**Understanding**
There are some days when a storm hits and it seems to go on forever. The rain keeps coming and the floods begin. For Renesmee the inertia of her life kept plunging ahead forward and she felt helpless and powerless to stop the momentum from overtaking her. Staying out in the woods with her father helped her to overcome some of her anxiety, as he tirelessly sang her his favorite songs while she slept soundly. That is how Jacob found them, Renesmee snuggled on her father's lap, sleeping while he sang.
"I knew you would come, Jacob. She needs you now more than she knows. Her head's a mess." Edward warned.
"I can't say that I know, but I can feel her. I can feel her turmoil."
"How are things back at the house?"
"Confusing and ridiculous. Bella has the children with Rosalie. Damian left to go speak with his father about this new…development." Jake reported.
"What do you think about it?"
"What can I think? Xenia's a product of me, of my magic. I can't blame anyone. It's not something she can control. I know that you guys weren't thrilled about it when I imprinted on Renesmee… but it turned out okay… It turned out wonderfully. I can only hope it will again… I mean what's the worst that could happen?"
"Never ask that question," Renesmee said turning over looking up at her husband with an exhausted smile.
"Baby, you're awake." Jake said dropping down to his knees next to her.
She reached over and hugged him tightly.
"I'll leave you two alone." Edward said, giving Renesmee to Jake like he had done so many times before… "Jake I suggested to Nessie that you both take an extended hunting trip. Locally, but alone. You all need some time to yourselves, and time to adjust mentally. Perhaps a few days are all you need, but Renesmee may have a breakdown if she doesn't get to unwind and reset. She is already dealing with Post Traumatic Stress from her ordeal and now with having given birth, and now this… It's all too much."
"I'll be okay daddy," she said getting up to hug her father.
"I won't be able to bear it if anything else happens to you honey. I just want what's best for you." He murmured into her hair, hugging her back.
"Well maybe we can hop down to New York for a couple of days." Nessie suggested, returning to her husband's tall embrace.
"Or maybe, Damian can just arrange for us to have another room in another area of the house for a few days, so that Nessie won't have to rough it…" Jake said with a smile.
"You know how spoiled I am huh?" she said smiling up and kissing Jake on the lips softly.
"Okay, I'll go arrange that then, that sounds like a good idea Jake."
"Okay, we're gonna stay out here a bit longer daddy, so don't worry."
"I won't honey."
"Thanks," Jake said with a smile.
"No problem son."
…
Edward took his leisure walking back toward the house and on this walk he enjoyed several nuances of the property. He had already seen the gardens, surrounded by their high walls, and perfectly pruned shrubberies, but here, on the western most part, where the woods met the edge of the estate, it had gone from acreages of woods and wildlife to rolling hills that led up to the great house. From this angle you could see how truly big the west wing of the house was as it seemed almost to rise out of the mountain side. Edward's suspicions were confirmed seeing that a portion of the house, that had to be the eastern part, disappeared into the mountain, while the northern end gradually rose to a tower. On the other hand, the southern end seemed to gradually disappear into the ground.
This estate allowed for every type of taste. For the one that loved sunlight, there were four stories of glass walled western facing floors, with the Cullen's at the uppermost floor, there were three floors below them. The northern face had more concrete architecture while the inside of the eastern wing plainly was for the dark gothic type of individual, which the Count clearly was, at least some of the time.
Edward paused and concentrated on the 'voice' of Damian's mind and tried to locate him in the house.
Edward, hello, he heard in his mind after a moment.
Damian. I was looking for you. Edward thought smiling.
And so you found me.
May we speak? Edward asked.
Of course. Follow the sound of my voice. Damian said.
Engaging in the exercise, Edward was led through the house from his familiar quarters in the west wing to a grand staircase that dropped down through the center of the house. A corridor that departed toward the north seemed to decline under great carved arches leading to the lowest level of the northern wing, where candelabras intermittently led the way. This passageway opened into a beautifully lit and decorated antechamber.
This special room had antique chairs and paintings on the wall that seemed that they should be part of the collection of the basement at the Louvre, and an ornate antique chandelier that hung from the ceiling. This room led in one direction to a drawing room and in another direction to a library where Damian was reading. Damian's library was beautiful; one wall stacked from floor to the high vaulted ceiling that had to climb two stories with books from every era. Along the other walls everywhere, above the doors, on the ceiling, were swords, daggers, maces, axes and complete suits of armor as well as stuffed birds, spreading their fiery, brilliant wings as if in suspended animation and never closing beaks. Damian had a beautiful mahogany desk with writing implements from antique pens, quills, ink wells, and paperweights of many kinds, from glass prisms to gold weights.
Damian however sat with his high backed, velvet chair facing the grand fireplace that stretched out the length of one of the walls, and its raging fire crackling. There was a similar chair angled facing the fire in a positive attitude to carry on conversation with the person sitting opposite.
Damian rose and met Edward at the door of the quiet sanctuary. Damian's piercing blue eyes was a stark contrast to his features; something that Edward had to get used to.
"Edward," said Damian, "welcome to my humble abode. Please be seated, and let us talk," he said pushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Are you always so formal?" Edward asked sitting down.
"Psh, no! Only when I have a good impression to make," Damian said and smiled wickedly, "but usually, I just sit down here and enjoy myself, unless I'm in New York enjoying the sites and the festivities that the big apple has to offer."
"Do you always wear black?" Edward asked with a smile.
Damian let out a chuckle looking down at his attire. He was usually comfortable in his black denim and tight black T. When he would go out, typically he would have on his leather jacket, or a black blazer, but today he didn't. "Yes, usually I do wear black," he said running his hand through his hair again.
The movement caught Edward's attention and his eyes were once again drawn to his.
"We don't know our eyes don't change after our transformation is complete…" he murmured sitting down.
"You know why I'm here." Edward said.
"Yes. You want to know my agenda. You want to know who I am, where I'm going, and where I've been." Damian said with a sarcastic edge.
"Actually, I only want to know one thing. Who you are… I want to get to know you since it seems like you will be a lot closer to my family than we had previously anticipated."
"Woe, woe, woe… if you think I'm going to marry your little granddaughter when she becomes of age, like your sweet Jacob did. That's not who I am." Damian said raising his hands.
"I know, and that's not what I expect. There's no way I can go into this thing with expectations, and neither can you. But what I can do is try to protect my family. If you aren't worth knowing, Xenia will have a lot less to lose if she doesn't know you at all."
"I understand you completely, and it is my sincere hope that you decide that I am worth knowing."
"I hope so…" Edward said smiling. "Now for the other reason I sought you out…"
"You want to learn to control your tricks." Damian said with a smile. "That will be my pleasure to teach you. Shall we get started?"
"Anytime," Edward said enthusiastically.
"Right now, if you care to."
"Alright," Edward agreed.
"Okay," said Damian, "like before, listen to the sound of my thoughts, and follow my instructions…"
I want you to close your eyes and concentrate. Take the sound of my thoughts and focus on them…
Now like a word linking game, I want you to take words from my consciousness and link them to words in my subconscious… I'll demonstrate for you, and then you do it with me… okay, follow me as I go through your head…
Right now, you are preoccupied with anxiety over your daughter… this is a familiar anxiety to you… you used to feel great anxiety with Bella… when she … wanted you to change her… change…. When you were changed you were seventeen… when you were seventeen you were sick with influenza and your mother died in the bed next to you… your mother… she was Elizabeth Mason… Mason… your father Edward married your mother when she was seventeen after her father begged him to on his deathbed, wanting his daughter to have security….
…Now open your eyes…
"How did I do?" Damian asked with a smile.
"That's remarkable…" Edward said halfway dazed with the memories of his birth parents.
Now… listen to the sound of my voice… follow my thoughts through my conscious to my subconscious….
Edward thought and concentrated, but found he hit a wall unable to go through…
Edward, you are trying too hard… it's a natural process… the mind is like an onion, just pull back one layer and the other will reveal itself… take all thoughts from your mind and peel the layers back one at a time… try again…
Edward tried to submerge his thoughts and only hear Damian's mind…
Damian… you are thinking about helping me… you are helping me because you want me to think well of you… you want my trust… you want my trust because you haven't had people around you that you trust in a long time… this existence is lonely for you and you are hoping that our family is not a mirage as yours is, and you feel you are only an experiment… your father experiments and children result. Some have left and some have stayed… that's why you remain alone… but you want to feel a family… you want love in your life… instead of empty women who's will you take for them to provide you with amusement and diversion from a sad lonely existence in which you feel you have no humanity at all…
"I think you got that one…" Damian said with a cough, breaking Edward's trance. "Let's try reaching out to find what is going on with someone here… find… Emmett."
"Emmett is upstairs playing Xbox with Jasper… I can hear him," Edward said after a moment…
"That's not what I mean… find his voice in your head…"
Okay, I found him…Edward replied silently.
Okay now who is in the room with him? Damian asked.
Jasper and Rosalie with Josiah…
Okay, now reach into Rosalie's head… where is she right now? Damian asked.
She's with the baby… she loves the baby… she wants a baby of her own, and Josiah looks almost like Emmett so she's infatuated with him almost as if he was her own son… she wants a baby so badly so that she can show it love … the way her parents didn't, because if they had, they would have found a man who loved her instead of the man they chose for wealth and social standing… she still regrets this life… but perhaps she can make it right if only she can…she wants to ask your father about having a child of her own…
"Very good Edward… do you see… how you can control your gift?" Damian said, again interrupting his trance like state.
"I do. But how do you put your thoughts in someone's mind?"
"That, my friend, is a lesson for another time…"
"Well, thank you for your time…" Edward said getting up.
"You're welcome… but what's your hurry, stay enjoy a book, have a drink with me. I personally love Brandy."
"You drink?" Edward asked perplexed, then noticed the crystal decanter on the small round table to the right of Damian's arm chair.
"It is one of the few human pleasures which transcend my altered state of humanity." Damian said with a dark laugh.
"There is one other thing I wanted to ask if you could arrange…"
"Done," Damian said with a smile.
"Wow, I can see how that could be annoying after a while…" Edward laughed.
"Sorry, force of habit. My father likes everything done without having to actually speak. So I've been used to reading into him. Speaking of whom…"
At that moment a servant entered speaking French, 'Sir, your Father requests the presence of you and Edward in the west wing. There are developments with the children," he said and withdrew.
Edward ghosted away followed closely behind by Damian.
The family had gathered in Rosalie and Emmett's room.
"Where's Nessie?" Bella asked Edward as he came through the door.
"She's out hunting with Jake." Edward replied.
"On it." Seth and Embry said in unison leaving the room to go find them.
Edward and Damian ascertained silently what the commotion was. Edmond had arrived right after Edward had entered with a doctor's bag.
"They're growing, and changing… so fast…" Rose said handing Josiah to Edmond.
Dantès worked quickly taking measurements, blood samples, and noting things in his little book. The children were only thirty six hours old, and they had grown longer to the size of regular newborn babies, with budding compliments of teeth. The children seemed to have changed overnight almost; their hair as well as their bodies. Xenia's hair had gone from red and it was darkening, while little Edward's hair was getting thicker.
"Don't let they boy bite Jake or his brothers…" Edmond said, "He's venomous…I'm not sure what effect it will have on Jacob, since he is the boy's father, but it will hurt the other two boys."
Edmond was examining Josiah's mouth, "it seems that his glands for his venom are smaller than usual, perhaps they will grow," he mumbled jotting down notes, "he won't be lethal until he's older…"
Switching to Xenia, he opened her mouth checking her gums and little beginnings of her teeth, "interesting…" he said looking around, "girls aren't usually venomous… but she is."
"What does that mean?" Edward asked.
"I'm not sure…I can't predict these children… they are completely new to me. It seems I should check their growth hourly to better track their changes."
"That will work out well father." Damian said, "I was going to arrange a room for Jake and Nessie in another part of the house, so they can have some time to unwind, perhaps I can move them to the SW part of this wing, that way they will be closer to your office. If that's, of course, okay with her parents."
"That'll be fine." Edward agreed.
"What will be fine?" Jake said running through the door, Renesmee, Embry and Seth following behind.
"It will be my pleasure to give you your own part of the house, on the South West end. You will have some privacy, and be closer to my father, who can more closely monitor your changing children." Damian said picking up and handing Xenia to Renesmee.
Nessie's eyes widened in surprise at the little girl she was presented with. "Oh my god…" she whispered.
What's wrong mommy? Xenia asked.
"Nothing baby, you're just a lot bigger than I remember you from…yesterday." She whispered to her daughter.
"Is she speaking to you?" Edmond asked.
Renesmee nodded, not trusting her voice.
"She's amazing, isn't she?" Edward asked, "how does she 'know' so much already?"
"Guess she gets it from her mommy…" Bella said, "Remember how shocking it was with Renesmee?"
Edward pulled Bella close to him, and kissed her hair.
Damian? The little girl pleaded to her mother.
Renesmee looked puzzled but offered her baby to Damian, giving her what she wanted. "She wants you." She said, handing her over.
Damian smiled a crooked grin at the child, as he took as he took her into his arms and sat down on the couch. She felt warm against his cool marble skin, something he wouldn't have noticed if his sleeves had been long.
Edward watched them as they communicated silently.
Hi little girl, he said to her, offering her one of his fingers. She smiled and grabbed on to it with her whole fist and her hazel eyes sparkling.
Damian's dark hair fell over his blue eyes as he was looking down at the little girl and she reached up as if to grab at it. He dipped his head smiling to let her have her way, and Edward could see that it would only be a matter of time until he was completely hooked on this little girl.