Chapter 4: My Compliments to The Chef
"Nessie, I need your opinion!" I called. Renesmee bounced into the room and looked at me expectantly. "Bears or bunny rabbits?"
Renesmee tilted her head at me. "What for?"
"The baby!" I said impatiently, "I figured you'd be the best person to ask because you're the only one who can remember being young enough to play with bears or bunny rabbits!"
"Ask Mom." Renesmee said with a shrug, "She'll remember."
"I'm asking you!" I moaned, "Come on Nessie, which will the baby prefer?"
"Bunnies?" Renesmee suggested. I looked at the two plush animals on my laptop screen.
"No, I think bears." I concluded. Renesmee rolled her eyes and left the room, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like 'Typical Aunty Alice' as she went. Who peed in her cheerios this morning?
I flicked on the TV and searched through the channels until I got to teleshopping. It was currently advertising food processors, so I turned my attention back to the toy website on my laptop.
I looked up as I heard someone enter the room and tried to hide my shock as I saw Rosalie standing in the doorway. It had been a week now since I'd seen her, and I could only hope that her being here meant she'd forgiven me.
"Hey." She said quietly, not looking at me. I put my laptop on the table and stood up to face her.
"Rosalie, I-" I began.
"I don't want to talk about it." Rosalie said quickly. I was about to protest, but thought better of it. It seemed like for now Rosalie had forgiven me, and I didn't want to upset her again.
"Okay." I said. "You wanna hunt?"
Rosalie nodded. I turned off the TV and headed towards the door. I could hear Edward upstairs playing his piano, and called up to him that I was going hunting. He didn't reply and just carried on playing, but I knew he'd heard me.
Rosalie and I took off into the forest, quickly picking up the delicious scent of mountain lion and following it. Rosalie drained three, I fed off of five. I supposed I was allowed to be greedy, considering I was drinking for two vampires instead of one. We hadn't said anything on the way there, but after we'd hunted Rosalie sat down on the ground, leaning against a tree.
"I am happy for you Alice." She said, "It's just that I...I mean...I can't..."
"I know." I said quietly when she trailed off. "I'm sorry, Rosie, I didn't even think how this would effect you. It was stupid of me to assume everyone would be okay with it."
I sat down beside her and she looked across at me. "You know I love you Alice, and I'll love the baby too. It's just hard for me, that's all."
I nodded. "I understand, but Rosalie this is just as much your baby as it is mine and Jaspers. We're a family!"
"I guess I could settle for being it's favourite Aunt." Rosalie sniffed.
"Just don't tell Bella." I said with a wink. Rosalie gave me a small smile. There was no hiding it; she was still upset and angry, but right now she was talking to me. She'd forgiven me, and that was enough for now. I sighed as I kicked the dirt at my feet. "Love you, Rose."
"I love you too Alice." Rosalie said, leaning her head on my shoulder. We sat like that for a while before deciding it was time to go back. Jasper would probably already be freaking out. Ever since he found out I was pregnant, he'd grown immensely overprotective. I mean, he'd always been overprotective of me, but now it was worse. He told me it was because he was protecting both of us now, and I told him to stop being a wuss and let me live a little.
Sure enough, Jasper was waiting when we got back to the house. His eyes widened a little when he saw me with Rosalie, but other than that his surprise didn't show. He smiled warmly at me. "Hey Darlin', where have you been?"
"Hunting." I told him, moving forward and hugging him. He kissed me lightly on the lips.
"Catch anything good?" He asked.
"Five mountain lions." I told him.
"Five?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at me. I stuck my tongue out.
"I'm feeding for two, remember?" I said.
"I'm gunna go find Emmett." Rosalie said. I could tell she still got sad whenever the subject of the baby was brought up.
"See you later, Rose." I said. She said goodbye before taking off into the forest in search of Emmett, and leaving me with the hope that she'd move back to the main house now, and that we could go back to being sisters again.
"What made her change her mind?" Jasper asked as soon as Rosalie was out of earshot.
"Beats me." I said, "I think she just needed a little time. Emmett probably had something to do with it too. I don't care; as long as she's forgiven me and we're good again."
Jasper smiled and kissed me again. "Nessie tells me you're having a bear-bunny dilemma?"
"Oh no, that's all sorted now." I assured him. "Unless...what do you think? Would the baby prefer teddy bears or bunny rabbits?"
Jasper rolled his eyes, "Whichever you think is best."
"I think bears, but Ness said rabbits." I said.
"You've got plenty of time to make your decision." Jasper told me. We both looked up as Bella came into the kitchen with Renesmee.
"What do you want Renesmee?" Bella asked.
"Pizza!" Renesmee said. Bella frowned, and Renesmee pouted. "Please Mommy? It's been ages since I had pizza!"
Bella's opinions on junk food had certainly changed since she became a vampire. You wouldn't catch Bella complaining about pizza whilst she was human, but now Renesmee practically had to beg to get a slice of it.
"Fine." Bella said, "But you have to have vegetables with it too."
Renesmee stuck her tongue out and made a 'bleh' sound. I laughed and Bella frowned at me. "Don't encourage her, Alice."
"Sorry, Mom." I said and winked at Renesmee.
"I'll remind you of this when it's your child who needs feeding." Bella told me. I shrugged.
"My child is going to have anything they want." I told her. Bella just laughed. "Why is that funny?"
"Have a baby." Bella said, "You'll see."
I rolled my eyes and sat myself down on one of the stools by the kitchen counter. Jasper came and stood behind me as I watched Bella rummage in the freezer for a pizza. We talked as the pizza cooked, and then Bella served it up for Renesmee. One whiff of the pizza's scent had Bella and Jasper wrinkling their noses. I didn't have the name reaction.
A weird feeling swept over me; one I had never felt before. It was almost as if I was thirsty - but I couldn't be! I hunted mere hours ago. Besides, this was different. It wasn't a burning in my throat that needed to be soothed, it was a kind of ache in my stomach. I put a hand over my stomach - was it the baby? Oh please God, don't let something be wrong with the baby!
"What's wrong?" Jasper asked, looking at me worriedly.
"I feel weird." I said, "It almost hurts!"
"Bella, go get Carlisle." Jasper said, "Where does it hurt."
"My stomach." I said, "It feels really weird. Almost like I need to hunt, but not."
"How long has it felt like that?" Jasper asked.
"Just a second, since Bella served Ness's dinner." I said.
"Bella, I said go and get Carlisle!" Jasper snapped, but Bella just stood there and laughed. "Bella! There could be something wrong with the baby!"
"There's nothing wrong with the baby!" Bella said through her laughter, "She's hungry."
Jasper looked at me and I looked back, eyes wide. That would explain it. "Oh."
Bella laughed. She put a couple of slices of pizza onto a plate and slid it towards me. "Eat."
I stared at the plate of food. Human food. It had always repulsed me, and yet...it smelt good. I remembered Dana saying that I would find human food surprisingly appetizing during the pregnancy. She'd said I'd need to eat...So I guess I should eat!
I picked up a slice of the pizza and tentatively took a bite. Oh my God, that was delicious! The taste spread over my tongue and down my throat as I swallowed. The feeling in my stomach faded a little and I smiled and took another bite.
"Bella, you are a goddess in the kitchen!" I said, taking yet another bite. Bella laughed.
"It's only pizza!" She said
"It's delicious!" I said. Jasper was laughing at me too now as I stuffed my face with pizza.
"If Aunty Alice likes pizza too, does that mean we can have it more often?" Renesmee asked.
"No." Bella said, turning to glare at me as I said, "Yes."
"No?" I asked, pouting. Renesmee copied me exactly and Bella just stared.
"Well now I know who she gets THAT from." She said. Jasper looked between Renesmee and me, with our identical pouts and pleading eyes, and laughed.
"Mommy, can I have ice cream?" Renesmee asked, keeping the same pout in place.
"No!" Bella said. Renesmee's pout got bigger, her bottom lip sticking out further.
"But Aunty Alice needs to try ice cream!" She said.
"You had ice cream yesterday, Renesmee!" Bella said. Renesmee looked at me, making contact with my arm with her pink finger as she projected her plan to me. I laughed, and turned to Bella.
"Pleeeeeeease Mommy." We said in unison. Bella stared at us for a second before holding her hands up in surrender, "Whatever, just put the pouts away!"
Jasper wrapped his around me from behind as Bella went to find the ice cream. "You're a dangerous creature, Darlin'."
"I know." I said with a wink as Bella returned with two bowls, spoons, and a tub of Ben&Jerry's cookie dough. It was a treat that seemed to appear in sit-coms all the time, and something that I always heard humans saying was delicious, but I'd never experienced it myself until now. The ice cream slid down my throat with a smooth, cooling effect - a contrast to the warm taste of the pizza. Chunks of cookie dough tasted sweet in my mouth and I ate the whole bowl of ice cream that Bella had set in front of me.
"We will certainly be eating some more of THAT!" I said to Renesmee. She grinned.
"No." Bella said firmly, "I can't believe this is the first human food you remember eating and it was a load of junk food! I could have cooked you something nicer!"
"It was perfect." I told her with a smile. "Thank you Bella. My compliments to the chef!"
"That smells gross Bella." Emmett said as he came into the kitchen with his arm slung around Rosalie's shoulder. I smiled at both of them and they stared at the spoon in my hand - which was now depressingly lacking in ice cream. "Alice, have you been eating that?"
"It's delicious!" I defended. They just stared at me again, and I had to remind myself that I hadn't explained the whole eating-and-sleeping part of the pregnancy. I was about to tell them when I remembered how Rosalie's eyes filled with sadness every time the pregnancy was brought up. How was I ever supposed to talk about the baby without hurting my sister? "I...er..."
"Alice has to sleep and eat human food during the pregnancy." Jasper said for me. Rosalie blinked once but kept her composure.
"Oh, that sucks." Emmett said.
"It's not so bad." I said.
"Alice is already addicted to junk food." Bella said with an eye roll.
"I'm not addicted." I said, sticking my tongue out. Bella opened her mouth to speak, but I interrupted. "I'm not going to stay here and be bullied!"
With that I stood up and went upstairs to our bedroom, Jasper trailing close behind. He didn't like to be far away from me nowadays; not that we ever used to be apart much either. I crawled onto the bed and Jasper lay down beside me. I hadn't been sleeping as much as a normal human would - a couple of hours every 2 or 3 days - but right now I was tired. Jasper wrapped his arms around me; I hadn't been to sleep yet without him right beside me the whole time.
"Goodnight Darlin'." He whispered into my ear.
"Goodnight." I whispered back.
"Goodnight baby." Jasper whispered. I giggled quietly, the sound muffled because my face was buried in Jasper's chest. I went to sleep with a smile on my face, dreaming of the day that our baby could say goodnight back.
Thankyou soooo much to everyone who reviewed! :D :D Hope you liked the chapter...
I have a question...for the next chapter would you like me to carry on from this point, or skip a couple of months so she's further along in the pregnancy? Let me know because it could go either way at the moment...:)