I have to admit that I learned the hard way the power of denial. I was in denial for four weeks, although Jacob and Edward didn’t seem to share my solid cocoon.
They were quiet, and Edward often had work at the hospital or studies that kept him from having any deep discussions about what happened at Volterra.
I had a sense that something bigger happened with Nessie than he would tell me, but I couldn’t get the full story out of him.
Our nights were always full and energetic. I could never get enough of Edward, but his curious silence over Nessie bothered me.
I was amazed at how I could wonder at Edward’s silence but not wonder when Nessie all of a sudden took an interest in wearing dresses. Loose dresses that hid her waistline.
I didn’t notice her change in diet, either. Somehow the blood that kept disappearing from the fridge I never smelled on her breath.
Jacob and Edward would occasionally go out and bring back a bear. And refill the fridge. I suppose the truth was so hard on my mother-brain that I made every excuse.
They were refilling the fridge for the babies. The Denali families might bring their babies for a visit. Anything but the truth. I couldn’t see that. The truth was beyond my ability to grasp.
I had to emerge from my secure cocoon one afternoon when Nessie gasped in pain and fell to the floor. “Oh, Momma it hurts.” She shrieked in agony and Jacob rushed to her side.
Edward had previously set up Carlisle’s library as a hospital room, and I had assumed he was preparing for another odd vampire to appear. We didn’t have Alice’s visions to guide us on unexpected visits like that. She couldn’t see a vampire and his pregnant human mate approach. It was beyond her abilities.
And so my brain managed all kinds of excuses not to see the reality of the events going on around me. Events connected to my own precious daughter.
Jacob picked her up and carried her to the hospital bed. He was calling Edward and telling him to hurry there wasn’t any time. He called Rose next.
I wasn’t sure if he thought I was capable of anything. I was staring in shock at my daughter, as if I hadn’t really seen her over the past few weeks. Indeed, I hadn’t. Everyone else had seen the clues. I was shocked beyond reason.
Nessie was curling over her distended abdomen. Her face was beaded up with sweat. Jacob was trying to sooth her. And I was standing still as a statue, unable to move, unable to think. Rose ran up beside me and stood on the other side of Nessie, patting her arm.
We all watched in astonishment as a head crowned. Nessie wasn’t going to deliver this baby caesarian. She was the only being capable of birthing a half immortal naturally, and we could all see that this baby wasn’t going to wait for the doctor. I jumped forward and gently supported its head. The rest of the baby followed after, the placenta sack still intact. Rose bent forward and ripped through the placenta. I picked up the infant.
My breath caught as he opened his eyes.
He was the little dark-haired boy I had seen when I’d been carrying Nessie. His green eyes stared back and he smiled at me, as if recognizing me from my dreams.
I looked at Nessie, a tired smile stretching across her face. “I did it Momma. I did it.” She looked exultant, but then frowned a little as she saw the boy squirming in my arms, turning to see the source of the sound he was hearing. He smiled at Nessie and she smiled back. She looked at Rose and whispered, “He isn’t mine.”
Their eyes locked and I could see tears glisten in Nessie’s eyes. “He never was.” She paused again, waiting for understanding in her aunt’s eyes.
Joy flooded Rose’s face as she took the boy from me. “He’s your baby, Aunt Rose.”
Edward was flying up the stairs as she spoke. Nessie asked, curious, “What’s his name?”
Rose and Edward spoke as one, “Henry.”
Rose smiled down at the precious infant in her arms. He smiled back and waved his chubby baby arms. Rose’s body was shaking with unshedable tears.
Jacob moved over to Nessie and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. He picked her up and sat with her in Carlisle’s leather winged back chair. She cried into his chest, and he patted her back tenderly. “It’ll be all right,” he crooned, “everything will be all right.” And he smiled, because he knew it would.
I looked at Edward in astonishment, grabbed his hand and headed out the door. “I-I don’t understand,” I began.
Edward smiled tenderly down at me. “Nessie isn’t ready for anything but a big brother right now. Jacob is perfectly content being what she needs. Marcus had figured that out but it was too late. He had lived in a different time when ages had different meanings. He truly loved her and Nessie loved him back, but she wasn’t ready for any kind of relationship like that. Jacob’s body knows that. He won’t ever be anything she’s not needing, and she still needs to grow up.”
I smiled tremulously. “And the name? Why Henry?”
“Henry was Vera’s son.”
That’s all the explanation I needed. When Rose was human, Vera had been her very best friend, and she had always envied Vera for her beautiful son.