A/N: Sorry it's been a minute! The start back to school has been crazy. Here's a short update and i promise this story will continue, it just will take some time! Patience please and thank you always for reading. :)
They broke apart from their hug, Jacob reluctantly going back to sit in the recliner, angling himself towards us.
"So, can we circle back now to the details here?" He waved between the three of us. "I asked Seth tons of questions at work today, but I'd like to hear the story from you all if you're up for telling me." His thoughts were buzzing with curiosity; not only because he wanted to know everything about Renesmee, but all of us. Now that his heart had healed, he was able to miss his friendship with Bella in a much healthier way. He was already wondering what life could've been like if he had stayed around and continued to be her friend through this.
We can tag team this one. Bella thought to me, interlacing our fingers together. It had been quite a while since we had had to tell this story. In the early years of Renesmee's life, though, we relayed it often. So much so that Bella and I had developed a script of sorts that we followed.
"Well, obviously, we had no idea it was even possible for us to have a child together. It was actually one of my arguments I used to remind Bella of reasons to preserve her humanity. I knew of so few of my kind who ever pursued a physical relationship with humans at all and nearly all of those instances ended the human's life on the spot." The group collectively cringed at that. "But, even if I had known it was possible, I would've assumed it was a dangerous endeavor."
"The basis of this entire story," Bella cut in, as she had in previous explanations. "Is Edward panicking over my well being while I fought for what I knew I wanted." Her smile turned smug, as it always did. Now that we were past all the terror from that time, I had to admit our life was quite nearly a dream come true for us both. That didn't mean I had to like how difficult it was to get here.
"It's no secret to anyone how much I despise Bella's suffering. No matter how much I love the outcome." I reached over with my free hand to hold Renesmee's. "I never, ever thought I could have a child. She is one of my greatest blessings. Though, the pregnancy was the furthest thing from traditional." I nodded to Bella to take up the story from there.
"Looking back on it, something changed almost immediately after that first night. I was sleeping for hours, dreaming more vividly, eating double my usual amounts. I didn't realize what was happening; it was easy to blame the changes on other circumstances of the trip. One night, Edward left to go hunting. I was restless without him, having been woken up by a nightmare. I made myself some food, but something wasn't right about the taste. I fell asleep on the couch waiting for him to come back. When Edward came back, I woke up and was immediately sick. We assumed I had food poisoning. Searching through my toiletries for medicine, it hit me." Jacob was enraptured, eyes growing wider with every sentence of Bella's story. His mind tried to imagine what she described, but he could already tell something was off.
"I was concerned, of course. We've established that was my usual demeanor regarding Bella. At first, I thought we needed to go see a doctor in Rio. But then, Bella started counting days. It was so easy to lose track of time in our own island bubble. She told me her period was late and started listing off all her symptoms. It was as if I was truly a frozen stone at that moment, I couldn't speak or move. All I could think about were the worst parts of what I am were now inside my wife, the most important person in my world." Renesmee and Bella both squeezed my hands, sad smiles on their faces.
"I talked with Carlisle on the phone and we agreed it sounded like I was pregnant, even though everything seemed accelerated. I mean, I already had a small bump! That was not the usual timeline. We knew we needed to come straight home. After an interaction with our native housekeepers, one of which knew legends of this happening before, we were back home in less than a day." Bella hesitated, looking to Renesmee and then myself, before taking a deep breath to continue.
"This is where things became more complicated. Edward was terrified of what could happen to me, Carlisle and Alice too. My future disappeared from Alice's sight that day and she assumed the worst. Their solution was to not continue the pregnancy." Bella said this as delicately as she could've. Renesmee was unphased, we had talked to her about this as a family a couple years ago. However, Jacob was shocked. His mind could understand the thought process, but his body began to shake with the knowledge of what almost happened to Renesmee's existence. "I knew this, so I secretly called Rosalie on our way home. She understands more than anyone the desire to have a child. She stood by my side, Emmett and Esme too, to help me fight to keep my baby."
"It was the hardest time of our lives, in some ways worse than our time apart the year before. Bella's health deteriorated rapidly, her body not fit to keep up with the needs of a half vampire baby. I had almost accepted that she would die and I would come to find you, Jacob, or the other wolves to end my life as well." Jacob was shocked, unable to comprehend the thought now. "I was like a man on fire, my soul being destroyed in front of my own eyes by my own doing."
"But, I didn't give up. And neither did Carlisle, trying everything to keep me well. After some trial and error, we were desperate. We decided to see to the vampire needs of the baby first and it was the missing piece." Jacob's nose wrinkled, imagining a pregnant Bella sucking a random stranger's blood. I couldn't help my snort.
"You know that's not how we went about it." I rolled my eyes at him. "She drank donor blood."
"Still gross, but less immoral." He joked, fixated on what happened next.
"As I grew stronger, so did Renesmee. Although, at the time, we didn't know she would be a she. I actually used to envision a little boy in my head, a miniature Edward." Bella stared dreamily up at me, remembering her imagined son.
Glad she was wrong on that one. Jacob thought, but didn't share aloud. I met his eyes and gave an annoyed frown.
"It wasn't long after figuring that out that I was able to hear Renesmee's mind." I looked over at my daughter, remembering those first thoughts shared between us. "It wasn't full sentences like I usually hear, but little snippets. Her love for Bella overflowed out of her mind and that's all I needed to hear to realize she wasn't the worst parts of me. She was the best parts of Bella."
"Excuse you, she's the best parts of you too." Bella nearly always made sure to say that and I was always comforted when she did.
"So you say," I acquiesced. "I could tell from her mind that she was further developed than we assumed. To prepare for the birth, Carlisle and Esme were away gathering blood and other medical equipment. Most of our family stayed out of the house during those days, giving us our space and trying to do research on what we could expect for the future. Later that day, it was just myself, Bella, and Rosalie at the house when Bella went into labor." I paused, shaken by the traumatic images forever burned into my memory.
"I don't have words for what happened next. It was a mess of blood and broken bones and Renesmee struggling to breathe." Jacob gasped, but I continued the story. I wanted to get past this part as quickly as possible. "Most of the process was terrifying but with one major moment of light. Being the first one to meet Renesmee, to pull her out into the world, was one of my proudest moments. While there are plenty of things I wish my vampire mind would forget, her first smile as we saw each other will never be one of them. Bella was able to hold her for just a moment, another beautiful meeting, but her heart and lungs were failing. Rosalie took care of Renesmee while I worked on saving Bella. I injected her heart with my venom directly, hoping to kickstart the process. I bit at every major point of skin, needing the venom to fill her before her heart could stop. For a moment, I thought I was too late. But, thankfully, she pulled through."
"You all know I am too stubborn to die. I had a plan, I knew I could fight long enough to give birth and then you would save me." Bella leaned against me, her mind flooded in awe of all that she considered her greatest dreams come true. Renesmee was reliving the moment herself, from her own perspective, thinking she had the two strongest parents in the world. Even Jacob, shockingly, was relieved to hear how well I had managed to save them both. He didn't have a single negative thought about Bella's transformation being a necessity.
"So, that's how I got here. I met Sam and Seth a year later. Did Seth answer your other questions about me?" Renesmee was more insecure than usual, feeling as though an extra bright spotlight was on her at the moment.