Yesterday | Seth Clearwater

Chapter 23

Standing right in front of you

Is where I need to be

Reliving this is something new

And something finally

~ Two Door Cinema Club "Beacon"

It had been a few months since the incident with Bella's missing shirt, and it had become apparent that the vampire issue was only growing. The Cullens believed that Victoria was creating an army of newborn vampires to destroy Bella Swan and the Cullen family as an act of revenge for killing her mate.

Brooklyn was now twenty-six weeks pregnant— six months— and was nearing the end of her second trimester. Her pregnancy had become way too obvious to hide under baggy clothes, so everyone from La Push knew about the baby. Still, she was relatively small for being six months along. Her doctor said it was probably because of her slim stature, and the fact that this was her first pregnancy.

"Seth, please tell your daughter to stop kicking me in the bladder," Brooklyn said. "It kind of hurts and it's going to be really embarrassing if I pee my pants in front of all our friends."

They found out at their last appointment that they were expecting a baby girl. They had both cried when they found out. While they had known about the sex of their baby for a while now, they had yet to decide on a name, but they still had about three months to pick one out, so they weren't too worried about it. Brooklyn's maternal instincts were finally kicking in— she had become incredibly protective of her bump, and she had developed the habit of mothering all of her friends.

Seth smiled at Brooklyn. "I'll try, but I don't think she's gonna listen to me."

Seth crouched down so that he was eye-level with Brooklyn's belly.

"Listen, baby, your mom and I love you very much. And we're glad that you're finding a way to entertain yourself while you're stuck in there, but if you could just kick a few inches higher, we would really appreciate it," he said, and then he placed a delicate kiss on the bump.

"You guys are so sweet, it makes me want to barf," Leah said.

Seth laughed. "One day, you'll find someone who'll make us want to barf. Don't worry," he told his sister. Leah merely scoffed in response.

Emily brought out a platter of cupcakes for dessert, and the pack got rowdy fighting over who got what.

"Quil, I'm growing an entire person, and I'm fucking starving. If you take the last cupcake, I will ruin your entire life," Brooklyn glowered at him.

He raised his hands in a mock surrender. "Okay, okay, you can have it."

"Thanks, Quil," she smiled sweetly as she took a bite of the cupcake.

"Seth, your girlfriend is scary," Quil whined.

Seth shrugged. "She's nice to me."

"Speaking of being nice to you," Brooklyn said jokingly. "Are you sleeping over tonight?"

Seth grinned and nodded, while Quil faked a gag.

"Shut up," Brooklyn said. "I was kidding... mostly. But for real, the baby likes to kick me a lot at night while I'm trying to sleep, and she only calms down when Seth talks to her. I literally can't sleep without him anymore."

An hour later, Brooklyn and Seth climbed into bed— they felt like an old married couple— and Seth talked to the baby. He told her all sorts of things like what he saw on patrol, the stupid things his friends did that day, what he learned in school that week, and the baby listened. The kicking slowed down quite a bit.

"Seth?" Brooklyn asked.

"Yeah?" he responded.

"You know how I gave you a bunch of shit for taking forever to tell your mom about the baby?" she asked timidly.

"Yeah?" he repeated.

"You're gonna think I'm so stupid," she said. "But I literally just realized that I forgot to tell my dad."

Seth started laughing. "You're such a liar. You did not forget, you just didn't want to."

"That's not entirely true," she defended herself. "I was planning on telling him, and then I got stressed out thinking about how his weird perfect new family was gonna judge me, and then I got distracted by all of the weird vampire army stuff, and school, and everything, and then I forgot..."

"Brooke, you're six months pregnant," Seth said. "If you ever plan on talking to your father again, you should probably give him a heads up about the baby."

"Oh well," she said. "I guess I'll just never speak to him again."

"You don't mean that," Seth said softly.

"You're right," Brooklyn responded. "I don't mean that. It's just that my whole life, I wanted him to be proud of me the way dads are supposed to be proud of their kids, but he was never around enough to be proud. Like he already gave up on me for most of my childhood. Why would this be any different? Besides, he's got a bigger, better, W.A.S.P.-ier family now. Why would he want a pregnant teenager who looks nothing like him ruining his family name?"

"He's a fucking idiot if he's not proud of you," Seth told her. "You are the most incredible, most beautiful, most resilient person I have ever met. When I found out that you were pregnant, I was scared shitless, but you're the one who made me see that just because we're young and ill-prepared, that doesn't mean we can't do this."

She kissed his cheek. He always knew the right thing to say.

"Besides, in a couple of years, we can get married, and you can ruin my family name instead," Seth joked. "Problem solved."

"Not until we're graduated though," Brooklyn said. "I think teen marriage is weirder than teen parenthood."

"Of course," Seth said. "I will wait to marry you for as long as you need me to."

"Seth?" Brooklyn asked again after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"I'm really scared that you're gonna get hurt," she said. "Like with all of the newborn shit that's going on. Promise me you'll be careful."

"I promise," Seth said. "I'll be okay. We've been really careful, and the guys have got my back. Promise me you'll be careful too. I know I can't tell you what to do, but we can't protect you as well when you're in Forks, and I worry about you every time you go over there."

"I promise," Brooklyn told him. "I won't go in the woods or walk around at night. And if I see any vampires, I'll let you know right away."

It wasn't much, but it was all she could offer. She was only a human after all, and her strength was nothing compared to that of a vampire's, so it's not like she could promise to fight back. She just had to trust that the pack and the Cullens knew what they were doing.

"I love you," Seth told her.

"I love you too," she replied. "So much."

With that, they drifted off to sleep in the comfort of each other's arms.