9. More than One

My curtains were closed as was my bedroom door. I stood in front of my mirror with my shirt off so that I could fully study my body and the bump that was ever current.

I had all ready come to terms that I was pregnant but Charlie's words had planted a thought that had been there for a moment but was now resurfacing.

'You sure there's only one in there?'

I looked at my belly from all angles- the front and both the right and left sides. I picked up the print outs I had mad: one was a set of sixteen images detailing a single pregnancy week by week. The other print out was a set of twelve images, the stomach bigger of a person carrying twins. Though I couldn't be sure of my own pregnancy due to the crossbreed status, my own belly resembled the image of one carrying twins in the eighth week. Of course I could only be carrying one and my pregnancy was occurring at a rapid rate. I wasn't sure of which.

"Come on Bella," Jake said as he pounded on the door. "I'm sure Charlie was just messing with you."

Maybe so but a part of me couldn't help but wonder if he was right. From what little evidence I had, he seemed to be.

The grasp of one was a marvel on its own but the thought of two-

I looked at myself, the skin of my hands stroking the skin of my belly. Could there really be two babies inside of me? And if so maybe it was time to stop questioning the impossible. Charlie was right, he had to be. And though I couldn't go to a doctor to be sure as I stood there looking at myself somehow I could feel that it was true.

I couldn't explain it. It was as if Charlie's words had triggered what I'd all ready known from the first time I thought my belly looked to big this early in the pregnancy but at the time I had dismissed it because as it was the situation seemed unfeasible.

I rubbed my belly again. They were in there, both of them. Knowing this- I felt like my heart would explode. Edward had left me with not one but two of his progenies. While it still hurt that he was gone and the fear of possibly never seeing him again, he had given me something that would last a lifetime. Our love had meant more than I could have dreamed of and now my baby wouldn't be alone. He or she would have someone like them, a brother or a sister.

Tears streamed down my face and I couldn't make them stop. At this point I didn't want to.

"Bella," Jacob said coming into my room.

I turned to look at him and he was stopped in his tracks. His eyes in awe as he stared at my bare belly.

Something told me this wouldn't be the first time he confronted me this way.

I quickly put on a shirt.

"Jeeze Jake, don't you knock?"

He turned his focus on me. "I did, you didn't answer and then I heard you crying. Is the baby okay?"

I walked over and took a seat on the bed. Jacob followed. Him caring about the baby before anything else was going to get old pretty fast.

"The baby's fine," I said.

"Bella, you know what Charlie wasn't-,"

"True? Yeah it was."

"You don't know that."

"But I do Jacob. It was a fleeting thought when I first saw the baby bump but I didn't think much of it because the pregnancy itself was all ready so surreal. I can feel them Jacob, and not in the sense that they're moving since it's too early for that but in the sense that I somehow just know, maternal instinct I guess. Only I can't go to a doctor to be sure."

"Can a doctor even find out that kind of thing this early?"

I shook my head and laughed a little. "I don't know. Guess I should start getting some books on that. If Carlisle were here-," I shook the thought away.

Carlisle was gone like the rest of the family. Now more than ever I wanted him as my doctor. He had been several times before but those times were gone, distant memories of my past.

Jacob reached for my hand and held it. I looked at him now. Though there had been a point where Charlie thought Jacob may have harbored some set of romantic feelings for me, I had never though thought of him that way. And now no longer did he. Jacob was becoming a part of my life, my family, in a way I had never imagined. I saw him now as a brother, the way I had when I'd first moved to Forks.

"It's okay, Bella, we're going to figure this out. Tell you what, I'll call Sue Clearwater."

"The nurse my dad wanted me to see after my stint in the woods?"

"Yeah. She works at a private practice on the res. and she's also delivered a lot of babies. Not many of our people go to the hospital for that sort of thing; wanting to keep with the old traditions and all that."

"What will Sam say? Sue does technically live on his lands."

"True but I am the rightful Alpha. I should be leading the pack so my authority is higher than his even if there are two packs now. I'll tell Sam that I need Sue's help and he'll be forced to comply. Whatever you need Bella, you've got me and Embry. All you have to do is ask and I'm not just saying this because of the baby."

I looked at my best friend. It amazed me at how much my life had changed in that instant I saw him in the storm. I owed him so much and would continue to do so.

"Babies," I corrected. I smiled slightly, "And yeah you are, partly but had it not been for you and that stupid wolf thing Sam would have tried to kill me by now."

"What makes you think I wouldn't have?"

"Because imprinting or not, you're still Jacob. You'd never hurt me."

"I'm glad we'll never have to find out."