Family Portrait (A Jasper's Sister Story)

37: Mariella Iris

**EDITED: 5/17/17**

Seth held onto my hands as we all stared at Carlisle, waiting for him to tell us what he found out.

I expected Carlisle to look at least a bit tired, but he still looked beautiful in the immortal way vampirism has. He had a small smile on his face, so I assumed whatever he found out wasn't completely terrible.

I glanced over at Rosalie and Emmett. They were sitting on the couch across from us. Emmett had his arm wrapped around Rosalie's shoulders as she held his free hand in both of hers. She bit her lip nervously as her blue eyes locked onto Carlisle.

"Well," Emmett finally broke the tense silence. "Did you find anything?"

I felt Seth squeeze my hands gently. I glanced at him and squeezed his back before looking at Carlisle. My heart beat quickly in my chest and I'm sure if Seth wasn't holding my hands firmly, they'd be shaking. I could only imagine how Rosalie felt.

"I did," Carlisle nodded. It felt like everyone was holding their breaths when Carlisle paused. "As far as I can tell, there's no difference between Rosalie, Annabelle, and Renesmee. You two are perfectly healthy."

I sighed in relief, feeling myself deflate from the still posture to leaning into Seth's arms. He wrapped his arms around me, pressing a kiss to my forehead as I started laughing.

We stood and almost immediately Rosalie wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. I grinned, hugging her back just as tightly, knowing that now she'd be able to have a family like she's always wanted.

Life was finally starting to slow down.

1 year later...

I lazily flipped through a bridal magazine as I laid spread out on the couch. My head was propped against Rosalie's lap as my feet rested in Seth's lap. Rosalie hummed softly as she braided my hair, which I had let grow out. The short hair was a reminder of what happened. Although it was hard for her to reach at first because of her extremely swollen belly, it was calming for her to play with my hair.

After a couple of months of finding out that there weren't any side effects to the water, Rosalie had gotten pregnant. It seems like it's lasting a proper 9 months like for humans, and it's been 8 so far. Rosalie's hoping for her baby to be a girl, and although Emmett says he wants a boy, Edward told me that Emmett thinks about having a girl constantly.

A couple things have changed in the last year besides the prospect of the new baby. We had moved away from Forks and now lived in a cabin-like home in basically the middle of Alaska. Apparently Esme bought the land back in the 80s and had the home built as a get away. Now we lived there without having to pretend that we're normal humans- which meant no school and trust me, that was an aspect that I celebrated.

Seth and Jacob came along with us, and Leah decided to stay in Forks to attend community college and hopes to transfer next year to a different college.

Last month, Seth had proposed to me and I had finally agreed to marry him. We decided on a winter wedding for next year, since it was fall now. And while I trusted Alice to put together a wedding in less than 4 months, I wanted to be just as involved in planning my wedding as Alice wants to be.

"I like that one," Rosalie said softly, pointing at a ball gown with beading decorating the bust.

"It'll swallow me whole," I snorted. "And it'll make me look like an upside down cupcake with all that tool. I want something not as... big."

"Why can't I help you look," Seth whined looking away from the TV.

"Because it ruins the surprise," Rosalie shook her head. "Surprises are the best part."