Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1.

Chapter 29: Christmas Eve Shopping

When Rian made it downstairs, Alice and Bella were waiting for her. She hadn't known Bella was going (not that she was upset about it); it was just a surprise. Rian always thought she was more of a loner, kind of like she had been at school only because she was afraid someone would find out her secret, but with Bella it seemed her personality.

"Are you ready?" Alice asked.

Rian nodded as Emmett made his way downstairs. Rian smiled at him before the girl's piled out of the house and headed towards the car.

Alice, Bella, and Rian packed away in Emmett's jeep; they decided to take the jeep since it was larger and had more space to fit things into. Alice drove while Rian was in the front seat beside her. The ride to the mall was relatively quiet, Alice and Rian talking every once in a while. But the majority of the ride was filled with music, Rian had turned the radio on as soon as the silence became awkward. She wasn't sure how to interact with Bella, so the music helped to fill the awkwardness in the car.

Alice took them back to the same mall, a couple of towns over, as she and Rian had gone shopping just before Thanksgiving break. "First order of business, maternity and normal clothes for Rian." Alice announced as they walked into the familiar mall.

Once they were all inside, they were bombarded with thousands of other shoppers. The holiday shoppers were busying around the mall in a last desperate attempt for Christmas gifts. Christmas Eve might not have been the best time to go shopping, but Rian was running out of time. They couldn't guaranty Rian's health would be good enough to go shopping in the upcoming weeks.

Alice led the way to a cute little boutique in the back of the store. And soon Rian and Bella had clothes piled high in her arms as the tiny pixie excitedly ran around the shop throwing clothes at them. Although there were shoppers practically shoulder to shoulder fighting their way through the stores, they seemed to split to allow Bella and Alice (and Rian by default) safe passage through the aisles.

At first Rian was afraid the changing rooms would be just a crowded as the stores, but she was the only one actually trying on the clothes. Everyone else was just buying something as a present and didn't need to try on anything.

So the redhead went into a changing room to try on the maternity clothes they had grabbed, just a few outfits. It wasn't like she would need too many maternity clothes. But with the normal clothes, she couldn't try on right then, her stomach wouldn't allow it to fit properly, so the girls were done quickly with clothes for Rian and soon they were dumping all the clothes on the counter as a shocked cashier watched the girls pile the clothes high on it. Rian was also shocked, she hadn't expected or intended to buy this many clothes. Of course the girl began to protest. "Wait, I don't need this many clothes and we don't know if they will fit."

Alice waved the girl off, "Don't worry about it. What doesn't fit we can give away. Besides, you won't be able to come out a try on new clothes for a while after the babies are born." She was really referring to the fact that 'newborn' vampires have less control over their urges than a 'year' old vampire.

"That is still spending too much on me." Rian complained, but Alice wouldn't hear of it. She insisted on buying all of the clothes they had picked out. The price of the purchase continued to raise, Rian had to look away from the price while Alice handed the cashier the dark blue card she had in her wallet. There were so many bags filled with clothes that the girls decided to take them back to the car before continuing shopping. They were not done yet, and Rian already felt incredibly bad for how much she had spent on herself. She hated thinking of what Alice had planned to spend on the babies.

"Do you want to look at a store in the mall for baby items or do you want to try somewhere else?" Alice asked.

"I saw a baby place down the road when we were coming into town, it looked fairly large." Bella offered.

"Yeah, sure, we can try that place." Rian answered picking Bella's store.

It didn't take long for the girls to reach the store Bella suggested, and she was completely right. It was larger than any store in the mall could possibly be. When they walked in the front doors, their first greeting was cribs (on either side of the aisle), more styles and colors than Rian had seen in her life. At the end of the aisle were two associates standing with a stack of half size sheet of paper. One quickly walked up to the girls and greeted them before engaging them in a conversation of Rian's obvious pregnancy. Some of the questions Rian couldn't quiet answer, such as the sex of the baby and when she was due exactly. As to the sex, Rian simply answered with: "We want it to be a surprise." And to when she was due, she quickly just spat off a date that was about four or five months away.

"Do you want to set up a registry with us?"

"No, we are just going to get everything for her today. They are planning on taking a trip after the baby is born, easier to just get everything and not worry that someone didn't get something for her and how they were going to get it before the trip." Alice had a quick excuse ready, Rian wondered if she had anticipated needing a reason as to why they were getting everything today. Then a horrifying thought came to Rian, how much exactly was Alice planning to get for the babies today.

"Oh, uh…well we have checklists if you need." The associate stuttered as she was shocked at the realization that they were going to be buying possibly a lot of things. Not many people came in looking to buy everything they needed for the baby in one trip often. The associate held out one of the many cardstock pages in her hand towards Rian. In a daze, the girl took the page from the associate and Alice and Bella began to walk again.

"If you need any help finding something, there are associates all over the store," the second associate said as Rian passed by the girl.

"We can't get everything today. You just spent quite a bit on my new closet!" Rian was still reeling from all the emotions and money spent that morning.

"You won't have time to go out to get things after … everything that will happen," Alice answered.

"But you've already spent so much today. I can't ask you to buy anything more." Rian insisted even as she realized that she couldn't ask her father to buy anything, he was totally against keeping the babies.

"You need everything we are buying. And you aren't asking."

"But…" Rian began only to be cut off by the very quiet Bella.

"Don't think of it as buying it for you. This is for the babies, and Emmett. Like Alice said, you can't go out and buy this afterwards. I didn't get a chance to buy things for Renesmee. You get a chance to pick out things for your baby."

Rian was taken aback, partly because Bella hadn't said more than two words the whole trip so far and partly because everything she had just said resonated with Rian. She remembered that Bella had gone through a situation similar to her and very different at the same time.

"Might as well just go with the flow," Alice smiled realizing she had won.