Just something fun for everyone who wanted Rosalie and Emmett to get pregnant on their own!

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Extra –

"I think it's done…Emmett? Do you think it's done? Is it okay? Or does it need more?"

I spin my stool a little closer to the big chair and lean over to check. I'm not sure who's sweating more – Liam, my new apprentice who has just done his first piece on human skin, or his dad who bravely volunteered to be the guinea pig.

I snap on some gloves and wipe off some extra blood. Liam's been a little heavy handed in parts and there's more bruising than I'd like, but for a first attempt it's more than acceptable. "You did good, pal. Leave it at that…well done."

Liam exhales and leans back, wiping his sweaty forehead and beaming at his dad. "My first one! What do you reckon, Dad?"

"It looks great," his dad answers, grinning as he reaches out and hugs him. "You did a good job - I barely even felt it!"

Well, that's being kind, his dad was looking pretty pale for a while there! "Finish cleaning it up and cover it," I say hastily. "And change your gloves since you touched your hair."

I watch Liam carefully clean and cover the new ink, making sure he follows all the procedures for avoiding infection, and then I make him talk his dad through the aftercare process. He's heard the spiel a lot and does a pretty good job, and when he's finished I encourage him to take a photo of his work and then I snap a photo of the two of them together.

"I'm going to leave you to clean up now," I say, glancing up at the clock. "Do it all properly and get Jonah to check it once you're done. I've got to get to the gym to pick up Daisy. I'll see you tomorrow…and seriously, well done on your first ink!"

I speak briefly to Jonah, working on a sleeve in the next room, and then get in the minivan and head across town to the gym. Lots of classes run on Saturday mornings and the floor and equipment is busy, but even in the crowd I spot Daisy right away, up on the high beam with the rest of her group.

I love watching my daughter. She's tiny, like Alice, all long spider limbs and leotards that sag in the butt or gape at the arms no matter what size we buy her. She looks like Jasper, with the same serious face and strong cheekbones and sharp jaw, but the focus and determination that she approaches life with is all Rosalie. I love the interplay of nature and nurture I've seen in watching her grow, and I love the way her own fierce and beautiful personality shines through it all.

Right now Daisy's focus is all on her gymnastics. She's been here for three hours already but even when the class ends and the other girls all scatter to the locker room and their waiting parents, she stays on the beam and goes back to twisting herself into a pretzel. Skirting the uneven bars I cross the gym to the beam.

"Hey Daisy bug, you ready to go home?"

"Can I just show you what we did today? Please?" She brushes the stray wisps of hair off her face and grins at me.

"If it's okay with Diana." I glance her teacher. "They might need the beam for the next group."

Diana nods. "Go ahead Daisy, show your dad." She stands beside me, watching intently as Daisy does her thing, and says, "I saw she's signed up for the summer sessions we're running – that's great, I was hoping she would."

I shrug. "She'd rather do this than anything else."

"Mmmm. We'll have to have a talk about what your plans are for her gymnastics next year too. It's probably time we looked at how serious she is about it all."

"How serious she is?" I look at Diana blankly. "She's seven years old." Sure, Daisy's gone from messing about tumbling and playing in the foam pit as a three year old to being here three days a week risking life and limb doing fancy tricks, but I didn't realise that meant we were getting serious.

Diana laughs. "I know. But she's nearly eight, and that's an age at when a lot of girls start stepping it up. Daisy's got a lot of natural talent, she loves it, and she's got a work ethic that's pretty unusual for her age. I'd like to have her in our mini elite program next year. Anyway, I figured we can see how she goes practising more often over summer sessions and talk about moving her into a new training group in the fall."

Daisy flings herself off the end of the beam and lands crookedly, falling hard onto her butt. "Oh, damn!"

"Watch your mouth," I say, lightly.

"Can I try again?" Daisy begs. "Please? Can we stay for just a bit more?"

I shake my head. "Sorry, not today kiddo." I reach out and help her up, swinging her up into my arms just so I can give her a hug. "We've got to get home; Edward and Bella are coming over to look after you guys so Mom and I can go out." I wave goodbye to Diana and carry Daisy over to the side where she usually leaves her bag. "Get your gear on."

Daisy slips a pair of leggings and a t-shirt on over her leotard and then sits down to pull on her sneakers and socks. "Where are you and Mom going?"

"Just out for lunch somewhere." I hand Daisy her water bottle and lead her out to the car.

"Why can't we come?" Daisy says, scrambling into her booster seat and reaching for her seatbelt.

I look at the four other empty carseats in the minivan and snort. "Because Mom and Dad want to spend some together without all you little monsters! We haven't been out just the two of us since before the little twins were born. We want to go to a restaurant that doesn't involve crayons for once." I tickle her ribs.

"But you like crayons!" Daisy giggles. "You draw more than anyone!"

I laugh and get into the drivers seat. "You're right, I do. But I love your mom and I want to take her somewhere nice today. You can help Edward and Bella look after the boys and Eliza."

When we reach home I park over by the side of the house, careful to avoid the bikes abandoned in the driveway. Daisy runs straight to the house, but I take a detour towards the fence to say hi to Clementine. I'm scratching her whiskery chin when five year old Noah sidles around the oak tree near the fence and smiles at me engagingly.

"Hi Daddy!"

Now, that's a look I've seen before. "What are you up to?" I say, suspiciously. "Where's Mac?" I stoop down and give him a hug.

"Nothing's broken," Noah says hastily, and I look past him and see the edge of a ladder, leaning up against the massive oak growing at the edge of the yard.

"Is that the builders' ladder?" We've had a construction crew out over the past couple of months, building an extension onto the house that will add a master bedroom and bathroom as well as an extra living area, and also converting the attic space to bedrooms. They're doing great work, but they're also always leaving crap all over the yard and that's a real hazard with twins who attract trouble like magnets. "Mom and I have told you not to touch any of their stuff!"

"Bill put the ladder there!" Noah protests. "Our Frisbee got stuck and he put the ladder there and climbed up to get it for us. And then one of the other guys called him and I guess he just forgot to take it away."

"And you just thought you'd climb it?"

"Well, not me," Noah squirms. "It's kind of high…"

"But Mac doesn't think so." I finish for him, gazing up into the tree and seeing, high above my head, some blue jeans and red sneakers that I am presuming belong to my son. My heart skips a beat. I'm a pretty laid back dad generally, but Mac's only five years old and he must be fifty feet up in the air. If he slips and falls he'll kill himself. "McCarty Hale-Cullen, you get down out of that tree!"

"Aww but Dad, I don't wanna …" his voice drifts down and now I can't even see his sneakers.

"Down! NOW!" I yell. "And carefully!"

I watch anxiously until I see him appear, lowering himself back down through the trees. At one point he slips and I have to bite my tongue not to say anything, but he catches himself and keeps climbing doggedly down. He stops on the lowest branch, which is still above my head, and glares at me balefully.

"I could have got right to the top," he says. "If YOU hadn't made me stop."

"Yeah well, you could have fallen and broken your neck," I say. "I don't mind you climbing on the trees down by the river but this one is way too high. Are you coming down the ladder or do you want to jump and I'll catch you?"

"Jump," Mac says, and hurls himself off the branch and into my arms.

"Oof." He's a solid little kid, and once I catch him I heft him up in my arms and give him a hug, picking some leaves out of his curly dark hair. "Don't do that again kiddo. You know you're not allowed to touch the builders' stuff."

Rosalie meets us as we go into the house and hands me a baby, who is red-cheeked and gnawing furiously on his fist. "Guess who cut his first tooth this morning? And guess how Mommy found out?"

I swing the baby up and he grins at me, showing me the sharp, shiny new tooth that's cut through his red gums. A long string of drool hangs from his chin. "Hey Thing One, have you been biting your mom? Are you a vampire baby?"

I have to look twice at the baby to know which one I have. Zeke. The big twins are fraternal, the result of two embryos implanted via IVF, and have looked different from the day they were born. The little twins are the result of our final roll of the IVF dice, where we implanted our last single frozen embryo and crossed our fingers. We were pretty resigned to it not working, as the embryo was of such dubious quality that they almost wrote it off, but somehow it not only implanted but split into babies so identical that for the first four months of their lives we had to colour code them with Sharpie dots on their hands so we could tell them apart. At six months there are a few differences, but it sometimes takes a second glance to be sure.

"I was nursing him," Rosalie tells me with a grimace. "I screamed so loudly that the builder came into see what was wrong…he certainly got an eyeful. I also think I traumatised Zeke with the screaming, but hopefully he's not going to bite me again!" She looks down at Noah and Mac. "What have you two been up to?"

"Nothin' Mommy," they say in unison, disappearing hastily towards the living room.

Rosalie raises an eyebrow at me. "Do I want to know? Do I need to know?"

"Nah." I grin. "Nothing's broken and no one's hurt, so you don't need to worry. We should probably have a word with the builder about keeping better track of his ladders though."

Rosalie makes a face. "Don't even tell me…Mac is an absolute menace," she sighs. "Bill was doing skirting boards and window trim up in the attic today, so there was a lot of noise and Bram and Zeke didn't sleep. Between tiredness and teeth it was a bad morning!"

I give her a hug, running a hand down her back and kissing her head. "Well, we get to leave them all with Edward and Bella this afternoon and go out, just the two of us…"

"Mmmm." Rosalie lifts her face to mine and kisses me. "I can't wait! Edward and Bella should be here soon, so do you mind giving the kids some lunch while I have a shower? Then we should be able to put the little ones down for a nap before we leave."

"I'd rather have a shower with you," I say, kissing her back. "But duty calls."

I carry Zeke into the kitchen, scooping up a grizzling Bram as I pass him in the living room, and settle both of them in high chairs with some frozen fruit teethers. For the big kids I make some pb&js and cut up a bunch of fruit before I call them to the table. They've only just started eating when we hear a car out in the driveway, and a moment later Edward, Bella and their daughter Eliza come into the kitchen too.

"Hey, thanks for this," I say. I reach out to Eliza, being carried on Bella's hip, and gently tug her wispy red ponytail. "Do I get a hug from my girl?"

Eliza giggles and reaches over, wrapping her chubby arms around me. I hug her back and pretend to chomp on her neck. Eliza is two and I look after her one day a week with my boys while Bella works, so we're good buddies. I put her down at the table and give her a plate, throwing some strawberries on it before Noah can eat them all.

"Do you want some lunch?" I ask Edward and Bella. "You can help yourself if you do – sorry, I've got to get this in to the little dudes." I pull some of Rosalie's home blended baby food out of the microwave and stir it quickly before pulling a chair up and beginning to spoon it in to the two waiting, open mouths.

"We're fine," Bella says. "Do you want me to feed one of those babies?"

"Yes, brilliant," I say, immediately handing her a spoon and shoving Bram's high chair towards her. If there is one thing I have learned from having two sets of twins, it's to take help whenever it's offered! "They didn't nap this morning so they should go down after lunch and sleep for a couple of hours. There's frozen breastmilk you can heat up for them when they wake up, and Rose and I will be back by dinner. You know where everything is…just try and keep the big twins alive I guess." I grin at the kids. "Don't give Bella and Edward any trouble!"

"Which baby is which?" Edward asks, looking from Bram to Zeke and back again.

"Bram is blue and he's Thing Two!" Daisy, Mac and Noah chime in, giggling.

"But you don't draw on them anymore," Edward protests. "Neither of them have blue dots on their hands!"

"Well Bram is wearing stripes and Zeke here has dinosaurs. And also has a tooth now, although that difference will probably last all of five minutes given Bram's crankiness and drooling." I grin at Edward and hand him the rubber baby spoon. "Besides, they both answer to the name Thing, so you'll be fine. Here, if you can finish feeding Zeke I'll go and change so Rosalie and I can get going."

In our bedroom, Rosalie is wearing only a bra and underpants and has a small but growing pile of rejected outfits tossed onto the bed as she furiously rummages through what remains in the closet. "I don't have anything to wear!"

"You'll look beautiful in anything," I say sincerely, slinging my t-shirt into the hamper and reaching past her for a clean shirt.

"But nothing fits!" Rosalie sounds near tears as she pulls a pair of black trousers up over her hips. "I thought I lost all the baby weight, but I can't even button my good pants! How am I still so fat?"

"You're not…" I pause for a moment, half in and half out of my shirt, and look at her. Because Rosalie isn't fat – any extra fullness from the pregnancy has long since disappeared in the demands of breastfeeding babies and parenting five kids. Sure, nursing twins has given her a great set of boobs, but the rest of her body is leaner than it was before the little twins were born. Looking at her in her bra I can see a shadow of ribs and the lumps of vertebrae down her spine. Really, if anything I'd say she's a little too thin.

Except there is actually no way those pants are going to button up over the bulge in her lower belly. A bulge that, now that I'm looking at is, is kind of terrifyingly familiar.

"Umm, Rosa-girl? You haven't, like, had a period in a while…"

"I'm nursing and pumping twenty-five hours a day and night, of course I haven't…" Rosalie's head whips around to stare at me, aghast. "No!"

"I know, it's crazy, but…" I shrug helplessly. "Forget it. Wear something else."

"The idea of it is beyond crazy!" Rosalie tries futilely to pull her pants closed, her face panicked. "Fuck!"

She grabs my hand and drags me across the hall into the bathroom, slamming the door behind us and rifling desperately through the cabinet until she finds a pregnancy test, leftover from years of trying to conceive. And then I know exactly how freaked out she is, because for the first time in the entire eighteen years we've been together, Rosalie yanks down her pants and pees in front of me. I've seen her throw up, I've seen her give birth, I've even helped her express milk from engorged breasts, but for whatever reason using the toilet has always been her line in the sand. Until today.

I shove a pile of colourful boats and naked Barbie dolls off the side of the tub and sink down on to it, holding the plastic stick Rosalie passes to me while she wipes her ass and pulls up her pants. My hands are shaking. After nine years of infertility and six tries with IVF I know how to read a pregnancy test, and there's no mistaking this one. It is absolutely, definitely, no doubt-about-it positive.

"I can't even look," she mutters. "This cannot be happening. Tell me that I'm panicking over nothing. Tell me that I'm just fat!"

I clear my throat. "Well, I could tell you that but…"

"No. No, no NO!" Rosalie stares wildly at the pregnancy test that I'm holding out towards her. "What. The. FUCK?! I have six months old twins! I CANNOT be pregnant again! How did this happen? WHEN did this happen? How pregnant am I?"

"Umm, are you guys okay in there?" Edward says tentatively from outside the door. "The kids have finished lunch; do you want me to change the babies' diapers and put them in their crib?"

Rosalie flings open the door. "How pregnant am I?" she demands of Edward, cupping her hands around the swelling of her lower abdomen. "Apparently I'm pregnant, and I have no idea when this could have happened! What does this look like to you?"

"What the…?" Abruptly confronted by Rosalie wearing only a pink lace bra and unbuttoned pants and shoving her belly towards him, Edward steps back so hastily he trips over an abandoned soccer ball and nearly falls into the wall. He looks utterly horrified, and I have to fight back a wild desire to laugh. "How would I know?"

"You're a doctor!"

"I'm not an OB!" Edward exclaims. "Don't you keep track of these things?"

"Keep track of WHAT?" Rosalie cries. "I haven't had a period since before I got pregnant with Bram and Zeke! I spend like twelve hours a day breastfeeding and pumping, so it's not like I should have got pregnant even if I COULD get pregnant by myself…which I can't! Or at least, I never have! Oh my god…" she covers her face with her hands. "I've barely even gone back to work after my maternity leave and I'm pregnant AGAIN…I'm going to have THREE babies…I cannot BELIEVE this is happening." She pushes blindly past Edward and heads towards our room.

"This is…something else," Edward says. "You don't have any idea when this could have happened?" He looks at me quizzically. "I mean, I don't want to be rude or anything, but you have five kids, including six month old twins…how did you find the time?"

"Priorities," I say to him, with a burst of semi-hysterical laughter. "It's just a matter of priorities…holy fuck Edward, what am I going to DO?"

"Have another baby, it would seem," Edward says with a bemused grin. "I might not be an OB, but even to a casual observer she looks fairly obviously pregnant. It's hard to know though, women often show earlier in subsequent pregnancies and Rosalie did just have twins six months ago – how far along do you think she could be? How did you not notice?"

I shrug helplessly. "Well, the twins are six months old. It was an easy birth, they were pretty small, we probably waited…four weeks maybe? I know they say six, but she was feeling good and…so I suppose anything from around five months to a few weeks? Fucking hell." I swallow hard. "As for not noticing- I don't know! I mean, as you pointed out we have five kids, including two babies who still sleep in our room, so it's not like we're going for marathon sessions here! Sex tends to be pretty quick right now. And she was self conscious about her belly after the twins were born and didn't want me to touch it, so I guess I didn't."

"And you didn't take any precautions? Breastfeeding can inhibit ovulation, but there's no guarantee. No other birth control?"

I roll my eyes. "Edward, come on. Do I have to remind you that Daisy's adopted and the boys are only here because of a whole lot of high-tech medical assistance? Birth control isn't exactly something we've needed to worry about, you know?" I look at him beseechingly. "I know you're not an OB, but you are a doctor; can't you just take a look and see if you can guess how far along she is? Because, that could be anything from six weeks with some serious bloat to five months…"

Edward shakes his head. "Emmett, I love you and I love Rosalie, but I'm not going to even attempt to date her pregnancy. I'm a surgeon – if she wants a caesarean section you can call me up, but I haven't done an obstetric exam since I was a resident." He hesitates. "Look, what I can do if you want, is take you over the hospital and get a quick, unofficial, ultrasound done. Rosalie will have to make an appointment with her OB for the rest, but at least we can get an idea of dates for you."

"So much for my hot date this afternoon," I sigh. "But thanks – that would be great. Bella won't mind staying with all the kids?"

"I'll talk to her," Edward says. "You go see if Rosalie wants to go to the hospital and check it out."

Rosalie is sitting on our bed, still wearing only her bra and unbuttoned pants, and looking shell-shocked. I sit beside her and put an arm around her shoulders, and after a moment she leans into me and takes the positive pregnancy test out of my hand.

"I can't believe this," she mutters. "How many of these tests have I used over the years? How many negatives that I would have given anything to see turn positive? And now I have a positive, and it feels like the whole world has fallen out from under my feet."

I kiss the side of her head. "I love you. We'll figure it out."

"Emmett, the little twins are six months old – for all we know I could be five months pregnant and we could have three babies under a year old!" Rosalie buries her face against my chest. "I can't do this."

"We'll figure it out," I repeat, stroking her hair. "You're a great mom; whatever happens we can make it work. Now, Edward offered to take us and get an ultrasound done this afternoon. Nothing fancy, just to give us a rough idea how far along you are – do you want to do that?"

"Do you mind?" Rosalie looks at me. "I know we were supposed to go out for a date afternoon, but I'll never be able to relax and enjoy myself with this hanging over my head."

"Of course I don't mind," I say tenderly. "We haven't been on a date for seven months, what does it matter if we put it off another couple of weeks? There's always our sofa at home and some Netflix and beer."

"Oh, that sounds like a hot date," Rosalie says, but at least she's laughing now. "And Netflix and chill is probably what got us into this situation in the first place!"

"Well, can't get you pregnant twice!" I say cheerfully, and then break into my own slightly unhinged laughter. "Fucking hell, this is really not where I thought my day was going! Look, get dressed and I'll put the babies down for a nap so we can go to the hospital."

In the kitchen Bella is wiping messy baby faces. "So…congratulations?" she says to me with a giggle.

"Don't know about congratulations," I say, unbuckling Bram and lifting him out. "Maybe commiserations would be more appropriate? It's not like we don't already have our hands full with you and the rest, Thing Two, is it?" I snuggle the baby closer and he rests his head against my shoulder. "Bella, are you really okay to mind all the kids while Edward takes us to the hospital? The little ones will nap for a while, but I don't know how long we'll be."

"I'll be fine," Bella says confidently, passing Zeke into my other arm. "Don't worry about us."

I carry both babies down to my bedroom and drop them onto the bed. Rosalie, now wearing a t-shirt and elastic waisted pants, grabs one and we both change a diaper before laying them gently in the crib. Unlike Mac and Noah, who were belting each other up in the womb, Bram and Zeke have always slept better when they're together. Even as Rosalie draws the curtains to bring the room into darkness the two of them shuffle along until they're lying with limbs tangled, eyelids heavy with sleep. I brush my hand over both their backs and then step quietly out of the room.

In the hallway I find Mac bouncing a ball off the front door, and I trap it under my foot and rumple his hair. "If you want to play ball you need to take it outside. Mommy and I are going out this afternoon with Edward, but Bella is going to stay here with you guys. I need you to be good, okay? No ladders, no going down to the river, no fighting with Noah…got it?"

Mac nods, and I kick the ball gently back towards him. In the living room Daisy has organised Noah and Eliza into drawing at the coffee table with her, and I give each of them kisses and hugs and make them promise to be good before Edward, Rosalie and I leave.

"I'll drive you in our car," Edward says, glancing at our two minivans. "Yours are too full of carseats."

"We'll need another one," Rosalie says. "Six carseats…people with think I'm a religious fundamentalist." She lapses back into stunned silence.

At the hospital, Edward parks Rosalie and I in a waiting area and disappears for a while to try and arrange something. He returns with a bottle of water that he hands to Rosalie, and then takes a seat opposite.

"Drink that," he tells her. "They'll call us when they have a moment, but it might be a bit of a wait."

Rosalie takes a long swallow of water. "Over nine and a half years," she says blankly. "That's how long we've been having unprotected sex. That's like…one hundred and sixteen months. All the sex in the world, all the charting and timing and hoping, and it took one hundred and sixteen months to get pregnant."

Edward smiles in sudden amusement. "Well, you were pregnant twice in that time."

"True." Rosalie acknowledges. "Thanks to science though! So I was pregnant twice and I made it to eight months both times, so we can cut sixteen months off that. And I didn't have my period for another eight months after the big twins were born, so we could probably subtract another eight. Although of course I haven't had my period this time either, and yet here we are. But apart from that…doing the math it's probably fair to say that there were at least ninety months where we could have got pregnant naturally, and didn't."

"I can understand your shock, when you put it like that." Edward raises his eyebrows.

Rosalie shakes her head in disbelief. "I just don't understand how this has happened! Why am I pregnant NOW, after we've spent thousands of dollars on IVF and are already completely overwhelmed with the five children we have? Why couldn't this have happened at…basically…ANY other time in those nine and a half years? You know, before we spent all our money, and when I might have felt equipped to deal with another baby?" Her lip quivers and she sinks into a gloomy silence.

I don't know what to say. All I've ever wanted is the life I have right now, with Rosalie and the babies, but the truth is that we've got our hands full. We never planned on five kids, let alone six- after having the big twins we only implanted single embryos in an effort to have a singleton pregnancy and keep it to four. The little twins were a big surprise and, even as we welcomed them with open arms, it's been fucking hard work. Not to mention the financial strain. Rosalie makes good money, but I don't earn enough to make paying four lots of daycare fees worthwhile and so my work is only part time and my contribution to the family purse negligible. We've used up our savings on IVF and borrowed money from Rosalie's parents for the extension and remodelling of the house, after deciding seven people in three bedrooms and a single bathroom just wasn't going to work. I'd been hoping to work more once Mac and Noah join Daisy at school in the fall, but another baby makes that look unlikely. I find myself biting on my knuckles and wondering what kind of crazy joke fate is playing on us now.

"Edward? I can get you guys in now."

"Thanks." Edward stands up and gestures. "This is Rosalie and Emmett…this is Brandon."

I say hi and follow the young man through a couple of corridors and into a small room, where Rosalie is directed to hop up on the table.

"So, just a quick dating ultrasound?" Brandon asks.

"Yes." Edward moves towards the door. "Rosalie hasn't had a period since before her last pregnancy, so the date range is pretty wide open here. I'll just wait outside."

"You may as well stay," Rosalie says wearily, sliding her t-shirt up over her belly and slipping her pants down over her hips. "Not much point in privacy now."

"How old's your baby?" Brandon asks Rosalie, squeezing the gel onto her stomach and switching on the ultrasound machine.

"Six months. Twins…oh my god," Rosalie's face contorts in fear. "Please tell me there's only one in there."

Brandon laughs and places the scanner against Rosalie's belly. "Well, let's take a look…yep, there's a baby. Just one! But you're going to be one busy mom pretty soon, because you're definitely into your second trimester here. Let me do some measurements and we can be a bit more accurate with that though."

Without taking my eyes off the screen I reach out and take Rosalie's hand, and she closes her fingers around mine. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it now, the magic of seeing my unborn baby still makes my heart fly. Even this one, such a complete and maybe not even fully welcome little surprise – oh, nothing else matters but the love that rushes through me, pure and primal and forever.

Hey little baby…I can't wait to meet you.

Rosalie's grip on my hand is so tight it almost hurts, and the tears are slipping silently down her cheeks. But I see her face and I know her heart, and I know with absolute certainty that already this little surprise has found a place there.

"Baby's measuring around eighteen weeks," Brandon says. "I'd put your due date sometime around the first week of November."

Six weeks before Bram and Zeke's first birthday. We're going to have three under a year old…holy shit.

Brandon keeps moving the scanner over Rosalie's belly, and I watch the screen with the same awe that I did when it was Daisy, eight years ago. The timing might be all wrong, and the idea of six kids is terrifying…but that this life has grown out of the love between Rosalie and I feels like nothing short of a miracle.

"You'll need to make an appointment with your OB and get a full anatomy scan done, but so far it all looks okay to me," he says. "Do you want to know the sex?"

"It's a girl, isn't it?" Rosalie is smiling through the tears. "I'm not a sonographer, but I've had a thousand ultrasounds with two sets of boy twins and I know what I'm not seeing this time...oh Emmett, it's a girl."

"Correct." Brandon prints out a strip of pictures. "Here's some picture proof of it! And Edward tells me this was a surprise, but congratulations guys."

"Thank you." Rosalie wipes all the gel off her stomach and pulls her clothes back into place. "I really appreciate this."

"I owe you one," Edward says to Brandon, and then reaches out and squeezes my shoulder. "Another girl."

"I guess Daisy gets the sister she wanted when Zeke and Bram were on the way," I say, before kissing Rosalie's head. "Let's go home and tell her."

We swing by the donut shop on our way, and when I walk in with the sugary scented boxes I'm greeted as effusively as if we've been gone for years. I hand them round to the older kids, while Rosalie takes a baby and sits in the armchair, lifting her shirt as he makes wide-mouthed lunges at her boobs.

"How did it go?" Bella jiggles an increasingly unhappy Bram, who keeps trying to lurch out of her arms towards his mom. "Come on baby, wait your turn."

Bram's voice rises to a shriek, and Rosalie sighs. "Never mind, I'll feed them both at the same time." She takes him from Bella and after some juggling gets both of them latched on, grimacing uncomfortably as they get themselves settled.

"Are you okay to be doing that?" I ask uncertainly. "Should you be nursing when you're pregnant?"

Rosalie laughs. "Well, it's not any more of a problem than it was for the past four months when we didn't know," she points out. She gives Bella a half embarrassed smile. "It turns out Mother Nature has a sense of humour…after nine and a half years of infertility, we're eighteen weeks along with baby number six."

"You might have to let go of the infertility word," I say. "After you've given birth to five kids, it doesn't seem all that applicable."

Daisy stops eating, her donut halfway up to her mouth and powdered sugar like a little moustache on her upper lip. "Are you having a baby? Another one?"

"Yeah. And guess what? It's a girl! So after four little brothers, you're going to get a baby sister around Halloween." I pull the strip of ultrasound photos from Rosalie's purse and show it to her.

Mac and Noah look up. "A new baby? Will it be Thing Three?"

"If you want her to be," I laugh. "She'll be a bit smaller than Bram and Zeke though."

Daisy shoves the rest of her donut in her mouth and tosses the picture aside, sliding off the sofa and stomping away to her room. I look over at Rosalie, who shrugs.

"Maybe you should go and talk to her?"

I hand Rosalie the remainder of my chocolate iced donut and head down to Daisy's room, knocking on her closed door. "Mind if I come in?"

"If you want to."

Daisy's sitting on her bed, holding her New York snow globe and watching the glitter swirl. She looks small and cranky and sad, and my heart goes out to her.

"Maybe I'll move to New York with Alice and Jasper," she says. "They have gymnastics there too."

I push aside some of the forty stuffed animals arranged on her bed and sit down beside her. "I guess a new baby isn't what you wanted, huh?"

"We don't need another baby," she says.

"Well, need's a strong word…" I brush her hair back from her face. "But need it or not, she's coming. I thought you'd be happy to have a sister? You're always saying there's too many boys around here."

Daisy's lower lip trembles. "She'll be your real daughter."

"What, instead of a fake daughter like you?" I immediately regret my flippancy when I see Daisy's eyes well up with tears, and I scoop her up and hold her tight. "Little bug, you are the realest daughter in the world."

"I'm not though! You just adopted me because you couldn't have your own kids and now Mom's having a million babies and even a girl and you don't need me at all!" Daisy buries her face in my chest and sobs.

"Oh, baby girl…" I say tenderly, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her shaking back. "We could have a thousand more kids and it wouldn't change the fact that you were our first. It doesn't matter whether you grew in Mom's belly or not, you've always been exactly what we wanted and needed…you're ours, little bug, and I don't ever want you to think any different."

Daisy wipes her nose on my sleeve. "I don't like being the only different one."

"Different is just another way of saying special," I say, swiping my thumb across the tears staining her cheeks. "And adoption is just a different way of making a family. But it's still a real family, and it's still just as good. Believe me…I know it from both sides! Carlisle and Esme adopted me, and then I adopted you." I lean forward and rub noses with my daughter. "And I wouldn't change that for anything. I love you little bug."

Daisy sighs, but she's smiling. "I love you too. But we're really going to have a LOT of babies in this house!"

"I know. You're not really going to run away to New York are you? I'm sure you'll like having a sister, and I'd really miss you if you weren't here."

"Well…maybe I'll wait and see. And another girl will make our family more even. Because it wasn't really fair when it was you and Mac and Noah and Bram and Zeke and just me and Mommy. Now there'll be a sister…will she have a flower name too, like me?"

I pause. "I don't know. What do you think?"

"Maybe. We can think about it." Daisy looks across at the forest animal mural I painted on her wall before she was born. "I guess the baby could have this room when the builders are finished and I get my new attic room. This animal painting is really good but maybe kind of babyish for me now that I'm almost in third grade. You'll paint my new room for me?"

"Sure. Do you still want an under the sea kind of thing? I did some drawings for you, with fish and mermaids and an octopus- you can pick what bits you like." I give her another hug. "I really do love you little bug. How about we go and see if they've left us any donuts?"

Holding hands we head back into the living room, where I manage to snag the last donut right out from under Edward's hand. I break it in half and give the big share to Daisy, who climbs up on to the tiny sliver of Rosalie's lap that's not occupied by babies.

"Are you okay?" Rosalie asks gently. She disentangles Bram and I stoop down and take him from her, sitting him down on the floor with some toys. Rosalie hands Zeke after him and then pulls Daisy into a hug. "I guess we kind of sprung that on you, didn't we?"

"I was just surprised." Daisy feeds Rosalie a bite of donut. "Are you happy?"

"I was pretty surprised too!" Rosalie strokes Daisy's hair. "I didn't really expect this to happen. But I am happy – after all, how could I not want another daughter when my first girl is so amazing?"

The smile Daisy gives her could light up the world, and once again I feel my heart fill. It wasn't always easy, but damn I've been lucky.

Edward, Bella and Eliza stay and hang out for what remains of the afternoon, watching the game and laughing. I make fajitas for dinner and then they leave and Rosalie and I move through the evening routine, getting the kids organised to tidy up and then baths and stories and into bed. I leave Rosalie nursing the little twins to sleep in our room and clean the kitchen, and then finally settle onto the sofa with a beer, switching on the tv. A short time later Rosalie comes out and joins me with a yawn.

"Hey beautiful girl." I wrap my arms around her, fitting my body against hers and laying a gentle kiss against her lips. She smells like baby bath wash and breastmilk.

"What a day," she sighs.

"For sure. You feeling okay? Getting used to the idea of another baby?" I run my hands through her hair.

"No, it still seems crazy!" Rosalie laughs. "Six children eight years old and under is ridiculous! I'll be like the old women who lived in a shoe, with so many children she didn't know what to do."

"You're a great mom; we'll figure it all out."

Rosalie stretches out against me. "I don't know why you're so relaxed about it; you're the one who will stay home with them all when I go to work! Three babies under a year old is not exactly going to be a walk in the park."

I laugh and grimace simultaneously. "Well, no. But at least Mac and Noah will be in school by then. Honestly, three babies probably can't be much harder to deal with than the two babies and the two big boys are! Mac's six kids' worth of trouble on his own."

"That's true. Goodness knows I already feel a little bit sorry for the teacher who is going to be responsible for him in kindergarten." Rosalie smiles ruefully. "Actually though, with this new pregnancy…honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed. I'm a smart, capable adult who should know better than to have an unplanned pregnancy! At least Alice was young and dumb when she got pregnant with Daisy – what's my excuse?"

"Well, close to ten years of NOT getting pregnant without thousands of dollars, a fully equipped infertility lab and a whole bunch of people with degrees being involved did kind of lead us to believe that having sex without birth control was a pretty safe bet," I murmur. "It wasn't an unreasonable assumption."

"It's also kind of mortifying that I got pregnant when the little twins were basically newborns," Rosalie says. "Can we really not leave each other alone for five minutes? Do we have that little self-restraint?" Her voice is husky, and I feel her fingertips tracing my skin in a way that makes leaving her alone for more than five seconds look pretty unlikely.

My breath catches as she hooks her leg up over my hip, pressing herself against me in a way that makes my heart race. "What's so good about self-restraint?" I say hoarsely. "And no, I actually don't think I can leave you alone…or even if I could…I don't want to…"

In the whole world there is nothing better than what we are together. Quietly, conscious of five sleeping kids down the hall, I give myself to her, committing once again to a lifetime of loving her. For over eighteen years we've belonged together, and as Rosalie wraps herself around me and we both fall into the bliss of it I know that I could not have asked for anything better.

Even if we do finish up on the floor, and I accidentally kick the Roarasaurus when I come and nearly give myself a heart attack when it bursts into wild, electronic roars.

Rosalie muffles her laughter against my chest. "Very erotic."

"Damn, you're lucky that didn't give me an aneurysm," I say, trying to catch my breath. "Won't it be nice when the house extension is done and we have a bedroom that's just ours again? Imagine the luxury of being able to have sex in a bed without worrying about waking babies two feet away."

"Well, at least until this little one is born," Rosalie says, her hand curving over her belly. She kisses my neck. "Are you really okay with this new baby? I mean, six kids…it isn't exactly what you signed up for."

"I signed up for you," I say simply. "And whatever comes with that." I hold her close for a minute. "This is everything I ever wanted. You, our babies, this family…I love what we have. I love this life that we've built. Sure, another baby is going to be a bit more work, but she's going to bring so much more than just that. And one day we'll be old, and we'll look at all of them and we'll know that we did a good thing."