A/N I really love the two points of view as written by SM (who owns all things twilight) re the transformation and birth and I didn't want to lose the essence of Bella's painful transformation (which is one the quintessential story lines for me) because of Edward's inability to read her thoughts. Problematic for me was how to write about Jacob's epiphanies, Edward's fragile competence, Renesmee's awareness, Rosalie's horrific breakdown, Bella's transformation etc. . . You get the picture. The only way I could do it without switching POV several times (which gets confusing for me) or writing a 50,000 word chapter was to write from a narrator's point of view.

Her quietness was unsettling to him. He wasn't used to her body remaining motionless. Humans always were in motion, especially shy fidgeting Bella. He couldn't understand, couldn't make sense of why her body was dormant. No screams. No twitches. No indication of life or awareness.

Bella on the other hand was bewildered. Exactly that—bewildered. How did the pain change from tortuous sharp to scalding hot? Why was her body still? There was an invisible shield pinning her down into the soft thin mattress. No part of her body would respond to commands to move, not a finger or an eyelash. If she could move, she'd fly across the room straight out the door into the nearest coolest pool of ice cold water she could find. But she couldn't move. The pain although changed was enormously overwhelming and she could not figure out a thing, especially her inability to move.

Their minds tried to reject the silence, the stillness. They fought for clarity, Edward from his worry and Bella from her confusion. Was this the quiet after the storm or were they in the eye of the storm – it was difficult for the both of them to discern, mainly because only moments earlier there was screeching loud noises of pain, agony, and intermittent consciousness. They could deal with the noisy crisis – they were used to solving such problems. The squelch from brakes applied inexpertly causing a van to slide and spin out, the roars of new born vampires, tears of separation and threatening words from ancients. Yes, they were used to the sounds of danger, well recognized. But the silence was too much, unnatural and confusing.

But for Edward, it didn't truly matter whether there was silence or screaming. The miserable moments of her battle to give birth, haunted him, just as much as the silence. He tried to divide the two into parts, seeking some release from the strain of worry that accompanied the silence. He searched hard to find some comfort, for Bella's sake. Yes, it was good she'd seen the baby, good that she was not aware and good that each eternal minute brought her closer to her return to him. But no matter how much good he could create out of this unsettling and forbidden situation, the bad would always haunt him. In particular, he had failed her, by his mere stubbornness. His flaw led her to this quiet, dark place and for the first time since he'd married, he felt utterly and completely incompetent and alone, not even the monster would keep him company.

Where would he find his strength? How could he carry on without her? He'd done the fates handiwork and now she was being punished. He lowered his head and prayed to the fates, his enemy … take me instead, punish me – free her from my curse.

Edward searched for Bella's thoughts, for her voice, for a microscopic movement, for any sign that she was aware of his presence, his touch or his love. His search was in vain because Bella did not want to be found, not in this condition, not under these circumstances and not because of his alleged failure.

Bella was more aware than Edward was able to discern. She tried to separate her suffering. Her torturous dark screams from the delivery from her silent bright torment of the venom. Bella wanted to understand the difference between her waking and unconsciousness, but it all was too confusing, too close in time and too painful. The incessant molten flames of the venom flowing to every part of her small body made the task of understanding impossible, so she chose the darkness.

How did they get to this place?

They had both been happy, hopeful just hours before. Edward was gloating, even if he didn't admit it openly. Every time someone glanced at the two of them wrapped around each other on the coach, he'd smooth a protective hand across Bella's middle. Whenever a thought matched the glance, not only would Edward caress Bella's pregnant mound, he'd also kiss her. Yes, he was gloating and marking his territory. She understood what he was doing and loved him the more for it, always returning a smile at his touch.

But now they were alone in the makeshift operating room. Edward sat head hung, eyes closed and frozen on a stool beside the thinly mattressed hospital table. One hand quickly moved to wipe his forehead forming a tent on the bridge of his nose, the other hand wrapped around Bella's palm.

Bella was on her back, legs and arms at her side. Her body was stiff, exactly like what one would find in a casket. Dead still. But there was a difference. Her heart was beating, not that Bella was aware of the difference. It would be hours before she was aware of anything other than the molten flames flowing throughout her body, and days before Edward would see her move.

And so the two were statues – Aphrodite and Adonis. Stone marble statues, unable to communicate with one another. Silent. Still. Inert. Tragic art.

Before the statues took their perpetual watch, Alice had been summoned to the room to sit with Bella. What a disaster! She thought. The floor and surfaces were covered in Bella's blood, remains of the birth lay across the standing tray, the umbilical cord dangling to the floor, and Bella lay nude in her own sweat and tears. My brother had better have a good reason for leaving her like this.

Alice gently carried Bella to her large bathroom, the same place where Bella was groomed for the wedding. "Let's see if we can't get you cleaned up." She said with loving kindness, careful not to cause any damage.

I'm sorry you're going through this, but it's nice to know we'll always be sisters. Alice talked to Bella as she washed away the dried blood and cleaned and styled Bella's hair. Alice chirped cheerfully about the baby. "She has your eyes and thick curly hair. Her smile is magical. She has the most interesting way of telling you what she wants, and right now, she wants you to get better." Alice's lips trembled as she remembered the stories of the horrible pain experienced by the others during their transformations. Alice despaired. She wanted to tell Bella how long the pain would last, to describe how strikingly beautiful she would be and to tell her of the happily ever after she would share with Edward, but she couldn't. Alice couldn't say those things because she couldn't see them. Her vision was crippled and Alice was unsure if it was because Bella had no future or because her future was wrapped tightly around the baby.

Even the fuzzy vision of Edward laughing up to the sky in the meadow didn't include Bella - but it didn't exclude Bella either.

"I've seen Edward laughing in the meadow." She said the only truth she knew and understood it had to be enough, because Edward was so … Edward. He would be brooding, sad and tormented if he was without Bella. He would never smile and feel joy if she was beyond him. No matter what happiness Renesmee brought him, it would always be marred by Bella's absence and never reflected in the full belly laugh he was certain to have soon.

Alice garnered her internal despair and cast it to the side. She wouldn't worry about the things she couldn't see in the future, after all everyone else seemed to get along well without knowing the future and so could she, at least while she was alone with Bella. And by telling Bella of the blurry scene in the meadow, there would be some tiny hope for the future Bella had sacrificed for, even if she didn't hear Alice's words.

"I hope you'll have a better fashion sense once you've changed."Alice teased as she painted Bella's finger and toe nails a gentle pink. "You're going to look stunning, better than all of us. People will be wowed when they see you and Edward together, not that I can see that future right now, but it's obvious." Yes, Alice would talk like any other person about a future she was uncertain of. There was hope.

This outfit looks perfect and now for Cinderella's slippers. "I still can't see the baby's future, but yours will become clearer. Edward's was first probably because I'm so familiar with him. I guess you're ready to go back to your husband." Smells like someone cleaned up in there. Good!

"Thank you, Alice." Edward said, when she laid Bella back on the clean crisp white sheets of the hospital bed.

"You're welcome. Why did you leave?"

"I had to talk to Jacob – I really don't know what we will do about him."

"What do you mean?" Edward had been admiring his wife but he turned to Alice, aware that she didn't know about the imprint.

"Jacob believes Renesmee is his eternal mate. The Quiluete people 'imprint' on one person and become loyal and committed to that one person for the rest of their lives. When he saw her, he tied his life to hers."

"Flying widgets!" Alice had never been more surprised by a future in her entire existence and was certain nothing would ever cause her more shock. She shook her head in amazement.

"The good thing is that he won't let the wolves attack her. The bad news is that I want to kill him and I don't think Renesmee or Bella would ever forgive me for it."

"What?" What does Renesmee know? She's an infant, she won't remember.

"I've read her thoughts Alice. She loves him, she did from the time she heard his voice from the womb. He sings to her." He turned to look at Bella. Oh how Edward hurt. Jacob's imprint had meant that he wouldn't pine for Bella. That Edward was fully the victor. But now, Jacob's love would steal his daughter away – maybe not at first, but over time she'd leave her father for the man she loved. How akin he felt to Charlie. But he couldn't focus on those things now.

I'm so sorry Edward. "Well, together we'll handle the situation." Alice trilled too flabbergasted to say much more about Jacob, mainly because it meant he would be around more and her vision would remain impaired at those times. She determined that she'd just have to find a way to see around him. "I'm just glad my best friend will finally be immortal."

"Renesmee didn't leave me with much of a choice." He chuckled, glad for the change of subject. "Neither did Bella."

"Yeah, Renesmee showed us. So, she bit her?"

"Yes, I thought she was venomous at first, but she's not. It was my venom." Edward looked up at Alice, he raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean, Renesmee showed you?"

"Well, I guess you wouldn't notice, seeing as how you can read her mind. But for the rest of us, she forces us to see what she wants."

"How?" He said it slowly, intrigued that his daughter could have a talent.

"She gives us images. Mostly she's shown us Bella – she really does need a different image of her mother, the one she shows is really dreadful." Alice remembered the picture Renesmee showed.

Edward shook the vision out of his thoughts. It was horrid. "I'm not following you, how does she show you things?"

"Well, she puts her hand to your cheek and then you can see what she's thinking or what she wants. Like I said, it's mostly Bella, but your picture shows up too, along with her cup."

"Really?" Edward could barely control his emotions. Proud father. Adored daughter. Cherished child.

"Yeah, she's quite demanding." Alice smiled. She recalled how Renesmee told her it was time to eat. Edward watched her memories and smiled.

Guess everything will work out fine somehow, you both deserve it. Alice thought. "I wish I could tell you how Jacob will fit into all of this but I can't see him or the baby's future."

"Well, we'll just have to do what everybody else has done, let the future come."

Is that my brother, the eternal pessimist speaking? You're not mad at me then?

"No, Alice. You've been more patient than anyone else with me and my weird possessiveness over all things Bella, but now she won't be so vulnerable. I'm no longer her biggest threat. So no matter what happens, they are safer."

You never would have killed, you know. You have too much control, integrity and self awareness for that.

Edward smirked knowing how close he'd been to ending the pregnancy, just hours before the birth. No, he didn't agree that he wouldn't have killed, but it was no longer an option as far as the baby and Bella were concerned. Bella would become a vampire and that tentative twinge of hope was what he'd hold onto.

"The girls in my life overwhelm me." He said simply. It was true there was nothing more certain in his mind than the belief that he would do whatever he could to make sure his family was happy, but he would not hold anyone else accountable. It was his responsibility and he wanted to – needed to handle it himself. He'd been an errant child too long – he would man his family.

"She's already changing. I hope I'm here to see what she thinks of her new looks."

"I promise you'll be here." He gave a weary smile and stared at his wife.

Alice skipped out of the room, "Let me know when the baby can see her mother."

Edward forced air through his mouth. It had been a surreal hour.

Right when the venom repaired Bella's heart and before Jacob could fully grasp the implications of the imprint, Edward swooped him out the door, yelling for Alice to stay with Bella.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Jacob?" Edward threw him towards the tree line. Jacob's landed against several saplings, bending them over into a bow.

"Edward, I don't know. It's not like I had a choice. You know - " Jacob easily hopped up on his feet.

"Jacob, I don't understand what is going on in that pea size muscle you call a brain but you'd better stay the hell away from my daughter!" Edward's eyes were furiously black. He stalked low toward Jacob, ready to pounce. He had experienced so many different emotions over the last few hours that it was nearly impossible for him to not go for Jacob's throat.

"I didn't ask for this, but I can't fight it -" Jacob held up his hands as if to surrender. He walked towards Edward. "—it's like the baby is family to me, I want her safe and happy and nothing else matters but making those two things happen. "

Edward barely heard Jacob's words, he was so emotionally drained that all he could do was take an unnecessary breath, stop the attack and go back to Bella. "I don't want you here. I'm not able to deal with this right now, you should leave." Edward sounded like the old man that he was, full of patience and wisdom rather than the unstable vampire ready to unleash his primal instincts against his mortal enemy, his wife's best friend and now - his daughter's future.

"Okay, can I at least hold – " Jacob saw the dark glare in Edward's eyes and realized the folly in asking to see the baby. "Sure, sure I'll go. I need to stop the Quileute attack anyway."

Both men turned to see Seth come into the front yard wearing the same khaki pants and shirt he'd worn on previous occasions, Leah was a few paces behind in wolf form.

"Jacob, you alright?" Seth asked. Edward finally threw you out of the house, looks like he still wants to hurt you.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jacob motioned for Seth and Leah to stop the advance.

"How's Bella?" Seth asked Edward, hoping to calm the palpable tension.

"Bella's still recovering. She's going to be fine, thank you for asking Seth." He glared at Jacob, annoyed he hadn't asked.

"She's alive?" Jacob was so sure that she'd died and Edward's behavior seemed to reflect that. But Jacob was so enthralled with Renesmee that he didn't take the time to really evaluate Edward's behavior.

"I told you before, she's going to be fine."

Jacob took a sigh of relief and explored his feelings. He felt different about Bella, no longer helplessly in love, no longer stuck in an unrequited love affair. "Wow. She won't be the same though?"

"She'll be immortal."

"Good, good. The baby will need her mother and father. I'm glad she won't be an orphan. It wouldn't be good for her to be raised by Rosalie alone." The more people to love her - the better she'll grow up.

Edward barely took note of Jacob's thoughts. He wanted to get back in and be with Bella. He would not allow Jacob to usurp his family so completely. "I've got to get back to Bella, you'd better leave."

"Yeah, yeah. You do that. I'll go talk with Sam." The pack will never attack the object of an imprint. I'll keep her safe Edward.

Edward shook his head, why did it feel like Jacob had just dismissed him and was now in control? "This imprint, I don't like."

"Don't be so pessimistic. Bella will be fine with it, she understands. Just wait and see." Jacob smiled.

"I don't know." Edward controlled his voice, the longer he was away from Bella the less his thoughts were focused. She was lying in a tragic state of pain, her surroundings a mess. He needed to clean away the pain, the remnants of the birth and the past torments.

"Well, let me handle Bella. It's what was meant to be." You'll be fine with it when Bella is.

"I'll let you tell Bella, but that's all I'm agreeing to for now. You better leave." It was the last time he'd tell him before he'd take action to remove him from his home. Thankfully for Jacob, he didn't linger but took off to the woods and transformed. It will work out fine Edward don't worry. We're like brothers remember? Comrades and friends – they will never be in danger and we won't let anything harm them. They'll be happy Edward because of us.

When Carlisle and Esme returned home, Jacob managed to finagle himself inside next to Renesmee.

Rosalie was taking her godmother obligations seriously. But now, Jacob had appointed himself as godfather, which was an extremely lose interpretation of his imprint. Edward was too dispirited to kick him out of the house again, unsure whether Esme would allow such a thing.

That was ten hours ago, and Bella hadn't moved a millimeter. Edward lowered his face into his hands, lamenting his actions that brought Bella and him to the quiet still place. There were no distractions from his grief. There was no comfort in remembering the attempted self-extraction of the baby.

Was he successful?

Would she awaken, anew?

Is she in pain?

Why doesn't she move?

It was her pristine heart that kept the doubts from overwhelming Edward, that, plus the hummingbird heartbeats of Renesmee.

Change had come on so fast.

One moment, they were hopeful, certain that everything would be as it should. Bella would survive the birth. They would be a family.

And then one tiny, inconsequential spill had snowballed into the horrid finale. He didn't take the cup from her hands, as he had done on so many other occasions . . . He was too late to stop the momentum of the ripping and searing of the attack on Bella's body. It was the ultimate, relentless sound, one his perfect vampire memory would not allow him to forget.

Nothing would stop the ravages that followed.

Her past hurts, no matter how small, they'd shared and survived. But this new pain was different: it broke their hope.

Bella's shouts, spasms, and agony seared through their existence and would have left them both insane, but there was something that jarred them back to reason.

The baby.

Bella's scream roused survival instincts in the baby, a small voice, unable to deduce, only heard by Edward and felt by Bella.

Fear overwhelmed the novice thinker, followed by rage for the loss of serenity.

Up. Down. Around. Around. The baby searched for that which went missing.

The baby repeated the words coming from beyond the dark place. The placenta must have detached!

Edward felt mocked at the soft utterance of his own words.

The baby hoped and listened to Edward's voice. The search stopped. It was a short-lived expectation, ripped apart by Bella's screams.

"Get him out!" Bella's body convulsed at the excruciating pain, but it was all inconsequential to the life of her child."He can't breathe! Do it now!"Bella demanded in between her gasps for air. Bella was drowning, and Edward was there, helping her to breathe.

The baby started thrashing around, searching for an exit. The placenta was failing.

Rosalie was focused. She had to follow Bella's directions; it's what she'd want done. She reached for the scalpel confused by Carlisle's instructions. Why didn't Edward do this? He was the one with medical degrees. He was useless she thought.

But Edward knew triage. The placenta would provide small amounts of oxygen and food for several more minutes to the baby. Bella on the other hand was dying, there was not enough oxygen getting to her system and her heart was becoming more erratic. A c-section could rupture the placenta, Bella need to be immobile first.

"The morphine—" The baby repeated.

"No! Now—"Bella screamed, popping blood vessels in her eyes. Why would he wait for painkillers when the baby is dying?

Fear enveloped the baby.

There was no understanding at the words the baby replicated: Let the morphine spread. There's no time. He's dying. No, Rose.

Rose didn't have the patience to follow Edward's instructions. It was a poor decision on her part because when she cut through Bella's abdomen, she ruptured the placenta causing a fount of blood to flow.

It was then that Rosalie panicked and lost control. The smell and sight of Bella's warm blood caused the venom in Rose's mouth to well and her throat to desiccate. Rosalie pulled her lips back away from her teeth, focused her eyes on the blood, and leaned in to drink.

Jacob quickly subdued Rosalie.

The baby's thoughts shouted back at Edward as soon as the words crossed his lips. Alice, get her out of here. Take her to Jasper and keep her there! Jacob, I need you! CPR! Get her breathing! I've got to get him out before

The adrenaline that no longer flowed through Bella's body seemed to concentrate inside the baby.

Adrenaline combined with self-preservation could not produce an image clear enough to discern the physical reactions within the baby.

Human senses exponentially increased.

Potential suffocation forced non-functional lungs to scream awake gasping for the air no longer supplied by the damaged placenta.

Muscles coiled and sprung. A loud shattering crack followed.

Bella was still. Rigid. Her heart no longer a steady pounding. "Her spine." Edward's words stuck in his throat.

"Get it out of her! She won't feel anything now!" Jacob shouted as he pressed to keep Bella's heart pumping.

The baby wanted to flee the dying incommodious place.

Screeching. Scraping. The sounds were so loud and so close.

Then the baby saw a light and felt cold hands. Lungs filled with air. The baby felt safe.

Renesmee. She thought her name as he said it.

The brown eyed small voice had a name and Edward was the first to call her by it and she gazed above her in wonder.

A/N I've posted early – just for my friends. I've had to split this chapter up – it was way too long so the next will focus on Renesmee's first moments of life, from the narrator's pov and will be posted on Tuesday. Let me know what you think I'm very anxious.