The Way It Should Have Happened…

Chapter 4

Carlisle immediately ushered Bella upstairs for an exam, Edward glumly following along, clearly terrified of what they'd confirm.

"Let's see what we can find out," Carlisle said, putting his stethoscope against the swelling of Bella's abdomen. "Strong steady heartbeat."

Bella smiled, clutching her stomach protectively.

"Have you felt it move?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes, on the plane on the way home," Bella answered, noting the look of horror on Edward's face.

"You didn't tell me that," he murmured, his eyes accusing.

"You didn't ask," she snapped back.

Edward was shocked by the angry look on her face.

Carlisle took some measurements of her expanded belly.

"The little we know about these pregnancies is that they are greatly accelerated. You measure at perhaps three months right now. If we are going to do anything, it should be in the next day or two at the latest, otherwise it will become too dangerous," Carlisle stated.

"There is nothing to be done," Bella asserted.

"It's been a long day for both of you. Why not get a good night's rest and we'll talk about it in the morning?" he suggested.

"I won't change my mind," she insisted.

"Please, Bella, you need to rest," Edward pleaded and she allowed him to lead her up to his, now their room. He waited while she prepared for bed and pulled the covers around her, then sat on the leather sofa.

"You aren't coming to bed?" she asked.

"No," Edward answered.

"Because you're angry?" she asked, voice trembling.

"No, I'm exercising a little self-control which I should have done to begin with and you would not be in this condition," he said, not looking at her, his head in his hands.

"Bella, can we please talk about this rationally and reasonably?" he asked.

"I am being rational. All of you with your gloom and doom. You don't know what this baby will do. You don't. None of you do,"

"Bella, this much I do know. No one survives giving birth to a half-vampire child. There isn't any record at all of anyone surviving. Think about it. If you won't have concern for yourself, please think of me. I can't live without you. I tried and I can't. Please, at least consider not having it," he begged her.

"No. It's our child. I will be fine," she insisted. "Now, come to bed."

"No."

"I need you to be here with me," she pleaded.

"Don't ask that of me. As long as you are human, I won't touch you again," he stated, leaving no room for argument.

"But it's not like you're going to get me pregnant...please?"

"I think I've done more than enough, don't you?"

He heard her begin to cry and wanted to go to her, comfort her but he couldn't. His inability to resist her had led them to this point, the point where she might die. No. Never again. Not until after.

To tune out the sound of her crying, he tried listening in on his various family members. He hated not allowing them privacy but he needed to know who was on his side and who was not. He heard Emmett's thoughts loud and clear.

'Sure, Rose is upset but if I can just get her out of here for a few weeks, maybe another honeymoon. Yeah, if I can get her alone and have sex for three or four days straight, she should be calm enough to come back home. Wonder where she'd like to go this time. Heck, it doesn't really matter, all we need is a room with a bed. Anywhere would do'

Edward tried to listen to Rosalie but all he could get of her thoughts was Bella and a white hot fury that was beyond reasonable thought.

Jasper's thoughts were clear. 'Bella should have never come here. I knew from the moment he saved her from that van that she'd bring about the destruction of all of us. I can't blame Edward for loving who he loves but it would have been better for everyone if I'd quietly taken care of her then or at the birthday party. This endangers us all.' The tension in the house is physically painful for him.

Carlisle is thinking only of the medical questions involved, going over whether or not he has the necessary supplies for the surgery and Esme. Edward was shocked. She was thinking of the loss of her own child which led to her suicide attempt and thinking she couldn't survive the loss of another child, even one that could kill them all. He wondered if Carlisle knew she was feeling that way.

Finally, he dared to peek into Alice's busy mind. He could see flashes of Bella, round with the child, writhing in agony as the light slowly faded from her eyes. He saw the creature born, tearing and chewing it's way out of her. He saw Bella lying in a pool of blood. He saw another vision of Bella as a crazed newborn. What did they all mean?

The night hours dragged by and he could do nothing but wait. Bella, restless, barely slept, but neither did she ask for him, still stung by his anger and rejection earlier. Finally, shortly after dawn, Emmett, tired of trying to convince Rosalie to go away with him, came and asked him to go hunting with Jasper and him. Jasper needed to get away from all the emotions for a while and Emmett could tell yesterday when he looked at Edward's black eyes that his brother needed to feed. It would be good for all of them and maybe together they could formulate some type of plan.

Bella woke in the morning, feeling miserable, missing Edward in the bed beside her. 'Once the baby's born, things will be fine again' she told herself, then got up and started downstairs to get something to eat. She got only as far as Rosalie's room. The beautiful blond vampire had been waiting to get Bella alone and pulled her into the room.

"How dare you put all of us in danger?" Rosalie screamed. "Edward should have killed you the first time he smelled your freesia scented blood. One less human in a world of humans. One less would have made no difference. Do you have any idea what you've done to our lives, just by being a part of Edward's? How life has had to revolve around you? The things we've done for you and it started just after you two started together."

"Rosalie," Bella tried to stop her.

"All the running and chasing with James and for what? You end up walking right up to him, like a carry-out meal. Emmett, Jasper, Alice, they all risked their very existence to save you, for Edward."

"I know," Bella said.

"We had to leave town because of you. Do you think we enjoy starting over again and again? We'd just gotten really settled here, people accepting us, but then we had to leave because Edward was involved with you and he couldn't stay away from you and he couldn't be with you anymore. So we all left, rearranged all our lives for you. Only to have it all unravel because you got back together again."

Bella tried to leave but Rosalie still held her by the arm.

"As if that wasn't enough we then had to take on a whole army of newborns. Have you any idea how dangerous that was? No, of course not, you weren't there. Why? Because you had to be taken away and protected, leaving us to save you, without Edward even there to help us because you couldn't stand the thought that anything could happen to him. How do you think the rest of us felt? Do you think I love Emmett any less than you love Edward? That Jasper loves Alice less than Edward loves you? What about Esme and Carlisle? They've made a life, loved us as their children and you were willing to risk all of us!! We should have let Victoria take you and torture you to death. I couldn't have cared less."

"Please," Bella whined.

"But all of that pales next to this? She pointed at Bella's slightly rounded stomach. "We'll all die for this. All of us. You won't survive and neither will the baby. Did you not listen at all when we said being a vampire means you won't be having children? Did that mean nothing to you? Who do you think you are? You chose Edward, didn't you? Or was that just a choice until something else came along that you wanted more? You cannot endanger all of us with this . . . this . . . thing that's inside you. You'll kill us all and I'm not going to stay here to watch it happen. Emmett and I are leaving. Satisfied?"

Bella's tears finally spilled over as she ran blindly from the room, wanting to go somewhere, anywhere, she could be alone with her thoughts. No one understood how much this baby meant to her, how much she must have it. She was running up the stairs to her bedroom when she missed a step, landing flat on her belly as she began to roll down the steps, being battered and bruised. She went down two flights, ending in a heap at the bottom and feeling something tearing inside her. She moaned in pain as the widening pool of blood spread around her and she lost consciousness.
 

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