Chapter 27: Family of Three

~Rosalie~

Never before had a plane ride seemed so long. Emmett and I left our niece and nephew with Alice and Jasper at sun set several hours ago. We were returning to the Island in hopes that we could meet Lily and see how things went from there. It was difficult not to hope for a bright future with her as our daughter. Emmett kept me grounded, reminding me that I couldn't get so excited for something that may not happen. We knew how much the little girl had been put through, and if I ever laid eyes on the vampire who harmed her, I would pull him apart slowly, and enjoy it.

As I paced toward the back of the plane Emmett met me, putting his arms around me. I sighed resting my head against his broad muscled chest, letting my eyes fall shut. "I want this to work so bad," I whispered.

His hand rubbed slowly up and down my back, and I took in a deep breath of air even though that wasn't something my body required of me. "We have to be patient," Emmett reminded, and I nodded not frustrated on having him remind me. My husband was a kid in most ways, but over the past few days he had really shown just how responsible and strong he truly was. Not many in our family saw that side of him, but I knew him best and loved him for everything he was.

"Is it alright to have dreams for us?"

"There is never a problem with that, but I don't want you to be hurt if something happens, and we don't get the chance," Emmett persisted.

My heart hurt just hearing those words and I wrapped my arms around as much of Emmett as I could. "I'm trying not to worry too much about that, even though we likely won't get the chance," I said, expecting the worse and being prepared for that instead of letting hope take hold. It was all so confusing and hard, the not knowing. "I just want to get there."

"Me too Rose, me too," Emmett whispered, kissing the top of my head.

~*~

When we arrived at the Island the sun was coming up. Esme and I talked about Lily, and she told me what to expect. Lily didn't need as much sleep as Renesmee and Anthony, and often woke up after having horrible nightmares. When she awoke from them she refused to talk about it, and so far the only one in our family to bring her any comfort from her dreams was Bella.

"Has she tried disappearing?"

"Yes, but you can usually tell when Lily is about to, and during those times you have to tread lightly. Edward got her to agree to tell us when she wants to, and it's sometimes hard to talk her out of it. Again what she seems to respond to the best is lots of love," Esme said as we began to walk toward the house.

I reached behind me and took Emmett's hand, feeling butterflies in my stomach, something I had not felt since I was human. My brother greeted us at the door, hugging me before I could really think. I could already smell Lily's scent, sweet like Renesmee's and very different, though not appealing to the appetite. We found her sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table with Bella, working a puzzle. Her blond hair had been french braided, and she had on a yellow, floral sundress.

Emmett stayed with Edward as I walked past the sofa and coffee table, sitting down to the left of her as she put a puzzle piece into place. After she had done that Lily looked up at me.

"Hello Lily, I'm Rosalie."

The little girl looked at me for a few moments before she smiled, "You have pretty hair," she said.

"Thank you. I love your braids."

"Esme did that this morning for me. Do you know how to do it?"

"I sure do," I said barely noticing as Bella got up, glad when her leaving didn't upset Lily.

Emmett joined us, and Lily glanced at him before looking back at her puzzle. "Lily, this is my husband, Emmett."

"I saw pictures. Edward and him were wrestling for a bat and he looked mad, but Edward said they were only playing." she informed putting another puzzle piece into place.

I recalled the picture she was talking about and glanced up at my husband, wanting him to try and break the ice.

Emmett smiled at me. "My brothers and I like to play rough, but I won't do it unless you are alright with that," he tried.

"You are big enough to keep the bad people away from hurting me," Lily answered glancing up at him again.

"None of us will allow that to happen," Emmett assured, and she smiled.

"Can we go out on the beach and make another sandcastle? The tide washed my old one away and Edward said you and Rosalie would help me," Lily told us.

We got up with Lily, and all three of us changed into our suits. While she and Emmett went outside, Esme assure me that she didn't seem to need sunscreen. I noticed too that her pale skin didn't shimmer like ours, along with the fact that she did have a very slow heart beat.

We spent most of the day outside, sometimes with the rest of the family, but mostly it was just Emmett, myself and Lily. She was warming up to both of us and even let Emmett toss her into the deeper part of the ocean, laughing when she came up for air. It was a little past one in the morning when she fell asleep on Emmett's lap while the rest of us talked about old times, and about getting everyone in our family here before the summer came to an end.

Having had plenty of practice with Renesmee and even Anthony, Emmett got up and had Lily cradled in his arms without waking her. We said goodnight to our family and retired to the larger bedroom. Once Lily was tucked into bed, I put my arms around my husband. "This has been the best day of my life," I whispered.

"It has been one of my best, second to the first time we got married," Emmett replied. "What do you think?"

I lifted my head from his chest, "About?"

"Us being her parents."

"I'm ready, but worried that she's going to try and run from us the first time she does something we have to correct her for."

"Did Carlisle tell you his theory?" Emmett asked as we went out of her room and into the main part of the house. The rest of the family had gone inland to hunt letting us have this time to bond with Lily.

"Which theory was that?"

"He thinks the more comfortable she becomes, the less likely she'll be able to disappear. Edward and Carlisle believe that developed because she needed a way to escape and it was part of her natural gift like Edward being able to read minds, and Alice telling the future."

We sat on the sofa, remaining quiet in our own thoughts for some time. "I don't think it will always be this easy. I remember how angry I was after Carlisle changed me and remembered what Royce did to me. I know it's not the same for Lily, but she's got to have anger somewhere for all that Joham did to her."

"So you believe she's going to go off at some point?"

"I hope not, but I think she might. Maybe it would be better for us to let Esme and Carlisle stay like Edward suggested. I acted out of selfishness when I got mad at him for suggesting it, but with four of us it might be easier."

"Where should we stay?"

"Maybe here for a while. I don't think anyone will find us."

Emmett nodded, and we were quiet again for another long spell. "Do you think Edward will be able to figure out what else she's hiding? I knew he and Bella were worried that there might be more that happened that night she was turned."

We both fell silent when we heard Lily shifting in bed. In the blink of an eye we were at her side as her eyes opened and she began to scream.

I reached out to comfort her and she backed away. "Lily, it's me, Rosalie. Emmett's right there. We won't hurt you honey," I whispered, wanting nothing more than to hold her and take away all the bad that she had been through.

What amazed both of us was that she didn't disappear. It took her a few minutes before she let me hold her, and once she was in my arms it wasn't long before she relaxed. "Can you tell me what you saw in your dream?"

"Don't want too," Lily whispered, pressing her face against my neck.

I leaned back in the bed and Emmett rested to my right, reaching out to rub his hand in circles over her back. Edward had said he had tried holding her hand against him when she would begin to dream, and that the images he saw were blurry, not enough to let him see what was causing her so much pain. There were long pauses in her breathing and each breath of air was deeper as she fell into a more restful sleep.

"I felt helpless just then," Emmett admitted.

"Me too, and a little better because she trusted us once she realized we weren't there to hurt her."

It was a little after sunrise when Lily woke up ready for breakfast. Emmett was better at cooking than me and made a batch of chocolate chip pancakes that Lily devoured while she sat on my lap at the table.

"Will they come back, and then we can all be a family?" Lily asked as she finished her last bite of pancake.

Emmett glanced over at me as I lifted her up and put her on the edge of the table in front of me. "We always will be family. For a while we need to stay here. Edward and Bella need to go back to their babies."

"Do you get to be my family, you and Emmett, like a Mom and a Dad and a daughter?"

"Do you want us to be a family?" I asked.

She nodded, hugging me tight as I held her. I wanted that more than anything. The only reservations I had was if someone was out there who loved her in all the right ways, someone who was blood family to her. I knew Nahuel was her half brother and he had been contacted, though so far no one had heard anything from him.

Our family came back that evening. Edward and Bella had a late flight and had everything packed up when I finished giving Lily a bath. She noticed the bags and figured things out pretty quickly, running to Bella hugging her tight as my sister-in-law held on to her. "We all need to be family," Lily was saying sadly.

"We are family, and we will be together soon. Right now you get to stay here and have lots of fun with Emmett and Rosalie," Bella tried as Lily shook her head.

"I knew you first when you were walking with Anthony and Renesmee. Why can't I stay there with you?"

My throat tightened when I heard Lily pleading and Emmett was there to hold me as Edward explained to her that she would get more attention with us. In the end she was still sad, but let Emmett give her a piggy back ride as we all walked out to the dock bidding Edward and Bella goodbye.

When we got back to the house, it was evident by her drawn expression that Lily was sad to see them go. Emmett sat down on the sofa pulling her gently onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her as she remained quiet. "It won't be so bad," he whispered.

"Are they scared about my father?"

I sat next to them and Lily looked over at me. "He's very bad. He killed momma because she wasn't strong like me. I got quiet and he left us alone and a big ugly wolf came in and sniffed me, and then he left too. He smelled different than the other wolves in the wild and then I don't want to see anymore," Lily said turning her head away from me.

Esme saved the day by bringing a bowl of ice cream topped with whipped topping and a cherry. She turned on the TV while Carlisle sat down on the other sofa, all of us quiet as we tried to figure out the meaning of Lily's story, more so the wolf than anything else.

Once Lily was in bed, we all sat down and talked about the wolf in her conversation.

"I think Edward may have been right about the Children of the Night. He believed Lily was spying for them for a time. That may have been how they knew about Renesmee and why they were able to get to the house that day it burned down." Carlisle offered

Emmett took my hand, "They used her to shield them?"

"Bella said she did when Anna came that night. It seems to take a lot out of her when she does." Carlisle replied

I nodded, wondering what kind of threats they had used to get her to stay with them, and for that matter how long ago she had been changed. Bella said the dress she had worn when she first saw Lily was dated, a period dress of some sort, but she didn't know the year. It was tattered and the color faded so there hadn't been a way for Bella to give us a good description.

While they talked I went back in the room and rested on the bed next to Lily. Recalling what Edward had done to see her dreams, I took one of her small hands and put it on my cheek. After a few moments I saw soft colors, serene and calm. Lily wiggled closer to me and I turned on my side allowing her to move even closer. Somehow we would make her world and ours right, the problem was the how of it all. As much as I was trying, keeping myself distant from the child sleeping in my arms wasn't going over very well. The more time I spent getting to know her, the more I loved her as my own.

~Emmett~

With Rosalie in the other room taking care of Lily, I spoke quietly with Carlisle about my concerns, ever mindful that at any moment my wife might hear what I was saying. "It's hard not to care for the little squirt," I said, still struggling with my own feelings about the possibility of becoming Lily's father, and whether or not that would be wise. As I thought about that I shut my eyes, scratching my head. With my eyes still shut I knew exactly when Esme had gotten up from the other sofa where she had been sitting with Carlisle and when she sat next to me.

"What concerns do you have?" she asked.

I sighed, opening my eyes as I turned to face the woman who was an adopted mother to me. "It's a lot to take on," I admitted not afraid of that. As I spoke what I felt I was also keeping my ears open for Rosalie, though so far she was still with Lily humming a lullaby she used when we were with Renesmee and Anthony.

"If it's not something you want, then you need to speak with Rosalie," Carlisle said in a voice so low that only Esme and I could hear.

I'd thought about that and wasn't sure I wanted to be the one to break my wife's heart, and at the same time, I didn't know if I wasn't ready to step up and take on some responsibility and stop being the family Jester. For as long as I'd known her, Rosalie had always longed for children, always watching other people who had a baby or young child around. Always before I joked with her, reminding her that we would have little time for the things we liked if we found a way to have a baby of our own, and once Bella and Edward had their two, my wife had been much happier.

A little later I walked alone on the white sandy beach gazing up at the dark night sky, speckled with thousands of stars. My thoughts were on Lily and the horrific things we had seen when she shared her past with us. I thought of my human life and of my own parents. There wasn't any one memory to hold on to, but I knew I'd been well cared for and loved.

"Emmett?" Rosalie asked pulling me out of my thoughts, I turned finding a look of concern etching her beautiful face. My wife had on a soft flowing dress and her feet were bare as mine were. When I reached out for her, she came into my arms.

"You don't want to be her father?"

"I didn't say that," I defended as she held on to me tighter. My Rose was strong, and yet so vulnerable at that moment. "Rosalie, you do realize how much work this will take. I'm trying to make sure, at least for myself, that I'm ready. We've always been able to give Renesmee and Anthony back to Edward and Bella. If we do this, we can't give her to someone else when we want time alone."

My wife lifted her head from my chest, and smiled up at me. "I know what we will have to give up. I also know how much we would gain. We have so much love to give. It is scary to think about all the changes we will have to make, but I think we can do this, don't you?"

There was so much love in her golden eyes, always love for me, but added love for the little girl we had barely begun to know. Was I ready to give up my life as just a husband to the most beautiful woman in my life and let Lily into my heart?"

I shut my eyes thinking one last time about all the things I'd come to consider over the past few days. "I think we should do this," I said reaching out to run my fingers through my wife's soft silky hair. When she tilted her head back I bent mine down capturing her lips in a kiss that I hoped would let my wife know just how much she meant to me.

Her hands trailed through my hair pulling my head down further to deepen the kiss as my own hands began to explore the soft curves of her sexy body. For the time being Lily was the last thing on my mind as Rosalie's hands left the back of my head sliding down my sides and into the trousers I had on.

~*~

Over the next few days Rosalie and I took what advise we could get from Esme and Carlisle on parenting, and from Edward and Bella when they called. My brother told me once, when I bragged about how easy it was taking care of Lily, that we were in the Honeymoon phase, and that sooner or later we would end up having something that would test us as a new family of three.

As it so happened Carlisle and Esme were off Island and I was making fast work of taking clothes off the clothes lines when I heard Lily shouting something. I dropped the pink lacy dress I'd been holding in my hands and was in the kitchen in a second. Lily was standing on one side of the room and Rosalie on the other. At Lily's feet were pieces of a bowl of some sort, along with scattered eggs and flower.

Lily had her hands over her eyes and was shaking, screaming the moment I tried to reach for her. "I can't go," she yelled sinking to the floor. "You did it, you did this to me," Lily added pulling her legs against her chest as she sobbed. Edward"s words came to haunt me as Rosalie arrived by my side. The honeymoon phase appeared to be at an end, but I wasn't sure what had happened nor what we needed to do.

My wife put something in my hands and I looked at the paper finding writing. She wanted to make cookies on her own. I told her not to and was making her bed when I heard her getting the eggs and flower out putting them in the bowl. When I caught her she had a melt down. I think she wants to disappear, and I don't think she can.

"Lily," I tried, but she covered her ears, crying harder.

My wife and I watched her for a moment longer before Rosalie began pulling me down toward the floor. She sat down and I followed her lead, the paper in my hand crumbled up and tossed on the other side of the family room. What did Lily need us to do? We were the ones responsible for her and her cries were tearing at my deadened heart worse than the times Renesmee had her melt downs. My eyes were drawn to my wife as she reached out and pulled the struggling child to her, holding her even as Lily cried harder. I wrapped my arms around them guessing that we all needed to wait out the storm.

Eventually Lily stopped struggling and snuggled into my wife's arms crying softly against the silk blouse Rosalie had put on that morning. I bent my head down and kissed the top of Lily's resting my cheek there as we both held her.

"Wh... why can't I get away?" Lily whispered, her voice strained from her cries.

"I think because you know you are safe with us," Rosalie whispered.

"I don't like it. I'm not safe anywhere." Even as she said those words she clung to my wife and I held them as close as I could.

When the last of Lily's tears subsided I stood up, helping Rosalie to her feet as she shifted Lily upright holding her against her left side as we went into the family room. We sat down on the sofa across from the TV, and Lily sat on my wife's lap facing us even as she looked down.

"I wanted to make cookies like Esme did," Lily whispered, reaching out to hold my hand even though she still wouldn't look at us.

What she seemed to need was a reason why she couldn't, and when Rosalie tried to get her to look up, Lily pulled away a little. "I don't like this. I did what I wanted before," she hissed.

"Was it better?" I asked, not liking the fact she was hissing at my wife. Maybe this wasn't going to work, and I felt an ache in my heart for admitting to it so soon.

Her small head shook from one side to the other and she sniffed, rubbing her eyes. "I don't know what to do," Lily sobbed.

My heart hurt more, and when I reached out for her she didn't protest. Once Lily was resting against my chest I put my free arm around Rosalie, "You are really smart Lily, and you've had to take care of yourself for a long time haven't you?" She was smart and she needed to hear it.

Her small head moved up and down once against my shoulder.

"Rosalie and I want to be your parents. We want to be your family like you said earlier. Sometimes there are things you can't always do on your own right when you want too. Rosalie had a reason for not wanting you to bake cookies, but you tried it on your own even when she said no."

Lily sighed lifting her head looking at my wife and then up at me. "She said it wasn't as easy as it looked and she would help me after she got things done. Why can't I do what I want to when I want to?"

It was Rose's turn, "Do you know how to make cookies all by yourself?"

Lily looked down again shaking her head once as she sighed.

"That's the reason I wanted you to wait, well one of them. The other reason was because I thought it would be fun to do it together."

"Is that what moms and daughters do?"

"Sometimes, yes," Rosalie answered smiling at her.

"Can we do it now?"

Again Edward's words rang in my head and I glanced at the woman I loved.

"Since you didn't listen when I said no that first time, I'm afraid we won't be making any cookies for a while," Rosalie said.

"I was bad," Lily said as her blue eyes grew wide with fear.

I hugged my arms around her.

"What you did was wrong, which is why you can't bake any cookies for a while. You are not bad Lily, and Rosalie and I love you with all we have. We won't ever stop loving you even when you do something that we asked you not too."

"I want to go to my room," Lily whispered.

I gave her another hug before Rosalie reached for her. After the two of them cuddled Lily slid away from my wife and ran to the back of the house, closing the door to the small blue room. We heard the cries she tried to stifle in the pillow, and it was hard not to go in after her.

"Did we do the right thing?" Rosalie asked as we went to the kitchen and began cleaning up while at the same time listening to Lily, to our daughter.

"We can't let her walk all over us, and I think we did," I said, hoping we had.

Once we cleaned the kitchen we sat in the family room. A while later Lily joined us. She and Rosalie sat working a puzzle and Lily didn't bring up what had happened in the kitchen for the rest of that evening.

As we tucked her into the bed in the blue room, Lily was hardly able to stay awake. Rosalie was kissing her first and after telling her she loved her, it was my turn. I knelt by the bed kissing her forehead. "I love you," I said smiling at her as she yawned.

"I love you too, Dad," she whispered rolling away from the bed, "Mom, will you stay with me?"

Rosalie kissed me before slipping in bed behind our daughter. In the living room I sat down thinking about our first trial as parents, wondering how Rosalie and I would do with the next snafu, hoping with time we wouldn't feel so damn lost.

~*~

AN: Alright, I'm trying to make up for the time I might have to spend away from writing while I get moved. I don't want to drag this out and have a big prolonged drama with Lily Emmett, Rose and the rest of the Family. My hope is that I've done a good enough job with Lily to show that she needs a family and in fact craves it. It's not going to be easy for Rosalie and Emmett and there is lots more coming their way. One of my readers put it well when they pointed out that, we have Werewolves, Volturi and Joham to deal with. Along with this new family dynamic, Bella and Edward need to perhaps show the Volturi that she's a vampire and they held up their end of the bargain. It's going to be a long way to finish and I hope you all will stick with me. As for Lemons, I'll have more of that soon enough. Rose and Emmett was just a taste, and I'm trying to find a way to write those scenes in a better way so bare with me.

I should put this first, but at any rate thank you all for the reviews on the last few chapters well all of them really. I enjoy hearing what you guys think and hope you will continue to let me know. Also thanks to those of you who have added me to your various lists. More coming soon, well as soon as I can get it out to you.

~Ella~