It Takes a Village

by CullenLovingMom

This story is written for the Ficawsome Gift Exchange for Jacquel. The Cullens meet an extraordinary woman with five children, all of whom she adopted and have special needs. What happens when she becomes ill and asks the Cullens to raise her children.

Ficawesome Gift Exchange

Title: It Takes a Village

Written for: Jacquel

Written By: Cullenlovingmom

Rating: T

Summary/Prompt used: Our favorite vampire family plays foster family to several human children.

If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this exchange, visit the facebook group: Fanficaholics Anon: Where Obsession Never Sleeps

A/N: Thanks so much to Tiff (aka Officer Spreadem) for putting this together. I had so much fun writing this.

Jacquel, I enjoyed looking at your work. I hope you like it. There are a couple of nuggets buried in here just for you. Let me know what you think of them?

Thanks so much to MissyV for beta'ing this for me. She rocks.

Thanks also to my wonderful pre-readers wytchwmn75 and closettwilighter1. You all were so sweet. Your suggestions were wonderful. One of them says that I need to issue a tissue alert; the other says that it is uplifting and needs no tissue alert. Let me know what you think.

The disclaimer is at the end. You'll see why.

Carlisle POV

I hated this part of the job. Mary Lee Dobbins was nearing the end of her battle with breast cancer. She was floating in and out of consciousness. She had no family with her, so I sat. I had promised her that she would not die alone.

Mary came to me about a year ago, not long after we had moved to Townsend, Tennessee, known as the peaceful side of the Smokies and located across a mountain from Gatlinburg. Emmett, who normally didn't have an opinion about where we moved, had voiced a desire to visit the area where he had spent his human life.

I loved the thick forests in the mountains of Tennessee. The mountain people were self-reliant and resourceful. They were poor, but proud. The geography isolated them from the rest of the world, and that is the way they liked it.

The closest hospital was about an hour away. The general overall health of the folks in Townsend was deplorable. They had little or no access to medical or dental care.

Alice found us a beautiful property in the area. It had originally served as a rustic, mountain retreat. There was a main lodge with a large living room, dining room and several guest rooms and several cabins placed in a circle around the main lodge, each with a sitting room, two bedrooms and bath.

Each couple had its own cabin, but we all tended to spend much of the day together in the main lodge. Esme made sure that Jacob and Renesmee always had a wide variety of human food to choose from.

Esme is also the one who suggested that I use part of the main lodge as a clinic. She could not bear the thought of mothers and children going without basic medical care. We were several miles from town, but not so far that we would be inaccessible to folks in the area.

I agreed with my darling, kind-hearted wife, but would only do it if everyone in the family agreed. Everyone not only agreed, but enthusiastically supported the project and wanted to know how he or she could be involved.

At one time, a project like this would have been impossible. There would have been no way that Jasper could have handled being around the smell of blood that went hand-in-hand with the presence of a medical clinic. I was so proud of the way he had grown over the last few years following Bella's change. Once he saw that she could contain her bloodlust as a newborn, he demanded more of himself and made great strides.

Once the decision was made, everyone jumped in. Esme and Alice worked to decorate a lobby area and the examining rooms. They made sure that there was a playroom with lots of toys and games.

Rosalie and Emmett handled much of the construction on the re-build for the surgery room. Jasper handled all of the necessary licensure for us to operate the clinic. Edward assisted me in ordering medical supplies and was eager to work side-by-side with me as a physician.

Bella, Renesmee and Jacob were in charge of organizing the incoming supplies and getting the word out in the community. They prepared fliers and took out ads in the local paper. Renesmee and Jacob even attended several local churches to get the word out.

It only took a few weeks for us to make the necessary preparations for our grand opening. What would have taken months for humans to accomplish, we were able to finish in a third of the time.

We were all so excited to open the doors and get down to the business of serving those in need. We were not expecting to open the doors and have no patients, but that is exactly what happened.

We went through two very long weeks with no one showing up. We were beginning to think that all of our hard work had been for naught when Mary Lee burst through the door like a ray of sunshine with her brood of five bubbling children all in tow.

"I heard that there was a doctor around here," she said, her effervescent spirit obvious in each word.

"You came to the right place. We have two doctors," Emmett chimed in response.

"Well, children, from the looks of it, we won't have to wait in line," Mary Lee said with a mischievous giggle.

I knew that I was going to like her from the moment I met her. I just didn't realize how much she was going to alter my existence.

Mary Lee was an amazing woman. She had grown up one holler over from where we lived. She left the day she graduated from high school swearing to never return.

She worked her way through college and graduate school. She had completed her Masters of Social Work and moved to work with underprivileged children in inner city Memphis. While she was there, she adopted her first child, Andy, who suffered from cerebral palsy.

Andy's birth mother couldn't be bothered to take care of him, because that took time away from pursuing her crack habit and prostitution as a means of supporting it. Andy had been dumped with his elderly grandmother who cared for him as best she could. Mary Lee became involved as a case manager for a contract agency working with the Department of Children's Services after Andy's pediatrician feared for his safety with his grandmother in the face of her declining health.

Mary Lee's world was then turned upside down when her mother was arrested for shooting her father. Mary Lee returned to Townsend to care for her sister's child, Lacy, whom her mother and father had raised since birth. When last seen, Mary Lee's sister had been strung out on meth and said that she should have drowned Lacy in the river after she was born. Lacy was born with hydrocephaly and was severely mentally retarded due in large part to the drugs that her mother ingested while she was pregnant.

After Mary Lee and the two children settled into her parents home, she started a non-profit foundation to help children with special needs in Appalachia. It wasn't long before the Department of Children's Services identified her as a place where they could place the most difficult children-the ones with the greatest needs.

The next two children Mary took in were Jonah and Lizzie. They were cousins who both were born with Down's Syndrome. Their mothers decided to dump them at the Department of Children's Services' office in Newport on Christmas Eve. They said that neither one of them could keep a man with the two "retards" around.

The latest addition to Mary Lee's family was Kaitlyn, or Katie Bug as her mother called her. No one was quite sure who Katie Bug's parents were. She was left at a rest stop just outside Greeneville with a note pinned to her shirt giving only her first name and date of birth. All efforts to locate her parents had failed.

Katie Bug was four years old when she came to Mary Lee. She didn't talk. She wouldn't make eye contact with anyone. She existed in her own world. The only sound she made was to hum "Amazing Grace" to herself.

After many visits to psychologists, developmental pediatricians, and specialists in trauma, Katie Bug was diagnosed with autism. Mary Lee was not convinced.

Mary Lee worked tirelessly with each child to maximize his or her potential. She was mother, nurse, physical therapist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, child psychologist, and teacher all rolled into one.

"Hello, I am Dr. Carlisle Cullen. My son, Dr. Edward Cullen, works here with me. What can we help you with today?" I had asked during her visit, not realizing that it was not I who would help her, but she who would help me.

Emmett was standing behind the counter with Esme. The rest of the family soon collected in the waiting room to see our first patients.

"Well, Dr. Cullen, I am Mary Lee and these are my children: Jonah, Andy, Lizzie, Lacy and . . ." she paused, obviously looking for another child.

I turned with her to my right and saw the missing child wrapped in Jasper's arms, her nose nuzzled into his neck. Jasper had a somewhat shocked look on his face that relaxed as the child's grip on him tightened. He closed his eyes and shifted the child comfortably in his arms, resting his chin on the top of her hair. He looked more peaceful and content than I had ever seen him.

"And this is KatieBug," Mary Lee continued, watching her child cling to a stranger. She looked more astonished than Jasper had when KatieBug jumped into his arms. "She has never done anything like this. It took me two months before she would let me hug her. She doesn't like strangers, and she doesn't like to be touched."

Alice looked at the scene with wide eyes. "How old is she?" she asked quietly after several seconds of silence.

"She just turned four."

A crash drew our attention to the other side of the room. The child Mary Lee had indicated was named Jonah had knocked over a chair and now stood frozen, waiting for the response from the adults in the room.

Rosalie was the first one to respond. She walked slowly over to the boy, who had curly brown hair and big brown eyes, and bent down to look him directly in his eyes. "Would you like me to help you pick that up?" she asked sweetly.

Jonah nodded, and they two righted the chair together. "Did you know that we have a playroom with lots of toys?" Rosalie asked, bending down to his level again. Jonah's eyes grew large, and a huge smile spread on his face. He shook his head and started bouncing on his toes in anticipation.

"Would you like to see it?" she asked, holding out her hand.

Jonah reached out to Rosalie. When his hand touched hers, he drew it back quickly and looked up at Rosalie who merely stood still and waited patiently to see what his reaction would be. After a few pensive seconds, he took her hand in his and nodded vigorously. Rosalie led him to the playroom, and Emmett followed, hanging back to watch the scene unfold.

I turned back to Mary Lee who was still standing in the same spot, shaking her head. "I can see that we have come to the right place."

"The young woman who just led your son to the play room is my wife's niece, Rosalie. The man who followed them is Emmett, my adopted son and her husband. The man holding KatieBug is her brother, Jasper. This is his wife, Alice, who is also my adopted daughter," Carlisle said gesturing to where Alice was standing.

"I'd also like you to meet my granddaughter, Renesmee, and her boyfriend, Jacob; my daughter-in-law, Bella, who is married to Edward here; and last, but certainly not least, this is my wife, Esme."

"Well, you sure do keep it all in the family with marriages, don't ya? You'll fit right in here in the hills," Mary Lee said with a hearty laugh.

"Is there a problem with one of the children?" Edward asked, not registering the humor of her last statement, as he walked over to stand next to us.

"Yes," Mary Lee answered, shaking her head slightly and shifting her attention to the business at hand, "the site where Andy's baclofen pump was inserted is a little red."

"I see," Edward said, thinking out loud. "Well, we will take a look at it and see what's going on."

"If you could just fill out these forms . . ." Esme said, handing her a clip board with a mountain of paperwork attached.

Edward and I determined that seven-year old Andy was getting an infection around the insertion site for the tube connecting to his baclofen pump. Mary Lee said that he had just had the surgery to insert the pump two weeks before at Children's Hospital in Knoxville.

He was having good results with the constant feed of baclofen which eased his muscle contractures and spasms. The only side effect was that he had lost some control over his good muscles, meaning he was unable to speak as clearly as he had before and was unable to operate his powered wheel chair.

Mary Lee also wanted me to have a look at Lacy's shunt which helped any fluid that built up in her cranial area to drain. Mary Lee said that Lacy had not had any problems with it for over a year. The shunt looked fine, but Edward and I both encouraged her to bring Lacy in at any time to have it checked.

As Lacy walked by the reception desk, Esme reached out to hand her a lollipop. Lacy looked up at Esme with her big blue eyes, her face framed by blonde ringlets, and said, "Up, up."

Esme looked at Mary Lee in confusion.

"She wants you to pick her up," Mary Lee explained.

"Well, if that is what you want, my dear, then that is what you shall have," Esme said, wasting no time in scooping the five year old up in her arms.

Esme walked with Lacy over to a couch in the waiting area and sat down with her. She asked Lacy about her favorite color, pink, and her favorite animals, puppies. The two sat on the couch and talked for almost half an hour, oblivious to the rest of the world.

The other children were being entertained by other members of my family, allowing me a window of opportunity to speak with Mary Lee. Renesmee and Jacob were entertaining Andy by racing up and down the hall with him in his wheel chair, and Bella and Edward were talking to Lizzie who was mesmerized by several of the paintings hanging on the wall in the waiting area. She wasn't saying much, but appeared to be listening intently as Edward and Bella talked to her about each painting.

Mary Lee said that driving the children back and forth to medical appointments in Knoxville was time consuming and draining on her. She was pleased that Edward and I could provide most of the care that the children needed.

"So would you all like some help in gettin' some more patients around here or are you all happy just treating my brood?" Mary Lee asked.

I laughed. She had that effect on me. Her good nature was contagious. "Well, if you have any ideas, we would love to hear them. We have tried to get the word out."

"Oh, word's out—that's not the problem."

"Well, what is the problem then?" I asked, perplexed.

"Well, to begin with, Dr. Cullen, you're not from around here. Mountain people are cautious about warming up to strangers. They don't mean to be rude, but they tend to just hang back and take it all in before they will jump in. They don't take to change very well.

"Then, there's the fact that . . . well . . . you're more than a bit strange, Dr. Cullen." She paused to see how I took this affront before continuing, "I like you, obviously, but you're not normal looking. The whole lot of you is odd. Just plain odd. I am not sure what it is about you, but there is something . . . ."

I gulped. Edward heard my thoughts racing about what our next course of action should be and came over to join our conversation.

"So how we get them to trust us?" Edward asked, redirecting the conversation.

"Well, you need somebody who is known to them to vouch for ya. I can certainly do that. Just not sure how much good it will do. The masses around here are not sure what to think about me and all of my kids. Most of them think that what the kids has is catching. But we can give it a try."

Edward and I agreed that it couldn't hurt. Since we had no patients, we certainly had nothing to lose. We helped Mary Lee collect the children so she could leave. We got all of them but one loaded into the van fairly easily. KatieBug did not want to let go of Jasper.

Just when it looked like Mary Lee would have to forcibly remove her and put her in the van screaming and crying, Jasper said, "Just give me a minute."

He walked over to a quiet spot in the waiting room and sat with her on his lap and spoke softly to her. "KatieBug, my love, you have to go home with your mama now." He paused as if listening, though KatieBug said nothing. "I know. I will miss you too, but you will come back soon, or I will come visit you if it is okay with your mama."

I had no idea if Jasper was using his gift to calm the child or not. They seemed to communicate on another level. It was apparent that he was just as attached to the child as she was to him. KatieBug gave Jasper one last hug, then hopped down off of his lap and walked slowly over to her mother, stopping mid-way to wave at Jasper.

As soon as Mary Lee and the children had pulled out of the driveway, I called a family meeting.

Rosalie was the first to ask the question on everyone's mind, "What in the world? How did Mary Lee walk in here and after a short time figure that we are 'odd'? I mean, Carlisle works with humans all the time and the rest of us have been through high school more times than I care to remember and we have never had anyone be that perceptive or direct."

"What was she thinking, Edward?" I asked, hoping that he could shed some light onto her perception of us.

"Well, she noted our skin color, the color of our eyes—that's to be expected," he began. "But what is most unusual . . . something I have never heard before . . .was the fact that she was trying to figure out what kind of supernatural beings we were."

He paused for a minute to let the gasps settle, before continuing, "But even when she went through the choices of wizards, witches, warlocks, pixies, and werewolves, she came to the conclusion that it didn't matter. She knows that we are not human, but doesn't really care what we are."

"Do we need to leave before she figures it out?" Jacob asked, standing protectively near Renesmee.

What do you think? Carlisle asked in his thoughts, Are we in danger of being found out?

I was about to shake my head no when I heard Jasper say, "You all can go if you like, but I am not leaving. I promised KatieBug I would be here when she came back or would go to her house to see her. Either way, that is a promise I intend to keep."

"But, Jazz. . . ." Alice began, but stopped when Jasper held up his hand and shook his head, indicating that he was not going to listen to anything to the contrary.

"I don't think that we are in any danger," Edward said before Alice could protest. He seemed to know that this was not a time for her to throw down the gauntlet with her husband. "If Mary Lee does discover what we are, I don't think that she will say anything . . .or care one way or another. The only thing that she was concerned with was that we cared for her children and they cared for us."

We stayed. Mary Lee worked with Bella and Renesmee on building confidence in the community. While the three of them were out going door to door, the rest of us stayed at home and entertained the children.

My heart was filled with the joy that the children brought to our home. Lacy's visits were the highlight of my day. She followed Esme whereever she went. She loved to help Esme cook.

Jonah, Emmett and Rosalie preferred being outside. Jonah loved to play baseball and basketball. Emmett built him a basketball goal and set up a baseball diamond in a meadow near the house.

Jonah also seemed to have a keen sense of humor. He and Emmett were constantly working together to make Rosalie laugh. The fact that he didn't speak more than a few words didn't stop him from being a clown. While Rosalie would sometimes become bored with Emmett making jokes, she never tired of them when he and Jonah were joking together.

Edward and Lizzie continued to look at paintings together in Bella's absence, and he soon discovered that Lizzie loved to listen to him play piano. The child would sit still for as long as he would play. He was researching the best method for teaching her how to play and had discussed the idea with an enthusiastic Mary Lee.

Jacob and Andy were also inseparable. Andy shared his love of speed. The boy was happiest when the wind was blowing in his face as he soared through the air. Jacob had engineered a new controller for Andy's wheel chair. Jacob painstakingly configured the device so that Andy could safely maneuver the chair on his own. I wasn't sure which one was more ecstatic.

The only situation concerning the introduction of the children to our lives was Alice. She didn't seem to have any desire to spend time with any of the children. She even appeared to resent the amount of time that Jasper spent with KatieBug, almost like a petulant child who wanted to send back her new sibling.

Jasper, on the other hand, looked happier than I had ever seen him. He spent every moment that he could with Katie. They communicated in their own way. He was patient with her, and his patience was rewarded with the discovery that she could speak. Her first word to Jasper was "Cookie" following his inquiry as to what she wanted for a snack.

I had to chuckle to myself the first time that I saw our warrior seated at a small table wearing a pink boa and drinking 'tea' from dainty, little cups. Alice was not able to suppress her laughter when she stuck her head in to see what the two were up to.

Her laughter melted some of her reserve, and she joined the two in the tea party. Her presence there made Jasper's smile widen even more if that is possible. The next day, she and KatieBug raided her closet to play dress up. Alice was still not as gung-ho about spending time with the sweet, beautiful child as Jasper was, but she was making progress.

Week two of the door-to-door treks brought in our second family for treatment. The next week we saw four families, and the week after that we saw ten. We were on our way to providing medical care to the families in the area who, from all appearances, needed it desperately.

Mary Lee continued to come by daily after she stopped going out to spread the word. She said that the children wouldn't let her skip a day. They would miss us too much.

She and the children were quickly becoming a part of our family. The nervousness over Mary Lee's perceptions was long gone. Every member of my family knew that she was someone whom we could trust.

One afternoon, Mary Lee asked to speak to me privately.

"I have breast cancer, Carlisle," she said before the door to the exam room had clicked shut.

"Excuse me," I said, thinking I must have misunderstood.

"I said that I have breast cancer. I was first diagnosed two years ago right before I adopted Andy. I kept the information a secret, because I did not want to jeopardize the adoption." She paused and moved to look out the window where she could see Jonah playing with Emmett and Rosalie.

"I had a double mastectomy and chemotherapy in Memphis. They thought that they got it all. I have an MRI every six months to see if there has been any change. My last one was last week . . ."

She stopped and looked at me apologetically. The week before, Mary Lee had taken a trip to Knoxville, but had said that she was attending a child welfare conference. I nodded to let her know that I understood that she had lied and why.

"The cancer is back with a vengeance," she continued as if she was talking about a stranger's diagnosis, not her own. "There are hot spots in my right lung, my liver and pancreas."

"I see . . ." I said impotently.

"So . . . my oncologist is recommending more chemo. I was hoping that you could handle that here so that I wouldn't have to make the trip to Knoxville every day."

After discussing her doctor's recommendations, I told her that I would discuss the plan with her oncologist, but felt confident that we could handle the administration of the chemo at our clinic. I arranged to get copies of her most recent scan and medical records from Knoxville.

The prognosis, as I expected, was not good. Prior to beginning the aggressive chemo, which her oncologist thought was her last hope, we moved Mary Lee and the children into the main lodge. That didn't last long though.

The chemo was particularly hard on Mary Lee. She became violently ill two days into the treatment. Her vomiting and moaning in pain upset the children.

Alice and Jasper took KatieBug to their cabin and tucked her in on the day bed in the guest room that they had purchased in case she wanted to spend the night. They then sat on the floor beside her bed all night long, enjoying watching her sleep.

The other couples each took a child to their cabin as well, but were not as prepared for the night as Alice and Jasper. They all managed to make do, however.

Edward and Bella let Lizzie sleep in their bed and stayed with her all night in case she became frightened from waking up in a strange place. Jacob and Renesmee put Andy on a pallet on the floor so that his spasms wouldn't cause him to roll off of the bed or the sofa. Emmett and Rosalie sat on the sofa in their cabin and cradled Jonah between them as he slept. Esme took Lacy to our cabin and put her in our bed while I stayed in the main lodge to care for Mary Lee.

We didn't know it at the time, but that would be the first night of the rest of our lives as parents for the beautiful children whom Mary Lee had brought into our lives.

The agony from the chemo never subsided. A month into it, Mary Lee had another MRI which revealed that the cancer was actually spreading.

Mary Lee asked to stop the chemo. I looked for alternate combinations of drugs for her chemo, but came up empty-handed. When I gave her the news, she just smiled.

"Well, Carlisle, I guess it is time for us to have a talk . . . and not about chemo," she said, sitting up in bed.

"Okay, what did you want to discuss?"

"Well, first of all, I know what you are and have for a long time," she paused and looked at me to see how the news hit me. "I also know that Edward can read minds, so I have purposefully kept those thoughts to myself."

"And what is it that you think we are?" I asked calmly.

"Vampires," she responded flatly. "Do you care to deny it?"

"No, I won't lie to you. You are too dear to me, to this whole family."

"I also know that Renesmee is not a vampire, not sure what she is, and Jacob is a shapeshifter," she said with a puzzled look on her face, as if trying to figure out how such a motley crew came to be.

"I know that you do not consume human blood. Not sure why or how, but don't really care either." She shifted in the bed and reached for my hand. "All I need to know is will you and your family take care of my children?"

"Are you sure you don't want us to find someone else to care for them? Of course, we would never let them go somewhere where they would be mistreated. We love them too much."

"No, I absolutely do not want anyone but y'all to take care of my kiddos. They love you all and you love them. Sounds like a perfect situation to me."

"Well, I wouldn't say perfect, because they won't have you," I said, my eyes dropping to the floor and a lump forming in my throat.

"Well, it seems that we can't avoid that, so we might as well just deal with it." She squeezed my hand and smiled when I looked up.

"How do you want to handle this?" I asked.

"I have thought about that . . . that and almost nothing else . . . as I lay here in this stinking bed for the last month. I want to go ahead and transfer custody to you all, so that the Department of Children's Services will not come snooping around. I don't think that there would be a problem, but you never know."

"I will contact a lawyer and have the paperwork filed . . . if you are sure."

"I have never been more certain of anything. God brought me to you. He has planned for you to have these children to enrich your lives. I was just the vessel." She smiled with conviction as she spoke. Her faith was certain.

"Well, I am not sure what God's plan in all of this is, but I do know that your children have given us more joy than we ever expected. Rosalie and Esme were born to be mothers. Bella had Renesmee, but I believe that she always regretted the fact that she couldn't have any more children . . ."

"Bella gave birth to Renesmee?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes," I said simply. That story could wait for another day. "The most surprising twist in this situation is Jasper. I never had any idea that he would take to a child the way he has taken to KatieBug."

"He wouldn't have taken to another child, Carlisle. KatieBug was born to be his. She will be an empath like her new daddy."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"That is the next piece of my request to you. I would like you to take care of the children, but when they are old enough . . . I want you to promise me that you will turn them."

"You want me to what?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Now, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute," Mary Lee began. "I have thought a lot about this. First of all, I know what I am asking. Second, it will make them whole. That is my greatest wish for them. Third, it would be unbearable for you to watch them age and die."

I was stunned. This woman was full of surprises. "Okay, now that last barrage of words contained so much information that I don't know where to start . . ."

"Carlisle, I grew up in these mountains and forests. This place is a magnet for supernatural beings. We have pixies, elves, fairies and witches galore. We were bound to have a vampire or two drop by," she said with a good-natured giggle at my ignorance.

"The vampires did not stay long, but a fairy friend of mine spent some time with one vampire who came through here who had the same color eyes as you. My friend assured me that the yellow-eyed vampires did not feed on humans. Was she wrong?" she asked, cocking one eyebrow.

"No, it sounds like she has been well informed. Who is your friend? I wonder if she is an acquaintance of mine or someone I know. There are very few of my kind of vampires."

"Her name is Holly. Holly Short. I have known her since I was a small child. She works for the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance. Are you familiar with it?"

"Ah, yes, LEPrecon, but only in passing."

"I don't believe that it was you who met Holly. I am trying to recall if she ever mentioned the name of the vampire. I dunno, but I do know that she described her as blonde and beautiful. Holly mentioned that she was a sad vampire. She had recently found the love of her life in these mountains and had him changed into a vampire, but felt guilty about it."

"Rosalie," I said more to myself than to her.

"Was it really Rosalie?"

"I believe so. I will check with her to be sure. But that still doesn't explain why you would want your children to live with-be raised by a coven of vampires."

"All I know is that you and your family are the kindest people I have ever met."

"But why would you want us to change the children . . . which we can't do until they're adults-"

"I understand that, but I want Andy to be able to walk and talk; I want them all to be able to express themselves and learn about history and geography; I want them all to find mates. Changing them to be like you would heal them, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, I would expect it to, but I am not aware of any individuals like the children ever being changed? It will take some research. But, yes, I think it would. The change would heal you, too. Don't you want to be here to see all of those wonderful things?"

"I don't want to be changed, Carlisle. That was the hardest decision of all. I don't want to be changed, because I am needed elsewhere. My purpose in this life was to protect those children. I have fulfilled that. Now, God has other plans for me. I am not sure what they are, but I am anxious to find out."

"I will have to discuss it with the family . . . of course."

"They will say yes."

"You sound like Alice," I laughed.

"I am a lot like Alice."

The transfer of custody had gone smoothly. The hearing in juvenile court was held the week before. The order was signed the same day.

Esme and I were the legal guardians for Lacy, Edward and Bella for Lizzie, Emmett and Rosalie for Jonah, Renesmee and Jacob for Andy, and Jasper and Alice for KatieBug. We had promised Mary Lee that we would change each of the children upon their eighteenth birthday, though none of us were looking forward to the prospect of their suffering through the change.

When I discussed Mary Lee's request with my family, Rosalie and Bella had protested at first, but then relented after much heated discussion that revolved around weighing the pros and cons. None of my family could bear the thought of raising a child and losing the child to death with all eternity to bear that loss.

Two months later, I sat by Mary Lee's bed, waiting for her to draw her last breath. The children were tucked in bed, and the others took turns coming to check on Mary Lee.

Before Mary Lee met us, her greatest fear had been that she would die alone and the children would be placed in institutions. I had promised her that neither would ever happen. We would all miss her. Each member of my family had made an attempt at convincing Mary Lee to change her mind and become one of us. Her resolve never wavered.

Mary Lee's breathing grew faint and irregular. I knew the end was near. She opened her eyes and opened her mouth to speak.

She took another breath, then said, "Carlisle, I know that my children are where they are supposed to be. Love them well."

"We will, Mary Lee. We will."

E/N: The mention of LEPrecon and Holly Short will be familiar to anyone familiar with the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer.

Jacquel, I hope you liked the AF nuggets I threw in. I loved looking at your stories. I was inspired to add a little AF crossover to the mix.

Please go check out Jacquel's work: www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/u/1265678/ Claire_Violet_Thorpe

If you are not familiar with Artemis Fowl, I highly recommend you read them. They are all wonderful.

Disclaimer: SM owns all things Twilight. EC owns all things Artemis Fowl. No copyright infringement intended. I own Mary Lee and the kids.

Thanks so much for reading. I would love to know what you think.