Chapter One

Bella

I found myself treated like spun glass by everyone, it was obvious this baby was important to everyone and so far I hadn't had any problems but as Charlotte pointed out it was early days and I knew she was nervous although she did all she could to make life easy, I wasn't even allowed to cook my own meals! Jasper and Peter were a little overwhelmed by the situation, they wandered around and were relieved when Charlotte suggested they fix the paddock fencing that had been damaged by a high wind.

"Men are useless at these times Bella, or at least that's what my mom used to tell me."

I was curious, I knew nothing about Charlotte's past,

"Did you come from a large family?"

"I guess so although all families were larger in those days. I had four brothers and three sisters and they were all younger than me so you can guess who got saddled with babysitting the youngest."

I regarded her for a moment,

"Did you want children of your own Charlotte? This must be hard for if you did."

She turned and smiled reassuringly at me.

"I've always been philosophical Bella, there's no point craving what you can never have but I am looking forward to this little one. It will give me an opportunity to hold a baby, something I never thought I would ever do again."

The guys came in then covered in wood shavings and it was clear they had been involved in a mock fight, not the first one either, Pete and Jazz were like children sometimes. Pete's eyebrows rose questioningly as he saw me devouring a plate of scrambled eggs on toast washed down with a tumbler of milk. Charlotte grinned,

"It seems baby Whitlock is hungry again, we might need a bigger fridge the way things are going."

"Fridge? We're gonna need a fuckin' walk in freezer. Why aren't you the size of a blimp Bella?"

I merely stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed,

"Good to see you looking so well girl, I was just instructing your idiot boyfriend here on the best way to stack firewood. He dropped most of it, I sure hope he's gonna do better with this baby when it arrives or I'll need to buy it padding and a safety helmet."

He ran for the door followed closely by Jazz and a few seconds later we heard a loud splash, one or both had ended up getting a dunking in the horse trough!

Jasper

Both Peter and I were soaked through but it was only his horse play that stopped me from becoming frantic with worry, Bella was doing so well but I was waiting for the boot to fall as it surely would. Nothing in our relationship had been simple or plain sailing so why should this pregnancy be any different?

I showered quickly and went back downstairs only to find Bella curled up asleep under a throw, a smile of contentment on her face so I went to sit on the floor at her head and put my hand gently on the slight swelling on her belly.

She sighed,

"Hi Daddy. Who won?."

I kissed her,

"Me of course, now go back to sleep. you need your rest. You're looking after my little one too."

She patted my cheek and drifted off again while I concentrated on the warmth I could feel through my fingers and knew that baby was content and I prayed it would stay that way.

Bella

We soon settled into a routine, and I found myself feeling more peaceful and calm here. Jasper stayed with me most of the time unless I chased him out of the house to hunt, he became more concerned the larger I got and hated us being separated although he knew I was safe enough with CHarlotte and Pete.

Charlotte was a great help as I started to grow and now I could hardly see my feet I needed her or Jasper to help me in and out of the shower and up and down stairs. Somehow I knew she would look after me as if we were sisters not just friends just as she had since we first met.

Emmett had called to ask if they could come visit but thus far Jasper had just shaken his head so I made our apologies but I was fast running out of excuses and I knew poor Kerri was bursting to ask how I was but that she'd kept her promise not to tell the others including Em or we would have heard before now.

Just as I began to feel this was going to be easy and I would cope fine things started to go wrong and I soon began to panic. It started with nausea, I felt sick, very sick, and couldn't keep anything down although poor Charlotte tried everything, soup, thickened drinks, malted drinks, fruit juice, but everything came up soon after going down. Jasper sat with me, helplessly rubbing my back or emptying bowls and getting cold flannels for my head but after a week of this, I could tell he was beginning to crack as I saw him looking longingly at the phone and could guess what he was thinking.

I knew he was feeling useless and frustrated as I became weaker and we both understood that although I was now four months pregnant in human terms we had no idea if it was long enough for the baby to survive if we were forced to ask Carlisle to deliver it. That was my main reason for insisting I didn't want Carlisle called. I wasn't sure how much longer Jazz would continue to accept my decisions he was so concerned about my welfare and wouldn't leave my side. I had to insist he went hunting but even then he was gone for such a short time I knew he was grabbing anything he could find close to the house. Sometimes when he came back he looked disheveled and dirty because he wasn't concentrating on what he was doing and then I would laugh and call him my wild man.

It got to the point where the mere sight or smell of food was enough to start me off and poor Peter had taken to going out for all day walks with Lucky just to get away from it all. In the end, the poor dog knew what was coming and would hide and force Peter to track him down. I just wished Jazz would go with them and get away from the sick room for a while.

Jasper

Bella was beginning to look so fragile that I could hardly bear to leave her and when I returned from hunting I would crash out beside her holding her hand and praying that she would keep something down before starvation took its toll on her and our baby. On this occasion though something was different, she studied my hand as if she had never seen it before, turning it until I saw what interested her, there was a smear of blood on the palm, I really should have washed up before I sat with her. Then she did something very strange, she brought my hand up to her mouth and licked it then pulled back and looked at it again. I watched as she took my other hand looking for something and when it dawned on me what she was looking for I opened it. On the palm was a large blood stain from the deer I'd killed earlier and she licked this too then looked at me, a gleam in her eye.

Bella

I knew what was wrong with me as soon as I tasted the deer blood.

"Jasper, our little one is hungry. I think its metabolism is more like yours than mine and it's not getting enough nourishment from human food."

He looked at me, eyes sparkling with a desperate hope,

"What are you saying, Bella?"

I smiled and patted my huge belly,

"I need blood, I need to get blood to the baby and I guess the best way will be to drink it if you can get me some".

He looked at me horrified,

"You want me to get you blood to drink?"

I nodded, it seemed a sensible idea to me so why not to him too?

"It's the only way I can think to get blood to our baby."

He glanced longingly over at the telephone but I shook my head,

"No Jasper, I don't want Carlisle involved unless I have to. We've managed OK on our own so far and I'm sure this will work."

He nodded grudgingly but still looking worried,

"I don't think you should have to do that, Bella."

I turned his head so he was looking into my eyes,

"I'll do anything, whatever it takes to keep our baby safe. Now go...bring me back a nice juicy elk or whatever else you can find."

He went out reluctantly and I wasn't sure if he would do as I asked or contact Carlisle for his advice, I just hoped he would trust that I knew what baby and I needed but we would just have to wait and see.

Jasper

Peter thought it was a joke until he saw my expression,

"You're serious aren't you? Well OK Major, if you're sure about this. Don't you think maybe we should get some expert advice first though?"

"In all honesty that's what I would prefer to do but I can't call Carlisle behind Bella's back, not as she's so set against having his help. Since she found out he asked me to agree to a termination when she was sick she just doesn't trust him."

"Yeah well, I don't blame her for that. What does Charlotte say?"

"She says we should trust Bella's instincts."

"Then let's get to it, does she have any preferences?"

"Nope and I'm not sure she wants all the grisly details, let's just see what we can find."

He followed me muttering about how much better it would be if we gave her human blood but as I knew she was going to become a vampire eventually I didn't want her to know the taste of human blood.

It didn't take long to track down an elk but then Peter started the questions again,

"OK, so now what do we do Major? Kill it and take the body back to drain it or should I go get Lucky's collar and lead? Fuck, I've found myself doing some really bizarre things since Bella came along!"

In the end, we broke its neck and carried it back before draining the blood into Bella's empty soda bottles.

When we took the first bottle in Bella glanced apprehensively at it and I was quick to point out that she didn't have to go through with this but she just smiled and put a hand on her enormous belly.

"Hey, Junior is hungry so pass it over."

I watched nervously as she put the bottle to her mouth and slowly tipped it up. For a moment I thought she was going to throw up but then she swallowed, wrinkling her nose.

Bella

I knew Jasper wasn't happy about this but I also knew instinctively that blood was the food our little one was craving and I wouldn't let the baby starve, so I took a deep breath and took a drink of the still warm blood. The taste didn't bother me, although it was a little salty, it was the smell, I'd always hated the smell of blood, metallic and tangy but then that I noticed Jasper's eyes, they were darker than normal, and it hit me that he was sitting here, right next to his food source and he was thirsty too so I smiled a little self-consciously and offered him the bottle,

"Why don't we dine together?"

His eyes widened in surprise but he took it and drained the rest before taking another bottle from Peter and passing it to me. It felt like a real family sitting to a meal and the feeling warmed me further.

"This has got to be the most disgusting thing I have ever seen so if you'll excuse me I'm going out to find myself a raven haired beauty to drain."

I threw the empty bottle at Peter, missing of course, and he sauntered out laughing at his own stupid joke.