Our house in Rio is hidden deep in the jungles. Tropical plants and foreign animals surround the elegant, Southern-plantation like house. Alice called everyone before our flight to Georgia, and when we arrive Emmett, Rose and Esme are already here. The others said they want to trail through other places first and then come. I think Mom and Carlisle are on their way, though.
"I'm so glad you guys are okay." I hug Rosalie, Emmett, and Esme tightly.
"Of course we are. We're all going to be okay. The Volturi like to raise a bit of a ruckus, and then they'll slink back into their dusty ole castle for another century or so. Don't be worried, princess." Rose ruffles my hair as if I'm five years old. I smile a bit, still upset over leaving Alec back in Europe. I can feel it in my bones that he wasn't trying to hurt me. He needed my help and I abandoned him. There really wasn't much I could do without Alice's help with this giant tummy though.
Alice watches me with sad eyes. "Emmett, I need your help. I had a vision of Alec separating himself from the Volturi after going through our house and finding pictures of Renesmee and him and Renesmee's journal. I've seen him traveling through Europe, alone and confused. I think he's searching for us and running from the Volturi. We need to find him. Are you with me?" Alice asks, trying to get everything through Emmett's thick skull.
He grins. "Good. I liked that kid."
I smile, thinking of finally having Alec back. Alice and Emmett take off, leaving Rose, Esme, and myself alone. None of us having any useful power, one about to pop out a baby any day now, one afraid of violence, and the last currently Google-ing on her phone locations of nearby malls, we aren't in too good of shape.
Hours after Alice and Emmett left, Dad and Jasper show up. As soon as they walk through the door, Rose and Esme are off like two bullets from a gun to the nearest shopping center.
"I can't believe she went off without waiting for me to go with her." Jasper grumbles under his breath, glaring at a painting of a sunset over the Rio Grande.
"I'm really sorry, Jaz." I whisper. Having her gone, risking her life, is as hard for him as it is for me having Alec gone with his life in danger.
"Don't be, Nes." He pats my arm and eases my guilt, replacing it with calm.
"We're back!" Rose announces as her and Esme come through the door, boxes and bags in their arms stacked high.
"What is all of that?" I ask them, laying down on the couch and reading a book.
"Baby things, of course. You can't see, it would give away the sex. Esme and I will be decorating upstairs if you need us. Bella, coming?" Rose asks with a glorious smile.
"I never thought I would have the chance to decorate my grandchild's room." Mom sighs while smiling. She gets up and the three of them vanish up the stairs. Dad sits on the floor next to me where Mom just was, holding my hand that rests on my stomach. The baby kicks right where our hands are, causing me to flinch. Dad doesn't notice my pain, luckily, and his face lights up.
"I can hardly believe it's real." He murmurs.
I lift my shirt up to expose the skin of my stomach. "Holy.." I trail off, looking at the spot of the kick. A hand is pressed against the inside of my stomach. The fingers and the palm are very defined. It's tiny.
Another hand appears a short distance away, giving me a slight jolt. Dad stares at my stomach wide-eyed. Carlisle and Jasper gather around to stare at the itty-bitty hands of my child. Tears fill my eyes, partly because of the overwhelming love I have for my baby and partly because the pushing hurts like hell.
"Ahh.." I whimper as the pressing increases.
"What's wrong?" Dad asks frantically.
"This.. baby.. It wants.. the hell out of here." I bite my lip so hard I can taste blood.
"Is it time, Renesmee? Is the baby really trying to get out?" Carlisle demands in a concerned voice. A painful rip sounds from inside my stomach, answering his question better than a simple 'yes' could have. I release a blood-curdling scream.
The pain is so severe it causes black sparkles to prance in my vision. I feel an injection, morphine most likely. People are talking quickly and urgently but I can't focus clearly on their words. My breathing is shallow, my heart working overtime. A sharp blade presses into the skin of my stomach, causing me to cry out and squirm. Strong hands nail me down.
"Don't cut! Don't cut! You'll hurt my baby!" I shriek incoherently, in my delusion picturing Carlisle with a pair of garden shears going for my stomach.
"Shh, Nes, it's alright, Carlisle is going to make sure your baby and you are just fine." A soft, reassuring voice says.
I begin to fade in and out of consciousness, my head spinning. The sound that returns me to reality is the sound of baby crying.
"My baby.." I smile through the pain, holding out my arms blindly. A tiny little figure is placed there, supported by other arms also. I stare down at a beautiful baby girl caked in blood with a thick flop of stark-black hair and sparkling green eyes.
"Just..like..Alec." I whisper, staring at her adoringly. In my morphine and pain induced delusion, the name Alexis flashes through my mind. Alexis, Alexander. The perfect name for a perfect little girl that looks exactly like her perfect father. She is taken away from me, though, and it shatters my heart.
I slip off into the darkness.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
"Shut the hell up.." I groan, flailing my arms and hoping to hit whatever is making the noise.
"Nes, calm down." A pair of hands pin my arms to my side.
"Mom?" I croak, opening my heavy eyelids.
"It's so good to see you awake, baby. I was so worried." She presses her lips together and smiles, eyes wet with tears.
"How long have I been out?" I ask her, sitting up. I had forgotten how easy it is to move without my baby bump. I am hooked up to a bunch of fancy equipment that I'm sure Carlisle "borrowed" from a nearby hospital.
"Only a day. Carlisle stitched you right up and the drugs and your vampire genes did their trick." Mom smooths my hair.
"Are Alice and Emmett back yet?" I ask her.
"Not yet." She shakes her head.
"Should they be?" I wonder worriedly.
"Another day at the most, sweetheart." She pats my hand.
"How is my baby?" I smile at the thought.
"She's...beautiful." Mom smiles. "And healthy. And tiny. Oh, so tiny. I can't remember you ever being so tiny. Maybe I just was going through the transformation during it, but it really seems to me her rate of growth is slower. You might have more time with her."
For the first time, I realize how hard it would be watching your daughter grow up in only six or seven years. I couldn't do it. I want my daughter to have a childhood. Years to grow up and find herself, who she is.
"I want to see her." I tell my mother, smiling a little. The door opens just then. My father walks in with a little bundle wrapped in a pink blanket. He grins and sets it down on my stomach. I instinctively wrap my arms around her, supporting her head and measuring my strength.
"She looks just like her father." I laugh a little, taking in her every feature. She is tiny. Tinier than tiny. And though she doesn't look like she has grown too much, she does look a little older than just a day old.
She has thick curls of raven black that catch the light, turning it into shades of navy blue. Way more hair than a one-day-old should have. She missed the gray-blue phase that most infants' eyes go through. Hers are giant emerald-green eyes that take up a good portion of her face, innocent and so deep you could fall right into them, and skin that is lily-white. Her lips look just like mine, a puckered little heart shape, and she has no teeth, just ridges of pink gums.
"I love her." I whisper, brushing one finger over her cheek. It is warm, warmer than human, but not quite as warm as I was.
"She loves you." Dad tells me. I look up at him, a tear sliding down from the corner of my eye.
"What are you going to name her?" Mom asks sitting on the edge of the make shift hospital bed.
"Alexis." I smile, the name returning to me. "After Alec, of course. Do you think he will like it? He can pick out the middle name."
Mom and Dad exchange a trouble look. Mom says, "Renesmee, baby, I know it's hard for you to accept, but Alec might not even be returning with them. They might be unable to find him, he might not even want to be found. He could very well still be a part of the Volturi or at least holding a grudge against us for leaving him. And the fact of the matter is that it isn't going to be the same. It never can be the same. If Alec had it in him to join the Volturi in the first place, even if he did run from them, it means he has changed. He isn't the human you knew back in Hoquiam. Alec is going to be different, and you might not like the new him."
I take a long while to think over what she said, staring down at my flawless daughter. She looks so much like Alec. Human Alec. The Alec that, like Mom is saying, I haven't let go of. How can I? I am in love with human Alec. And it is just now sinking in that he is going to be very different.
"But he is the father of my child.." I murmur.
"And I'm sure he'll still be an excellent father," Dad steps in, "but perhaps you two aren't as compatible as you were. You're becoming a vampire, he is a vampire, you've spent a long while apart, and things have changed. You've both grown, dealt with more pain than you ever have, and maybe along the way drifted apart. It can never be exactly the same as it once was."
I nod, a tear falling from my eye onto the pink blanket wrapped around my baby. She makes some incoherent happy babbling sound, her cheeks lifting into what looks like a smile.
"Can we have some time alone?" I ask my parents quietly. They get off the bed at the same time and disappear out the door, shutting it soundlessly behind them.
Alexis is still smiling. I smile back sadly. "I don't know who your father is now, angel. But believe me, you would have adored the man I knew. He would be the best dad in the world. And you have no idea how much I hope he will still be that way."
Later that day, I sit in the living room, a yellow dress with white polka-dots concealing the gauze-covered, stitched-up soon-to-be scar on my stomach. I hope my vampire genes get rid of it. Alexis is nestled in my arms, her hair like satin against my skin, a bottle filled with water and baby formula locked in her mouth.
My daughter seems to be more human than anything. Makes sense since I was half and Alec was full. Of course she is going to have vampiric traits in her, but from what we can tell nothing near as severe as my traits. She might not even ever turn into a full vampire. Crossing my fingers on that one. We tried her on formula first and she took to it, not demanding the blood like she did in the womb. Carlisle theorizes that the blood helped her develop, and now she no longer needs it.
I am feeling better than ever. My baby is alive and healthy, Alice called to inform us that they have Alec and will be arriving any minute, and as long as my lucky star keeps shining, I might soon have my entire family together and safe at last.