( outfit for
chapter above )

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chapter six
epoch.

"Carlisle!"

Both Christina and Carlisle glanced up from watching Annie's pick of a movie. Carlisle moves faster than Christina did, but they both stood up as Bella and Edward came into the living room; the former holding her hand to her chest with a bag of frozen pees on it.

"What happened?" Christina asked immediately as she reached Bella's side. She looked over Bella's hand that was in Carlisle's grasp, noticing the slight bruising around the wrist with worry. "Did you fall or something?"

"Uh," Bella cleared her throat. "I punched Jacob in the face."

Christina blinked in shock before making eye contact with Edward with a silent question. He nodded his head as Carlisle pulled Bella gently to the couch before speeding out of the room to grab his medical bag.

Both Edward and Christina stepped out on to the front porch, and the mother waited patiently for Edward to explain what happened.

"Jacob forced himself on Bella, and kiss her without her consent," Edward explained, his usual golden hues turning into a murky brown. "She punched him in retaliation."

Christina was silent as she brewed over what Edward said before almost snarling under her breath. "I'm going to fucking kill him—"

"That's not all," Edward interrupted, with furrowed brows. "You should know that I found something within Jacob's thoughts, and you're not going to like it."

Christina eyes narrowed as her usually calm temper boiled under the surface. "Okay..."

"Seth Clearwater imprinted on Annie."

Christina froze as the words registered in her brain. She tightly gripped her fists as anger started brewing from the pit of her stomach. "They're both dead," she growled out before turning back into the house.

Christina walked angrily past Carlisle, Bella, and Annie before rummaging through the closet in the hallway. Edward followed after her, already reading her thoughts. "Christina—"

"Don't." She held up the baseball bat she was looking for, a storm rising in her eyes as she turned and stared at Edward. "Even."

"What's going on?" Carlisle asked with his hands raised, looking between both his girlfriend and his son. "What happened?"

Christina took a deep uneven breath before looking at her daughter. "Annie, go play with Alice upstairs."

The six year old nodded her head, seeing that her mom wasn't in the mood for arguments. She was quick with her movements to get upstairs before Christina's words exploded.

"Those mangy mutts think they can just lay claim to anybody," Christina snarled out as soon as Annie was safe and away from ear range. Her hand tightened around the baseball bat she held over her shoulder. "I'm about to teach them a lesson—"

"Christina, no," Bella interrupted, standing up with her wrist completely wrapped from Carlisle's handiwork. "Jacob's not worth it."

"It's not just Jacob I'm going to murder." Christina turned her stormy eyes towards Edward. "Tell them. Tell them what you told me."

Rosalie and Emmett entered the room at that exact moment, both of them confused as Christina stood before them with a bat gripped tightly in her hand— and Bella's hand wrapped.

Emmett was the first to make a statement as he laughed at the sight of the wrapped wrist. "Trying to walk and chew gum at the same time again, Bella?"

Bella cleared her throat before correcting Emmett. "Punched a werewolf in the face."

Emmett chuckled. "Bad ass. You're gonna be one tough little newborn."

"Tough enough to take you on," Bella joked back.

Rosalie slams down the newspapers she freshly bought before leaving the room altogether. Bella bit her lip at the harsh reaction from the blonde vampire before following her onto the balcony.

"Ignore her," Emmett said, sitting down on the white sofa. "She'll be fine." His golden eyes rested on the bat still in Christina's hand. "Are we playing baseball?"

"No," Carlisle answered as he reached forward and gently took the bat out of Christina's hands. She wasn't happy about it, but now that she was starting to come down from her anger high, she realized how bad of an idea it would be to try and take on a werewolf with a bat. "Edward, continue your explanation."

"I read in Jacob's thoughts that the newest pack member," he paused as his eyes flickered towards Christina, "imprinted on Annie."

Her blood started boiling again as Emmett narrowed his brows. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Imprinting is a permanent thing that happens, allowing wolves to find their mate," Christina explained. She clenched her fists tightly against her sides— not even Carlisle's calm and collected aura was helping Christina.

"So, we kill him," Emmett answered with a shrug.

Christina nodded before trying to reach for the bat again from Carlisle's hand.

He was quick to pull it out of her reach before sighing. "No violence. We cannot break the treaty."

"That's why I do it," Christina pointed out before reaching for the bat again.

The two adults were quick to dance around each other before Carlisle just decided to hold the bat over Christina's head. She grumbled irritated at the fact that even jumping didn't help her reach the bat.

"We don't need you getting killed over hitting a newly phased werewolf in the face," Carlisle pointed out, making Christina's shoulders slack. "I will call Sam and get more information from him about what options we can take to insure that the wolf doesn't come around Annie."

"I don't trust going down there anymore," Christina stated as she sat down next to Emmett, who pulled her into a sideways hugs. "Not when they're some freak trying out a wolfy claim on my daughter."

All three men nodded, agreeing with her decision before Carlisle left the room to make the phone call.

Emmett patted Christina's shoulder as she leaned her head on his broad one. "It's okay, momma. We'll take him down some other way."

She smiled softly as a response.

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        "When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grow up—"

Christina grabbed Annie from running up and down the bleachers again. "Come sit," she whispered, patting the spot next to her and Charlie.

Annie pouted since she was bored of listening to all the speeches that were being made. She huffed lightly before smiling again as Christina handed her a coloring book and some crayons.

Annie used the seat as a desk as the speech continued.

"—now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer. Well, how 'bout this: who the hell knows?" The brunette smiled and paused as the gymnasium hooted and clapped at her statement. Even Christina lips twisted in amusement.

"This isn't the time to make hard and fast decisions, it's the time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train, and get stuck somewhere chill. Fall in love— a lot," she laughed, making the audience join her. "Major in philosophy because there's no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind, then change it again, because nothing is permanent."

Christina mood soured as she looked down at Annie, and then towards Bella.

"So, make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday when they ask us again what we want to be... we won't have to guess. We'll know."

The gymnasium clapped loudly, and continued to do so as the names of the graduates were called. Christina remembered how impatient she was waiting in the line with fellow graduates since their last name began with S; but in a small town with only eighty students graduating, it didn't take long to reach Bella's name.

Christina and Charlie jumped up and clapped loudly for Bella as she walked across the stage to shake multiple teacher's hands and gripped onto her diploma. She smiled back towards her small family as they shouted their excitement.

The rest of the ceremony went by quickly, and Christina was more than thankful to be able to get out of the stuffy gymnasium. She held onto Annie's hand as they both along with Charlie waited until they saw Bella come out.

The youngest Swan grinned before running into Christina's awaiting arms. The two sisters hugged tightly, swaying back and forth. "I'm so proud of you!" Christina said, pulling away from Bella, and allowing Charlie to hug her.

"Thank you." Bella blushed at the attention.

"Aunty!" Annie jumped up and down before taking the flowers out from behind her back. "We picked these out for you!"

Bella's blush appeared to deepen as she thanked Annie with a hug and took the flowers.

"I'm so proud of you, Bells," Charlie started, his eyes rimming red. "I can't wait to see what you do next. You both are my biggest accomplishment."

"Dad, that's not true," Bella denied, the blush still lingering on her cheeks.

"Yeah, it is." He gently rubbed both of his daughter's heads. "Well, you'll see, when you have kids."

Christina bit her lip at Bella's crestfallen face. "Dad's right." Christina patted Annie's head. "But enough emotional talk, let's go get lunch before we're late to the graduation party. I told Darien to meet at our house for four-thirty to get ready. He'll kill me if we're late."

Bella gave Christina a thankful look before following after their father towards the parking lot. Christina lifted Annie into her arms with a sigh before following after them.

"I'm the one that drove, ya'know!"

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How am I already on the graduation party. I feel like eclipse is going so fast. Omg.