Please note: I do not own Twilight in any way shape or form(fudge!) All characters associated with Twilight are Stephenie Meyer's. The plot and story and all new characters are all mine though :) Enjoy!

Sorry that this chapter took a while to post, but I was having a little writer's block. I knew where I wanted the story to go, but I was having a hard time writing the words that would get it there.(Sorry it's my first fanfiction. I will get better I promise) Also I would like to thank OliviaJane for her PM and advice. I'm working on the paragraph thing. I promise.

Strategies to being Brave

EPOV

On my way to the hospital to see Carlisle I thought about the weirdness that was the day. I mean this has to be one of the strangest days I've ever had; and from the look of things the weirdness wanted to share the wealth. Emmett, Jasper and Alice found the day just as weird as I did. Pulling into the parking lot I could smell the distinctive scent of a vampire...but it wasn't Carlisle. Other than Carlisle I've never known another vampire to spend any amount of time in a hospital and not have it be a blood bath. Seems another has the control to handle it.

Walking into the hospital I followed Carlisle's scent until I found him doing rounds on the 10th floor. "It's a shame he won't make it pass the night." Concentrating on the patient in the room I could barely hear his thoughts...they seemed jumbled.. incoherent. I could hear the slowing of his heart; not that any of the machines in this hospital could detect what my ears could. I saw Carlisle exit the room and look at me. "I take it you have something to tell me." he thought to me.

Nodding so slightly that only he could tell I whispered, "Yeah, but it seems you also have something to tell us as well."

"I take it you found the scent?" Carlisle thought. I just nodded my head again. He continued, "My shift is over in two hours. We'll discuss it when I get back." Having said that Carlisle turned and walked down the corridor. I waited until I saw him turn the corner then I too left.

EsPOV

I was cleaning like I always do when I heard the light footsteps coming up the path. I could tell they were vampire because of the rapid rhythm to it. Not even two minutes later I heard the door open and Emmett, Jasper, Alice, and Rosalie walked in. Since they took Edward's car this morning and they're running back that leads me to believe that Edward is running an errand of some sort...what kind I could only guess at.

"I take it that Edward isn't with you?" I asked.

"No he wanted to talk to Carlisle about something that happened at the school." Alice answered me.

"The weirdest things just kept happening at the school and we can't find an explanation." Emmett continued.

"Like what?"

"Well for one I was in class with a guy who I could swear had two heartbeats." Alice said "I was concentrating on him hoping for a vision, but I couldn't get anything off of him. Also at the beginning of that same class I started to have a vision and just as quickly it was over."

"There were some students whose emotions I couldn't read. The weird thing was that it was only that class. Once I left everything was fine" Jasper said.

"Don't forget Edward said that he couldn't read some of the minds in one of his classes either." Emmett added. "Its a quirk when it happens to one of you, but ALL of you? That means something is up. We were thinking vampire, but there's no evidence of it so far."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"I mean what's out there that can fool our senses? I didn't even get a whiff of a vampire." Emmett said. Looking around he added, "Did any of you?"

Everyone shook their heads no and we continued tossing ideas around until we all could hear a car coming up the driveway. "I take it Edward is here." A minute later he came in and said.

"There's another vampire in town."

"Well who is he?" I asked.

"Don't know. Carlisle should be here in the next 45 minutes. I'm sure we can calm ourselves until he gets here. I'm pretty sure he may have some answers for us. At the same time we can find out about our little situation at school. It's just too coincidental that everything that happened to us today is just ordinary. Something is up and I don't like being unprepared." Edward answered.

Feeling a buzzing in my pocket I reached in and took out my cell phone and took a look. I knew that it was Carlisle. Only the family had my phone number and everyone else was already here. After reading his text I put the phone back and faced my children.

"Carlisle got someone to cover the last half hour of his shift so he'll be here in 15 minutes."

" I hope he has some kind of explanation." Jasper said.

I could see that my children were all worried...that is except Rosalie. I was assuming that nothing out of the ordinary had happened to her today. She just looked plain bored alternately reading a magazine and filing her nails. I bet if this conversation had something to do with messing up her hair we'd have her undivided attention. "Rosalie...nothing to say?"

"No...I didn't notice anything."

"Of course you didn't. Were you even paying attention?"

"Yes I was, but it's not like I have any kind of gift that was being blocked to notice anything different."

I could hear Alice's snort across the room so I was sure that Rosalie heard it as well. I could see Jasper nudge Alice. Emmett looked as if he would rather be anywhere but here. Edward just rolled his eyes...I was pretty sure that he read what Rosalie was really thinking and found it even more tiresome than what she actually said.

"If it didn't have anything to do with how you looked I'm sure you didn't notice it. Conceited much?" Alice said.

I started talking before Rosalie could answer. "Well tomorrow could you at least pay attention?"

"We'll all have to wait a few days since I saw earlier that we're going to be having a couple of sunny days." Alice said.

"Great..we can go hunting. I saw on Google that they have black bears in Maine...they're no grizzlies, but I can adapt."

"Emmett, I'm not going four states over just so you can satisfy your curiosity." Rosalie said.

"Come on Rose..it'll be fun. We could go and be back before it gets cloudy again. I need to hunt something a bit more aggressive. We might be able to find something that you like." Rosalie just rolled her eyes. I knew how that conversation was going to go.

"Carlisle is coming. The sooner we start this meeting the sooner I can go." Edward said.

Carlisle had to be really shouting his thoughts if Edward could hear him before the rest of us could hear his car coming. It breaks my heart to see Edward like this. I mean he was always reserved, and disciplined. I guess you'd have to be in order not to react to all the thoughts that were coming at him, but this is just right down scary. He only had such a short time of happiness and it was over. I remember when he came back after hearing that Bella had died.

I think until then he had hope - hope that somehow they could get back together, but now knowing that it's impossible he just shut down. He actually broke down and asked Alice to try to see Bella's future. The fact that she couldn't confirmed that she was dead. That was the only time he'd asked; he never asked again or if he did that was a secret that only he and Alice shared. The fact that I had hope that Bella would become the daughter to complete this family and the mate to complete Edward just made what happened even more tragic.

Knowing just as Carlisle that such a strong change of emotion as a vampire is an irreversible change it was a certainty that Edward would never stop loving Bella and now he had to deal with it forever. I can only wonder what Bella told Edward that pushed him into demanding that we move right away. I was sure that Bella loved Edward just as much as Edward loved her. I honestly thought that Bella had forgiven Jasper for what happened at her 18th birthday party, but I guess she didn't(for this story I let it be that Edward didn't explain to the family that it was him who broke up with Bella not the other way around. And since Edward won't talk about it to anyone no one knows but him, right?)

coming out of my contemplation I could see Jasper looking at me then at Edward. When he looked at me again I mouthed sorry and smiled. Jasper was definitely feeling my melancholy and Edward's sadness. Sometimes I wonder how he can stand it. I could see Alice who was sitting in Jasper's lap now shoot a look at Edward that if I wasn't absolutely sure that his heart wasn't beating that it would have stopped. I saw Edward look at her in answer, and Alice continuing to shoot daggers at him. I could only guess that they were having one of their silent conversations.

Sometimes it was a pain to have a psychic and a mind reader talking to each other. Edward just read Alice's thoughts and Alice just looks in the future to see what Edward's responses would be. They've played many a chess games this way and it was annoying as hell. I wonder what they're talking about.

APOV

I could feel Jasper literally vibrating under me. Looking up at him I wondered what he was thinking that was when I saw him looking at Esme who was looking at Edward. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was in her thoughts. She was thinking about Bella. There didn't seem to be a day that didn't go by that we weren't thinking about her. Well except Rosalie. She hated Bella even worst now. She was under the impression that Bella broke Edward's heart. What was it to her anyway? She never wanted Bella with Edward, and her not being here at all should make her day...hell her eternity.

I saw Esme look at Jasper; mouthed sorry and smiled. She must have been feeling really bad. Edward must have as always been thinking about Bella. How he had a right to feel tormented escaped me. He was the one who did this. Bella wanted to be a family with us. I mean I saw it...it was supposed to happen but Edward didn't want to damn Bella's soul and did the cruelest thing he could think of. He told Bella he didn't love her, but he couldn't just leave it at that could he? He had to tell her that the rest of us didn't either. That she was just a distraction. I saw the conversation and I could almost hear her heart breaking. Edward had no excuse to feel this way...he's the one who punished himself and with that the rest of us.

Looking at Edward I thought, "You have no right to feel the way you do. You did this to yourself."

Edward looked at me and I could see what he was going to say. "I wish you would butt out."

"I would if your emotions wasn't bombarding Jasper. He's literally about to break apart beneath me."

"I can't help how I feel. I'll apologize to him"

"Apologizing won't help if you keep doing it. You have to get a hold of yourself. You put yourself in this position after I told you not to do it. I know that you have to live with the consequences, but you're making us live with them as well. Do you think we like seeing you like this? This was the last thing we wanted for you. We wanted Bella as a part of this family. She wanted to be a part of this family. You took her choice away and as a result she's now gone forever. You have to deal with this somehow because you're slowly driving us and yourself insane. We all lost Bella but we don't want to lose you too."

Edward looked right through me. I could've been talking to a brick wall for all the good it did. He seem to be on this self hatred kick and he had no desire to get out of it. I saw Edward look towards the window and I knew that Carlisle was here. Two minutes later I could hear Carlisle's car pull up to the front of the house. Less than a minute later he walked in.

"Hello everyone."

I saw Carlisle walk over to Esme and give her a kiss. He put his palm on her cheek and he just stood there looking at her. I could see the love coming off of him to her. I felt jasper relax and knew he must have been feeling what they were. Looking at Edward I saw him looking at them also, but where Jasper was relaxing Edward was doing the opposite...he was so tense it looked like he was going to literally crumble where he sat.

"Can we get this meeting started already?"

"Emmett, hold your horses..Carlisle just walked in." Jasper said.

"Jasper..it's not a problem. Edward did you say anything?"

"No. All I said was that there was another vampire in town. I figured that it would be better for all of us to be together and just discuss it."

"Okay. Well first of all there's not one vampire in town. There are five."

"What?!!!"

CPOV

"What??!!"

I saw Alice scramble off of Jasper and stand up. If it wasn't for my vampire sight I wouldn't have seen it."

"How the hell do five vampires other than us be here in the same town and I not know?!!"

"Alice calm down a minute. Maybe there's a perfectly good explanation why you didn't." Jasper said. He got up and pulled Alice back down to the couch when he sat down.

"I have a theory about that. I'm pretty sure that since whenever they made their decision to come here they weren't on any collision course with us their moving here didn't trigger anything for you. Our decision to move here happened most likely after their decision so it just didn't connect." I said.

"That's possible.... Isn't it?" asked Emmett. He was looking at Alice.

"I guess it is. I mean I've always seen things as a result of someone doing or deciding something after we do something and I also see if I'm specifically looking for it so I guess that is possible."

I could see Alice's doubt and confusion. She's always relied on her gift to forewarn us and to miss something this big makes her afraid. This isn't her fault and she shouldn't blame herself. I mean it's not we meet up with another coven with that many and seem to be just like us within the community.

"Alice stop blaming yourself. I talked to the Chief of Staff when I detected the scent in the hospital. The vampire was talking to the chief at the time. I waited until they finished talking and when they came out of the chief's office I took a good look at him. He has the same eye color as we do so that leads me to believe that he and his coven are just like us in their hunting habits. He nodded to me and I nodded back. After he left I talked to the chief and he told me that the guy has a family. A wife, daughter, son and that they recently took in the wife's niece before they moved here. His name is Noah Blake."

"We need to see them. With so much of us living here things could start to get complicated." Edward said.

"But how...we don't even know where they live." Esme asked.

"Shouldn't be too hard. If they're like us they'll want to live somewhere a little isolated so they're habits aren't watched. Someplace like where we are would be the ideal place to start." I said.

"We could start looking now." Emmett said. As always he was impatient to get to the action part of the plan. I know he meant well by it though.

"Carlisle, wouldn't it just be easier to find where he works and look up his info?" Jasper asked.

"It would. I can go on the pretense of talking to the chief tomorrow and find out."

"It'll have to be tomorrow night. Remember it's going to be sunny outside." Alice reminded me.

"Okay, but how are we going to approach them? I'm sure that if we all go where they live it's going to come to some type of fight." Emmett said.

"Maybe it would be better if Carlisle and I approach him at the hospital. I mean he's already seen Carlisle and if needed I can read his mind and see what he's thinking." Edward said.

"That sounds like a plan. I can find out the next time he'll be there and bump into him there." I said.

"How can we be sure that he won't avoid us now that he's seen you?" Esme asked.

"We can't, but it's not like he can avoid me indefinitely. He meets with the chief on a regular basis. I'm sure if I just stay in his general area I'll be able to "accidentally" bump into him." I said

"Alice it would be helpful if you can look ahead and see when would be a good time to bump into him."

Alice jumped when she heard Edward's request. I could see that she was trying to think of a way to avoid answering. This gap in her vision really was a blow to her confidence. I knew she still felt bad for not 'seeing' what was going to happen to Bella, but it wasn't her fault. Edward asked her not to so how was she she to be blamed?

"Alice no one blames you...No one!" At that last exclamation I looked at Edward. I refuse to have him place any more guilt on Alice. She had more than enough of her own.

"I don't blame you; I never have. I was the one who did what I did. You tried to warn me."

I wondered what he meant by that, but I knew it would do no good to ask. Edward wouldn't talk , and you would need a crowbar to pry it out of Alice.

"Well if that's all I think we're done." Saying that I walked out the room. I know Esme would find me when she was ready. I knew that she had many more questions and didn't want to ask them in front of everyone else.

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NPOV

"You need to tell them. You can't hide it anymore."

"Really Bella, you need to tell them."

I saw Bella stiffen and look at both me and Taylor. It was obvious she didn't like what we said to her.

"Are you out of your mind? I can't tell them. I won't."

"You won't be able to hide this from them, and they deserve to know. You deserve some closure if nothing else. If we're going to be here for the next two years we won't be able to avoid them. They'll find out eventually who we are – who you are." I said.

"Not necessarily. I mean I can shield our minds and I can change my appearance. They never have to know."

"That makes no sense and you know it. How long can you keep that up? I can only imagine how draining that would be for you. You've only been doing it for two days; and only when you're at school. How the hell are you going to manage if you have to do it everyday, all day? You're going to have to be constantly concentrating on not only holding your disguise, but shielding our minds; our emotions. You're gonna have a stroke...if that's even possible for our kind."

"I can't see them. It would hurt too much. It would be too awkward."

"Maybe, maybe not but you can't keep hiding."

"Fine. I can tell you right now their probably having a discussion like the one we're having." Bella said.

"Trust me.. I don't think they're having a conversation quite like this one." Taylor joked.

It was true. How many vampires would be discussing telling another that the two of them are parents. That one of them never died. A lot of shit was going to hit the fan and we're all gonna need some umbrellas.

"God I can't believe this. I'm going to have to tell them soon. They are going to be so angry at me."

"You won't be alone when you tell them. You'll have our support. You know that." Taylor said.

I looked at Bella and she would be crying if she could have. Walking over to her I gave her a hug. For a second she just stood there, but slowly she hugged me back.

"We're here for you. We'll always be here for you. Now tell me how should we get in contact with them."

"Well if they're the same they'll want to do the direct approach." Bella laughed.

I had told her and Taylor earlier that I had seen one of them at the hospital and Bella immediately told me that it was no other than Carlisle. It seems he's a doctor. How he works with blood – human blood on a daily basis amazes me.

"They'll most likely ask Alice to 'look' for you. Find out when the best time to catch you. And I think they'll send Carlisle and Jasper..if not Jasper then Edward. They'll want to confront you with someone you've already seen so your not too wary." Bella continued

I was always surprised with how much she remembers, and all of it from before she was changed. I guess having constant reminders made it easier to remember the family she so wanted to be a part of.

"I think I'll make it easier for them and be at the hospital tomorrow. You can always make it cloudy so I can get there."

"It may be easier for you, but not for them.. they won't be able to do the same so they'll try for another time. Just walk around they'll find you. That I'm sure of. Now if that's it I'm going to go to my room. It seems I have some preparing to do."

I watched Bella leave the living room and go upstairs. The next couple of days were going to be hard all around. Turning I saw Taylor looking at me. Smiling I walked up to her and gave her a kiss. It amazed me that she was mine. I'd always been looking for her and never thought I would find her. I couldn't imagine being Bella and knowing that I'd found the one I wanted to be with then finding that they didn't want to be with you; all I know is that next next few weeks would surely be interesting.

Hi people. Sorry that this chapter took so long. I was writing this and the next chapter at the same time and when I changed something in one chapter I had to change another in the other. It was quite confusing. I hope not to take too long with the following chapter, but that depends on a few things, but the most important one is that green button you see below....press it and review...you know you wanna..it takes less than a minute