A/N: I can't really express how much I admire Stephanie Meyer for the characters she's created. It is such a challenge to characterize these guys and match their actions and words appropriately. I am in awe of the many fanfic authors who have done such seemingly effortless writing in the past. I never appreciated how difficult it actually is. Although I am loving every minute of it.

Timeline: Serenity is full-grown. I loved the review, "Sex at 6?" LOL. I'm going with the idea that she is as grown and mature and vastly more mentally capable than most 18 year olds.

Chapter 6

And then…

My heart stopped. Literally stopped. Froze right in mid-beat. The blood decided that it didn't need to move at all. Oxygen was no longer necessary since nothing was moving in my entire body- every blood cell and nerve ending were tight and panicked.

"Alice!" My eyes were widening by the second. I whipped my head around expecting every member of my family to start materializing from the corners and shadows in the room. "You can't see us. You can't see our decisions," I stuttered. This was for my benefit of course, not hers. "What in the world?"

"Serenity," How that tone drove me crazy when it was directed at me! Alice would drag out the first syllable of my name just a second too long and then follow the last three syllables just a little too fast. It meant 'just because I can't see you doesn't mean that I don't know everything that goes on here'.

I could never get away with that tone. Superiority only works for people who are used to being right.

"Not everything is supernatural. Some things are just very human," she sighed. "Embry, do you mind if I talk to my niece alone for a few minutes, please?"

My perfect weekend was going up in smoke. Somewhere there was a bomb ticking. I could just feel it.

Embry left with a quick look at Alice, and she waited until his steps were far enough away that he couldn't hear our conversation.

"What are you doing?" she asked as if I was standing on the top of a house with paper bags for wings swearing that I could fly across the Atlantic.

I fell apart. The emotions that Embry's very proximity created dissolved into vapor, and the adrenaline from the terror of getting so stupidly busted exploded. Every insecurity was magnified, and each defiance stormed to the front of my brain. I was incredibly angry that we were caught, horrified of what my family would say right now, and so confused by the intensity of my hormones all at the exact same time. But most of all, I had just lost the hours and hours of time I had wanted so desperately with Embry, and I was heartbroken. Petty immaturity took over, and I raged.

"I'm doing what any normal girl my age would do, I guess. Only I don't know what normal girls would do since there aren't any around. It's not like I have any friends that I can run any of this by, you know. There is a gorgeous guy out there who cares about me. I want that. What's wrong with having something you really want?" I got angrier by the second. Ugh! A tear leaked out of my right eye. Why did the tears have to come? It totally sucked that half-vamps get the crying and the runny nose part of being human. I'd happily give that up in a second. I wiped my eyes and nose on some tissue and just looked at her. If she was going to rat me out, there wasn't really anything I could do.

"How long has it been going on?" she questioned.

To tell, or not to tell? I figured honesty was the better choice with Alice. "He kissed me on my 6th birthday." Alice actually looked shocked with a slight dusting of amusement. So much for knowing everything that went on here. "Off and on ever since, so a little over a year."

Alice sighed.

"I'm assuming that Jacob withdrew the edict to leave you alone then, which is not surprising. I expected as much." This she said to herself rather than me. Obviously, I had already figured that out. She kept looking me over with a poker face which left me lost as to what was churning away under her designer hat. "How do you feel about him?"

How do you sum up the best part of your life? There is not a word in the English language that epitomizes the trust I've built up in Embry. No phrase encompasses his kindness and gentleness toward me. Webster has not yet coined the word that that explains how his presence is a balm to my tumultuous emotions. Amazing, dazzling, stunning? I remembered that these were Bella's words to describe Edward, and they didn't seem any more powerful describing Embry. It must these supernatural beings. Common language was so weak to use in a description of how much he meant to me.

"I love him. I mean, he hasn't imprinted, so I'm not his soul mate. But he makes me feel like it's all going to be okay. He's my best friend."

"He has quite a reputation for flitting among the female species. I'm not sure I want my niece getting mixed up with that."

"I know what he used to be like, but is that still him? Has he been encouraging anyone lately? Has he even dated anyone in the last year? Not that he can't because he's not exclusively mine, but he said he's not seeing anyone, and I believe him."

She gazed at me for a long time. The fact that she hadn't rebutted my statement most likely meant that I was right. Embry wasn't continuing to date anyone which unexpectedly made me feel insanely special.

"Are you sure about this? Have you really thought it over?" It was a fair question.

"I haven't decided 100% what I'm ready for. Embry knows that. He understands how I feel right now." I looked Alice straight in the eyes to emphasize my next statement. "I'm not a little girl. Time doesn't run the same for people like me and Renesmee the way it does for humans. There isn't a single cell in by body that is 7 years old by human standards. I can make my own decisions. I really need the members of this family to understand that."

She measured every word, searched between every line. Her continual gaze was starting to make me nervous, and I fidgeted accordingly. "Can you say something?" Another minute of silence. "Please, Alice?"

"If you repeat this, I'll deny it and turn on you viciously. Don't forget it."

My mind was whirling, and my eyebrows knotted together in bewilderment.

"I've never agreed with how your parents have raised you. You've been trapped here for almost 8 years with no friends at all, and I understand how that can be difficult. Renesmee had all the kids on the reservation to play with for a while, and Edward and Bella took her to spend time with many of our vampire friends. She spent a lot of time with the wolves, too." She paused and looked at me pointedly. "Apparently, that's something you both have in common." I blushed from the implication. "Rosalie and Emmett went from having a powerful physical relationship to one of anger and resentment that has grown over the years into blatant hostility. Your parents can't be in the same room for more than 10 minutes without making Jasper run for cover from their antagonism towards each other. I get a new vision everyday of one or the other deciding to either rip the other to shreds or jump them. They can't decide if they love or hate each other, and you're mixed up in the very thick of it. They can't be apart from each other, and they can't be apart from you. They're each trying to prove something to the other, but neither one knows what that is."

"And here I was thinking I was paranoid."

"They love you, though. They just have a lot of problems with each other." She sat still for a few moments trying to see the coming future. "Something's out there, I just can't see it yet, strong desires that will piece together once the right impetus comes along." She looked at me for a long time again. I really wished I could read her mind right now.

Alice stood and picked up her bag. "I'm going to New York. I hope you come later when you aren't so busy." She dragged that last word out for way too long.

"Geesh, Alice!" She just trilled her little laugh.

"Promise me that we'll have some girl time after we get back, just you and me, and we'll talk. I'm a great listener. I'll keep this to myself for as long as I can, but it won't stay a secret forever. I'm impressed that you've kept it this quiet for as long as you have, but it's going to come out sooner or later. You might want to have it come out on your terms instead of the other way around."

I was stunned.

"You're welcome, Serenity!" It was her catch phrase. She always knew how happy I'd be before I knew it myself. No sixth sense necessary.

"Thanks, Alice." I gave her a tight hug knowing how much I owed her. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too," and she turned to leave.

"Hey, Alice,"

"Mmmm."

"How did you get in my room?"

"Window." I should have known.

"What do Mom and Esme think you're doing?"

"Recon on you. The official story is that you were hanging out in your room, which isn't too far from the truth. I suppose you will be soon enough." She paused at the doorway. "The fact that you're a beautiful, grown woman isn't lost on the members of this family. You need to keep that in mind." She blew me a quick kiss and sailed out the door.

I spent several minutes thinking over what she had said.

Embry waited until I had the time I needed before knocking on my door.

"Where's my favorite half-vampire?" Emmett's voice boomed throughout the house. I jumped out of my room, half from nerves and half from being glad that he was back. And I was really glad that Embry left the house a few hours ago.

"Hey, Dad!"

"Get over here," and I walked straight into his arms.

"I'm so glad you're home," and I really was. "How was the hunting?" I looked up at him feeling like a protected little girl. That's the best thing about Dad, no matter what happened, I always felt safe in his arms. There wasn't a single Volturi that I was afraid of as long as I had my dad around.

"Not bad. The bears are preparing for hibernation, so they were fat and slow. Jasper had a great idea."

"We wrestled Killer Whales." Jasper grinned.

I looked back and forth between the two. Only they would do something so crazy.

I shook my head. "No, you didn't."

Dad nodded with a grin of pure mischievousness. "Oh, yes, we did."

Dad and Jasper were always doing nutty things like that.

For instance, vampires in general don't care for amusement parts. But not Dad and Jasper. They love them. When I turned 4, Alice and Jasper gave me tickets to Cedar Point. Alice had seen that the day would be perfectly gray and dreary but without a drop of rain. Perfect for the entire family to watch me enjoy my first roller coaster rides. What I didn't know was that the main event was watching Jasper and Dad gross the humans out.

Bets were placed on how many humans each could make puke, and they were com-pe-ti-tive.

They went to all sorts of lengths to win, and they fought dirty.

A new rollercoaster had opened that year. The Devil's Tentacles. The coaster hit every angle possible at 95 mph and twisted and turned until your insides were mush. Dad and I were set to ride up in the front seat after a long wait in line. Dad kept complaining about his "lunch".

"Those hot dogs just aren't settling," Dad groaned, bending over slightly at the waist. "I shouldn't have added the Tobasco sauce. It's killing me!" Jasper and Alice was behind us waiting for the front seat; it is the best way to ride a coaster, of course. Alice started laughing drawing all sorts of attention. She obviously saw what my dad had decided to do. Jasper stared, but Alice didn't give her vision away. The other people edged further away from Dad, but the metal dividers would only allow so much space.

"I think the nacho cheese was rancid. Did you have the nachos?" I started to respond, but he bent over gasping for breath.

"I think I've got food poisoning. Awe, man, this is going to suck." He actually gagged. Dad should have been in show business.

The rollercoaster arrived, and the previous occupants exited to the right. We started to climb in.

"Oh, hang on! Don't move so fast. I'm not feeling good!" Dad's loud voice could be heard by every person on the landing. There were definitely several sighs of relief that he was getting on the ride and would be gone in a minute.

The ride was great. I'm fast, but the thrill of the ride was still exhilarating. It started off at a 0-60 drop from the platform. Then the loops and twists started. At one point, I couldn't tell which way was up which is something considering my adept physical skills. I could see the turn up ahead. The coaster veered to the left before making a downward slope towards the water.

At the exact moment before the coaster hits the curve, Dad bellows, "I think I'm going to be sick!" and he turns his head away from me, towards the back cars, and proceeds to blow chunks. He had unknowingly to anyone but Alice drunk 2 full cups of Dr. Pepper and had swallowed a well-chewed up hotdog just before getting in line. He coughed it up spectacularly spraying it back over the people who were drug through the contents by the course of the rollercoaster.

Dad just laughed and laughed as the people started moaning from the combination of the ride and the "vomit" that was now embedded in their hair and eyelashes. As the cars slowed and the humans staggered out of the cars, two of them rushed to the side and threw up their lunches. That provided a chain reaction, and if you counted the one who puked on the coaster, Dad racked up an impressive 6 tallies. Jasper only ended up with 2.

I was mortified.

I rode the rest of my rides with Alice pretending that I didn't know the hulking dark-haired guy following me around.

I laugh now, though. What can I say? That's just Dad, and he sure makes everything interesting.

After Dad and Jasper settled in, we checked out some of the preseason football games and analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the various teams. Afterwards, we played a massive game of checkers involving six boards, a third color of game piece, and 17 additional vampire-created rules. He could keep up a steady stream of trash talk to rival backstreet basketball games, but he made me laugh; it was my favorite part about him.

After the quality dad-time, I flew commercially to New York to meet up with my mom, Esme, and Alice. They had flown our private jet to New York instead of public airlines. Carlisle spent an increasingly immense amount of time traveling back and forth from Europe, so he decided it was best to invest in an airplane. He and Rosalie obtained their pilot license and now flew us almost anywhere we needed to go. The only time we used commercial airlines was when the plane was occupied.

Mom and Esme were glad to see that I made it for the culmination of Fashion Week. Accessories were what everyone was focused on for fall, and they enjoyed showing me what they were planning to order once the designs hit the stores. Alice never let on for a second that anything might be unusual in our world. She took me to a tiny restaurant, Locanda Verde, on Greenwich Street for Italian food and just sat there looking at me, giving me the chance to share. She raised her eyes, propped her head on her clasped fingers and leaned forward slightly awaiting my description of the weekend.

I decided to just get what she really wanted to know out first.

"We didn't… do… that."

Silence. She didn't bat a lash.

"I mean, I wouldn't have wanted anyone there. It was still intimate, but..." I was blushing scarlet. Who would have ever thought I'd be having this conversation?

She took that in as if she knew exactly what happened.

"I think I realized that I love him but not that way exactly. He's definitely my best friend, and," pause, "a really good kisser." I grinned.

She matched my smile, and the veneer cracked.

"It's not like I've kissed anyone else, so there's no comparison, but I can't imagine feeling more on top of the world than that. Course, he's had plenty of practice." I rolled my eyes. "We mostly just cuddled and watched a couple of movies."

Her eyebrows raised an infinitesimal amount.

"Okay, so we didn't actually watch much of the movies; we pretty much talked, a lot," I couldn't help but smile and let out a small chuckle, "for more than 7 minutes at a time at least. It felt so good to just relax and not have to worry about one of you catching our scent or hearing me rant about something." I took a deep inhalation, held it, and slowly let it out. It felt like dropping a pile of books you've been carrying around for a very long time. The relief was almost tangible. I took a bite of my Arugula Salad and tried to read the thoughts that danced behind Alice's amused expression.

"What did Embry have to say about waiting?" she finally asked.

"He understood. I think he knew all along. That whole imprinting thing freaks him out. He sees how easy it is to fall in love with somebody like Sam did and then get hit with an imprint and have to walk away. Even though you hate hurting the person you're in love with, the imprint's so strong that you can't help it. He doesn't want to do that to me."

"But it's too late, you said yourself that you loved him."

"I do. It's just, how do I explain." I sorted through my thoughts and tried to organize them so I didn't ramble through this.

"Embry's dad was never a part of his life, so he has issues with commitment. He believes that if you make a commitment, then you keep it no matter what. I know he's been the local Romeo, but he hasn't instigated any serious relationships with any of those girls. They haven't exactly been looking for love themselves. I think he purposely keeps from getting serious with anyone just in case the next girl he sees is the one. It's stressful for him not knowing when it's going to happen. The last thing he wants is to let someone fall in love with him and then walk out on them like his dad did to him."

"But you already love him. How is that different?"

"Because I know what he is. I mean, come on, Alice. 'FYI, I'm a huge wolf, and I might fall so madly in love with the next random stranger who walks by that I never see your face again' doesn't exactly start a meaningful conversation. I understand what might happen. I love him for who he is, for what he's already been to me- not for what he can offer me in the future."

"How do you think you'll feel if he imprints tomorrow?"

"I don't know. It will hurt, but I know it's a possibility. I guess that's the biggest reason why I hesitated this past weekend, and why he didn't pressure me into anything. He knows what might happen, and he's protecting me from it the way Sam couldn't protect Leah."

"So, friends with benefits?"

The look of disdain that I gave her was enough to whither mother nature.

"Okay, just really good friends, then?"

"Better."

"Serenity, Serenity, Serenity. Are you going back to stealing a few minutes here and there again?"

I sighed a very Alice-esque sigh and looked away. She was right. There wasn't any going backwards. I needed Embry as a publically accepted part of my life, and my family needed to know this.

"Is there any way to give him enough of a head start? Maybe he can get back to the reservation before my parents can catch him and skin him alive." Alice giggled almost nervously for her. I probably wasn't far off in my assessment of my parents' reactions. "Try to see how they'll take the news." I took a deep breath. "I've decided. I'll tell them after I talk to Embry when we get back."

"I can't see your decisions, but you know that."

"I want you to try to see past my decision the way you've been stretching yourself for the past few years. Try to see the decision of a decision. If my parents find out, what will they decide?"

Alice sat very still for a long time before she spoke- eyes focused on the future. It was a look that my family had memorized although passerbys would simply think she was daydreaming. "I can't see anything, but I don't really need a sixth sense for this. Tell Rosalie and Emmett that their daughter is in love with Jacob's beta without the imprint? We might need to wait for a serious storm to mask the fight that's probably going to ensue. I think I'd rather tell Jasper that I'm joining the Volturi guard this Christmas."

Two Weeks Later:

Alice does not exaggerate. When she says it's going to be bad, it's bad.

A/N: I hope you like it so far. I'm starting to feel like I'm actually writing for an audience. :) For those who have added my story to your updates, thank you so much! It makes my day. So do reviews. They pop up on my phone and are like sweet little desserts all day long. *blushing* I actually wake up, and the first thing I do is see if I have any reviews in the morning. I can't help it. Love you guys for reading!