What You Take With You When You Change

Disclaimer: The world of Twilight and all its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer.

A/N: This is just an alternate idea to the middle section of Breaking Dawn after Bella's change.

Chapter 1

The pain was gone. I heard noises in the house. It sounded normal...yet not. There was a TV on downstairs, something ESPN. I heard a wood floor creek as though someone had just lain down in front of the TV. I also heard Rosalie murmuring and a faint fast fluttering.

Someone was holding my hand. "Carlisle, she is coming around," Edward said.

"Just be calm and reassuring," Carlisle replied.

Thoughts went racing through my mind. I realized there was more room for thoughts, a lot more room but my memories were indistinct, like everything before was in a fog. I opened my eyes.

"Bella, every thing is going to be OK," Edward said and he started to lean over me.

I felt crowded all of a sudden. I sat up quickly and looked wildly around. Alice and Jasper were along one wall of the room. Carlisle and Esme were on the other side. I noticed that everything looked subtly different. The sunlight coming in through the window was brighter than I had ever seen. The color of the walls seemed more vibrant and Edward, my Edward, was beautiful. I had always thought his marble skin was evenly toned and classically perfect, but now it had a luminescence to it. It wasn't like the diamond shimmer when he was in sunlight, it was as though there was deeper layer with an indescribable pearlescent color all its own. I realized Carlisle, Esme and Alice were all similarly enhanced. Then I looked at Jasper. He was covered in crescent shaped scars. I vaguely remember him showing me the scar on his arm under a table lamp and it barely showed up against his pale skin. Now every mark was visible.

"Bella, look at me," Edward implored.

I looked away from Jasper and into his eyes. They were coal black and not the warm butterscotch I loved best.

"Your change is complete, my love" he said. "Everything is going to be fine."

I remembered my last few hours, or was it days? Time had lost its meaning. There had been a lot of pain and burning and before that a feeling of being paralyzed while in pain and burning. Before that… "My baby?"

"Renesmee is fine. She is healthy and is downstairs with Rosalie right now," Edward replied.

I needed to see her. I jumped off the table I had been lying on and headed for the door. Everyone in the room mobilized to block my exit from the room. Edward wrapped his arms around me from behind. Jasper was directly in front of me. I hissed at them.

"You can't see her yet," Edward said gently as he tightened his grip. I didn't understand. They were keeping me from my baby.

"Bella, you are a newborn," Carlisle said in a soothing tone. "You need to feed first."

That brought a new thought to the forefront of my mind, a red-hot burning in my throat and an incredible feeling of thirst. "Arrgg," I growled and broke Edward's grip. I backed up against the wall but was crouched slightly in a defensive posture.

"What is wrong with my daughter?" I snarled.

"Not a thing. She is absolutely perfect." Edward reassured me. He approached and reached for my hands, "But," he hesitated, "she is not all vampire. Her blood flows and she has a heartbeat."

I thought of the fluttering sound downstairs and my eyes grew wide in wonder. All I had was the image of her lying on my chest for that brief instant after she was born before she was swept out of the room.

My memories were still very fuzzy but things the Cullens had told me about being a newborn were starting to come back to me. You will have very little control. You will have incredible thirst. You will be incredibly strong. It would last for a year. Would I ever be able to hold my daughter? I started shaking and looking for any way out of the room.

Carlisle looked at Edward, "It's time to take her outside and let her run."

Esme spoke up for the first time. "Edward, Jasper and Carlisle will go with you. They will teach you what you need to know." I got the feeling they had discussed this beforehand. Esme looked firmly at her husband Carlisle, "Take good care of her."

Edward led me from the room followed by reassurances from Emse and Alice "We love you." The last thing I heard was Alice, "Didn't she turn out perfectly? I told you so."