24. Remnants Remain

[Edward POV- Boston, Massachusetts]

There was much about Boston that appealed to my family. For Esme it was the architecture. There were many run down historic homes in the Beacon Hill District that needed repair and restoring so with our over seemingly unlimited funds, she had taken up several of those projects.

Carlisle taught night classes at Harvard Medical School, his focus on using human cadavers so that his students could get hands on experience.

The rest of my family had kept busy. Alice helped Esme with the interior designing. Rosalie was working as Carlisle's teaching assistant. Jasper was teaching military history at the university and Emmett had been working as a mechanic.

Of my family I had the most difficult time adjusting. Ever since leaving Bella in Forks I hadn't been able to stay in one place for too long.

After my time in Texas I headed as far north as I possibly could to Igloolik on the Baffin Island, further north from Quebec, Canada. It was an isolated area where mainly traditional Inuit people lived. An area banned of tourists but I'd spent the nights in the shadows, feeding on walrus' and other marine life.

Like other stints, my time there hadn't lasted long. The west coast was off limits. I'd made that promise to myself after leaving Forks knowing if I didn't I would find myself back there.

So for the next six months I'd traveled to Alaska, having a run in with my cousins up in Denali, but only briefly since I was miserable company. I traveled to Florida, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and back to Texas, this time to Galveston.

By the eighth month of leaving Forks, I'd returned to Boston much to the relief of my parents and siblings.

No one asked me how I was doing but they didn't have to. I could hear it in their thoughts. Hear their questions, their concerns and everything else.

Thanks to Carlisle's connection at the school I was on my way to obtaining my next degree as a physician in obstetrics and gynecology. I wasn't sure what had brought on this sudden interest.

It had been a simmering idea upon leaving Forks. During my time spent in Igloolik I had helped to deliver three babies, all of which didn't seem to want to wait till morning. The people relied heavily on their midwives but in these cases the weather had prevented them from making it on time and often it was not a man's job to conduct such an act.

I had also delivered a few in Texas and Florida.

I'd never had an interest in human babies before. With so much blood I didn't think I could handle it but with six deliveries under my belt I'd felt like I'd accomplished something that went beyond me, beyond the cursed monstrosity of what I was. Nature's innate way of making sure life continued despite the world of mess, struggle, and chaos among monsters.

I stood with my parents outside of our Boston home in the late evening.

"I'm proud of you son," Carlisle said to me as I stood beside him.

Of course he had found out.

"You'll make a fine OB."

I looked at my adoptive parents. Despite my difficult existence I wouldn't have traded my family for anything.

"Does it ever both you," I asked him and Esme. "Watching other people have kids when you can't?'

I knew it bothered Rosalie. She'd been more than loud on both the physical and mental sides of it.

"Not like it used to," Esme answered, "because now we've got five wonderful kids of our own."

I shook my head. "I don't know why I'm thinking about it now. I never thought of having kids not even when I was human since I was all ready dying. And now I can't help but wonder."

Emmett quickly bounded off a nearby rock and stood in front of me.

"That's what delivering babies will do to ya bro. Maybe you should've picked a different specialty."

"For what it's worth," Rosalie said coming to the four of us, "It's a good thing you left." Emmett slightly tapped his wife on the arm and Esme shook her head in disapproval but Rose continued, "What, we're all thinking it. Bella will have a normal life now. I don't particularly like her but she'll be human and get to have as many babies as she wants. She'll have grandchildren and then die an old lady. That's more than Esme, Alice and I ever get. She's better off. You did the right thing, Edward."

Before I could lunge for Rosalie's throat, ten yards away Alice was walking a branch like a tight rope, as she often did, when she lost her balance which was odd since that wasn't part of our style.

Jasper was the one to grab hold of her before she fell completely and we were quick to her side.

"What did you see," Jasper asked.

"Bella," Alice answered even though I'd seen it too. She turned her focus on me. "I did like I promised, Edward. I never looked at her future."

I nodded. "I know."

"What was in the vision," asked Carlisle.

"I just saw her face," said Alice and then added, "She was in a lot of pain and then she was gone."

"When Alice?" I demanded.

"Two weeks from today," Alice replied.

Victoria. Laurent.

Some other vampire wanting the territory now that we were gone.

I found the nearest tree and punched my fist through it. The tree shattered. I didn't care if I had an audience.

I had left Bella thinking she'd be okay, that she could live a normal life without the threat of vampires but I'd been wrong. As long as the remnants of James' coven remained, Bella would never be safe.