Ok, so things are getting a little ... crazy in NessieLand, so I figured now would be a good opportunity to step back in time and see how her departure affected her nearest and dearest.
So take a step inside my Literary Deloreon; your drivers today are Jasper, Jacob and Bella.
:P


Interlude: Our Nessie

Jasper

Last period on a Monday, History. Despite my love for the subject, this was … torturous, to say the least. Our teacher; Mr Bayett spoke in a monotonous drawl, showing little to no interest in the Text-book nonsense he was feeding us. I could hardly blame the man; some of this stuff was ridiculous.

I stared mindlessly out of the window, feeling the emotions of everyone in the room. All were filled with complete boredom, but for two. One was filled with excitement, a mischievous apprehension. The other was pretty mellow, quite calm with a feeling of self-fulfilment, self-adoration even. It was quite clear that these emotions belonged to the couple seated directly behind me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Rosalie running her fingers through her hair, and from what I could tell, Emmett's excitement came from the balls of paper he was rolling beneath his desk. Ready to launch at anyone, and everyone when Mr Bayett's back was turned. Emmett didn't avoid being caught out of fear; it was that it was just half the game for him.

My eyes remained fixed out of the window, just watching the trees blowing in the distance, until a familiar figure walked onto the scene. Renesmee. My mind filled with the unconditional love that had changed everything for me. For everyone else, even those sat in this room, I still had to struggle. I had to struggle against the temptation of their beating hearts, their flowing blood, their delicious scents. But not my Nessie. From the second I first saw her, I understood how Bella had survived through her human relationship with my brother. Any temptation that could possibly exist in my mind for Renesmee's blood was so violently overshadowed by my protective and powerful affection for her.

I felt the emotion's behind me altering as they noticed her too. Emmett was just consumed by blind-sighted joy and amusement. Rosalie's feelings were of pure adoration, and a little unease. The same unease that crept into my mind as our little Nessie perched against Rosalie's car. She was down there alone, in the empty parking lot. Even if the events of the past couple of days had not caused us all to feel an unfathomable panic for her safety, I wouldn't have liked to know she was down there by herself. Stupid school. Damn them for not giving Alice the same schedule as her. I could see Renesmee gazing up at the window the three of us were now staring so intently out of, and I saw her giggle as Emmett started pulling faces. My eyes were fixed on her, and I wasn't blinking, so of what I saw next, I am absolutely positive. The figure that came behind her did not walk there, or run, it did not even fall out of the sky. It just appeared, directly on the other side of the bonnet on which Nessie was leaning.

In barely the time it would take for a human heart to beat, I had taken in the figure behind Nessie. Pale Skin and red eyes. Red Eyes. My thoughts were fixed on one thing and one thing only, and that was getting to Renesmee. I threw my desk away from me, sending my textbooks crashing to the ground, and raced out of the room. It took all my inner strength to remember to keep at a human pace, but when I was in the empty corridor, I had nothing to hide. I ran down the hall with everything my legs could manage. In my mind I was screaming Edward! Nessie needs us, Parking lot, now! I was sure he could've heard me, but I had no time to wonder as I leapt down each flight of stairs. Behind me I could hear Emmett crushing the steel banisters as the swung himself over them. His emotions filled with a deep, protective aggression. Behind him, Rosalie's heels smashed into the ground as the panic exuberated from her and mixed in with the anger this intruder made her feel. When I reached the exit doors I crashed through them, sending one flying off its hinges. In the courtyard the three of us were forced to slow our pace, positive that Mr Bayett's class would be staring out of the windows to see what had spooked the three, strange Cullen kids.

Nessie was gone, but I didn't stop to wonder where or why. Instead the three of us raced past our cars, Emmett leaping over the bonnet where Nessie had just been. We ran in a line into the woods, all sniffing wildly at the air, desperate to catch her sent. When it wasn't to be found Rosalie's despair became overpowering. She started screaming Renesmee's name as she pushed to try and run faster. Anger was beginning to consume Emmett as his breathing became more of a restrained scream. I felt numb with desperation to find her. After a few minutes I stopped, as did my siblings. We stood together sharing the same emotions; Anger, Fear, Sorrow, Desperation. We stood in silence; sure the rest of our family would soon join us. Rosalie's Anger and Sadness were battling against each other, until the latter won, and she crumbled to the mossy ground. The sobs that came from her were a sign of the despair we all felt for what we now knew. Somebody had taken our Nessie.

Jacob

"Esme, stop! ….. No, seriously Esme, stop it!" She just stayed completely frozen, the only part of her that moved were her fingers, roaming around the keypad at her inhuman speed. I hated how she did that, whenever she'd play a videogame with me she wouldn't flinch, she wouldn't even taunt me. She'd just sit there, and kick my ass.

When the big GAME OVER flashed across the TV I dropped my controller on the coffee table and threw myself backwards on the couch.

"I'm sorry Jacob, but Emmett told me to stop letting you win."

"What! You've never let me win." She just smiled at me with a look of sympathy.

"Ok sweetheart, you're right. I apologize." Her words were frustratingly sincere, but I knew she was just trying to make me feel better.

"Dammit Momma Leech, I wish I never taught you how to play this." She just giggled and ruffled my hair playfully before rising to her feet. "What time is it?" As she entered the kitchen she glanced at the large clock on the wall.

"Just gone three, where's that watch, Jacob?" Esme had bought me so many watches recently. She got tired of me asking her what time it was every five minutes each day we were at home. It's not my fault; time just drags when Nessie isn't around.

"In the woods, in pieces. I phased with it on the other day, sorry." She sighed the sigh I'd noticed ever since Ness pointed it out to me. It was the way she sighed when Alice's credit card bill arrived, or when Eddie and Bella broke another piece of furniture (I don't ever like thinking too much about how those two go through so many beds.). It was the way she sighed when Blondie bought a new car, or when Nessie said one of the not so suitable jokes her Uncle's taught her. It was the sigh that said she was pissed, but that she wouldn't have it any other way. Because she relished in the mess this family made, because she was the Momma.

"I forgive you I suppose. What would you like for dinner?" We'd been to the store just hours before, and bought a tonne of food to serve the only two people in the house who'd touch it.

"Not sure, I'm gonna have something now, then eat with Ness later." Nessie was never hungry when she got back from school. She had six untouched trays to tuck into at lunchtime, and that would last her 'til late evening.

{--}

I was perched on one of the stools at the counter in the kitchen, spinning myself mindlessly with my hand hanging in a bag of pretzels. Esme was leaning over some magazines, making notes on plans for the cottages she was refurbishing nearby. When the phone rang I didn't even interrupt my spinning, Esme just glided over and lifted it, answering in her breathy telephone voice.

"Cullen residence." Blondie had recently tried to get her to say "Cullen-Hale residence." But when I'd insisted on Black being added to that list, she'd just growled and said that Cullen was fine. Blondie was just too easy to annoy! The smirk on my face that memory caused was wiped away when Esme's expression fell to panic. I jumped from the stool towards her.

"Alice, sweetheart slow down, I just can't understand you." She was right. The pixie's voice was screeching down the phone like you hear in cartoons when the person on the other ends is seriously angry. I slid my head beside Esme's and she pulled the phone away slightly so we could both hear. A few sobs were clear through the speaker, and then there was a snarling sound in the background.

"Alice, what's going on?" I could feel the panic inside me, but my voice held firm. Another whimper came through the phone before Alice managed to string a few words together.

"She's gone. We- we- can't find her anywhere. N-ness, somebody took Nessie." Esme gasped and turned to me, but I was already outta there. Crashing through the front door, my body was already breaking out. I was barely off the porch when I was down on all fours, thrusting my legs into the driveway, never moving fast enough.

{--}

As I pushed through the woods towards Nessie's school, the telephone conversation played over and over in my head. Alice's panic, the angry snarls in the background. "Somebody took Nessie." My Nessie! I was growling violently at the thought of it, whoever they were I was already preparing myself to rip them apart. I kept going over the events of the past few days in my head. How we'd all sat in Carlisle's study during Nessie's party, as Alice held her head in agony, as she told us that somebody was thinking of Nessie. All the time, they were thinking of her, planning and plotting. That night we'd all raced off, scouring every inch of the surrounding area, hunting for whoever would dare come to see our girl so mysteriously. I remember how I felt when we caught the first scent. Big Em found it and just stood where it was, yelling for us all to come and smell it for ourselves. The disappearing scent. Bells found the next one, the one that was even closer to the house, and Jazzy said what we were all thinking "They're heading for the house, for Nessie." I took one look at Eddy before he disappeared, each one of us hot on his heels. I'd launched myself through the kitchen window, as ready to rip apart any intruder as I was now. There was no intruder, but I did get a 'lil hell from Esme for the window.

{--}

My thoughts stopped when I caught the scent of the vamps and threw myself in its direction. They were all just gathered around when I came to a stop before them, firing my questions at Edward.

"What the hell is going on? Where is she? You're all just sat here lets go find her. NOW!" He just stared at me blankly, so I shook my head violently in Bella's direction, vicious growls rising up my throat.

"Bella, the shield, I can't hear him." The tone Edward used was never one I'd heard him use towards his wife before, it was firm and harsh. She just glanced up from where she was sat, hovering over Alice who was slumped on the ground rocking back and forth. Blondie was there too, her face crumpled in her hands. All three of them were sobbing and the sound made my stomach churn. The brothers were a few feet away, both of them stood as still as statues but I could see in their eyes they were shaking inside. Every inch of them was as desperate as I was to tear through the woods and take back Nessie from whoever had her.

"I need you to listen to me, there's no scent, none. We've searched the entire surrounding area and there's nothing. Did you catch anything as you came?" Eddie was speaking through gritted teeth, his eyes burning with rage.

"No, nothing." That obviously wasn't the answer he wanted. No sooner than I'd thought it did Eddie drop to his knees, his hands clenched together round the back of his neck. Emmett and Jasper were at his side in an instant and Bella was shrieking.

"What, Edward what?"

"He can't find her either. There's no scent anywhere." The women were shrieking again, no words, just pain. I hated how they were all so still.

"What are you all doing, get up! She can't be far, we have to find her!"

"How Jacob? There's no trail for us to follow. Someone came and took her, and then they disappeared. Jasper, Rose and Emmett all saw. They gave chase but there was nothing to follow."

"That's not possible!" I was snarling inches from Edward's face, but he didn't flinch, and nobody tried to calm me down. His brothers were just stood like stone, both of them with their fists clenched, anger so obvious in their faces. "Then we look, we split up and we FIND her Edward!" He nodded and rose to instruct everyone to split up and search, but I was already gone, heading into the trees, scrutinizing every inch. Positive that I wouldn't stop until I had my Nessie back.

Bella

Emmett and Jasper didn't need telling twice. As soon as Edward had pointed them off in the directions they were to head, they were gone. When they split, Emmet let out a deep roar of aggression, and I could hear Jasper's seething snarl as he raced through the trees, it shook me to see them both so uncollected. What shook me more were the screeches and cries coming from the women beside me, my two pillars of strength, crumbling before my very eyes. Both of them had been impervious to the desperate attempts at consolation their partners had made. It had been Rose's crying I'd heard first. Before then I had only been slightly panicked by Edward dragging me from our Biology class, Alice hot on our heels, but when I heard her through the trees, I was petrified. Anything that could provoke such a reaction from Rose could be nothing short of horrific, Rosalie didn't get upset, she got angry.

{--}

I was numb to the familiar arms that lifted me to my feet, only snapping from my revere when the warm hands enveloped my face and I stared into the desperate eyes of the one I loved.

"Bella, we have to split up." I nodded slowly. We had to find her, there was no other option. His hands dropped from my face as he quickly lifted his sisters to stand. His instructions were quick and he spoke them in a firm voice. I could see the agony in his eyes as he pointed in the directions each of us was to head. Rose and Alice disappeared in silence, their cries evaporating into desperate speed as they flew into the distance. Edward's hands were around my face again, and his forehead was against mine. "We will find her, Bella. Everything will be alright my love." He kissed me briefly before tearing into the woods, after our daughter. For a second I stood and watched the various places they had all vanished into, each of them exhibiting their own personal type of desperation. And for that one second I considered the dire consequences that would befall whoever had Nessie now.

{--}

Running had never been an effort, not like this. My footing continued to falter as my desperation increased. I searched wildly for the scent I knew so well, every fibre of my being feeling the wrench as it yearned to hold her, to have my daughter safely in my arms.

It may have been hours, or maybe just minutes. I half-wanted to turn back, to see if anyone else had found her, but I was too terrified of the possibility that they hadn't to head back now. When I caught it, my insides erupted. I felt my stomach leap as if I was going to be sick and a feeling of impossible tears crept up my eyes. Her scent, my baby. I was screaming her name, pleading with my legs to carry me faster towards that aroma, towards the piece of me that was missing.

It started near a clearing, her scent made my insides clench in a mixture of joy and the anxiety that wouldn't go away until I saw her, held her, knew she was safe. It could have been no more than thirty minutes old. I could almost tell the seconds that had eroded her trace, her scent was one I'd lived with, adored and relished in all her seven years, it was as familiar to me as anything on this earth could be. I followed it as it went back into the trees, deeper and deeper, until it stopped. It just stopped. I ran a few desperate circles, going back to the clearing and through the tress again, nothing. At last I fell to my knees, sobbing uncontrollable, painful screeches. My body was shaking, never in my life had I been so immensely terrified. I just wanted her; I didn't care what it took. I'd focused on keeping her shield up. Jacob's was gone, Edward needed his thoughts now. But whoever had my Renesmee, whatever had her, she would be protected. I wouldn't let them use their evil powers on her.

A powerful shudder rocketed through me that sent me deeper into the ground as it dawned on me. Her scent had disappeared. Neither I, nor Edward, or even Jacob could smell her anywhere, how was that possible without the use of some ability? It wasn't, Nessie must have let them do it. Edward had told her just last night of her control over my gift to her, she'd been practicing it this morning. Another wrenching sob tore through me as I recalled her beautiful face. The last time I saw her she was skipping of the library to complete some "assignment". I was her mother, and she honestly expected me to believe that! But in our home, secrets are privileges, rare ones at that, so I had swallowed her excuse, and waved her off as she glided out of the cafeteria, all eyes on her, as usual.

If she was letting someone hide her scent, why? And why was it exposed here now as I slumped in the ground, breathing it in desperately? My eyes had been closed since my knees had buckled, but I peeled them open, letting my irises ravage everything before me, scouring every single detail. My stare fell on a slight glint a few feet away from me, at the base of a little rock. I crawled towards it quickly, but felt myself freeze when it came into full view. I'd recognise this if it had been smashed into a thousand tiny pieces and scattered across the grassy surface, but it wasn't. It was lying there; face up beside the rock, atop a piece of torn, lined paper. 'Plus que ma propre vie'. My hand stretched out for it slowly, my breathing was frozen and everything inside me ached. As I dragged it into my hands I fell back on my knees. This was hers. She never took it off, ever. Beside the locket that couldn't even begin to illustrate my love for her hung the wooden heart, the symbol she'd received only days earlier. The symbol that in a similar fashion to the locket, bore only a faint indication of Jacob's worship of Renesmee, his undying adoration of her.

Never would she remove this voluntarily. Never. She'd worn this locket since she had received it, and since she was a child she'd had an overpowering need to keep Jacob close, surely now, his heart would be no exception.

The sheet bent in the breeze, complaining after I'd removed what was partly keeping it weighed down. I leaned forward slowly, the locket still between my fingers. Would this be a ransom note? I felt no pity for the doomed fool who would dare to take her in order to use her as leverage in the want of something else. But whatever they wanted, we would give. Then when Nessie was home safe, we would hunt them down, and there would be no mercy, none at all.

My stomach crumpled as I lifted the sheet, bringing the text to face me. The writing was hers. Her calligraphy was the most wonderful combination of all those who had taught her to write. It looped like Edward's, slanted like Rosalie's, and she had the same swift width to her lettering as Jasper. But the little decorations she had inherited from Alice and Esme weren't there, neither was the deep force she applied to the pen in the same way Emmett did. These scrawlings were faint, like she could hardly keep her pen on the paper. My eyes passed quickly over the text, line by line, my insides rupturing.

I know everything.

I know about Jacob and Bella; that he loved her first.

I'd never wanted her to know. I wanted to protect her from it; I was terrified she wouldn't understand. Her love for Jacob was so all powerful; I'd been so scared of what such a revelation would mean for me. Bella, she only ever called me that when she had to. Why did she not write Momma? Had the damage already been done, did she already hate me?

I know about the imprinting, and the fact that my birth was such a horror to some of you.

A horror? Her birth; the defining moment of my existence, my miracle. She called it a horror.

I'm leaving; I want Jacob to be free. I want us all to be free.

What could have made her feel she needed to set Jacob free? My eyes skimmed back to the previous line, the imprinting. She knew. A deep growl rose through my sobs as I felt a violent anger to whoever had told her all this, whoever had laced her mind with this poison. I'm leaving, she had not been taken? She had … left, voluntarily?

I don't blame any of you for trying to stop me ever existing, at the moment I wish you'd succeeded.

Her words cut through my insides. Not only did she know of the arguments over her fate whilst carrying her put me in such danger, but she wished she had been killed.

Sorry if I've ever made any of you suffer.

Forget me.

It will be as if I'd never existed.

Those words, exactly what he had said. The old wounds tore open again, just as if it had been Edward saying them to me again, like he had in those woods in Forks years ago. It felt like my insides were bleeding, burning and the agony was overpowering.

Gone.

It wasn't possible, it couldn't be. It couldn't be real. She couldn't be gone.

I staggered to my feet, the note and chain still clamped between my fingers.

It will be as if I'd never existed.

That's what Edward had promised, her father, and it had been a painful and unrealistic lie.

It would be the same now.

It wasn't possible; I could not imagine going back to our home and her not being there.

I raced back through the trees, my insides pulsing with and electric agony that cramped me from top to toe.

I prayed Edward would be waiting for me, I needed him now.

I needed his arms, his eyes, his assurance.

I would have to tell him, I'd have to tell them all. Show them the letter, those preposterous words. They'd all have to see Nessie's tears dotted across the page.

Jacob's suffering would be incomprehensible.

Everyone's would be, because we all adored Renesmee without hesitation or fail.

She had changed us all, she was our centre.

And now she was gone.

Our Nessie, My baby.


We'll be hearing more from the Cullen Clan in the not too distant future.
Next chapters back to Renesmee though,
Next update could be a while away, maybe a week.
BUT; I promise a preview to all reviewers,
Cos you all know you're anxious to know who's on that fire, and who the heck put them there??