Once again, I'm eager to get this out, so it's not as clean as it could be. I have revised the last chapter, and will revise this one before I publish the next.

NPOV

I watched my dad scratch his ear and heard his whispered instructions, and closed my eyes to concentrate on the blonde nightmare sitting across from him. I didn't need to close my eyes – over the years my gift had developed to where I no longer needed physical contact to transmit my memories to someone else's mind, and by now it took very little effort for me to do so. But I knew that with my eyes open, I was likely to burst out laughing. Funnily enough, it was easy for me to maintain my gift when I was under pressure or frightened; when I was amused or happy, I was easily distracted and often lost control of it. My mom said it was the same for her with her shield. Faced with a threat she never let it slip, but when she was enjoying herself – say, occupied by something my father was doing, for example – she had a much harder time. With my eyes open, I would be able to see Jake sitting next to me in the Navigator, shaking with laughter that he was trying very hard to contain; Alice and Jasper draped over branches of the tree outside the restaurant, obscured from Alexandra's view by the lush green leaves that had not yet begun to change color and fall to the ground; and lastly, the van in which Rose and Emmett were camped out, monitoring the video feed from the cameras they had set up. I couldn't see inside the van, of course, but the very sight of it had been enough to make me laugh so hard I'd cried earlier. Somehow Emmett had managed to find a bright green, 70-year-old VW bus. The windows were tinted as dark as the windows of the Navigator – something Emmett, no doubt, was responsible for – but in all other respects the vehicle looked like it had just arrived from Woodstock, or a Grateful Dead concert. It even had a dancing bears bumper sticker and a peace sign painted on the hood. It was the kind of van in which people made love, not war, and from what I'd witnessed earlier, Rose and Emmett had made sure to recreate that era of history when they'd first gotten into the van together. I shuddered to think what they had been like during the era of free love, wondering how their love could be any freer than it was now. I heard a low chuckle from my father as that thought crossed my mind and that brought me back to the task at hand. Right. Here we go.

Esme, Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Rose, Emmett, Jake and I had all gone hunting together. I had been 7 years old – and had looked 21 since my sixth birthday – and had no illusions about why we were leaving my parents alone. Each of the couples in my family got their alone time. At night, of course, everyone got to be with their mates, but we also tried to provide each couple with some extra time, knowing that sometimes, a night simply wasn't enough. At that time Jake and I had only been together intimately for a little over a year. Of course, we had been romantic for several years – we had been "boyfriend and girlfriend" since I was 4½ – but my parents had insisted that we wait until I was "fully matured" until we consummated our relationship. I had complained a great deal, but the truth was, I was relieved. Everything had gone so quickly for me – the stages of childhood and adolescence had sped by – and I was glad to be able to draw the phases of my relationship with Jacob out a bit. We had all of eternity to be together, and so, while I never let my parents know how I felt about it (as a teenager, I was supposed to fight them tooth and nail about everything, right?), I was grateful to let that innocent, first-love stage of our relationship be extended a bit. I think Jake felt the same way. I knew he'd thought himself in love with my mother – kissed her, even, though given the circumstances, both times, I didn't really consider it kissing. Kissing was voluntary, there was no pressure, no fear, no threat. It was something you did out of pure love, pure desire. The kisses my mom and Jake had shared didn't fit those requirements. Everyone in my family had been so worried that I would be angry when I found out, but the way I understood it, the kisses my mother had shared with Jake were so different from the kisses Jake and I shared, there was nothing to be jealous about. Anyway, whatever Jake had thought he felt about my mother, I knew that for both of us, this was first – and only – love. And so I hadn't minded waiting. There was no rush, after all: We were immortal. But finally, after my sixth birthday, Jake and I had become a couple in every way.

That day when we were all hunting, Jake and I had both fed quickly. We had decided that, with out physical hungers satiated, we couldn't wait any longer to satisfy our hunger for each other. And so we had headed back to the house, forgetting, in our excitement, that we had left my parents behind – forgetting, in our excitement, exactly what that meant. Alice and Jasper had been wrapped up in their own activities when Jake and I made the decision to head home, so it wasn't until too late that she had realized what would happen.

In truth, it didn't bother me to walk in on my parents. It wasn't like I didn't know what they did – like I hadn't always known what they did. After all, the cottage in Forks hadn't been soundproof, and neither had any of our other homes. It hadn't bothered Jake either. In fact, he thought it was the funniest thing he'd seen in a long time when we walked in on them sprawled across the piano and Mom clutched Dad's shirt to her chest and exclaimed that they'd been trying to tune it. I had bit back my laughter, not wanting to embarrass my mother; Dad, of course, saw exactly what I was thinking and exactly what I had seen. He had grimaced but realized there was nothing he could do to remedy the situation. Jake, of course, had howled with laughter, unable to control himself in spite of my mother's obvious humiliation.

I would have kept it a secret, but of course Alice had seen what would happen, and Jake, at any rate, couldn't have been restrained. We had had a great deal of fun recounting the episode the next night when my parents went hunting alone. And it remained a favorite family story. Not one we ever told in front of my mother, of course, but one we retold gleefully whenever my parents left us alone and we decided to trade stories about their prudishness. That was Emmett's word; after witnessing the scene atop the piano, I would never call my parents prudish.

Now, finally, everything I had seen, everything I had heard over the years would be useful. I decided to start slowly. I didn't know exactly what Alexandra was imagining, but whatever it was, I could add a voice-over track that would certainly be unexpected.

Oh, Bella, my love, just like that…oh my God, oh my…Bella!! What are you doing to me?! I can't -- And just then, Jake nudged me. Dad had tugged on his earlobe again telling me to stop. Huh. That was hardly anything. This was going to be fun.

The next forty-five minutes went by quickly. Dad would tug on his ear, Jake would elbow me, and I would send some thoughts to Alexandra. I stuck with words for the first three episodes, after that I started bombarding her with images. Of my parents. Together. Like that. We had discovered a few years ago that I could falsify my memories – send images I had never seen, memories I'd never had – as long as I worked off of what I knew. I had never seen Alexandra's bedroom, so I couldn't re-create that, but I had seen my father's car, many of the classrooms at school, the hallway and lockers, and the gym (thanks to Alice, who had dragged me there this morning, knowing that it would come in handy). I hadn't seen my parents making love in those places, of course, but I could combine my memory of those places with the memories I had of my parents making love (I would never tell anyone, because I knew the rest of the family would give them hell for it, but that day Jake and I came home early was not the first time I'd caught my parents in the act. We did, after all, live together in a small cottage for several years when I was growing up). We were building up to one particular fantasy of Alexandra's: that of my father taking her on the table at the café, which I, of course, would replace with an image of my father taking my mother on that table. I kept my eyes closed for the most part, letting Jake alert me whenever my father scratched his ear. Every time my father heard Alexandra's thoughts slip into a fantasy of her and my father being intimate, I would send an image into her mind of my father and mother being intimate. I could see that Alexandra was growing more and more uncomfortable - as well she should be. How often did your fantasies about your crush suddenly change into fantasies of your crush getting it on with his (albeit adopted) sister?

I was focused on sending the images to Alexandra, but even as I worked I was able to pick up on much of the conversation she was having with my father. She had started off by asking him about his family in general, then moved quickly to asking him about his relationship with my mother. She was hoping to win his trust, of course, but after each question she asked, my father pretended to be just a little bit more confused, a little bit more thoughtful about his relationship with his "sister" Bella. Dad went on and on about how close he and his "sister" were, how she was the "most amazing person," how she helped him through so much and he would always need her in his life, but he peppered all those statements with suggestive remarks about Alexandra, to make sure that she didn't lose interest - or hope that she could make him hers. Of course, he never came out and actually said anything explicit about liking Alexandra or wanting her – Mom would have had his ass if he had – but he said just enough to make Alexandra believe that in spite of the bond he had with his "sister" Bella, he was still in the market for a girlfriend, and that she was what he was looking for in said girlfriend.

My favorite part was towards the end, when Alexandra finally addressed what she had been worrying about all along. A few moments before, I had sent the final, most explicit image I had: Bella and Edward having sex in the girls' locker room at school - up against ALexandra's locker, actually; I was glad Alice had pointed it out to me. That should do it, I figured. Sure enough, when I opened my eyes and peered into the cafe window, Alexandra was rubbing her fingers against her temples, eyes firmly shut. Had I given her a headache? Was she trying to massage the memory from her brain? She was silent for several minutes before finally opening her eyes to look across the table at my father.

"So even though you and Bella are so close, you've never thought about being with her…well, the way your siblings are together?"

Dad's reaction was priceless. He managed to sound completely taken aback, utterly surprised.

"Gosh, I don't know. Really, I've never thought about it."

"Well, if you've never thought about it, I'm sure it's because you guys don't feel that way about each other."

"I suppose…" Dad said slowly. I fixed my eyes on Alexandra at this point. I knew I'd be able to watch both points of view later on the videos Em and Rose were making, but this was too good, and after all, my part was finished. I wanted to see how she reacted to this first-hand. "Of course you're right. If she thought – I mean, if we thought about each other like that, we would have realized it before now, right? I mean, we would have, wouldn't we?" He worked just the right amount of uncertainty into his voice.

"Right, of course" Alexandra said firmly, taking his hand in hers. "But you do need a girl to call your own."

"I do. I need a girl of my own."

"So what kind of girl are you looking for?"

Dad looked deeply into her eyes, then down at his hands. He sighed, looking out the window.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. Someone I'm comfortable talking to, of course."

"Are you comfortable talking to you?"

"Well, it's easy to tell you the things I need to tell you." Of course Dad would try to tell the truth, even in a situation like this.

"I'm glad."

"So I guess I know who I'm looking for."

"When you find her," she said softly, "you have to tell her how you feel."

"Oh, Alexandra," he said slowly, breathing deeply.

"Yes, Eddie?" she purred, expectantly.

"I can't believe I've been so blind."

"It's okay, Eddie."

"It was right here in front of me."

"Yes, Eddie."

"How can I ever repay you?"

"Oh, Eddie."

"I've got to tell her, don't I?"

"Yes," Alexandra purred, her eyes almost closed as she leaned across the table towards him. "Tell her, Eddie. Tell her now."

"I will! I'm going to tell her. Thank you so much for this. I've got to go find her."

"Yes, find her...wait, what?! Find her? What are you talking about? I'm right--"

"Alexandra," Dad said quickly, cutting her off, "I don't know how to thank you."

"Thank me? What are you talking about?"

"I never would have realized," Dad stood up, throwing a wad of cash on the table - probably three times more than was necessary to cover their meals.

"Of course! Like you said."

"Like I said? Wait, Eddie, where are you going?" Alexandra shrieked as she stood up and stepped out into the aisle in front of him.

"I'm going to find Bella, of course," he said smoothly, looking down into her eyes. "Just like you said I needed to."

"Like I – what? That's not what I - No! I didn't say that!" she was pushing him back now, trying to force him back into the chair.

"Yes, you did. You said, when I find a girl of my own, I have to tell her. And everything you were saying about Bella and me, how special our bond is, how lucky we are to have each other." He looked at her meaningfully and smiled, dazzling her. "We are lucky to have each other, and I would never have seen that if it hadn't been for you. We are lucky to have you, Alexandra, and I will never forget it. Neither of us will ever forget it." With that, he pushed past her towards the door. On cue, my mother and Alice breezed into the restaurant, seemingly so caught up in conversation with each other that they didn't notice Alexandra standing, aghast, at the table or my father rushing towards them, a wide grin on his face, enjoying the moment since Alexandra couldn't see his expression.

A/N: I know, kind of out there, but I hope you enjoyed it. Please read and review! Let me know what works and what doesn't. Thanks!