Disclaimer: This is and Emmett/OFC fic. If you're not into that, please stop reading now so you don't find yourself knee deep and hating the story. If you are into it, feel free to read on and please leave me a review. My muse loves reviews! I don't own the characters from The Twilight Saga. They, of course, belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own Marley Bradford. I'm trying to cover all the bases so there won't be need for another story so bear with me. This could wind up a long story. Also keep in mind that I don't follow cannon. I've mentioned it a few times to make sure everyone understands that this is AU (in case you don't like AU stories). Bella's a vampire but there's no Renesmee. I hope you like it, despite how truly different it is!
Completely lost in thought, which perhaps wasn't that common for him, Emmett Cullen didn't see the little brunette until he was almost on top of her. As it was, he just missed bumping into her, able to side step her before they walked right into one another. It seemed like she wasn't paying much attention either. She kept right on walking after Emmett stepped out of the way, never looking to see if she'd nearly bumped into someone or not.
Sometimes he thought that it was good to be a vampire. If it had been anyone else, she would have walked right into that person but Emmett was able to move quickly enough to get out of her way. Although it seemed like she had no idea that he'd even been there in the first place.
As she passed, he unintentionally got a good whiff of her scent. It was a heady smell, sweet and utterly delicious. Not that Emmett felt a sudden need to attack (it probably helped that he had recently fed) but it was enough to get his attention. He turned his head, suddenly stopping in the middle of the busy hallway to watch her walk away until she turned the corner. Other students walked around him, giving him the space he that needed, as they always did. No one wanted to get into Emmett Cullen's way. Once she turned the corner, he sighed and shook his head. There were too many thoughts swimming in his head for him to think clearly.
It had been nearly a year since Rosalie had died. Alice hadn't been able to see it coming and the fight had been so crazy. There wasn't anything anyone could've done to save her. While everyone had been fighting Victoria's newborn army, no one noticed that Rosalie had been taken down by a couple of them. The newborns knew enough to know what to do to dispatch of Rosalie, tearing her apart and leaving the pieces strewn about. She was almost unrecognizable. Of course the Cullens noticed, once everything was settled, what had happened. There hadn't been time to think though because Jane and the others had been on their way but still it had hurt everyone in the family, including Bella, but Emmett had taken the loss the hardest.
Some of the newborns had even gotten pieces of Rosalie into the fire before anyone had noticed so there was no going back, no fixing this. She was gone and it had ripped a hole in the family that seemed like it would never be healed. For a long time it felt like no one would be able to move past that loss. Rosalie was dead and while Bella had since married Edward and joined the Cullen family in more ways than one, it still hurt to think that Rosalie was dead and gone and Emmett was now left alone to cope. It seemed like they all had started doing everything they could to live their own lives to the fullest though, knowing that even their time could be limited.
Everyone moved past the loss after awhile though and began to rebuild their lives without Rosalie. It hadn't been easy at the time but they made it work. They'd been moving around ever since Bella had joined the family but it had been 'safe' for the family to return to Forks for a short time so she could visit family and friends in the area, to show them that she was, in fact, okay. While everyone else seemed to move on, Emmett had found it difficult to let go and being in Forks had caused some very intense reactions in Emmett. It wasn't easy on them, of course, but Emmett took it the hardest. Rosalie had been the love of his life and to die like she had, it made him feel like someone had ripped out his heart. It was a pain that he wasn't sure he'd ever recover from. Everyone seemed to treat Emmett with kid gloves, waiting for him to finally break.
It wasn't that the others didn't miss Rosalie. It wasn't as if they hadn't been hurt by the loss too. Everyone had cried, had been upset by the loss. It wasn't that it didn't feel like there was a hole in the family with her gone. They'd all felt like something horrible had happened, something that had left them all feeling like something important was missing from their lives, from their family. But everyone else had chosen to pick up the pieces and move on, except for Emmett.
It felt like a knife to his heart whenever he got the slightest reminder of her. The pain was almost unbearable. For a time, Emmett considered grabbing his things and leaving the family. It was a decision he toyed with a bit, something Edward had heard in Emmett's thoughts, a possibility that Alice had seen in Emmett's future. He just thought that some space and a chance to clear his head might be good for him but he also knew that running away wasn't going to change anything. Those reminders of Rosalie would still be there anyway. Soon the thoughts stopped swirling around in his head and while his future didn't seem clear, Alice let Emmett know that it would be okay 'some day'.
There would always be something to remind him of Rosalie though, something that would bring him some measure of pain. And sometimes it had seemed like everything in Forks had reminded him of Rosalie. Everything, now matter where he was, seemed to remind him of her. Her death felt like the worst possible thing that could have happened to Emmett. He had never known such pain before in his life. He felt like there was a hole inside of him, an emptiness that would never be healed. It was worse than the burning that came with becoming a vampire. It had gotten so difficult for him that Carlisle had decided to move the family to Seattle to get them away from Forks and away from anything that might remind Emmett of Rosalie.
For a while, it seemed like the move had worked. After a couple of months in Seattle, Emmett didn't sulk around the house nearly as much as he had before. And there weren't as many nights spent listening to him breaking things in an effort to get out his anger, guilt, frustration and sorrow in the most productive way that he knew how. There were probably other things he could have done to work out those emotions but none left Emmett feeling better afterwards the way breaking things seemed to make him feel. The destruction left him feeling like he had some measure of control, like there were still things that were well within his control.
The move, however, left everyone feeling like they were getting a fresh start. For Emmett, it seemed to do the most good. While they were starting high school again, for Emmett and Jasper it was starting out their junior year of high school again, for the others, it was their sophomore year all over again, it seemed like it would be all right. There were new things for the family to focus on, new challenges to be faced. The days seemed lighter with Emmett getting ready each day for school without too much prodding from Carlisle or Esme. While reliving another few years of high school wasn't anyone's idea of a good time, at least he was willing to go along with it. Things seemed like they would return to normal again or as normal as possible with a hole in the family.
Then, one day, out of the blue Emmett lost it again. There wasn't a reason behind it. No one had actually seen it coming but one night he went on a 'rampage'. Maybe something had set him off but it was something that was seemingly insignificant. It shouldn't have upset him like it did but suddenly it was as if everything that they thought they'd gotten under control was falling apart again.
He started to spend his nights wandering, finding junkyards in the city where he could smash car windows without it being a 'big deal'. For as much as Emmett felt the need to break something, he was aware that breaking someone's car windows (even if they were his own) wasn't the smartest idea so he went for the next best thing. He went after junked cars that no one missed. There weren't many trees near by and he just didn't have enough motivation to head out to the nearest national park to smash some trees either. He'd broken the couch in his room at least once but once it was replaced, he didn't make that mistake again. Emmett didn't want to disappoint Esme or Carlisle any more than he had already had.
He started sulking around the house as well. Most mornings Emmett seemed to have a difficult time finding the motivation necessary to do anything. He didn't want to move, too depressed want to do anything other than destroy, even kill if he was allowed to do so. If allowed to do so, he would have spent a whole day inside, blankly staring at the TV and feeling sorry for himself. And that was better than the alternative, better than his desire to kill and drink from every human he could get his hands on, his desire to drown in something other than his sorrow for awhile. Rarely, however, was he allowed to drown in those feelings.
Someone always seemed to find a reason to get Emmett to come to school or to keep him from killing the humans around them, even when he managed to wait and wait before feeding. Sometimes it seemed like he was looking for an excuse to slip up, a reason to have to open a vein on the nearest human to drink their blood. Alice seemed the best at distracting him though, sharing with Emmett possible futures that came with the various ideas that flitted through his head from time to time. It didn't change his sorrow but it was usually enough to keep him from killing anyone and it was certainly enough to get him out of the house every day for school, to keep up pretenses.
Today had been a good day so far though, even if those were rare. Emmett got moving in the morning without too much prodding, although Alice hinted that today might prove to be interesting and that had gotten his attention. The night before had been easier, quieter too. He went out but instead of looking to do damage, he found a few deer to feed on before making his way home. The hunt was good for him, even if it wasn't what he wanted to be hunting. But Emmett had gotten out there and had hunted, which felt good. He wasn't energized but he didn't mope around. It was that once he got to school, it was easy to get lost in thought that he found himself doing so almost every moment so far. Once he got lost in his own head, Emmett found that things didn't feel quite as 'light' as they had in the morning.
Except for that brief moment when he watched a pretty brunette that smelled like fresh rain, lavender, sandalwood and honey, the one that smelled so delightfully delicious. She stirred something in him that he couldn't explain and for a moment he wondered if this wasn't the 'interesting thing' that Alice had seen. Regardless it had been a good moment. Emmett wasn't sure much was going through his head in that moment and that felt even more wonderful than the moments when he felt like he was starting to get over the loss of the love of his life.