A/N: Hello, hello! Here's yet another story, one requested by the lovely and very polite cullen1369, that I enjoyed writing immensely! Please, keep the requests coming! I enjoy reading all of your ideas, they're always so creative and fun to play with! Recently, I've gone through yet another phase of the infamous Carlisle/Edward relationship. I love the dad/son kind of thing and so I'm currently working on a story based on them. Not sure how to end it yet, so that's a little inside scoop of what's to come in the future! Hope you enjoy this story.

Quote: "I'm sorry for what I am."

The gray sky overhead hinted that rain was coming. I watched from the cottage window as dark clouds zoomed past and towards the North. In a lot of ways, I envied their freedom. The cost of being a half mortal, half immortal child was that not many vampires knew of my kind. My family and my parents were much more cautious with me and my whereabouts of the day of every hour. I couldn't have been more bored if I tried, and my mind couldn't have been emptier if attempted.

My Momma was on the phone with Aunt Alice, my Aunt trying to convince my mother for yet another shopping trip that would leave me behind. Once again, another downfall in being the creature that I am was that public places were off limits. That was until I was absolutely sure that I could handle being surrounded by large crowds of humans. And although my control over bloodlust have proven more than once to be very much advanced, Grandpa had wanted to make sure that I could restrain myself.

I now looked the size of fifteen, young and radiant with energy yet here I was, instead of at a dance for school or out with a friend at the mall, I sat in my own home, trapped inside the small cottage while feeling claustrophobic.

"Come on," My father smiled down at me, extending his hand for my taking.

"Daddy, don't you think that I'm a little too old to be holding your hand?" But I still took his hand anyway, not caring how old I looked but only knowing how old I felt which in reality; I was really only five years old.

"Let's go outside," He suggested, pulling on my hand and stopping only to let me slip on my boots.

Once we were in the yard, he closed his eyes, turning around as I stood there confused. "You have thirty seconds to hide. One, two, three-"

"Daddy, I'm too old for that game."

"Four, five, six, seven-"

"Daddy, stop. I don't want to play hide and seek."

"You're running out of time." He complained to me, and so instead of standing around and waiting to lose, I sprinted into the forest, letting the soggy ground slam beneath my feet, never turning back. I jumped onto a humungous rock in my way, using it as leverage to push off of and throw myself towards a tree. Once I had a good hold on the tree trunk that I had jumped on, I began frantically climbing to the very top, hiding behind the pine needles and knowing that my scent was obvious and he would find me more so sooner than later. When I was much younger, him and me would play this game countless times, never stopping until my feet could no longer walk, and I had nowhere else left to hide. But back then, I hadn't known how easy it was for him to find me and so now, the game wasn't quite as thrilling.

I could hear him now, just at the bottom of the tree I was in, pretending to look around as I watched him with a grin. He was so silly sometimes.

"I'm not silly." He commented, but still not looking up at me.

He then suddenly jumped onto the tree I was in, climbing up it gracefully and squeezing himself into the midst of the branches that I was in. "I'm sorry that we're all so protective of you."

"I can take care of myself." I told him gently, placing my hand on his cheek to assure his worries that I was capable enough to care for my own wellbeing without everyone's help. I mentally showed him photos with my ability, scanning through my family's faces and then stopping on one. Jacob. "Jacob can take care of me." I told him.

A hurt look crossed his features, his eyes almost looking as though they'd be filled with tears if possible. I hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. My words were never intended to sting him in any way but when I opened my lips to apologize, suddenly my father was gone. He had somehow gotten out of the crowded branches and back onto the ground within a matter of two seconds. It took me four before I was beside him.

"Daddy, I'm sorry. But you and Momma should know by now the way I feel about him." We were now walking side by side, the foggy path ahead of us long and narrow, the wet ground beneath our shoes soggy and soaked with moisture no doubt from earlier rainfalls.

His face remained sullen but he smiled slightly, putting an arm around my shoulder as we strolled casually, pulling me close to him.

"We know that, sweetheart." He murmured to himself more so than to me. He then sighed heavily. "It's just not fair, though." He paced a few steps ahead, turning around so as he was facing me now. He placed two cold stone hands on my arms and ever so gently squeezed as he kneeled down to my height. "Other parents, they have years and years to say goodbye to their children. Your Momma and I, we've had five years with you. Five." He turned back around, walking away as I followed his defeated form. "It isn't fair."

"I'm sorry for what I am." I snapped at him.

My Daddy stopped in his tracks, his eyes no longer angry as they were before, but now seemingly upset that he had made me feel somehow unwanted for the way I was. My parents, ever since I was just a child myself, have reassured me again and again that I was no different than the others, just more special. They've always showed me the ways of the world, the rules of the Volturi. They have told me time and time again that I was beautiful the way I was, and that I was to be no one else except me. But now, my father has made question everything. He was right, in a sense. He and my Momma have had only five years when they should have eighteen. But how could I make that right? How could I stop my feelings for Jacob from developing? How can I make my Daddy and Momma happy? Without their happiness, there is no joy for me either in this life.

"Hey," My father then said, picking up on my frantic thoughts quickly. "You are perfect, Renesmee Cullen." Slowly, he pulled me into a hug, burying his face into the top of my head as he murmured, "It's just hard sometimes."

"I know. But you and Momma couldn't have any normal child. You two just had to go off and have a creature that no one knew existed." I pulled back and punched him playfully in his stomach, making him laugh too. It was nice to see that there was still some light in the situation we were thrust into.

"I want to show you something."

Before I could answer, I was immediately pulled onto my father's back, whisking through the trees and passing the ground at speeds I hadn't thought that even a vampire could perform.

He stopped after only a few seconds, setting me lightly to my feet and pulling me by my hand towards a large, circular area where fields of flowers and grass lay. It was a meadow. It was their meadow.

"Your meadow." I gasped. They had never shown me it before but only have told me stories of this ancient place. It was even more beautiful than they had described.

Daddy walked towards the middle, seeming to look at certain parts of this gorgeous place and remember the certain spots where certain things happened. I walked with him, taking his arm as I looked around. And though the sky was still gray, threatening to soak us with rain, the meadow was just as beautiful and unique as ever.

Daddy suddenly took me by my arms and pulled me down with him. We both now kneeled as he adjusted where I sat by taking my shoulders and moving me. At first, I was confused. I hadn't known what he was doing and to me as he had seemed crazy in the moment. But then, he smiled and stood back while I sat there, unmoving and staring up at him. "That is exactly where your mother was sitting when I realized I loved her."

I looked down at the grass beneath me, positive that it was somehow different than all the other grass surrounding this place, but it was not. It was just like any other spot in the meadow, only it was a special spot. It was the spot where my father fell in love with his lamb.

He grinned crookedly then joined me at my side. "I never thought I'd see my daughter sitting in the exact same spot."

"I never thought I'd get to see this place. Is this where you and Momma come when you guys have your alone time."

"Yes," Daddy answered, looking around the meadow as I felt a drop from the sky make contact with my cheek. "It's funny, the day I realized I loved her we were in an argument and she was angry at me for something. She wanted to be a vampire and I told her no. So she was sitting exactly where you are now, and she was ignoring me. I just remember looking down at her, while she pouted and glared at the ground, I stared at her for the longest time, and then I realized that I truly loved her. I mean I really loved her. I loved her more than my whole life and everything it consisted of." He then turned to me, gazing at me casually but with a boyish grin. "I never thought I could love anyone as much as I loved your mother, but I was wrong."

I rolled my eyes and snorted, shaking my head as I looked down in a blush.

"All I ask, when it comes to boys, is that you never let a man treat you badly, Renesmee. You deserve the world and more. I'm not half the man your mother deserves and I want you to have better."

"Stop right there," I told him in surprise. "I'd be lucky to find a man like you, Daddy. When I was little, I used to tell myself that I was just going to marry you so that I wouldn't have to worry about finding me a husband." I smiled at the memory, wishing that life was as simple as what it is to a toddler. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. You and Momma both deserve each other; you should know that by now."

It was he now who was looking down, not capable of blushing but still looking embarrassed nonetheless. My father wasn't a man to take compliments easily and so this was hard for him.

The rain first began as a drizzle but then turned into a downpour.

We both smiled at each other through the heavy drops, already soaked as he pulled me up from my sitting position and gently put me on his back as we soon began running through the forest we had not long ago been in, towards our cottage.

The rain stung my cheeks while we ran, and so I hid behind Daddy's head, burying my face into the back of his neck.

When we entered our home, we were smiling like goofballs while Momma gasped and dropped the phone at our disgruntled image. We both howled out loud when her expression was of nothing but pure happiness, but a little anger when she had started scorning Daddy on having me out in the rain, and how I was now going to probably get sick. I nudged Daddy in the shoulder, theatrically rolling my eyes.

"I saw that." My Momma then smirked as she brought us two towels and drug us both into the living room and in front of the fireplace.

I began dabbing my towel through my long, drenched curls, not paying attention to either of my parents. But when I looked up, it was an image to see.

"Edward Cullen, you know better than that. You know what Carlisle said about her getting sick." My mother sighed heavily once more, scrubbing the dry towel through my father's soaked hair that now stuck to his forehead in long, wet strands. "You're ridiculous, you know that? You knew that there was rain coming! And yet, you still took her outside. I wish I would have heard you leave, I would have stopped you! Ugh!" She then pulled him up into a standing position. And though he towered over her with his height, he looked like a sheepish dog gazing up at his owner. He listened to her, taking the scorning easily as she went on and on. "….men!" She finally snorted and pushed him towards the bathroom, hollering at him to go and get dry clothes for him and myself.

I laughed out loud, crossing my arms and staring at them. They both looked in my direction, both confused.

As I stared at them together, one soaked one dried, one lamb one lion, one innocent one not, I realized for the first time that I wanted what they had. I wanted the friendship they shared, I wanted the arguments they yelled, and most importantly, what dominates all other, I wanted the love they had shown to each other.

And to think that it all started with a meadow…

and a dream that a woman had.