Beautiful Days

Chapter 76 -Old Friend-

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

A week had already gone by on the island and this weekend Robert would already come to visit with his family to take a well-deserved vacation with us. I had had so much time to fully relax and so did everyone else and it was a great time. I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to reality any time soon when we were watching the stars at night, went swimming in the ocean, built sandcastles, played hide and seek and tag, went hiking in the jungle and swimming at the waterfalls, enjoyed the silence, laughter, love, light and life. There wasn't one day passing without laughter and it brought all of us impossibly closer to share this extensive time together. 

I hadn't seen Jacob and Seth so relaxed and at ease with us than this week and though Jacob and Rose tried to get out of each other's way, they could tolerate each other much easier than before. Emmett and Jasper were finally able to shake the worries away and Emmett had had the brilliant idea to build a cabin on the other side of the island two days ago and since then we had hardly seen the two. Edward and Bella took their time together as well and Nessie liked to have Jacob around the entire day and enjoyed extensive adventurous tours with him around the island while her parents were enjoying some alone time or were on the mainland. 

Alice still threw herself into planning, but she also always had time for some silly time and of course only accidently interrupting Carlisle and me from time to time.

She was behaving quite suspiciously since yesterday though and I had my suspicions and worries that it had something to do with me. Alice was shooing Rose and Bella around frequently and the frequent trips to the island and phone calls did nothing to soothe my suspicions. But it solely had something to do with the wedding and as long as it was that way, I was open-minded to nearly everything. Carlie, too, opened up much more since we arrived here. Carlisle and I had our suspicions that she was still traumatized from the past events, but she opened up easily. Though she always looked back before she walked somewhere to reassure herself that we were still there or she went straight into our room in the morning and cuddled up between us, I had hope that she could trust us wholly again.

I sighed as I watched Carlie play with her plush animals in her shared nursery from the doorframe. She had her bunny sitting right next to her and a big yellow blue plush fish as well as a big brown teddy bear were accompanying her new best friend. She had a plush sea horse in her hands and sang to herself as she played. Haven was taking a nap right to her left in his cradle. He had felt so much better in that one week and he hardly coughed at all anymore. The windows of the room were open and the light breeze made the yellow curtains dance. The sunrays illuminated the nursery and some rays directly hit Carlie and she glistened just slightly. 

Her curls were once again a wild disarray around her face, but they were slightly tamed by a hair slide. I only noticed now that her skin was slightly tanned just like mine and it contrasted especially well with her white summer dress. I didn't know how long I had been watching her, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave the room. It was so overwhelmingly beautiful to be able to just watch my daughter play. 

She was my everything. I loved Haven just as much of course as I loved all my children, but Carlie had a very special place in my heart. She was our first child. She made the impossible possible and made us parents to a small new life. We had to learn so many things. Being parents to such a small life really was an adventure, but I still believed that Carlisle and I had done great so far. No one could deny how healthy and happy she looked.

Carlie squealed and let the teddy bear fly up into the air. She giggled and nearly fell back as she had done so when she was just learning to sit. Her legs were up in the air and as she had done since she was a baby, she caught herself and sat back again. My smile grew as I watched her. "Mommy!" she called happily suddenly. Instinctively I kneeled down as she ran over to me and right into my arms. I nuzzled my face in her curls and sighed. Her small arms wound around my neck and I picked her up and carried her on my hip. "Ali promised to play with me and bunny today," she told me and her eyebrows knitted together.