Chapter 52
Leah looked at Masen, still smiling and crying. She wiped under her eyes.
"Are we sticking with what we decided the other night?" Masen asked her. His voice came out like a whisper.
Leah nodded. She stroked the baby's hair and removed the bottle from her lips as she finished and her eyes were fully filled with a deep amber-golden color.
Carlisle looked down at Esme and kissed her temple as they waited for the name. She squeezed his arm and continued looking toward them.
"Cassandra," Leah finally said, then smiled wide.
"Cassie!" Emmett's voice called in from the hallway, already giving her a nickname.
Masen laughed and made eye contact with his brother in the hall, who held up a fist in his direction. Seth entered the room and smiled at his sister as she handed him his nephew.
"Hi," his voice said soothingly, "Hello Cassandra."
There was a loud knock at the door and Bella was answering it before the last bang of Charlie's fist could hit the wood, sensing him arrive long before he made his way to the doorstep.
"Dad," Bella hugged him and he squeezed her tight.
"How are you Bells?" his voice was happy and his eyes were bright.
"I'm good, Dad," she said with a smile, "Sue's down the hall."
"Boy or girl?" he asked simply.
"Girl," Bella smiled and lead him by the hand to where the others were. He greeted Sue with a kiss and Bella could tell from the slight display of affection in front of everyone that a small hint of embaressment crossed his face. She smiled again and shook her head, knowing her father's mannerisms all too well.
"This is Cassandra," Sue told him, letting an arm linger across his back, "My granddaughter."
Charlie let a smile cross his face as she guided the baby into her arms from Seth's. He stroked the top of her head and played with the thin strands of dark hair.
Edward nudged Bella and brought her under his arm. They both looked back at Renesme and Jacob who smiled and moved in a little closer.
Leah continued to wince every time Masen left her for a minute or two. She looked at Carlisle for a second before he asked for everyone to leave the room politely, aside from Masen, who would continue to help in her healing process.
"Yeah, let's the give the girl some space," Emmett said aloud, draping an arm around Rosalie's shoulders and putting the other around William's. They walked down the hall ahead of everyone else.
In the kitchen, Jasper and Alice talked quietly, smiling but purposely away from everyone else.
Esme approached them, picking up on bits and pieces of their conversation. She immediately noticed the calendar behind them with the circled date of October 28th.
"Today's the 28th," Esme said aloud to them.
Jasper grinned and Alice nodded.
"It's the lunar eclipse," she went on.
"Yeah," Alice told her, "We chose to make a different wish tonight."
"For Cassandra," Jasper finished, "We knew the exact time that it would be taking place and while everyone was doing what they could to make sure she was okay, the two of us wished that she would be okay."
Alice nodded with a closed mouth smile.
"And you were going to try yourselves tonight?" Esme asked, "For a baby."
They both nodded, "There's another one coming up in the spring," Alice said optimistically, "We'll have another chance."
"Is it too late for tonight?"
Jasper shrugged, "I think so. But even so, I don't think after all that I could really..."
"Get in the mood," Alice said with a laugh, "We're just so happy that Masen and Leah's baby turned out to be healthy."
"That's our miracle for tonight," he said to Esme, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She placed her hand over his and then kissed them both on the cheek, "Thank you so much. You'll both be rewarded for that in the future."
Jasper looked over at Alice and smiled almost slyly. She grinned back and gave him a kiss.
Outside, members of the Quileute pack began to howl. Seth and Jacob grinned before heading outside, phasing almost immediately to speak telepathically to their family members.
"They're probably freaking out the entire town howling like that," Emmett commented, then looked at Renesme, "Tighten up his leash, will ya."
She scrunched her nose up at him and smiled.
"It'll never be as tight as yours," Edward joked, looking at his brother.
"That's right," Rosalie said right away. She winked at Emmett who rolled his eyes.
"Hey, if anyone's got anyone wrapped around their finger, it's me Rose."
"Oh really?" she stood up with her hands on her hips and glared playfully at him.
"Really," he challenged with a smile on his face.
A fair amount of time went by before Masen finally rejoined the rest of his family, joined closely by Leah who carried Cassandra. The two of them entered through the kitchen, getting bombarded first by Esme and Sue with Charlie close behind.
"How are you feeling?" Sue asked her daughter.
"Good," she said in a stronger voice than she'd used over the past few days, "I feel completely normal."
Masen smiled as she looked at him and entwined his fingers with hers. He kissed her once on the cheek before making eye contact with Esme, "Thanks," he mouthed the word.
She smiled and pulled him to her in a happy, grateful embrace, not wanting to pull away. When she finally did, she kissed her son's forehead, "You guys are a beautiful little family. She's breathtaking."
Leah held the baby up in between Sue and Esme, "Who wants her first?"
They both laughed and Esme motioned for Sue to take her before she eventually got a turn, followed by a hovering Rosalie, then Alice and Bella. Renesme was hesitant at first, but stared down at the beautiful child that was part vampire, part werewolf.
"This is your future Ness," Rosalie said with a grin.
Edward and Bella looked at each other and sighed at the comment, neither for or against it at the moment.
"So her diet..." Emmett started, "What will it consist of? I mean, she survived off of human food in the womb. Now she can only survive off of blood?"
Carlisle joined everyone where they all never made it out of the kitchen, "I was just going over the notes I'd taken throughout the course of Leah's pregnancy," he said, "And I have theories that I believe are accurate."
Everyone waited for him to continue, all listening intently.
He looked very professional, flipping a piece of paper over the top of a clipboard and used his index finger to point to the notes he began referring to, "After the three week mark, the baby's heart rate began to lessen. I wasn't sure why in the beginning; didn't know if it was a normal or negative action. I had assumed that maybe it was because the heartbeat was evening itself out in between Masen's at zero beats per minute and Leah's who had an average resting heart rate of seventy-two. I also factored in the possibility that it was diminishing for negative reasons. From the three week mark until birth, the heart rate continued to plummet."
"Following," Emmett said aloud with a nod. Rosalie snickered at his serious expression and he flicked her ear.
"Well," Carlisle continued, now letting his eyes meet everyone else's, "During the first three weeks, the heart rate actually climbed, it got stronger. Leah's diet was all human food and it took to that. It took the nutrients and everything else it needed to grow and survive. After those three weeks, I believe she needed something else - blood. When she came into the world and consumed the deer's blood we gave her, she immediately got stronger. Her heartrate picked up, she almost instantly became healthier and stable."
"So, will she need blood to survive on forever now?" Renesme asked, very intrigued.
Carlisle shook his head, "I don't believe so, though I could be wrong. I believe she'll eat in cycles. Maybe three weeks will be the norm, maybe more maybe less. But I think she'll need blood for a cycle, and then human food for a cycle. I don't know if it would be permanent or, like I said, if the cycles will vary with age, but that's my educated guess on what she'll do for food throughout her life."
"Why wouldn't she take Leah's blood like Renesme did to Bella?" Edward asked with a thoughtful expression.
"It must be Masen's genetic make up. Our kind tend to reject werewolves blood. It's opposing to what we want. Even in this case where she will feed on the animals we feed off of. I think she rejected it as a possible option, like it's built into the genetic makeup. And I also believe that if she doesn't get blood, unlike us, she could starve. At least at this vulnerable stage of development. That's why her thoughts were fading and her heartrate dropped so drastically."
"What are her beats per minute now?" Masen asked.
"Fifty-eight," Carlisle told him, "And I'll continue to monitor it as we go, though I'm sure either of you could do that part."
Everyone seemed blown away by his findings and explanations for the events that had taken place earlier in the night.
"Wow," Leah finally said, "I can't believe you figured all that out." Her voice was stunned, "Thank you so much Carlisle for everything."
"Call him Dad," Emmett joked with a smile.
Carlisle flashed a grin, his first since Leah had gone into labor, "I don't know if I've figured it out, but I think it's very probable."
Esme stared over at her husband, finding herself overwhelmed by his determination and mental ability to figure out such an enigma. She saw the tired, drained look on his face that was also closely accompanied by joy at the fact that everyone, including Cassandra, had come out unscathed from the difficult process.
Edward looked over and smiled at her subtly, and Esme smiled back, knowing he was reading her thoughts. He nodded in agreement and went over to give her a hug.
She squeezed him tight, "Thank you for all of your help Edward."
He smiled, "I didn't do much."
"You never think so," Esme told him, "I love you."
"I love you too... Mom," he grinned and joined back up with Bella, who realized that was the first time she'd ever heard the two of them exchange those words. She, too, couldn't hold back a smile and gave Edward a kiss.
Carlisle quickly excused himself and went upstairs to change his clothes and get himself together again. Esme and Rosalie made their way back to the kitchen to cook up something for everyone who ate.