I stood outside our cottage, feeling myself bathed in moonlight though my eyes were closed. I tried to concentrate by letting my senses range, still reveling in my new senses. I was amazed at how attuned my ears were to my surrounding, hearing crickets from miles away, cars speeding down the highway and, so close, my child sleeping.

Smells drifted towards me as I inhaled the night air. Elk drinking from a nearby stream with their thick, heavy blood pumping through their veins. Musty smells of pine and sap from the trees as the summer rapidly moved toward fall. And of course, the rapidly approaching smell of my husband as he raced through the woods, slowing to a walk as he saw me unmoving.

Edward walked to me, silently taking his place at my side. "Bella?"

"Yes?" I replied, leaving my eyes closed for the moment.

"What are you doing out here, my love?" He questioned, the slightest bit of fear tingeing his voice. "Is Nessie ok?"

I opened my eyes and turned to him, as always, momentarily stunned by the beauty of his body and eyes. "Everyone's fine" I assured him. "It's just... frustraing that I have been a vampire for almost two years and yet I still can get overwhelmed with the sights and sounds around me, their range and depth."

He sighed with relief. "It takes time my love. You have already proven yourself to be far more than any average new vampire. It will take a while for your vision, hearing and, well, thirst, to be totally under control."

Simply being in his presence calmed me further, awakening new senses as I gently pulled him toward our cottage, our little home in the deep woods. I heard my daughter's heart thrumming in the background, her sighing as she turned, allowing sleep to make her unaware of the throbbing, vital world around her. A world my sharpened senses could no longer ignore.

"There are other urges I'm having less success controlling" I smiled, looking up into his amber eyes that still held the power to make me nearly as clumsy as when I was a human.

His lips curled into the little half smile I loved so much. "Well we'll have to test your restraint, won't we?" He smirked and pulled me into a cradle in his arms. "After all, we have all the time in the world!"

The start of my new life, and I couldn't be happier. Still, something out there in the dark awoke another sense, tensing to feel what was coming. It might have been the extent of my current happiness that I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I could feel it in the air. Change was coming. Good or bad, I couldn't tell.

-------

After expending some of our never-ending store of energy, we lay on our bed, as I stared in wonder at the beautiful body of my husband.

"How strange it is to think that just two years ago I would have broken you at the gentlest touches I gave." Edward exhaled.

I smiled. "And I am so happy that we don't have to worry about that anymore!" Laughing as I pulled myself onto him again to cuddle into his perfect body as the sky lightened outside.

Hearing our daughter stir in the other room, I stood up and wandered into my enormous new closet, grimacing at the mounds of silk and lace .

"Getting dressed so soon?" Edward joked gently as I finally found a pair of jeans to match with a simple deep blue t-shirt.

"Come on lazy," I joked. "Time to start the day!"

"If that's the case…" he replied, bounding out of bed and, in the blink of an eye, donning a new pair of khakis with a pale green button-down. "Let's get started!"

We slipped into our daughter's room as she stirred in her bed. Though she had only seen almost two human years of life, she already resembled a rapidly growing child of 12, awareness starting to flicker in her eyes of her approach to womanhood. She grew, and learned, rapidly. A moment of panic hit me as I realized that my little girl, growing so quickly, would soon be seeking the same kind of independence and free will that it had taken me my whole childhood to realize. The freedom from overseeing parental eyes, though I felt I had always been the parent in my household, Renee seemed to be the child who snuck out to meet boys and gushed over them to me.

I looked at my husband and saw the same anxiety in his face. As we locked eyes, my determination and wavering resolve solidified. Our next step was necessary. If we couldn't give our child her childhood, we would certainly allow her the freedom to pursue her own life, unencumbered by the heavy weights of her parents' eternal future, or even the connection to my best friend. Edward nodded slightly at me. It was what had to be done.

Her chocolate brown eyes flickered open to see us standing over her.

"Good morning beautiful," I said, a broad smile on my face as she looked up.

"Mom! Dad!" She cried as her eyes flew open, pulling the covers up tight around her neck. Her self-consciousness was rapidly taking hold of her ability to talk and be with us. I recognized those same tendencies from hazy human recollections of relating to Charlie after arriving in Forks. The need for privacy. It had taken me 16 years to get to that point. Another twinge of sadness when I realized my child was growing far too quickly.

"I'm getting up! Can I have some privacy, please?!" She blushed bright red.

I rolled my eyes and heard Edward exhale behind me. We bent down and kissed her. "We'll wait outside. Love you!"

"Love you guys too." She called after, her small triumph won.

She got dressed in the usual, jeans with some designer top I didn't recognize, and joined us outside. Though she had picked up my simplicity of style, we couldn't hold off from Alice not only building Renesmee her own walk-in closet, but also fully stocking it with designer shirts, pants, dresses and a whole array of accessories. Needless to say, she never wore the same outfit twice and always had her pick of beautiful clothing. With her rapid growth and subtle daily changes, though, I was a bit relieved to not have to deal with the material side of growing off and leaving it to Rose and Alice.

Speeding into the forest, we bounded over the river, through the sunlit day.

As we rapidly approached the Cullen household, I heard heavy hearts thumping close behind us, approaching slowly. Though my defensive instincts quickly kicked in, I knew better than to turn on our pursuers. I winced slightly thinking of the earlier days when such a pursuit would have made me spin around, snarling at what turned out to be my best friend.

"Hey Jake!" I called behind me as we slowed our approach to the house. In the woods behind me, I could feel the air shift as Jacob Black's pack moved away from us and he phased back to his human form.

"Hey there Bells!" Jacob came out of the woods chuckling, wearing only a pair of jeans.

"Jake!" Renesmee rapidly changed direction and leapt in one long stride to jump into Jacob's waiting arms. Edward and I exchanged an exasperated glance as we looked at their close embrace. I knew that they had this supposedly mythical connection from Jacob's imprinting, but it didn't make it any easier to look into the eyes of my best friend, and know he would be love her passionately within a few years. Months at this rate. How could I expect to see my daughter that way when she had not even had her second birthday! It was also difficult to look at him, knowing what I was going to propose later today, knowing it would hurt him.

"Alright you two," I said. "Let's go up to the house and we can talk about the rest of the day." I smiled thinking, 'our family's house'.