Bella Pov
Bella stared down at her notes, which were just where she left them. She was sure that if anyone had tried to read them it would be frustrating, because it was just phrases or single words to spark Bella's memory. It was done that way so that if anyone got these notes it wouldn't cause any problems.
She looked up at the others around the table, before moving to sit down again. "You did say we could ask questions." Carlisle spoke softly, even while Rosalie was dialing the Denali's back.
"You have a question?" Bella wasn't sure if she should answer any questions now, or wait, but she could hear it and tell him to wait if she had to.
"Just a simple one. How far into the story are we?" Carlisle asked and Bella felt herself relax as it was something she could answer. She didn't like putting Carlisle off repeatedly.
"We're at Spring Break during Senior year. We have maybe nine months left to go. A very hard nine months."
"Tanya, do you have everyone?" Rosalie asked even as she hit a button and the speaker went active.
"Yes, we didn't go far as we waited for your call." Tanya spoke just a little softer than before, and Bella stared at the phone display again. Tanya had gotten the most ridiculously easy phone number to remember. It seemed a waste, since vampires had such good memories. "Did you have a good lunch Bella?"
"It was okay. I didn't eat much." Bella answered, a little surprised she was asked. "I don't do well when I mix nerves with food. I don't want to scare Alice again, the poor thing is so tense when I eat now. It's like she's waiting for my lunch to kill me, and I'm not the one eating bears and lions."
"You exaggerate my dear." Alice gave her a small smile, but Bella did know Alice watched her a bit carefully when she ate.
"Before we start again, can I say something?" Tanya spoke up, ending the talk about lunch or food.
"Sure," Bella was fine with delaying the story just a little longer, as she tried to reshuffle what she'd be saying in her mind. She'd planned to talk a bit about the overbearing attitude and the way Edward basically imprisoned Bella for a while, but if this wasn't about Edward or that Bella really, it wasn't actually the important part of the story now.
"We just wanted to thank you for allowing us to be a part of this. Clearly this is difficult for you and we appreciate that you thought of us." Tanya spoke so sincerely and Bella blushed.
"I thought you needed to hear this." She told the coven on the phone.
"We do, and thank you." Tanya told her again.
"You're welcome." Bella answered, unsure if that was really the thing to say. It was kind of awkward really.
"Can we get back to the story?" Rosalie interrupted and Bella looked over at the blonde vampire. Alice's words replayed in her mind as she looked at a slightly irritated looking Rosalie. Get it out fast and it might not hurt as much. God, she couldn't imagine anything would help, but she was going to try.
"Okay, back to it." Bella took a deep breath to try and prepare herself. "Charlie was pissed when they got back, and Bella was grounded. Jake called to make some threats, not wanting her around the vampires he decided she'd have to choose and she was never going to choose him. He was great for her as a friend, but when he turned to a wolf and wanted more he was starting to get just as overbearing as her vampire. It's part of why I really wanted him to understand I'd never date him, because Jake has the potential to be the leader of the pack and I don't want a whole pack of wolves thinking they can tell me what I can do." Bella explained. It was about her, Alice said that, but still it seemed odd to add herself to this story. "They've been taught to be as prejudiced as hell against vampires and it's kind of sickening to hear."
"They were like that long before we met them." Carlisle spoke. "But I'm surprised that the wolves are coming back."
"They blame you all for that. Apparently when vampires are near the tribe protectors are chosen." Bella explained something she'd missed from the last book. "And once they turn wolf they have to give up all their hopes and dreams for the future, because the tribe expects them to stay and be protectors, nothing much else. I think that's a screw up with the tribe, and the elders could have made it easier on the wolves, but it's so much easier to turn them into warrior slaves than help them in any way I guess. They even know when one is turning, or whatever they call it and won't warn them."
"So the tribe elders take away all their hopes and dreams and blame us for that?" Rosalie sounded pissed. "All to make the mutts more angry at us."
"How long do we have before Jacob changes, Bella?" Alice spoke up and Bella turned to see her looking thoughtful.
"If nothing changes, almost two years, but if it's the scent of vampires that gets it started, well, you all visit my house a lot and Charlie invites the Blacks over once in a while."
"Now's not really the time, but after the story is over we might be able to work out a way to ease Jacob into being a more compassionate wolf." Alice smiled just a little and Bella considered what she was saying, and started to smile herself. She could 'raise' Jacob to be better about vampires than Billy wanted him to be. Jacob thought his dad was a little crazy at this point, and if they acted before he realized his dad was actually right they'd be affecting the strongest wolf in the pack. Given the story that Bella was about to share, they might need the strongest wolf in the pack on their side someday.
"I like how you think." Bella grinned at Alice as they both schemed for a better future.
"I hate it when Edward and Alice do this Bella, what are you planning?" Emmett interrupted them.
Alice turned to face the others faster than Bella did. "Bella's going to use her friendship to introduce the idea of good vampires to Jacob, and perhaps teach him a few things about prejudice behavior, whatever else we might find useful for an Alpha to know if we're going to have to deal with him."
"He also tried to pass on being the Alpha, because he resented changing so much he didn't want to be in charge as well. I might be able to get him to accept the responsibility sooner, which would be good because even in the books Jake was more accepting than Sam, who ended up filling in as Alpha." Bella finished the explanation and there was some chuckling from the phone.
"You are definitely fitting in with that family Bella." Tanya chuckled. "Finishing each other's sentences already?"
"I consider Bella a member of this family, Tanya." Esme spoke up and Bella stared into her compassionate and loving eyes, touched at the comment, especially during this meeting.
"Yeah, Bella bear is here to stay." Emmett added.
"Then we will definitely need to meet your human coven mate." Tanya added so smoothly it seemed almost planned. "I think we will take you up on the offer to visit this summer."
A loud cracking noise drew Bella's attention away from the phone to see Rosalie holding up a broken arm from her chair, before tossing it to the ground. Bella gave Rose a concerned look and reached out across the table. "Are you okay?" She asked as quietly as she could, as her hand rested on the arm Rose still had sitting on the table.
"I'm fine." Rose told her, but she did take Bella's hand and hold it. Bella gave her a concerned look and decided to rip the band aid off fast. Rose was getting tense waiting for the axe to drop.
"Okay then." Bella took a deep breath and took control of the meeting again. "It'll be nice to meet you all this summer, but I think we should get back to business." She said while looking at the phone. Bella gripped Rose's hand hard, and hoped Rose wouldn't crush hers later without meaning too. She'd have to let go before she brought up the worst of this, but it should be okay for a while.
Jasper Pov
Rose's jealousy with Tanya appeared to be making Edward somewhat amused, but it was concerning many of the others around the table. Bella took a moment to collect her thoughts again.
"Okay, so they were wrapping up senior year." Bella started. "One of the conditions the Volturi had for letting Bella go was that she was turned, but Edward was coming up with bad plans to try and avoid that. Bella brought the matter to a family meeting, because she wanted to be turned, and because everyone would be punished if she wasn't turned. She put it up to a vote and only two voted against her." Bella looked over at Rosalie, her concern and affection clear. "You voted no, because you wished someone had voted no for you, but Rose, what you really wished was that someone gave you a choice, and that's different. Bella wanted the same thing, her choice. It was stupid, granted, she didn't know what she was getting and Edward still was keeping that information from her, but at this point her choices were death or vampire, no matter how deluded Edward was about that. He was the other one voting no." Bella shook her head and sighed. "Of course now that they were in Forks, the wolves had already made threats that if Bella was turned it would be war, so at that point in time, any choice was dangerous."
"Victoria was still trying to get to Bella, and now it was becoming apparent that she wasn't a typical vampire. She was able to run through the woods with Wolves on one side of her and vampires on the other and still not get caught. She almost started a war just by dodging so well Emmett got frustrated and followed her across the border. Paul is the hot head of the wolves, which given how bad wolves are with their tempers says a lot. It was close, but as the Cullen's and Wolves worked to not attack each other Victoria got away. She did that a lot." Jasper grimaced, because it sounded like Victoria would be a real threat if he couldn't even catch her.
"Alice was watching for Victoria, watching for Aro's decisions, watching for the newborn that the Cullens thought was in Seattle, because the death toll was making headlines, watching for Bella, watching for the wolves," Bella gave Alice a look. "They were running Alice ragged and Edward never even seemed to care. The thing was though, a few people had figured out the hole in Alice's powers, Victoria because of Laurent, and Aro because he'd read her, or I assume it was Aro, because Jane can't be that clever." Bella sighed. "There was a newborn in Seattle, Victoria's. Victoria put him in charge of making decisions, so that Alice wouldn't see anything."
"Oh shit." Emmett muttered, but a few vampires made similar noises, especially the Denali coven, who Jasper expected felt some guilt for this.
"That newborn went to Bella's house with no intention of hurting her, to see if that worked and while he was there he stole her dirty clothes. That was an odd move, unless you realized that Victoria had made a newborn army in Seattle and she was about to send it after Bella." Jasper froze and his eyes narrowed. The emotions around him became stiffling, the fear, the concern, it took him a moment to get a grasp of it all and try to calm it.
"She had an army Bella?" Jasper asked, just to stop Bella from saying anything new until he got the swirl of emotions around him and within him under control. Alice put a hand over his own and pushed calm, and love at him to help him.
"She did, and she lied to them heavily. She told them that the golden eyes just came with age, but you were powerful vampires that planned to take Seattle from them. They thought you were all human drinkers too. She avoided telling them who she was, and had Riley do most of the work with them so that they wouldn't know anything Edward would find useful. She didn't warn them about the Volturi and they were too obvious by far. The Volturi should have stepped in, but they were strangely absent, or apparently strangely absent. Jane was there with the guards, and they were just watching. She decided, not Aro, to let the army storm Forks in the hops that Victoria would kill some Cullens and the Volturi would claim to be innocent of it all."
"They made me useless in this. I couldn't see any of it, could I?" Alice asked and Jasper sent some of the calm she'd given him early back to her.
"No, you didn't see anything yet. Bella was actually the one to figure out it was all connected and what was happening, she was oddly prone to strange dreams that made me wonder if she wasn't just a hint of a precog herself, but that was never really addressed in the story. I don't get dreams like that, just my typical stuff." Jasper knew Bella's typical dreams were probably nightmares and he wanted to remember to ask if that was getting any better for her now that she wasn't alone with her secrets. Bella felt a mix of concern and compassion as she talked with Alice, "You didn't get a vision until Victoria was forced by Jane to start to do something. Jane got impatient with waiting and when someone is avoiding making decisions there is a lot of waiting. Shortly before graduation you got a vision of the attack and Carlisle called the Denali's to see if they'd help, because you weren't going to be able to win alone."
Jasper watched Bella look at the phone again, and watched how Rosalie squeezed her hand just enough to remind Bella she was there. He could sense how that eased Bella's emotions. "Irina was pissed at the wolves who had killed Laurent, she believed it was an unprovoked attack. She put a condition on coming to help the Cullens with the newborn army, and that was that she be allowed to kill the wolves. When that was denied, the Denali's weren't coming to help."
"We left them to face an army?" Tanya asked, her voice tense and disbelieving. "Our family for that lying son of a bitch?"
"Not everyone believed he was lying." Bella said so diplomatically, but he felt her anger in spite of her words. "The vision of the attack came during a graduation party that Jake and a few other wolves crashed, so they could see Bella again. They'd adopted her a bit while her vampires were gone and she was torn between the two groups when everyone was back. When Jake heard of the coming attack, well, the Wolves decided to help. It was a very tense truce, but Jasper worked to train everyone on how to deal with newborns, and Alice wasn't going to be able to see anything with all those wolves around, she didn't constantly moan about it, the wolves were needed, but it was a danger they wouldn't have had if the wolves weren't around."
"Working with mutts." Edward muttered under his breath and Jasper sighed as he considered what losing the advantage of her gift would do to Alice. He hadn't seen the shapeshifters before, but the stories made him leery of having them around his family at all.
"Bella was going to be kept away from the battle and the town, they'd set the stage and one of the wolves would take her into the woods. Wolves smell so bad no one would smell her under it. She would have been okay, but she couldn't stand the idea of Edward fighting, she begged him to stay with her, stay away from the battle, and it was a colossally stupid and selfish move, but Edward granted it to her." Jasper raised an eyebrow as Bella set the stage for something and he couldn't yet see what went wrong. He was normally very good at this sort of thing.
"His trail, it doesn't sound like he went up with the wolf, was it his scent?" Jasper asked after a moment.
"Yes, Victoria knew he'd be where Bella was. Victoria wasn't even going to fight, she was on her way out after letting her army loose, but she and her main newborn followed Edward's scent right to Bella. There was a very young wolf with them, one that had been told was too young for the battle, and he was being used to keep communication going, because all wolves are telepathic with each other while in wolf form. Seth and Edward had to fight off Victoria and Riley. They managed, just in time to find out another problem was on the way as Alice sent word to hurry up and get back through Seth."
"What now?" Rosalie muttered and the feelings around the table all were a mix of that message. Jasper shook his head just a little, because even during his time with the newborn wars, dangers rarely stacked up one after another like this. It had to be the Volturi, they'd waited out the battle and were checking to see if it worked. Bella's emotions were not pained, tormented, so Jasper assumed the Volturi plan hadn't worked for them.
"The wolves cleared out so the Volturi wouldn't see them, and Jane and the other guards marched into the clearing where the battle happened, pretending they were just late. Edward knew better, and so did the poor newborn that had tried to surrender. Jane had the newborn killed and made a veiled threat in noticing Bella was still human. Alice pointed out that the date was set, and it was set though Edward was doing what he could to delay it." The wave of irritation in Bella showed there was more story there, but apparently Bella was editing out some of the story, because he didn't know what made her mad at Edward now.
"Bella didn't believe in marriage so young, but it became the condition Edward put on turning her with his venom, so after all of this, Alice was let loose on planning a summer wedding. On top of this, with the decision made, finally Bella was getting to hear little hints of what it was to be a vampire." Bella huffed out a bit of air.
"And you are not interested in Edward at all?" Tanya asked, making Emmett and Rosalie a little amused and Edward growled under his breath, too quiet for Bella to hear. Bella felt a bit of disgust and some embarrassment.
"He's really not my type." Based on her emotions, it was very gentle, what she said out loud. Jasper felt a little guilty but he sent her a mix of emotions to make her a little more truthful. "I'd be happier with just about any other golden eyed vampire, there might even be some human drinkers I'd consider before I did him."
Emmett was chuckling so hard he might break his chair and Jasper grinned guiltily when Edward turned his dark gaze to him. "Jasper."
"Just the truth." Jasper chuckled. "You kept holding out hope, now you know. This is not that Bella, and never will be."
"I'm sorry." Bella spoke, her eyes more on Esme than Edward, but then Jasper got a glare for himself from Both Esme and Bella. Bella also felt some embarrassment.
"I'm sorry Darlin', but with all this talk of marriage, did you want Edward at all confused about your position?" He felt her forgiveness before he saw the light nod of it.
"Any other golden eyed?" Emmett said in a teasing voice, and there was some laughter over the phone. Jasper got the sense that Emmett's words ruined the forgiveness he'd just been given.
"So," Bella's voice was firm and cold as she glared at Emmett for a moment, "In learning a bit about the newborn year, Bella made another stupid decision." Bella was ignoring Emmett's teasing and the large vampire chuckled and just sat back. Jasper wondered if Bella had put an order to her preferred vampires, since whether Bella knew it or not everyone had the hint of who the first one on the list would be. Bella still held Rosalie's hand and Rosalie was gently caressing the back of Bella's hand with a thumb to try and calm her. It was working, a little, but Bella was reluctant, and Alice was giving off feelings of expectation and sympathy, so they were at the main problem that Bella hadn't wanted to share.
"Quick like a band aid." Alice spoke softly to Bella when Bella paused, and the table all calmed down as everyone else realized it was about to get worse. Jasper centered himself emotionally and prepared for a roller coaster ride of emotions.
"After the wedding they went on a honeymoon to the island." Bella swallowed hard. "Since the newborns tend to want blood more than anything, Bella wanted to be human the first time she made love."
"That's not possible." Edward muttered, his feelings of fear and shock hitting Jasper.
"It is possible, but without practice." Tanya spoke up. "Well, men are rather selfish sexually. It would be hard for a male vampire to do this well their first time ever."
Rosalie's interest was peaked and Jasper watched the urge to ask questions rush through her with a little amusement. It would be a good idea to learn how to touch the human, before actually trying to do so.
"I don't know what she was thinking. I've been with humans that couldn't stop themselves from biting me during sex." Bella spoke with a bit of a tired sarcastic tone and Jasper noticed that Edward was a little scandalized that the human wasn't a virgin in her past life, if he even believed she'd had a past life yet. "Still, to his credit he managed."
Bella took a shaky breath and gently pulled her hand out of Rosalie's, while giving Emmett a meaningful stare that none of them missed. Emmett took Rosalie's other hand and Rosalie gripped it hard as she tried to prepare herself. Bella had tears in her eyes again and she her voice was tight, as if she were fighting sobs at having to say this. Jasper filled the room with calm, so much that even Rosalie's tense form relaxed a little. "It is possible for a vampire male to get a human female pregnant if they can have sex and leave the woman alive." Names were even a part of the story, but shock filled the room. "The fetus grows incredibly fast though."
"Oh my god." Rosalie's words escaped her and Bella flinched to hear them. Alice gripped Bella's hand.
"Keep going, rip it off fast." Alice told her as Bella stopped talking. A wave of pain was coming from Edward as well, everyone really, but Rosalie and Edward staggered Jaspers control.
"The cleaning lady had heard stories, once they realized Bella was pregnant and she said that it was a fatal condition. There had been other women that had born these half breed babies, but none lived. Edward was determined to get Bella home and get it aborted, but Bella decided she didn't want that. She called Rosalie for help, because she'd need a protector, Edward never listened to her when it was important and she was terrified. They got home and Rosalie and Bella stopped the others from aborting the baby."
"No," Edward made the whisper sound like a gasp from a drowning man.
"Keep going, keep going." Alice spoke desperately to Bella, while holding her tight in her arms. Emmett had Rosalie in a similar hold and Esme was gripping Edward's hand hard.
"Bella couldn't eat, until they realized she needed to drink blood. The baby tore her body up with typical things, a baby kick would break a rib. The baby wasn't going to be born normally and the only way to survive was to turn Bella as soon as the baby was out." Bella felt nausea and Jasper hated to take his calm away from others, but they couldn't stop this story here, he pushed more at Bella so she could hold it together. She couldn't even look toward Rosalie at the moment, but the pain radiated out of Bella told him why this hurt so much for her. "Carlisle wasn't at the house when the water broke, and Rosalie found she couldn't deliver the baby herself with that much blood. Edward did it, and then he gave Bella a shot filled with his venom right into the heart, but it looked like she'd died for a little while. Rosalie took care of the baby while Edward fought to save Bella's life. It was a little girl."
"Jake imprinted on the little girl and was able to split off from the pack, with two others that didn't want to be in Sam's pack and they helped to protect the baby from the pack that wanted to kill her, while Bella was changing. Carlisle gave Bella morphine thinking it would help, don't ever do that, it makes it worse. Screaming is a release at least and she was denied that."
Jasper knew Carlisle had wanted to try that experiment in the hopes that it would ease the pain they all went through, but apparently that wasn't the answer. It did help to ease Carlisle out of his shock and sympathy and back easier emotions for Jasper to deal with. Still, hard as he struggled to function under the onslaught he didn't begrudge Bella the support Alice was giving her, instead of him.
"Bella had a good grasp of her blood thirst right out of the gate, so they were able to let her see her baby after she went hunting." Bella was shaking a lot and had been since she started talking about the baby. Rosalie's expression was lost and pained and shocked, but there was a strong determination underneath it and Rose pulled away from Emmett and reached out for Bella.
"Give her to me." Rose spoke firmly, even with pain in her eyes, as she looked at Alice and held her arms out.
"I didn't want to hurt you." Bella's voice cracked and Rosalie held her tight to her body and let Bella cry onto her shirt.
"It's okay, it's okay." Rosalie told her gently, her own voice cracking.
"I think we need another break." Tanya spoke up softly, saying what Jasper was hoping someone, anyone, would say because he needed out of the house desperately.
"No one can leave." Bella managed to destroy Jasper's hope.
"Bella, honey, Jasper needs to get away from these emotions." Alice spoke softly. "If no one can be alone, no one will run. Esme will watch Edward. I'll promise you Bella, I'll promise you that we'll start up again with everyone." As soon as Bella nodded Jasper got up and moved for the door, Carlisle following him after a pause where Jasper had thought it would be Alice, but Alice sat at the table near Bella, who apparently would need her more right now.