Chibi-Kari: I still don't own. I give you Chapter 3. Thanks so much for the amazing response that I've gotten so far!

Chapter 3

Two weeks had crawled by and Peter was starting to get nervous. The girl they had found laying on the freeway had been as good as dead. He had brought out a spark of her fire that first night. He had seen a shade of what she was and what she could be again. He could feel it. This girl was something amazing and both he and Charlotte could see it. But that spark that had come out was just as quickly snuffed out.

She was resigned. Resigned to die. He saw it in her eyes three days after she was brought into their home. Peter could remember it even if he didn't have the superior memory of a vampire.

He and Charlotte had just come from a quick hunt. There was some sort of "gathering" in the desert of misfits. They were trying to bring the 70s back. Peter couldn't bring himself to understand why they would want to bring a time of political and social unrest back. He had lived through it. It wasn't anything he'd like to repeat…but neither was the 80s with their bad hair and horrid pants of every color. Spandex was never a good idea unless it was on a woman who was working out and even then it could be a very bad idea. At least that was his thought process.

They had come back from that very unsatisfying meal full of tainted blood to find Bella standing in the middle of the kitchen. They had quickly gotten used to finding her standing in the middle of a room. It almost seemed to be her way of reminding herself she was isolated and alone. Or at least that was what Charlotte had said to him one night. It was the way she glanced around periodically, as if making sure the room was empty. To tell the truth it disturbed him. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to die. He could see that. Charlotte could see that. He was pretty sure if he brought a blind man into his house that even he could see that.

This time it was different, though. She wasn't just standing in the middle of the room; it was what she was looking at. Her focus was trained on Charlotte's cutlery set. He remembered the hunger in her eyes as she looked at it. He just thanked whatever deity was out there that they got back in time. He had no doubt that if they were tem minutes later that they would have come back to a dead human.

He had worked himself into a frenzy when he saw her. He remembered how she recoiled as he yelled at her about the value of every life. About how people still cared for her. That he and Charlotte cared for her…and that wasn't a lie.

She had grown on them quickly. She had reminded him of his little sister from his human life. And Charlotte latched on to her as if she was a lifeline. Peter surmised that that was because she lacked friends that were female. After their time with Maria, where Charlotte couldn't make any friends, not that she had the disposition at the time to make friends, but it was impossible to make friends there. Then it was just them and Jasper for awhile. Still no females. Then Alice came along. That wasn't a good combination at all. Charlotte loves Jasper like a brother, but Alice always rubbed her the wrong way. It didn't help that her tolerance for the other two Cullen woman was short. Rosalie was horrid in every manner of speaking. Peter himself had trouble standing in a room with her. She was not the type that Charlotte could ever even think of calling a friend. Esme, on the other hand, might have been someone that the small blonde would have stuck with if she hadn't been surrounded by the others.

After there several visits with that strange family or coven or whatever they considered themselves, Peter just couldn't see why Jasper wanted to stay there. Okay, Peter had to admit they weren't all bad. Emmett was okay. At least his massive chess games with Jasper were interesting. That last one still was funny. Jasper could out strategize everyone, but Emmett would always throw him for a loop. He would do the most unexpected things and that was what made it interesting. At one point, Jasper tried to instruct Emmett on how to win before the large vampire shrugged and moved a pawn on a pointless board and caused Jasper to flip the entire table. Peter had to help put the game back together before they continued.

Emmett really was the only good Cullen. Sure the doctor wasn't that horrible, but Peter just couldn't bring himself to really like a man that couldn't trust Jasper. They way he looked at him never made any sense to him. He knew it bothered Charlotte. When they would leave she would always mumble that bees were attracted to honey not salt.

But none of them were as bad as that Edward. Peter couldn't stand him. In his opinion that vampire was pompous, critical, and just plain insufferable. He could clearly remember the last time they had visited the Cullens just a few years ago in that small secluded town in Washington. Edward was barely around, which was fine by him, but every time he was he would just glare. He had this notion that they were going to waltz into a town of three thousand and start picking off the residents. First of all they weren't idiots and secondly they wouldn't consider causing anyone hardship. That just wasn't a part of who they were. Although, Charlotte would argue that all the shit Peter talked caused a good many people hardship, including her.

But none of the Cullens were what they wanted to be around. This girl, Bella, she was everything that Charlotte needed and Peter could see that. He knew that she had wit. He had seen it himself. She was sarcastic and lively, or at least she was at one time. Charlotte had made this girl her project. She wanted to bring back the girl that Bella used to be. But after three not so bad days, things went downhill.

Bella didn't stand in the middle of the room and periodically talk like she did before. After that night they found her in the kitchen she had stopped talking. She even stopped begging them to kill her, something that Peter wouldn't complain about. But yesterday things hit a low. That was the day she stopped eating. She did say something when Charlotte got upset when she wouldn't eat all day, but Peter almost wished she hadn't said anything. The look of devastation that crossed his beautiful wife's face was still etched in the forefront of his memory. When Bella had ungracefully announced that if they wouldn't kill her or allow her to kill herself then she would just waste away. They couldn't stop her without killing her. And the sad thing about that was she was right.

Charlotte walked up to her husband who continued to look at their ward, "You should go hunt, Peter. It's been two days." She placed her hand on his and gripped tightly for a minute.

"I know, sugar, but I just can't leave her like this." He shook his head slightly. For once in his vampire life he wasn't sure of anything and he didn't know what to do. "Humans can only go so long without food and even a shorter time without water. She only has what? Two days left? If she keeps on like this we really will lose her."

Charlotte closed her eyes momentarily. She knew how hard it was for her husband to feel he had no control. She felt the same. This girl was already a part of them and she was just throwing herself away in some grand gesture of chivalry. Charlotte fucking hated grand gestures.

"I think we need reinforcements, Peter. We need to force her hand." Her voice quivered slightly. This was either a good idea or a horrible one, but it was their only option.

"I'd really rather not drag anyone else into this, but I'd have to agree. She's forcing our hand, now. We don't have a fucking choice anymore. I'm not going to lose her." He looked up at his wife. Her red eyes had softened slightly as he spoke. He kissed her hand gently as he stood, "You make the phone call and I'll take a quick hunt. It shouldn't take him longer than a few hours to get here."