AUTHOR'S NOTE: My first ever fanfic! Set after Breaking Dawn. I love Tanya. Lots :) It'll start to show, trust me. All characters mentioned and included here are from the books, I haven't invented anyone, except nameless hunter-man. R&R please, chances are, I'll definitely need it, with this being the first post I've made! Thanks.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own ANY characters or any of that business mentioned in here. They all belong to Stephenie Meyer. I'm just borrowing them for my own purposes for a bit.

Ding-dong.

Carlisle moved towards the front door, taking in the rare moment of being able to hear his own footsteps on the varnished, timber floorboards beneath him. The house was empty. Esme, Bella, Alice and Rosalie had gone on one of their bulk-buying shopping trips, where they purchased a plethora of garments for Renesmee, in an attempt to keep her clothed for the next few months. Renesmee, being eager to have a say in her wardrobe, despite being aware of Alice's flawless taste in fashion, demanded that she be allowed to accompany them. No one in the Cullen family had the heart to leave her behind. Edward, Jasper and Emmett had felt they needed to hunt. Carlisle guessed that they had gone north and were currently eyeing-off mountain lions and grizzly bears. Carlisle's shoes made one last resounding tap! as he stopped at the front door.

Reaching for the door knob, he heard a muffled noise from the other side of the thick, oak door. A sob? Panic. He had heard that sob before. Was it someone in the family? No. Had something so horrific happened to one of them to cause them to cry, he would have felt it in his gut long before the door bell rang. Where had he heard it before? A picture formed in his mind: a place, a time, a feeling. An expansive mansion, dark, yet inviting, with nothing around it for eternity. A home, it had been. With unnecessary fireplaces; creating heat to counter the cold they couldn't feel, and creating light in the darkness that their eyes were able pierce through. And that sob, heard through thick walls, in the cover of that darkness that was too weak to terrify her on the outside, but attacked her very soul on the inside. Carlisle wrenched the door open.

Tanya. Her eyes were wide, her hair as much of a mess as was possible for perfection. Something was different about her beautiful face, but he just couldn't put his finger on it…

"Carlisle…" She fell forward, his stone torso bracing her fall.

"Tanya…What's happened?" His mind raced. The Volturi? Finally coming back for the sisters of the Denali coven for their relation to the immortal child created by Sasha, their mother? He asked.

"No..no. I…I've done something. Something terrible." With that, she pulled herself away from him and moved over to the staircase, setting herself down, weightlessly, on the second last step.

Had Carlisle not known her so well; had lacked a deep understanding of her, her graceful moves would have convinced him of her stability. But he did know her, and she was ready to crumble. "Where's Kate? And Carmen and Eleazar?"

"Kate went wandering with Garrett about a month ago, and as for Carmen and Eleazar, I think they're in Spain somewhere. 'Getting back to their roots', was what they said."

Carlisle's chest tightened slightly. Tanya was just as family-based as him, and had his entire coven been gone for more than a week… He could imagine how lonely she was. He decided to overlook this for a moment. "Talk to me," he asked, moving to kneel in front of her, lowering himself down to look her squarely in the face, "What did you do?"

Her eyes gazed blankly at the space over his pale-gold hair for what felt like hours, before they quickly flicked down to meet his. "I killed someone."

Carlisle's mind went blank. He realised instantly what was different about her perfect face. Her eyes, instead of being their usual topaz colour, were now lightly toned with red. Tanya saw this in his expression and hastily continued. "I didn't drink his blood…not all of it."

"Not all of it?"

"I was hunting," she quietly explained, "for the first time in a fortnight. I'd barely gone outside since Irina…" she trailed off. She leant her head against the wall next to her, bronze-red hair falling into her porcelain face, and a nearly inaudible sigh escaping her rose-pink lips.

A moment passed before Carlisle reached forward and gently moved her silken hair behind her ear. "Keep going," he told her. She inhaled deeply.

"My hunger was so strong. I went out into the snow, looking for something big; something that would fight. A bear, a moose….a wolf." She smiled in spite of herself.

The sisters of the Denali coven had once held an immense hatred towards the Quileute werewolves due to them being responsible for the death of Laurent, Irina's mate. The tension was palpable when the two clans came together in the face of the Volturi, but had faded slightly due to that experience. Tanya would never admit it, but she had a fondness for Jacob Black.

"I lost myself," she continued, "I let my sense of smell control me… There was a hunter. His scent was…" She paused and swallowed the venom that was pooling in the back of her throat. "I was so hungry, Carlisle. Before I had even realised, my mouth was on his throat..It took a few seconds before I was aware of what I was really doing, and for a moment…I didn't even care."

Exhaling loudly, Carlisle straightened up and walked over to the large glass window that faced out to the tangled forest. "You say you didn't drink all of his blood. How is he dead?"

"I'd already poisoned him, and I thought, "May as well finish the job." But I got a flash. Peoples faces. Reasons why I'd chosen this vegetarian life. Sasha, Irina, Kate…and then you." Tanya lifted her gaze off the varnished floorboards and met Carlisle's eyes. "I couldn't have kept going, knowing how disappointed you would be in me." Her eyes dropped back the floor.

"It took all of my self control, but I stopped drinking," she said defiantly. "I knew if I just left him there, he'd turn. I pulled him up off the ground, and ran. There was a road about three miles north-west of us, so I took him there." Her eyes were unfocussed, remembering every second. "I heard a truck about a mile away, so…I snapped his neck. Then I put him on the road, covered him with snow and…ran here."

Carlisle stared fixedly at a spot on the ceiling above him, his brows furrowed. Tanya stood suddenly.

"I'm so sorry, Carlisle. I shouldn't be here. I have to get back to Denali."

"To an empty house?" Carlisle was still painfully stuck on the thought of an absent family. "No. Stay here for a few days. I'm sure Alice will have clothes she can lend you." He hesitated for a second. "Also..you've tasted human blood. I would like to keep an eye on you." He waited for a reaction.

Tanya really was a sweetheart, but the Russian streak in her made for some explosive reactions when she was having her free will limited. The look in her eyes was ferocious.

"I'm not one of your fragile patients, Carlisle! I can handle this myself."

"I know. But I don't want you being alone. Three days; that's all I ask."

The look in her eyes didn't change. She opened her mouth to retaliate, but resignedly exhaled instead.

"Three days. That's all you're getting," she finally told him, a weak smile playing on her face.