His World

Surprise (13)

Leah drove carefully toward the hospital, though her speed was a bit over the limit. Worry was clear on her face.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, looking over at her friend.

Leah shook her head. "I just have this feeling..."

"Tell me," Lily said, realizing Leah was hesitating. "Please?"

Leah pulled into the hospital parking lot, taking advantage that Lily still had her parking permit to be close to the building. She threw the car into park and cut the engine before speaking. "Renesmee is Bella and Edwards biological kid. You know that now. What you don't know is that she was born five years ago. Something about Edward being a leech made it so she was this horrible monster child that nobody except for Bella and Rosalie wanted to let live. Anyway, Edward changed Bella right after she gave birth and Renesmee had this accelerated growing thing."

"What does all this have to do about you having a weird feeling?" Lily asked patiently.

Leah glanced at the woman before looking at the steering wheel again. "Before Bella even got pregnant, Jacob was practically in love with her. He didn't imprint on her, but we all knew how he felt. That feeling only got stronger the more Bella's pregnancy went on. He imprinted on Renesmee. Nobody knew it would happen but looking back at it- everything makes sense. I just... I saw how much it killed Jake for Bella to choose Edward. I don't love you the way he loved Bella, but I still don't want to lose you to the doctor. You're honestly one of the best things to happen to me."

"Leah," Lily said softly. She leaned over and wrapped her arms around her friend. "You won't lose me. Carlisle and I... I know he cares for me enough to help me. We've kissed a few times, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I- I don't know that I want to spend forever being a vampire. Not when the rest of you are going to eventually grow old and die. Not when that means losing Elsie. Besides, Carlisle hasn't said anything about it. Not really."

Leah snorted. "That's something you don't know about wolves. As long as we keep phasing, we won't age. None of us has aged physically since this entire thing started. Sam's still alpha of his back, but he doesn't phase much. That allows him to grow older with Emily and have a family. Quil keeps phasing because Claire isn't old enough to know if she's going to want to spend her life with him. Embry and Seth and I haven't stopped phasing because we didn't have anyone. Embry will keep phasing until Elsie is old enough and tells him what she wants. Jake... He's a different story. Nessie will stop aging when she's technically seven. She'll be fully grown and appear to be anywhere between seventeen and twenty. Jake will always phase. He wouldn't chance to lose her because he grew old and died."

Lily nodded idly, taking in all the information. Knowing the truth of Renesmee helped her to see more clearly how protective Edward was of her and why. She truly was too young, even if she didn't appear to be physically. She sighed before speaking. "I should get inside before Carlisle starts to worry."

Leah nodded silently and climbed out of the car. The two women made their way inside to Carlisle's office. Dr. Page had decided he wanted more time for surgery and had given Carlisle the Chief of Surgery position for a limited time. Carlisle was effective enough with the job, even with the extended time he was now away from the hospital. Lily lead Leah through the halls of the hospital, taking the elevator to the correct floor, and waving to colleagues who recognized her. One nurse ran over to give the doctor a hug.

"Lily, how are you?" the nurse asked. "We haven't seen you in a while. Some of the staff was beginning to worry."

Lily offered a sad smile. "The cancer is back, so I've been resting at home. Dr. Cullen often shares patient files when he needs a consult on something, but I haven't been doing much else."