Chapter 1:

Going Back

If I had a beating heart it would probably be ready to give out any moment now.

In just another minute I would break through the thick forest I had been traveling through for the past day and a half. It spread all the way from Vancouver to the little town called Forks. I most assuredly could have made the small trip in half a day at the most, but I found myself pulling back, knowing each minute I was getting closer.

The last couple of trees past and a small clearing stood before me, the calming sounds of a river echoing off the trees. A vintage white house was planted at the edge of the clearing, and I couldn't quite suppress a smile at the sight of it.

As I approached the front door of the house a man opened it, ready to greet me. Carlisle Cullen. His young face was full of warmth and welcome, an expression I wasn't expecting. "David, you sure took your time getting here." He placed a hand on my shoulder and motioned me inside.

"Oh, just taking in the scenery. I forgot how green it is here." Carlisle chuckled and closed the door behind us. The rest of the Cullen family was waiting inside, all standing around each other as if they were waiting to welcome a family member back from a long vacation or college.

"David," Esme said with a smile as she stepped forward touching my arm. She seemed to study my face for a moment and then hugged me. "We're so glad you've come back to visit!"

"It's really nice to see you all again." Esme gently squeezed my arm and then stepped back to let everyone else greet me. They all took their turns to get a good look at me and get in their welcome; hugging, laughing, and making wise cracks at me. Emmett hadn't changed a bit.

A girl stood at the rear of Edward, seeming slightly nervous, but definitely attempting to hide it. "Ah, and who is this?" I could instantly cross out "lunch" because I was very aware of the Cullen's views of feeding. Like myself, they were 'vegetarian' vampires.

"This is Bella," Edward replied. It took me a moment to register the scent of her. I had noticed it from the moment I stepped onto the porch, but the little reunion with the Cullens had distracted my normal scene of awareness.

Understanding flooded into my head. Like Edward I had access to the minds around me, yet my strange ability operated in a slightly different way. It's like everyone's mind is a computer and I am an expert hacker, easily accessing all the information in it, as well as being able to add or take out files. "Hello, Bella. I'm David. It's very nice to meet you."

My courtesy seemed to ease her a bit and she stepped forward, no longer hiding in the shadow of Edward, "It's nice to meet you too."

What an interesting girl.

"So, shall we move to the couches and catch up a little?" Carlisle suggested. I couldn't help but register his growing happiness. To him it was like a son coming home. That thought sent a slight shiver of guilt through me. And although I had only stayed with the Cullen's for a few months, I still left without a word. Not to mention I did get seemingly close with all of them.

"Of course, I'm sure you guys have as much to tell as I do. Edward, for example, has some explaining to do."

"You say that like you don't already know," Edward teased. It was true that I didn't need him to verbally explain, but things always appear clearer when you hear them first hand. And as a courtesy to others, I tend usually stay out of people's heads as much as possible, it's easier for me to block the information surge than it is for Edward.

Surprisingly Bella seemed to understand the joke like the rest of us, which probably meant she had been filled in a good deal. I wondered how they had portrayed me, and it took a great deal of will power not to tap Edward's memory and find out.

"So where the hell have you been?" Emmett asked once we had all been seated. He boomed out in laughter and I smirked back at him. He definitely hadn't changed.

I took in a deep breathe of air and slowly let it out, "I suppose I owe you guys a good explanation."

"Oh, we know why you left, David." Alice said raising an eyebrow. It reminded me of a mother catching her five year old trying to get a cookie before dinner. I had assumed she would have seen something about me leaving.

"Well I'd like to explain anyway, if that's alright."

"Of course, go ahead," Esme's expression had changed slightly. She seemed a bit troubled now, yet still had a glimmer of happiness.

"You surely remember Richard and Todd, the two heads of the coven I had left before I came here and found you." There was silence, though I knew that was a yes. They all knew this part, but I had to start from the beginning, maybe then they'd understand better. Bella seemed sincerely interested, and again I wondered how much she really knew. "It was a bit foolish of me to think they'd really been gone from my life. Carlisle, you of course were right, in killing Luke and Monica it set off a lust for my head inside Richard. He and Todd quickly recovered and wasted no time in finding recruits for their new "hunting-David-squad", one of which was actually an excellent hunter."

"You should have told us," Rosalie spoke for the first time since her quick hello and smile.

"But I was foolish, I didn't pay attention and thought that I was too far away from them that they'd simply move on."

"And what about when they finally came after you? You felt the need to hurry off without warning us, or even considering that we might want to help you?" Rosalie's voice raised a little, more for intensity than anger.

Bella seemed a bit lost. Turning directly towards her I cleared up some gaps; explaining how I had insulted the coven's way of life, for they had steadily gotten more brutal in their killing of humans, and how the intense conversation sparked into a fight once I declared I was leaving their "sorry God-dammed souls", and how in a four-against-one fight it's hard to not kill some of your attackers. When I had killed two of them, one being Richard's mate, they retreated and I fled northwest.

"I met Jasper then. It was only shortly after he had fled his life in the South. He was trying to find his place and so was I. It wasn't hard for us to become friends but I was still too wary to settle down in one location so I went on North into Canada." Jasper sat next to Alice, opposite from me. His face was smooth but his eyes purposely didn't meet mine. I could tell he was thrilled to see me, alive. But he also looked upset, as if I were describing my actual death to him. The silence caused him to look up at me. He nodded for me to continue.

"To sum things up, after I felt relatively safe that no one was coming after me, or at least able to find me I stumbled upon and old friend. Jasper had met Alice by now and moved in with the Cullens, becoming part of their family."

"I of course was welcomed to stay as long as I wanted. But it was hard for me to resign myself to a sure location. Yet I gave it a try."

The room was dead silent and even without my ability to know exactly what everyone was thinking and feeling I would have been well aware of the troubled reactions this part of the story was causing. I was approaching the reason I left. "Within about three and a half months I had gotten rather close to everyone, Bella, and it started to feel like home. But of course my idiocy from early was sure to come back and give me my just reward."

"David, honey, stop talking poorly of yourself, just tell us what happened," Esme said with an edged kindness. To me it seemed like she was being too forgiving, indirectly saying I didn't deserve to be so hard on myself.

"Yes, ma'am, where was I?" I tried to seem polite and nonchalant, but my voice rattled a bit and gave away my nervousness. "I went hunting alone one day. Not for any particular reason, but everyone else had been in school or at work. I didn't have any type of human commitment to blend me into the town, because I hadn't made an official notion that I was permanently going to stay."

I started to talk to everyone in the room rather than just Bella. "I would suppose you saw me fighting Richard and Todd, Alice."

"It was very blurred. You were caught so off guard your decisions were muddled. I could only see you fighting and then leaving."

"Yes, well they weren't alone. It wasn't so easy to fight them by myself this time," I saw Emmett's face contort as if he were about to cut me off, but he didn't. "I struck three of the seven down before I started to move. I was faster than all of them except one. He was their tracker, very agile, very fast. And apparently we were far enough from Forks that they didn't detect enough of all your scents to realize you'd still be there rather than just nomads that had passed by."

"I started to think of what I should do. Part of me wanted to return to town and ask for help, but that would have caused a lot of trouble as I'm sure you could imagine."

"You didn't have to run, David," Alice spoke, "you knew perfectly well that I would have seen something and we would have come to help. You didn't want our help."

"That is true. I didn't want to put you in danger or inconvenience you—"

"Inconvenience us?" Jasper was looking right at me, "are you really that foolish, David?"

"You were becoming part of our family; we would have helped you without a moment's hesitation. Inconvenience certainly is a foolish way to look at it," Carlisle added with a soft but matter of fact expression.

"You were the first family I'd ever known. Whether or not it was foolish I didn't want to bring my own past down upon you. So I lead them south and then headed east. I killed two more, including Todd. Yet Richard and the hunter apparently were an even better team then Richard and Todd had been. They picked up some more help every now and then. Within three years we were huddled around the Middle East coast. They would have there sparks of attacks every now and then but together Richard and the hunter mastered the art of running away the moment there chances of a clear win were broken."

I sighed, "In my head I told myself I'd clean this up and then come back, explain, and then move on living as a Cullen. But it took much longer to resolve this than I had planned. I even had to get my own aid occasionally. Then for a few years everything was calm and I saw nothing of Richard. I went north to upstate New York and settled down a bit, yet it wasn't anything I'd have trouble leaving. The two finally made their last attempt one day in the winter and I made certain to not let them escape. I don't know why they chose this time to attack without any help or distraction. Perhaps Richard couldn't stand the wait anymore and just desperately wanted to avenge Monica. But I finished it."

"That was six years ago. I continued to live in New York. I played in a Broadway Orchestra for a while."

"You didn't return," Esme spoke. It seemed this was what she had really been waiting for. Her features showed sadness now. It was clear no one was mad at me, like I had been expecting.
"I was… afraid. I didn't know what you'd think of me; perhaps a heartless monster that's involved in a bunch of revenge wars and feuds."

"David, that's absurd. You should have come right home."

"Esme, I didn't want to hurt you, any of you, I just did what I thought I had to do. And then I was afraid the consequences would keep me away regardless of if I tried to come back or not."

"If you didn't know that you'd be welcomed back home then you really are a fool," Alice said. Yet she had a smile on her face. "We were all excited when I saw you returning."

"And you're welcome to stay, David," Carlisle said.

"As long as there is no more of this foolishness about you thinking we don't care for you anymore, or whatever it is you've been going on about," Esme spoke strictly but couldn't suppress her smile fully. "We love you David, even if you'd only been family for a few months."

I found myself smiling. My biggest wish for many years was now becoming a reality.

"So will you stay?" Alice asked, her face that of a small kitten, pleading.

It took me a moment to answer. Not because I was thinking of what I would say, but more that I was overwhelmed. "Yes, I want nothing more."

"Good, I knew you'd say that," Alice winked at me. "You can share Edward's room."

Edward pretended to be mortified. "Great," he mumbled, then smirked.

"It's not like you're ever in it anymore," Rosalie commented. Bella's cheeks flooded into a blush.

We spent the rest of the night talking, laughing, and even coming up with a cover for me becoming part of the family. "People are bound to take notice to you," Carlisle had commented.

But that was it, I was really staying.

I was a Cullen.