when your roots and branches twist into the same knot (rosalie, nessie, edward, bella, jacob) pg
title: when your roots and branches twist into the same knot
fandom: twilight
character(s)/pairing(s): rosalie, nessie, edward, bella, jacob || jacob/nessie, edward/bella
rating: pg
word count: 3709
spoilers: breaking dawn
summary: even vampire parents experience empty nest syndrome. especially if they're edward.
Jacob and Nessie announce their engagement on a Wednesday two days after the official start of spring, smiling shiny happy smiles with their hands linked.
Their proclamation is met with mixed reviews from the critics - if by critics you mean Edward and Rosalie.
“Try not to scowl too much. Your face looks like it’s trying to eat itself,” Nessie whispers into Rosalie’s ear when she goes to hug her, ironically causing her face to scrunch up further.
“Not funny.”
Nessie giggles and pulls her closer, resting a head padded with curls on her shoulder.
“You know I love you. Just try not to worry. Chill out. Hang loose. Or whatever the kids are saying these days.”
“I thought you were one of the kids these days?”
“Keep up with the times, Aunt Rose. I’m gaining on thirty.”
Nessie is whisked away by Alice to discuss color schemes, but not before Rosalie feeds her a look that says this isn’t over.
-
“He shouldn’t be here so late. What time is it?”
Bella rolls her eyes, glancing up from a paperback copy of something new and edgy (and absolute crap, if you ask her) to shoot Edward a half-amused glare.
“Six-thirty.”
He starts, glancing around as if afraid someone besides his wife is bearing witness to his insanity.
“Oh. But still,” he recovers, “Doesn’t he have anything else to attend to?”
“They’re in love, Edward, what do you expect? I’d be worried if he didn’t want to spend every waking moment with her.”
He grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child.
“And that’s another matter. She’s too young to be so involved.”
Bella dead-pans.
“She’s twenty-five. You had me hitched and knocked up by the time I was nineteen. Get a grip.”
Edward pales, if that’s possible.
“You don’t think… she’s not pregnant is she?”
Suddenly it’s just too much and she giggles, managing to deny the accusation through her fits.
“What, may I ask, is so funny?”
“You sound just like my dad!”
Another wave hits her and she clutches her sides; even vampires can get stitches from laughing too hard.
Edward cracks an unwilling smile, having to find the humor in the situation, before tackling Bella to the bed. Jacob can wait a few more hours.
-
Edward walks into the kitchen, stopping in the doorway when he catches sight of Renesmee. Her head is bobbing to something upbeat playing in her ear buds, a worn T-shirt of Bella’s clinging comfortably to her skin, the hem of her lime green pajama bottoms rolled down to her hips.
“Those can’t possibly be restful,” he’d pointed out once. She’d been sixteen then (physically, at least), and her automated response had been to roll her eyes. She’d spent the next half hour trying to explain to him what the term bitchin’ meant.
As it stands, a wave of nostalgia ripples through him. Nostalgia and… awe. Here he is, a hundred year plus vampire who spent a century convinced he couldn’t allow himself eye contact with a pretty girl, let alone the possibility of a family. But this is his daughter. His daughter. And she’s leaving him. Sometimes life is funny that way.
“Hey daddy.” He hadn’t even noticed her notice him, and he scrambles to fix a pleasant expression on his face, one that says hey, did you get the mail? or do you want me to order you a pizza?, not I feel guilty for wanting to deny you your own life but please don’t leave me, my only child!
From Nessie’s expression, he guesses he’s a failure at even that.
“Look, I-“
“You don’t have to say it, Ness. I know. I know you’re a big girl and I know it was foolish to think we could keep you here forever. But I still wish there was some way that nothing could change.”
She places a hand on each of his shoulders, giving him a slight shake as if to reassure him that she’s still here. For now.
“Dad, practically everyone we know is going to live forever. Remain happy and healthy and young forever. We’re already pretty spoiled in the ‘unchanging’ category, don’cha think?”
It’s amazing how his own kid can make him feel so childish sometimes.
“Maybe I’m just greedy,” Edward admits sheepishly.
Nessie chuckles, kissing his cheek quickly before bouncing into the next room, the energy drink in her hand assuring that she’ll be just this chipper until two in the morning.
He wouldn’t trade it for anything.
-
“Two bathrooms or she doesn’t go.”
“You can’t keep her here if she wants to leave!”
“Do you know nothing about women? Wait, wrong question, of course you don’t. But I’ll try to break it down for you in simple words. Maybe you can survive by sticking your paws in your water dish and getting sprayed with the hose, but there is no way I’m letting my niece live in squalor. Two bathrooms or she doesn’t go.”
Jacob throws up his hands.
“Fine! Any other apartment hunting requests? A fountain? Crystal chandelier? A butler, maybe?”
Rosalie’s answering smile is calculated.
“Don’t give me any ideas, Scooby.”
Jacob mutters something about crazy in-laws and stomps out the front door, newspaper in hand. As if he could ever find a suitable residence in the classifieds. Philistine.
Nessie’s warmer hand slips into hers.
“I know you’re trying to protect me, Aunt Rose, but can you give Jacob a break? We can’t exactly afford a castle.” Rosalie opens her mouth to protest, but Nessie cuts her off. “I know money’s no object. But this is something that we need to do together, with no one else’s help.”
Rosalie taps her foot, but otherwise manages to avoid an irritated expression.
“I guess this is the part where you tell me that normal human couples start off poor in tiny apartments with insect infestations and sewage problems; not living on an estate with a security-protected gate.”
“I would,” Nessie beams, only somewhat sarcastically, “but it seems like you already know.”
“You know your father doesn’t approve either.”
“So now you two are ganging up on me? I think the temperature in hell just took a major hit if you two are agreeing on something.”
“We have always agreed when it comes to your safety.”
“Geez, I’ll be plenty safe. Jake is living with me, remember?”
Rosalie hesitates and bites her tongue.
“Go ahead. Make that joke about watch dogs. I know you want to.”
“Well I can’t now, you’ve ruined it.”
“Oops.” Nessie squeezes her hand and lets their fingers slips, her expression fading from humor to sincerity. “Just… let us have this, okay? I promise you and Alice can throw us the most expensive wedding your freakishly extravagant minds can think up. Spend to your silent hearts’ content.”
Alice’s squeaky but distinct squeal of joy ricochets throughout the house, followed by the thump of Bella’s head against a wall and Edward’s knowing chuckle.
-
“Our daughter is moving out tomorrow.”
Bella offers Edward a sympathetic expression and rubs a soothing hand over his back, wincing at the tension there.
“I know.”
“Why aren’t you as scared about this as I am?”
It isn’t an accusation, exactly; more like she has the ancient medicinal treatment to some grave ill that he wants her to share with him.
“Because I know Nessie. And I know we’ve taught her all the life lessons we can without a textbook and a laser pointer. Now it’s time for her to actually live.”
Edward looks over at her gratefully, taking her pleased but confused face in his hands and resting his forehead against hers.
“You’re such an amazing mother. There’s no one I’d rather have a child with than you.”
He pulls away slightly, grinning at her touched expression. “Most of the time I feel like you’re pulling my extra weight.”
Bella smacks his shoulder lightly, but nestles into the crook of his arm, sighing in contentment.
“You’re a great dad. And don’t worry; you’ve done your fatherly duty. Jacob is terrified of you.”
That pleases him more than she’d like, but she lets him hold onto that small consolation as they listen to their only child fiddle with cardboard boxes and packing tape in the next room over.
-
“It’s dark and stormy today. It’s a bad sign, I know it.”
Rosalie lays her petite hands gently on top of the cardboard box she just duct-taped shut, glaring at the wet, bleak weather with suspicion.
Edward tips his head.
“We live in Forks. If it was ominous every time it rained we’d be living perpetually in an Edgar Allen Poe poem.”
“We’re vampires, Edward. We may be better suited for Anne Rice, I’ll admit, but the comparison still stands.”
He looks disturbed for a moment, rolling that over in his mind, before shaking his head, as if the thought would catapult right out of his ear.
“Just shut up and hand me the damn bubble wrap.”
-
“Do you ever…” Edward trails off, inspecting the plastic crate in his hands with renewed fervor.
“Do I ever what, Dad?” Nessie halts her work in her closet momentarily, laying down the two nearly identical pair of suede boots (“One’s a wedge and the other’s a stiletto, obviously,” Alice had explained when she’d bought them.) in favor of studying his expression.
“Do you ever wish that you were completely human? That you didn’t have vampire parents and a werewolf for a boyfriend?”
He still can’t say the word fiancé, an irony Bella reminds him of constantly.
Before he can faux-breathe, she takes his hands in hers, offering him a comforting smile.
“If you were asking me if I wish that I could call you my father in public instead of my uncle or my cousin, then I’d say yes. But you’re asking me if I wish I was normal. And to that I have to say… hell no.”
“No?” he glances up, surprised. “Why not?”
“Normal is boring. It’s overrated. People think that the freaks of the world just wish they were normal. But everyone who’s normal secretly wishes they were interesting enough to be called weird. I’m proud to be a freak if it means I don’t have to be snooze-worthy enough to be called normal.”
Edward cracks a smile, smoothing her palm with his thumb.
“You teach me the most amazing things, Nessie.” He pouts. “It makes me feel inept.”
Nessie laughs, hugging him close.
-
“Was there ever a chance for us?”
Edward’s eyebrows nearly reach his hairline and they just keep soaring. Rosalie rolls her eyes.
“As friends. Do you think we could have been friends?”
Her head is leaning back casually against the couch, her thoughts merely a curious flutter. It’s not like it matters, anyhow. They’re both too stubborn for anything to change now.
“You mean if I couldn’t read your thoughts, or if Carlisle hadn’t tried to play matchmaker?”
His tone is lighter now, free of suspicion.
Her lips quirk upwards.
“Both, I suppose. Either one.”
He’s leaning back too, and they may be separated by space and opinions, but there’s a uniformity to their postures and their emotions that binds them together somehow.
“Probably not. I’m far too pigheaded and you’re far too vain.”
The pillow hits his chest with a loud ‘oomph’, but more harm is done to the pillow than to him. Edward chuckles and tosses it back.
“What’s this I hear? Good cheer coming from you two? In the same room? Preposterous.”
Nessie walks through the living room, her arms around a cardboard box that a fully-human girl most likely wouldn’t even be able to lift. Her eyebrows rise in question and Rosalie has to snort at the mirror of Edward’s favorite expression. Well, that and scowling.
“No need to worry. Your father was just questioning the humanity of my thoughts. The usual suspects.”
Nessie cracks a frustratingly illegible smile at the two of them before leaving out the front door.
“She’s thinking that her moving out will bond us together somehow.”
Rosalie huffs. She allows herself an unladylike snort before crossing her arms over her chest in defiance to the very idea.
“Now that’s unlikely.”
“Oh, of course.”
There’s a moment of silence, the only sound being the shuffling of boxes on a flatbed truck outside, before she breathes out her revelation.
“She’s really going to be fine.”
Edward glances over at her, surprised by the whispered admission of her thoughts. The blonde’s face is resigned, but a murmur of the subtle pain that idea causes her is barely visible just beneath the veneer.
She does want Nessie to be happy, but she doesn’t want to be discarded. To be unneeded, unnecessary; an accessory. Not again.
“She really is.”
Rosalie nods to herself. She stands slowly, as if the weight in her chest is a physical one even a vampire with super-strength can’t bear to carry.
Edward’s words come from behind her.
“But she’s still going to need you. She’ll love you no matter where she’s living.”
The hint of a smile quirks her lips for a moment, and traitorous tears might have shimmered in her eyes if she were capable of the function. As it is, she disappears up the stairs and Edward doesn’t acknowledge his words.
-
As Nessie places the last box in the back of the truck, Rosalie walks outside, eying the vehicle with disdain. The rest of the family is still inside, ensnared by Alice into a conversation about the wedding venue. And probably talking Edward down from a ledge somewhere.
She shoots Jacob a glare of feverish hatred, as if his mere presence is causing her physical and intentional pain.
“Yeah, I’m just gonna to go inside to get…” He mutters something jumbled before disappearing inside the house.
“You’ve still got it Aunt Rose.” Nessie attempts, scuffing her shoes into the dirt. If Rosalie weren’t otherwise occupied she’d scold her for dirtying a perfectly good pair of designer sandals.
“Are you sure about this?”
Rosalie places both hands on her shoulders, staring directly into her eyes, her expression seeking. She already knows Nessie’s reply; she also knows she won’t let her leave without giving her one more out. Just in case.
“With every fiber of my freakishly hybrid being. Yes, Rosalie Hale, I am absolutely certain.”
Rosalie nods once before curling both arms around her.
“You know I could stop you if I really tried. Edward would be more than happy to throw this truck into the forest and Emmett can be bribed into being my own personal road block,” her words are fierce but her tone is steeped in acceptance.
Nessie pulls back, squinting one eye and quirking her lips to the side.
“I suppose you could. But you wouldn’t.”
Rosalie takes a step back and crosses her arms.
“And why not?”
Nessie answering smile is radiant.
“Because you know this is for the best. And you want me to be happy.”
The blonde frowns.
“See, that’s logic. And you know how far logic gets you with me.”
They both bubble with laughter.
“Not to break up the love fest out here but heavy objects are being hauled and they need some place to be that isn’t on my foot.” Emmett’s booming voice issues from the front door frame, pausing an additional .5 seconds before striding across the lawn and placing the love seat, lamp and chair that had been balanced in his arms in the truck bed. He makes a show of wiping non-existent sweat from his dry brow, before turning to Nessie.
“Well that’s all your stuff, Pippi. Ready to go?”
The question is loaded on all fronts, and Nessie nods.
“Yep. I’m ready.”
Before she can blink, the yard is crowded with the creatures of the night that double as her family members. Alice bullets into her, hugging her around the waist.
“It’s going to be another two days, thirteen hours and forty-five minutes until we visit you, so we’ll miss you! And stay away from the trout. Trout is trouble.”
Nessie rests her chin on top of Alice’s spiky head, letting an image of a fish with a bold red X through it waft into her mind.
“Will do, Aunt Alice.”
Jasper is next, and though her quietest uncle often stands apart from the family, physically because of his marred skin, and emotionally because of all his years living a brutal, solitary life, she’d always felt a kinship towards the only person who always knew how she truly felt, even when she didn’t.
“Take care, kid.”
She slips both arms around his waist, hugging him sideways, before looking over at her parents with trepidation.
“Mom, Dad, I-“
But she doesn’t have time to reassure them or explain to them rationally why everything will be alright, because suddenly both of their arms are wrapped tight around her. Her feet are dangling like limp fish, her toes barely brushing the ground. She tells herself now would not be a proper time for one of her witty retorts. Three minutes later, she rethinks that stance.
“Half-human still needs to breathe sometime, guys.”
They release her instantly, though they must know on some level that she isn’t that breakable.
“Call as soon as you get there?”
“Yes, mom.”
“Keep a close eye out; you can never be too careful.”
“Sure thing, dad.”
There’s a beat of charged silence before Nessie rests one hand on each of their cheeks, letting the warmth of her love for them ripple down her arm from her heart, into their minds.
“We love you too, Nessie.”
With a glance back, she hops into the passenger’s seat of the truck, hanging out the cranked down window to wave as the vehicle bounces down the dirt road. Eventually even vampire sight isn’t enough to make her out of the thicket and Edward and Bella drop their arms, raised in a frozen gesture of good-bye.
Bella darts her eyes to Edward’s face to check for signs of life. She sighs as he drapes an arm over her shoulders, molding herself into his side.
“We’re empty nesters.”
He glances down at her and, to her surprise, a faint smile is playing at his lips.
“I guess we are.”
“I feel like we should buy an idiot’s guide about it.”
He glances at her, confused.
“I think we can manage to be idiots all by ourselves.”
Bella shakes her head, a smirk barely hidden there.
“Edward, that’s not…“ she trails off, thinking better of correcting him in his one weak spot: pop culture, “Never mind. Take me home?”
“Anything you want.”
-
Renesmee is nestled in Rosalie’s arms, chugging away at a little bottle of A-positive with teddy bears dancing around the sides and hearts circling the lid, when Edward edges into the room. His steps are uncertain, wary even. He hasn’t left Bella’s side since the venom took to her blood stream, nearly twenty-four hours ago, and Rosalie’s been looking after the baby since then, with occasional interludes by Esme and Carlisle and Jasper, surprisingly. And… the dog.
Rosalie growls to herself.
And she’s beautiful. No fangs or hellish red eyes or a head that spins around then throws up pea soup. The girl barely even cries.
The urge to say ‘I told you so’ is almost unbearable. Rosalie resists, just barely. But luckily spoken words mean little in this house, especially with Edward.
“I heard that.”
Rosalie chuckles lightly, setting down the drained bottle and flipping Renesmee around to rest over her shoulder, patting her back lightly. She always knew she’d be good at this. Yet just the same, even she’s surprised by the lack of bitterness in her thoughts, not to mention the absence of an urge to run away with the kid. This baby isn’t hers, but that’s okay. She’s satisfied with the mantle of ‘aunt’.
The infant lets out a tiny little burp next to Rosalie’s ear.
Edward’s eyes widen slightly as she maneuvers Renesmee around, pure deer in headlights. He doesn’t know squat about babies.
Too bad, buddy.She thinks in his direction. Shoulda thought about that before you married a human and did the nasty.
Edward has to roll his eyes at that, despite the rigidly nervous set to his shoulders.
“Must you always be so crass?”
She grins brightly.
“Yes.”
There’s a void of silence for a moment, as Rosalie gently sways the baby and Edward shuffles anxiously and Bella breathes unevenly in the next room.
“Can I…” Edward clears his throat. “Can I hold her?”
His face is so vulnerable, so terrified, that Rosalie almost pities him for a moment. But it passes quickly. She nods anyway.
Rosalie settles Renesmee into the crook of his arm, brushing a hand over the baby’s soft hair before stepping back.
And Edward’s a goner. There’s nothing on his face but awe and wonder and love, and even Rosalie has to smile softly at the picture of devotion being painted before her. He’ll be fine. Probably.
“I thought for sure you were going to fight me on it.” Edward glances up as he speaks, his crooked smile amiable.
She waves it off, sitting down in one of the arm chairs in the room and folding her legs beneath her.
“I’ve fought with you enough in the last month. In the last eighty years, actually. I think we can have one moment as father and aunt instead of as spiteful siblings without it killing us. Not too long, though. Friendliness tends to chafe.”
Suddenly Edward’s eyes cloud.
“I’m a father.” And it’s fairly clear the idea scares him shitless. So scared in fact that he doesn’t even notice Emmett enter the room behind him until the bulky man claps him on the back. Rosalie nearly chastises him for startling the man holding the baby, but Edward just looks so shell-shocked that she can’t help but snort as she shakes her head disapprovingly.
“Don’t worry, pops,” Emmett grins, resting a hand on the back of her chair, his voice bright, “Now you can be just as overprotective as you were with Bella, only now it’ll sort of be normal.”
Good luck with that one, Renesmee. You’re gonna need it.
fandom: twilight
character(s)/pairing(s): rosalie, nessie, edward, bella, jacob || jacob/nessie, edward/bella
rating: pg
word count: 3709
spoilers: breaking dawn
summary: even vampire parents experience empty nest syndrome. especially if they're edward.
Jacob and Nessie announce their engagement on a Wednesday two days after the official start of spring, smiling shiny happy smiles with their hands linked.
Their proclamation is met with mixed reviews from the critics - if by critics you mean Edward and Rosalie.
“Try not to scowl too much. Your face looks like it’s trying to eat itself,” Nessie whispers into Rosalie’s ear when she goes to hug her, ironically causing her face to scrunch up further.
“Not funny.”
Nessie giggles and pulls her closer, resting a head padded with curls on her shoulder.
“You know I love you. Just try not to worry. Chill out. Hang loose. Or whatever the kids are saying these days.”
“I thought you were one of the kids these days?”
“Keep up with the times, Aunt Rose. I’m gaining on thirty.”
Nessie is whisked away by Alice to discuss color schemes, but not before Rosalie feeds her a look that says this isn’t over.
-
“He shouldn’t be here so late. What time is it?”
Bella rolls her eyes, glancing up from a paperback copy of something new and edgy (and absolute crap, if you ask her) to shoot Edward a half-amused glare.
“Six-thirty.”
He starts, glancing around as if afraid someone besides his wife is bearing witness to his insanity.
“Oh. But still,” he recovers, “Doesn’t he have anything else to attend to?”
“They’re in love, Edward, what do you expect? I’d be worried if he didn’t want to spend every waking moment with her.”
He grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child.
“And that’s another matter. She’s too young to be so involved.”
Bella dead-pans.
“She’s twenty-five. You had me hitched and knocked up by the time I was nineteen. Get a grip.”
Edward pales, if that’s possible.
“You don’t think… she’s not pregnant is she?”
Suddenly it’s just too much and she giggles, managing to deny the accusation through her fits.
“What, may I ask, is so funny?”
“You sound just like my dad!”
Another wave hits her and she clutches her sides; even vampires can get stitches from laughing too hard.
Edward cracks an unwilling smile, having to find the humor in the situation, before tackling Bella to the bed. Jacob can wait a few more hours.
-
Edward walks into the kitchen, stopping in the doorway when he catches sight of Renesmee. Her head is bobbing to something upbeat playing in her ear buds, a worn T-shirt of Bella’s clinging comfortably to her skin, the hem of her lime green pajama bottoms rolled down to her hips.
“Those can’t possibly be restful,” he’d pointed out once. She’d been sixteen then (physically, at least), and her automated response had been to roll her eyes. She’d spent the next half hour trying to explain to him what the term bitchin’ meant.
As it stands, a wave of nostalgia ripples through him. Nostalgia and… awe. Here he is, a hundred year plus vampire who spent a century convinced he couldn’t allow himself eye contact with a pretty girl, let alone the possibility of a family. But this is his daughter. His daughter. And she’s leaving him. Sometimes life is funny that way.
“Hey daddy.” He hadn’t even noticed her notice him, and he scrambles to fix a pleasant expression on his face, one that says hey, did you get the mail? or do you want me to order you a pizza?, not I feel guilty for wanting to deny you your own life but please don’t leave me, my only child!
From Nessie’s expression, he guesses he’s a failure at even that.
“Look, I-“
“You don’t have to say it, Ness. I know. I know you’re a big girl and I know it was foolish to think we could keep you here forever. But I still wish there was some way that nothing could change.”
She places a hand on each of his shoulders, giving him a slight shake as if to reassure him that she’s still here. For now.
“Dad, practically everyone we know is going to live forever. Remain happy and healthy and young forever. We’re already pretty spoiled in the ‘unchanging’ category, don’cha think?”
It’s amazing how his own kid can make him feel so childish sometimes.
“Maybe I’m just greedy,” Edward admits sheepishly.
Nessie chuckles, kissing his cheek quickly before bouncing into the next room, the energy drink in her hand assuring that she’ll be just this chipper until two in the morning.
He wouldn’t trade it for anything.
-
“Two bathrooms or she doesn’t go.”
“You can’t keep her here if she wants to leave!”
“Do you know nothing about women? Wait, wrong question, of course you don’t. But I’ll try to break it down for you in simple words. Maybe you can survive by sticking your paws in your water dish and getting sprayed with the hose, but there is no way I’m letting my niece live in squalor. Two bathrooms or she doesn’t go.”
Jacob throws up his hands.
“Fine! Any other apartment hunting requests? A fountain? Crystal chandelier? A butler, maybe?”
Rosalie’s answering smile is calculated.
“Don’t give me any ideas, Scooby.”
Jacob mutters something about crazy in-laws and stomps out the front door, newspaper in hand. As if he could ever find a suitable residence in the classifieds. Philistine.
Nessie’s warmer hand slips into hers.
“I know you’re trying to protect me, Aunt Rose, but can you give Jacob a break? We can’t exactly afford a castle.” Rosalie opens her mouth to protest, but Nessie cuts her off. “I know money’s no object. But this is something that we need to do together, with no one else’s help.”
Rosalie taps her foot, but otherwise manages to avoid an irritated expression.
“I guess this is the part where you tell me that normal human couples start off poor in tiny apartments with insect infestations and sewage problems; not living on an estate with a security-protected gate.”
“I would,” Nessie beams, only somewhat sarcastically, “but it seems like you already know.”
“You know your father doesn’t approve either.”
“So now you two are ganging up on me? I think the temperature in hell just took a major hit if you two are agreeing on something.”
“We have always agreed when it comes to your safety.”
“Geez, I’ll be plenty safe. Jake is living with me, remember?”
Rosalie hesitates and bites her tongue.
“Go ahead. Make that joke about watch dogs. I know you want to.”
“Well I can’t now, you’ve ruined it.”
“Oops.” Nessie squeezes her hand and lets their fingers slips, her expression fading from humor to sincerity. “Just… let us have this, okay? I promise you and Alice can throw us the most expensive wedding your freakishly extravagant minds can think up. Spend to your silent hearts’ content.”
Alice’s squeaky but distinct squeal of joy ricochets throughout the house, followed by the thump of Bella’s head against a wall and Edward’s knowing chuckle.
-
“Our daughter is moving out tomorrow.”
Bella offers Edward a sympathetic expression and rubs a soothing hand over his back, wincing at the tension there.
“I know.”
“Why aren’t you as scared about this as I am?”
It isn’t an accusation, exactly; more like she has the ancient medicinal treatment to some grave ill that he wants her to share with him.
“Because I know Nessie. And I know we’ve taught her all the life lessons we can without a textbook and a laser pointer. Now it’s time for her to actually live.”
Edward looks over at her gratefully, taking her pleased but confused face in his hands and resting his forehead against hers.
“You’re such an amazing mother. There’s no one I’d rather have a child with than you.”
He pulls away slightly, grinning at her touched expression. “Most of the time I feel like you’re pulling my extra weight.”
Bella smacks his shoulder lightly, but nestles into the crook of his arm, sighing in contentment.
“You’re a great dad. And don’t worry; you’ve done your fatherly duty. Jacob is terrified of you.”
That pleases him more than she’d like, but she lets him hold onto that small consolation as they listen to their only child fiddle with cardboard boxes and packing tape in the next room over.
-
“It’s dark and stormy today. It’s a bad sign, I know it.”
Rosalie lays her petite hands gently on top of the cardboard box she just duct-taped shut, glaring at the wet, bleak weather with suspicion.
Edward tips his head.
“We live in Forks. If it was ominous every time it rained we’d be living perpetually in an Edgar Allen Poe poem.”
“We’re vampires, Edward. We may be better suited for Anne Rice, I’ll admit, but the comparison still stands.”
He looks disturbed for a moment, rolling that over in his mind, before shaking his head, as if the thought would catapult right out of his ear.
“Just shut up and hand me the damn bubble wrap.”
-
“Do you ever…” Edward trails off, inspecting the plastic crate in his hands with renewed fervor.
“Do I ever what, Dad?” Nessie halts her work in her closet momentarily, laying down the two nearly identical pair of suede boots (“One’s a wedge and the other’s a stiletto, obviously,” Alice had explained when she’d bought them.) in favor of studying his expression.
“Do you ever wish that you were completely human? That you didn’t have vampire parents and a werewolf for a boyfriend?”
He still can’t say the word fiancé, an irony Bella reminds him of constantly.
Before he can faux-breathe, she takes his hands in hers, offering him a comforting smile.
“If you were asking me if I wish that I could call you my father in public instead of my uncle or my cousin, then I’d say yes. But you’re asking me if I wish I was normal. And to that I have to say… hell no.”
“No?” he glances up, surprised. “Why not?”
“Normal is boring. It’s overrated. People think that the freaks of the world just wish they were normal. But everyone who’s normal secretly wishes they were interesting enough to be called weird. I’m proud to be a freak if it means I don’t have to be snooze-worthy enough to be called normal.”
Edward cracks a smile, smoothing her palm with his thumb.
“You teach me the most amazing things, Nessie.” He pouts. “It makes me feel inept.”
Nessie laughs, hugging him close.
-
“Was there ever a chance for us?”
Edward’s eyebrows nearly reach his hairline and they just keep soaring. Rosalie rolls her eyes.
“As friends. Do you think we could have been friends?”
Her head is leaning back casually against the couch, her thoughts merely a curious flutter. It’s not like it matters, anyhow. They’re both too stubborn for anything to change now.
“You mean if I couldn’t read your thoughts, or if Carlisle hadn’t tried to play matchmaker?”
His tone is lighter now, free of suspicion.
Her lips quirk upwards.
“Both, I suppose. Either one.”
He’s leaning back too, and they may be separated by space and opinions, but there’s a uniformity to their postures and their emotions that binds them together somehow.
“Probably not. I’m far too pigheaded and you’re far too vain.”
The pillow hits his chest with a loud ‘oomph’, but more harm is done to the pillow than to him. Edward chuckles and tosses it back.
“What’s this I hear? Good cheer coming from you two? In the same room? Preposterous.”
Nessie walks through the living room, her arms around a cardboard box that a fully-human girl most likely wouldn’t even be able to lift. Her eyebrows rise in question and Rosalie has to snort at the mirror of Edward’s favorite expression. Well, that and scowling.
“No need to worry. Your father was just questioning the humanity of my thoughts. The usual suspects.”
Nessie cracks a frustratingly illegible smile at the two of them before leaving out the front door.
“She’s thinking that her moving out will bond us together somehow.”
Rosalie huffs. She allows herself an unladylike snort before crossing her arms over her chest in defiance to the very idea.
“Now that’s unlikely.”
“Oh, of course.”
There’s a moment of silence, the only sound being the shuffling of boxes on a flatbed truck outside, before she breathes out her revelation.
“She’s really going to be fine.”
Edward glances over at her, surprised by the whispered admission of her thoughts. The blonde’s face is resigned, but a murmur of the subtle pain that idea causes her is barely visible just beneath the veneer.
She does want Nessie to be happy, but she doesn’t want to be discarded. To be unneeded, unnecessary; an accessory. Not again.
“She really is.”
Rosalie nods to herself. She stands slowly, as if the weight in her chest is a physical one even a vampire with super-strength can’t bear to carry.
Edward’s words come from behind her.
“But she’s still going to need you. She’ll love you no matter where she’s living.”
The hint of a smile quirks her lips for a moment, and traitorous tears might have shimmered in her eyes if she were capable of the function. As it is, she disappears up the stairs and Edward doesn’t acknowledge his words.
-
As Nessie places the last box in the back of the truck, Rosalie walks outside, eying the vehicle with disdain. The rest of the family is still inside, ensnared by Alice into a conversation about the wedding venue. And probably talking Edward down from a ledge somewhere.
She shoots Jacob a glare of feverish hatred, as if his mere presence is causing her physical and intentional pain.
“Yeah, I’m just gonna to go inside to get…” He mutters something jumbled before disappearing inside the house.
“You’ve still got it Aunt Rose.” Nessie attempts, scuffing her shoes into the dirt. If Rosalie weren’t otherwise occupied she’d scold her for dirtying a perfectly good pair of designer sandals.
“Are you sure about this?”
Rosalie places both hands on her shoulders, staring directly into her eyes, her expression seeking. She already knows Nessie’s reply; she also knows she won’t let her leave without giving her one more out. Just in case.
“With every fiber of my freakishly hybrid being. Yes, Rosalie Hale, I am absolutely certain.”
Rosalie nods once before curling both arms around her.
“You know I could stop you if I really tried. Edward would be more than happy to throw this truck into the forest and Emmett can be bribed into being my own personal road block,” her words are fierce but her tone is steeped in acceptance.
Nessie pulls back, squinting one eye and quirking her lips to the side.
“I suppose you could. But you wouldn’t.”
Rosalie takes a step back and crosses her arms.
“And why not?”
Nessie answering smile is radiant.
“Because you know this is for the best. And you want me to be happy.”
The blonde frowns.
“See, that’s logic. And you know how far logic gets you with me.”
They both bubble with laughter.
“Not to break up the love fest out here but heavy objects are being hauled and they need some place to be that isn’t on my foot.” Emmett’s booming voice issues from the front door frame, pausing an additional .5 seconds before striding across the lawn and placing the love seat, lamp and chair that had been balanced in his arms in the truck bed. He makes a show of wiping non-existent sweat from his dry brow, before turning to Nessie.
“Well that’s all your stuff, Pippi. Ready to go?”
The question is loaded on all fronts, and Nessie nods.
“Yep. I’m ready.”
Before she can blink, the yard is crowded with the creatures of the night that double as her family members. Alice bullets into her, hugging her around the waist.
“It’s going to be another two days, thirteen hours and forty-five minutes until we visit you, so we’ll miss you! And stay away from the trout. Trout is trouble.”
Nessie rests her chin on top of Alice’s spiky head, letting an image of a fish with a bold red X through it waft into her mind.
“Will do, Aunt Alice.”
Jasper is next, and though her quietest uncle often stands apart from the family, physically because of his marred skin, and emotionally because of all his years living a brutal, solitary life, she’d always felt a kinship towards the only person who always knew how she truly felt, even when she didn’t.
“Take care, kid.”
She slips both arms around his waist, hugging him sideways, before looking over at her parents with trepidation.
“Mom, Dad, I-“
But she doesn’t have time to reassure them or explain to them rationally why everything will be alright, because suddenly both of their arms are wrapped tight around her. Her feet are dangling like limp fish, her toes barely brushing the ground. She tells herself now would not be a proper time for one of her witty retorts. Three minutes later, she rethinks that stance.
“Half-human still needs to breathe sometime, guys.”
They release her instantly, though they must know on some level that she isn’t that breakable.
“Call as soon as you get there?”
“Yes, mom.”
“Keep a close eye out; you can never be too careful.”
“Sure thing, dad.”
There’s a beat of charged silence before Nessie rests one hand on each of their cheeks, letting the warmth of her love for them ripple down her arm from her heart, into their minds.
“We love you too, Nessie.”
With a glance back, she hops into the passenger’s seat of the truck, hanging out the cranked down window to wave as the vehicle bounces down the dirt road. Eventually even vampire sight isn’t enough to make her out of the thicket and Edward and Bella drop their arms, raised in a frozen gesture of good-bye.
Bella darts her eyes to Edward’s face to check for signs of life. She sighs as he drapes an arm over her shoulders, molding herself into his side.
“We’re empty nesters.”
He glances down at her and, to her surprise, a faint smile is playing at his lips.
“I guess we are.”
“I feel like we should buy an idiot’s guide about it.”
He glances at her, confused.
“I think we can manage to be idiots all by ourselves.”
Bella shakes her head, a smirk barely hidden there.
“Edward, that’s not…“ she trails off, thinking better of correcting him in his one weak spot: pop culture, “Never mind. Take me home?”
“Anything you want.”
-
Renesmee is nestled in Rosalie’s arms, chugging away at a little bottle of A-positive with teddy bears dancing around the sides and hearts circling the lid, when Edward edges into the room. His steps are uncertain, wary even. He hasn’t left Bella’s side since the venom took to her blood stream, nearly twenty-four hours ago, and Rosalie’s been looking after the baby since then, with occasional interludes by Esme and Carlisle and Jasper, surprisingly. And… the dog.
Rosalie growls to herself.
And she’s beautiful. No fangs or hellish red eyes or a head that spins around then throws up pea soup. The girl barely even cries.
The urge to say ‘I told you so’ is almost unbearable. Rosalie resists, just barely. But luckily spoken words mean little in this house, especially with Edward.
“I heard that.”
Rosalie chuckles lightly, setting down the drained bottle and flipping Renesmee around to rest over her shoulder, patting her back lightly. She always knew she’d be good at this. Yet just the same, even she’s surprised by the lack of bitterness in her thoughts, not to mention the absence of an urge to run away with the kid. This baby isn’t hers, but that’s okay. She’s satisfied with the mantle of ‘aunt’.
The infant lets out a tiny little burp next to Rosalie’s ear.
Edward’s eyes widen slightly as she maneuvers Renesmee around, pure deer in headlights. He doesn’t know squat about babies.
Too bad, buddy.She thinks in his direction. Shoulda thought about that before you married a human and did the nasty.
Edward has to roll his eyes at that, despite the rigidly nervous set to his shoulders.
“Must you always be so crass?”
She grins brightly.
“Yes.”
There’s a void of silence for a moment, as Rosalie gently sways the baby and Edward shuffles anxiously and Bella breathes unevenly in the next room.
“Can I…” Edward clears his throat. “Can I hold her?”
His face is so vulnerable, so terrified, that Rosalie almost pities him for a moment. But it passes quickly. She nods anyway.
Rosalie settles Renesmee into the crook of his arm, brushing a hand over the baby’s soft hair before stepping back.
And Edward’s a goner. There’s nothing on his face but awe and wonder and love, and even Rosalie has to smile softly at the picture of devotion being painted before her. He’ll be fine. Probably.
“I thought for sure you were going to fight me on it.” Edward glances up as he speaks, his crooked smile amiable.
She waves it off, sitting down in one of the arm chairs in the room and folding her legs beneath her.
“I’ve fought with you enough in the last month. In the last eighty years, actually. I think we can have one moment as father and aunt instead of as spiteful siblings without it killing us. Not too long, though. Friendliness tends to chafe.”
Suddenly Edward’s eyes cloud.
“I’m a father.” And it’s fairly clear the idea scares him shitless. So scared in fact that he doesn’t even notice Emmett enter the room behind him until the bulky man claps him on the back. Rosalie nearly chastises him for startling the man holding the baby, but Edward just looks so shell-shocked that she can’t help but snort as she shakes her head disapprovingly.
“Don’t worry, pops,” Emmett grins, resting a hand on the back of her chair, his voice bright, “Now you can be just as overprotective as you were with Bella, only now it’ll sort of be normal.”
Good luck with that one, Renesmee. You’re gonna need it.