold my appointments for me? Just 15 minutes."

"No problem Dr. Cullen."

He smiled at her and I swear I saw her melt. Apparently that feeling just doesn't go away no matter how long she worked for him. Carlisle put his hand on the small of my back and led me into his office. I had never been in there before but it looked almost exactly like his study at home.

"Bella what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry for coming here unannounced. I just needed to talk to you about an urgent matter."

"What's going on," he said in a whisper. "Is it the Volturi?"

"Kind of. When Edward and I showed up at the house this morning Nessie was all by herself standing on the front porch. She demanded that we tell her everything that was going on and why we were all having a conference last night."

"Did you tell her?"

"Much to my dismay we had to. I couldn't keep this from her anymore no matter how much I wanted to protect her. Anyway, Edward and I were talking about how we needed to find more people with abilities that could conquer the Volturi and she revealed something to us."

"What?"

"She has another power."

Carlisle sat and stared at me. It was one of the only times that I had ever seen him dumbfounded. It was so weird to see my important father figure look like that. It was like he didn't know what to make of it either.

"What can she do?"

"Well it's a telekinetic of some sort. She can lift things up with her mind and move them. However, in the matter of a second, she can smash it."

"What are we talking about here?"

"At first it was a vase and then a plate. She decided that she wanted to try something with a little bit more bulk to it so she went into the forest. She focused on a tree and it automatically split down the middle. It was something that I have never seen before and I was wondering if you had any insight into it."

"I've never heard of such a thing before but nor had I ever heard of somebody like her either." He sat and pondered for a moment. He crossed his left leg over his right and thought really hard. I knew that he was trying to come up with an explanation as much as I was. "Maybe, this is the first time that somebody like her has had two gifted parents."

"What do you mean?"

"Well Edward's ability is in the mind and I think that's where she gets her memory showing ability. However, because you were human when you had her, it took a little bit for her to come into the ability that you contributed. The way that you are a shield is in your mind as well and maybe it just took a little while to realize to use her part of the brain. I'm trying to look at it for a medical and psychological way here. We only use portions of our brains and maybe when she was bored one day she really began to focus her brainpower. That is really the only thing that I can think of."

"So you think that because Edward and I are both gifted that Renesmee got a little bit of something from both of us?"

"That's the only to explain it. How long has she known about this?"

"I would have to say two years because of her size in the memory."

"I wonder why she waited until now to tell you."

"Because she thinks that it will be useful to us with the Volturi. She wants to help and she doesn't just want to sit on the sidelines."

"She sounds like somebody else that I know. Someone that, no matter how bad the danger is doesn't want to sit out for any part of it."

"Great, so she gets my pig-headedness. That's like my worst attribute and she has to mimic that one."

"Well like mother like daughter."

"But Carlisle," I said pleadingly. "I don't want her anywhere near this."

"I know that you don't but somebody like her would really help our case. Imagine if what she can do with a tree she can do with another vampire. That would help us tremendously. And if you can keep a shield around her then there really shouldn't be an issue with her getting too close to the battle. That way she can feel like she helped but she won't be too close to the action."

"No Carlisle I won't allow it. I just don't know what to do about this."

He got up and squatted next to me. I put my head in my hands trying to think. He put his hand on my shoulder. "Kiddo, we may not have a choice you know. The more man power that we have the better chance that we have of actually winning." I looked up at him and then put my head back where it was. "Bella, I know that you don't want it to come to that but if we need her, we need her. If we can train her and you can be re-trained then I don't see why she would be hurt psychologically."

"And what about…" I choked down the lump in my throat. "Physically."

"We will worry about that. She can stay in the background and do what she can from where she is. You can do it Bella, you can protect her."

"But I can't fight. I don't want to need protecting if someone comes after me. I want to be able to take somebody down without anyone's help."

"Emmett and Jasper will teach you. We just have to do it away from Edward. He is way too protective of you, even now. You need to learn first hand and you can't do that if Edward is always there telling the boys to stop."

"Do you think that they would be up to that?"

"Emmett," he said letting out a little chuckle. "He has always wanted to teach you how to fight. And with your speed, he'll be lucky to keep up with you."

I lifted my head up and let a little smile creep across my face. I could almost see the look on Emmett's face when I would ask him how to fight. It was priceless.

"Bells, we have time. We have time to prepare you and to prepare Renesmee. She will be ready and so will you. You have heart and courage Bella, you always have. Not many people would be able to know our secret as a human and never once be afraid. You loved Edward no matter what he was and you loved Renesmee even though she was tearing you apart inside. You have heart and courage and those are qualities that are only intensified now. You are an amazing person Bella and you need to believe that. You need to believe that you can do it and that your daughter can do it. It will be hard for you to let her go to battle with you but you have to let her at least try. She's not as fragile as you think."

I sat for a minute looking into Carlisle's eyes. I smiled again but this time full on. I wanted a little tear to roll down my face because that's how I felt. He made me feel like I was an important part of the family that I was worth training and worth keeping around. I sometimes had doubted myself in that situation but I knew that he was right. As much as I hated the fact of letting Nessie join in on a battle, I knew that it just one more thing that would keep our family together.

"Thank you dad."

Carlisle looked sympathetic towards me as I threw my arms around his neck. He picked me up and hugged me gently. It was the first time that I ever called him dad. I didn't realize until after I said it that there was significance towards it. It felt like I had gotten over my father's death a little bit more in that moment. I smiled in relief that some problems had been solved.

"Now Bells, you really should get going. You look a little hungry."

We separated from our hug after a moment and smiled at each other.

"Thank you again, I appreciate it."

"And thank you."

"For what?"

"Calling me dad. I don't hear it very often."

He also seemed moved by what I had said which surprised me a little bit. He kissed the top of my head and led me back out into the waiting room.

"I'll see you at home later," he said grabbing a chart from the receptionist and looking it over. "Sue Clearwater," he called after a moment. I looked around the room and saw Sue sitting in the corner. I must not have seen her sitting there. She eyed me for a moment and got up coming to my side.

"Bella," she said quietly. "Is that you?"