A/N: Sorry about the lack of movement with my Harry Potter fic, but the inspiration just wouldn't come, unlike this one, which came out of nowhere and hit me like a bolof lightning. Hope you all enjoy.
Of course, we couldn't go to Charlie's funeral. Not in sight of humans, anyway. We, my family and I, watched and listened from the forest on the very edge of the Forks' cemetery. It was no problem for any of us, what with the super advanced audio-visual that we had. And, obviously, the reason we couldn't attend in person (per say) was that after forty years we hadn't changed at all. There was still not one grey hair on Carlisle's wise head, or one wrinkle on Esme's divine face. And that might just have given us away.
Edward's face took on 'that' look; the one he wore when he heard something that he didn't like, but before anybody could question him as to what was bothering him, we heard for ourselves.
"You would have thought that Isabella Cullen might have turned up today, of all days," Jessica Stanley's voice carried across the wind, and multiple pairs of eyes shifted towards me, "I mean, what type of daughter doesn't come to her own father's funeral, even if she did marry into a family rich enough to keep her away from home all this time?"
Low grumbling sounds we rumbling from quite a few chests, Emmett's was the fiercest, because Emmett was the fiercest, in my opinion anyway, and after all, she had just insulted his sister. Jacob's was more disbelieving, but a soothing hand on his muzzle from Renesmee calmed him quickly. Edward's was strangely unnatural, and visibly it concerned Jasper. But then he calmed them all down in his own special way, and no more was said about it, until another familiar voice floated along to us, this time belonging to Angela Weber, "Jess, I don't think that's a very fair thing to say, Chief Swan died pretty suddenly, and Bella's clearly somewhere quite far away, I'm sure she'd be here if she could"
It reminded me why I'd always liked Angela so much, because of course I wanted to be there, I just had to protect the secret.
There was a howling from behind us in the forest which startled a few of the humans present at Charlie's interment, but it was just the rest of Sam and Jacob's packs paying tribute to my wonderful dad.
While the humans trickled away for the wake, we stayed still where we were. As vampires we could have stood there for the rest of the decade as perfect statues; if the thirst didn't kill us. And then Jasper put an arm around Alice, who looked like she was struggling with her emotions.
"He was such a nice guy" she said quietly, "I wish you could have turned him into one of us Carlisle"
Carlisle's eyes were grave as he answered, "I would have liked that. But I couldn't, and we already have quite enough of us to be going on with"
"No" Edward replied sharply, to a mental question, turning towards Rosalie, "We can't leave yet. Renesmee and Jacob"
Rosalie's perfect eyes narrowed a little, but she didn't hiss any of the insults at Jake that she would have done a few decades ago. Decades that felt like seconds. Decades in which we'd had to stay, hiding in Forks, because of the connection between my daughter and my best friend. It had not been an easy time; we'd sent postcards home from around the world, to make it look like there was a reason that we'd not been able to come back, but the most difficult part was being so close to Forks, and good friends like Angela, but unable to show myself. Even in his wolfish form Jake looked guilty, since he was essentially the reason that we couldn't move on and start over.
"Time to go" Esme said, her voice more beautiful than the wind chimes that it reminded me of, "We've been here long enough"
It didn't feel like my family were intentionally avoiding me, although I myself was sort of avoiding Jasper; I didn't want the pain of my dad's death numbed, but neither did I want to force him to experience it.
Jacob ran along back to the house with is, the strange black blurs that we left as we hurtled through the forest would have been unbelievably dizzy for any human watching.
When we reached back home the family took on its usual evening habits, since sleep was unnecessary. Carlisle wedged the door of his study open (ever ready to listen to troubles) and took a massive tome, in Ancient Greek, down from his extensive collection. Esme tinkered away at the piano, humming an indescribably beautiful melody as her lithe fingers worked magic on the ivory keys. Jasper and Alice lay entwined on the bed in Alice's room, their breathing was slow, and he murmured words which she might have missed if she'd been human, but which I caught anyway, "I love you" I decided to duck out of their clearly private moment. I checked on Rosalie in the garage; she was surely the world's most stunning mechanic. Emmett lay sprawled across one of the sofas, his attention captivated entirely by a sport's match of some description. Well, not entirely. A vampire's mind is so much more compartmentalised than a humans; while his current focus was the television, millions of other things were undoubtedly running through his head. My own personal wonder, my husband, the father of my child was cooking. Although us fully fledged vampires clearly had no need of the fillet mignon that Edward was cooking, our constant house guest, Jake, and the other wonder in my life, Nessie, did enjoy eating. For Jacob it was necessary, for Nessie it was something different from deer or elk.
"I know, Nessie. Extra, extra, extra rare" Edward replied, eyeing her with amusement, "I got that the first thirty of forty times" Nessie and Jacob sat on the bar stools pulled up to the kitchen counter as Edward prepared their dinner. His honey gold eyes flicked towards me and he smiled. I was four decades into this life and I still hadn't entirely come to grips with the fact that that smile was a constant factor, wasn't ever going away. My thoughts were rudely interrupted by the sound of Jake bolting down his steak with unhealthy speed. Nessie sat, totally composed, using her knife and fork to slice up her steak, ignoring her wolf. The words still stung a little bit. Once upon a time Jacob had been mine. My sunshine. And then he imprinted on my baby. I wasn't jealous, I'd never begrudge Nessie anything, it's just that she always seemed that little bit higher up on Jake's agenda than I was. But, of course, I was being silly. I had Edward! How could I think that anything was missing?
Alice glided down the stairs in her ordinary graceful manner, and I noted that her eyes were the same shade of black as mine. We were both thirsty, and by the eager look in her eyes we'd be eating, drinking, very well tonight. "Northern California" she said, excitedly, "We're having lion for dinner tonight" Then she clapped her hand over her mouth, "Sorry Edward, I know it's your favourite"
Edward smiled again, "Don't be silly, go, have fun, take Rosalie with you" Edward hated hunting with me anyway, mountain lions or no mountain lions.
"I'm coming, I'm coming" Rosalie called out from the garage, in her version of a grumble. The sound was still more beautiful than a songbird's call. "Do you want to run, or drive?"
I looked expectantly towards Alice, who'd know the answer, and who murmured, "Okay let's not get into a big fight over this, girls"
Emmett, listening in, snickered in a way that only he could.
"We're running" Alice called out, and Rosalie huffed, irritated that the chance to drive fast was being stolen from her.
"Carlisle, Esme" I said, no louder than the voice I'd use in regular conversation, "Alice, Rosalie and I are off hunting. We're staying on the continent, and we'll be back soon"
Carlisle's reply was no louder than my speech, and I caught every word of it, "Take care. Hurry back. We love you"
I kissed Nessie's shiny hair, touched my fingertips to Edward's face, muttered a goodbye to Jake, and suddenly I was flying along through the dusk, next to my sisters, doing what I was born to do. Not hunt, although my proficiency in this particular area had improved one hundred fold since my first elk, I meant being a vampire.
Even above the howling wind Alice, Rosalie and I were creating I could still hear the signs of life in the forest all around me. Tiny insects scuttling across leaves, little rodents hiding from predators, predators that were becoming wary of us. But by the time that the animals had a chance to react, we'd moved on, out of their territory.
It seemed all too short a journey to California, even though I knew we'd just crossed the entire United States of America without stopping for breath (breath that was unnecessary anyway)
And Alice, being as potent as she was, led us to exactly the right spot for our hunt. Mountain lions were somewhat of a menace in California, so I was glad that I was doing them a service when my razor sharp teeth tore the skin from the lioness' throat and severed the most major artery of her body. She fell, limp, to the ground and I drained her dry, the thirst quenched, but the fire by no means put out. After forty years of hunting practise, there wasn't a single spot of blood on either the black silk skirt (slit very high) or pink blouse that I wore. Looking around I saw Alice and Rosalie looking equally contented and composed. Of course, I looked through a vampire's eyes; if an unfortunate human had chanced upon us, he or she would have seen three deathly pale yet beautiful women (two more beautiful than the other) with golden eyes, crouched over the drained carcasses of three mountain lions, and one of those impossibly perfect women (Rosalie) was still licking the last traces of blood from her lips. "Ah" Alice sighed, happy and relaxed, "I see why Edward loves them so much" I was still with Emmett on this one; a grizzly was a better hunt, and, in my opinion, tasted better. Nothing would ever taste as good, however, as human blood, and since I had absolutely no desire whatsoever to suck a human dry, and since Carlisle's stock of donated blood was for emergencies of the medical persuasion, the grizzly bears just had to do.