The drive would have been quite, but with Emmett and Wren (who had awoken about an hour into the drive) you knew that quite was a hopeless goal that you had set of the ride. It was about a nine hour drive, but the way that Emmett drove, you knew it would be more like seven.
"So kid how old are you anyway?" Emmett asked, turning nearly all the way around in his seat, to look at the boy.
You roll your eyes, and would have yelled at him if you did not trust his vampire reflexes as much as your own.
"Five!" Wren says, holding up five fingers.
"You're a smart kid," Emmett told him, turning back to face the road.
You listened to the two of them talk for most of the next hour. It was not as if you could sleep anyway, so you don't mind the chatter. And it's not as if you want to deprive the child of having companionship, after all this is probably the most he has talked to anyone. If his mother really left, and his father had been hitting him, which you knew to be true, then he had most likely been lacking in the social department of growing up. You knew that taking him home might be hard on him, but judging by the way he was getting along so well with Emmett, you thought he would do just fine. He was a smart child, and he knew just how to charm people.
After all he had charmed you, and was now charming Emmett quite nicely. Her brother had already agreed to by him a bike and had told him of the game systems in the game room, that he didn't even let you touch.
The sound of Wren's voice calling you, brought you back to the present, and away from any fears of the future you may have been having.
"Yes, monster?" You asked, turning to look at him.
He's sitting in the middle seat, leaned forward as much as possible, and his eyes are large and searching.
"Can I?"
At once you realize that you must have been more out of it than you had originally though, because you don't remember him asking a question.
"What do you want to do, Wren?" you ask him. You remember that not very long ago, you had told him that all he had to do was ask⦠you hope that he's not going to ask for something that you can't give him.
"Can I live with your forever?" He asked quietly.
You turn sharply to look at Emmett, he must have said something, but from his innocent face, you're not sure what. You turn back to Wren with a smile, that you know is slightly forced and try to think of the best way to answer his question. You don't want to promise him forever, when he does not know that for you, forever really could mean forever.
"Forever is a very long time for me," you tell him, "but we'll just have to see, okay?"
He seems to except this, and then starts a conversation with Emmett about having a family.
"What's it like? Having a nice family?" his voice was small, as if even as he asked he was trying to imagine it.
You answer instead of letting Emmett take this one.
"It's the best feeling in the world. There's so much love in the house, it's bursting at the seams. And we'll be there soon, and you'll understand. Everyone is going to love you so much. Esme, she said on the phone you could call her grandma if you wanted, is setting you up a room right now. And Carlisle-" Emmett cut you off there a large grin on his face.
"You should call him grandpa, he'll love it!" Emmett boomed. Wren laughed from the backseat, and you just rolled your eyes. "And your Aunt Rose is going to buy you anything you want, and I know she'll love you so much."
"And Aunt Alice is going to take you shopping," you throw in, loving the way that Wren's little nose crinkles at the mention of shopping.
"And Uncle Jasper and I will teach you how to play baseball, but most of all, you'll be so loved, you won't know what to do with all of it," Emmett ended.
You felt this was a good ending point, because Wren had lapsed into a dazed silence. He slowly turned his head to look out the window, a slight smile on his face. You thought he must be imagining what it would be like living in a house where everyone loved you. You wondered if five was too young you to know if someone loved you. You thought not. He knew. He knew that his father had not loved him. Children knew things like that.
After ten minutes of silence from the back seat you turned around to see Wren had fallen asleep, a slight smile on his face.
"We'll be there in a few hours," Emmett said from your left, startling you slightly.
"Do you think that guy will get my car there safely?" you ask.
"If he wants the rest of the money, he'll get it there with not a single scratch on it," Emmett snorted.
Emmett had paid the man in the room next to us a very large sum of money to drive the car all the way to the house in Northern Minnesota. If the car arrived unharmed, then Emmett would give him another large sum of money, and pay for the taxi ride home. Emmett had not wanted to split up. You knew that he had fallen in love with Wren already, and would not want any harm to befall the child.
Sighing, you rested your head on the window. It was dark, and the night would be chilly, if she could still feel it. You had stolen the blanket of the bed in the hotel room and Wren was wrapped in it in the back seat. He looked pleasantly warm and peaceful.
"We really did miss you," Emmett murmured.
He was speaking low enough that he would not wake Wren, so you followed his example and spoke quietly too.
"I miss you too, all of you. The whole family, but I needed some time," you tell him.
"And we understood that, but I speak for everyone back home, when I say that it will be good to have you home. Your room was awfully empty."
"I miss my room," you whisper.
"It misses you," Emmett jokes. "So what have you been up to, besides saving helpless children?"
This made you smile. You had missed Emmett's sense of humor.
"Well, I opened a book store," you tell him.
"No kidding! I knew you liked books, Bella, but a book store?"
You laugh at the way he seems genuinely shocked that you had opened a book store.
"Yeah, I named it the Blue Twilight. It was amazing. I might open one the next time we move into a populated area. I miss it actually. I wonder if Danny is running it?" You wonder aloud. Perhaps you should check in someday from afar?
"Danny?" Emmett says, there is a teasing note in his voice, and you know it would be best just to tell the truth.
"He was a boy, no man. Well he was barely a man, but a man all the same. I left him the book store," you explain.
"Danny, you say? Were you lovers?"
You pause to think about it. The way he said it, there was no teasing in his voice. It was a straight forward question, and it makes you pause for a moment. Were you lovers? Had they been lovers? She supposed that they had been.
"Yes, I suppose we were," you murmured.
He stopped asking questions about Danny after that. Perhaps he had heard the slight pain in your voice, or the little hitch. But either way, you were glad that he had dropped it.
