It's Murder Sequel

Chapter 26

EPOV

Life with a baby becomes routine from necessity. Everything we did revolved around Kristie's schedule, and I hated leaving my precious girls to return to work when my shifts eventuated. Dad had me doing the bare minimum so I could spend most of my time at home, but still, I was seriously considering just postponing my training until my daughter was older.

I understood Bella's decision that this would be our only child but it meant this would be the only baby I ever got to really love and know and I didn't want to miss a minute of her life.

I was doing a four hour early evening shift each day because that was Kristie's first long nap time, but all the same,keeping my head in the game was difficult, and I'd be wondering if she was indeed sleeping soundly or if she was awake and somebody else was spending time bonding with her instead of me.

I didn't envy the fact that Bella spent this extra four hours with her, but still, they were four hour periods I'd never have again, so when it became apparent I just could not work at one hundred percent like the patients deserved, I informed my father I was taking a career break.

Becoming a doctor was a goal I still wanted to achieve but not yet, not now.

It would always be there and I'd had no problems settling back into study and focusing on my career prior to the birth so it would the same in a couple of years time when I was able to tear myself away from our miracle.

Bella merely shook her head and laughed when I told her, and informed me I was on permanent diaper duty because she was 'the cow' so I was the guy in the circus who cleaned up after the animals.

"Hey, did you just call Kristie an animal?" I growled.

"Basically, that is what we all are, and you are the pooper scooper."

Nothing like being put firmly in my place.

Mornings were an especially favourite time for me, because Bella had decided she was lacking Vitamin D and needed to get some sun onto her pale skin. This meant every morning once the sun was shining brightly, she would head for the study, the room that got the best sun exposure, strip naked, and sprawl on the chaise lounge by the window and catch some rays.

I often sat in a chair beside her and admired her new body.

She was already slimmer and her smooth skin barely showed the tiny marks the pregnancy had left her with as a reminder that she was a mother.

She called them her 'badges of honour' and somewhat weirdly, Rose envied her for bearing these tiny silver striations. I guess we had judged Rosalie too harshly; I for one had assumed she was glad in many ways that she could not carry the twins herself, after all her figure and face were everything she valued about herself, but it seemed I'd pegged her as shallower than she was in reality.

If she was here while Bella was 'vitamin D'ing', she'd look with undisguised jealousy at my wife's abdomen.

"It's weird,right?" Bella stated. "How can she envy someone who isn't perfect, when she is? It's reverse jealousy or something. Honestly sometimes I think the whole world has gone off it's axis. Rosalie Hale envying me? What next? Emmett joins a monastery?"

Emmett was a little shaky with fatherhood, but the first chance we got to really talk, I found out why. He was still adjusting to the way the twins had come into the world.

"I just always figured when the time came, my super sperm would knock up my woman first try and every time we debated whether it could be time for another pregnancy, it'd be too late to change our minds by the next morning because the deed would be already done.

All this artificial shit was never part of that fantasy.

I wanted to see my Rosie getting round and fat with my kid inside her."

"She wanted that as well," I replied, handing him a glass of lite beer.

"Why us, Edward? Is it some kind of punishment because neither of us were very conventional in the way we behaved before we met? Surely what you do when you are young and single and free is irrelevant. It's how you behave once you are married that counts. I would never cheat on my Rosie and I'll always love her, but before she came along, I had no idea I was even capable of feeling this way about any woman. I mean, I hoped I would.

I hoped there was someone out there like her who would blow me away the moment I laid eyes on her, and that's the way it happened. Why not the rest of the happy ever after as well? I feel a little bit like those boys aren't quite ours...I don't imagine you can understand that, having your own home grown baby."

"Things happen, Emmett. Circumstances occur that we would never imagine. You really need to just be grateful that these days it's entirely possible to still have your own flesh and blood offspring even if they aren't carried by your wife. That's an extra miracle in my could have been left with the only option being raising a stranger's child. Not that there's anything lesser about adopting, but you two are truly blessed and you need to wake up and smell the coffee."

"I know but if only..."

"Stop now. That sort of thinking will never lead anywhere good. She did what she did but she never thought for one moment that having that termination could be a negative thing in any way.

You haven't read what I have about Aro Volturi. Had she given birth to his child the only suitable name for him would have been Damien.

I don't believe in abortions myself but I have to admit, I'd have been terrified in her place. You have little idea of the depths of his depravity, and the idea of burdening the world with his offspring was more than Rose could handle.

Sure, had she been pregnant to some ex-lover, some normal guy, I would have found it hard to accept what she did, but if that had been the case, you know she would have kept it. I can totally understand her not wanting some kid bearing a mix of his genes and hers. You need to accept that she would never have recovered if she'd continued that pregnancy."

"But the cost..."

"I hate to say it, Bro, but even if she'd known the cost, I think she would have still done it. That's how devastated and horrified she was. You didn't know him, not like Rose did. The man was the Devil."

"When his trial start?" Emmett asked.

"Soon," I replied was an open and shut case; a sure thing, but still the chances were, Bella, Rose, and I would be testifying along with Riley. He was the main witness but we had our own bits to add and make sure the man went away for the term of his natural life if he escaped the chair.

Surely he would fry.

All those women...

As nerve wracking and distasteful as it would be, we all had to do our bit to end the reign of the monster. Him being behind bars was not good enough; many a criminal runs his empire from a prison cell.

No, only death was good enough and I wanted to be there and see the devilish gleam of his eyes die along with his body and wicked mind.

xxxx

The three babies were all on a blanket outside in the weak Summer sun. Emmett's boys were already twice the size of their cousin but I liked that. My little Kristie was a delicate little rose petal princess between the two thorns.

Surprisingly, their parents had bestowed fairly normal names on them, despite our fears.

Emmett had been tossing around a few 'original' names before the birth so we'd hoped and prayed at worst they'd just be named after his favourite professional wrestlers.

The Crusher and The Masher...Hulk and Buddy...Andre and Bruno...

Fortunately good sense had won, and my nephews were named Carl and Richard, after their grandfathers. Rosalie's Dad had died years ago but she wanted to keep his name going.

"Honestly, Ricky, you have to be gentle with little Kristie," she admonished her son, lifting him away to the other side of the blanket, and handing him a soft toy to chew.

Kristie rolled onto her stomach and frowned. I think she enjoyed the rough antics of her cousin.

She grinned when he looked her way and kicked her feet against the ground. Then her fist went into her mouth and she sucked loudly.

"Are you smirking because you got Ricky into trouble, Missy?" Bella asked, taking the baby onto her lap and opening her top and bra.

Emmett looked away, always confused as to whether it was allowable to look at one's brother's wife's breast if she was freely exposing it in public.

The rest of us took it in our stride, but with Rose unable to breastfeed her progeny, breasts were still primarily a sex toy in Emmett's eyes.

Bella carried the infant over to a chair beside the pool and sat down with her back to us,and fed the baby. She was aware that Emmett felt awkward at feeding times and had decided that could not force her to scuttle away to hide as if she was doing something shameful, but she wouldn't shove it in his face either.

I was about to make some joke to put my brother at ease when I noticed the look of raw envy and longing on my sister-in-laws face.

Bella didn't get why someone like Rose could envy her, but it was blatantly clear Rose did. More than carrying a baby and giving birth had been stolen away from her. Every day she was forced to face the consequences of her actions.

I think it made us closer, because we both harboured regrets and wished our histories could be changed, but for Rose, all the sexual partners she had enjoyed were never part of this ache. She had always classed that as just inevitable.

Just what happened these days.

You slept with men you'd never marry either within a relationship, or not.

Whatever.

None of it counted or meant anything, and those men disappeared from her mind the day she met my brother.

I wished it had been that easy for me, but I guess it's impossible to predict how you will judge yourself in the future. I never imagined I would carry the ghosts of those encounters. It had seemed so mutually consensual and casual at the time. Who knew?

It frankly terrified me that one day a teenage Kristie would sit in front of me and scoff at my concerns that she was wasting her life on one night stands with losers.

I wanted so much better for her; so much more. The chances that anyone would even bother waiting for marriage by then was too fantastic, but I dearly wanted her to only ever be with men she loved, who loved and respected her back. How did someone like me ever put that into words? All your life you have no choice but to live with your regrets and bad choices but they will always be there.

xxxx

BPOV

By the time Kristie's first birthday came and went, I felt a longing inside my heart that had never been there before. Well, maybe enough for me to recognise it for what it was, but I don't believe I yearned to have our daughter as desperately as I now longed to have her sibling.

Of course Rose picked up on it, but then her whole life was about wishing she could carry her husband's child, so why wouldn't she read the same symptoms when they were born within me?

"Bella, just do it. Toss your Pills away and don't tell him. You are so lucky that you have that option. We can start talking about the flu that's doing the rounds and how you fear catching it, then when you conceive, we can assume you are ill, not pregnant, right up until you start showing. You were tiny with Kristie; so by the time the biggest baby in your life finds out about the smallest one, you could have just three or four months left to go.

Do it.

Depriving yourself of another child because Edward's a wuss is ridiculous."

I admit I listened to her and considered how well an 'accidental' pregnancy would go over. Esme would be delighted; Alice might actually shut up about the joys of experiencing two precious siblings growing and developing together in perfect harmony; and Edward would survive.

I Googled stories about women who actually didn't know they were pregnant until the baby began moving so obviously and vigorously that it was no longer possible to put that belly bulge down to overeating, and seriously considered where this would fall in my promise to never do anything reckless, and my vow to always discuss major decisions with him before anyone else.

It was too late to worry about Rose knowing; I hadn't told her, she just guessed.

Last night I sat alone in our bedroom, holding the gift Edward had given me when Kristie was born. It was more precious than diamonds, which had been what I expected.

He had somehow found a photo that I had never seen;one of Renee holding me as a newborn, and had it framed in a three winged gold frame. The central photo was the first photo of me holding newly delivered Kristie; then it was flanked by a photo of Esme holding brand new Edward, and on the other side, my Mom and I.

This gift had touched my heart in a way jewels never would.

I loved that Edward knew me so well that he had done this, rather than some grand gesture others would applaud and appreciate more than I would. I had everything I ever wanted and could buy whatever I fancied, but this photo was so precious because my Mom actually looked like she wanted to keep me, and I've never seen her look that way before.

Edward had given me a new way of looking at my past, and my Mom, and that was priceless.

xxxx

I sat in the sitting room in Esme's house and watched my daughter toddle about, chatting to herself as she poured imaginary tea into tiny plastic tea cups and handed them out. Carlisle dutifully drank cup after cup and I honestly marvelled at how he found every single thing she did so fascinating, time and again.

"More tea," Kristie babbled, forcing a cup against her grandfather's mouth.

"Oh delicious. Don't tell anyone but you make the best cup of tea in the Universe," he whispered. "Even better than Nanny Esme."

"More tea," she repeated, moving on to Charlie. He accepted his cup and asked for sugar and Kristie toddled back to the child sized table that was part of the child sized kitchen her grandparents had bought her...well, they bought one for in our sitting room,and a duplicate for here.

She picked up a small plastic spoon and returned to my father, and tried to force it between his lips.

"Maybe we should put it into the tea itself," he suggested, and started stirring.

"It's all Emmett's fault," I growled. "He gave her a little taste of sugar on a spoon and now she thinks it's the best food on Earth. I really must thank him for that. If she starts throwing tantrums over us not letting her eat sugar, he can come over and calm her down."

"Just wait until I give her her first taste of beer," he replied.

"Emmett, you dare and I will take you down so bad," I freaked.

"Oooh, now I'm scared. Bella's going to take me down. I hope I survive."

"She'll have me to back her up," Edward replied, walking into the room and scooping up his daughter. "You ever give my child alcohol and I'll give your Jeep a whole bagful of sugar in it's fuel tank."

"Not the Jeep," Emmett cried.

He bought a new one every time a new model came out and I think he was as proud of his stupid cars as he was of his sons.

Ricky and Carl weren't walking yet and both looked quite puzzled that Kristie was, but she did have only about half the body weight to support. Rose had concluded they were simply as lazy as their father, and was forever taking the tv remote control from one son or another, telling them it was Mommy's toy, as she did not want wars to evolve over ownership.

"Men should never be allowed to choose a tv program," was her explanation. Emmett had his own playroom; the variety with x boxes and ESPN on the flatscreen, so it wasn't an issue. If the twins cried through her favourite dramas, she took them into Emmett's Cave and told him to explain the rules of the game to them. It was his duty as their father.

Her cell shrilled and she took it outside to answer.

"I hope that's good news from Laurent," Esme voiced.

"Oh, is that baby of theirs already due?" I said in surprise. It was strange how other women's pregnancies seemed to rush by so fast when your own seemed to drag on forever. I felt a twitch of jealousy that Siobhan had a husband who turned into Mr Helpful and Supportive when she was carrying a baby or two, whereas mine just melted down.

Could I really force him through another endurance test just because I was besotted with idea of holding another newborn in my arms? There's just nothing that compares to the softness of their little heads, and the feel of their sweet baby breath against your cheek.

The intensity of longing in my belly and heart even eclipsed the feelings of horniness Edward inspired within me.

It was like a little voice of my future child begging me to let him be conceived.

Kristie just wasn't a baby any more. That was the problem. She'd suddenly gotten taller and slimmer and started stringing two words together, and somehow she'd turned into a real little girl.

Not a baby.

No longer a baby.

"It's a girl, seven pounds six ounces, and Siobhan's already agreed to carry another one for us once she recovers. I should say no but we want a little girl so much," Rose informed us all.

"Can't they do something about that these days?," Charlie said, shocking me that he would know. "I mean, you have to do that IVF business anyway. I read somewhere that now they can pick out the healthy ones so why not the females? Doesn't seem like much of a stretch."

"Preimplantation gender diagnosis is indeed possible," Carlisle admitted. "I personally would like to see it widely available to all prospective parents, now that we have couples aborting healthy fetuses just for being the 'wrong' gender. At least it would bring a halt to that wholesale slaughter."

"It's just another thing the rich can access and those of a lesser income will never afford," Edward replied. "I can't imagine sacrificing a child for something as shallow as their being of the opposite gender to what you hoped. I'd love any child we were blessed with."

Fuck, is that permission? Does he want more children, still? Would he thank me for taking the decision out of his hands and instead presenting him with a fait accompli?

I caught Edward's eye and he smiled at me, before turning his attention back to our child as she reached for his hair. Everyone else got their hair pulled and stuffed into her mouth if it was long enough, but she always patted Edward's hair like it was too precious to mess with.

"Nice Daddy," she crooned and he beamed and swung her into the air.

"God, I so want one of those," Rose sighed, sitting down beside me. "You wouldn't mind if you had another girl, right, Bella?"

Trust Rose to put me in this position.

"I'd kind of like a boy," I admitted, "but never enough to go through preimplant whatever Carlisle said. I guess I believe if there's no medical reason to do that, I'd take my chances and leave it to Fate."

"Little girls are beyond perfect," Edward added. "I could have ten and not regret it."

"See?" Rose whispered, nudging my leg. "He wants more kids. Just frikking do it."

xxxx

It seemed kind of sneaky, all the same, as I flushed this month's worth of contraceptives down the toilet that night.

"Okay, Bella, here's the deal," I told myself. "One cycle. If it's meant to happen, it will. If it doesn't you have two choices. Resume next month's pack and forget the whole idea or tell Edward what you have done and abide by whatever he decides.

If he likes the idea, fine. No more Pills.

If he hates it and can't handle the idea, then suck it up.

Buy a puppy.

It's a once only opportunity then you come clean and admit what a sneaky underhanded bitch you have been."

That didn't stop me putting on my smallest, blackest, laciest nightie, sans panties, when I dried myself off after my shower,and joined my husband in our bed.

xxxx

EPOV

What a day.

On one hand, our friends Siobhan and Laurent have their own no doubt wonderful new baby girl.

On the other, the summons have arrived.

We have to appear in court and testify against Aro Volturi.

I did intend telling Bella tonight, and had poured us both glasses of champagne to wet the new baby's head, before I hit her with the bad news.

However, there was a change of plan when she waltzed into the room wearing the best value five hundred dollars had ever bought. Inch per dollar it possibly cost more than real estate, but this outfit had began more nights of endless passion than had ever been portrayed in any romantic movie.

The only surprising thing was that it still remained intact.

God knows I'd wanted to rip it from her body a dozen times, but she made me swear not to damage it.

"Come here," I encouraged as she danced around the room, letting the back of the skirt section flap up over the delicious curve of her bottom. Women's bodies are a miracle.

I'd never quite gotten why Michelangelo wasted his time making his statue of David when he could have spent that time making a statue of Bella.

Even if she hadn't been around at the time, I dare say there have been other women's bodies just as sweet and perfect that he could have used instead.

She neared the bed and turned her back to me, half bending over because she knew it would drive me insane and I reached out a hand and slid it over her buttocks, up to her waist.

"You have my favourite panties on," I murmured, hardly able to speak.

"The non-existent ones?" she chuckled. "At least they can't be torn to shreds. Don't hurt my nightie,okay?" she pleaded. I peeled it from her body and dropped it safely onto the floor.

"There, your nightie is safe. I can't say the same for you," I growled and lifted her on top of me.

xxxx