CHAPTER EIGHT

After dinner, I sent the kids to play, and I cleaned Emily's whole kitchen. I started a movie around nine, and they were all asleep in about fifteen minutes. Emily and Jenny got home at ten, and the three of us went into the kitchen to talk.

"Sam texted me about half an hour ago telling me Nick was fine, but he was really irked by the whole event. Sam and Quil are sitting with him until Leah and Joel get home, and that should be any minute now."

"How are you Jenny?" I asked her. She looked tired.

"I'm okay," she said. "Really, I am. It's all numb now. Forty stitches is a lot though."

"Forty?" I said, astonished.

"Yeah," Jenny said.

"Wow," I said. "That is a lot."

Emily sighed. "I'm worried about Nick."

Jenny nodded. "He's going to be mad at himself."

I nodded. "He'll forgive himself eventually."

"Yeah," Jenny said. "Like thirty years from now."

I blinked, and looked over to make sure my kids were still sleeping. I had moved them to a blanket after dinner, but they were pretty much out by then anyway. "Do you think it's going to happen to all of them?" I asked quietly.

Emily sighed. "Sam and I have been talking about that for a few months now." She rubbed her tired eyes. "I think it's bound to happen to some of them. Especially the older boys. I don't know about you, Jenny."

Jenny shrugged. "If it happens, it happens."

Emily cleared her throat. "Sam has been talking about stopping. Actually, I think all of them have been."

"I was thinking about that the other night," I admitted. "Just because they're immortal doesn't mean the person they imprint on is too."

"Jacob won't ever stop," Emily said. "Neither will Bryce."

I raised my eyebrows. "I guess I never thought about that." I shook my head. "I'm sure they don't want to leave Nessie or Eila."

"I'm sure they don't," Emily said. Emily sighed and looked at me. "Do you ever wish it hadn't happened to you?"

"No," I said. "Never."

"Me neither," Emily said.

I smiled, and looked over to check on my kids. "I got Quil," I said. "And them."

Emily smiled back at me. "I know," she said.

I heard footsteps and quiet voices at the door. Sam, Quil, and Joel walked through the door then.

They came around the corner, and they all looked like they had been through half of hell.

"Jenny," Sam said, and he picked his semi-adult daughter and held her tight. "I'm so sorry."

"Dad," Jenny said. "I'm really okay. It's not anybody's fault." She sighed as he put her down. "And anyway. I'm the one who pissed him off."

Sam gave her an eyebrow raise at her choice of words, but didn't comment on them. "That doesn't make it your fault either," he said.

Jenny shrugged. "I know," she said. "Is he okay?"

"He will be," Joel said. "And he's taking it a lot better than I am."

Quil gave him a pat on the back. "It'll settle into a new normal eventually."

"I know," Joel said. "It's just going to be weird for a while." He stretched his arms over his head. "I'm going to take my kids home. Thanks for keeping them Emily."

"Oh please," Emily said. "They keep my kids busy."

I watched as Joel woke up a sleepy Alexis and Cole, and pulled Paige up to his shoulder.

"You want a ride?" Quil asked him.

"Nah," Joel said. "It's just across the street. They can make it."

I watched out the kitchen window as Joel took Cole by the hand and started a sleepy walk over to his house. Leah was waiting at the door for them, and she looked like she was barely holding herself together.

This was going to be a hard transition to make.

Quil and I took the babies home after saying good bye to Sam and Emily. They were both still sleeping soundly when Quil and I got into bed, but I knew it would only be a few hours before we got a wakeup call.

A few days later, Jacob, Nessie, and their kids were spending an afternoon with us. It was beautiful outside, and their kids were running around like lunatics burning off all kinds of energy. Bryce came over after a while, and I invited everyone to stay for dinner. I was just about to go into the kitchen when Jacob's phone rang.

"It's your mom," he said to Nessie.

"Oh," she said. "Maybe the baby was born." Edward, Bella, and Carlisle had been in India for about a week now. Apparently things had been bad, but the girl, Amari, was a trooper. She barely spoke English, but her spirits had soared when she saw Bella. She and Bella had been spending every second together since the moment they got there.

"Hey," Jacob said. "I'm putting you on speaker."

"Okay then," Bella said. "Who am I talking to?"

"Me, Jake, Bryce, Claire, and Quil," Nessie said.

"Hey guys," Bella said.

"Was the baby born?" Nessie asked.

"You are not a patient child," Bella said.

"Mom," Nessie said. "I can't take the suspense."

"She had a beautiful baby girl," Bella said. "They named her Zemati."

"And Amari?" Nessie questioned.

"Is currently on her way to becoming a vampire," Bella said.

"Wow," Jake said. "Did everything go smoothly?"

"More smoothly than mine did, that's for sure," Bella told him.

Nessie sighed. "Well that's a huge relief."

"Where did they get the name?" I asked.

Bella chuckled. "Well," she said. "There's been a bit of a language barrier between Amari and I, but I eventually figured out what she was trying to say. Apparently, in Indian, Zena means Brave, and Hemati means happy. Those are the two things they wanted their daughter to be. So they pulled a me and named her Zemati. I like it."

I could barely keep up with the conversation at the end, but I got most of it. "That's a beautiful name," I said.

"She's a beautiful girl," Bella said.

"Growing well?" Nessie asked.

"Well you know," Bella said. "Considering you're the only person we have tabs on, she's a little below average."

Jacob laughed. "I'm sure she'll catch up, because let's face it: Nessie's not growing anywhere."

"Unless I was pregnant," Nessie said.

There was one moment of complete and utter silence, even over the phone.

"I'm kidding," Nessie said.

We all burst into laughter, and the babies (who were lying at our feet), woke up screaming at the loud noise.

"I'll let you guys go," Bella said. "It sounds like you've got your hands full there."

I rocked Jason back to sleep, and Quil bounced Jayna until she was calm. They were both sleeping contently again a few moments later.

The next two weeks were hectic, but fun. Quil and I were learning to function as a family unit, instead of as just the two of us. The whole Dapoli clan was planning a visit in about a week. Amari had come through the transformation well, and was adjusting quickly to the vampire lifestyle. I was looking forward to meeting them, even if I was a little nervous about my babies being around a brand new vampire. Even though I knew the Cullens wouldn't let anything happen, I was still nervous.

On the day the Dapoli clan came, we were all planning on meeting at the big white house at noon. Quil was working that morning, so he was meeting us over there. I packed the kids into their car seats, and gave them each their pacifiers. They were quite content so long as they had those.

When I got to the big white house, it was chaos as always. There was lots of food and people. I grabbed a car seat in either hand and threw the diaper bag across my shoulders. I hauled the kids up the front steps and Jenny was waiting at the door for me.

"Hey," she said.

"Help," I said, and I handed her Jayna's car seat.

"Wow," she said. "They've gotten a lot bigger."

"I know," I said breathlessly. It was hard carrying two babies.

The other babies were all laid out on a blanket, and Jenny and I pulled Jason and Jayna out and laid them next to their cousins. I flopped down next to Ashley on the couch and caught my breath.

"You gonna make it there Claire?" Corey asked me.

"Sure," I said, still breathless. I turned to Ashley, who was calmly staring at me. "My boobs hurt," I told her.

She burst into laughter, along with a few other people in the room. The others who had heard were pretending that they hadn't. "I was thinking the same thing," Ashley said.

"Yeah?" I said. "Good."

Quil came through the door just then. He must have only been a few minutes behind us. "Well," he said. "I always have been good at walking in at awkward times."

"Amen to that," Embry said, and Jacob chortled. I didn't care to know the details of that story.

Quil sat down on the floor next to me, and for a while, I just listened to the noises around me. The eagle guys were playing a serious game of poker in the kitchen, and some of the older kids were watching. The younger kids were in the next room over, playing a variety of games. They weren't too noisy, and their little voices were priceless. Nick was staring absentmindedly out the window by the door, and I wondered what he was thinking about.

"What time are they supposed to get here?" I asked no one in particular.

"Any time now," Nessie said. "They landed in Port Angeles thirty minutes ago, and my dad is driving."

Sure enough, it was only about five minutes later that I heard tires on the long drive. "Try not to overwhelm them guys," Nessie said. "Amari is just learning English."

The house got eerily quiet as the car doors slammed outside. I could hear Edward speaking, and someone laughing, but I didn't know what he was saying. We all stood to face the door, which was probably not the best idea, but I was anxious to meet these new friends.

Carlisle led the way in. "Hi!" He said cheerfully. Cade jumped into his great grandfather's arms.

Behind Carlisle, the four vampires who found us a few weeks ago came filing in. Jai smiled warmly, and made eye contact with me. I smiled back.

Edward came in with who I thought must be Sanjiv, the father of the baby. He was about an inch taller than Edward, and I was struck by his magnificent beauty. Right behind them, Bella came in, pulling a girl of about eighteen behind her. I caught my breath; she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had miles on Julia, and was even prettier than Rosalie. It almost brought tears to my eyes.

Cradled in one of her arms was a little baby who looked to be a few months old. The baby's eyes were wide open. Her eyes were the color Julia's used to be; an extremely bright green. Her hair was as black as her parents, and it shimmered in the light. She was gorgeous.

"Hello," Amari said with a heavy Indian accent.

"Amari," Bella said. She grabbed Nessie's hand. "This is our daughter; Nessie."

"Oh," Amari said. "You are beautiful."

Nessie let out her bell-like laugh. "Thank you," she said. She pointed to Eila who was semi-hiding behind Jacob's leg. "That is my daughter; Eila," she said. She pointed to Cade, who was still in Carlisle's arms. "And that is my son; Cade."

She looked at Sanjiv and said something rapidly in Indian.

"She said that you have a beautiful family, and that it is very nice to finally meet you," Sanjiv translated.

"Thank-you," Nessie said, her warm smile never leaving her face. "Is this your daughter?" she asked Amari.

"Yes," Amari said. "Her name is Zemati."

"That is a lovely name, for a lovely girl," Nessie said.

"Thank-you," Amari said.

I looked at the others. Everyone was smiling shyly at the new vampires, and I hoped something happened to ease the awkward tension soon.

My eyes zeroed in on Nick.

He looked funny. He looked completely detached from the situation, like he was in another world. He was staring at Zemati like she was the sun.

Suddenly, something clicked inside of me. He was looking at her the way Quil looked at me.

"Nick…" I said sharply, yet unable to hide my astonishment.

He looked at me, and something passed between us. "Yes," he said, partially answering my call, and partially answering my unspoken question.

"What?" Joel asked, extremely confused.

"I just imprinted," Nick said extremely calmly. "On Zemati."

The silence that followed his statement was horrifically long. One of the kids in the other room coughed, and then went back to playing with their toys.

"Oh my God," Edward said.

"What's going on?" Sanjiv asked Edward.

Edward began speaking very rapidly to Sanjiv, and Amari looked fearful. She held Zemati close to her, and glared at Nick. She looked very afraid. The second Edward stopped speaking, Sanjiv immediately started translating for Amari.

Jared, who was standing behind Nick, put his hand on Nick's shoulder. "Just stay right here," Jared said. I looked at Amari's half terrified, half livid face, and then looked at everyone around me. Quil looked like he was on the verge of losing it, and I realized suddenly how much danger we were all in.

I moved to stand by the blanket with the babies on it, and sat down next to Jason and Jayna. I put one hand on either of them, ready to grab them and run for it if I had to. Slowly, Amari began to understand what was happening, and began to look less angry, and more timid. After several heart pounding minutes, Amari slowly brought Zemati towards Nick, and held her out to him. Nick looked terrified, but smiled when she curled into his shoulder. She made a contented humming noise, and fell asleep right there.

"Be nice to her," Amari said, and I knew this was the only thing she could say in English that properly fit the situation.

"I will," Nick said.

Amari nodded, and went to stand with the rest of her family. Bella grabbed her hand again, and I relaxed.

It was slightly awkward after that, but we eventually broke off into smaller conversations. Jason and Jayna needed to be nursed, and so did a few other screaming babies by the sound of it. I hadn't really nursed in front of a lot of people, but Abbey started doing it, so I assumed it was okay. I chuckled at my reasoning, and pulled Jayna onto my lap.

"Do you nurse both of them at the same time?" Brooke asked me.

"You know," I said. "I've never really even thought about doing that…"

"Do you want me to show you how?"

"Uh," I said. "Sure, I guess."

She picked up Jason who was slowly working himself into hysterics, and pulled three pillows off the couch. She stacked them around me, and then laid the babies so that they were each lying under my arms. "I have something they actually make for this," Brooke said. "It takes the place of the pillows. I can give it to you if you want."

I laughed again. "I feel like I'm being milked."

"You are," Abbey said. "It's horrific, and yet incredibly calming."

Every time I moved even a muscle, one of the babies unlatched. It was kind of frustrating, but I survived the entire nursing period. I pulled the babies from me and laid then back on their blanket. I threw myself back onto the couch. "Now my boobs really hurt…" I mumbled. Ashley laughed from across the room and shot me a thumbs up.

Amari sat down next to Nick in the window seat, and he gave her Zemati back. Sanjiv sat at her feet, with his knees pulled up to his chest. He was scanning the room slowly, and I turned so he wouldn't see me staring. I wondered if he had any special talents that I didn't know about. He could know what I was thinking right now, and I wouldn't know about it.

"Claire," Edward said. "No."

I smiled at him. "Thanks," I said. There were some advantages to having a friend who could read your mind.

Someone was cooking up dinner in the kitchen, and I knew whatever they were making, there would have to be a lot of it. I personally hadn't contributed anything, but I decided to go in there and help anyway. Quil could watch the kids.

Sure enough, when I went in there, Emily was cooking up a storm. There were about eight different pots on the large stove, and she was stirring something undistinguishable. Leah was slowly cutting and wrapping potatoes to bake. She looked shell shocked.

"Need help?" I asked.

"Sure," Emily said. She pointed to the pots on the stove. "Those are all filled with noodles that we're going to poor some sauce over. They need to be almost continuously stirred."

"Okay," I said. I stirred the noodles and let my mind drift. I was still marveling over the beauty of Zemati, and I wondered if that's what other people still saw in Renesmee. She was beautiful, but I must have become desensitized to her beauty at some point.

The rest of the night was relatively uneventful. We all ate dinner, and then pretty much went home. Nessie and Jacob were hosting both the Cullens that were here, and the Dapoli clan. They were going to have a relatively full house, but they would manage. I had heard Bella talking to Amari about moving to Washington earlier tonight. They would have to, now that Nick had imprinted on Zemati. It would be good for them to have Nessie and Jacob as a support system here anyways. I decided to just let the cards fall where they would on that one.

That night, I slept really hard. I had been more tired than I realized. Quil had to wake me up to feed the babies at two am. Even then, I could barely stay awake long enough to get them both fed and back to sleep. I had faint memories of Quil kissing me good bye before he went to go run patrol at four, but both the babies and I were still asleep when he came back at eight. I didn't know why I was so tired, but I felt much better after a good night's sleep.

"So," Quil told me as we were eating breakfast. "We've all been talking a lot lately, and I think it's about time we call it quits."

I partially choked on my cereal as I swallowed it. "Just like that?" I asked.

"Well," Quil said. "It's going to take some time. Jacob will never stop shifting. Neither will Bryce. So it's not like we're going to just leave Nick to figure everything out for himself."

"Okay," I said. I urged him to continue.

"For right now, just us 'old guys' are really going to stop. So Sam, Jared, Paul, Embry, Me, Joel, Leah, Seth, Brooke, Lauren, Kaylie, Collin, and Brady are going to slowly stop running patrol. And then, eventually, there won't be a reason for us to change at all."

I took a drink of my water. "How do you feel about this?"

"I think it's going to be really hard," Quil said.

"You know," I said. "It probably will be."

Quil sighed, and Jayna started fussing. He picked her up and cuddled her until she was quiet again. "That's okay," Quil said. "I have a really good reason to stay home now." He kissed Jayna on the forehead.

"Quil," I said. "How did we conceive twins?"

He burst into laughter. "No idea," he said. "But I'm glad we did. That way if we ever have other kids, they'll seem easier."

"Ha," I said. "Just watch, it'll be triplets the next time."

"No," Quil said solemnly. "Not doing it." And then we both burst into laughter.