Author's Notes: Sorry this wasn't up on Friday! Ha! I'm still resolved to keep with my updates every Friday, it's just that my computer decided to go nuts, and was repaired this morning! lol

Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Chapter 129 Explanations

"Carlisle. I know your family. Little Masen is tough as nails and that boy of yours would move heaven and earth to make sure he was alright, right?" Charlie asked.

"Yes. We all would," I answered him quietly, but with a note of surety in my voice.

"Yep. That's what I thought. After the lengths I saw you all go to to find Bells back in January, I'm sure calling out the CIA and cavalry wouldn't even start to measure up. Don't get me wrong, I'm plenty worried about the little guy . . . but I'm more worried about Bella."

"Bella?" I questioned, staring at the puzzled look on my wife's face as she stared at me and listened to the conversation and seeming as confused as I was.

"Ha! Carlisle, my daughter could easily hurt herself spanking that kid's but when she gets her hands on him. I need to be there to protect her," he laughed.

~oooOooo~

Esme POV

Laughter rolled throughout the room, so much so that it was hard to contain my own joy. Edward had just finished his account of Emmett tunneling under one of the mountains in the Alps and explaining it as the reason they had made a path over the tall peaks in the first place, Emmett needing a challenge of some sort to keep him from pulling that particular prank again. Rosalie seemed to be the only one not laughing, but then she was the one who had dealt with Emmett when he had come back to the train that first time, mud covered and dirt encrusted from head to toe. I laughed with them, but had to agree with her . . . Emmett was just a very big kid. I observed the room in amazement watching vampires, one small half-vampire, humans and even a shape shifter interact and enjoy each others company.

We had spent the last couple of days at our estate in London, well, outside London. After the tense couple of hours at the airport following Charlie and Jacob's arrival, the phone call from Edward had stopped our departure for Lichtenstein and we had all released unnecessary breaths, our fears quelled with the safe recovery of my grandson.

"They've found him, safe and sound. They'll board the train late tonight and be on their way here," Carlisle had announced after getting off the phone with Edward.

"Bella's alright then?" Charlie had asked, but Carlisle assured him that, while Bella had not been specifically mentioned, if there had been anything at all wrong with her, Edward would not have been joking and cheerful on the phone.

"That's right . . . I know that's right, Carlisle," Charlie had snickered. "Your boy gets worked up if she as much as sneezes."

Jacob nodded his head and we had all laughed . . . he was right, of course.

After their long flight, Jacob was starving and we had taken them to a famous fish and chips restaurant not far from the airport. Rather than doing any amount of sightseeing, Jacob and Charlie had wanted to just go back to whatever house we had there and get settled in and a good nights rest, waiting for "the kids" to arrive tomorrow. I hadn't minded. Rich in history though the city was, I had seen all the sights in London countless times and wanted the opportunity to just go over my renovations to Edward's wing and the decorations in the nursery one more time.

It had been the middle of the night when they had returned, Charlie and Jacob sound asleep in the guest rooms. I had immediately taken my grandson in hand, hugging Bella at the same time as everyone poured into the house and set down their bags.

"Well, young man, you certainly had us all in an uproar," I told the little one in my arms, holding him slightly away from me as I looked directly into his eyes, "I haven't seen you since you've learned to get around on your own, but I have a present for you."

He looked at me quizzically for only a moment before saying, "Grama Esme, thank you for making me my own room!"

The small childlike voice, words as clearly enunciated as any adult, brought me up short. I was taken aback with the sudden realization that I had NOT mentioned to him what the present was, or that I had prepared a special room for him.

"Grandpa?" Masen said, squirming to turn in my arms to look at Carlisle.

"Masen," he had answered, coming to put a hand on the little boys head and ruffle his long curly hair, "You had us all worried."

"I'm sorry," the child had answered, somewhat sheepishly as his eyes cut to his dad, "Thank you for all the books!"

We looked to Edward, who only smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. Carlisle stared at me as I returned the look - neither of us able to believe the difference a few weeks had made in our grandson. Regaining his composure, Carlisle had assured Masen that it was his pleasure to help choose things for the playroom and that he hoped he enjoyed them.

"Do you mind if I take him upstairs and put him down for the night?" I asked his parents, "You two can get settled in and Edward, I know you'll be wanting to talk to your father. "I'll be back down and I want to hear all about this adventure my grandson just had as well as the vacation in Paris and Italy."

They nodded and I headed off up the stairs, not bothering to bring any of the suitcases. After all, I had checked with Alice as to his size and shopped for him. Everything needed was neatly in the closet in his room and I had a bottle ready for him, having hunted earlier in the evening . . . though I wasn't really sure if it was still appropriate. I wanted to change him into a sleeper, give him a bottle and rock him to sleep like I would treat a human infant . . . like we had been treating him the weeks before Bella and Edward left for Europe.

In hindsight, as I left his room, I realized that the little fiend had read my mind and given me just what I wanted. He had allowed me to change him after giving him a warm bath complete with bubbles, curled up in my arms and drained the bottle I held for him, and gone to sleep, squirming into the soft pillow as I covered him in his crib. I just shook my head. I had thought often what it would be like for vampires to raise a child, a human child. Carlisle had offered, we had talked about adopting many times over the years and decided against it because of the heartbreak of watching that child grow to an old age and die - neither of us willing to change another human and have them endure immortality, even if asked.

This . . . this half human and half vampire child though, this was different. I suspected there would be quite a different ending in the story of Masen Charles Carlisle Cullen.

~oooOooo~

EPOV

I had not until this moment realized how much my wife and my mother were alike. I loved my wife beyond all reason, and I adored my mother. Time and time again they had both surprised me with their faith, loyalty, and unwavering care and dedication to me.

Esme had the ability to make each and every one of the six of us that she now called her children feel special . . . and loved. Her fierceness when one of us was in danger I had never seen the equal to, even comparing her to grizzly bears and their cubs.

When I was moody and brooding she loved me anyway, always trying to make me smile.

When I fell in love with a human, she supported me, believed I could make it work, and accepted my choice without question.

When I asked her to pick up and leave Forks, she did - leaving everything behind.

When I hid in the closet and then left home to avoid painful reminders of Bella, she stood by me, by my decisions no matter how much she hated them.

When I sat unmoving in a meadow covered in snow, she came to me and refused to leave.

. . . and on the worst night of my existence, when I headed to Bella's and my home in Highlands believing Bella had died in a fire, she alone followed me - knew where I would be headed . . . and when she found me there, her faith in me never wavered, trusting that I would have the control and ability to deliver my son safely.

Any opportunity that arose, she helped me, cooked for Bella, tended to Masen, and now she had flown to Europe to spend time with all of us, all of her children. If I had read her thoughts correctly, she had redone the entire west wing to accommodate my new family and enjoyed every single minute of planning and completing it.

I watched and heard her as she came back downstairs to find us all laughing and bubbling over, telling Carlisle about the tunneling under the mountain and looking for Masen.

"He fed, Carlisle."

My father looked at me like I had lost my mind. I knew from his thoughts as well as my mothers that they had not fully understood what I was saying, or rather their minds were refusing to accept the truth of my words.

"It's true," Alice chimed in, "We all saw the carcass."

"Carcass?" Esme said, her head tilting to one side. "Are you telling us that you killed something and let him feed from it, Edward?"

She said the words, but it was easy to tell that she had no mental picture of it. To her, Masen was a very human like infant, incapable of fending for himself. I could only suppose that some memory of her own infant son was being conjured in her mind, and the helplessness of that infant that she had lost to sickness before he was a year old.

"No, I didn't kill it for him," I told them as plainly as I could, trying my best to stifle a smile from showing on my face. Bella and my siblings had already had me explain this to them several times, but Esme and Carlisle had not yet heard the story.

"Masen killed a lynx . . . by himself, and fed from it," I told them, delivering the information in the most certain, unwavering voice I could think to use. I let that soak in for a moment, waiting till their thoughts cleared and questions started springing into their minds. "I found him in a clearing, clutching his teddy bear and his head on the dead animal . . . asleep."

"Well for heaven's sake! How in the world did that happen, son?" Esme asked, verbalizing Carlisle's thoughts as well.

"After Bella told me what happened, that Masen had left the train, we all backtracked and I got to him in time to hear the lynx scream."

"Was he stalking the cat," Carlisle asked, "actively hunting him?"

"No, no. Nothing like that. He was looking for me, but in the meantime he had dropped Teddy . . ," I stopped for a minute to explain that "teddy" was a stuffed teddy bear that Masen had grown attached to since I had bought it for him in Paris on one of our father and son outings. "Anyway, teddy had somehow slid off a ledge much higher up the mountain and Masen was retrieving him when the cat made the mistake of sniffing his toy and putting a paw on it."

My parents both had equally blank expressions on their face, sitting statue still and unblinking as my siblings watched them, amused. I snickered, Bella stepping toward me to scuff up my hair in admonishment of the obvious look of pride on my face.

"You needn't be so smug," she chided, "he was just protecting his bear."

"He was," I agreed, but as he headed to rescue his bear, something changed," I explained.

"Instinct," Carlisle said decisively, though in a whispered voice.

I nodded.

"I was close enough to hear his thoughts as he sprang. Somewhere during the leap to grab the bear, his thoughts change and he grabbed the lynx, neatly holding onto its neck as he spit out the fur and proceeded to feed, completely ignoring the cat's struggles."

"Why that little fiend!" Esme exclaimed, "He seems to have inherited quite a bit from his father."

"I wondered if he would inherit your characteristics predominantly from before you were turned, son . . . or from what we are now. Vampire qualities I mean," Carlisle queried.

"Well dad, he has a photographic memory, is seemingly impervious to heat or cold, and can survive on human food . . . though he prefers blood. It seems that my son has been born with all the abilities and reasoning skills that I have now, as an adult," I returned Bella's stare for a moment before I continued, "He not only reads minds though, he has the ability to plant new thoughts in the minds of others, or change their thoughts completely."

Carlisle was stunned. Completely still in mind and body . . .

"Carlisle," I quietly added, "He's venomous."

"Well, you thought that all along, Edward, ever since you bit through the umbilical cord after his birth," Carlisle reminded me.

"True, I suspected it, but he used it to subdue the cat without breaking its neck to feed," I added, "He has amazing control to be able to do that when needed, yet nurse from Bella without hurting her."

"Well, I've never questioned that my grandson was special!" Esme remarked, matter of factly, as she headed upstairs with Rosalie and Alice to help them unpack their bags and show off the changes she had made to the estate.

~oooOooo~.

Coffee had just finished brewing and I was placing scrambled eggs onto Masen's plate when Charlie strode into the kitchen. His surprise was evident as he laid eyes on his grandson, perched on books in a chair to reach the table and a plate of food that sat there waiting. He hesitated only a moment before walking over and lifting the child over his head, swinging him around and telling him how much he missed him, how big he had gotten, and how glad he was to see him.

He very nearly dropped him, though, as Masen responded by patting Charlie's cheeks with both of his nimble little hands and saying ,"I missed you, too, Grandpa!"

Charlie's mind reeled. He had suspected that Masen would be somewhat advanced . . . crawling perhaps and maybe eating solid food. He hadn't expected to hear his grandson speak, let alone form sentences and enunciate his words clearly. He had hoped for some small sort of version of grandpa . . . but nothing in any way equaling what he had just heard. It had always been difficult for me to discern my father-in-laws thoughts, and now was no different. Something about the way his mind worked had, after all, been passed to Bella . . . and I couldn't read her mind at all!

"Well now, at least you know who your grandpa is, don't you little fella," he told him, sitting him back down on his make shift high chair, but looking skeptically at the plate of food in front of the child.

"All that for him?" he asked me, indicating the plate of eggs, "or is that for me?"

"No, this one's for you," I said as he walked over to me, clapping a hand on my shoulder in what was for Charlie, an overt show of affection, "Masen eats all kinds of solid foods now."

He lifted an eyebrow, but took the plate none the less and headed to the table to sit beside his grandson, anxious to watch him eat and equally skeptical that he could manage it by himself. Mason read his thoughts, snickering at him with a coy smile as he lifted his spoon and neatly ate a bite of eggs, then a strip of bacon. There was still no point in giving him toast, if it wasn't animal in origin, he wouldn't eat it. Charlie was trying hard to process all the changes in the boy since he last saw him, and make conversation in the meantime.

"So, how is it that this little guy got away from his mom, anyway?" he asked as I filled his coffee mug.

"I wanted to go hunting with my dad," Masen explained before I had a chance to answer Charlie. The look on the Chief's face was priceless. He chatted back and forth with him, asking him how he liked the snow in the mountains and if he had gotten in much trouble with his mom for running off like that without permission. While they ate their breakfast together, Charlie even threatened that he'd punish him himself if he ever worried his parents like that again.

Masen excused himself saying, "Sorry grandpa. Mom is making me read books on how I should act and aunt Rose is calling me." "I love you," he said, his arms reaching up for Charlie to take him and let him hug his neck.

As Masen scampered out of the room, disregarding human speed, Charlie looked to me with the most astonished expression on his face.

"I know, Charlie," I said, unable to keep the frown off my face, "He prefers to speak for himself . . . and do things himself for that matter."

"Bells is making him read as a punishment?" he asked, head cocked to one side and seeming thankful that his daughter hadn't hurt herself spanking the little rat.

"Yes, she's making him read developmental books about what a human baby should be able to do at certain ages so that he can imitate those abilities when he needs to, depending on where we are and who we're with. He has to read three hours a day," I smiled.

He shook his head in disbelief, and I pulled out a chair and sat at the table across from him.

"She also ordered a complete set of homeschool materials and told him that if he thinks he's so big, then he could just as well do school work and learn like every other child does." I couldn't help smiling as I turned to face him full on, "What she doesn't know is that he likes it."

"Huh. Well that's just somethin that is," he said looking like there was more . . . and forgetting that I could read his mind.

"You're not interfering, Charlie . . . and yes, I did spank him," I said decisively.

He startled for a second, taking a gulp of his coffee and setting the cup down. "Good for you, son, good for you. Hardest thing you'll ever do but it comes back to you in spades," he said, patting my shoulder again familiarly and chuckling as he headed out of the room. At the door, he turned to me and shook his head, "You've got your hands full son."

I laughed, knowing that it was Bella, not just Masen, that he was referring to.

We spent the day at the house, neither Jake nor Charlie having any inclination to do anything other than hang out with Bella, or Izzy as Jake insisted on calling her, and Masen. They laughed, watched a movie, looked at Masen's new playroom and helped him look over all the books and toys. They played hide and seek - a game that Charlie had no chance of winning, and Jake had to rely heavily on his enhanced hearing and smell to find the little squirt. Masen, on the other hand, delighted in jumping from the tops of closets and high shelves to startle his grandfather and cause Jacob to move faster than a human was capable of to grab him from time to time. Bella was ecstatic, thrilled to have both her father and Jake here with my entire family. She even seemed to adapt to being called Izzy, accepting the name in a good humored way, knowing it was meant affectionately. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was a good thing she accepted it with such grace . . . because the name seemed to stick, and I found myself using it as well. We decided to break the news of the twins after dinner tonight, and I had an extra surprise in store for her.

Esme had left my piano, and Bella had been wanting an encore of the song I wrote for her in Venice when we stayed at the Hotel Cipriani. As Esme was getting dessert for everyone, I excused myself and quietly started playing. I played Esme's lullaby first, knowing that she wanted to hear it, followed by the one I had written for Bella, then for my son. Everyone came out to the foyer, as usual . . . my playing was still something of a novelty after all the years I wouldn't go near a piano, and it was a new thing entirely for our guests.

I started into the lyrics of the song I had written for Bella after our first fight and saw tears in my wife's eyes. Tears always slayed me, happy or otherwise, and I motioned for her to come and sit on the bench with me as I played. It made the lyrics all the more real . . .

Baby why you wanna cry?

You really oughta know that I

Just have to walk away sometimes

We're gonna do what lovers do

We're gonna have a fight or two

But I'm not ever changing my mind

Bella's father looked at me like I had lost my mind. He had no idea how people showed that much emotion in public - he was mortified, even though we were in our own home with only family and friends present. He stared, his jaw hanging slightly open,

Crazy girl, don't you know that I love you?

I wouldn't dream of going anywhere

Silly woman come here let me hold you

Have I told you lately I love you like crazy, girl?

I wouldn't last a single day

I'd probably just fade away

Without you I'd lose my mind

Before you ever came along

I was living life all wrong

The smartest thing I ever did was make you all mine

Jake rolled his eyes and his thoughts were of being sick - a result of listening to all this mush, spoken in front of everyone. It wasn't for Jake's benefit I was doing this, though. Masen sat upright in his grama's arms, his hands pressed together and his mind flying through all the emotion he was sensing from his mom. His mom, my beautiful wife had tears streaming down her face and her hand clung to my upper arm with a ferocity that would have drawn blood from a human. She understood. She knew what I was about in singing this song before we made our announcement.

Crazy girl, don't you know that I love you?

I wouldn't dream of going anywhere

Silly woman, come here let me hold you

Have I told you lately I love you like crazy, girl?

Like crazy, girl

Like crazy, girl

"Thank you all. Thank you for coming together so quickly to help find our son when he wandered off earlier this week," I said as soon as I could turn away from my wife, having kissed her thoroughly in spite of being on display in front of my family . . . and hers.

"I wasn't lost!" Masen chimed in insistently.

"Shhhh!" Esme and Charlie said, almost simultaneously, as Masen endured both laughter and stern looks from all of us.

"Anyway," I said when the riot calmed, "as you know it can be difficult to keep secrets with Alice around, and I apologize that some of you already know about this, but Bella and I would like to announce that we are once again expecting."

Charlie's jaw dropped and Jake's mind instantly dropped to the gutter. Surprisingly, the look on Charlie's face was mimicked almost identically by my father. His thoughts told me that he hadn't thought it possible, that he regarded my having gotten Bella pregnant the once to be a fluke, a one in a million long shot that had happened. Esme's thoughts were smug . . . she couldn't wait to say "I told you so" to Carlisle and reiterate that

"quantity would win out!"

~oooOooo~