Dear Diary: December 5, 2014

It's been two weeks since Nessie's horrid experience in losing her unborn baby. She's been staying with Bella and Edward and severely depressed. The poor child has been miserable. Finally after not being able to look at her any longer, I had a long talk with Rogue, Bella, and Edward and we decided that it would make sense for the time being to put her on some anti-depressants. Because she was half human, her body would be able to absorb them diligently. I picked the one I thought would work best with her body and started her off on a medium dose to make sure she wouldn't have side effects. Her body started to respond positively to it after the first week.

It was a huge plus because she was getting up and actually eating as before she refused all but the minimal. She'd lost a lot of weight but the blood transfusions helped. She and Rogue also started having therapy sessions twice a week on a mountain not too far from the house. Though Rogue would never break confidence and tell us what she and Nessie spoke of, she did hint at the fact that Nessie was more upset at what the future held as opposed to this loss though as tragic as it was. It was the thought that when she and Jacob were finally ready to have children, they wouldn't be able to that was literally eating away at her.

And we all understood completely. Without even really knowing it, Daihok had illustrated the biggest weakness in their relationship; not being able to have children together. For now, she just wanted to get herself on track and start thinking what to do next. She wasn't ready to go back to Dartmouth and neither were Jacob, Seth, and Leah. The latter two had families too and school just wasn't a priority. Bella, Edward, Rose, and Emmett were finishing off year three. Though everyone took time off with this whole demon fiasco, they got caught up pretty quickly and their respective GPA's never suffered. One afternoon, when Rogue brought Nessie back from a therapy session, Nessie made a request that startled us all.

"Um, I was wondering if we could take a trip to the 'other side'." She said to many a raised eyebrow.

"Why do you want to go there, Ness?" Jacob asked.

"Well because I wanted to thank Cerberus in person for giving his blood to kill that monster who did that to us." She explained. Everyone looked at Rogue who shrugged.

"Sure, that's possible. Who wants to go and who is staying behind?" She asked everyone.

"I think Peter, Keith, Leah, Sava, Rose, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, and I will stay back here." Amy responded to the thoughts she read around her.

"Which means Seth, Kim, Michelle, Nessie, Jake, Bella, Edward, Carlisle, Esme, Alexander, Rogue, and I will go." Corin ticked everyone else off on her fingers as people nodded.

We split ourselves into two sections just as Rogue opened the portal and those in the second group, stepped through it into a brilliant light and were instantly transported into a forest. A huge cave was in front of us. We knew this cave well; it was the door to the Underworld. Hades appeared and smiled at us.

"Welcome my friends. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Nessie wanted to see Cerberus and thank him for his donation which helped kill Daihok." Rogue explained.

"Ah I see."

"Is he still whining or is he over it yet?" Corin asked with a small smirk on her face.

"Oh he's using his 'injury' to his full advantage don't worry. Who would have thought that a supernatural monster as old as earth itself would be such a.....what do you people call it? Drama queen!" Hades said rolling his eyes as we couldn't help but laugh.

Just then a majestic WHOOSH sounded over our heads that blocked out the sun. As we looked up, we couldn't believe our eyes and it took us a few seconds to figure out what we were looking at. The Hydra! But with 9 heads this time when we all counted! It was larger than we've ever seen it. And lord knows, last time we saw it was during Carrie's reappearance and then it only had 6 heads. This time it bowed to us and flew away from the forest over the sea. At least we got the sun back.

"Is that it? 9 heads? Or are there more?" I asked stunned. Hades laughed at our expressions.

"No that's it. No more heads. It only shows all 9 heads when it's pissed off or flying off to stretch. As you can imagine being in the Underworld for a dragon that big can be a little cramped so it flies off to stretch every so often. I have asked it long ago to do that over the ocean so it doesn't scare the human populous half to death. Not every supernatural creature can block out the sun just by size alone." He explained as we all shook our heads in awe.

Finally Rogue, motioned us to follow her into the cave of the Underworld so we could do what we came here to do. Nessie followed close behind. It wasn't long before we heard whimpering and Rogue groaned with annoyance:

"Oh for heaven's sake."

We followed the whimpering until we were in a dark cave and saw 6 pairs of red eyes staring at us. We found him. He was laying down acting all kinds of feeble. This was not the monster we first met. When he saw Rogue, one of his heads got higher until it hit the top of the cave and he let out a yelp. Rogue took Nessie's hand so she wouldn't be afraid and they approached him themselves as the rest of us stood back. Corin created a light source and even though Cerberus still looked like a creature from our worst nightmares, the aura he gave off was not evil and really never had been, at least not toward us.

"I think it's safer if we approach him because it seems like if he keeps moving around, he'll give himself a concussion." Rogue said sarcastically.

"Is he hurt at all?" Nessie whispered.

"Not at all. He's most likely already healed from the puncture wound but that doesn't stop him from being an attention whore. Be careful....he uses that as a means to catch you off guard before licking you from stem to stern. I speak from experience." She said in a semi mockingly disgusted voice as Hades and Alexander laughed softly in the corner.

"Oh, so he's a prankster." Nessie said with a small smile.

"Very much so." Corin concurred.

Nessie then let go of Rogue's hand and walked by herself toward the 3 headed beast as he watched her. She came closer to him and looked at all three heads as the one in the middle lowered itself to her face level. Then he brought his left front paw over and turned it so you could see where there was a small evidence of a puncture wound still slightly visible. She very lightly moved her fingers over the wound and he didn't flinch but just watched what she was doing with a contended sigh. Then she reached into her pocket and brought a little box out. She looked at him and said:

"I'm not sure you know what these are but where I come from they are called band aids. They are put on wounds to help them heal faster. I found some super hero ones at home and since you were my super hero for saving my life from Daihok, I thought the very least I could do was put one on you so you would heal faster."

She took one out of the little box that said BAM on it and undid the back end and stuck the band aid to where the puncture wound was. Cerberus looked at his new accessory and without warning licked Nessie's whole face with such force that it knocked her to the ground. Rogue was closest, so she picked her back up as Nessie giggled and the rest of us had tears in our eyes. Something so small like a band aid on a supernatural creature was a huge gesture and everyone including Cerberus himself realized it.

He hopped up on all fours and started prancing around the cave as we made fast to dodge him from stepping on us. He was feeling a lot better and all 3 of his heads smiled. He was all better and showing off his band aid. I swear the only thing missing was a mirror and the Watchers as well as Edward laughed at my thoughts. Cerberus then picked up Nessie and she rode on his back all the way up to the surface as it was time to go home. When we got back to where the sun shone brightly, it took us a few moments to readjust to the sunlight. As Nessie climbed off Cerberus' back, Hades looked at her and said:

"I'm glad you are alright Renesmee." She nodded sadly.

"Thank you. My future doesn't look all that bright in certain aspects though." She said quietly as the rest of us looked away.

"Just because the future isn't going to go the way you wanted it to, doesn't mean there aren't alternatives. It's all about angles and how you look at them." Hades said wisely and winked at Rogue who smiled back. Here we go again with the cryptic talk.

After that, we said goodbye to both Hades and Cerberus before Rogue created yet another portal and we walked through it on our way home. We arrived and were greeted by the rest of the family who bombarded us with questions that most of us let Nessie and Rogue answer. I still had no idea what Hades meant but I've long since learned that the cryptic stuff works itself out later when it needs to.

It's been 5 days since that little adventure and I was sitting in my home office writing in this diary and thinking about everything that has happened in the past few years here in NH, when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." I said closing the diary. The door opened and Nessie walked in.

"Hi grandpa, can I talk to you about something?" She seemed determined and yet uncertain at the same time.

"Sure sweetheart, what is it?" I said motioning her to sit on the chair near mine. When she was seated, she took a deep breath and asked:

"Can we leave?"

To be continued.....

~Carlisle Cullen