Epilogue: Perfect

Nearly a year later, I was still getting used to Quil not shifting anymore. Today was the day of the babies' birthday party. All ten of them were a year old today. Looking back at the first year of their lives, I couldn't believe how fast it had gone. One moment Quil and I were setting their cribs up, the next we were sitting in the living room teaching them how to walk. Quil was currently attending the community college. He was getting his degree in secondary teaching. The tribal school only had one teacher for the high school, but they were looking for a second one to teach just the ninth and tenth graders. I for one knew I would have had a more fulfilling high school experience if I hadn't been taught by the same teacher for four years in a row.

The Eagles had very generously offered up their house for the birthday party. It made sense, considering that was the only place we could all really fit. The Dapoli clan had moved down here shortly after their visit. They lived way on the outskirts of Forks. It was a good twenty minutes drive from our house. They had built their house from the foundation up. Esme had designed it. It was smaller than the big white house, but it was much larger than anything we had in La Push. There were seven people living in it though, and they had the money, so good for them.

Everyone was going to be at the babies' birthday party. Even the Denali clan was flying down. The Cullens were driving; hoping to attract less attention by staying out of the airport. They had started the drive about a day ago, but they made really good time. We had seen them come tearing into La Push around 8:30 last night. Both Jason and Jayna had said "Whoa!" in their little baby voices. They were easily impressed.

Once at the birthday party, there were lots of kids for Jason and Jayna to play with, and parenting with a mostly adult population got much easier. We opened up the kid's presents with them as soon as everyone got there. Our kids were very distracted by the bags the presents came in, and did not understand that toys would come out of all of the cardboard boxes they had received.

It had been interesting in the last year to see how all of the different babies had developed differently. Aubrey, Seth and Abbey's little girl, had turned out to be painfully shy. She was a huge daddy's girl, and spent most of the party with her siblings or her parents. She was terrified of the Denali's, whom she had never seen before in her life. Kaylie and Collin's son Mitchell was very smart. He was way more advanced at talking than any of the other kids. He loved his big sister Anna to pieces. Sydney, Lauren and Brady's daughter, was just like Mitchell in personality; very outgoing. She was trying to talk, but sometimes only Lauren and Brady could understand her. Brooke and Embry's daughter Bridgette was very rambunctious. She was well behaved, but could climb faster than any child I had ever seen. There hadn't been any emergency room trips yet, but I saw that in their near future. Nathan and Kaylie had adjusted well to having Aidan in the house. He was a very calm child, and reminded me very much of Nick when he was a baby. Kyle and Nicole had had a hard time the first few months with Logan, but he eventually got over his colic, was now a very sweet, happy little boy. Wyatt and Ashley had little Mackenzie to keep them busy. She was the first of the baby's to walk, and was now the fastest runner by far. They were constantly chasing after her. Lyssie and Michael were overjoyed with Noah. He was the happiest baby I had ever held, and smiled whenever you looked at him.

As for us, Jason and Jayna were both very similar in personality. They both were somewhere between shy and outgoing, but also both had little fear of anything. They were best friends with each other, and I hoped that would never end. Neither of them were picky eaters, but had a strange fear of cats. Quil and I figured they would grow out of it. Jayna was beautiful. She looked exactly as I had when I was younger, only with some of Quil's face. Jason was the same, only he looked more boyish than his sister. We had gotten his first hair cut just a few weeks earlier, and now he looked especially like a little boy.

Nick and Zemati were adorable. He had adjusted well to the now much smaller pack in the last year. She was roughly the size of a five year old. She was as gorgeous as the first day I had seen her, and wise beyond her years. She had no talents to speak of, but neither did any of her family members. Amari was now perfectly fluent in English, and I had grown to be quite fond of her. We had both bonded as young new moms, more so than I had thought we would. I was still a little nervous around her, but she was very understanding of why. So far, she hadn't fallen off the wagon for her diet, but sometimes it was very hard. Jai, Salena, Sanjiv, Kahini, and Mayur all liked America very much. While they didn't get out much, they said the animal selection was better, and there were more opportunities for them.

Currently, Jai and Salena were both working as charity workers for a non-for-profit organization that helped sponsor children in third world countries. Sanjiv, Amari, Kahini, and Mayur were attending classes at the Community College, and were planning on transferring to an online University sometime soon. Zemati had to be kept hidden for most of her life. Just like Nessie had, she had never been into Forks or La Push for very long. We couldn't have people asking questions until her growth rate had stabilized some. Nessie had stabilized at around four, when she had appeared to be around fourteen. She had a long few years ahead of her, but probably wouldn't even remember her first few years in the long run. She had a big house and yard, and lots of La Push cousins to play with whenever she wanted. She seemed happy to me.

We got home around midnight that night, with two sleeping babies, and lots of presents to bring in. Our kids were pretty good at staying asleep as we moved them from the car, so we just got them changed (while they were half asleep I might add), and tucked them into their cribs. I showered, and slid into bed with Quil. I curled into his now just-barely-hotter-than-mine body, and fell asleep. Everything was simply perfect.