A/N: First, this ends on more of a cliff than I usually do, but next chapter is almost done. If it's not up later today it'll be up tomorrow for sure. Since this story is canon-ish, I'm using Bella's stupid pregnancy. Fair warning now, I'm not going to be devoting a lot of chapters to it and it'll be more about our main characters than about Bella. I'm also messing with the timeline a bit to make it more convenient for me:) Also, a conversation here went a little bit off the rails but it made me laugh so I'm keeping it in.

Other than that, thank you to anyone still reading and welcome to any new readers:)

What Now?

The day after the wedding, Alice and Bree were busy unraveling the fairy lights from the trees in the backyard when Alice was suddenly - and very briefly - pulled into the future. She came back to the present moment with a frown, trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened.

She closed her eyes and searched the future again, but she saw the exact same thing. With a huff of irritation and only a little bit of worry that maybe her gift was giving out after a century of use, she tried four more times with the exact same result. She whipped out her phone and made a call, but it went straight to voicemail. She almost dialed another number, but hesitated and then decided against it.

Instead, with worry pooling in her gut, she searched for someone else entirely and then dropped from the tree she was in and took off running.

"Alice!" Bree called after her, surprised by her abrupt departure, but Alice didn't stop or slow down.

It didn't take her long to get to the spot in the mountains she and Jasper used to go to so often, although Jasper and Leah went there now more than she did. It was why she was running there. She didn't want to intrude, but she needed help interpreting whatever it was she'd just seen.

Her brain was stuck on the worst possible scenario and she was aware that it was clouding her rational mind, so she was really hoping Jasper could offer her some alternative theories to redirect her.

Jasper, feeling Alice approaching and not at all liking her emotions, quickly shot to his feet so he could pull his jeans on. When Leah let out a little surprised squeak at the suddenness of the move, he apologized and handed her the sundress he'd brought along for her.

"Maybe put this on if you don't want Alice to get an eyeful, but you should probably be quick about it," he said a little apologetically. "She's nearly here and she's moving fast."

Leah didn't even protest that their peace and quiet was being disturbed. She saw in his eyes that something was wrong, and she knew Alice wouldn't interrupt them without a good reason. They'd already been out there for a good four or five hours, so at least it wasn't the worst timing ever. Admittedly, if Alice had turned up an hour or so before, she might have been a little put out about it.

"I'm so sorry," Alice said as she came racing into view less than a minute later.

Leah didn't realize the apology was meant for her until Alice barreled straight into Jasper and clung to him like her life depended on it.

Alarmed as he was, Jasper took a moment to quietly hush her while sharing a wide-eyed look with his mate. Leah stepped closer and put her hand on Alice's back, but without knowing what was wrong, she couldn't offer much more than that in the way of comfort or reassurance.

"What happened?" Jasper whispered as he lowered himself to the ground, taking Leah's hand in his so she would sit close to his side.

"I might be overthinking it," Alice admitted as she pulled herself away from her best friend and sat on the ground in front of them. "There might be a perfectly logical explanation."

Leah scootched herself around a little bit so she could put an arm around the pixie's shoulder while still keeping hold of Jasper's hand. "How about starting from the beginning? I promise to do my very best brainstorming to help you figure out what it might be."

Despite her worry, Alice managed a smile for the wolf. It was fleeting, but it was there. "Okay," she nodded, taking a deep breath. "I was taking down the lights from the wedding when I got a vision. It was short, and I'm not entirely sure why fate thought I needed to see that particular second of the future, but… then it ended. Except it didn't really end the way most visions end. Only one of her has ever ended that way, actually."

After staring at the little seer expectantly for a few seconds, waiting for her to say more, Leah was blown away that Jasper managed to take that collection of words that told Leah precisely zero helpful things that made sense, and somehow landed on the right answer.

"Bella?" he asked.

Alice nodded.

"Like the cliff?"

Alice nodded again.

Before Jasper could get lost in that vast vamp brain of his looking for a possible explanation for… well, whatever it was, Leah quickly jumped in. "Okay, before that mind of yours starts spinning in strategic mode, could you maybe enlighten the being who hasn't been silently communicating with Alice for seven decades?" she asked her imprint. "I need more words than that," she added, really enunciating each syllable to nail the point home.

It was enough to make both Jasper and Alice start laughing a little bit, so even though that wasn't actually her intention, Leah was pleased by the result.

"Right," Alice said with another nod. "Sorry. Okay. I saw Bella on Isle Esme, which…" she trailed off and looked at her watch. "Which they probably haven't even reached yet. Or if they have, they haven't been there all that long. She was sick. Throwing up. And then she disappeared. The vision didn't end, it faded out. I looked for her again, but I can't see her. And I tried calling her but her phone must be off."

Before Leah could even begin to process that, Jasper pulled out his phone and called a number he seldom used.

"Jasper? Is everything alright?"

Hearing Billy Black's voice, it didn't take Leah more than a second to follow Jasper's train of thought, but she knew he wasn't on the right track. There was no way Jacob could have gotten all the way down there. Not only did he not know where Isle Esme was, or even what it was, but he didn't have the money to make that kind of trip.

Figuring her imprint was just being thorough and ruling out the least likely possibility first, she just let him get on with it.

Like she suspected, Billy was positive that Jacob was still in Washington. He'd spoken to him that morning, and he'd called on the landline at his sister's house, where Jake had been staying. Jasper was honest but vague when Billy asked if something had happened, just saying that Alice had a vision fade out the way they did when the wolves were involved, and they were just covering all of their bases.

When he hung up, he looked at Alice for a long moment. Leah looked between the two of them a few times, confident she was missing something. When Alice shook her head once, making Jasper nod and take a deep breath, as if bracing himself for something unpleasant, Leah did a little bit of huffing. "Would you guys please use your words."

Jasper gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"What is it I'm missing now?" she asked.

He hesitated a moment before answering her. "Bella's future didn't just disappear from that one vision. Alice can't see her at all anymore."

Leah turned to the seer with wide, shocked eyes. "Like not at all? Not anywhere?"

"No," Alice shook her shook. "Nowhere."

Leah's mind immediately made what she thought was the most obvious jump of logic, and she was sure Alice and Jasper had both already considered it but weren't saying it out loud. Fuck it. Someone should.

"Do you think… I mean, did Edward decide…" Leah trailed off. Nope, she couldn't say it.

"That Edward decides, or already decided, to try the whole sex thing while she was still human and ends up killing her?" Jasper finished for her.

"Yep, that," Leah nodded.

Alice hesitated before shaking her head. "I don't think so. Not because of anything I've seen, but because I don't think he could actually kill her. Keeping our mates safe is basically etched in our DNA."

"While I do see your point, there are a couple things that make this more complicated than that. First, she's his singer. For as much control as he has, that's never not going to be an issue while she's still human," Leah pointed out. "And the other thing is… well, I think we all know how restrained he's been when it comes to any kind of sexy times with her. Like really restrained. They barely even kiss. And how old is he?"

Jasper tried, he really did, but he couldn't even help it. Even with how serious the discussion was, he snorted a laugh. "You think Edward might actually lose his mind entirely at finally losing his virginity after more than a century?"

"I mean… it's possible," Leah shrugged. "Can you imagine the–"

"No!" Alice interrupted loudly. "No, and please don't finish that sentence. I don't want to imagine."

Leah just nodded. "Fair."

Figuring they should get back on track, Jasper asked Alice if she could see Edward's future. "Not the immediate future," he quickly added, knowing Alice was afraid of what she might see if she searched for him on Isle Esme. "I mean farther out. Does he have a future or did his disappear with Bella's?"

Alice really, really didn't want to search for Edward. There were too many things she was afraid to see. Well, only two, really. She definitely didn't want to see her brother and her best human friend being intimate for the first time, but more than that - and directly contradicting what she'd just said to Leah - she was afraid she might see one of her very worst fears come to life. If Edward killed Bella… well, Alice wasn't sure she would ever recover from it. None of the Cullens would.

"Okay, maybe we shouldn't just jump to the absolute worst possible scenario," Leah said, seeing on Alice's face how reluctant she was to look for Edward. "There's one other possibility to consider."

Jasper, seeming to know what she was thinking, nodded. "The island is off the coast of Brazil."

"You think a local protector stumbles across them?" Alice said a little skeptically. That seemed like a very long longshot.

"It's the only other place aside from here that you've had this issue with your visions," he answered with a shrug. "That alone is enough to not rule it out."

"And it's definitely a better option than Edward drinking his mate by accident," Leah added.

Alice certainly couldn't deny that was true. Anything was better than that. "So what do we do?"

"If you're that unwilling to search Edward's future, I think the only thing you can do is call him and warn him that it's a possibility," Jasper answered. "And I don't mean that as a judgement," he quickly reassured her, afraid she might hear something in his words that he wasn't saying or implying. "If I was in your position, I wouldn't want to look either."

Alice reluctantly nodded. "I can't tell him the real reason," she said after a moment of consideration. "Nothing good will come of me saying Bella's future has disappeared."

Leah and Jasper nodded because they both agreed. "You don't have to tell him what you actually saw. If you don't want to outright lie and say it was just a temporary blip, just tell him you had a vision that faded to black," Leah suggested. "Leave it at that."

Alice hesitated again. She knew her brother and she had a feeling Edward would demand to know more than that.

Wanting to help her out, Leah hopped to her feet. "You call him and I'll take care of the rest. Be as vague as you want, but talk quickly," she said, then darted off into the trees.

Alice and Jasper watched her go and exchanged a look of utter confusion, then Jasper shrugged and gestured to Alice's phone. "You know what she's like when we don't do what she wants, so it's probably best to just go ahead and call him," he chuckled.

Alice managed a smile at that. She knew he was mostly kidding, but they both knew there was a little bit of truth in it. Leah was just as strong-willed as Rosalie and she'd get a little huffy if Alice just sat there and did nothing. So, she heaved a sigh and called her brother.

"Alice?"

"Hi!" she greeted him, trying to sound as upbeat as possible. At least he answered sounding normal, if not a little worried about why she was calling. That alone gave her a good bit of confidence that no calamities had happened yet. "Before you start panicking, I'm almost sure there's nothing to worry about."

"Almost sure?" Edward cut in. "What does that mean?"

"Well… have you come across any interesting animals on your journey?"

Jasper snorted a laugh at her attempt to be nonchalant, which managed to coax another smile from her.

"Interesting animals?" Edward repeated, his tone nothing but baffled. "I don't know what that means, Alice. We just got here so just spit it out so I can go start enjoying my honeymoon."

Alice sighed and her little shoulders slumped. "I had a vision from the island that cut off," she explained. Remembering Leah's last instruction, she spoke a little more quickly. "It was very brief, and I hardly saw anything, but then it faded out like when there's a wolf involved. Since you're off the coast of Brazil, I figured it couldn't hurt to give you a heads up, just in case–"

"Alice! I swear to god, if you don't hurry your ass up I'm heading straight for your closet with the biggest pair of scissors I can find!" Leah shouted as she came running back towards them. "I will not miss those cookies when they're fresh out of the oven, so hang up the damn phone and let's go!"

Alice had to really work to swallow back her laughter when she realized this was Leah's way of making sure the call was cut short. "I'm taking to Edward."

"Okay, that's great," Leah said, doing her best impatient voice. "Tell him I said hey. It's weird you're calling him on his honeymoon, but whatever. Who am I to judge anyone's life choices. But how about you hang up and let him go spend time with his new wife, because I WILL NOT LET YOU DISAPPOINT MY MOTHER THE NIGHT BEFORE WE LEAVE. SO GET UP, GET UP, GET UP!" she shouted, really getting into character.

Jasper didn't even try to hold in his laughter. He just got to his feet and pulled Alice up with him. A few giggles escaped her when she saw the grin on Leah's face. Then the wolf made a rolling motion with her hands that Alice took to mean 'wrap it up'. She nodded and focused back on Edward.

"I've gotta go, we're meeting Sue and Charlie to say goodbye and you know how much I hate Sue's disappointed face. Just keep an eye out for any animals that might be more than they appear!" she said, so quickly that the words just bled together.

"That's it?" Edward said incredulously before she could hang up. "Keep an eye out? Nothing more?"

Alice shrugged, even though he couldn't see her. "It's not like I can see anything to give you more information. If there's a shapeshifter close to you guys, I won't see you," she reminded him. "So make good choices!" she added quickly. "Let me know if anything weird happens and tell Bella I love her."

"Alice–"

"Goodbye, Edward!" Leah said as cheerfully as possible as she snatched Alice's phone out of her hand. "Go do honeymoon things but be careful about it. Talk to you soon!" And with that, she ended the call and held the phone out to Alice. "There. Now he knows to look out for a protector and he'll hopefully be careful if he decides to finally bang his girl."

Despite their lingering worry, Alice and Jasper both dissolved into laughter.

Meanwhile, on the sandy shore of a small island more than seven-thousand miles away, a very confused telepath was staring at the phone in his hand, trying to figure out what he was meant to do with the very limited, and slightly cryptic, information he'd just been given by his sister and the wolf.

Make good choices? Go do honeymoon things but be careful about it?

What the hell did that mean? What had Alice seen?

Movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention and he looked up to see his new bride nervously walking onto the beach.

In nothing but a towel.

The hand holding the phone dropped heavily to his side as Bella looked up at him and smiled. "I thought maybe we could go for a swim."

"Uh… yeah, okay," Edward nodded, swallowing hard. Twice. "Sure. A swim. Mmhmm. Sounds perfect."

Bella couldn't help laughing a little at his reaction. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen him that flustered before. "How about I meet you in the water?" she suggested, not wanting to make him uncomfortable straight out of the gate by asking him to undress right in front of her. "I'll keep my back turned until you join me."

Edward wasn't sure he was capable of any coherent words at that point, so he just nodded again and silently watched her walk to the water's edge. After hesitating for a few seconds, she took a deep breath and…

Edward nearly choked when she dropped the towel in the sand and quickly waded into the water. He was frozen in place for exactly seven-eighths of a second, and then he clumsily followed behind her, tripping over his own feet as he tried to pull (most) of his clothes off and walk at the same time.

By the time he was standing in the gentle waves with his wife in his arms, Alice and Leah's words had been completely swept from his mind.

While Leah had been slightly exaggerating, she hadn't been entirely dishonest in her ploy to help Alice keep her conversation with Edward brief. They really did have plans to meet Sue and Charlie to say goodbye before they also headed to South America. Bella had proposed they all fly down together, but they'd declined the offer, not wanting to intrude on the start of the newlywed's honeymoon. Not only that, but Edward and Bella had flown into Rio de Janeiro, while they'd be starting their trip up near the border with Colombia, which was well over two-thousand miles from Isle Esme.

Leah had opted to go back to La Push with her mom after dinner so she could say goodbye to her brother, Paul, and the rest of the pack, so Alice and Jasper were walking back to the Cullen's house alone later that evening.

"You can always call again when we land," Jasper suggested, knowing she was still worrying about Edward and Bella. "I know we won't be close, but we'll be closer. If it sounds like there's anything to worry about, we can run there."

Alice nodded and hesitated a moment before giving voice to one of the things that she had been thinking about all evening. "Should we be telling the others?" she asked quietly. "Or at least Carlisle?"

Jasper shrugged, not sure what the right answer was. "I think if we're going to bring anyone else into this, we should probably have as much information as possible. I know why you're reluctant to search for Edward, and I completely understand your concerns, but you know that's going to be the very first thing anyone asks," he pointed out. "But if you want my honest opinion? My instinct is to tell Carlisle, if no one else. If there's something to worry about, it feels wrong to hide it from him."

Alice nodded again, knowing he was right. About both points. So, after taking Jasper's hand and a deep breath, she closed her eyes and searched the future for her brother.

Jasper hadn't even begun to make heads or tails of her emotions when he felt two very familiar emotional signatures approaching, and he looked in the direction they were coming from in surprise. As far as he knew, Peter and Charlotte had already left to head back to Texas. They'd said their goodbyes to Jasper and the rest of the Cullens before he and Leah had headed into the mountains for some time alone.

Jasper stayed quiet, not wanting to distract Alice, but he heaved a heavy internal sigh when he zeroed in on Peter's emotions. He wasn't panicked or fearful or full of dread, but he was extraordinarily confused and seemed to be unsure about something. Knowing him as well as Jasper did, he assumed Peter had gotten knowledge that he didn't understand.

Alice snapped back to the present moment with a scowl on her face. "I think my gift is broken," she grumbled. "It's not working right. I can only see brief snippets of him. Just a flash and then he's gone. If I didn't know better, I'd say he's blinking in and out of existence."

Jasper turned back to her in alarm. Alice had experienced something similar many times before, and all of those visions came to her in the years after Peter and Charlotte escaped the south and before they came back for him. "Like he's debating ending his life?" he asked sharply.

Alice opened her mouth to answer, though she wasn't sure what she was going to say aside from her knee-jerk reaction to deny that, but she stopped and turned to look into the trees when she heard running feet. Before she could search the future again to see who was coming, she caught Charlotte's scent and looked up at Jasper with a confused frown. "I thought they left?"

"So did I," was all the answer he gave.

Peter's expression when he came into view confirmed Jasper's suspicion. The man was the physical embodiment of befuddled. Looking at Charlotte, he saw she was just as confused as her mate.

"What's wrong now?"

Peter opened his mouth and then immediately closed it. He looked at Charlotte for a moment but all she did was shrug, making Peter growl quietly in frustration before looking back at his brother. "You know I've never doubted any knowledge I've gotten, even if I didn't understand it. Even if it didn't make sense at the time."

Jasper nodded. "But you're doubting now?"

"Sure am," Peter scoffed. "But I think 'doubt' might be an understatement. Not only is it impossible, but I don't even know why the hell I'm getting knowledge about this at all! It's not connected to anything! I have to assume it's about you and Leah, but the information wasn't linked to you the way it would normally be. It's just a random suggestion floating all on its own in the ether!" he ranted. "Jasper, I just don't understand," he finished, looking at him with pleading eyes, as if begging Jasper to make sense of it for him.

Jasper just stared at him for a moment, not sure if he wanted to hug him to give him a little reassurance or if he wanted to shake him and tell him to just spit it out already. Eventually the softer side won out. "Come on, let's sit down," he said. "Tell me whatever it is and we'll see if we can't figure it out together."

The four of them sat on the forest floor and Jasper and Alice listened as Peter shared the knowledge he'd received. By the time he was finished, both were staring at him with their mouths hanging open in disbelief.

"I mean, if you really think about it, nothing about us makes sense in terms of the physical human world," Charlotte said, breaking the shocked silence. "We have no heartbeat, we're technically a little bit dead, but here we are. Talking, thinking, moving, laughing. Vampire physiology already defies just about everything the humans believe to be true. Our existence alone is impossible if you're going by human laws of physics and chemistry."

Peter nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. "She's right. Just think about sex."

"I do. Often," Jasper laughed.

Peter rolled his eyes and shoved his shoulder. "You're hilarious. But seriously. Even if you forget every other crazy thing about us that shouldn't be possible, just our ability to have sex flies in the face of all the human's scientific knowledge. Venom burns every living thing away, we have no blood left in our bodies, but I can still get… you know," he paused and made a vague gesture in the direction of his lap, then he leaned in to whisper in Jasper's ear. "Hard."

Jasper shook his head with a laugh at Peter's uncharacteristic bashfulness. The man was typically supremely confident in everything he did. Even if he was facing a situation he didn't understand and that might be potentially dangerous, he just waltzed right on in, head high, calm and cool as can be. "Yes, Peter. I'm very aware that your body has that ability. Intimately aware actually," he chuckled.

Peter rolled his eyes again and just leaned in a little more and dropped his voice further. "And Charlotte doesn't have any problem getting–"

"Nope!" Charlotte shouted, cutting her mate off. "Absolutely not. Finish that sentence and it'll be a cold day in hell before you experience that particular pleasure again."

Alice started giggling at Charlotte's expression. She somehow managed to look fierce and stern while also getting her words out through her laughter. "Orgasms, too," she added, looking back to Peter and Jasper. "If everything inside us is dead and frozen, we technically shouldn't have… productive orgasms? I don't know the right word but you know what I mean."

"Productive orgasms?" Peter repeated, his brow furrowed as he tried to translate that into something that made sense. "What the hell does that mean?"

"I think she means vampires have to grapple with the same age old question that humans do," Charlotte laughed, which didn't give Peter any more clarity.

Jasper, however, saw where she was going with that and barked a laugh. It only took Alice about half a second to get there too, and they spoke at the same time. "Spit or swallow."

Peter started laughing with them and poked Alice in the ribs. "You could've just said we have vamp jizz. 'Productive' orgasm," he scoffed through his laughter.

"Oh hush, I was trying to be polite," Alice giggled. In the very next second, she froze and Jasper felt a jolt in her. Not the jolt of her emotions when she was pulled into the future, but more like a jolt of recognition or realization. It was immediately followed by a wave of alarm and dread.

"What now?" he asked her, looking wearier than a being who requires no sleep should ever look.

Alice gave him a sympathetic smile and squeezed his hand. They'd just been thrown a curveball that they never saw coming, never even thought possible. The world had tipped completely upside down. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. There was a more pressing issue to deal with, because if Alice's instinct was right, Peter was wrong about one particular point.

"I don't think it's about you and Leah. Or at least not only about you two."

It didn't take Jasper long to read between her lines. "Bella?"

Alice nodded. "Peter's right. We need to go speak with Carlisle," she said as she hopped to her feet, pulling him up with her. "Quickly."

"I'm sorry, you want me to do what?"

Jasper almost - almost - smiled at the clear bewilderment on Carlisle's face, but the situation was a little too serious for that. "You have a microscope here, right?" he asked, and Carlisle nodded slowly. They were in his office at the hospital, so he had access to all manner of medical equipment. "I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a single thing about testing a man's fertility, but if I had to hazard a guess… I mean, couldn't you see under a microscope if anything was… you know, swimming around in there?"

Alice started to laugh at Jasper's awkwardness, but it immediately died away when his words triggered a memory of a conversation they'd had back when Jasper and Leah were just starting out.

"Are you really asking me to consider the possibility that male vampires have viable, living sperm?" Carlisle asked in astonishment. "That goes against everything we know about the biological makeup of our species."

"Wait," Alice cut in. "Remember that first conversation you had with Billy Black after Jasper met Leah? Remember he said they had to rethink their beliefs about imprinting? They'd always thought it was about the wolf 'choosing' the best partner to make sure the next generation had a strong pack if they needed it. Unlike us, who saw mates as soulmates, the Quileutes believed imprinting was about making the best wolf babies. Cubs, I guess."

Jasper was pretty sure his head was about to explode by that point and he really needed to sit down. Apparently Carlisle felt the same, because he dropped into the chair behind his desk and put his head in his hands for a moment. Alice perched herself on the edge of his desk and gestured for Jasper to scootch his chair a little closer so she could hold both their hands.

"Look, I know this is crazy and I know it has the potential to change everything we thought possible," she said quietly. "But before we get lost in trying to grapple with all the bigger questions this raises, we need to put our focus on the smaller, most important question. Is Bella safe. Right now, in this moment, that's all we need to find out."

Carlisle lifted his head and looked at Jasper. "You and Leah have been intimate for many, many months. I apologize for asking such a personal question, but do the two of you use any kind of protection?"

"Um… Leah's been on birth control since she was fifteen," Jasper answered a little hesitantly, not wanting to say more than Leah would be comfortable with. "She's still on it now. For the most part, she's been on it the whole time we've been together, because she doesn't take it for that particular purpose."

Carlisle nodded. He knew there were many woman who took birth control to regulate their menstrual cycle, rather than to prevent pregnancy. And many of those woman stayed on that medication continuously so they never had a period at all. "Do you know if she ever skips a month?"

Again, Jasper hesitated. "Every three months. And that's as much as I'm willing to say about my fiancé's reproductive system without her being present."

Carlisle chuckled and nodded. "I understand," he assured him, happy to leave it there for now. He may have questions for Leah in the near future, but they could wait until the two of them could have some privacy. "Alright, then I guess I should…" he trailed off, seeing Jasper's eyes dart to Alice. Turning to her, he saw her eyes were unfocused in the way they were so familiar with.

Looking back at Jasper, seeing the worry in his eyes at whatever he was feeling from Alice as she looked to the future, Carlisle felt a pit open up in his stomach. He had a terrible feeling they were about to find out they were too late.