Chapter Twenty Three
Questions and Answers
Grace Cullen-Swan

Charlie and I sat stunned as both of us struggled to wrap our minds around having another hybrid grandchild.

"But how?" I questioned. "I haven't been gone long enough I-"

"You've been gone since September third. I got pregnant early on in the honeymoon and had him two weeks ago. Mom, it's December thirty-first." Bella revealed.

"We've been gone for over two months?" I questioned Alice and Jasper.

"We have." Jasper nodded solemnly. "You were pretty hyper-focused most of the time. You weren't in your right mind at all." He sighed.

"If I had been able to see Charlie through whatever haze the Volturi had him in, I could've offered at least some hope for you. I-"

"Alice. Stop." I cut her off. "Even if you had seen him, I wouldn't have believed you. With all of the lies we had told the Cullens, I would've thought you were lying to me to try to keep me going. Don't beat yourself up." I laughed at her.

"You were really hurt, weren't you?" Charlie sighed, looking deeply disturbed as I cuddled deeper against his side.

"Time passing has been so strange for me since I thought I lost you." I sighed as I clutched onto his arm.

The baby let out a wonderful cooing noise, and I couldn't stand to be so far away from it for another moment.

"Hand me my grand baby." I laughed and Bella came to sit between us happily.

"Oh, he's so beautiful." I sobbed, holding Elizabeth close to me as she and I both marveled at the baby in her mother's arms.

"What's his name?" Charlie smiled at Bella, carefully petting the baby's brown fluffs of hair as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Charlie, of course." She smiled back at him, and we both hugged her tightly. "Charles Anthony-Carlisle Cullen. Except, I guess we can't really call him Charlie anymore since dad's not actually dead." She noted to Edward and the rest of the Cullens.

"I know I'm going to call him Teddy." I couldn't keep the smile off of my face. "It was your mother's name for you, Edward." I reminded him.

"That's right." He nodded. "She thought it would be confusing to call father and I both Edward at home. So, I was Anthony a majority of the time and Teddy when I was good." He laughed.

"That's cute." Bella nodded. "Anthony it is then." She smiled happily.

"So this is another reason why you and Elizabeth have bonded so much lately." I smiled knowingly at her as I gave Elizabeth to her father.

"Yeah, it's like my brain knew I was in a better position then I was my last pregnancy. My mom instincts really kicked in. All I wanted to do was look after Elizabeth, mostly hold her, while I was pregnant." Bella replied. "Speaking of bonding, Edward and I have a question for you two." She spoke nervously, handing Teddy off to Charlie as she stood and went to Edward and Elizabeth.

"We were wondering if you two would be open to giving custody of Elizabeth back to us." Edward spoke for them. "I understand why Bella gave it to you both in the first place and I fully support that decision, but, I think we've proven here lately that we're more than ready to care for both of our children."

"I know I swore to you that I would never make you a glorified babysitter and you were never that. I know you've been a real mother to Elizabeth, but when we thought you were dead we really bonded like I never let us in the beginning. I can't thank you enough for caring for her and loving her like your own, and I understand if you aren't willing to give her back, but I really hope you'll consider it." Bella begged us.

I sent Charlie a victorious smirk and he sighed heavily knowing that he had lost our bet.

"We never took custody in the first place." I confessed to them, and both of their eyes went wide. "I told you from the moment you asked me to take custody that I hoped you would change your mind one day. We've always cared for her with the goal of one day getting you into a position where you felt like you could mother her."

"We're Honey and Chief for a reason." Charlie chuckled, transfixed on the sweet baby in his arms. "We always believed in you Bella, even when you didn't believe in yourself." He sent her his signature smile that I love so much.

"Thank you." She smiled widely, coming over to hug us both tightly before going back to Edward and Elizabeth.

Teddy stirred then, yawning and stretching his tiny perfect limbs before looking up at Charlie and I with Edwards piercing emerald human eyes.

"He's got your eyes!" I cheered happily, sending Edward a deliriously happy smile. "Oh it's been a lifetime since I've seen those eyes." I swooned, knowing I was going to be wrapped around his finger just like Elizabeth and Jennifer.

"I was thrilled." Bella laughed. "After hearing you talk about how pretty they were, I was excited to get to see them for myself." She smiled, the picture of a happy new mother.

"He's still tiny, light colored eyes can darken." Carlisle reminded us teasingly.

"He's going to have Edwards eyes." I retorted playfully, wrapping my arms around Charlie and Teddy as I swooned over him happily.

"Mom, you're crying." Edward teased me sweetly and I quickly wiped at my eyes and reclaimed control of my gift.

"I'm just so thrilled." I shook my head. "I keep thinking I'm dead and somehow made it into my own personal heaven." I disclosed. "My dead husband is here in my arms, my family is safe from danger, my kids are happy and thriving, and I have three beautiful grandchildren." I cried. "How could I have gone from being so depressed and lost to suddenly having everything I've ever wanted? It seems to me that I have to be dead to be this blessed."

"Oh, Sister." Carlisle smiled at me knowingly and I couldn't help myself but go sit next to him so I could hug him tightly. "I understand that feeling, but I can assure you that you are not dead." He squeezed me, and my eyes settled on Bella where she stood nearby with Edward. Both of them transfixed on Elizabeth and Charlie's interaction with Teddy.

"So, what exactly happened this pregnancy that forced Bella's change?" I asked. "Just for the sake of my own morbid curiosity."

"While we had talked about your method of putting her on a blood diet, we never spoke in detail and so I was left to guess a majority of the time. I had no idea how much or how little to give her, and I don't think I gave her nearly enough. Also, her body was already weakened from not having recovered fully after Elizabeth, and so it made delivery quite scary. She was bleeding out too much on the table for me to risk not changing her." Carlisle disclosed.

"Although, with the impending confrontation with the Volturi, we were going to change her regardless. I wasn't willing to risk them torturing her like they did Charlie." Edward added.

At the mention of Charlie's torture, it seemed Carlisle and I both zeroed in on Charlie's right leg. He had kept it propped out in front him, not bending it at all since we had first seen him, and so I wondered what exactly was keeping him walking. The leg Rosalie and Emmett had found was undeniably his, but the possibly of some kind of transplant would've been impossible with the way his leg had been shredded off. Wondering what was beneath his black slacks and dress shoe in our identical gruesome curiosities, Carlisle and I shared a look of questioning between us before he nudged me to ask Charlie.

"Love, I think Carlisle and I are both curious to see what's going on with your leg." I brought the subject up gently. "Will you let us look at it?"

"I-" he paused, looking like he was trying to recollect his thoughts as he motioned for Bella to take Anthony from him. "I don't know if you really want to." He sighed heavily, glancing around the room fearfully.

"Charlie, the fact that you somehow survived a near full leg amputation on top of being changed is a miraculous feat. I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that there is no shame in being a survivor. Whatever the damage, you don't have to be self-conscious about us perceiving you harshly because that will never be the case." Carlisle swore to him.

"I've been pretty out of it lately." Charlie confessed, and my soul ached to see him looking so lost and so hurt. "They tried hard to break me, and I guess they finally did with Corin getting her claws into me, so I was in and out of my right mind a lot. I can't really keep track of what happened when yet. But, when I woke up, I guess after my change, I had this shoved into the wound." He revealed, easily pulling up his pant leg to his mid-thigh and exposing the Volturi's sick experiment.

An iron rod, maybe an inch or so in diameter, protruded oddly from the base of his natural leg and ran straight to his dress shoe. In our shock, both Carlisle and myself stood and went to his side to examine it more, and that's when I realized his shoe acted as a counterweight. It looked like a concrete or something of the sort had been poured into the shoe and the iron rod placed in the center before drying completely. That's how Charlie managed to walk without showing too much of a limp, he was counterweighted down.

"Oh, Charlie." I whispered in disgust at what those monsters had done to him.

"I knew I shouldn't have shown-"

"No." I cut him off sharply, putting my hands on top of his to prevent him from covering his leg up. "I'm angry at what they did to you, not frightened of you. You are the strongest man I know. I love you, so much." I swore to him as emotions coursed through me at seeing just how hard he had fought to get back to us.

"Well, I have good news." Carlisle offered. "We can cut the rod off at the source and you should have no difficulty wearing a prosthetic." He declared soundly after finishing his examination.

"You think so?" Charlie asked hopefully.

"I don't see why not." Carlisle mused. "You already walk and move remarkably well with this monstrosity the Volturi has forced on you. With a little physical therapy and some balance exercises, you should be able to walk perfectly natural." He smiled up at him. "Besides, you have the best caretaker there is to nurse you back to health." Carlisle teased me.

"I'll find you the most advanced prosthetic there is." Edward promised Charlie firmly. "Anything you want. I'm just thrilled you and Mom are alive and here." He smiled happily at us.

"You're going to be such a suck up for the rest of our lives, aren't you?" I teased him.

"Hey, Edward can't buy it if I beat him to it first!" Emmett laughed loudly as he stood to his feet, pulling Jennifer up into his arms as he did. "Come on, Jenny. Let's go beat your uncle."

"Teaching her your competitive ways already?" I giggled at them, watching Jennifer's huge smile as her new dad hung her upside down over his arms playfully. "Shame on you." I teased.

"Competition is key." Emmett nodded seriously before sitting Jennifer up in his arms. "We gotta beat your uncle so we can be Honeys' favorites."

"I think we're all her favorites." Jennifer smiled dizzily at him, a loving look already clouding her eyes.

"Oh, you're cute." He laughed at her, teasing her as he hugged her tight and jostled her around. "I've got so much to teach you!" He laughed loudly as he rushed the both of them upstairs to the study.

"I can't thank you three enough." Rosalie suddenly spoke from her quiet seat on the couch. "I know she's not ours, but she already feels like it, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to be the mother she needs. I really don't know what to say except thank you." She smiled beautifully, and I couldn't help but rush over and hug her tightly.

"No thanks necessary." I assured her as I held her to me. "She was meant to be yours. Jasper, Alice, and I simply made sure that she found you."

"I better go make sure he's not filling her full of nonsense." Rosalie giggled, sounding like she might be crying if she could, hugging me tight before standing and drifting upstairs.

My eyes caught Bella's as I watched Rosalie leave and I couldn't help the wide smile that stretched across my face.

"What is it?" She giggled at me, rocking the sweet baby in her arms so naturally that it warmed my cold heart.

"Do you remember what I told you after we first discovered your pregnancy? When I had given you an exam here before taking you back home to talk with your dad?" I asked her.

"Remind me?" She giggled.

"Everything is going to be okay, Bella." I quoted myself, using my same hopeful tone. "You'll see. Everything happens for a reason." I nodded soundly, again just to prove my point.

"I'll have to trust you on this one, Grace." She replied with a nod, quoting herself. "Looks like you were right after all." She smiled widely back at me, hugging Teddy to her as she lent over to kiss Elizabeth's head as she sat in her fathers arms happily. "So right." She declared, looking up at Edward with nothing but love and devotion in her eyes.