Shifting Moon

Chapter 219 - 219: The Pull

(Thomas POV)I had never been particularly interested in babies before Leah's pregnancy was discovered.

Most of them slept, cried, ate, and generally behaved like tiny, fragile mysteries that other people found fascinating.

Ren, on the other hand, had managed to bruise my thumb five minutes after being born, which definitely moved her into a category all her own.

Renesmee…Ren, because I refused to use four syllables every time I addressed someone smaller than a football, lay wrapped in a clean blanket in Rosalie's arms, staring at the room with Bella's eyes.

That was the part that kept catching me.

Not the warmth of her skin. Not the strange strength in her tiny hands. Not the rapid little heartbeat fluttering inside her chest, faster than any normal baby's, a constant hummingbird rhythm that Carlisle had already noted with fascination. Not the way she seemed too awake, too aware, too present for something that had entered the world less than two hours ago.

The eyes.

Bella's eyes.

Every time Ren opened them, it was impossible to forget she wasn't a normal day-old baby.

Edward was still downstairs in the medical room with Bella.

No one said much about that.

We all heard enough.

Movement. Low voices. Carlisle, once he and Esme returned, giving instructions with the calm of a man holding panic by the throat. Edward answering in short, clipped words. The sound of a heart that had gone silent for a time. Bella's heart had stopped during the worst of it, long enough for panic to take hold, before Edward's stubborn refusal to let her go somehow coaxed it back into motion. Now, beneath everything else, it beat again, slow but steadily gaining strength as the venom worked its way through her body, repairing the catastrophic damage the birth had done.

That was the sound beneath everything.

Bella.

Still there.

Ren made a small noise in Rosalie's arms, and everyone in the room looked at her.

Jacob, who had been standing near the doorway like he did not know whether he was allowed to exist inside the house anymore, took half a step forward before stopping himself.

Rosalie noticed.

Of course she noticed.

Her arms tightened, not enough to hurt Ren, but enough to make the message clear.

Jacob's jaw flexed. "I'm not going to do anything."

"No," Rosalie said coldly. "You already did enough by thinking about it."

Jacob flinched like she had hit him.

I shifted between them before that turned into something louder than the newborn in the room needed.

"Rosalie."

Her eyes flicked to me.

I did not glare. I did not threaten. I just looked at her.

She looked away first.

That was new.

Ren made another little sound, annoyed this time, like she objected to the tension. Then she pulled one hand free of the blanket.

Rosalie immediately softened. "What is it, sweetheart?"

Ren's tiny hand patted Rosalie's wrist.

The room changed.

Rosalie froze, but not in hunger this time.

Her face went blank.

Then soft.

Then devastated.

"What?" Esme asked quietly.

Rosalie blinked hard. "She's showing me, Bella. I think she is asking for her."

Carlisle, who had just come upstairs, asked, "Showing you?"

Rosalie looked down at Ren like she was seeing her for the first time all over again. "Not words. Pictures. Feelings. Like Edward said before."

Ren patted her again.

Rosalie drew in a breath she did not need.

"She remembers Bella holding her."

The room went quiet.

Even Emmett, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his face unusually serious, looked down.

Jacob's expression crumpled for a second before he turned his face away.

I swallowed.

"Can she do it with anyone?" I asked.

Carlisle's eyes sharpened immediately, grief and worry making room for science because apparently that was how he survived things.

"We need to find out," he said.

"Of course we do," Emmett muttered. "Baby's been alive for a couple of hours and already has homework."

Rosalie hissed at him.

Emmett raised both hands. "Educational homework. Very loving homework."

Ren looked toward him.

Emmett went still.

"She heard you," I said.

"I know," he whispered.

That made me look at him twice. Emmett did not whisper often.

Rosalie angled Ren slightly so she could see him better. "Do you want to meet Uncle Emmett?"

"Uncle Emmett?" I asked.

Emmett's face lit up instantly. "I like that."

I pointed at Ren. "She's not allowed to learn wrestling from you."

"She's half vampire," he said. "She'll be fine."

"She's also an infant."

"For now."

Carlisle closed his eyes for one second, like he was praying for patience. "Please do not begin planning combat training for the newborn."

"See?" I said. "Doctor agrees with me."

Emmett looked offended. "Doctor ruins everything."

Ren's hand stretched toward him.

Emmett stopped joking with me.

Rosalie hesitated, then looked at Carlisle.

Carlisle nodded once. "Carefully."

Rosalie moved closer but did not hand Ren over. Emmett offered one huge finger like he was approaching a soap bubble. Ren wrapped her tiny hand around it.

Emmett's whole face changed.

His mouth opened.

Then closed.

Then opened again.

"She showed me… me," he said slowly. "But…big."

"You are big," Jasper said from the doorway.

Seth stood beside him, peering around his shoulder.

"No, I mean…" Emmett looked confused, which was rare and a little funny even then. "Bigger. From her point of view. Like a mountain with hair."

I stared at him.

Seth made a choking sound.

Jasper's mouth twitched.

Emmett looked at Ren, deeply touched. "I'm your mountain?"

Rosalie sighed. "That is not what she meant."

"You don't know that."

Ren made a small, pleased noise.

Emmett pointed gently at her. "She agrees."

For one strange minute, the house almost felt normal.

Not normal in any real sense. There was a half-vampire baby in the room, Bella was downstairs with venom burning through her body, and Jacob Black was having the worst spiritual crisis of his life near the front door.

But there was humor.

Quiet laughter.

Careful laughter.

Carlisle cleared his throat and set a notebook on the table.

I looked at it.

He already had columns drawn.

Of course he did.

"Carlisle," I said, "did you make a baby database?"

"A growth record," he corrected.

Emmett leaned over to look. "That is absolutely a baby database."

Carlisle ignored him. "We need to track weight, length, temperature, heart rate, sleep cycles, feeding intervals, strength, communication, rate of development, and dietary tolerance."

Seth blinked. "She has been alive for little more than an hour."

"Exactly," Carlisle said. "We have no baseline."

Emmett nodded solemnly. "Baby Dracula's stat sheet."

Rosalie's head snapped up.

Emmett stepped behind Jasper.

Jasper looked mildly offended at being used as a shield.

"She needs a name for the record," Carlisle said, looking at me like I had somehow become involved in official naming law.

"Renesmee," Rosalie said immediately.

"Nessie," Jacob said from the doorway.

Every head turned toward him.

Jacob looked like he regretted having a mouth.

I stared at him. "Did you just nickname my niece after a lake monster?"

His face flushed. "It just came out."

"Put it back," I said in disgust.

Seth coughed into his hand, trying not to laugh at his Alpha.

Rosalie looked ready to remove Jacob from the house manually.

Ren, traitor that she apparently was, made a happy sound.

Jacob's face changed again.

That imprint look.

Like the world had narrowed to the size of her hand.

I hated it.

I also understood enough about imprinting to know that hating it would not change it.

Jacob took one cautious step forward. "She likes it."

"You don't know that," Rosalie snapped.

Ren reached toward him.

Rosalie went very still.

"No," she said.

Jacob stopped immediately.

Not because of Rosalie.

Because Ren made a frustrated little noise, and that hurt him more than any threat could have.

Carlisle's voice was gentle. "Rosalie, we need to understand the imprint too."

"I do not care about the imprint."

"I know," Carlisle said. "But Renesmee may."

That landed where Rosalie did not want it to.

She looked down at Ren, who was still reaching one tiny hand toward Jacob, her eyes strangely intent.

For several seconds, no one moved.

Then Rosalie walked toward him.

Slowly.

Jacob looked like he might bolt.

"Hands where I can see them," Rosalie said.

Jacob lifted both hands, palms out.

"Sit," she ordered.

He sat on the floor without arguing.

That alone told me exactly how deep the imprint had already sunk its claws in.

Rosalie lowered herself to the chair nearest him, keeping Ren secure in her arms. "You touch her hand only. Nothing else."

Jacob swallowed. "Okay."

Ren's fingers brushed his palm.

Jacob stopped breathing.

His eyes went unfocused.

I knew the look now. She was showing him something.

Not words.

Images.

Feeling.

Jacob's face folded in on itself. Pain first. Then wonder. Then something worse, because it was both.

"What did she show you?" Edward asked from the stairs.

Everyone turned.

Edward stood halfway down, pale even for him, his shirt ruined, hands stained dark where he had washed but not enough. His eyes were black and hollow, but focused.

"Bella?" Esme asked from behind him.

"The change has begun," Edward said. "Carlisle said I got enough venom in her heart to save her."

Edward's gaze moved to Jacob. "What did she show you?"

Jacob looked down at Ren's hand against his palm.

"Bella," he said roughly. "From before. Her voice. The warmth of her. The way she felt when she was near." His throat worked. "And me outside."

Edward went still.

Jacob did not look at him. "She knew I was there."

"Before she was born?" Carlisle asked, already reaching for the notebook.

Jacob nodded once.

Ren patted Jacob's hand again.

His eyes closed.

When they opened, he looked wrecked.

"It was her," he said.

Edward's expression sharpened.

Jacob looked up at him then, miserable and relieved and angry all at once. "The pull. The thing dragging me back here. The reason I couldn't leave, even when I wanted to. Even when I hated every second of being here." His voice broke. "It wasn't Bella. Not really."

Edward did not move.

Jacob looked at Ren.

"It was her."

The room was so quiet I could hear Bella's heart downstairs.

Edward closed his eyes.

For the first time since Bella had started asking for Jacob, something in his face eased.

Not happiness.

Not forgiveness.

Relief.

"Bella needs to hear that," Edward said quietly.

Jacob gave a humorless little laugh. "Yeah. I figured."

Edward opened his eyes. "So do you."

Jacob looked away.

I watched him for a second, then stepped closer.

"You understand what this means, right?"

Jacob's shoulders tightened. "That my life is over?"

"No," I said. "That your life is going to be very annoying."

Seth snorted.

Jacob glared at me weakly.

I nodded toward Ren. "She is not visiting the Cullens. She is a Cullen. Edward is her father. Rosalie is apparently her dragon. Carlisle is already building a medical database. Esme looks two minutes away from redecorating a nursery. Bella is going to wake up a Vampire."

Edward's face tightened at that.

Jacob's jaw worked.

"If you stay in her life," I said, "you are not tolerating vampires from a distance. You are dealing with them. Every day. As family."

Rosalie's eyes narrowed. "He is not family."

Ren made a sharp little sound.

Rosalie looked down.

Jacob's mouth twitched for half a second, then fell again. "I don't know how to do that."

"Then we all learn," Edward said. "For Renesmee's sake."

Jacob looked at him.

Edward's voice was quiet, but there was iron in it. "You do not get to hate her family and love her. Not if it makes her choose."

Jacob flinched.

Good.

He needed to know this from the beginning.

Ren released his hand and turned her head.

Toward the stairs.

Toward the room where Bella lay.

Edward noticed and was gone before anyone could say anything.

The house held its breath again.

Then Ren fussed.

Rosalie rocked her carefully, but Ren kept turning her head, searching.

"Hungry?" Esme asked.

Carlisle checked the time. "Possibly. Or overstimulated."

Emmett leaned toward the notebook. "Put down 'dramatic.'"

Rosalie glared.

He straightened. "Do not put down dramatic."

Carlisle smiled faintly, then moved to the small cooler he had brought in with him. "We should test feeding response."

Jacob's face twisted before he could stop it.

Ren looked at him.

His expression smoothed out so fast I almost laughed.

Almost.

"You okay there?" I asked.

"Shut up," Jacob muttered.

Carlisle warmed a small amount of blood and transferred it into a bottle because, apparently, that was the kind of day we were having.

Seth stared. "That is weird."

"You are a giant wolf," Jasper said mildly.

Seth nodded. "So, I am weird too. Still weird."

Ren took the bottle from Rosalie with both tiny hands.

That went into Carlisle's notebook immediately.

So did the speed with which she drank.

So did the fact that she did not spill a drop.

So did the way she looked…annoyed when the bottle emptied.

Emmett leaned closer. "She eats like Bella."

Edward's voice came from the stairs. "Do not tell Bella that."

He had returned silently.

His face was still ruined, but he had at least changed his clothes. He looked less frantic now. Not calm. Never calm. But the worst edge of immediate panic had dulled.

"Her heart?" Carlisle asked.

"Still beating," Edward said. "Getting faster."

No one spoke.

Ren looked toward him.

Edward crossed the room and sat beside Rosalie. For once, Rosalie did not object when he reached for his daughter.

She handed Ren over.

Edward held her like she was the only solid thing left in the world.

Ren touched his cheek.

Edward's eyes closed.

Whatever she showed him, it broke him quietly.

His shoulders folded inward, and he bowed his head until his forehead nearly touched hers.

"Thank you," he whispered.

I looked away.

Some moments did not need witnesses.

A soft step sounded on the stairs.

Edythe appeared first.

Then Leah.

My whole body turned toward them.

Leah was pale, but controlled. One hand rested on her belly, the other gripped Edythe's hand. Her eyes found mine first.

I nodded once.

She exhaled.

Then she saw Ren.

Everything in her face changed.

"Oh," Leah whispered.

Edward looked up, his expression guarded for half a second. Then he looked at Leah's stomach and understood why Edythe had kept her away. His face softened.

"She's safe," he said.

Leah swallowed. "Bella?"

"Changing," Edward said. "Carlisle thinks…" He stopped, because hope was still dangerous. "She's fighting."

Leah nodded.

Ren turned toward Leah.

Not slowly.

Immediately.

Her little hand reached out.

Edythe went still.

So did I.

Leah noticed all of us noticing and rolled her eyes, though her voice was softer than usual. "I'm pregnant, not explosive."

"You are carrying something explosive-adjacent," I said.

She gave me a look. "Do you want to sleep outside?"

"No."

"Then be useful and help me sit."

I did.

Carefully.

Edythe stayed close, but she did not stop Leah when Edward brought Ren over.

Rosalie looked unhappy about it.

Jacob looked like he wanted to crawl closer and knew better.

Edward crouched in front of Leah. "She wants to see you."

Leah looked down at Ren, then at me. "She wants?"

"She is very opinionated," I said.

Ren made a small sound.

Leah's mouth twitched. "Great. Another one."

Edward smiled faintly and placed Ren gently in Leah's arms.

Leah went rigid.

Then Ren tucked herself against Leah's stomach.

Not her chest.

Her stomach.

Everyone froze.

Ren pressed her tiny ear against Leah's belly and went still.

Leah's eyes widened.

I moved half a step before I stopped myself.

"Leah?"

"She's not hurting me," Leah said quickly.

Edythe's hand tightened on the back of the couch.

Ren's palm opened against Leah's shirt.

Leah's expression changed.

"What?" I asked.

Leah looked down, startled. "She's listening."

Ren touched Leah's skin where her shirt had ridden up slightly.

Then she reached for me.

I crouched beside them and let her tiny palm press against my cheek.

The room vanished.

Not literally.

But for one breath, I was somewhere else.

Warmth. Darkness. Sound.

A steady heartbeat.

Then another.

Close. Both strong. One layered over the other.

I felt Ren's curiosity more than I understood it. She was listening to the rhythm. To life. To the strange, hidden world inside Leah's body.

Then the image was gone.

I blinked.

Leah watched my face. "What did she show you?"

I looked at her belly.

"Your heart," I said slowly. "And the baby's."

Leah's hand moved over her stomach, protective and tender all at once.

Ren settled against her like that answer satisfied her.

No one said anything else.

There was nothing to say.

Not yet.

Carlisle, however, wrote something down.

I pointed at him. "Do not database my wife."

He did not look up. "I am documenting Renesmee's responses."

"That sounded like a yes."

"It is not about Leah."

Leah snorted. "It better not be." There was no heat in her tone.

Ren stayed against her belly, quiet for the first time since Rosalie and I brought her upstairs. Leah looked uncomfortable at first, then confused, then soft in a way I rarely got to see in front of other people.

Edythe sat beside her and brushed her fingers through Leah's hair.

For a few minutes, the house was gentle.

Ren listened.

Leah rested.

Jacob sat on the floor with his back against the wall, staring like he was still trying to understand how the worst day of his life had become the center of his universe.

Edward stayed near the stairs, one part of himself always downstairs with Bella.

And I sat beside Leah, watching my niece listen to our child.

It was strange.

It was terrifying.

It was also the first thing in days that felt purely alive.