AN ~ So, so sorry for taking this long! I was occupying myself with Life is Harder (Bella/Edward) and some Doctor Who fics...but anyway, here I am again! Only two (ish) months since my last update...wow, I'm so sorry guys!

I'd say the next chapter will be up sooner, but frankly, I doubt it. You never know – I am kind of in the mood for Stars today...Anyhow, I do hope that in the next week or so, I will update Life is Harder and/or Once, Twice, Three Times (a DW fic)

But I'll let you get on with Stars, seeing as that's what you all came for :)

Chapter Sixty: Breakthrough

Esme:

Not for the first time, Rosalie carried Bella to the bathroom and shut the door, already reaching for the glass of water, the hand-towel and the scrunchie. Edward shifted his seat and put his head in his hands, drained.

"Don't worry, honey," I murmured, sitting beside him and putting my arms around him. "It's going to be okay. This is normal, trust me."

Edward did not respond. I wished I could alleviate his suffering, but there was nothing more I could say. I just hugged him in silence and waited for him to figure out what he wanted to do.

And then Jacob walked in. He strutted in confidently, but suddenly hesitated. He looked around wildly, no doubt searching for Bella.

"She's all right," Edward whispered hoarsely, not even looking up. "Or, the same, I should say."

"Hello Jacob," I greeted, wishing I had something comforting to tell him. "I'm so glad you came back."

"Me too," Alice said with a deep sigh as she drifted down the staircase, her brow finally uncreasing a little as her headache was alleviated.

"Um, hey," Jacob greeted awkwardly. "Where's Bella?"

"Bathroom," Alice told him. "Mostly fluid diet, you know. Plus, the whole pregnancy thing does that to you, I hear."

"Ah."

Jacob just stood there, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Oh, wonderful," I heard Rosalie's voice from the hall by the stairs. "I knew I smelled something nasty."

She followed her voice into the main living area with Bella cradled gently in her arms. Bella's face lit up upon sighting her semi-canine friend, and Jake's twisted as though this caused him physical pain.

"Jacob," Bella breathed. "You came."

"Hi, Bells," Jacob greeted weakly.

Edward mechanically stood to make way for Bella, and I stood by him. Bella gritted her teeth against the pain as Rosalie ever-so-carefully lowered her onto the couch. Edward gently brushed a hand across her forehead, then along her neck, sweeping her hair back at the same time as examining Bella's sickly state.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Bella replied.

"Remember what Carlisle told you," Rosalie instructed, with the curt tone of a strict teacher. "Don't downplay anything. It doesn't help us take care of either of you."

"Okay, I'm a little cold," Bella admitted. "Edward, can you hand me that blanket?"

Things seemed to be reasonable civil down here – not so much as a snarl. About time, if you ask me. Still making sure to keep an ear out, I flitted back to Carlisle's study.

.o.o.o.

He was hidden behind a shelf, but I approached the desk, where Carlisle had sorted the documents into two piles: helpful and not helpful. One of them was enormous, and the other only consisted of a few sheets – I guessed this was the 'helpful' pile.

"Morning," Carlisle greeted grimly as he emerged from the shelves, apparently not happy with his findings.

"Morning," I greeted, deflated by his hunched shoulders and exhausted demeanor.

"That's one hundred," he muttered, glaring at the pages before him for a moment. He shook his head and raked his hand through his hair. I pulled his seat out for him and he sunk into it slowly, as if he was aching right down to his bones.

"This is getting ridiculous," he murmured to himself, leaning his head back against the top of the seat and shutting his eyes. "One hundred stories, all of them the same."

"What about those?" I asked, pointing to what I had assumed was the 'helpful' pile.

"The inventory and fee," he replied with a groan. I ran my fingers over his forehead and through his hair. He began to unwind at my touch, until suddenly-

"Carlisle?" Edward called from downstairs.

In an instant, Carlisle was out the door. I flew after him, and skidded to a halt when I saw Bella's contorted face.

"Okay. Think it's over," Bella said, breathing hard and shallow. "Poor kid doesn't have enough room, that's all. He's getting so big."

The love in her voice made me want to cry: not only the willingness but the desire to sacrifice herself for the child. What I saw in her eyes when she defended him – it reminded me of myself, all those years ago.

"You know, he reminds me of you, Jake," Bella commented, to Jacob's immediate fury.

"Do not compare me to that thing."

"I just meant your growth spurt," Bella said innocently. "You shot right up; I could watch you getting taller by the minute. He's like that too, growing so fast."

Bella's breaths came easier, and she seemed to go limp as she settled back into the sofa.

"Hmm," Carlisle murmured thoughtfully, studying Jacob. Jacob looked up, away from Bella, and they were watching each other.

"What?" Jake demanded. Edward tilted his head to the side, contemplating Carlisle's thoughts. It was the first time I had seen his expression change in a long time.

"You know that I was wondering about the fetus' genetic makeup, Jacob. About his chromosomes," Carlisle started.

"What of it?" Jacob demanded.

"Well, taking your similarities into consideration-"

"Similarities?"

"The accelerated growth, and the fact that Alice cannot see either of you. Well, I wonder if that means that we have an answer. If the similarities are gene-deep."

Jacob's face went blank, shocked.

"Twenty-four pairs," Edward murmured under his breath.

"You don't know that," Jacob objected.

"No, but it's interesting to speculate," Carlisle pointed out.

"Yeah. Just fascinating."

Jacob stood, bewildered and silent, as Carlisle and Edward launched into a fully-fledged medical science discussion. They soon left me behind too – girls hadn't studied a high level of science in my school days, and I had never made much of an effort to learn. But Carlisle had taught me the equivalent of today's secondary school education, so I managed to deduce that they were using dominant genes and characteristics to try to determine which elements of the human and vampire strains this child would likely inherit. I knew brown eyes were supposed to be dominant over blue, but frankly I didn't see how that helped to tell which traits were dominant in vampire/human hybrids: Blood or food digestion? Strength, speed, invulnerability…how was anyone to tell?

I watched Carlisle's lips moving faster and faster, his eyes glistening with a hope and energy that weeks of stress, frustration and thirst had ground out of him. And I smiled, because in that moment, anything was possible.