Surprise

3 months later. . .
6 months pregnant

It was Thursday morning. One more day of school this week. Edward was out hunting last night, so I wouldn't see him until school.
I got out of bed, yawning, and started getting dressed. It was different than it used to be. My belly had gotten bigger, so I needed to be more careful. Also, Alice had brought me shopping against my will, to get some new clothes. These clothes were for pregnant women.
Once I was finished with getting ready upstairs, I walked – very carefully – down the stairs to the kitchen for some breakfast. Charlie had already left for work when I got down there.
I ate slowly, but I ate for two. I had two slices of toast and a big bowl of cereal. My hand automatically went down to my stomach when I felt a tiny kick from inside of me. Then I looked at the clock on the stove. It read seven O'clock. I need to be in school for seven thirty, so I'd better get going.
I cleaned my dished and then went toured the door.

- - - - - -

I arrived at school and saw Edward leaning against the back of his car. Alice was right next to him.
I opened my door and started walking to were they waited for me. One I got there, Edward wrapped his arm around my waist.
"Hi, Bella." Alice chimed.
"Hi, Alice."
I looked up at Edward. "So. Did you catch any mountain lions last night?"
He smiled at me. "Yes, actually. I caught a few. How was your night?"
"It was okay. It would have been better with you there though."
He started walking me to my first class. We didn't have many classes together – just biology. When we got to the door, we said goodbye, and he walked off to his first class.
The day went by quickly. The next thing I knew, Edward and I were in the lunch line in the cafeteria.
Edward filled our tray with all kinds of things, like, pizza, an apple, milk, a small salad, and soup. Chances are, I would eat it all.
Alice, Edward, and I, walked to the table our friends were at, and sat down. There were a few open seats here now. Since the little. . .'argument' between Lauren and Edward a few months ago, Lauren sat at a different table. Tyler – of course – went with her, and Jessica was a good friend of hers, so she went, too. Now there was just Angela, Ben, Mike, Eric, Alice, Edward, and I. That was okay with me though.
"So, are you guys excited about finding out what gender the baby the baby is?" Angela asked us. We were going to find out if we were having a boy or a girl today.
"Yes." Edward and I both smiled at each other. "We can't wait."
Mike spoke then, to the whole table. "Anyone in for a bet?"
"On what?" Ben asked.
"The gender of the baby."
"I'll do it." Eric said.
Mike went first. "Ten on a girl."
Eric. "Boy."
Ben. "Boy."
Even Angela joined. "I think it'll be a girl."
"Can I bet, too?" Alice didn't usually do bets since she could just predict the outcome, but I guess she could do it fairly now. I forgot that she couldn't see the baby.
They all looked at her. They make bets all of the time and she never participates.
"Sure." Mike answered.
She smiled. "Okay. I think it'll be a girl." if it is a girl, she'll be beyond happy about having another life sized Barbie doll. I sighed.
"What do you two think it will be?" Ben asked Edward and me.
"It doesn't matter to me. I'll be happy either way. But I think it'll be a boy." It really didn't matter to me if it was a boy or a girl.
We all looked at Edward. "I'm not sure. I'll be a proud daddy no matter what." he smiled at me.

- - - - - -

after school and after doctor's appointment. . .

Edward and I were on our way back to Charlie's house to tell him the news. We were almost there. The car was just turning onto my road.
I saw Charlie's police cruiser outside in the driveway.
Edward chuckled.
"What?" I asked suspiciously.
"He seems like he's still a little disappointed in us, but he's actually excited to find out wether he'll have a grandson or a granddaughter."
We were parked outside of the house now. Edward came around to open my door for me. I held his hand as we walked down the gravel path and into the house.
"Dad, were home." I called.
"In here, Bells." I heard him call back from the livingroom. We walked in and sat on the love-seat.
"So, how did it go?" he asked curiously.
"It went well." I answered. "We're having a girl." I said excitedly.
"That's great, Bella." he paused. "Are you happy, Edward?"
"Yes, Sir. More than happy. I'm ecstatic." he was smiling hugely.
"Okay. We'll be back later. We're going to go tell mom, Phil, and the and the other Cullens."
"Alright. Have fun."

- - - - - -

"We're home." Edward called.
It took longer than it normally would have for everyone to gather in the living room because they all had to act human while my mom and Phil were there.
I saw Carlisle and Esme come out of the kitchen. They sat on one of the big white sofas. Then Alice and Rosalie came down the winding stairs and sat on the other couch. Emmett and Jasper came in from the woods. They sat under the staircase – were they usually play card games. Renee and Phil came into the room last. They stood at the bottom of the stairs.
"So, how did it go?" Esme asked.
"Am I getting a granddaughter or a grandson?" Renee questioned.
"Oh. . .or both?" Esme added. They both smiled and waited for us to answer.
Edward and I looked around the room. Everyone looked anxious to know the answer. We smiled and told them together.
"We're having a girl."
"Yay!" Rosalie and Alice shouted in unison. Of course the two shop-a-holics would be excited.
"Congratulations!" I heard my mom say. She's actually been more supportive about me having a baby than I though she would be.
She came over to give me a hug at the same time Esme came to give Edward a hug. Then they switched and Esme was hugging me, and Renee was hugging Edward.
"Awesome!" Emmett boomed. "I'm going to have a niece!"
Jasper laughed. "Yeah. Me, too, Man." he slapped Emmett's knee playfully.
Carlisle went into the kitchen and came back with some glasses on a tray.
"Drinks for everyone." he announced. "Bella, I have some sparkling cyder for you, since you can't drink alcohol while your pregnant." all of the drinks were in wine glasses. I'd assumed that Renee and Phil's were red wine and the others had blood. It would be animal blood that Carlisle had taken from the animals in the forest around their home.
Phil raised his glass before anyone took a drink. "A toast, to Edward and Bella's baby girl. Congratulations." everyone raised there glass, and then tapped it to their partner's glass as a toast. Then we all took a sip of our drinks.
After I took a quick sip of my cyder and Edward had a sip of his 'wine,' he pulled me closer to him, and we kissed.
"I love you." he said in a whisper.
I smiled and kissed him again. "I love you, too."
As everyone started finishing their drinks, they started slowly leaving the room. Soon the rooms population was down to Alice, Jasper, Renee, Phil, Edward and I.
"Do you want to go upstairs?" I asked Edward quietly. Hopefully, this would go unnoticed by my parents. I knew that Alice and Jasper could hear me, even while I was whispering like this.
I also knew that Mom would want to talk to me soon, about things like shopping and baby-proofing the house. Both Charlie's and Edward's.
He looked at me, then at Renee and Phil, and then back to me.
"Their not paying much attention to us right now." he answered. "Time to make our escape." he smiled and took my hand.
We walked up the stairs to the third floor, where Edward's room was. I went over to his king sized bed and sat on the edge. He closed his door and then came to sit beside me. I spoke as soon as he sat.
"We need to start planning and shopping. I'm six months pregnant and we don't even have a nursery. . .or a crib for that matter."
"We can get started this weekend." he smiled and pulled me onto his lap.
"Okay, this weekend." I said, but then something occurred to me. "Were are we going to put everything?" I looked up into his golden eyes.
"You know as well as I do that Esme loves to renovate. I'll ask her if she could build another room for us."
Just as he finished his sentence, there was a soft knock on the door.
"Come in." Edward answered.
Esme came walking in with a large piece of paper. She set it down on Edward's desk.
"About the new room," she started. "I could build it right off of your room if you would like." well, I could see that she was on board with the whole thing.
"That would be wonderful Esme." he replied. "You would have to get the others to help out though. I don't know how we would explain a room being built in such a short time by one person. A very fast person I might add."
"I'll go at human speeds and the others will help. It'll be done by this weekend though. When you're done shopping, you can just start moving things right in."
"Thank you, Esme." I said. "We really appreciate it."
"Your welcome, Sweety." was all she said before she disappeared out of the room.
I looked over at the desk were she had left the paper.
"Why did she leave a paper?" I asked Edward.
"It's the blueprints for the room."
"Oh." I got up off of his lap and walked over to it.
From the sketch, I could tell that it was going to be a medium sized room; about half the size of Edward's. It was almost like a short rectangle. It had a small alcove on the west wall, big enough for a crib.
"She's going to have this done by Saturday?" I asked in disbelief. That was one day away; tomorrow's Friday.
"She can get it done. If it weren't for Renee and Phil, she could probably have it done by tomorrow." he said from the bed. He hadn't gotten up to look at Esme's plans with me.
"Is she going to paint it, too?" I asked. "Because if she is, we need to tell her what color or colors we want it."
I walked back over to the bed.
"Right." he mumbled. Then he spoke up. "What colors do we want the room?"
We both sat and thought for a while. I was the one to break the silence.
"Well, it is a girl. Why not pink? But I think we need another color to go with it."
"What about yellow?" he suggested. I thought about that. It would match and it would be cute for a nursery.
"I love it." I reached up to kiss him.
After a few minutes of kissing there was, yet, another knock. I reluctantly pulled away and got up to answer the door.
This time it was Renee. "Hi, mom."
"Hi, Sweetheart. I wanted to talk to you two." here comes the baby-proofing and shopping talk.
"Um. . .could we bring this conversation into the livingroom?" Edward asked. "Esme and the others are going to start some construction in here within the next few minutes." he got up and started walking to the door, were my mom and I stood.
"Construction?" she asked.
"Yes. Esme loves to renovate and build. She's going to build a new room for a nursery."
"Oh. Um. . .yeah, we can talk downstairs."
On our way down the stairs, we passed Esme, Alice, and Rosalie. They were all wearing working clothes and hard-hats. Esme and Rosalie were wearing old looking casual clothing; good for working, but Alice. . .Alice was wearing an older pair of designer jeans and a white spaghetti strap with a thin, pink zip-up sweatshirt. And while the others had yellow hard-hats, she had a pink, bedazzled one.
That was so Alice. I smiled and kept walking.
When we arrived in the livingroom, Renee sat down on a white couch. Edward and I sat on the other one.
"I wanted to talk to you about the baby." she stated.
"Okay." I replied.
"You need a baby shower – "
I interrupted her. "Knowing Alice, she already has something planned."
"Oh. Well there's still shopping and decorating the nursery."
"Edward and I have a shopping trip planned for Saturday, and as far as the nursery goes, we need to wait for Esme to finish it. That should be done by the weekend."
Just then we heard Esme yell, "Timber!" and then a large piece of wall fell down outside of the big glass window.
Renee looked confused. "Did they already move everything out of your room? They just got up there."
Edward answered. "Yes. She gets things done quite fast. She actually built this whole house in about a week or so."
Renee nodded and then went on.
"okay. So you have a baby shower planned, your going shopping, and the nursery's being built." she paused, thinking and tapping her chin. "Have you thought about names?"
"No. Not yet." I actually forgot about that. I'll have to talk to Edward about that soon.
"Watch out! Coming through!" I heard Emmett yell. The guys were coming in the front door with a load of wood. Carlisle and Jasper were hauling it in and he was directing them. I was confused by that at first. I thought Emmett would want to carry it, but then he went out to the garage and came back with some large, heavy looking tool boxes.
"Emmett put the hard hat on!" Rosalie yelled down the stairs.
He looked a little annoyed, but put the tools down and clipped the hard hat to his tool belt with a smirk.
"Kay. Its on!"
"Make sure it's on your head, Emmett!"
He took it off and relocated it to his head.
"It's on my head, Rose!"
"It'd better be!"
He picked up the tool boxes and started toured Edward's room.
Edward and I got up, his arm around my waist.
"We'll see you later, mom."
"Were are you going?" she questioned. We usually spent most of our time here or at Charlie's. Somehow she could just tell when we were going somewhere else.
I looked at Edward's beautiful, topaz eyes and then back to Renee.
"Our meadow." I smiled. We hadn't actually planned on going there, but I wanted to get out of the house and be alone with Edward.
"Your meadow?" she asked so many questions – always wanting to know what I was up to.
"The first place Edward and I had gone together. It's beautiful. It's somewhere in the woods, there's a brook near by, and it's covered in wild flowers." I paused. "I'll get a picture to show you." the meadow was to perfect to describe to my mother. I needed something more. A picture seems like the perfect thing. "Edward, can you, please, go get my camera?"
He nodded and kissed the top of my head before he left the room.