Beautiful Days

Chapter 67 -Infinite Time-

Bella, Edward, Renesmee, Carlie and I were sitting in the cafeteria of the hospital. It was actually a bit late for breakfast as it was nearly noon, but they still served us or rather the children and me. Renesmee only ate a fruit salad, because she went hunting yesterday with her parents and she was in a phase right now, as Edward had told me, that she preferred blood over human food. Carlie nibbled on a piece of banana while she watched the other patients or staff eating at the tables around us. "Did she drink, too?" I asked the two after a moment and they understood at once. 

"This morning actually. I brought a bottle," Bella answered. I nodded and with a sigh scooped Carlie up onto my lap. She grinned at me, banana smeared around her entire mouth and on her cheeks. I laughed and grabbed a napkin from the table to wipe her face clean, which she didn't like that much. She grumbled and pushed my hand away as best as she could. "Carlie," Bella called to get her attention. Carlie looked at her at once and it gave me the opportunity to clean her face properly. The look Bella and I got in response when she had figured it out was hilarious, I'd never seen such an expression of disapproval on a child's face. 

"Sorry," I whispered and kissed her cheek. She still smelled like banana. Carlie forgave me quickly and soon she was singing to herself while she was eating more pieces of banana.

Renesmee was also gone in her own little world and both stared into space it seemed. "They haven't slept much in the last days. Renesmee because she doesn't see the point in sleeping when we are all awake at night and especially now doing so much also at night and Carlie couldn't sleep because of nightmares," Edward sighed. Bella did the same and clutched Renesmee closer to her. Renesmee snapped out of her trance for a second, smiled at her mother, but then returned to playing with her salad and being in her own world. 

"I sincerely hope that it will all return to normalcy as soon as Haven is released from the hospital," I told them with a sigh. Haven's sickness had seriously strained our family as a whole and with it the normal everyday life that Edward and Bella as well as Carlisle and I try to build up for our children, all of them, even if it was very important for Carlie. In her young years it seemed that to her traveling around the world, sleeping everywhere, moving from one place to another without really having a home and getting used to so many new people in her life seemed normal. I wanted her to experience a normal childhood, even if we weren't the normal family and would never be (not that I wanted it to be any other way). 

For the last three years it seemed that normalcy wasn't a good attribute for our family. Even though my life had changed immensely in the last three years, for one I had this little angel sitting on my lap. I sighed and kissed Carlie's disheveled curls. "Sometimes I think they all got your hair, Edward," I laughed and tried to comb through her hair with my fingers. Edward laughed as did Bella. 

"It's a Cullen thing, somehow we all have slight curls," he smirked. 

"That's true," I giggled. Every one of our children had curly hair.

I leaned back in my chair and sighed heavily. Carlie fell with me back and cuddled against me, putting banana all over my clothes, but that was the last thing I was worrying about right now. "Isn't it nice to talk about such things for a change? No planning of battles, no heart-breaking news, no nothing," I sighed. Bella's smile widened and she nodded in affirmation at once. 

"I strongly hope that from now on our future holds at least as much normalcy as can be expected in our family," she giggled lightly, but her longing for such a future was as evident in her voice as it was probably in mine. Renesmee looked to be about nine years old, but she truly was only three and her parents wanted her to experience the most normal childhood as possible, just like Carlisle and I for our two.