A/N: This is a Tia/Andrew centric one shot. It follows Midnight Flame and should not be read until you've read that, and the stories that come before it (Moonlight Sonata and Shadow Rising). Enjoy!

Consequence

Everyone thought it had gone well in the beginning.

Yes, he no longer had a pulse- but he was the same but for that. He had the same tan, the same laughing green eyes, he even had the same appetite. His ability to shift had remained, and all had seemed well in the world.

The appetite was the first to go.

What had started as a craving for his steaks to be rare soon became a desire for his meet to be fresh. Within two years of his turning, Andrew didn't even bother with the meat anymore- he just took the blood.

"It's okay," he had assured a distraught Tia. "It's okay Tia- it's not like I really care what I eat, as long as I'm not hungry."

He had said all the right things, but Tia was no fool. It did matter.

-*-

By the end of the fourth year, his skin became pale, no longer the healthy, glowing tan that Tia was used to. The warmth disappeared, and Andrew became cold. It broke her heart to see him like that, yet still he assured her that it was all right.

-*-

When he lost his ability to shift in the tenth year he ran away, and Tia could no longer grasp onto the words 'it's all right.'

She went to the Cullens to lick her wounds, unable to stay in the small ranch house that she and Andrew had bought at the foot of the Rockies in Alberta. The vampire family was living in Minnesota at the time- Tia figured that was a good place to go. She was no where near anything that reminded her of Andrew there.

Still, the memories invaded. Tia hadn't felt so bereft, so frightened, since she had thought that Andrew was going to die after the attack that resulted in his turning.

"You should call him," Bella told her.

"He won't want to talk to me," Tia had replied. "He hates me."

"He loves you," Jasper retorted. "Call him."

Tia had curled up into a ball and proceeded to ignore them.

-*-

It was exactly two weeks to the day after Tia had left Canada that Andrew appeared on the front step of the Cullen house. He had ignored everyone else and gone up to the room where Tia still lay in a ball, not having moved since her conversation with Jasper and Bella.

"Andrew," she gasped, sitting up and staring at the tall, handsome figure in her doorway.

His green eyes- eyes that still hadn't changed- burned with an inner, desperate fire. Tia had never seen him look like that- look so angry, so desperate.

He was beautiful in that moment.

"You left me," he growled, his Scottish lilt always more pronounced in his anger.

"No I didn't!" Tia protested. "You ran away, and I though-"

"You. Left. Me!" Andrew interrupted, emphasizing the words by kicking the door to the room just behind him with a loud bang.

"I never-"

Once again Andrew interrupted her, this time by slanting his mouth harshly over hers and kissing her will all the passion, desperation, and anger that she had seen in his eyes.

If Tia had been able to, she would have cried in that moment.

"Tia," panted Andrew in between kisses. "Ah, Tia my love. I missed yea."

"I've missed you too," Tia replied, kissing him back every bit as hard. "Oh, god Andy! I thought you didn't want me anymore."

"That's foolish, Tia love," Andrew's kisses slowed, becoming less desperate and more caressing, but still every bit as passionate. "I could never not want you."

"You lost your ability to phase because of me," Tia replied softly.

Andrew paused in his kisses, and gazed down at her, his eyes unfathomable.

"I'm still walking the earth because of you, Tia," he replied, stroking her hair back from her face.

"You ran away," Tia sobbed. "What was I supposed to think?"

"Aye," Andrew agreed. "That was bad planning on my part. At first I didn't know what to do, because I'd always been a wolf. I didn't think I'd know who I was if I wasn't. Then I realized something."

"What?" Tia asked.

"It wasn't being a wolf that made me who I am. It was you. You're my world, sweet Tia. You're it for me- and be me wolf, human, or vampire, you're the one constant," he pulled back and rummaged in his pocket. "I would've been here sooner, but I had to stop and pick this up- ah, here it is."

His hand came out of the pocket, and in it was a small, blue velvet box.

"I suppose I should do this the old fashioned way," Andrew knelt to the floor and grasped Tia's hands. "Tia, the scariest moment in my life was when I went back to the ranch and you weren't there. I thought my heart would break. I know that vampires aren't easy to kill, but I was certain I was going to die when I thought I'd lost you forever."

"Oh Andy," Tia murmured, but Andrew placed his finger over her lips.

"Shush love, let me finished," he told her. "At first I was so out of my head that I didn't know what to do- I didn't know where to look. Hell, I was about to get on a plane bound for Italy because I go the foolish notion in my head that you'd gone back to the Volturi. Luckily, I got my mind back and Bella sent me a text telling me where you were. I headed out immediately, and now I'm here asking, begging, for you to be my wife. Please?"

Andrew's eyes were large, and hopeful. Tia flung herself into his arms.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!!!"

Andrew laughed as he hugged her.

"Don't you want the ring, love?"

"Yes!" Tia replied again, pulling back. Andrew continued to chuckle as he opened the box, revealing its contents.

"I know you wanted one like Bella, but I figured that we were never the traditional diamond and gold type."

"It's perfect," Tia murmured.

And it was- a ruby surrounded by emeralds set in a platinum band. It was the most gorgeous thing she'd ever seen.

"You don't mind that you're not a werewolf, anymore?" Tia asked after Andrew had placed the ring on his finger.

"Not a'tall, Tia," he cupped her face in his hands. "Aye, I'll miss it. I loved the freedom of the hunt- but I can still have that," he bent down to kiss her. "And as long as I have you, who needs to be a wolf? You don't mind that I'm not a wolf- that I'm no longer warm?"

"Hmmm, let me think about that," at Andrew's stricken look, Tia quickly shook her head. "No. It's you I want, you I love, and you that matters to me. What you are- I don't care about that."

"Good- now let's go celebrate our engagement," he picked her up bridal shower. "Never leave me again?"

"Not even if you begged me to."

"And if I begged you to kiss me right now?"

Tia kissed him.

It was a while before they got to the celebrating.