Dear Diary:
December 13, 2014
So here we are! In Alaska at last! The main house post code updates and renovations looks like a royal palace but it's perfect (there's a picture of it above). The Watchers, as promised, 'poofed' all of the other houses to their new locations. The Denali's have their own private well, as well as a sewer treatment line that was installed prior to them moving to their house so we just routed all of ours to theirs so we would have water and heat in our modern houses and didn't need outhouses and such. Even though we were living literally in the middle of nowhere, we were still very modern and roughing it wasn't really on the agenda.
Since then, I have personally met with the town committee of Talkeetna, who reviewed my glowing recommendations from Bill Connolly as well as the board members of HMC and work resume and agreed that I would be the doctor for the town. They welcomed my enormous family with warm and open arms. They understood we liked our privacy and weren't even that put off or dazzled by our different appearance. They were very modest folk. Most preferred privacy as well. The old doctor moved back to Fairbanks to be closer to his grandkids. So I would take over his office but give it a very modern upgrade because when you walk into that place, you feel like you stepped into the 1970s and that's not how I work. I like my medical equipment to be state of the art. But I had plenty of time for that later.
As soon as we settled in, practically everyone we knew from Forks and La Push came up to visit and we had a party; thanks to Alice's planning. It was so nice to see Sue, Charlie, Billy, and the rest of the wolves and their mates. Emily was pregnant with her second child and she and Leah finally were on common ground. We were very close to them now geographically and could visit whenever we chose. They stayed with us for 3 days, just checking out our enormous house and the new majestic view that we had from the main Cullen backyard. The air was crisp from the fresh fallen snow. We had sold all or most of our cars and bought snow mobiles, 4 wheelers, and SUV's instead. Alice was sad to sell her yellow Lamborghini but she knew she couldn't drive it around here without getting stuck in a snow bank. Emmett was the only one who didn't have to sell his vehicle as his was a hummer but he did decide to upgrade it to the latest model. I just needed to drive something that wouldn't require a fork lift to get me out of 20 feet of snow later.
Once the visiting family left to go back to Washington, we just started to acclimate ourselves with the place. One day, we were all outside in the Denali driveway and noticed that all (save for Keith) of our Watchers were missing. As they take up a huge part of our new family, when all of them vanish, it's very noticeable. Leah raised an eyebrow to Keith who just smiled and said nothing, so something was definitely up. Sure enough about 15 minutes later, they all materialized in the driveway. Rogue and Amy stepped forward as did I.
"Is there trouble?" I asked concerned.
"Not at all." Rogue answered smiling.
"What's going on?" Emmett asked then for all of us because it was obvious they wanted to tell us something. Amy spoke up then.
"Remember how we all went to our Watcher headquarters around Halloween?" We nodded as she continued.
"Well it wasn't just to celebrate Rogue's 3,955th birthday and eat a cake larger than this continent." Amy said with a laugh as Rogue scrunched up her nose and smacked Amy in the arm.
"Her say what now birthday?" Jacob guffawed as we all did. Rogue was how old? Holy crap!
"Yep our fearless warrior queen is 3,955 years old. We finally looked through the Watcher records and archives to find out how old she really was because as you can imagine, after that long, you just don't really keep track anymore. But that's not what we wanted to tell you."
They waited until that ginormous number as Nessie would say had sunk in and we thawed out of our frozen statue state. Even the wolves were numb but at least they were blinking and breathing.....somewhat. Nessie just mumbled a 'wow' as she looked at her therapist and friend. Rogue just rolled her eyes and proceeded where Amy left off; I think she figured if she didn't get to the point, Amy never would. A nod from Edward confirmed my thought process.
"Anyways, Amy digresses." She sighed exasperated as Amy and some of the other Watchers giggled.
"Sorry, go on." Amy gestured still laughing. Rogue got straight to the point....or some version of a point.
"The reason we went there in the first place is because if I wanted to change a rule; especially one that affects our supernatural world in a massive degree, I can't just go wham bam boom and change it. There are protocols that must be followed. It has to be voted on by all of the Watchers and given the ok from those who chose us in the first place. It's a huge deal. But thankfully everyone unanimously agreed to change the rule in the way I wanted. So that is why I am here to tell you of the new rule and how it will impact everyone's lives." She finished smiling while we all blinked at her.
"So much for straight to the point." Jacob grumbled. The queen of the cryptic talk has done it again. She winked at me and smiled as I sighed and shook my head.
"Don't worry I will explain what I mean. I just had to give you the general version first." She said and looked at us for a few moments before she began to explain.
"When Leah got pregnant, it got me thinking. She wasn't supposed to have children but a miracle happened and she had Sava. Why can't those in the supernatural world that want kids, have them? And I don't mean the immortal children. The problem was that vampire and Watcher women had reproductive systems that were frozen in time. So the rule was changed."
We all stood staring at her with our mouths gaping open not really comprehending what she was saying. It would take a bit for us to understand it all and she wasn't even done explaining everything. She walked over to Rosalie and Emmett and smiled at Rose as she continued with the explanation of this new portion of the world that we were about to be privy to.
"So if Rose and Emmett decide to have a child, Rose's reproductive system will 'defrost' if you will. She will start having her monthly and then will conceive a child. Just like Bella she will carry the baby for a month before giving birth the natural way. The difference with Bella is that because the baby is pure vampire as its parents are, it will not break Rose's body but will be delivered naturally. After healing, the reproductive system will go back to immortal mode until Rose, if she so chooses, wants to have more children. Her child will grow to maturity within 5 years and will look about 21."
Rose gasped as she listened to Rogue explain and she had tears in her eyes as she clung to Emmett. We all did. Because we knew out of all of us, she wanted children more than anyone else. Helping raise Nessie was one thing, but having and carrying a child of her own was something she never thought would be possible and here it was now within arm's reach. Next Rogue walked up to Amy and Peter who smiled.
"Next we have a new hybrid set; half vampire half Watcher. Everything would go the same way with Amy's reproductive system. The only real difference would be that she would carry the baby for about 3 months and it would be full grown in 6 years." Amy and Peter smiled at her and nodded. We never knew Amy and Peter even wanted kids.
"Corin and Seth would be identical to Leah and Keith only in reverse. 7 to 9 years to mature and 3 to 4 months carrying baby in mommy's tummy." Finally, Rogue turned to Nessie, Jacob, Michelle, and Kim. Before Rogue could say anything, Nessie held up her hand and said.
"No, we can't have children. We don't need a play by play." She said sadly as Rogue shook her head with a smile.
"Nessie, just because you can't have children with Jacob the way you wanted, doesn't mean there aren't other ways. You have to look at the future from every angle."
"That's kind of what Hades said when we visited the 'other side'." Nessie looked surprised; as previously mentioned, all of the cryptic talk sooner or later makes sense and/or gets explained.
"You're right; he did say something to that affect. Actually you two, Michelle, and Kim have a similar situation. But I'll start with you and Jacob. No, you can't have a baby the traditional way together when you are ready but that doesn't mean there aren't other ways. For starters, you can go to a sperm bank and pick out a person that matches Jacob so that the child looks like the father. The child will have more human DNA but because vampire DNA is so strong, it will still be half and half; just like you Nessie." Rogue took a deep breath then continued to tick off on her fingers.
"Your other options include a surrogate who will carry the baby for you using Jacob's sperm and lastly you can adopt. We can also—if the sperm bank idea grosses you out—ask around for perhaps Watchers we know and trust who wouldn't mind donating or even Nahuel. The point is you have options. Don't give up on your dream of being a mother just because it's not the way you'd thought it'd be."
Nessie was sobbing by this time as she hugged Rogue and then Jacob as Bella and Edward both put their arms around her and the family all reached out to touch her. Rogue always said everything was connected and it was. Someday when Nessie and Jacob were ready, they'd be able to have a child; one way or another. Rogue explained that with Kim and Michelle it would also be either a sperm donor or adoption as a surrogate wasn't needed in their case. Both nodded smiling as they hugged each other.
The next step of the process was to come forward and form a circle; those that wanted to try this child having thing anyways. No surprise that Rose and Emmett were the first followed by Amy, Peter, Corin, Seth, and Michelle, and Kim. Just as Rogue was about to begin, Alice, Jasper, Bella, and Edward nudged their way into the circle much to the surprise of everyone. Alice winked at Esme and I as we stood outside of the ever growing circle and said:
"Hey, you never know! Might as well take the opportunity while it's given!"
As she said that, Tanya and Marcus also joined the circle to more gasps from people. I guess one really doesn't know what people want in their hearts until as Alice said, the opportunity is given. As the group held hands like they were told to, Rogue stood in the middle and started chanting. She then began to glow white. The glow reached the group and enveloped them until we all had to squint; it was that bright. The last time I saw anything that bright was when Rogue was reattaching my arm after Ferguson had tore it off and her eyes were that same bright white color. I knew than that whatever she was doing was the purest form of magic because we vampires could take anything of any brightness including looking directly into the sun without blinking or needing to squint.
The group was obscured for a long time and finally we could see them again. Rogue smiled and nodded so people could disperse. It was done. Everyone hugged everyone else and then Jacob looked at me and Esme and asked:
"What about you, Carlisle?" As I understood what he was hinting at, I started laughing as did Esme.
"Oh no! Esme, Rogue, Alexander, and I have our hands full with all of you! That's more than enough for us! We'll settle for grandkids!"
"Amen!" Alexander spoke for the first time as everyone burst out laughing.
Somehow after that, the grand daddy (Jacob's phrase) of all snowball fights started. That was another wonderful thing about living in Alaska; you never ran out of snow!
~Carlisle Cullen