Once again, I love you people. xD Happy reading ! xD

Chapter Twenty-One

Charlie had taken the engagement news well. He'd said that he expected it sooner or later. Reneé was.. To say the least.. amazed that I was engaged to Edward's father, for god sakes. She didn't ask questions though, thank God.

When I woke up, there was a large twist in my stomach, like I had been punched in the gut. I flew out of bed and into the bathroom with my hand clamped over my mouth, and became violently sick.

"Bella?" I could hear Carlisle's voice from behind me. He pulled my hair out of my face. "Bella, what's wrong?"

I couldn't answer yet. He held me anxiously as I shook, waiting for the ability to breathe again.

"Are you alright?" Carlisle's voice was strained.

"I'm fine," I panted. "It's probably just a bug. Go away."

"Not likely, Bella."

"Go away," I moaned again, struggling to get up so I could rinse my mouth out. He helped me gently, ignoring the weak shoves I aimed at him. After my mouth was clean, he carried me to the bed and perched me on the bed.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked again, still worried. He put a cold hand on my forehead. It felt nice. "How do you feel now?"

I thought about that for a moment. The nausea had passed as suddenly as it came. "I feel fine. A little hungry, actually."

Carlisle made me wait an hour and keep down a large glass of water before he fried me up some eggs covered in tons of cheese. I felt perfectly normal, except for the slight pain in my throat from throwing up. He put on TNT - We hadn't watched this channel for a long, long time - And I lounged lazily across his lap.

I got bored with watching Law And Order: SVU, and twisted around to kiss him. And just like this morning, I felt like I had been punched in the gut when I moved. I lurched off of the couch, my hand tight over my mouth. I knew I could never make it to the bathroom. so I bolted to the kitchen sink.

He held my hair again.

"Are you sure you're fine? Maybe we should go to the hospital so I can check you out," he suggested anxiously after I had rinsed my mouth out. I shook my head and edged toward the hallway. Going to the hospital meant needles and drawing blood.

"I'll be fine after I brush my teeth."

While looking for a bottle of new toothpaste underneath the sink, I came across something that made my mind stop thinking about toothpaste immediately. I picked up the small blue box and stared at it in my hand for a long time, forgetting everything else around me.

Then I started counting in my head. Once. Twice. Three times. And then a fourth and fifth time.

The knock on the door startled me; the little box landed on the floor.

"Are you alright?" Carlisle asked through the door. "Did you get sick again?"

"Yes and no," I said, but my voice sounded oddly strangled, as if I had something lodged in my throat.

"Bella? Can I please come in?" Worriedly now.

"O..kay..?" I couldn't even think straight.

He came in and appraised my position, sitting cross-legged on the floor by the open cabinet, and my expression, which was blank, staring, and most likely full of shock. He sat to me, his hand going to my forehead at once.

"What's wrong?"

"..How many days has it been since the prom?" I whispered.

"At least thirty four," he answered automatically. "Bella, what is it?"

I was counting again, for the sixth time. I held up a finger, cautioning him to wait, and mouthed the numbers to myself. I'd been wrong about the days before. Prom had been farther away than I'd thought. I started again; The seventh time.

"Bella!" he whispered urgently. "What's wrong? I'm losing my mind over here."

I tried to swallow. It didn't work; that thing was still lodged in my throat. I grabbed the little blue box of tampons off the floor and held them up silently.

He stared at me in confusion. "What? Are you trying to pass this off as an illness of PMS?"

"No," I managed to choke out. "No, Carlisle. I'm trying to tell you that my period is at least a week and a half late, maybe more."

Silence.

His facial expression didn't change. It was like I hadn't even spoken.

"I don't think I have a bug," I added.

No response. I now had a sculpture next to me.

"The seeing stuff," I mumbled to myself in a flat voice. "Being so tired. The paranoia. The eggs. Oh. Oh. Oh." Now that I thought about it, had I really seen Edward in the house?

Carlisle's stare seemed so glassy, as if he couldn't see anything anymore.

Reflexively, almost involuntarily, my hand dropped to my stomach. "Oh!" I squeaked again. I lurched to my feet, slipping out of Carlisle's unmoving hands. I'd never changed out of the little silk shorts and camisole I'd worn to bed. I yanked the blue fabric out of the way and stared at my stomach. "Impossible," I whispered. I had absolutely no experience with pregnancy or babies whatsoever, but I was not an idiot. I'd seen enough movies and TV to know that this wasn't how it worked. I was only a nine or so days late, and if I was pregnant, my body wouldn't have registered this fact. It especially wouldn't have given me morning sickness, or food cravings, or anything else I'd had. I most definitely wouldn't have had a small but defined bump sticking out from between my hips. No freaking way.

I twisted my body back and forth, examining it from every angle, making sure that it wasn't a trick of the light. I ran my fingers over the small bump, surprised by how hard it felt. "Impossible," I said again, because bulge or no bulge, period or no period (and there definitely was no period, though I'd never been a day late in my life), there was absolutely no way in hell that I was pregnant. The only person I had ever slept with was a vampire.

A vampire who was still on the floor, and who showed no signs of ever moving from that spot again.

There had to be some other explanation. I had some foreign disease or something.

And then I remembered something - a morning of Internet research that seemed like a life ago now. Sitting at the old desk in my room at Charlie's house with gray light glowing dully through the window, staring at my ancient, wheezing computer, reading avidly through a site called "Vampires A - Z." It had been less than twenty four hours since Jacob Black had told me that the Cullen's were vampires by trying to entertain me with ancient Quilleute legends he hadn't believed in - or cared about - yet. I'd scanned through the first entries on the site, which was dedicated to vampire myths around the world. One was even the Italian Stregoni benefici who just so happened to be my fiancé, of which I hadn't known at the time. I'd paid less attention as the stories had become less believable. I only remembered vague bits of the later entries. They merely seemed excuses dreamed up to explain mortality rates - and infidelity. No, honey! I'm not having an affair! That sexy woman you saw sneaking out of the house was an evil succubus. I'm lucky I escaped with my life! There had even been one for the ladies, too. How can you accuse me of cheating on you - just because you've come home from a two-year sea voyage and I'm pregnant? It was the incubus. He hypnotized me with his mystical vampire-ness..

That had been part of the definition of the incubus - the ability to father children with his hapless prey.

I shook my head, dazed. But.. I thought of Esme and especially Rosalie. Vampires couldn't have children. If it were possible, Rose would have found a way by now. The incubus myth was nothing but a fable. Except.. that.. Well, there was a different. Of course in the state which she passed from human to inhuman. Totally unchanging, and the female body had to change to bear a child. The constant change of a monthly cycle, for one thing, and then the bigger changes that were needed to accommodate a growing child. Rosalie's body couldn't change - It was frozen in time.

But mine could. Mine did. I touched the bump on my stomach that hadn't been there the day before. And men.. Men could father children at age seventy even.. And in this case 363 year old vampires could, too.

Of course, how would anyone know if vampire men could father children, if vampire women could not? What vampire on earth would have the restraint necessary to test the theory with a human woman? Or the inclination? I could think of only one. Or two.

I stood there, my hand on my stomach, mulling over this information. I wanted to ask Carlisle to please explain to me what was going on. I needed to go to where he sat, to touch him, but only my body wouldn't follow my instructions. I could only stare at my shocked eyes in the mirror, and my fingers gently pressed against the swelling on my torso. And then, like in some episode of the Twilight Zone, the scene abruptly changed. Everything I saw in the mirror seemed different, though nothing was actually different.

What happened to change everything was that a soft little nudge bumped my hand. From inside my body.

In the same moment, the phone rang, more shrill and demanding than usual. No one moved. It rang again and again. I tried to tune it out while I pressed my fingers to my stomach, waiting. My expression was no longer bewildered - It was wondering and amazed now. I barely noticed when the strange, silent tears streaked down my cheeks.

The phone kept ringing; Carlisle stayed put.

Ring! RING! RING!

Finally, the annoyance broke through everything else. I walked into the kitchen - going more carefully than ever, more aware of each motion's feel - and picked up the phone.

"Hi, Alice," I said. My voice wasn't much better than before. I cleared my throat.

"Bella? Bella, are you okay?"

"Yeah.. Um.."

"Is Carlisle there?"

"He is. What's the problem?"

"I'm not.. one hundred.. percent sure."

"Is everyone alright?" Had Alice seen this, or had something else happened?

"I just need to talk to Carlisle. Can you put him on the phone?" she asked anxiously.

"Well.. first.. Can vampires go into shock, Alice?"

"Has he been hurt?"

"No, no.. Just.. Taken by surprise."

"..I see.. Put him on, Please."

I walked back into the bathroom, and right before I got to Carlisle, who was still on the floor, I squeaked. Another nudge came from my stomach.

"Bella?" Alice asked, sounding worried about my squeak. "What happened?"

"I.. Swear.. Something moved inside me just now," I told her.

Carlisle's head snapped up, and I sighed in relief. Carlisle held his hand out for the phone, his face white and hard.

"Carlisle wants to talk to you."

"Put him on," Alice said in a strained voice.

Not entirely sure Carlisle could talk, I put the phone in his outstretched hand. He pressed it to his ear. "Is it possible?" he whispered. He listened for a long time, staring blankly at nothing. "And Bella?" His arm wrapped around me as he spoke, pulling me close to his side. He listened for what seemed like a long time, and he said, "Alright." He pressed "end."

"So?"

"Alice thinks you're pregnant. She says that she saw everything that happened this morning.. But after that, it gets all fuzzy.." He shook his head. I'd never seen Carlisle like this before, all shaken up and distraught.

"So I'm pregnant?" I squeaked.

"Love, you're pregnant."

I apologize for all the dialogue from BD, but I didn't know how to do any of that. xD I'll probably use some more of BD, for the references to how she looks.. and acts.. and stuff, alright? But probably nothing as bad as that again. :) xD

Read and review :D