( outfit in
previous chapter )

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chapter four
favor.

        "Rose."

Bella held out her hands for Renesmee as Christina continued to hold Jacob against the wall. He held his hands up as he stared down at the mother's angered eyes. His shirt was clenched in her fist as she kept pressure on his chest.

"Do you know what you've done?" Christina snapped, her razor teeth glistening in the light.

Seth wrapped his arms around the mother, making her growl at his burning touch. He locked her arms against her chest and stepped back a few steps.

"Charlie'll be here soon," Jacob stated, shaking his shirt out to get rid of the wrinkles Christina created. "I assume Alice is getting you sunglasses or something?"

"You assume way too much," Bella spat between her teeth. "What. Have. You. Done?"

"Blondie and Emmett woke me up this morning, going on and on about you all moving across country," Jacob explained. "Like I could let you leave. Charlie was the biggest issue there, right? Well, problem solved."

"Do you even realize what you've done?" Christina snapped, wiggly against Seth's hold to grab for Jacob again. "The danger you put him in?"

Jacob snorted. "I didn't put him in any danger. Except from you two. But with you two's super self-control, we should be good."

A snarl left Edward's mouth as he raced across the room to get into Jacob's face. Jacob leaned away from Edward's staggering angry.

"That's just a theory, mongrel," Edward snarled. "You think we should test Bella's control on Charlie— with her being only two days old? Did you even consider the physical pain you're putting Bella though? Even if she can resist? Or the emotional pain if she can't. I suppose what happens to Bella no longer concerns you."

Christina snarled one last time before shaking out of Seth's arms. He frowned as she moved towards Carlisle to grab hold of Greyson. Annie was nervously glancing between the adults in the room, not understanding the big problem. She anxiously grabbed Seth's hand as she watched Edward snarl at Jacob.

"Bella will be in pain?" Jacob question, his smile finally leaving his face.

"Like you shoved a white-hot branding iron down her throat," Edward snapped. Both newborns in the room swallowed thickly at the mention of the pain.

"But she's been perfectly fine with Annie in the room, and Annie's fully human, too," Jacob pointed out looking at the six year old.

Another snarl left Christina's throat, not appreciating Jacob's eyes on her daughter in an accusing way. "Even you should be able to smell that Annie smells more werewolf than human since Seth's been around frequently."

Jacob's voice lowered, "I didn't know."

"Then maybe you should have asked," Edward concluded harshly.

"You would have stopped me—"

"You should have been stopped—"

"This isn't even about me," Bella interrupted. "This is about Charlie, Jacob. How could you put him in danger this way? Do you realize it's death or immortal life for him now, too?" Bella's eyes filled with venom as the thought.

"Bella, relax. I didn't tell him anything you weren't planning to tell him," Jacob sighed.

"But he's coming here!"

"Yeah," he nodded. "That's the idea. Wasn't the whole let him make the wrong assumptions thing your plan? I think I provided a very nice red herring, if I do say so myself."

Carlisle wrapped his arm around his wife's waist as she started to shift side to side with anger. She was tense under his touch for the first time since they met; the anger getting the best of her. She was upset that Jacob told Charlie about the supernatural, something he should never have to worry about. He was supposed to be oblivious; now his life was in danger because of Jacob's selfish needs.

"I didn't tell him anything about you two," Jacob stated. "Not really. I told him about me— well, show is probably a better verb."

"He phased in front of Charlie," Edward growled.

"You, what?!" Both sisters shouted.

"He's brave. Brave as you two are. Didn't pass out or throw up, or anything," Jacob explained. "I gotta say, I was impressed. You should've seen his face when I started taking off my clothes, though. Priceless." He chuckled at the memory before meeting Christina's murderous eyes and stopping short.

"You absolute moron!" Bella snapped. "You could have given him a heart attack!"

"Charlie's fine." Jacob waved off. "He's tough. If you'd give this just a minute, you'll see that I did the both of you a favor."

"You have half of that, Jacob," Bella growled. She shifted her feet as she held closer to Renesmee, trying to keep her anger in check. "You have thirty seconds to tell me every single word before I give Renesmee to Rosalie and rip your miserable head off. Seth won't be able to stop me this time."

"Jeez, Bella. You didn't used to be this melodramatic. Is this a new thing?"

"Twenty-six seconds."

Jacob sighed with a roll of his eyes. He sat down on the couch behind him, getting comfortable on the white cushions as the vampires around the room either stared at him to tell the story, or glared at him in anger.

"So, I knocked on Charlie's door this morning and asked him to come for a walk with me," Jacob started. "He was confused, but when I told him it was about you two, and Bella was back in town, he followed me out to the woods. I told him that you weren't sick anymore, and that things were a little weird with both of you, but good. He was about to take off to come here, but I told him I had to show him something first. And then I phased."

"I want every word," Bella growled out between clenched teeth. Her lip pulled over her front teeth in warning.

"Well, you said I had thirty seconds— okay, okay." He waved off the glares. "Let's see... I phased back and got dressed, and then after he started breathing again, I said something like 'Charlie, you don't live in the world you thought you lived in. The good news is, nothing has changed, except now you know. Life'll go on the same way it always has. You can go right back to pretending you don't believe any of this.'

"It took him a minute to get his head together, and then he wanted to know what was going on with you both. I told him that you both were actually sick, but you were fine now— it was just that you both had to change a little bit in the process. He already saw how Christina was different from how she was human, so I said that Bella looked more like Christina than Renee."

Edward hissed as both sisters looked on in horror. Carlisle tightened his hold on his wife, trying to comfort her in the slightest. Greyson was looking anxiously up at his mother, seeing that she was angered. He whined before patting her chest, getting her attention back down to him. She met his green eyes, before letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"After a few minutes, he asked, real quietly, if you two turned into an animal, too. And I said, 'they wish they were this cool!'" Jacob laughed, no one around the room joining in his humor.

Rosalie scoffed in disgust, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"I started to tell him more about werewolves, but I didn't even get the whole word out— Charlie cut me off and said he'd 'rather not know the specifics.' Then he asked if you both knew what you were getting yourselves into when you both got married, and I said 'sure, they've known all about this for years, since they first moved to Forks.' He didn't like that very much. I let him rant til he got it all out of his system. After he calmed down, he just wanted two things. He wanted to see you both, and I said it would be better if he gave me a head start to explain."

"Better," Christina repeated sarcastically. "What was the other thing, Jacob?"

Jacob's lips turned up into a smile once more. "You'll both like this. His main request is that he be told as little as possible about all of this. If it's not absolutely essential for him to know something, then keep it to yourselves. Need to know, only."

Bella's shoulders relaxed only slightly. "I think we can handle that part."

"Other than that, he'd just like to pretend things are normal." Jacob's smile turned smug at the end of his story, making Christina hiss in displeasure. She was still upset with him for doing this in the first place with little to no warning.

"What did you tell him about Greyson and Renesmee?" Christina asked, making his smile falter for a quick moment; if anyone blinked they would have missed it.

"Oh, yeah." He nodded his head. "I told him that you both inherited a new little mouth to feed." Jacob looked towards Carlisle. "It was easy convincing him that you adopted Greyson since it's rumored that you adopted everyone." He turned his eyes towards Edward. "It was harder to explain that you adopted a daughter. Charlie was way past shocked at this point, but he did ask if you both officially adopted the kiddos. I told him, 'yeah, congrats grandpa, two more grandchildren.' He even smiled a little."

"But they grow so fast," Bella whispered looking down at her daughter still in her arms.

"I told him that they were more special than any of us put together," he explained, looking solely at Renesmee. He got up from the couch and started walking towards Bella and her daughter. Renesmee reached out towards Jacob, but Bella just held her tighter.

"I told him, 'trust me, you don't want to know about this. But if you can ignore all the strange parts, you're going to be amazed.' And then I told him that if he could deal with that, you all would stick around for a while, and he would have a chance to get to know them. But that if it was too much for him, you all would leave. He said, 'as long as no one forced too much information,' he'd deal."

Jacob waited, with a smile on his face, as he looked between both sisters, both of them looking back at him with a straight face.

"I'm not going to thank you," Christina snapped. "You're still putting our dad at a great risk."

His smile didn't falter as he looked down at Bella. "Still friends?"

A very small smile twitched on the corner of Bella's mouth. Jacob held out his hand, waiting to meet Bella's cooled temperature. She shifted Renesmee in her arms before meeting his hand in the middle. Neither of them flinched from the temperature difference as they shook hands.

"If I don't kill Charlie tonight, I'll consider forgiving you for this," Bella stated as they left each other's hands go.

"When you don't kill Charlie tonight, you'll owe me huge." Jacob's smile widened, and Christina didn't know that it was possible. He held out his arms towards Renesmee, who was still anxiously looking between her mother and her imprint. "Can I?"

"I'm actually holding her so that my hands aren't free to kill you, Jacob. Maybe later," Bella answered.

Jacob's smile faltered as he sighed. He didn't push the new mother as he took a step back, dropping his arms to his sides.

Alice finally returned to the living room before narrowing her eyes at the wolves. "You, and you." She pointed to Jacob and Seth. "If you must stay, get over in the corner and commit to being there for a while. I need to see. Bella, you'd better give him Renesmee, too. You'll need your arms free, anyway."

Jacob smiled triumphantly as he grabbed Renesmee out of Bella's arms. She slowly started to panic as what was happening started to become reality. Jacob narrowed his brows in concern as he moved away from the new mother to the corner of the room where Seth was already sitting. Annie was sitting next to him, passing him colored pencils to help her finish the picture in her coloring book.

Christina sighed as Alice handed her the usual green colored contacts. Carlisle took Greyson out of her arms, making him whine slightly from being separated from his mother when she was in distress.

"I'm alright," Christina whispered towards her son. She brushed her fingers lightly over his cheek, making a small dimple appear from his smile.

"These will irritate your eyes," Alice explained, holding out another set of contacts towards Bella. "They won't hurt, they just cloud your vision. It's annoying. They also won't match your old color, but it's still better than bright red, right?"

"When did you—"

"Before you left on the honeymoon," Alice explained, already knowing her question. "I was prepared for several possible futures."

Bella nodded her head before slipping the contacts into her eyes. Christina chuckled as Bella blinked a couple times, feeling the film on her eyes. "I see what you mean," she muttered. "How do I look?" she asked as she turned to look at Edward.

"Gorgeous. Of course—"

"Yes, yes, she always looks gorgeous," Alice interrupted, making Christina chuckle lowly. "It's better than red, but that's the highest commendation I can give. Muddy brown. Your brown was much prettier."

"She told me the same about my eye color," Christina muttered towards her sister.

"Hush." She waved her hand towards the mother of two. "Keep in mind, those won't last forever— the venom in your eyes will dissolve them in a few hours. So if Charlie stays longer than that, you'll have to excuse yourself to replace them. Which is a good idea, anyway. Humans need bathroom breaks." She turned her sight back towards Christina. "Give her some pointers on acting human from a newborn's perspective while I stock the powder room with contacts."

"How long do I have?" The brunette asked.

"Charlie will be here in five minutes. Keep it simple," she explained before disappearing from view again.

Christina sighed before walking towards her sister. "The main thing to remember is to not sit so still, or move too fast."

"Sit if he does," Emmett added. "Humans don't like to just stand around."

"Let your eyes wander every thirty seconds or so," Jasper interjected. "Humans don't stare at one thing for long."

"Cross your legs for about five minutes, and then switch to crossing your ankles for the next five," Rosalie said.

Bella nodded, taking in all the advice.

"Try to remember to blink," Christina reminded. "At least three times a minute."

Emmett darted to the television remote and turned on a channel showing a college football team. A good facade to make it seem casual in the living room.

"Move your hands, too," Jasper spoke up again. "Brush your hair back or pretend to scratch something."

"I said Christina," Alice complained as she sped back into the room. "You're going to overwhelm her."

Bella shook her head. "No, I think I got it. Sit, look around, blink, fidget."

"Good." Christina nodded her head in approval. "You got this."

Jasper frowned from the corner of the room. "You'll be holding your breath as much as possible, but you need to remember to move your shoulders a little, to make it look like you're breathing."

Bella inhaled deeply, before nodding once again.

Edward hugged her into his side. "You can do this," he muttered softly.

"Two minutes," Alice stated, making Christina and Bella freeze with nerves.

Christina wasn't this nervous to face Charlie the first time— because she hoped he wouldn't catch any details that would get him to conclude what she turned into. But now, Jacob put into his head that something was different, and she was afraid of him finding out.

"Bella," Alice called. "Maybe you should start out on the couch. You've been sick, after all. That way he won't see you move right at first."

Bella awkwardly moved towards the couch, making Christina cringe. Bella frowned at her sister's reaction, knowing that she didn't succeed in her attempt.

"It'll be alright," Christina reminded. "You'll notice how he walks and acts, and it'll be easier to copy that."

Bella nodded as her breathing started to become heavy again. "Jacob, I need Renesmee."

Jacob frowned, but didn't move from his corner.

"Bella, that doesn't help me see," Alice complained.

"I need her," Bella argued back. "She helps me remain calm."

"Fine," Alice growled out. "Hold her as still as you can and I'll try to see around her."

Both Jacob and Alice sighed at the same time, as the wolf finally moved from the corner to deliver Bella's baby.

Christina moved over towards Carlisle as Greyson held out his arms for his mother. She gave him a smile, letting him grab onto her hand and hold it to his body. "We're gonna need your help, little bud," Christina whispered down to him.

His bright green eyes stared right back at Christina, letting her know that he was listening and understanding her words.

"Someone very special to us is coming by to visit," she started. "He's different than us— he's just like your sister. Fragile, and warm. His blood will effect you more than your sister's because it's untainted. But you mustn't bit him."

He nodded his small head, reaching his arms back out towards his mother. She gave him a soft smile before pulling him into her arms.

"Annie," Carlisle called over, looking at the six year old from the corner of the room. She glanced up at him with bright eyes. He kneeled down to the ground as she got up from the floor to meet him. "Your grandfather is coming over."

A smile broke out on her face.

"He's coming to see your aunt and mother, but you can't mention how they're different, okay? It's our little secret," Carlisle explained lightly.

She nodded her head knowingly. "Okay, daddy."

He landed a kiss on her forehead. "Good girl."

Everyone became quiet as tires drove down the dirt road leading to the house. Christina's grip on Greyson tightened; not enough to hurt him, but enough to keep her grounded as her nerves started up again. She knew as long as she kept Greyson in her arms, his scent would be strong enough to subdue Charlie's sweet scent.

No one moved as footsteps came up the driveway, clunking against the stairs before three knocks came to the front door. Carlisle landed one last kiss on his wife's head before walking towards the front door.

Greyson whined, gaining his mother's attention again. She gave him a smile, trying to calm down like he wanted. She took one last deep breath in through her mouth as the front door opened.

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Damn, Jacob. You dumb dumb.