Baby Steps

4

Grace age update: 9 months

Esme POV

We were given no time to prepare for the Volturi's visit. Alice's vision clearly stated that they would arrive in a month or less. To invite all our friends and covens from all over the globe would take too long and after seven years, I doubted some of them would want to see the Volturi again. Carlisle made it clear that we just had to face them and get it over with.

They were coming for Renesmee, after all, to see if she stopped ageing yet. And indeed she did. She's been stuck in the body of a sixteen, seventeen-year-old girl for a year now, showing no signs of gaining more height or ageing more. Hopefully, this visit will be over quick.

I was so deep in thought that I didn't notice little Grace playing in her pit of balls. Suddenly all my senses were on alert and I got this sickening feeling inside of me. We forgot about Grace! I scooped her up and held her tight against me, making my way to Carlisle's office where Bella and Edward also were.

"We forgot about Grace." Edward read my thoughts.

Carlisle closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, "Indeed. We were so busy worrying about Renesmee, that we've forgotten the only one that could actually be in trouble."

Bella looked between Grace and Carlisle and my concerned faces, "What could happen if they find out about her? They can't possibly insist on turning her?"

"No." Carlisle answered, "That would create an immortal child. We'll have to hide her."

Edward frowned, "Where? We can't take her to Sam's. Aro will know of her the moment he read one of our minds. The same goes for taking her to Charlie."

He was right. No matter where we take her, Aro will find out anyways by looking at either one of our thoughts. The room went deadly silent as we all brainstormed how we're going to protect little Grace. At that moment the awful stench of a wet dog drifted past me as Renesmee entered the room with Jacob. Carlisle's head snapped up and I swore I could see a little light bulb flicker above him.

"If we can't take Grace to the pack, we could bring the pack to Grace." he uttered a light chuckle, "Alice can't see the future past Jacob's smell. And that's only him alone. If the stench of one werewolf can mess up a vampire's gift like that, just think what that smell of the whole pack would do to the Volturi's gifts?"

Edward nodded as he understood what Carlisle said, "So we bring the whole pack here, live with the stench for a month at the most so they'll be thrown off and Aro won't see much past us."

"He will see what we want him to see. We're a little more used to werewolf stenches than they are, thanks to Jacob's visits."

"Gee, thanks for the compliment." Jake muttered sarcastically, "I get what you're planning. I'll have Sam and the pack over by tomorrow morning. They'll do anything for Grace."

I felt relief wash over me and kissed the tiny person's cheek, smiling as her fingertips made contact with my chin. If this plan worked, then we had a bright future ahead of us with her in the family.

After a week of practising, the plan was finally ready. The pack would patrol the house day in and day out, while Emily would stay inside the house with us. She's human after all. When the Volturi shows up, she'll stay in the nursery with Grace to keep her quiet and fed throughout their visit. All the heartbeats of the wolves will keep them from hearing Grace's, and their stenches will definitely overrule hers. All that could go wrong was that she'd start crying or making noise, but I pushed that out of my thoughts. No need to jinx it, right?

By the second week, the stench of wet dog became almost unbearable. There were at least fifteen werewolves around the house and Sam even promised ten new recruits by the next day. I kept reminding myself that this was all for Grace. If it weren't, then the wolves would've been long gone. Luckily Emily and Bella helped when it came to cooking for them.