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Chapter 65

Pregnant

Bella

Our honeymoon was now three months ago, and my belly was round as a ball.

A lot had happened in the three months.

Flashback

When Carlisle found out about the radioactivity, it occurred to him that surely something like this must have happened before. He thought he might find vampire children or pregnant vampires near Chernobyl. I was eager to come along, but he ordered me on bed rest until he knew enough.

So Carlisle, Alice and Jasper went to Europe two months ago to do research. Esmé stayed with me to nurse me and Emmett, of course, did not leave my side.

When the three of them returned a few days later, they happily told us about their trip. It was hard to find any vampires there at all and no one wanted to know about a pregnancy. Of course, they were afraid they might be from the Volturis. But after two days of searching, they finally found a vampire who supposedly had heard of a woman who had become pregnant after the 1986 disaster.

So they kept searching for this woman and after another two days they found her, and another woman was with her. At first this woman did not want to talk to them. But when they told her about me and they said they were afraid of what would happen to the child, she agreed to talk to them. She introduced herself and her daughter. Her own name was Anastasia and her daughter's name was Diana. She told them that Diana was never a danger, because until puberty she had no fangs and did not glitter in the sun. She went on to say that her pregnancy and birth were normal, just like humans, but everything went a little faster.

When Esmé heard this news, she looked to Carlisle with bright eyes.

And I also breathed a sigh of relief. I was so happy about the news that my child would be fine.

Shortly after, Esmé and Alice also flew to Japan immediately.

They didn't want to wait any longer, now that they knew the children would be fine, and they didn't want to risk the radioactivity being too low already. Of course, Carlisle couldn't refuse her anything. He always wanted children himself, and Esmé looked at him with a begging puppy dog look that was impossible to resist.

While they were in Japan with Carlisle and Jasper, Emmett stayed with me. He loved stroking my belly and sometimes we would just look at each other for hours while feeling the movements in my belly.

One day Jacob called to inquire how the newly married couple was doing.

"Hi Bella. I haven't heard from you in a while. But I thought, well ... you're certainly not on your honeymoon for two months, so you must be home. So why haven't you been in touch? We miss you. Angela and Charlie said they haven't heard from you either ... You haven't eloped, have you?", he spoke in a gush, and I rolled my eyes.

We had kept my pregnancy a secret until then, especially from Charlie, because we didn't know exactly how to explain to him that my belly had grown so quickly.

Alice said she could see that Charlie would probably be least freaked out if we waited until the baby was born and then introduced it together with Esmé's as a child of Esmé and Carlisle. However, she wasn't sure, as she had a very very hard time seeing the baby's future. She said it was something she had never seen before and therefore did not know it. She opined vampires and humans were easy for her to see because she knew both 'species'. But the baby was not yet a full-grown vampire.

"Um ... sorry, Jake ... So, I'm back ... hi ... and well ..."

I looked frantically at Emmett, and he took the phone from me.

"Hi, Jake. Come over here for a minute. If the others want to come too, let them. Bella and I are home alone. The others are on a short trip," he said.

Jake agreed and an hour later half the pack and Angela were standing in shock in my room.

"What?"

"How?"

"Impossible," they stammered around when they saw my baby bump.

They just couldn't believe what they were seeing. Leah's gaze met mine and I could see something in her eyes.

Jealousy?

Angela was the first to react, fell around my neck and immediately asked if she could touch my belly. Immediately thereafter, the others were also there and hugged me and of course all wanted to put their hands on my belly.

The magical attraction of a baby's belly.

The baby seemed to like the warmth of the wolves, because it moved gently inside me. The boys were thrilled. And squealed like girls when they felt my baby.

We explained everything to them and also told them why we hadn't told Charlie yet and asked them to keep it a secret.

Since that day we got visits from some of the wolves almost four times a week.

After a week, the others returned from Japan.

It was kind of strange. The whole situation. Artificial insemination for vampires, although the insemination was normal. So rather artificial pregnancy-enabling for vampires.

Flashback end

Now they had a nice belly, and we were reading pregnancy books together again. Esmé renovated a few rooms and turned them into nurseries and playrooms. She bought beautiful cradles and all the other accessories. Because Carlisle said it should be time for me soon, we read everything we could find about birth preparation and the birth process.

Emmett started to get all nervous and jittery whenever the subject of birth came up. He was constantly worried that I would be in pain, which this Anastasia from Ukraine denied, but he was still scared. And then he would pester Carlisle with questions about whether he could help me and whether the baby was really healthy. Carlisle couldn't do an ultrasound, but he said that he or she would be fine.

I tried to calm him down and took his hand in mine.

"It's going to be okay, honey," I kept saying.

Unfortunately, Alice was not much help. Although Carlisle and Jasper kept telling her to take it easy in her condition, she kept hopping around me, putting pillows under my neck, and kept asking me if I was okay, if I was in pain, if I was nauseous, and and ...

It was really a pleasant pregnancy. It only lasted three months instead of nine, I never had much pain, and I didn't throw up in the morning.

Well, I did feel a little sick in the morning, but no more than when we were on our honeymoon after being in Japan.

The only thing that became a little cumbersome for all three of us was hunting. Carlisle forbade us to take even one step out of the house, let alone shoot a bear at vampire speed. So the men hunted twice as much and put the blood into containers Carlisle had from the hospital - for donating blood. The blood tasted disgusting - it was not fresh and warm. But at least it quenched our thirst.

Emmett made sure that we at least got blood from bears and cougars and not even more disgusting grass-eater blood.

The three of us were lying on the couch when I suddenly felt a cramp in my abdomen.

Immediately everyone was there and ready.

"Contractions?", Carlisle asked, and I nodded.