Moving Forward - J. Black

xxvi.

With little to no warning, the family quickly tried to prepare Bella for her father's arrival. Eliza sat nervously on the couch watching as Bella put colored contacts in. "These will irritate your eyes a little." Alice informed the newborn as she held the case in her hand. "The main thing is not to move too fast." Carlisle gave the newborn vampire some advice. "Try taking a seat, crossing your legs." Esme instructed, wanting to see what they were working with. "This is going to be a disaster." Eliza groaned, shoving her face into the pillow on her lap as Bella flashed across the room and slammed the chair into the wall. "It's his fault." Edward glared at the shifter that sat beside her on the couch. "It's both of your faults." Eliza pointed out Edward's involvement with Bella's early change.

"Maybe a tad slower." Esme tried to hide her amusement as she set her hand on Carlisle's arm. "And blink at least three times a minute." Alice tried to be helpful as she gave more advice. "Good." Alice encouraged as Bella practiced blinking, the process making her look a little more human. "For a cartoon character." Jacob scoffed in amusement and Eliza smacked him in the face with her pillow. "Hold you're breathe, it will help with the thirst." Carlisle gave more advice and Bella's face scrunched up at all the new information being thrown at her.

"Just don't forget to move your shoulder so it looks like you're breathing." Edward added on and Bella practiced what he told her. And don't sit so straight, humans don't do that." Rosalie pointed out Bella's stature. "Okay, I got it." Bella jumped up out of the chair, shaking out her body. "Move around, blink, slouch." Bells repeated the instructions as Charlie's car pulled up to the house. "Good luck." Esme whispered to the newlyweds as the family moved out of the room.

Eliza stood by the staircase, watching as Charlie followed Jacob up to the living room. "You don't turn into an animal, too, do you?" Charlie paused as he looked back at Eliza, who shook her head with a small smile. "She wishes she was that awesome." Eliza could picture the grin on Jacob's face as he spoke those words.

Once Charlie left Jacob searched the house for Carlisle, wishing to bring up the strange heartbeat he heard the other night. Jacob gently knocked on Carlisle's office door. "Come in." Carlisle's voice called out and Jacob let out a nervous sigh as he made his way inside and closed the door. "Jacob." Carlisle tried to mask the surprise in his tone at the sight of the shifter in his office. "We need to talk." Jacob looked at Carlisle seriously. "What about?" Carlisle motioned for the shifter to take a seat across from his desk. "You've said before that your family has...gifts." Jacob took a seat as he tried to find the right words. "Yes, Alice's visions, Edward's mind reading, Jasper's emotional manipulation, now Renesmee's sharing of memories." Carlisle confirmed his family's abilities.

"Is it possible for your gifts to be dormant for periods of time?" Jacob tried to make sense of the heartbeat he heard. "I'm not sure what you mean." Carlisle was beyond confused with how Jacob wasn't being very straightforward. "Last night, Eliza and I were watching Renesmee and...I heard another heartbeat, her heartbeat." Jacob confessed and Carlisle blinked in surprise. "You think you heart Eliza's heart...beat?" Carlisle confusion was mixed with a look of astonishment. "Is that type of gift possible?" Jacob searched for answers. "Our gifts are reflections of our human selves, characteristics that are so strong that they manifest in our new lives. Eliza was always very in touch with her humanity, connecting with people on every level. It may be possible that when around you, her body could mimic your own heartbeat, but a gift like that would be extraordinarily rare. It would seem almost genetically impossible for the venom in our bodies to allow any movement of blood flow. However, with Renesmee's birth, it brings to light all the things we didn't know about our species." Carlisle thought over Jacob's words.

"Could it be a response to the imprint bond? Could she be subconsciously restarting her own heart in response to my own?" Jacob thought over Carlisle's interpretation. "It is entirely possible, have you brought up this concern to her?" Carlisle looked at the shifter intrigued, but Jacob immediately shook his head no. "Perhaps this is a conversation to be had between the two of you before we further discuss the possibility." Carlisle didn't want to overstep his boundaries. Jacob gave a nod of thanks as he left the room with even more questions.

Jacob looked around for Eliza, finding her on the floor with Seth and Renesmee, the child's significant growth rate making her look as if she was at least a year old already. "Hey." Eliza looked up at the shifter with a small smile, neither talking about the Charlie situation since it happened. Seth looked up at his alpha in acknowledgment before returning his attention to his imprint. "Hey, can we talk?" Jacob looked at the blonde softly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Sure." Eliza nodded with furrowed brows as she got up off the floor.

"What's up?" Eliza questioned as she and Jacob moved out of the living room. "I just got done talking with Carlisle." Jacob began the conversation with a somewhat alarming statement. "That sounds scary." Eliza tried to joke but Jacob's face remained stoic. "Okay, Jake, what's going on?" Eliza looked concerned by his facial features. "Last night, when we were on the couch, I heard something...unusual." Jacob looked at the blonde intensely as he tried to brace her. "I heard your heartbeat." Jacob confessed to the blonde. "That's-that's not possible." Eliza shook her head as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"Isn't it? I mean, Bella just had Renesmee and that seemed pretty damn impossible too." Jacob pointed out the flaws in the coven's knowledge. Eliza bit her lip as she thought about the last few months and the small odd occurrences that have happened. Jacob could see Eliza weighing the possibility in her head and looked at her expectantly. "You just thought of something? What was it?" Jacob urged her to share her thoughts. "A-awhile back, before we met, I-I had this panic attack like my body was begging me to breathe, but I don't need to breathe." Eliza remembered the time that Bella came over for the first time.

"It-it wasn't much, but it just so overwhelming and I've never felt so...vulnerable." Eliza thought over the panicked and heavy feelings that she had experienced. "I think we should talk to Carlisle." the couple looked each other in the eye.