Falling To The Sun | B. Swan + E. Cullen

cinquante-cinq

There was yelling outside when she got back downstairs with hair still wet shivering slightly from the way she blasted herself with cold water at the end of her shower.

She would not admit that she was ridiculously curious as Esme helped her down to the opposite end of the couch to Bella, draping a blanket over her legs preventing her from getting up and seeing it for herself.

It was small-town culture, not being able to mind your business when there was something for you to spy on, or that was what she was going to blame it on.

The fact that she had never heard the Cullen's Arthur like that made it all the modes interesting because that meant that someone else was here, someone that wasn't supposed to be here, and Roman wanted nothing more than to see who it was, hoping that it would be someone that could tell her how Seth was doing.

A week since they've been back and they've only allowed her to text him. She couldn't hide a conversation from vampires, not when they would hear her so easily.

It wasn't like hiding a pregnancy, apparently.

No, that had been physical, simple to hide until she grew too big and was starting to become too sick to hide it. 

They watched her now though, they hovered, and as much as she loved them, she wanted to just speak to Seth, her little brother. 

If they were right about everything then her time with him was limited, running out, and she worried for what it could mean for him once she was gone. 

The legends said that the shifter was never the same after the death of their imprint, that they wither away to nothing or disappear to never be seen again. If that was to happen to Seth she would never be able to forgive herself, even if she was dead. 

She would just know, instinctively, wherever she was and it would torture her eternally. She loved that boy so much and he really deserves better than herself. 

Roman sighs, drawing lazy shapes on her stomach since no one wanted to fill her in on what was going on. Not even Bella seemed inclined to share the news as she stared blankly ahead. 

Her wife had been growing more and more dismal as the days passed and she wasn't allowed to speak to Charlie or anyone else that called for her. She couldn't blame her for feeling much the same as she did. 

Being purposely told that you had to isolate yourself from the outside world was different from doing it voluntarily. It was making her more than a little stir crazy. 

The little nudge was draining Bella a lot faster than the bean was draining her. It was as though Roman was doing something she wasn't, or perhaps, she was just not as far along as her wife was, but the isolation was all that much harder as she had to watch her fade away before her eyes. 

It would be fine, of course, they would work to turn her the moment that Nudge was born. The venom would take to her veins and race through her heart and bring Bella back to them. The venom would fix everything. 

They just needed a way to feed the baby while things weren't too bad. With the rate that they were growing, it would all be over soon and she would be able to hold her babies. 

Edward came in after a moment, a familiar face trailing close behind, and she has to stop herself from gagging at the sight of him, her stomach suddenly doing backflips that made her feel like heaving up her breakfast -- and if she did that now, then who knows how long it'll be before she could hold anything down again. 

"Ew," she mutters, rubbing a hand roughly over her eyes. 

"Roman," Jacob says, voice tight with only the barest hint of basic politeness that he had to show her. "You're just okay with all of this?"