The Way It Should Have Happened…

Chapter 1

The breeze was light, the weather perfect, the sky a cloudless and brilliant blue. The sand they were standing on was the color and texture of talcum powder, the only sounds were of the waves lapping gently a dozen feet away and the soft rustle of the palm fronds over their heads. They were in their own private paradise, alone with just each other for company and the freedom to celebrate their two-week-old marriage. This was the stuff dreams were made of. Or it had been until a few moments ago.

The two of them stared at one another. Bella’s expression was doubtful and a little frightened mixed with a shy happiness and pride. Edward’s expression was pure terror and denial.

“No, you must be mistaken.”

“Maybe, but I really think I’m pregnant. I mean, look—I’m throwing up, I’m exhausted all the time, my boo…breasts are sore and I’m getting all these weird cravings for weird food. And we’ve been—you know what we’ve been doing—a lot. What else can it be?” He shook his head, not wanting to believe it possible. “You, we didn’t use anything, did we?”

“Of course we didn’t, why would we? This isn’t supposed to happen.”

Bella managed a shaky laugh. “If I had a nickel for every couple who’ve ever had that thought.”

Edward failed to see the humor and was already hitting the speed dial on his phone, the conversation lasting a bare fifteen seconds, all spoken at vamp speed. “We’re leaving, Carlisle will be waiting for us and we’ll take care of this. I’ll make the reservations, you start packing.” He started up to the house.

“Edward?”

He turned, fear obvious on his face. “Bella, you heard me, you know there’s no choice in this; you can’t possibly think that this—even if it is true and you are in fact pregnant—you know we—you can’t do this. I won’t let you.”

“Excuse me?” She tugged at his hand and, surprisingly, he stopped and faced her. “Of course I can. C’mon, okay, so this wasn’t exactly how we planned things but of course we can have a baby. Why can’t we? I’m young, I’m healthy and we have Carlisle to help; I’ll be fine.”

He shook his head ‘no’. “We’re leaving and Carlisle will explain this to you so that you understand why this can’t happen.”

Patronize much, Edward? “But…you explain it so I’ll understand it.”

“Bella, no. Please. You’re human; I’m a vampire. There are cases on record, precedents of this over the centuries and no one, not one of the women has ever survived. The agonies they endured were beyond anything you can imagine and the infants were, they were…they had to be killed and with good cause. ‘Deformed, monstrous things which, had they been allowed to live would have become uncontrollable; killing, murdering…it’s been outlawed, banned and to even consider this is enough to bring on a death sentence from the Volturi.”

“And so you’re taking me back to have Carlisle abort our baby.” It was a statement of fact.

He embraced her, trying to comfort the shock, stroking her hair. “Sweetheart, we have no choice. Truly, there is none in this. Please, if nothing else think of me; how would I go on without you? We’ve had less than two years together from the day we first met, how could I bear to lose you now when it can be so easily prevented? I promise, I swear to you that if you wish a child this much we’ll adopt one. Or as many as you want, we will, as soon as we can. But this…it’s not possible.”

She pulled back an inch or two so that she could look up at his face and see the determination there. He wouldn’t be moved, he wouldn’t change his mind and if this was as dangerous to her as he said then Carlisle would probably support him and perform the operation himself, probably up in his study converted to an operating room so no one would ask any questions. All right, she couldn’t change his mind but she didn’t have to just accept this, either.

They climbed the steps to the porch and he paused. “You’ve never said anything about wanting a child, Bella. Do you or are you coming to this now that you may be carrying one? It this something you’ve wanted or is this of the moment?”

She sat on the top step, Edward joining her. “Well, I never thought about it before, really. I guess I just assumed that it was something I’d do ‘someday’ but I wasn’t ever one of those girls who lived to have babies or anything. I never even liked them, never liked babysitting or any of that but now that it’s happening, I guess I maybe do want it. I mean, it’s partly you, too. Don’t you want it?”

He sighed, she didn’t understand at all. “I stopped thinking about it when I realized that it was impossible for me, as it is for any vampire. I thought you knew what I meant when we discussed that this would be one of the things that you’d have to give up. You said that you were fine with it.”

“Obviously that’s changed, though. What if we can? It could be amazing, Edward. I thought we couldn’t and so I accepted that but somehow, if we could, if this could work—and you can always change me if there’s a problem, right? I think we should at least try.”

“Is it that you’re against abortion? Is that the problem?”

“Well, no. Not if there’s a reason, like if the mother could die or something but I can’t die—we have a fall back, you can just change me and it will be okay so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Please, go back with me today, speak with Carlisle. It’s not as simple as you want to believe and he’ll have more answers for you than I do. I wish that it was possible, Bella, but that’s just not the case.”

She nodded to placate him, knowing he’d do what he wanted and there wouldn’t be anything gained by arguing.

From the bedroom she could hear Edward on the phone in the living room talking to the airlines for over an hour, finally seeming to get the seats they needed to fly them back to Washington State while she’d packed their clothes. Finishing before he did, she’d gone for a solitary walk down to the beach.

She knew how this was supposed to play out. They’d get back, Carlisle would do his thing, they’d all take extra special care of her and coddle ad spoil her while she recovered, they’d change her and life—such as it was—would go on.

Or not. She took the phone from her pocket.

The call was answered on the first ring. “Hello, Esme?…”
 

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