Okay, second chapter's up already to give you sort of an idea as to what to expect. I'd also like to add that each POV is of varying lengths, completely dependent on the situation being described... Please forgive me if I don't seem to have done justice to some characters- if it's short, it's because the scene is.

Bella

"Well, what do you think?"- Alice demands, holding up a powder blue ruffled dress in one hand and a sequined white one in the other.

"Um, I'm not sure", I say hesitatingly from her bed. "Honestly, Alice, it's just a family party, should you really be so dressed up-"

"No!"-Alice cuts in ecstatically. Her eyes are focused on the wall behind me, and I see a very familiar look on her face. This could only mean…

"I have just seen the most fabulous dress ever!"-she squeals and my worst fears are realised.

"We have to go shopping!"

"No."- I say decisively. "I told you last time, I'm not going shopping with you again for six more months."

"When was that? I don't remember," Alice says, blinking her long-lashed eyes innocently.

"Last Saturday," I say shortly.

Jasper chuckles from behind his book. Alice whips around to glare at him. "Anything the problem, my love?"-she demands icily.

Jasper looks up from his book sheepishly. "No, no, not at all, dearest." I bite my lip to prevent the mirth from escaping my mouth. It's so uncanny to see Jasper, with all his frightening macho battle-scars, behave like a hen-pecked husband with this tiny slip of an elfin girl.

Jasper senses my tickled mood, however, and adds in smoothly, "But I'm sure Bella's secretly very excited to go shopping with you for days."

My mouth drops open with dismay. Jasper flashes a wicked smile at me and mouths "Gotcha'!" behind Alice, who has turned back to me, already forgetting her bad humour.

"Yes! Let's go right now!"

"Alice!"-I gasp, alarmed at her very determined look. "I can't; Nessie's coming back any time now."

"Oh, come on, Bella, pleeease."

I shake my head. "Are you going to win this one?"

Alice considers and says tentatively, "Yes?"

"Ha!"-I say happily. "I'm not going. Take Rosalie with you."

"I can't. She's… busy." Alice wrinkles her nose.

I laugh. "Emmett?"

"Of course."

"What about Esme, then?"-I ask, sitting up and crossing my legs.

Before she can answer, Esme's voice sounds clearly from her study on the same floor. "No. Alice Brandon Cullen, if you value your life, you will stay away from me today!"-Esme says, her voice edged with some highly charged emotion.

"An order's been misplaced," Alice confides in me in a low whisper. "It's driving her nuts."

"Yeah," Jasper whispers solemnly from his chair in the farthest corner of the room. "She even forgot to say Alice Brandon Cullen Whitlock-Hale."

"Jasper Hale!"- Esme's voice sounds suddenly again.

"Yes, ma'am!"-Jasper says alertly.

"Shut up."

"Yes, ma'am."

Over our peals of amused laughter, he whispers sombrely, "See? Did it again. Whitlock-Hale."

I hear the tinkle of breaking glass from Esme's study and thrust my fist into my mouth to stop myself from laughing even more. I don't really want to cause Esme any more distress, but it's so damned funny…

The front door downstairs opens and shuts with a bang. "Momma, I'm home!"-a clear voice echoes through the house, ringing in its happiness.

I am downstairs before she even finishes, and scoop my daughter up into my arms, hugging her tightly.

My daughter hugs me back just as tightly, relaying everything she did during the day through touch. I watch a super-fast vision of her racing with Jacob, playing with the rest of the wolf pack, pulling out Seth's hair by the roots in the process, and making mud-pies by the river bank before returning home. Then I notice the front of her pink dress covered with mud.

"Renesmee," I half-scold her. "Look how dirty you've become."

"But it was fun," she stresses in her high, melodious voice, and replays the scenes of her laughing at the riverbank, her hands buried in mud.

"It's still dirty," I insist. "And what did you do to Seth?"

She lowers her eyes, abashed. "That was by mistake." Her lower lip curls into a pout. "I apologised."

"Aw come on, Bells," says the tall muscular man behind her, who was watching all this with silent contentment. "No harm done. He badly needed a haircut anyway."

Renesmee giggles.

I narrow my eyes at Jacob. "Will you please stop familiarising my daughter to violence?"- I hiss.

Jacob rolls his eyes. "Jeez, relax, Bella. I'm just sayin'. His hair's probably grown back by now."

"Really?"-Renesmee asks, turning to him, her arms still curved around my neck tightly.

"Really," Jacob grins.

Renesmee involuntarily shows me an imaginary vision of Seth, where his hair is sprouting from his head like super-fast grass and making him look like a very filthy male version of Rapunzel. Both Renesmee and I giggle.

Then the vision in my head changes quickly to one of my father, Chief Charlie Swan. I frown slightly, trying to push away the scary unhappy thoughts that have been infringing on my mind ever since we had decided to move to South America. Though I cringe at the thought of a drawn out goodbye, I'm not ready to do it yet, wanting to keep it till the last minute.

"We just went to Grandpa Charlie's yesterday, Nessie," I tell her. She pouts adorably. "I miss him."

Jacob speaks immediately, "Aw, Ness, we'll go tomorrow again, if you like." Renesmee's pouts always reduce Jacob into an unthinking slave.

She already misses him after a day. What will happen when we move away forever? I sigh softly, not wanting to alert my daughter to the distress in my mind.

"Yes, Renesmee," I tell her reluctantly. "You can go with Jake tomorrow."

"Yay!"-Renesmee giggles, clapping her hands, and I feel my mood lift in spite of myself.

Jacob relaxes his muscles, and says lightly, "Well, I'd best be going." He glances at Renesmee stealthily and announces, "Got important stuff to do."

Renesmee giggles again. "Is it stuff for my birthday?"-she demands.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he says solemnly, and then, with a very obvious wink and a happy wave of his hand, he runs away, the front door opening and closing in a flash.

Renesmee turns to me immediately, and shows me a vision again. This time, it's Edward. My stomach twists as I see his familiar beautiful face, and my favourite crooked smile brings a happy smile to my face involuntarily.

"I don't know where he is," I tell her, suddenly finding those words very strange, very wrong on my lips. I should always know where he is- not in any sense of possessiveness(which I have, too), but as a sense of knowing where my soul-mate, my other half is all the time.

"Right here," his voice whispers into our ears and I feel his arms snaking around us, enveloping us in a warm hug. All the petty doubts and worries are washed from my head immediately, and I hug him back fervently, inhaling his scent from his chest and never wanting to let go.

"Daddy!"- Renesmee squeals, rips her arms away from my neck and throws them around Edward's instead.

"How's my baby girl?"-he murmurs, a beatific smile on his face.

"Fine," Renesmee says perfunctorily, just as I say "Fine" too, an innocent smile on my face.

He turns his smouldering golden gaze at me. He leans in to my face level, and chuckles, "You, my dear, are no baby girl." He kisses me lightly on my forehead, each cheek, and finally my lips between each word-"You are a very, very, lovely woman." I stop breathing immediately as his lips linger over mine, nearly forgetting that our little innocent daughter is squashed in between us.

"Daddy!"-Renesmee exclaims petulantly. We break apart abruptly. Edward forces a laugh, and I try not to look into his eyes and see the very same hunger that is gnawing at my insides reflected there.

So I pull away from him, keeping only my hand clasped tightly in his while he carries Renesmee in the other. He looks at me curiously.

I laugh at the obvious longing look in his eyes. "Before we scar our daughter for all eternity," I gesture at Renesmee, who looks badly put out at being ignored, "let's go sit down and listen to her account of a very messy day."

"It wasn't very messy," Renesmee argues as Edward laughs in acquiescence and we set off for the couch together.

"You're right," I tell her. "It was incredibly messy."

Edward has obviously seen the event in her mind already, because he agrees, "Stupendously messy."

"Messy Nessie," I tease her as we plop onto the couch.

Renesmee's nostrils flare and her eyes narrow, her lips are set into a determined pout. "Am not," she mumbles sulkily.

We both burst into laughter and I hear amused chuckles from the rest of the house as well.

"Clever, Bella," Emmett comments from somewhere.

"Thank you, Emmett," I say proudly.

Renesmee only sulks more.

We eventually manage to cheer her up, though in the future, the phrase "Messy Nessie" will never fail to make my daughter run to the bathtub.