Just an idea I'm playing with. Give me a yay or nay!

Prologue

McCarty Homestead

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

1935

Kathleen Volturi McCarty sat down on the edge of her brother's bed as he got ready to go out hunting. "I don't know why you have to go today." She said for what felt like the thousandth time. "It's supposed to be raining later." Sure enough, clouds covered the town of Gatlinburg ominously.

Emmett paused, picking up his gun. "Josh and I've been doing this since we were little." He said, fastening the straps of the knapsack. He looked at her and grinned. "Besides, it's not like we're actually going to get in the bears' range. We'll let the bait do its job and shoot 'em from a distance."

Katie slipped off the bed. "Okay," she said, giving him a quick hug. "Just promise you'll come back when it starts raining."

Emmett grabbed his sister into a one-armed hug. "Fine, but if you're wrong, I get to say what's for dinner for the next week."

"Deal." Katie said and the two walked to the second story landing together.

Emmett gave her one final hug before he bounded down the stairs and out of sight.

Katie ran up the stairs to her attic bedroom and looked out the window. Emmett and Josh were almost to the entrance to the woods. He turned and waved. Smiling, she waved back.

Later that day, Katie was sitting in her attic, reading a book she had started the night before when she heard a noise on the second floor landing. Placing a bookmark in the pages, she stood.

Emmett couldn't be back already. He had left barely two hours ago. She listened.

"Stupid, good for nothing…" she bit her lip. So her stepfather was using Emmett's absence as an excuse to get rid of her. She waited until the door opened.

Her stepfather stood in the doorway, drunk with a pistol in his hand. "You little bitch," he slurred, stumbling towards her.

Panicking, she flew across the room, knocking him down the stairs. She waited until she heard the thumps stop. She ran out.

"Oh, God," she gasped. Her stepfather had hit his head, knocked out. She backed against the wall, trying to calm herself down, think clearly, and come up with a solution. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Emmett wasn't due back for another three hours…that should give her plenty of time.

Before she could move, the front door opened. "Katie?" a voice called.

"Y-y-yes?" she asked, trying to control the burning in the back of her throat. She was going to lose it.

A vampire walked further in the house and saw her, taking in the situation. "Katie, you've got to move quickly." He said.

"Why?" she whispered. "Is it my father?"

The vampire shook his head. "No, but humans are going to be running this way-one of their cows is running amok and they're trying to catch it. We've got to hurry." He came over and knelt down in front of her. "My name's Jake. I've been watching you on your father's orders for a while now." He smiled. "It's going to be okay."

Chapter One

The Cullens' House

Present day

Forks, Washington

BPOV

Edward had just dropped me off and I was currently sitting in my room, waiting for him when my phone rang.

"Hello" I asked, figuring it was Alice.

"Bella," Edward sounded tense. "Have you heard from Emmett?"

"No, why?"

"He's gone. We've been trying to get him on his phone but he's not answering. Alice can't see anything either."

I stood up, panicked. "Why would he just up and leave like that?"

He sighed into the phone. "I don't know."

KPOV

We were just walking on First Beach in La Push, having convinced Sam to give us a one-night pass on the treaty. He agreed, just hinting they would be close by if we put a toe out of line.

"So how're things going with you and Jake?" he asked as we walked along First Beach at a human pace.

"Pretty good. He and Dad are still trying to one-up each other." I looked at him. He hadn't changed much in the fifty-odd years we'd been apart.

"Classic," He said, pulling me close in an one-armed hug. "So are you going to come over and meet Rose sometime?"

"Hmmm. Me, her and her knowing that we've known each other longer, added to the fact she would jump to the conclusion that you're cheating on her with me? I'll pass. That is, unless you can convince her to Double Dutch with me and Jake sometime."

"That'll be like trying to convince her to spend twenty-four hours with Bella not complaining." He grinned. "Difficult, but not impossible. So are you working at the hospital now?"

"Yeah, I figured Jake and I could play the loser-boy fell in love with a genius game with the humans. Plus, I'm hoping there'll be a thunderstorm so we can all play ball together."

"Alice says there's going to be one tomorrow, you should come." I could see he was making a real effort to try to help ease the merging of his two families-his human one with the little half-vampire sister and her slightly inane vampire husband-with his new, much larger one.

I had never liked large crowds focusing on me. Even when I visited in Volterra, after my stepdad and meeting Jake, I always tended to shy away from the attention. If I met his family as his human little sister, I would have eight vampires-including Jake, an overly jealous wife, curious doctor, masochistic mind reader, and a slightly klutzy human all focusing on me at once. I preferred to stay in small groups and avoid attention as much as possible.

I knew moving to Forks, being the youngest doctor on staff at the hospital, and having a "boyfriend" still in high school would draw attention, but I didn't bargain for the wolves who needed what seemed like constant reassurance I didn't drink blood as often as full vampires and another vampire family that just so happened to include my brother. I had expected just to play it silent and ignore the prying eyes that came wherever I went.

"I'll come. Just don't completely destroy the image of a couple who just wandered into the game. Depending on their reaction, I'll tell them or, keep up the charade."