Author's Note: This story deals honestly and directly with one couple's struggle to overcome infertility. In this country, infertility affects an estimated one in seven couples. Twenty-five percent of the relationships facing it will not survive.

After reading the Twilight series, Rosalie's story stayed with me. Because of my own experiences with infertility, I could certainly relate to her longing for a child. I could also understand her bitterness over the choices that were taken away from her and the lack of control she felt over her own life. In countless fanfics, her bitterness is translated into vanity and a cold selfishness. "Rosalie the icy bitch-goddess" has become the norm. This story presents a very different picture of her, telling the story of how one woman's pursuit of a long-time dream begins to consume her and affect her relationships.

Many thanks to my beta, crysross, for her savvy editing and fact-checking help, as well as making me laugh. I am in awfully good hands. I also need to thank Elle and Legna, who read earlier drafts of this first chapter and respond every time I send out a distress call. :-) And finally, my thanks to jfly, whose talent and concern for her craft inspire me to be better every time she updates "Sanctuary."

Chapter One: Status

My desk phone rang with a repeating pattern of three staccato beeps, sounding a bit like a pissed off R2D2 - the perfect sound effect for the day I was having. The pattern identified the call as internal. I reached for it but kept my eyes on the project schedule on my laptop screen, lest the timelines move on me again.

"Rosalie Hale," I barked, not bothering to conceal my annoyance at the interruption.

"Rosalie Hale. I heard the most interesting thing about you this morning," said a voice that immediately got my attention, a smooth, rich baritone coated with a layer of fine Kentucky bourbon.

"Oh, and what would that be?" I answered, dropping my voice and swiveling in my chair, so that my back faced the door.

"I heard that you dropped an F-bomb on Mike Newton in your status meeting, in front of everyone."

"Guilty as charged," I sighed. "But he so deserved it. You have no idea."

"God, I want you. Right now," groaned my husband. "Can you come down to my office?"

I laughed. "Emmett, I'll make you a deal. If I can get this schedule updated without ripping out my hair, I'll let you take me out to dinner and grope me under the table."

"Gee, let me think about that. Yeah, I guess that'd work. " I laughed again. "So what did Newton do to make you snap?"

"He opened his mouth to speak, of course. And if you'd heard the way he was speaking to Angela Cheney, you wouldn't have stopped with just one F-bomb."

"What did the douche say this time?"

"First Angela told him that her Test team couldn't accommodate any more software changes and still make their schedule. He told her that if she knew how to hire good testers, she might actually beat the schedule dates… for once. Which is just priceless coming from him."

"What an ass. So what exactly did you say? I want every word."

"I said, 'Newton, you have a lot of fucking nerve. The reason we're always late entering System Test is because some of your people can't be bothered to test their own code before they hand it over. '"

Emmett let out a loud belly laugh. "I'm not sure which is better, sweetheart, that you finally cracked and said 'Fuck' in a meeting, or that you told the truth in front of everyone."

I laughed. "I know. And God, did it feel good… but I shouldn't have lost control like that. It wasn't professional, and what worries me is that now my meetings will sound just like your meetings."

"Hey! Consultants and sales guys curse like sailors because it's part of our culture."

"Uh huh. Rationalize it any way you like, dear."

"Hey, don't knock rationalizations. They're more important than sex. "

I groaned. I had set him up perfectly for a movie quote. Emmett loved movies and was a bottomless font of quotes. For the umpteenth time in our three years of marriage, I played along.

"Come one, nothing's more important than sex," I replied, in mock-disbelief.

"Oh yeah?"

We always said the next line together: "Ever try and go a week without a rationalization?"

Emmett laughed, as always, and I grinned, in spite of myself. I had to think we were like many couples when no one was around to hear us: stupidly silly.

"So, Potty Mouth," Emmett said, now back on topic. "What's for dinner and when do we get to blow this pop-stand?"

"Can you give me another half hour? I really need to fix this schedule before tomorrow morning."

"No problem, sweet thing. Why don't you swing by my office when you're ready?"

Replacing my phone, I felt the smile linger on my face. My eyes went to the photos grouped on my desk. There was one of Emmett and me taken by my brother one morning on a hike through Red Rocks Park. We'd been dating just a few weeks then, still in the "I can't keep my hands off you" stage of the relationship. I had just finished graduate school and had returned home to Denver to take a job as a consultant at Applied Solutions Corporation. I dragged a finger slowly across the top of the frame. Emmett A. McCarty had moved here two years earlier from Kentucky and was already a rock star in the company by the time I started. I was completely swept off my feet by him, in a general state of disbelief that my life had fallen into place so easily. I was back home near my family, starting an exciting job, and in love with the hottest thing I'd ever seen.

I turned my attention back to the screen and the task at hand. I was a Release Manager, responsible for coordinating the release of a new version of the company's flagship software application. It was the first new version we had released in two years and customer expectations were high. Making all of the pieces of this ambitious project come together was my job and the most visible responsibility I had had since transferring to the Product Development side of the company from my position as a consultant.

I missed my old job and my close contact with our customers and their businesses, but I did not miss the travel. After years spent on the road, Emmett and I were ready to stop giving the company so much of our personal time and energy; instead, we wanted to focus that time and energy on our marriage. As the new year approached, we decided it was time to take the plunge into parenthood. Emmett was bursting to tell our friends and family this news, and his excitement was so contagious that even I - normally a private person - was looking forward to telling them.

I continued updating schedule dates, watching as the timelines moved accordingly. Unfortunately, they were moving in the wrong direction, but the curse had barely formed on my lips when my attention was diverted from the project plan again, this time by a quiet knock. Angela Cheney's rather large belly appeared in my doorway, followed soon by the rest of her.

"Hey, Rosalie. Got a minute?"

I hesitated, pushing back the frustration I felt at another interruption.

"For you, Mom? Of course, just … please sit down. My back hurts just looking at you."

She complied and, with a grateful look on her face, lowered herself slowly, letting go at the end with a soft "oomph" as her bottom made contact with the chair.

"How many more weeks?"

"I told HR that my last day would be December 20th, if I make it that far. That's actually just three days before my official due date, and I was five days early with Sam. So I guess that's ... what, ten more days here?" She gathered her hair together in the back and lifted it off her neck. She looked a bit flushed. "Listen, Rosalie, I just wanted to say thanks for having my back in the meeting this morning." She grinned at me. "It was really all I could do not to bust out laughing at the expression on Newton's face when you told him off."

"I have to admit, it was pretty priceless to see him stare at me like that with his mouth hanging open. He just pushes me to the limits of my patience. One of these days I'm going to slip." I rubbed my face and peered out at her between my hands. "I have this little fantasy where every time he tries to take credit for something he doesn't deserve, I make fun of his last name. 'Newton! Hand out of the cookie jar.'"

Angela grabbed her belly with both hands and let out a laugh. "Oh! I want to play. 'Yes, that would be a fig-normous mistake, Newton.'"

I slapped the top of my desk and laughed. "He should get back to me after he recon-fig-ures his schedule."

Angela was starting to get a bit breathless. "Oh, we are sick people, Rose. Maybe I'll ask him if he's updated the next config file yet."

I laughed so hard I had to cross my legs and then doubled over with my head on my knee. "Next time he pisses me off in front of everyone at the status meeting, I'm just going to say "Oh, FIG YOU, Newton."

Angela threw up her hands in surrender. "We have to stop with the bad puns or my water's going to break right here in your office. And trust me, you don't want that all over the carpet."

I handed her a tissue from the box on my desk and we both wiped our eyes. Angela pushed herself up with no small effort and turned to leave.

"You almost done?" She glanced at her watch. "It's close to 6:00."

"Yeah. I guess I can always work on this at home. Emmett's waiting for me in his office so we can get dinner. He's probably chewing the padding on his chair by now."

"Better go feed the big guy, then. See you tomorrow, lady."

"'Night, Angela."

I saved everything on the laptop, shut it down, and packed up everything I would need to work on the schedule at home. I really needed to get to the gym sometime, but it wouldn't be tonight, apparently. As I was walking down the hall to the stairwell, I heard my phone buzz from the depths of my purse. Cursing softly, I rearranged my laptop case and my planner to reach the phone. The caller ID announced my sister-in-law, Alice. She was married to my brother Jasper and was a baffling but perfect combination of endearing and annoying as hell.

"Why, it's my favorite sister-in-law."

"Rosalie! I just got off the phone with Mom. She wants to do a big dinner on Christmas Eve and asked me to spread the word. Bella's going to help her with the cooking but she was hoping you and I could cover dessert. And she wants to do presents that night too, since everyone will be together. Are you guys free? Can you make it?" Alice finally paused for a breath. She was a force of nature in a petite package, and when unleashed, the safest thing to do was ride out the storm. She lived for getting her family together for holidays and special occasions. The only acceptable excuses for turning her down were death and tuberculosis.

"Of course we'll be there. I want to visit my father for a little while that day, so we'll come over after that. Who else is coming?"

"Edward and Bella and Bella's dad, Charlie, and his … um … significant other … Sue?"

This dinner was a big event, if Charlie Swan was going to be there too. Bella and Alice's brother, Edward, had been together for close to two years, so I wasn't really surprised, but Charlie generally avoided crowds. I had met her dad, a police captain, several times when he joined Edward, Jasper, and Emmett for Monday Night Football, which we rotated among our houses. Emmett adored Charlie. They had bonded from the start over their mutual love for the Broncos and the Avalanche.

"That'll be great, Alice. Tell Esme I said thanks and we'll definitely be there. And we should get together this weekend."

"Love to. Call me Friday night, okay? We'll set something up."

"You bet. Take care. Give my brother a hug, okay? If you can reach that high."

"Brat - Amazon brat. Later!"

Juggling again to put my phone away, I thought Christmas Eve at the Cullens' might be the perfect time to tell everyone our plans. I could picture Esme's face at the news. She couldn't wait to be a grandma and she let everyone know it. She considered Emmett and me to be part of her family by extension and would think any baby of ours was an official Cullen grandchild.

Emerging from the stairwell three floors down, I turned the corner and walked into my husband's office. He was holding court with two adorable, fresh-faced young consultants, probably just back in off the road and eager for advice and a pep talk from the Oracle himself. My husband's feet were up on his desk, and he was tossing a Nerf football in the air, catching it with one hand while he talked.

Both young men - why did they all look so young lately? - stood as soon as they saw me and began stammering apologies. I gave them half a smile and set my laptop case down on the desk. I intimidated the younger consultants and secretly enjoyed it. They backed out of the room awkwardly as Emmett called, "Later, gentlemen. And remember what I said!"

I raised one eyebrow at him. "Which was … ?"

"Uh, no screwing the hot young employees at the customer sites."

"Nice. Very nice. And for this you are paid to mentor them?"

"Indeed I am. Can you believe they pay me this much for basically being Dr. Drew?" His grinned at me, his dimples making him look younger than his 31 years. "So, do we have dinner plans?"

"How about pub food? Wynkoop? They've got that import on tap that I love."

"Sounds perfect," he said, coming around from his desk to stand in front of me. "And I know what I want for dessert."

He looked down at me from his 6'3'' height and gave me the Emmett Smirk, then gently pressed his teeth into my neck.

Next up: We get to meet Rosalie and Jasper's dad, the General. And the whole Cullen clan, as well as a few extra guests, get together for dinner on Christmas Eve. It should be up Wednesday.