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Chapter 191

Family Time

Edward

Thursday.

The school bell rang for lunch break.

For me, however, this monotonous chime meant the end of school.

I usually met my children and siblings as they all made their way to the cafeteria, but today I was running late. Mrs. Corwick had started a new subject in her advanced math class and stubbornly kept going through her lessons until the bell rang.

I met only Jake and Becky in the hallway. They were standing next to their history room and thoughtfully kissing each other.

Becky managed to make my son forget a meal. That's saying something with a full-grown wolf.

I leaned next to them and waited patiently for attention.

"Hey, Dad," I was noticed at some point.

Took a while, but I didn't begrudge them their love. At least one of my children was happy through and through. Well, yeah. Ced was too, but he didn't know that kind of love yet.

"What time will you be home tonight?", I inquired.

That was the only reason I had waited. They had a date with a friend of Becky's from the volleyball team and I didn't know if they were going to have dinner at our house or out. Or both in Jake's case.

"I'm sure it will be later," Becky agreed.

Apparently they were meeting Harper right after practice and were going to watch a movie together at her boyfriend's house.

"Have fun then," I wished them both from the bottom of my heart and went my way.

On the drive home, I thought of my angel.

I just remembered that I still owed Bella a date. A real one - not just an evening without children. On New Year's Eve, I had formally asked her out. At the time, we wanted to celebrate appropriately that she had recovered physically after the birth of our son. I had thought of a pleasurable early evening venture, followed by an elegant restaurant, and then perhaps a cozy hotel room again, though the details of the date as a whole had not yet been clear to me. Things had turned out differently, after all, after Carlisle had found the reason for her speedy recovery. I would come up with something worthy of my goddess.

But when I arrived home, this thought quickly faded away.

I heard Bella sobbing with her back to me as she stood in the middle of the living room holding the phone. She was dialing just then. Ced was sitting on the floor watching his mommy quite displeased. My cell phone rang simultaneously, and Bella turned to me, startled. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. I quickly stood by her and had already pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket. Bella was calling me.

"Leah's gone," it burst out of Bella before I could ask what was going on.

I immediately tried to sort out my thoughts, which had gotten out of control because of her words.

It was a vicious déjà vu. Leah ... Gone... Why? I didn't understand. Why would Leah be gone? Leah was not well at the moment. She was consciously mourning the loss of her love. Of course, that wasn't very nice, but she showed such control in the past few days that so far I wasn't worried that she would do something stupid. When Leah had heard from us what she had done a week ago today, that she had jumped off the cliff, Leah had been terrified. She couldn't comprehend taking such a definitive step. Her memory - rather, her hallucination of it - showed a different picture. In it, she had not jumped over a cliff, but into Nanuk's arms.

Now, however, this worry was back and paralyzed me for splits of a second. Until I could think clearly again.

Whatever had happened, I would find my daughter! No time for questions.

I dropped my schoolbag and immediately ran. Across the terrace into the forest.

Leah's trail was quite clear, and I could easily follow her. Occasionally I saw her paw prints in the snow. She had walked through the forest some time ago. It might have been one or at most two hours ago.

This drove me to desperate haste.

Possibly this time I would not get to her in time as I had the week before.

At first Leah had walked seemingly purposefully to the lake, her scent leading me straight there, but she was no longer there. Away from the lake, however, her trail ran across the woods. It seemed aimless.

I was not sure if this could be a good sign or a bad sign.

It went deep into the forest, but also threateningly close to human civilization. But I ran on undeterred ... until I perceived the thoughts of my daughter.

I exhaled in relief and slowed my pace.

She was in thought, sitting on the branch of a tree and simply looking out over the world. It was a tree very close to the cliff from which she had jumped, but her thoughts showed no indication that she wanted to do the same thing again. She was simply thinking.

To Nanuk, how much she missed him and how much it hurt that he was no longer there. But her thoughts went in the direction that she would have to learn to deal with it and that she would have to look forward. Not back. Looking back only caused more pain in her heart.

I called Bella before I reached Leah.

Hectic and nervous, my angel asked me if I had found Leah. Somewhat timidly she added the question whether our child was still alive.

"Yes, dearest. There is nothing wrong with her. Leah is just thinking," I immediately reassured her.

"Thank God!" breathed Bella in relief. She seemed to let herself fall on something, too. "But she knows we're worried when she suddenly runs away without a word. It's not like I could reach her by cell phone," Bella was now getting a little upset.

"You're right, my heart, but we can talk to her about that later," I said gently.

We ended the phone call, and I came closer to Leah.

I shook my head, a little amused, when I reached the tree where Leah was sitting. About three meters above the forest ground.

Wolves!

By the trunk was her backpack, with a few crumpled wax papers and cardboard boxes from a fast-food restaurant lying on and around it.

All empty. However, Leah was even clothed.

"Mind if I keep you company?", I asked, but Leah hadn't noticed my arrival yet.

She was startled, slipped off her branch and landed right in my arms. She looked at me with her eyes widened in fright.

"Do you have to sneak up on me like that?" she asked, downright offended, once she had grasped the situation.

It was just her old dad who was there. Who had teased her wantonly.

"I didn't sneak up on you," I put my actions right and my daughter on her own two feet.

"Why are you even here?"

"Because we worry when you just disappear without a word."

"But ... I left a note. In the middle of the dining table, so that Mom would definitely see it, too!" she reasoned.

I saw complementary in her thoughts that she was alone in the house when she woke up from a nap, not knowing where Bella was at that time. Whether she would be gone for a long time or would return at any moment.

"And I also have my cell phone with me. You could have called!" she rummaged in her backpack and then demonstratively held it out towards me.

I smirked.

"It's on silent and you've had seven missed calls and two missed messages."

As if alienated, she looked at the display and the information shown in standby mode. She chewed on her lower lip and mumbled an "Oops".

"It's all good, Little one. We were afraid you were going to finish what you tried to do last week."

"But I wouldn't do anything like that, Dad!" she protested.

"I know. I realize that I was too hasty with this fear. That you haven't given us any reason to assume that in the last few days. But when one of our children is not where we expect they to be and we have no clue as to their whereabouts, we assume the worst. That is the nature of being a parent," I tried to explain.

"But I left the note!"

"I didn't see any, however I was barely home a minute before I was already on my way. And Bella didn't seem to find a message from you either. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so in a state of agitation and despair."

"I'm sorry, Dad!" she said and hugged me tightly.

I always enjoyed it when my children took me in their arms. I also found it very amusing that they made themselves a little smaller when they did so, so that they didn't tower over me, but ...

"You have nothing to be sorry for. You obviously did everything right. Except for the small matter of your silent phone, but we can chalk that up to human error. We'll find out later what happened to your message," I replied.

So we stood there for a long moment.

I had not thought that I would be so happy about a misjudgment as I am now.

"You were so deep in thought that you didn't notice my approach. Would you like to continue thinking alone or may I keep you company?"

"Yes, please stay," she looked at me.

"And would you like to go back to your branch?"

"A little higher wouldn't be bad," she smirked.

I looked up into the branches of the stately tree, lifted my princess in my arms, and jumped up. It was not a Weymouth pine like on our trip, but a sturdy oak. Therefore, we were thus perched only about twenty-six feet above the ground. There were too many branches in the way for me to jump higher, but Leah was quite content with the view from this level once she had sorted herself out and found a relatively comfortable spot. She found the safest seat for her at the moment that there could be on this tree. We sat together on a thick branch, and she leaned back against me, and never would I let my princess fall.

"Wow ..." she murmured as she looked out at the world through the leafless branches.

"You're impressed by this view, even though we were a lot higher on our trip?"

She shrugged her shoulders and let her head fall against my shoulder.

She felt as if she was discovering the world all over again since she had woken up from her darkness.

We were silent for some time.

Leah had asked me to stay with her. Therefore, I listened to her thoughts.

She often reminisced about that afternoon with Nanuk and all the times they had fought against her imprinting. All in all, it had only been two weeks that she had known Nanuk. Her long period of darkness, during which she had not realized how much time had passed. By now, however, she knew this. Five and a half days. And now she was already conscious again for the fourth day. The pain of grief tore at her heart, but she didn't want to bear it any longer. She could not change anything. Nanuk was irretrievably gone, and she would never forget him. Never be able to let anyone else into her heart as much as she had him. But instead of considering a fatal way out, she looked for other ways to escape this grief a bit. She was actually a very positive and fun-loving person. That's where she wanted to go back to. Without forgetting Nanuk. It just shouldn't hurt so much anymore.

"Your bond wasn't comparable to normal relationships," I murmured into her thoughts.

She turned her head a little in my direction and just looked at me.

So I continued with my thoughts on that, "Even stronger than that of Jake and Becky. You imprinted on each other. So the bond between you was very intense from both sides. Your mind has processed that you won't get Nanuk back and is ready to move on to the future. But your heart continues to hold on to him. How long this will last, whether you will even get over it one day, I can't tell you. Everyone grieves differently over the love they have lost. Maybe you will never feel better, maybe you will feel better tomorrow. You just must never give up. Otherwise, Nanuk would surely be very disappointed in you."

A single tear rolled down her cheek, but she smiled a little as she wiped it away.

"Yes, he would be," she stated, deliberately letting me share in her hallucinations.

How Nanuk, wrapped in white clothes, had scolded her.

I smiled to myself.

In all my children I could always recognize my beloved Bella. It was mostly little things, little gestures that they had from Bella. Jake, for example, was a little clumsy. Only his very assertive wolf genes prevented him from stumbling nearly as often as his mother. Or his hesitant progress concerning dancing. Ced could already be as angry as his mother. Even with that little frown line between his eyes. But Leah had the most of her. The chewing on her lower lip, the tears of anger, her chocolate-colored eyes, that she couldn't stand to be dependent on help. Bella had at one time heard my voice when she had done something stupid or reckless. And I had seemed to scold her a lot when she was up to something like that. Just as Leah had seen her Nanuk. In my twins, though, I could also see their biological father. Jacob Black. Although I had only met him once in person and didn't really know him, I was sure what qualities they had picked up from him. Jake was quite sensitive and deep, yet unpredictable at times. Leah was also a bit imprudent in her temperament. Not to mention the distinct characters they held as wolves, of which Seth was very impressed. Strength - both physical and mental - courage, conscientiousness, pride. The stubbornness, again, they had from Bella. But they might as well have gotten it from me.

Leah and I stayed sitting on the branch for a long time and talked together. In the meantime, I had sent Bella a text message so that she wouldn't start worrying again.

She asked a lot about my time when I had left Bella and how I had coped.

It was, of course, no comparison to her present grief, but she listened attentively when I told her about the Bella who took part in my life in my imagination. The one I had consciously imagined, the one who never grew older, the one I talked to regularly, and the one who, despite everything, I only fooled myself with every day. But it had worked. I warned my princess emphatically, however, that it would be dangerous to create such a fantasy. At some point you lost control of it, you couldn't distinguish reality from imagination, and you drowned in the emotions you had so carefully blocked out with it. As it had happened to me.

When it began to get dark, we set out for home.

Leah had come up with a detailed and very manifold plan to perhaps slowly escape her suffering: She would go to school tomorrow. End of the list.

Tackle one day at a time. That was her real plan.

Side by side we ran towards Saco.

Very soon, however, Leah heard a strange voice in her head. It was Akai. At first, Leah was confused.

In the next one it had made 'click'.

Akai was now the Alpha wolf, and they could hear each other. Jake had already told her.

I parted ways with Leah and gave her her backpack, as she was going to trek through the woods with Akai for a bit.

Akai had also suggested a short visit with his family. They all wanted to know how Leah was doing.

'And my ma definitely won't let you leave the house hungry,' he was still thinking.

So I ran home alone, and Bella was immediately nervous when I entered the house without Leah.

"Don't worry, my heart. We met Akai on the way, and they ran a little together through the forest," so I said immediately.

I first greeted my angel in detail.

I didn't get the chance to do that at noon.

Also my little angel, who was already sitting impatiently at my feet. But he grinned when I looked down at him after all.

"Leah says she left you a note on the dining room table," I remarked. I had seen in her thoughts that she had done so.

So finally the three of us crawled across the floor looking for said message. I found it.

Under the sofa. Probably a gust of wind that had come just as Leah walked through the patio door. Or maybe just the air displacement from the door itself. The note was quite small. A light breeze would have been enough to whirl it off the table.

Bella then made herself and our baby something for dinner. I sat on the kitchen counter with my baby on my lap and we watched her very attentively.

Not that she was doing anything wrong. By now I was very familiar with such things.

I told her about the afternoon with our daughter while Ced nibbled extensively on a carrot.

Bella was very reassured that Leah had no foolishness in mind.

Our kids all came home pretty early, so we sat on the couch together for a while. A quiet evening where Leah and Ced were the first to fall asleep, cuddling together in the corner of the sofa.

Leah still had to get used to the physical activity, in addition to the fresh air she got today. I was not surprised, and I put my princess to bed.

At night she woke up once, excited and calling for Nanuk, but she calmed down very quickly.

I stayed with her until she fell asleep again.

The next morning she seemed a bit rumpled, although she looked better overall.

The shadows under her eyes had almost completely disappeared and she no longer looked so fragile. Still, she seemed restless. And she insisted on going to school!

"Okay, okay. You may," I raised my arms defensively when she spiritedly clarified her opinion on the matter.

With her fists pressed into her sides and stamping with her foot.

I smiled as I left her room.

"Our daughter is a little excited about going to school," I commented as I delivered the last two beverages.

I wasn't sure who was craving it more. Bella for her coffee, who was already holding out a hand to me. Or Ced in her arms, who had been lying ready for his bottle and was looking invitingly at me. With the little displeased crease between his eyes.

"What's wrong with her?" asked Bella, puzzled.

She snapped her fingers in the direction of her cup.

I remained standing.

"Didn't you once say, and I like to quote you verbatim on this, 'You don't have to bring me coffee in bed every morning'?", I wanted to know. She'd said that after I'd spent the first night officially in that bed as her life partner. She had considered it silly for me to bring her coffee. Her and at that time only HER children, although they had already signified a lot to me at that time.

"That's time-barred!" she said snappishly, with which she made me laugh heartily.

I continued on my way, demanding a kiss first before I was ready to hand over the cup, and sat down in front of her, wrapping my legs around her cross-legged seat so Ced was lying between us. He was still looking displeased until the bottle came into his view.

"Time-barred?", I doubted. "That was just one hundred and thirty-seven days ago!"

She smiled delightfully offended and rolled with her pretty eyes.

I was in good spirits today and left it uncommented. Although a rather nasty comment would have occurred to me. Namely whether her memory would let her down soon. Considering her advanced age. I had clearly spent too much time with Emmett over the years.

"Leah seems jittery. I think it's because she hasn't seen her friends for two weeks and not because of school itself," I explained our daughter's condition. "But she hopes everyone doesn't ask what was wrong with her."

The kids went for a run, all three of them - Becky was there.

We also got ourselves ready afterwards, we had breakfast and then I had all my kids sitting in the BMW.

For a change, we would all finish school at 12:00 o'clock due to report cards. Accordingly, all the lessons today were listless. In Spanish we more or less just sat around while the report cards were handed out. In music I sat together with Becky at the keyboard where we tried a four-handed version of her song. In English we watched a rather uninteresting movie. Only the math teacher was highly motivated, of course.

My children's friends had all been kept more or less up to date on Leah's state of health by Jake and Becky. In addition, he had asked everyone not to bombard Leah with all kinds of questions. They all knew about a sudden and unexpected death and that this young man had meant a lot to Leah, but no one asked more specific questions in this regard.

They formed their own thoughts on it. For example ... whether this man would be to blame for Marcus no longer being part of the group.

After school we drove straight to our other house on the Saco River.

Bella would already be over there and certainly preparing lunch for our predators right now.

Jazz drove behind me. My siblings were also looking forward to a few hours together in the pool.

I felt as if Leah was still somehow excited, but I couldn't take anything from her thoughts. Maybe it was just the general joy that she was consciously participating in life again.

In the dutiful discretion of a mother, Bella first asked for the report cards before she released the laid table. She looked at these with a critical eye.

"History," she muttered to herself as she held Jake's in her hands.

She said nothing about the 'C's in business subjects. But our son actually deserved praise for that. For the fact that they were still 'C'. He had made an effort and tried his best, but it just wasn't a subject that he could do anything with.

"Math," she mumbled at Leah's report card.

She hugged the twins, gave them each a kiss on the cheek and praised them for the rest of their grades.

Examining Becky's report card was not her job, but Becky showed it to her without being asked. They briefly began to discuss how to get excited about business management, economics, and the like.

Bella did not understand.

Then they ran to the table. They were hungry.

"Do you want to see my report card too?", I asked my angel after first kissing her thoroughly in greeting.

"Does it say anything else on there besides just 'A'?" she asked, on the other hand.

So I held it out to her. I actually got a 'B' in sociology.

Very reprovingly she looked at me. More severely than she had looked at our children!

"It's just the teacher," I defended myself.

Bella began to laugh adorably.

It was the truth, but at the same time a typical student excuse. I had scored full marks in all tests and exams, but I had sociology with Jake, and we didn't particularly follow the teacher. There he had resented me that I had nevertheless been able to answer all his direct questions.

We ate - or rather, my humans ate - while I fed Ced and then leisurely we strolled over to the main house.

My siblings saw us all leaving and joined us.

Ced asked about Marcus, and I then asked Marcus via text message.

He had some unfinished business, but would be right there. As he had promised Ced.

So we all enjoyed ourselves in the water.

It was wonderful to romp around with my whole family like that. The time literally flew by.

Ced had all kinds of things to splash around in the water. We pulled him through the refreshing liquid, dived a bit, he was currently very fond of sliding down an inflatable water slide that floated on the surface.

People measured each other on the diving boards or teased each other.

I swam a few quiet laps with my beloved. She still had to be very careful because of the injuries on her face.

However, Leah quickly became exhausted and laid down on a lounger. She had been on her feet since this morning. This was still quite unusual for her, even after her excursion into the forest yesterday after the many motionless days. But she did not feel unwell, as she assured me several times.

Since we were going to be here for some time and Emmett was about to teach my son some silly stuff - going under and how long they could do it - I ordered Ced to take a break, too.

He did not like it at all! He raged and cried, but tearlessly.

With a bottle, however, he was easily swayed.

I laid down with him beside Bella, who was also resting, on one of the larger couch areas. I hummed our newer song and my angels fell asleep.

A text message arrived on my cell phone. Marcus was standing in front of the gate. He was driving my Audi until further notice, as long as his bus was in Rosalie's hands, but he had handed in his radio control for the gate together with the various front door keys.

I gave my sleeping beauty of a fiancée a gentle kiss, cautiously picked Ced up in my arms, and went up to open the gate for Marcus out of the security room. Until he got here with the car, I cleaned Ced up and put a new swim diaper on him.

Esmé was thorough. Ced also already had his own room here in the house, but his was close to my parents' bedroom. In case they had him with them overnight.

In doing so, he woke up.

I was already surprised that he had been asleep for half an hour. My baby was already much too big for naps! In his opinion. Not even six weeks old and already my baby didn't want to be a baby anymore. Wasn't that frustrating?! Other fathers had years before they were confronted with such opinions. David, in fact, had sought comfort from us two days ago when Deacon, his younger son, announced such a statement. He might have had one or two too many bottles of beer while having a good theatrical cry about it. To put it in exaggerated terms. We had amused ourselves deliciously in the process. All his hopes now rested on Emma. And Emma, that sweet angel, gave him a peck on the cheek, hugged her dad tightly, and assured him that she would be his little girl forever. At that, he had really started crying. And I had researched on the Internet when a man could expect a midlife crisis. But it seemed that David still had a few years to go.

Now I walked back with Ced towards the front door.

"Marcus is here," I told him as I heard Marcus pull up with the car.

The last signs of fatigue disappeared.

"Marcus!" my son beamed, raising his arms in the air enthusiastically and grinned.

"Here he comes," I pointed through the front door I had just opened.

Ced got all jittery on my arm until Marcus was finally with us.

"You've been eagerly awaited, it seems," I said, as Ced was already sitting on Marcus' arms, pressing a kiss to his cheek. As was customary in my family.

"Only from him?", Marcus inquired.

"Certainly not," I replied, hugging him as well.

Marcus smiled.

It was a whimsical greeting for him.

For almost three weeks he lived again with his own family. With his mother and his sister. They didn't treat each other like that there and he had already completely internalized the aloof manner again. As long as he was with us, it had become more normal for him with each day to be greeted or said goodbye so lovingly. But now it just seemed surreal to him, even though he was not averse to such a warm greeting.

His question was actually for Leah, but I didn't say anything about that.

I was aware that I would not get him back in the previous form ... as a son-in-law, yet he meant as much to me as Becky and so I almost equated him with my children.

And he was equally aware that he was not here to win back his former girlfriend. He had lost the game and would settle for just being friends with her.

"How is she?" he asked as we walked downstairs.

"Better, but I fear her heart is irrevocably broken."

He just nodded.

He was also aware of this. What Jake had shown him of his imprint back then, the finality of it, Marcus had truly not forgotten.

Ced and I kept him company while he changed to swim - without offending him of course - and I asked for his report card.

It had turned out quite okay, although his exams had certainly not been extraordinarily good. The teachers had been very lenient with him.

Then we entered the swimming pool.

His gaze wandered quickly around the room. Then he sharply sucked in the air between his teeth and walked only very very slowly as soon as we were out of the hallway area. His eyes lay on Leah.

He had known how he would meet Leah here, but his imaginings and memories could not keep up with the reality. Leah in her bikini, lying there asleep as if she had been arranged for one of the more innocuous men's magazines. One arm above her head, one leg slightly bent, a strikingly well-proportioned body, a beautiful face, her lips slightly parted that they seemed a little lascivious.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," he muttered to himself.

"You could be right about that ... But if you manage to think of nothing but friendship here, it will be easier for you for everything else," I encouraged him.

Marcus squinted his eyes and shook his thoughts out of his head.

The thought that he felt more for her. Much more. That he still sincerely loved my daughter was beyond question. He did. In two weeks without Leah by his side, he had worked to deny his feelings and pay them no mind. He met more with his friends, focused on school, sports, and work, and tried to stop thinking about Leah. It was a lengthy road to forgetting, but he had taken it. But the days spent at Leah's bedside had undone all his previous efforts.

Of course, I had listened to Leah and him on Monday night as they had sat together on the porch in front of the house.

He had not lied with a word. The memories of Leah and Nanuk that Ced had unhappily shown him had made one thing irrefutably clear to him: There was no future for Leah and Marcus together! Even if Leah and Nanuk only had so few hours together, Leah was definitely lost to him, and he really didn't know if he would even want her back under these circumstances. She no longer belonged to him. She belonged to Nanuk. And Marcus respected that. Regardless of their failed relationship, however, Leah was a loving and interesting person and he liked her very much. He didn't want to lose her completely and permanently from his life. He just wanted to keep a little piece of Leah for himself. As a very good friend. That Leah wanted this as well, she had said, and she was also telling the truth in that regard. His mind told him that this was the right thing to do. For her, but also for him. But his heart still longed for her.

I was amazed beyond measure.

Leah thought absolutely identically, only for her it was about Nanuk's demise. Her head had understood, only the heart still had to be convinced.

"Hey, bro!", Jake had noticed us now and came to the side of the pool.

Marcus was grateful for the distraction of his own thoughts and went to join him.

They high-fived, as they had always done for some time, but Jake pursued, putting his hand around Marcus' arm and pulling him into the water. My brothers also gave him a very watery welcome into the pool. Only Becky hugged him simply, without trying to push him under the water.

Luckily, he had dropped his backpack before Jake pulled him into the water. Otherwise the smuggled chocolate would have gotten all wet.

"Daddy! Water!" the son on my arm demanded.

To make sure I found my way there, Ced pointed demonstratively to the pool. After all, I could still get lost in the three yards. I took a little run-up and jumped in with him. My baby gurgled happily when we resurfaced, struggled with his legs and clapped his hands on the surface of the water.

My son was in his element. And my son could swim short distances on his own. I was so proud of him.

So I let him swim to Rose, who was still nodding at me. She would take care of him.

Love to ... as always.

I swam to the stairs and went to my resting angels. On the way, I dried off a bit so that I didn't arrive at them completely soaking wet.

"Leah," I whispered, with a hand on her cheek.

She was slow to wake up and just mumbled a "Mmm ... mmm ..." under her breath.

"Marcus is here," I informed my daughter.

Her eyes opened, still a little sleepy.

I curiously followed her thoughts as she slid the high lying arm under her head.

She searched for him.

The young handsome man who was to become her best friend. No more, but also no less.

Then she saw him. In the middle of the big pool, he was trying to free himself from Emmett.

A rather difficult undertaking as a simple human being.

Leah smiled.

And she was cool as a cucumber. When I thought about it, it was the first time today that she was so even-tempered. I doubted, however, that this could have anything to do with Marcus. Rather it was the familiar relaxed atmosphere after the excitement of school and seeing all her friends there again at once. Unsure if they would pester her with unsightly questions. Here and with those present here, she could be herself. Without regard for any secrets. Perhaps this was really one of the reasons why the bonds between Becky and Leah seemed more intimate than her longtime friendship with Lisa.

It was the same between Bella, Zoey, and Sonya.

Zoey's knowledge was very superficial, so Bella couldn't talk openly with her about anything. Meanwhile, she avoided spending too much time alone with Zoey for fear that she might say something wrong. With Sonya, this danger no longer existed.

When Marcus did manage to break away from Emmett, he immediately swam toward the stairs and Leah went to meet him.

She was happy that he was here. That they would spend a relaxing afternoon together. All of us together.

They hugged each other amicably in greeting.

Leah also immediately asked in a whisper if he had also thought about the chocolate.

He had. His luck, I thought. Otherwise, he would probably have prepared himself for the worst.

They went into the water together and joined Ced, Rose, and Alice in good spirits. Ced had some catching up to do with Marcus.

Meanwhile, I lay down to a true goddess. She immediately snuggled up to me as soon as she felt my coldness.

Just as it was proper for my fiancée.

I gently stroked over her angel-like face.

"I'm usually woken up with coffee! Or at least with a decent kiss!" Bella grumbled playfully.

I hadn't even noticed that she had already woken up, even if that had been my intention. That's how deeply relaxed Bella was. She had slept for almost an hour, which should be quite enough for a nap.

I compensated her with a kiss that was very demanding. She pushed herself on top of me and my hands made a little independent.

"Hey. There are children present!" boomed from Emmett in the basement, and a gush of water hit my angel in the back.

"We were just copying them!", I countered and pointed to the edge of the pool.

There sat Jake with his legs in the water and a star on his lap. Forgetting the world around them.

Ced, meanwhile, was sitting on a mat floating on the water, by the way, laughing happily to himself at the way Emmett was getting artificially excited here.

Emmett was simply not to be taken seriously with moral accusations. Even Ced didn't take him seriously, although that was true for Ced in general. Emmett taught him too much nonsense to pass as an authority figure in any form.

I already had a towel in my hand and dried the water from Bella's back.

"Since you are denied the decent kiss, would you like a coffee after all?", I asked her.

She nodded, but would go upstairs with me. She had to go to the bathroom.

"Anyone else have a request? Coffee or other beverages?", I asked into the well-attended pool.

Coffee was ordered several times.

"Anything to eat?" demanded Jake.

That was obvious.

I went into the kitchen, so I turned on the coffee maker. Otherwise, I looked in the cupboards to see what was available for Jake's order.

The food supplies had dwindled a bit lately, since Esmé had not been shopping as usual for her on a Friday, but lay more likely on the beach of her island. If the weather played along, they could also just stroll through Rio.

I found various bags of ready-made baked goods. Mini muffins, chocolate croissants, and raisin buns. With these, the wolves would probably survive until dinner. I also put some fruit on the tray, which I had already stocked with enough cups. Bella, wearing a T-shirt of mine over her very tasteful bikini - I had picked it out - came into the kitchen.

I received her stormily.

The coffee was far from running through, we were alone, and we had been rudely interrupted before. There were enough reasons to kiss my wife and I put her on the kitchen counter for that.

But we were interrupted again. My frustrated sigh matched Bella's face.

"I'm sorry to bother you ...," Jazz began to say.

"I don't think so," I interrupted him, however.

He grimaced, playfully offended.

I went around to the other side to the coffee maker and transferred the very desirable beverage into a thermos.

"I just need a Band-Aid for Becky, and then you'll be rid of me!" he was already rummaging around in a drawer.

Band-aids in all variations - also spray plaster - were always in easy reach at our house. After all, Bella got in and out of here.

"What happened?", I asked immediately, already listening anxiously to the thoughts in the basement.

"Just think, she's still alive!" retorted Jazz at my seemingly overly concerned tone. He chuckled at my face, too. "A screw came loose on one of the loungers and she scraped her leg along it. It's not too bad, it just bleeds a little," Jazz waved it off, already holding the band-aids in his hand.

However, things like blood poisoning, tetanus, infection and/or joint inflammation were running through my head.

"Rose has been looking at it and Emmett is disposing of the lounger as we speak," he added.

I just realized it through Becky's eyes.

Only the skin was a little scuffed and if you were to catch the blood, you would actually get a whole drop. So a little drop.

"Did you run away from the blood?", I dug deeper. Jasper had not been so sensitive for a long time that he avoided such minor injuries. For this, such things happened too often with us, as that would still tangent him.

He didn't answer as he leaned against the kitchen counter between Bella and the drawer, looking down at the floor.

He was ashamed. Because that's exactly how it was.

Bella noticed his shame and put an arm around his back.

"What's the matter that you let what seems like a little injury chase you away?" she asked meekly, but Jazz didn't answer her either.

I recognized the answer, however.

"It is because of Ced," I said therefore. "None of us pay much attention to little injuries like this. But our son does. It's impressive how Ced handles it. He takes note of the blood, feels the surprising thirst in his throat, too, but he knows he just got a bottle earlier. That it's just an instinctive reaction. Therefore, he forbids himself the thirst and succeeds ... You felt his thirst and transferred it to yourself because of your gift. You know what you're doing and can conquer your thirst, although it hit you unexpectedly. But that Ced is so well in control, though he is only a few weeks old, makes you think that you still have no self-control."

Jazz nodded dejectedly.

A baby showed him his own weakness. This was a very humbling realization for Jazz.

"But Ced is only a half-vampire," Bella immediately placated. "He'll probably never be as obsessed with blood as one of you."

"I agree wholeheartedly with Bella on this and would like to add to it ... I owe much of my own self-control and the fact that I actually plan to go back to medical school to Bella and our children. I can't hurt any of my family. The same goes for Ced, who, as a vampire, is exposed to a human mother who hurts herself all the time," I said and got a punch against my shoulder.

"All the time?!" worked up Bella.

"Ced has been learning to deal with this since birth and knows nothing but how to fight accidentally flowing blood," I continued, studiously ignoring Bella's punch.

"Like I'm going to hurt myself all the time somehow!?", Bella huffed again.

Jazz and I smiled together at this.

"Your self-control has become great. You can see that just by the fact that you can give Ced the bottle without thinking about it," I built my brother up a little more.

He nodded.

Yes, he had done that a few times before and he actually didn't mind coming into contact with human blood so much. However, he was prepared for it in such situations, and it didn't hit him by surprise. Nevertheless, I trusted Jasper. He would certainly never again go after an accidentally injured human like he did Bella in the past. On her eighteenth birthday.

Thanks for reading!