Edward held my hand as we walked into the dining room and took our places around the table. Carlisle sat at the head, with Edward on his right and Esme on his left. I sat between Edward and Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett were the last to sit down, completing my family, all bar one. Ness (who was now old enough to know her own mind and insisted we all called her Ness these days) was at home asleep, it seemed this meeting had been held off until the early hours of the morning to ensure this would be the case.
Everyone was looking at Carlisle expectantly, I had a strange feeling I was missing something but turned to see why we had been called together so formally. "It is time." Carlisle paused and looked at each of us briefly.
I was surprised when Edward squeezed my hand gently to get my attention. As I turned I couldn't help but smile at my own personal miracle. Time had done nothing to subdue the exhilaration I felt being with him, his eyes drew me as strongly today as they did seven years ago when we first met. I saw they were black with thirst and realised how long it had been since we hunted. I made a mental note that we should go as soon as this was over. "Love, this is probably going to be harder on you than the rest of us, but it's time to leave Forks."
Suddenly the quiet conversations Carlisle and Edward had been having in his office made sense. It was time to leave my home. Can vampires feel sick? Suddenly I felt quite ill.
"I'm claiming to be 39 at the hospital now, and it's really getting unfeasible." Carlisle looked at Edward. "I think some of the staff are beginning to feel a bit confused."
"They are starting to talk." agreed Edward, his ability to read minds had allowed him to see that in fact many of the staff working with Carlisle were actively questioning how the hell a 39 year old still looked like he could be fresh out of college. "But it's not just you, I'm claiming 24 now, and although I love my practice I can't get away from the fact that I still look 17." Edward was trying to make some use of his many degrees and currently practicing as a psychiatrist in Port Angeles. The mind reading helped a fair bit there as well.
I looked from my husband to my surrogate father and couldn't help but see their point. Edward had tasked Alice with helping him to look older when he had decided to open his practice three years ago, but sometimes I couldn't help but feel that the conservative suits and professional hairstyle he was currently sporting only highlighted his glorious youthful features and his lithe 17 year old body. His bronze hair, though tamed with copious styling product these days, still had a tendency to poke out in odd directions in an endearing and boyish way. Carlisle had taken to flattening his hair at the front to give himself a slightly receding hairline two years ago, but his face was far too fresh for this to make much difference.
"So, we propose we start in a new place in September, This will make sense to any humans we talk to about why we have moved to our new location, as all of you will be able to start school at the beginning of a new school year." Carlisle looked to Edward who continued.
"Ness is at the stage now that she could do the final 3 years of High school and fit in very well, she might look a little young to begin with, but by the time she graduates she will look like any other 18 year old. It's not like she'll actually learn anything, but so far she has grown up in a very protected environment, and she needs to be educated in living alongside humans, blending in." Edward glanced at me and caught the look in my eye. "As well as can be expected anyway." He smiled at me as he knew I was thinking we never blended in.
"Oh no, no I'm not going to High school again." Everyone turned to look at Rosalie, surprised.
"Me neither, uh huh, no way. I draw the line." Emmett grinned, but was clearly deadly serious. "I've done my time, not everybody graduates High School anyway, why do we have to keep doing it? Come on man, back me up!" Emmett looked at Edward who grinned back.
"In a way, that may actually help Emmett." Carlisle jumped in and a glance passed between him and Edward. "When we came to Forks the size of our family then attracted attention. For Esme and I to be the parents of seven teenage children, 6 of them clearly couples, will attract even more attention, which is not what we want."
"Eight children" Esme said quietly. "Jacob?"
Jacob would likely want to be wherever Ness was, so eight children, perhaps.
"So, are we being banished then?" Rosalie pulling us back to the subject in hand with a sardonic smile.
"We felt that maybe it was time for us to live, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, as two separate families." Edward paused and looked a little pained before he continued. "Clearly Bella and I cannot live with Ness as her parents while we are in High School, and as the technically youngest person here, I will need to go to High School again to allow us to stay in our new home for any length of time."
I squeezed Edward's hand under the table, I knew how hard this must be for him. "How do you propose we split ourselves up?" I spoke quietly as I could sense what was coming.
"I will live with Rosalie and Emmett, as Emmett's brother. Rosalie will claim to be Carlisle's sister and we will try and find houses as close together as possible. You, Ness and Alice will be sisters adopted by Carlisle and Esme when you were about 8 years old, Jasper will also be Carlisle and Esme's foster son. Wouldn't like the town to have no gossip at all would we?" Edward gave me my favourite crooked smile and I felt better. This was only the story to the outside world after all, and it might be fun to go back to High School again, with him. "Rosalie already has an idea of what she and Emmett could do with themselves."
"Does she now?" We all rolled our eyes at Emmett in sync and he leered at Rosalie, then laughed heartily.
"We could start a business; live a real life as grown-ups rather than perpetually going to school to go nowhere afterwards." Rosalie was gazing off into the distance, an optimistic look in her eye I'd never seen before. Being able to be so involved with Ness and her upbringing had filled a gap in Rosalie; she was happier and more content than any of our family had ever known her. We were now friends, and I was glad.
"Jacob?" Esme reminded us again.
"I'm not sure how big a problem that's going to be." I stopped and looked at Edward. We hadn't discussed this yet, but we both knew how Ness had been feeling for the last few months. I'm sure Edward knew in great detail as Ness had been quite preoccupied at times, and he wasn't able to shut her out as effectively as he would've liked.
I didn't want to betray my daughter's trust, and Edward clearly did not want to say something Ness had not freely given up to him. I saw Rosalie fiddling with her hands and realised she knew what I was talking about as well, I nodded to her and she picked up from where I left off. "Ness is wondering how she feels about Jacob. She knows she cares about him, but, you know, she lives with Edward and Bella." I wondered what on earth that had to do with anything. Rosalie grinned at me and carried on. "Bella, Ness is about 14 or 15 emotionally at the moment, and feels like she lives with Romeo and Juliet. When she's not thinking 'yuk parents get a room', she's kind of jealous."
This isn't quite what she'd said to me, but I could see Edward was not at all surprised by what Rosalie was saying.
"She has always had Jacob there, he obviously thinks the world of her, but there's no excitement there for her, he's made her feel a bit too secure for his own good. I think she's wondering what else is out there. She views Jake as too comfortable. Also I think now she's old enough to understand the whole imprinting thing she doesn't see why she should just go along with it." Rosalie looked at me and smiled. I smiled back, I was glad my daughter had someone she could talk to when it was hard to talk to her Mom.
"So maybe somewhere far enough away, but not so far as Jacob has to move with us, and so we can come and see Charlie as well." I looked at Edward who nodded.
"That might be a hard conversation for Jacob though, Bella." Edward looked at me meaningfully.
"I know, but his pack is here and he must realise we have to move on sometime." I looked around the table aware that there were others who may have points to make.
"Jasper and I already knew this was coming Bella." Alice smiled at me. "I've been looking forward to it for a while, our new home looks lovely and we get to live together again!" Smug psychics.
"So where are we headed Alice?" Carlisle smiled as she rolled his eyes at him.
"I can't tell you, you have to tell us, but Edward is pretty sure I think. Anyhow, if we're done for now, Jasper and I want to hunt tonight, coming Bella?"
"Edward?" I was suddenly keen to get out of the meeting, if I only had a short time left in Forks I wanted to enjoy it.
"Yes love, let's hunt."