Chapter 10 – Swimming with the Fishes

Rosalie's face at the thought of going to the Underwater Adventure was so priceless that Emmett snapped a picture. She stared, uncomprehendingly, at her niece. "Nessie, I... no... I... no, honey, I'm not going to see the fish," she finally said when she was able to speak again.

Renesmee looked up at Rosalie and her face crumpled into sadness. "Auntie Rose, you won't go see the fish with me?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

Rosalie glanced from her niece, who had tears streaming down her cheeks now, to Emmett, who had a huge grin on his face, and back to Renesmee. "I..." She let out a defeated sigh and rolled her eyes. "All right kiddo, lets go look at the fish," she said resignedly.

Nessie broke into a huge grin. "Thank you Auntie Rose! Thank you!" she jumped around, shrieking until Bella caught her and shushed her.

"Indoor voice, Renesmee," Bella said sternly.

"Yes, Momma," she replied before wriggling free of Bella's arms and running to catch Rosalie's hand. "This way Auntie Rose!" She started pulling Rosalie in the direction of the aquarium.

Rose reluctantly let Renesmee pull her onward while everyone else filed behind. She couldn't be certain, but she thought she heard Alice whispering to Jasper that she might skip out on the aquarium

and hit up Bloomingdale's instead. Gritting her teeth she continued to follow her niece, all the while cursing the fact that she couldn't say no to the little bronze haired girl.

When they reached the entrance to the Underwater Adventure, Bella handed out the tickets to everyone. They all traipsed down the stairs and handed over their admission tickets, and were given in return, a large pair of headphones that was connected to a small device that had numbered buttons on it.

Rose looked at the headphones and looked at her family with a pained expression. "You have [i]got[/i] to be kidding me," she said in her best put-out voice.

Edward just shook his head. "No way you're getting out of it Rosalie. Put them on and enjoy the aquarium, sis." He gave her his lopsided smile.

Rosalie bit back a hiss and put the headphones on just as Nessie started tugging on her hand. "C'mon Auntie Rose!"

The aquarium was fairly busy, even for a weekday and the tourists all gave the Cullen family a wide berth. Letting Nessie drag her to the glass of the first aquarium, they all listened on their headphones to the woman's voice drone on about what fish they were looking at.

Or at least, what fish they should be looking at. As the vampires approached the glass, the fish seemed to do the same as the humans, and try to give the family a wide berth. Standing in the middle of the glass, the fish parted down the middle and stayed on either side, as far away from the pale faced humanoids who stared at them as they could.

Furrowing her small brows together, Nessie moved to the right, pulling Rose with her, toward the group of fish there. But as soon as Rosalie and Nessie approached them, the fish darted to the other side of the tank, and the safety of numbers. Unfazed, Nessie followed the fish, still pulling Rosalie behind her. All the fish swam to the other side.

Emmett and Jasper started snickering, but Nessie looked upset. Edward picked her up and carried her to the next exhibit while everyone else followed behind. She was laughing and pointing to the fish, but again, the same thing happened when they approached. The fish would scramble to one side or the other. By the time they reached the place where they could touch the sting rays Nessie was nearly in tears.

"Daddy, why won't the fish come see me?" she wailed.

Edward looked helplessly at the rest of them. They all gave him blank looks. He couldn't exactly explain it in public. Finally Jacob came to the rescue. "C'mon Ness. I'll bet the sting ray there will let you touch it." Jake gave everyone a look, telling them to stay far back.

They approached the tank cautiously, and true to his word, the sting ray let Nessie touch it. She was ecstatic and ran straight for Rosalie. "Auntie Rose! Auntie Rose, I touched him! He was so soft!" she literally jumped up into Rosalie's arms and grabbed her face in her small hands to keep her attention. Of course one hand was still wet from having just touched the sting ray. "Auntie Rose, he liked me," Nessie said very seriously.

"That's... wonderful Ness," Rose replied, repressing a shudder. She heard Emmett snickering behind her. Letting Nessie down she turned on her family. "That's it! You have all had your fun!" She grabbed the headphones off her head and shook them at Emmett. "I'm done!"

"But Auntie Rose... we have to see the sharks," Nessie said as they all started toward the tunnel where the sharks swam.

Rosalie closed her eyes and forced herself to count to ten. Then she put on a smile and nodded while gritting her teeth. "Of course Nessie. Let's go see the sharks."

When they reached the tunnel the sharks also seemed to keep their distance. Emmett and Jasper found this hilarious and kept walking toward the glass when one would swim by. A larger one got brave and swam right up to the glass in front of Emmett and Jasper. It bared it's teeth, trying to prove it to be the more fearsome predator.

Jasper just laughed and with a quick glance around to make sure they were the only ones in the tunnel, he bared his own teeth and let out a menacing hiss. The shark turned tail and swam away to hoots and laughter from Jasper and Emmett.

Finally, they were done with the aquarium. Rosalie, after handing in her headphones with the rest of them, turned to face them. "Are you quite done? Because there is still a lot of shopping to be done before Carlisle and Esme get here."

Nessie looked up at her aunt. "But Auntie Rose, don't you want to take me to Nickelodeon Universe?" she asked sweetly.

Everyone laughed as Rose tried to say no, and couldn't.