Bella POV

"Rosalie?" I whispered. "It's Bella. Please. You have to help me."

"Help you? I tried to help you, and you've disregarded my advice. You're a lost cause, Bella."

I took a deep breath... I knew that trying to convince Rosalie to look past her disapproval of my choices was going to be difficult; I only hoped that this time, I would be making a choice she approved of.

"Rosalie," I sobbed, my voice breaking with grief. "I'm pregnant and I'm scared and Edward is going to kill the baby if I don't find a way to stop him. You're the only person who can help me."

The feral snarl was so loud that I jumped, almost dropping the tiny cell phone as I gasped and felt my face heat up.

"Pregnant?! How is that possible? How dare you come to me for assistance? Do you honestly think that I would help you get the one thing that I have always wanted?" she hissed.

The line abruptly went dead.

Emmett POV

I was on my way back from hunting when I heard it... Rose having a first-class freak-out. I closed my eyes and shook my head, steeling myself for whatever I was going to find. I mean, I'm a big dude, but Rose is scary when she's pissed. I'm not afraid to admit it; the woman kinda makes me nervous when she gets on a good rampage. Remembering all of my shit that she'd smashed over the years made me run a little faster. I might not have any parlor-trick mind talents going on like some of the others, but I definitely have a major Damage Control skill. Living with Rose, you have to adapt, man. It's like survival of the fittest or something.

When I cleared the river and sprinted into the house, I was prepared for, I don't know, trivial Rose shit. I'm not saying that she's a drama queen or anything; I'm just saying that it doesn't take much to set her off. I was so not prepared for what I walked into.

Alice was all bunched up in the floor, her little forehead resting on her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs. Jazz was kneeling beside her, trying to send out some calming vibes, but I guess he was having to suck up too much of the other stuff going on in the room to really get the job done. Esme's face was all crumpled up, crying as much as a vampire can cry, holding on to Carlisle with both hands. Carlisle was just... I don't know. I've never seen Carlisle like that. He was all concerned about something, and he looked like even his patience was wearing thin, trying to reason with Rose. And Carlisle has some serious patience.

"Babe, what's going on?" I flipped my diffusing-a-Rose-situation switch, putting my arms around her. "What's got the most beautiful girl in the world all worked up?"

"Don't start that shit with me right now, Emmett! Bella's pregnant."

Her mouth twisted up like the word tasted bad, and I knew right then that there was going to be no reasoning with Rosalie. Fuck.

"Okay, well, I know that's bound to upset you, babe. We'll just go up to Denali for a while--wait, Bella's what?!"

"She's pregnant, Emmett. I didn't know to warn them," Carlisle whispered. He looked...haunted or something. Majorly guilty.

"Well, what does that mean? Like, Edward knocked her up, pregnant?" I have to admit, for a second there I was thinking that maybe my new little sister was using that keeping-Edward-out-of-her-head thing to her advantage. It would be hard to blame her; I could hear how much Eddie was working her up when she stayed here, then getting too scared to finish the job. Girls have needs, man. Especially human ones, with all those hormones and shit.

"How does that happen? I mean, if there was any way to reproduce, Rose would have figured it out by now." Totally not the right thing to say. Rose went all apeshit.

"Because she's human, Emmett. She ovulates. Her body can change. Obviously you men still have the ability to spawn, but nobody knew that because most of us aren't such gluttons for punishment that we'd even have enough interest in a goddamned human to give it a shot! She's pregnant, and Edward is being his overprotective, dramatic self; so scared that he's hurt his precious Bella that he's insisting on Carlisle performing an emergency abortion. She called me, Emmett! Called me and asked me to help! Help her do the one thing I can't do, just so she can have another thing that I can't! She's just doing this because she wants to throw it in my face that I don't have the ability! Bella didn't want children! She signed up for this, knowing it wasn't an option. Now that she knows it is, she's determined to keep it, even though it'll probably kill her."

"Rosalie! She's not doing this to throw anything in your face! Everything in the world is not about you, you self absorbed bi-" I cut Alice off at the pass, right there.

"Whoa, Alice. Rose is just upset. No need for name calling, here." I tightened my hold on Rose, just in case she decided to spring. She's unpredictable, like that. Besides, she'd have to be if she wanted the chance to make a move on Alice. "Babe, Bella's not like that. She wouldn't try to hurt you on purpose. She probably thinks that you'd be the only one willing to help her, what with you wanting kids and not being all clouded with...well, love for her. I mean, she knows that you don't like her. She probably thinks that you'd run with the chance to hear the patter of little feet around here."

She narrowed her eyes at me, giving me the "fuck-you" look. Man, I was just digging myself a deeper hole every time I opened my mouth. So much for my "ability" to smooth Rose over.

"I. Am. Not. Helping. Her. I'll hold her down myself while Carlisle performs the procedure. I will not sit here and watch this happen. I don't care what she wants or how safe it may or may not be. Over my pile of ashes will Bella Swan have a child."

Now, Carlisle is always telling us that a profound change is completely altering for us, since we don't change very often. Well, hardly ever. I never really thought about it, because I've been mostly content with things since I woke up from the bear attack. I never wanted anything to change. But right there, in that minute, something did change. I looked at this beautiful creature in my arms, that I had loved past any kind of reason for damn near a hundred years, and felt disgust. I mean, sure, we've had our fights, but I never took them too seriously. Mostly, they were just a different kind of foreplay, you know? But right then, it was all different. I couldn't understand her; Bella was so sweet, so trusting. That girl just marched into a family full of vampires and made herself right at home, trusting us and believing that we wouldn't hurt her. Even after Jasper damn near killed her, she still loved us all. Even Rose, no matter how shitty she treated her; Bella loved her. Now she was in this situation, and all she wanted was for us to keep her safe from her own husband for a little while. And Rose was willing to just fuck her over because she was jealous.

I took a step back from her, looking down into her perfect face and trying to go back to the way I felt a few minutes before. I didn't want this to happen. I didn't know any other kind of existence. But right then, that didn't matter. Rose was fucking up, and I couldn't deal with it.

"Carlisle, what's the problem here? I mean, yeah, it might be dangerous. But we don't know that, right? It could all work out okay, couldn't it?"

Everybody was so quiet it was creepy, except for Rosalie, hissing and looking at me like I'd grown another eye. I ignored her for the first time since she found me in the mountains, and turned to look at Carlisle. Before he could answer, Alice's tiny little head snapped up and she looked fierce.

"I can't see her, Emmett! Ever since she decided to keep the... fetus. She just blurred right out of sight. So there's no way to know what's going to happen. I love her, Emmett. We can't just sit here and let her die because none of us knew to be prepared for this!"

"Alice is right. Edward's vampire nature is an unknown variable here. There is no way of knowing how much of those traits may have been passed on. The only thing that we know right now is that Bella's pregnancy is progressing very, very rapidly. When she returns home, I will examine her. I am trying to reserve judgment until I've seen her, but at the moment, I must say that I agree with Edward. However, I will not do anything against Bella's will."

"Bella's tough, Carlisle. She's survived way scarier things than a baby for the last couple of years. Sure, we've helped her through it, but she's held up pretty well. I don't have a problem with helping her live through something else. So, the kid is dangerous. So what? We'll check it out, see what's going on after you do your doctor thing, and we'll wait. If things get hairy, we know that we could always change her. It's not like Edward wasn't planning to do it soon anyway."

I looked at Rosalie after I finished my little speech, and it felt like I was looking across the Grand goddamned Canyon or something between us. I have to tell you, it scared the shit out of me to realize that, for the first time ever, we weren't on the same page. Shit, we weren't even in the same library.

Carlisle POV

I looked into the face of my son, and saw his childlike determination and faith in Bella's strength. I wanted so much for him to be right, for this situation to be so easily resolved. At the same time, I saw the chasm he had placed between his mate and himself. Knowing their natures as well as I did, I feared for his marriage. Rosalie was so stubborn, and she held such irreparable grudges against anyone who dared to cross her. Until this moment, Emmett had always been unflappable, humoring her whims and following her lead. With his decision to support Bella in this one thing that was such a sensitive subject for Rosalie, I knew that she would never fully forgive him. At the same time, it seemed almost as if there was a visible change in Emmett as well. He was looking at Rosalie in a way that I had never seen him look at anyone; realization mingled with disgust on his boyish face. In that moment, I feared for my family.