All Bark, No Bite [Jacob & Edward]

26

Jacob's taking it well. Well, as well as someone finding out they're pregnant with twins in their third trimester can take such absurd news. He's got a brave face on display for everyone. However, he's at his wits end in private. Edward's well aware. He can hear it in his thoughts and see it in his eyes. He's trying to accommodate for discomfort, mood swings, headaches, and an impending doomsday. There isn't a lot Edward can do to help except superficial things, things that temporarily ease the anxiety and take away the pain.

 It's driving Edward insane. Insane enough to stare blankly into a corner trying to find the thoughts of the woman who has been stalking them for an absurd amount of time. 

"Don't tell me you can't do anything." He all but hisses to seemingly no one. 

He doesn't get a response. 

"You talk about keeping them safe -!"

"Her safe." Comes a quiet response from a pile of clothes in the opposite corner from where Edward's been staring. She'd changed positions.

"What?" Edward asks, whipping around to see the woman staring at him. She looks emotionless. Not even remotely the way Jacob described her.

"I'm here to keep her safe." The witch clarifies, blinking slowly as if she was talking to someone beneath her.

They stare at one another for a moment before Edward glances over to where Jacob's sleeping. There are three of them and she only cares about one. 

"Why her?" He asks, not really necessarily wanting the answer. He tries not to audibly huff at the mention of the sex of the baby. What could she possibly know?

"She is a broken law. She will bring about the end of the vampires." She seems to get a gleam in her eye at the thought of such an occurrence.

Jacob shifts behind him, grumbling something indiscernible in his sleep. 

Jacob is technically a broken law, the second child is also a broken law. None of her explanation made any sense, but Edward doesn't have it in him to really argue semantics. He had a feeling moving the baby into Jacob was some sort of guarantee. She was signing his death warrant as well. What had he done to deserve that?

Edward glances out of the window at the hundreds of people lining the beach.

"They'll all perish, but not without making their mark." She laments.

Jacob's talking again, words almost morphing into whines as he shifts to push the covers further down his body. Edward can't help but glance back and check on him. He looks like he's broken out in a sweat. 

He looks back over to the corner and it finally dawns on him. Jacob's been seeing this witch long enough to know what she looks like. His description of her rarely ever changes. He said she had green eyes and dark hair. The woman staring back at him has almost ginger hair with piercing blue eyes that bore into him as she watches him closely. Her heavy Irish accent ringing out as she speaks.

He doesn't make any sudden movements, tries to keep his demeanor the same as he all but yells for help in the weird web of thoughts he shares with the pack. Someone has to be listening. 

"What do you think is going to happen?" Edward inquires, glancing back at Jacob who has completely sweat through the thin t-shirt he'd insisted on putting on before his nap. Edward doesn't exactly feel warmth but even he notices the shift in the temperature.

"He won't make it to his due date. He'll have an emergency c-section. The second child will be stillborn. She will be taken simply as proof. He and the remaining child will be exterminated. There will be a war, both sides will lose." He can hear genuine excitement in her voice even underneath the disgust she has for Jacob as she peers over at him. This is who Bella had made a deal with. She'd signed their baby's death certificate before they were even born.

He'd had a change of heart lately. He'd felt a little empathy for her. He wondered if whoever this was had anything to do with that. If she was the one putting thoughts into his head the way Green Eyes did with Jacob's dad.

He doesn't have a lot of time to really contemplate the thought as Leah bursts through the door, scanning the room quickly. At the loud bang of the door hitting the wall, Jacob lurches forward from his sleep, sluggishly looking around. 

"What happened?" Leah asks, eyes still looking for the perceived threat.

"The other witch, the one Bella brought, she's popping up in the room." Edward waves over to the corner. 

For a moment, he feels absolutely insane. Leah looks at him and then begins staring into the corner. She has no clue what he's talking about. As far as she was concerned, the other witch was gone. Jacob's grip gets tighter on Edward's arm and he's suddenly reassured that he's not losing his mind.

"She came to you too?" He's visibly frazzled and Edward can see the tears wanting to start, but Jacob blinks them away quickly before pretending to swipe the sweat on his brow to hide his eyes.

Edward's running a bubble bath with his mind on autopilot. He adds extra bubbles. He lights a few candles. He has a fruit platter downstairs with Jacob's favorites on them alongside a meat and cheese platter.

He turns off the water and allows Carlisle to talk him all the way downstairs and into the kitchen. 

He pulls out the trays, sits them on the counter, and tunes in for a moment to hear Carlisle talking about odds of a baby not surviving during child birth at thirty-two to thirty-four weeks.

"Okay, that's enough." He tries to say it casually, but even Edward can hear how aggressive it sounds.

"Sorry, I just - the last time I let you two decide you didn't want to hear 'certain things' it ended in disaster." Carlisle explains casually, eyeing the platters as if they were something weirdly foreign. Edward supposes they are.

"What are the sexes?" He finally asks. It seemed as good a time as any to ask. He knows this 'she' that's supposed to bring the world to its knees is Edward and Bella's child. Carlisle said she was small, scrawny, and yet she was supposedly the one who'd survive long enough for this witch to get what she was looking for. He stares down at his pathetic looking, thoughtfully arranged fruit.

"Two girls." 

Edward's nods, head feeling too heavy on his shoulders.

"You'd think the older child would be the rambunctious one. However, the youngest is very lively. Leah and a textbook or two say that's normal for a young child of the moon. It'll just take the oldest a little time to catch up." Carlisle speaks as if he's speaking directly from said textbook. 

"What?"

"Oh, I'm sure the oldest will catch up eventually. She's been through a lot with the whole spell and all. She may be a bit delayed when it comes time to become a morphing wolf, but -"

Whatever is happening on Edward's face makes Carlisle pause in his recalling of information.

"What?" Is all he can manage after a long moment of trying to collect his thoughts.

"Well, I've done some calculations based on past data. If either child had enough DNA to be considered a vampire, Jacob would've needed to start drinking blood at around week twenty-one. Though, since they didn't need blood until much later, it must not be the only source of food the two can digest. Meaning, they aren't only vampires. Now, if the oldest child is human, the initial spell would've killed her." Carlisle begins to explain. "My theory is that the witch altered the oldest baby's DNA so the child was able to heal and survive."

"So..." Edward must be staring at the man as if he's about to lose his mind.

"Both children are half werewolf."