As always, reading your reviews, messages and seeing those numbers climb on my lists, has been very exciting. I'm really happy that you guys are enjoying this and I hope you continue to as we get further into the shitstorm that is Cheap Thrills.

Disclaimer: I own a dog and an inordinate amount of consoles. Sadly, that's about it, Twilight is not mine and I doubt you'd believe me if I said otherwise anyway.


Chapter Seven

Without hesitating I picked up the piece of paper folded on my neatly made bed.

Kali,

Can we talk please?

If you can, meet me outside the back by Esme's roses.

Jasper

I accidentally scrunched up the elegantly penned letter as my heart thumped and sent a shooting pain through my chest. So Jasper wanted to talk did he? I was a little suspicious, but honestly, I doubted he wanted to say anything in front of Emmett considering the amount of embarrassing topics that could come up. Thinking about it, I didn't want to sit through Emmett watching us talk about him making me jizz in my pants. Just, no.

My mind was more or less made up, I wanted to talk to Jasper, more so because he was avoiding me. Though, I really wanted to drum into his head that he hadn't done anything I wouldn't have done in his shoes and I don't begrudge him for it. If it could threaten those I care about I'd go to some severe lengths, too.

Taking some deep breaths to calm my tender heart, I pulled open the draw by my bed and took out the tin, giving it a little shake I confirmed that the lighter was still in there and pocketed it. As much as I wanted to trust Jasper, I wasn't taking any chances, though I don't know if using my ability so soon would give me another heart attack. I decided to only use it if I felt it was life or death, but I'd be stupid to leave it behind when it was my only defence against Vampires.

I decided to tackle the stairs by myself to show I was okay, but Emmett still cut me off half way and took my arm to steady me even though it wasn't necessary.

"Whoa, I said call me, not try and break your neck." I rolled my eyes.

"You're exaggerating, I feel good. Carlisle's wonder drugs have kicked in, stop fretting you mother hen." Emmett did as he was told but walked slowly next to me, ready to grab me if I needed it.

I made it to the bottom without any slip ups and headed for the kitchen, I peeked out the window trying to keep my interest innocent.

"Hey Emmett, would you mind if I got some air? I won't go far I just want to have a little walk around." Emmett looked ready to protest, I smiled sweetly and pre-emptively cut him off. "It's fine, you stay here, I think I'd just like a moment to think...if that's alright? I feel like I haven't had a moment to myself in what feels like forever." I took the pitiful approach and he smiled kindly at me, patting me softly on the shoulder.

"Yeah, alright, but please call me if you need help and don't go far. Animals tend to keep their distance from here, but I don't want you tripping in the dark." He agreed reluctantly. I smiled and turned from him to the back door, just as I touched the handle I felt a warm breeze fly over my shoulders and a big grey coat was wrapped around me.

"It's cold outside." Emmett said as he watched me go with a nervous smile, probably unsure he was doing the right thing, but not wanting to be the one to tell me no. I tried for a reassuring grin as I eased open the handle and stepped out into the cool night.

The rain had passed and the clouds had rolled back to reveal a nearly full moon, shining meagre light over the spacious garden. The air smelled damp and earthy, and there were a cacophony of crickets nearby, adding to the ambience. I followed the little gravel path circling the house, in my slippers and looked around carefully for Jasper as I slowly walked by the flowering bushed surrounding Esme's garden.

Just as I was abut to call out for him I heard my name whispered by the trees lining the garden. I barely could barely make out his voice, but cautiously, I made my way over to the forest.

"Hello...?" I nervously called out and watched as a dark figure stepped out of the trees, my heart began hammering and I simultaneously clutched at both the tin in my pocket and my chest.

"Thanks for meeting me." A familiar voice responded.

Thought not the one I expected.

I really shouldn't have been surprised when Edward stepped out of the trees but my heart sped up all the same, fisting the coat covering my chest, I took a step back.

"What are you playing at? Pretending to be Jasper so I'd come meet you? Carlisle told you not to bother me again." I reminded him angrily. Edward looked calm but there was an undercurrent of something I couldn't quite place and it concerned me. He stepped closer and I took another step back.

"I needed to talk to you." He explained quietly. I put my hands on my hips and glared at him, trying to act tougher than I felt.

"Yeah, I bet you do." I drawled in annoyance, something about him rubbed me the wrong way. Unlike his family I couldn't stand to be near him, he was beautiful, devastatingly so, but the way he talked to me made me want to smash him into a wall a few hundred times. His preconceived notions of how a lady should behave, the pompous way he talked down to me and his inability to understand that I'm not Bella and that she isn't here. All of it made me want to dish out gratuitous violence even if I couldn't hurt him.

Edward continued our dance of him stepping closer and me stepping back, though the distance would mean nothing if he wanted it to, even at full strength I couldn't outrun him.

"It's about Bella-"

"Big surprise." He ignored me and continued with that same desperate look, his eyes wide and his teeth unconsciously bared.

"I heard you saw her. I need you to tell me where she is, you have stayed far too long, it's time you give me back my mate." He took a bigger step closer and my heart started hammering, I felt threatened and was about to call for Emmett.

Sadly, I didn't get the chance, as soon as I took in that larger lungful of air, Edward rushed forward and tightly clamped his hand over my mouth. I screamed under his hand but the sound barely travelled before Edward scooped me up and ran with me.

My weak heart was protesting and I was struggling futilely in his tight grip. He stopped suddenly and let go of me, I fell to the floor, dizzy, and clutched at my thumping heart as I tried to catch my breath. If I didn't know better I'd say it felt like my heart was bleeding, the pain was disorientating and I felt sick. Pushing myself up so I was sitting was difficult, but I knew I had to keep an eye on Edward. I was terrified by what he would do, he was so unpredictable, in a way that frightened me.

As I managed to sit up in the damp grass, he started coming closer again and I began shoving myself away from him. He reached down and grabbed my ankle, dragging me back and making me squeak in fright. Digging my hands into the ground by my hips to stop myself being dragged any closer, my hand brushed against my tin in my pocket and I realised I needed to take him over.

But would it kill me?

My frightened mind was running through plans and scenarios where it could go wrong, my only card was Bella.

"Stop fidgeting, I'm trying to talk to you, can you not be decent and listen to me?" He grumbled and pinned both my legs down, giving me finger mark bruises around my ankles. Shaking like a leaf I dug into my pocket and grabbed hold of my tin so tightly it hurt.

"You want to talk to Bella?" I finally managed to choke out, making him finally stop grabbing at me.

"More than anything." He told me reverently and was suddenly crouched above me.

"I can bring her back, but I need to-to meditate, so-get off!" I stuttered and shoved at his chest hovering over me, he complied and backed up, standing. It took me a moment but I scrambled to a stand, using a nearby willow tree as a crutch. I glared at him, my breath ragged like I had ran all this way instead of being carried.

"Do it, now! I need my mate!" He commanded, making me jump and clutch to the tree.

"I am, I need to focus." Meditation was the only plausible reason I could think for using my incense and in actuality it wasn't a bad excuse.

Fumbling, I opened my tin and pulled out a lighter and a stick.

"What's that for?" Edward asked suspiciously. Knowing that I'd need one after, I tossed him a stick to inspect.

"Incense, plain, store bought, incense. It will help me focus whilst I-uh summon her."

I was truly terrified that this would be it for me. Lighting the incense took a moment because of the wind and Edward was becoming impatient. He took a step closer and I tried to light it again, breaking my thumbnail in the process. The lick of flame held against the breeze and I tried my hardest to keep my hand steady enough to let it catch.

Edward paused in his next step, waiting for something to happen, his sudden stillness was more unnerving than his predatory stalking and without intending to, I held my breath as soon as I saw the thick white smoke curling into the night sky.

"Well, where's Bella?" He asked in frustration, I could hear the snarl behind his words. Answering him would mean breathing and I was petrified to take that breath, but I weighed up which was worse way to die. I hesitated and my heart thumped louder from the lack of oxygen. Fuck it, at least my death would be on my own hands, not his.

My eyes started watering as my heart pounded and I couldn't hold my breath any longer. I kept looking over his shoulder, praying Emmett would realise something was wrong and come find me. My face must have been beet red, my heart was thudding so hard I was seeing spots and Edward was suddenly right in front of me.

It was now or never.

He grabbed a fistful of my shirt and yanked me off my feet, he looked on the verge of murder, his eyes were wild and venom was dripping from his lips. I dropped the lighter and the tin, letting them fall by my feet. Edward was growling deeply and dragged me closer so I was only inches from his snarling face.

I took a deep breath and let the familiar, sickly, floral scent coat my tongue.

"Kali!" Before I disappeared completely, I saw him, running towards Edwards back.

"Jasp..." My voice vanished as the rest of me did and I opened my eyes as a Vampire once more.

Jasper POV

"Pussy." That word always irked me for some reason, and more so when it was true. I was acting like a complete pussy about the whole situation.

I had decided to confront the problem head on, when she woke up and was ready to talk I was going to sit her down and tell her my reasons for my actions that day and most importantly, apologise. There was a part of me that was torn between wanting her forgiveness for taking it so far and a desire to avoid the situation entirely, run away from everyone's judgements

Esme had been looking at me like I'd just lost my cat, and didn't know how to comfort me. Carlisle was parts disappointed and parts sad, he didn't think I'd use "Intimate Techniques" to interrogate her, and for a while he was convinced I'd traumatised the girl. Thankfully her...I don't know what to call it. Her stunt? That shit she pulled in front of practically everyone. Kissing me, to call us even. That. Well, that had quelled some of Carlisle's fears and now he just wanted to talk, which somehow was worse.

Emmett was a little upset at first when Rose confided in him, cause she couldn't keep her trap shut. He'd actually gone out of his way to confront me in private, during the most obvious set up involving a hunt, his shifty attitude and running directly behind me until we were out of earshot, then tackling me. This was Emmett after all, half his problems he assumes he can rugby tackle and the rest he laughs at. He had thrown me through a tree and yelled a lot but it really didn't take much talking down until he begrudgingly listened to what I had to say. I tried to explain that I was a mess that day, and that I was trying to protect us all. I reasoned that it was the only thing I could think of at the time to get her to stop throwing off my Pathokinesis. After that I pulled up Rose, she ended up making him see the funny side of it, she found the whole situation more amusing than I would have guessed. Surprisingly, both Emmett and Rose had taken quite the shine to Kali, during a long sit own where everyone got to air their grievances with the situation.

We came to the conclusion that whatever had happened we would be more understanding and give Kali a chance if we now had to protect Bella's body even from the current resident if it came to it. At that point most of us just felt guilty for pushing her to have a heart attack, only Rose and Emmett knew what occurred between Kali and I.

Edward, of course, had heard Emmett thinking about what had happened briefly and had taken it upon himself to scream at me whilst I was looking in on Kali. Surprisingly, Emmett had thrown him out of the window first. We all got chided by Esme like schoolkids, and that's when it all came out to everyone.

Everyone, including Alice.

Somehow though, I think she already knew. Her poor attempt at trying to stop me leaving with Kali finally made sense and I didn't know why she hadn't tried harder. If it were me, I would have just grabbed her and told her it wasn't going to happen cause she was going to make a dumb choice and ruin her marriage. Which is exactly what I think I'd done.

She had been silent the entire time Kali was unconscious, she barely said a word to me and started hunting alone. I'd send her my worry and concern, my love for her but everytime her face would scrunch up and she'd storm out. The first time I tried to talk to her about it, she turned around and told me she was going away for a while. It tore me up and definitely didn't help my mood afterwards.

So, Alice left me and I didn't even know if we were together or not.

With my only solid tie to this family on the rocks, I decided to leave too. I was going to go get some space, maybe drop in on Peter and Charlotte, sample some fine Texan Bison. Of course as soon as I made that plan my phone rang.

"8 minutes." Simply said Peter.

"What?" Peter huffed dramatically.

"Do I have to spell it out for you? Leave in 8 minutes. Well, 7:42, 41, 40, 39-"

"Alright, I get it." I hung up in annoyance and grabbed the few things I'd want to take with me and slung a bag over my shoulder, pulling on my favourite leather that Alice always tried to leave behind when we moved, I debated taking my bike but chose to just run. It had been a while since I even bothered going into the garage.

Checking my watch I had 4 minutes, 22 seconds before Peter said I should leave, that asshole hadn't steered me wrong before, so I'd trust his judgement. His ability was unusual, knowing shit wasn't exactly what I'd call it, but it's what he did. The ability to know when your ass is in trouble, was something he'd also dubbed it after I'd narrowly missed a run in with some of Maria's foot soldiers some 70 odd years back, thanks to him.

Waiting any amount of time as a Vampire was tedious at best, but as the seconds ticked by I felt more on edge and found myself pacing around my study like a caged animal. My phone was in my hand and I was pulling up Peter's last call before I really thought about it.

"3:28, 3:27, 3:26, 3:25..." I growled at the Vampiric speaking clock. "Just do what I say, stop being so impatient. What? You got an angry mob at your door?"

"Nope, but I'm willing to look up where I can find one that does house calls, though to put me out of my misery or to put you out of yours, I haven't decided." Peter laughed at my lazy threat, I stalked over to the window like watching outdoors would somehow make time pass faster.

"So cold, Major! Come on, only 3 minutes, 14 seconds left. That's hardly eternity."

I saw something shift by the trees just at the edge of my sight and stopped fiddling with my curtain. Vampire's didn't just "see things" so I refused to tear my eyes off where I knew I had caught a glimpse of something, craning my head to the side to get a better look.

"Yeah, pretty sure I've seen you try to count grains of sand in an hourglass once when you were waiting for Charlotte." I replied distractedly. "And you have no idea why I can't just leave now? It's only Emmett and Edward, perfect opportunity."

A hulking mass of green coat and fiery red hair came into view, Kali was slowly walking around the house. I watched her look around distractedly, she was searching for something, or perhaps someone.

"I do not recall this, why you gotta make out like I can't cope without my woman? I'm a strong, independent man. And cause I say so, Asshat. I wouldn't bother if it wasn't important." I didn't reply, my attention completely focused on Kali, her movements were careful and drawn out, it was obvious she was still in pain so what was she doing walking around outside by herself? Why wasn't Emmett with her?

As I crossed the room to go ask him myself, Peter heard the handle turn and yelled.

"Wait!" I let go and groaned.

"I'm just going downstairs, Kali looks like she's about to collapse in the garden. I was only gonna tell Emmett." I argued, I didn't want the idiot to trip and hurt herself.

"No, you can't leave your room, not the house, your room. You have 2 minutes, 40 seconds. You cannot leave, please trust me." The shift in tone was concerning enough but looking back out the window I saw Kali talking to someone.

I pressed myself up against the glass and watched as she started backing up from a figure coming out of the trees, I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, they were both being very quiet and the tree line was actually quite far from my window. Nervously, I waited for the worst to happen and wasn't surprised when Edward came into view and suddenly grabbed Kali, running off with her.

My hand that was propping me up against the window had started to close on the wooden border, cracking it in frustration.

"No Peter, I need to leave now. Edward's just fucking taken Kali, again! Jesus Christ that girl is stupid! She's banged up enough as it is, I need to stop him before he does something he'll regret."

"Seriously, you can't. 1:58, you have to wait that long. Please, Jasper, please!" He begged down the phone. I grit my teeth and burned a hole through the window with my glare.

I tried sensing them with my gift but they were out of range, I felt utterly helpless as I began pacing in front of my window again, though with a boiling rage.

"Tell me why I can't just yell for Emmett right now?" I demanded angrily.

"It has to be you, just trust me." He pleaded. I didn't understand and it wasn't helping my temper.

"Explain exactly what you 'know'." I told him and he sighed deeply.

"You know that this weird knowing shit is more tuned to the people I care about right? Whatever this is it's something that'll fuck you over if it goes wrong and I hate stopping you right now but fuck, I would never steer you wrong! You need to calm down, you'll want a clear head if you're gonna go fighting over a human." It was frustrating that I couldn't manipulate my own emotions like I could others, I was having a lot of difficulty calming down. There was a rage brewing in my dead heart and not knowing what was happening was killing me.

"1:02, just a little longer." Peter tried to soothe but time was moving too slow.

I wrenched open my window in preparation for my count down, I threw my bag and my coat off my shoulders, wanting nothing to slow me down. My muscles were tense and I was literally ready to spring forward.

"Keep it stealthy." Peter warned, not needing a gift to know I was about to go tearing into the night, walls be damned. Most of the windows in the house were big enough to jump through without breaking anything, but I wasn't in the mood to keep my exit low key. I wanted Edward to know I was coming after him.

Grunting in acknowledgement was the only response Peter received.

"30 seconds." He counted down, I barely paid attention to his voice, mentally planning out how I was going to rip Edwards head off his shoulders and the least painful way I could launch Kali across the ocean to teach her to stop being so fucking dumb.

There was a low growl rumbling in the back of my throat that I tried to quell, Peter said I needed to keep a cool head and if I wasn't careful I could accidentally mow over Kali in my effort to save her.

Is that what I was doing? Was I saving her, or was I saving my family the grief of loosing two people that were growing on them in one go? Mentally I reasoned that I didn't have the time to think about it, but as those seconds ticked by at an agonizingly slow pace, I knew I was just making another excuse to avoid thinking about her, like I had been doing for the past two weeks.

"Pussy." I heard that mocking whisper again, whipping my inner beast into a frenzy. I'll show her how much of a pussy I am, when I save her ass again!

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6,-" I didn't know my body could tense further than it already was, my hand had dug grooves into the wall as I readied to throw myself out. "5, 4, 3, 2-" I threw my phone at my bed and launched myself out the window at full speed.

I skidded into the line of trees that ran around the property and ran through the forest, following the lingering trail of Edward and Kali, dodging branches without a second thought.

They weren't far ahead of me, just out of Vampire sense's range, I pushed forward as fast as I could when the back of Edward came into view, I could see the flash of red just in front of him and her name tore from my throat.

"Kali!" I yelled, readying to rip him off of her.

"Jasp..." I threw myself around a tree as I came in close, in that nano-second it took to get around the ancient willow, Kali was gone.

Edward slumped forward and fell to his knees gasping and hastily stuffing something in his pocket. I skidded to a halt and whipped my head around, looking for Kali. There was a thin trail of smoke where she had stood, dissipating in the chill air, but she had completely vanished.

I grabbed Edward and hauled him up, he was still choking, though why, I couldn't say.

"Where the fuck did she go?!" I roared in his face, making nearby small critters run as far as they could. Edward got a hold of himself and stared up at me with terrified eyes, so he should be scared, the asshole was gonna get a severe beating.

"Oh shit..." He whispered and immediately tried to throw off my arm, twisting out of my grip, he bolted.

"Get the fuck back here!" I yelled as I tore after him.

Edward's usually ballerina like run through the forest was forgotten as he crashed through trees, clipping practically every branch in the woods. I ended up having to raise an arm and elbow flying branches out of the way as they flew towards me.

I knew Edward was faster than me, and any other day he may have outran me but right now, blindly running into trees was slowing him down significantly and it only took me a few seconds to catch up and grab him, wrestling him into the ground.

"Where is Kali?!" I bellowed again, inches from his face, as I rolled him over and pinned his shoulders to the leafy floor. He looked petrified and his gaze was wildly darting as he struggled against my hold. "I swear to god Edward I'll rip your fucking head off, where is she?!" Edward stilled and was taking needless breaths as he panicked underneath me.

"Fuck, no, shit, please don't!" He begged, it didn't take a genius to figure out something was different here.

"Give me one good reason not to?" Edward scrunched up his face and thumped his head against the forest floor a few times.

"Fuck! Cause I'm Kali." He finally said through gritted teeth.

My grip slackened and Edward used that inch of wiggle room to shove me off and stand, but he didn't run, just stood there looking very uncomfortable.

"What." I deadpanned and stared at him disbelievingly. Edward lifted his head and nodded glumly.

"I'm Kali." He repeated fiddling with his Cullen ring and shifting his weight from foot to foot awkwardly.

My mouth fell open and I gaped at him.

"Is this some sort of joke?" I asked, my voice rough and my mood fluctuating between lost and furious. Edward wildly shook his head and stared at me sadly.

"I'm telling the truth," It didn't make any sense and in the moment I became frustrated and roared, tackling Edward back to the ground. He looked up at me with terrified eyes but didn't struggle.

"That's bullshit, if you don't tell me what the fuck happened and what you were doing-!"

"Jizzface!" He yelled and I stopped my stream of threats for just a moment. My grip tightened on him again as the light surprise waned.

"What?! Was that supposed to convince me? You've had two weeks to hear me thinking about that, don't think that proves shit!" Edward started to go from scared into angry and I slammed his shoulders into the ground, reminding him just who was the one who had a right to be pissed off.

"Oh what, so you've been thinking about me and my nicknames but you ain't got the balls to sit down and talk with me?! I'll say it again Jasper, you fucking pussy! Rip my fucking head off then, see if I fucking care, pretty sure I'm dead the minute I leave Fuckface's body anyway!" He yelled and flopped down to the ground with an annoyed pout, exposing his neck. "Go on then Cowboy, get it the hell over with, you sissy blonde fuck!" He yelled into the leaves as he basically thrust his neck into my face.

I climbed off of her.

"This is your ability, isn't it?" Edward gave me an eerily familiar grin and sat up.

"Took you long enough, I'm surprised you guys didn't figure it out sooner." She teased, with a smug look. I threw leaves at her and watched her flinch like a human and cover her face. A Vampire could have easily grabbed them out of the air and made a neat pile ordered by colour. "Gyah! Don't be a dick!" She reprimanded and wiped the dew off her face. Edwards face. This was so confusing.

"So, let me get this straight. You have the ability to take over the body of a Vampire?" She smirked and tilted her head.

"Among other things, yes." I raised an eyebrow and rested a hand on the wet floor to support myself, the influx of information was suddenly making sense as I put all the pieces together.

"This is how you've been knocking us out and moving us, isn't it?" I asked in slight awe. "You walked me to that tree and tied me up yourself." She shrugged.

"I mean, technically I drove but, yeah." More memories flooded me.

"And that boy in your truck?" She grinned again.

"A very helpful kid I passed on the way back. Good thing too, your dumb ass nearly made me crack my skull on the dashboard, lord knows what you'd have done if you knew it was me. I may have stolen his lighter too, but I'll buy him a new one... someday..." She mused and leaned back on her palms, getting comfortable.

This was completely unbelievable, yet it made so much sense.

"Is that how you took over Bella?" She winced at the question and rubbed her short hair.

"Yes and no, I was literally just at my home doing some breathing exercises and then I suddenly wake up in Bella's body. I'd never done anything like that before and I didn't know I could do it again until I accidentally took over you." She explained with a sullen face that was more reminiscent of Edwards usual miserable demeanour.

"And then you kept on doing it and rinsed your body of everything it had, giving yourself a heart attack." I deadpanned as everything clicked, she nodded glumly and cast down her eyes.

"I really didn't know that would happen, I knew I got hungry after I became normal again, but I didn't know it was that bad..." She trailed off looking ashamed.

I studied Edwards unfamiliar posture and sighed heavily.

"You've gone and used it again, too. This Takeover ability of yours, you're hardly recovered from last time." I pointed out and she fell back throwing herself into to dirt.

"I know, but I was shitting myself, Edward found out I saw Bella whilst I was asleep and he left me a note from, um, you." I raised an eyebrow and watched her fidget in the ground. "Anyway, he wanted Bella back and before I could yell for help he basically kidnapped me and the only thing I could think of was to use my, what did you call it? My Takeover ability? I know it was dumb but I was pretty sure he was gonna kill me if I didn't give him Bella, I was hurting everywhere and it was my only option." She gave me a sad smile. "You were just a little too late."

My dead heart clenched at her words. If Peter hadn't stopped me then this might not have happened.

"So what happens now, can you let him go?" She nodded slowly.

"I can but I'm not sure what'll happen to me when I do." Her concerned face made sense and I watched her sadness quietly. I think if Vampires could cry she'd have those horrible silent tears that made everyone feel bad.

"We should get you back home." I told her, not knowing what else to do. Her head whipped up and she shook it hard.

"Are you insane! If everyone finds out..." She trailed off unsure, I tried to catch her eye.

"Then what? Kali, no one is going to hurt you. If what you've said is true then you really aren't at fault for any of this. Esme, Rose and Emmett all adore you and Carlisle saved your life knowing you wouldn't wake up as Bella." I swallowed and tried to hold my gaze steady. "Heck, you've even grown on me, Darlin'." Her sullen face lifted into a pleased smile.

"Same here, Cowboy, I was sad you wouldn't talk to me. Out of this entire cluster fuck of an adventure, you've been the most fun part, even if you did try to kill me." She said with that familiar teasing grin.

I smiled back and stood, walking over to her.

"Come on, let's go back. We'll help you, Kali." She smiled again and stood.

"Thanks, Jasper."

Kali's POV

So that had gone infinitely better than I had expected, for once Jaspers bi-polar behaviour had worked out in my favour and he had flipped from angry to understanding like the damn yo-yo he was.

As I stood at practically his eye height, I grinned and suddenly punched him, sending him flying through a tree. I stood there laughing my ass off and Jasper grumpily pulled himself out of the debris and glared at me.

"And just what the fuck was that for?" He ground out angrily. I tried stopping my giggles long enough to reply.

"Aha, you even have to ask? Literally everytime you deserved to be punched but I couldn't hit you." He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Fine. No more freebies though, quit dawdling you're a Vampire; you're super fast." He reprimanded as I leisurely strolled past him.

"I can run fast but I don't have your mind, I can't process stuff any faster and I can't see 90% of the things I'm about to run into." Jasper snorted and kept to my pace as we began walking back.

"That explains your attempt at deforestation whilst I was chasing you." I elbowed him in the ribs, making him stumble from the excessive force.

"Oops, sorry, can't seem to get a good handle on this strength." I told him with an apologetic grin. He frowned but shook his head in disdain and continued walking.

We had come out of the forest and were walking in the damp grassy field surrounding the house.

"So, how does your gift work?" He asked conversationally, I raised an eyebrow and watched him for a moment. I had specifically not mentioned the incense I had tucked away in Edwards pocket, when I finally divulged the truth. I wasn't sure why, I think I was just getting too used to hoarding my secrets.

Sighing I pulled out my tin that I had scrambled to grab whilst I was catching my breath as Edward.

"I use this. Light an incense, and the closest living being gets taken over by me, light it again and I separate from them." I explained as I gave my gold tin a little shake. Jaspers eyebrows disappeared beneath his curly bangs and he frowned.

"Incense? Is it special?" I shrugged, I knew about as much as him now, just that it worked, not how.

"Not to my knowledge, back when I was myself, I had the exact same brand. A friend of mine recommended it to me along with some breathing exercises. I was a little stressed and normally, I wouldn't have tried meditation, but I thought it couldn't hurt so I lit it up and found the exact same brand in Bella's room when I woke up as her. I looked through her purse and found a receipt from a general store where she bought it, so we can get it in Forks." Jasper frowned at me and jabbed a finger in my chest.

"You are not getting anymore." I nodded along with a smile and pocketed my tin.

"Right, cause I'm probably gonna die as soon as I separate from Edward." I agreed much to his annoyance.

"We're gonna make sure that doesn't happen. I said we'd help you didn't I?"

Before I could reply I was tackled and thrown a good thirty feet from where I was standing.

"EDWARD! WHERE THE HELL IS KALI?!" I groaned and pulled myself out of the impromptu grave I had dug with my skidding body.

"Not this shit again- UGH!" I started and was punched back another ten feet, coming to a rolling halt as I knocked into a tree, shattering the bark. Thankfully, punches were only a way of releasing aggression to Vampire's, a fist to the face really didn't hurt, though I could feel the dent in my cheek from Emmett's attack.

Jasper almost lazily stepped in front of me and stopped Emmett from hitting me again.

"Emmett, stop." Grudgingly, he did as he was told but pushed against Jaspers grip and roared at me over his shoulder.

"I swear to God, if you've done anything to her-!" Jasper dragged Emmett back in front of him and tried to turn his focus back to him.

"That is Kali." He tried and Emmett stopped and stuttered for a second.

"Wh-wha? Did he knock you about or something? That's Edward!" He pointed angrily at me. I pushed myself up off the floor and brushed the splinters from my back.

"I know it's Edward, but it's not. Kali's gift is to take over another person." I grinned at Emmett.

"Or cat." I teased. Both of their heads whipped round to me.

"You were that mangy cat?!" Jasper asked incredulously.

"Hey! Don't pick on Scruff, I didn't mean to take him over, I was aiming for his owner! Not my fault he was closer." I shrugged and grinned at them.

Emmett finally stopped struggling and slowly pushed past Jasper and walked over to me.

"...Kali?" He asked slowly and I nodded with a bright smile.

"No, it's Britney, bitch. Sup, little John?" I greeted cheerily. Emmett looked unsure and turned back to Jasper.

"And how do you know it's not Edward reading our thoughts?" He questioned and I groaned heavily, drawing his attention back to me.

"Ugh, please don't draw this out, I can't seem to use your powers when I take you over for one. Bella's mind shield just sort of comes with her body, and right now that's acting like my body...shit this is confusing." I muttered and folded my arms as I tried to think of how to best explain what I knew little about. Emmett was studying me hard, it was clear see this was mind-fucking him.

"That doesn't make any sense." He agreed and I nodded, rubbing my head sheepishly.

"Okay, let me try again. I, that is to say Kali, have the ability to take over a body. Whilst in the body of a Vampire I don't seem to have their brain, it's like my head's in their body and I control it like a puppet. Does that make sense?" The cogs in Emmett's brain were running at full steam and he was looking back to Jasper for confirmation, who nodded in agreement.

"That's how she's been knocking us out, how she tied me to a tree and moved Rose to the border from inside a Diner." He said with a light shrug.

Emmett turned back to me and poked me in the chest.

"Kali?" He confirmed again and I nodded brightly.

"Now you're getting it, short stack. The only downside is that Carlisle was right and this caused my heart attack, so if I let go of Edward then I might have another one." I admitted weakly with a wince. Emmett's face fell and he grabbed my arm and started dragging me towards the Cullens.

"Then what the hell are we doing, we gotta get you back now! Uh, sorry I punched you." He suddenly stopped and apologised, giving me a sheepish look. I smirked and punched him hard in the arm, making him skid a few steps away from me.

"No worries, being punched in the face as a human hurts a hell of a lot more." I teased with a grin, making his unsure face lift into a matching smile.

Emmett playfully bumped my shoulder and dragged me along faster behind him, I let him tug me into running because we were in the open and I didn't have to dodge trees.

"Running's awesome isn't it?" He asked over his shoulder with a giant grin, as the scenery rushed past us. I was scanning the quickly oncoming distance for anything that was about to take me out but gave Emmett a grin.

"It's pretty swish, but I have a tendency to-UGH!" A sizeable rock that Emmett hopped over, took out my legs and I ate dirt. Lifting my head, I spat out the grass and looked up exasperatedly at Emmett who was still holding my wrist.

"Oooh, wipeout. You okay, Kali?" I snorted at him and righted myself.

"Yep, I can't see or think as fast as you so I kind of hit everything when I run." Emmett chuckled and brushed the dirt off me.

"Well that sucks, I'd carry you but you're Edward, that'd be weird." I snapped my fingers and continued back towards the house as a much slower jog.

"Well shit, never knew you were a...an incestophobe? That a thing?" Emmett snorted and Jasper sped by us.

"For running off, you guys sure are slow." He taunted as he left us in his dust.

"Eat a dick, ya raggedy fuck!" I yelled after him making Emmett clutch his stomach as he burst into laughter before taking off after his brother.

Grinning I sped off after them both as best as I could, and managed not to take myself out as I skidded to a halt outside, digging a groove into the neat lawn but thankfully missing any of Esme's flowering bushes.

At a regular pace I climbed the stairs and opened the back door, it was interesting to be able to smell myself around the house, it was the only scent that really stood out to Edward's body and I cringed remembering that this was probably because Bella was his singer.

Emmett had disappeared upstairs and I threw myself down on the sofa next to Jasper with a sigh.

"Boy, that was a cluster fuck eh?" Jasper raised an eyebrow and turned to face me better.

"You're taking this surprisingly well." He stated watching me with interest, I rubbed the back of my head and shrugged.

"Eh, what can you do? I'm pretty sure I sealed my death as soon as I took over Edward, right now I'm just killing time." Jasper grimaced at my bad puns and looked away from me.

"Stop talking like that. I said we would help and I meant it." He scolded and before I could say anything Emmett returned and pushed something against my chest. Looking down, I found that Emmett had made me a name tag that read "Hello My Name Is Kali" I couldn't help laughing and smiled up at him.

"Yeah, this'll definitely convince everyone, thanks." Emmett gave me a very exaggerated thumbs up and Jasper shook his head like he had no idea what to do with us and pulled out his phone.

He gave me a sideways look as he tapped out a text and dropped his phone on the table.

"What did you say?" I asked with a nervous grin.

"'Something's happened. Get back here as soon as you've fed.' They shouldn't be long."

Sure enough, we waited less than 3 minutes before Carlisle and Esme ran back in, clothes in slight disarray, Rose only seconds behind them.

"What happened?" Carlisle asked as his eyes wildly scanned the room for me. Damn, I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or offended that they knew I was the cause of yet more drama.

"Where's Kali? I can't hear her!" Esme exclaimed as she moved towards the stairs, I stood an waved to get their attention.

"Yoo-hoo, Esme, I'm right here." They finally looked at me and their eyes fell to the tag on my chest that I jutted out proudly.

"Edward wha-" Jasper stood and cut off Esme.

"Not Edward, Kali. This is her ability she takes over a body." I grinned and waved at them fondly.

"You're sure?" Carlisle asked disbelievingly and walked over to me as he began studying me.

"Positive. Now that she's calmed down, her emotions feel like Kali's and you can't tell me that's Edward, he really isn't that good an actor. Besides, I saw Kali vanish whilst she was standing in front of Edward. Add in the rest of the crap that happened and it fits." He tried to explain. Carlisle pulled Jasper aside and began talking to him in extra hushed tones that I struggled to hear.

Rose walked up to me and stared at me hard, looking in my eyes for something.

"Hey there, Cuddle Cakes." I told her with a grin and she slowly smiled.

"Yup, that's Kali alright. How the hell did you do that?" She asked as she started poking at me, as if expecting the real me to pop out of Edwards chest like something out of Alien.

"Glue and cocaine." I told her with a grin, making Jasper (who was returning to my side after talking with Carlisle) clip me lightly upside the head. "Hey!" I exclaimed, needlessly rubbing the spot he'd smacked.

"Kali has been using that incense of hers incense to take over bodies, tonight Edward tricked her into meeting him and she felt like she had to use it again." Jasper explained to everyone, their attentive faces were slowly accepting the truth. "However, now we're concerned that when Kali returns to normal, she'll have another heart attack." Their eyes snapped back to me and shone with concern.

"Kali...?" Esme tentatively approached. I grinned and gave her a cheery wave.

"Hi Esme, it's me." I reassured her with a smile, feeling a little awkward and not all that pleased that my secret was finally out.

I knew it would have to come out eventually, but I was a little miffed that it had been like this instead of on my terms. Esme gave me a watery smile.

"Oh you silly girl..." She chided softly and I felt tears gather in my eyes, though they would never fall.

"I'm sorry, I never intended to do this." Carlisle stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on my arm.

"It's alright Kali, we know you didn't. I have to ask, what do you know about your ability? Do you feel worse after longer uses? If time is of the essence we have to get you back to normal as soon as possible." His concern made me fret but the more I thought about it the more that didn't feel quite right.

"No...it's more based on who, I think. I took over a cat for nearly an hour and I was hungrier when I took over Rose for 20 minutes and I'd just eaten." Carlisle's eyebrow flew up when he learned that I had taken over a cat.

"Charlie's cat?" Referring to when Jasper and Emmett had met me as Scruff. I shrugged but nodded lightly.

"His neighbours, but that's what I pretended to be, yeah." Carlisle rubbed his chin thoughtfully and gave me a small smile.

"Well this does answer some questions, but I think we should separate you from Edward immediately. If there are complications, then we need to get it out of the way as soon as possible." I swallowed and nodded tightly.

"Yeah, alright then." Carlisle gestured upstairs to the room I was in with all the medical equipment already set up.

"Then let's do this upstairs." He asked and I nodded, following him upstairs slowly, the rest of the family close on my tail. Once inside I sat on the bed, I fished my tin out of my pocket, opening it up and pulling out the lighter that I had left inside and a previously used bit of incense.

I turned to them all nervously as they watched expectantly. Carlisle was flipping the switches on the machines surrounding my bed, rubber gloves already on.

"Um, so I've never changed back with anyone near me before and I don't know what'll happen...could I get some room?" I asked, unsure if I'd just hop into the next body that smelled my incense. They all dutifully stood outside the door and watched me from the hallway. "Oh, and hold your breath." I warned as an after thought.

Taking my own useless breath to steady myself, I nervously lit the incense, fumbling with the lighter. It was a little nerve wrecking having an audience for this but nonetheless I lit the end and gave them all a nervous grin before inhaling deeply.

"See you soon, hopefully..."

I watched their concerned faces as my vision dimmed and I slumped backwards on the bed, leaving Edwards body. Opening my eyes again I was resting on Edwards chest and my heart was thumping hard.

"Nngh!" I grunted as I curled in on myself on top of the solid Edward, clutching my throbbing chest, my eyes scrunched tightly closed.

Immediately I felt cold hands gently moving me off of Edward and his stone-like body was dragged off the bed to make room for me.

"Kali?! Kali? Can you hear me?" Carlisle asked as he tried to carefully loosen the stiff fetal position that I had assumed.

As I breathed heavily, my heart started slowing and though it was murder and I was sweaty and tired, still covered in dirt from the outdoors too, I put a hand on top of Carlisle's.

"It's... okay," I panted out and gave him a weak smile as the pain lessened. "Put it...out." I told them referring to my incense in case I changed again accidentally. Esme snatched something up from where Edward was still lying and flicked at the end until the burning part fell to the floor, stomping on it for good measure.

Now that everything was taken care of, I tried for slower breaths, relishing in the relief as my heart slowed. There was a movement by my eye and Esme vanished, only to reappear moments later with a glass of water and my morphine pills. As soon as I tried pushing myself up on my elbows, Carlisle helped me sit up and took the water and pills off his wife, popping out two in the process.

"Kali, take your painkillers. Esme, get me an Aspirin, B-12 supplements, and the Bisoprolol too, I want to keep her blood thin." Esme did as she was told and returned with more medicine and soon I was nicely drugged up.

"Well that was...damn..." Emmett drifted off kicking Edward's immobile body lightly."How longs he out for?" I was taking steady sips of my water and cleared my throat.

"Usually around 3 minutes, but I don't know how long it takes me to come to...I sorta of black out for a second." I explained as my arms holding the glass started to feel very light and I lifted them higher, going with the flow a little. "Whee..." I giggled as the morphine started to kick in and everything became more floaty and fun.

Carlisle took the water from me and gently lowered my arms with a fond smile.

"Well, the worst didn't happen but Kali; you really can't be using your gift-"

"Jasper called it Takeover, I like that, sounds cool!" I giggled out again and began making wave motions with my hands. "Nyeeeoww..." I like to think the aeroplane noise that followed was classy. Moving was fun. Emmett snickered at me and was thumped by Rose. "Serves ya right, snot waffle...!" I reprimanded with a giggle, Esme looked ready to chide me so I reached out to her face and stroked it, probably accidentally slapping her too, but I doubt she noticed.

"You're like super pretty," I informed her with a dreamy smile as my eyes briefly unfocused. Before Esme could say anything, my stomach rumbled loudly and I groaned along with it. "Oh my god I need a sandwich! No, a waffle, or cake..." Gasping I turned back to Esme. "Do you think there is waffle-cake?" I whispered reverently, my eyes wide.

Carlisle bent down to my level with a smile, I immediately patted him on the head like a dog, Esme tried not to laugh.

"Alright Kali, do you think you can stay awake long enough to eat?" It took me a moment to process his words but I distractedly nodded anyway.

"I would fight him for food right now." I tried to point at Emmett but my arm kept moving so I may have offered out a wardrobe. They all seemed rather amused by my medicated state, until a groan from the floor grabbed everyone's attention.

Before he was even half-way conscious, Edward was dragged out by Emmett and Jasper.

"We're gonna go have words with our brother." Jasper threw over his shoulder as they hauled his sparkly ass outside. No one stopped them and Esme left too, hopefully to make me a waffle-cake. Or anything really, I was famished.

Rose sat down with me and started brushing through my hair with her cold fingers, I still felt hot and sweaty from the sudden influx of pain, so I leaned into her touch. Rose complied and smiled gently, placing a cool hand on my forehead as I fell against her.

"How you doing?" She asked and I groaned into her shoulder.

"Shitty, but better now..." I yawned and snuggled against her, she was solid and freezing but somehow I felt like I needed just that. There was a poke to my rib that made me squirm and grumble.

"C'mon, eyes open, Esme shouldn't be long."

In fact, Esme was not too long, Rose only had to keep me awake for 5 more minutes

and I was stuffing my face with delicious turkey sandwich's, I was promised cake if I downed a giant glass of milk too.

"So that's meat, dairy and some extra calories from cake. Will that be enough, Dear?" Esme asked her husband as I happily munched away. Carlisle rewarded his wife's thoughtfulness with a kiss to her brow.

"Thank you, that should be plenty for now."

Once I finished everything (cake included), Esme was gathering up all my dishes to take downstairs when Emmett came back up with a sour look.

"So, me and Jasper can't keep Edward outside forever, what do you want us to do?" He asked Carlisle, whose face turned dark as he rose from the chair beside my bed.

"I think it's time to put an end to this." He said as he left, Esme following close behind him.

"Oooh! I wanna see, take me too!" I demanded as I wrapped my arms around Rose's neck who sighed but dutifully lifted me and carried me downstairs.

"You're not going outside." She told me as I pouted against her neck. "But you can watch from the door, I think you deserve to see him get his comeuppance the most right now." I half heartedly whooped and found myself at the front door in Rose's arms, behind the rest of her family.

Edward was on his knees being held there by Jasper, who was standing behind him keeping a tight grip on his shoulders.

"You don't understand Father, I was only trying to get Bella back, it's what we all want!" Edward exclaimed searching the faces of those he believed would side with him on this. Carlisle sighed heavily and walked closer to his son.

"I know you seem to think that you and you alone can bring Bella back, but the way you have gone about it has put the lives of both Bella and Kali in danger, more than once. I have been as lenient as I could with you and asked you to keep your distance, but I see now that this isn't enough." Edward's eye's were wide with fear as he shook his head vehemently, already knowing Carlisle's decision from his thoughts.

"No, don't-!"

"Edward, you are to leave immediately and you are to stay with the Denali's until further notice. I hope that some time away gives you some insight into how your behaviour has been nothing less than deplorable since all this began. Right now, if Bella were to come back, you would not be a worthy man for her." His words cut into Edward who slumped and looked up at the man he had called Father for over a hundred years, with disbelief.

For a moment he said nothing but he looked up again and caught sight of me in Rose's arms, his face steeled and his glare was intimidating. I could see the snarl on his lips and Jasper tugged on Edward's arms harder as he struggled.

"You! What did you do to me?" I felt relatively safe and grinned at him from my comfortable position.

"The same thing I've done to quite a few of you guys now. Knocked your ass out." Even in my slightly hazy state, I knew that I didn't want Edward to know exactly what I had done to him and announcing it as something else was my way of telling everyone that that was all I wanted him to know. I briefly glanced at his chest and saw my name tag was gone, I was hoping that we could just get me a badge next time. Though that may defeat the purpose of hiding in someone's skin...

Edward tried to throw Jasper off and everyone tensed, ready to intervene if he leaped at me. Jasper was having none of it though, and planted a boot between Edwards shoulders, pulling back on his arms, making it so that Edward would have to tear them off to get at me.

"Why are you protecting her?! She isn't my Bella!" He roared as he thrashed against Jaspers iron grip.

"No, she's not," Carlisle agreed. "but you of all people should see that she has Bella's body and anything you do to her, you do to Bella. You have had absolutely no control around Kali, you could have killed her tonight, you could have killed the woman you love." He repeated, trying to let the words sink into Edwards thick skull.

Edward briefly stopped and glared daggers at me.

"She isn't Bella." He spat at me and I almost felt a tinge of fear from his hateful stare. Rose curled her grip on me more protectively, her beautiful face contorted in a fierce snarl.

"This isn't about Bella! I am not letting you hurt Kali after the amount of trouble we've gone through to save her!" Rose yelled at him much to my surprise, I smiled up at her brightly. "Get the hell out of here Edward!" I tightened my grip around her neck and cuddled into her happily.

"My hero!" I giggled and rubbed my cheek against hers. Rose gave me a sideways glance but smothered the smirk playing on her lips due to the seriousness of the situation.

"So that's it is it? You're choosing her, over Bella?!" He screeched, enraged. Carlisle calmly stared him down with a hard frown marring his handsome face.

"Bella isn't here, we have no way to get her back, so we aren't choosing anyone, Edward. We are keeping Kali safe, from you if we have to." Edward threw himself towards me again, but Jasper held him strong.

"She said she can, she told me herself that she could bring Bella back!" He accused.

The seriousness of the whole situation did make me sober up a bit from my medicated high, and I was pinned with curious stares that made me wince.

"I'm sorry, but I lied to you, Edward. You were hurting me, and you'd just ran off with me. I was going to say anything to buy myself some time." I explained, making everyone relax slightly. They didn't want to believe that I was purposely keeping Bella from them after how accommodating they had been and I hoped I'd convinced them I wasn't lying.

"You're lying!" Well, everyone except Lord Asshole here. "You have to be!"

Everyone had heard enough.

"Jasper, Emmett, could you please escort Edward out of Forks? Edward, I hope that your time away from us will do you some good...I'm sorry it had to come to this." Carlisle said regretfully as Emmett and Jasper began frog marching him down the road. Edward kept turning his head to look at me, but each time it was wrenched away until Jasper ended up grabbing a fistful of his hair to keep him looking forward. He didn't resist past that and Rose took me back inside and deposited me in my room, closing the door behind her and going to the window to do the same.

I grinned and patted the bed next to me.

"You okay, Gum Drop?" Rose snorted at the nickname but otherwise looked distracted as she sat down with me. Immediately, I took her hand and gave it a fond squeeze. "Thank you for defending me." I told her sincerely, dragging her back to reality.

She took a moment to study me, I probably looked a mess and was still pretty grubby from being tossed around outside by Edward.

"I didn't want you to think we all felt the same way." She told me plainly and gave me a once over. "Think you can manage a quick shower? You're pretty filthy." I looked down at the white sheets, streaked with the black mud that had marred the back of my PJ's.

"Ew, I'm gross." I agreed and wobbly stood, Rose holding onto my arm so I didn't stumble. We slowly walked to the bathroom whilst I tried to fight that floaty feeling of drugs long enough to get clean.

Without really caring who was there, once the bathroom door shut I started peeling off my pants, the back of my legs caked in more mud than I had realised. Rose rolled her eyes at my semi-nakedness and helped me get off my shirt,

"So you don't keep straining that arm." She reasoned, I think she was referring to the left one that I had trouble lifting since my heart attack, but I grinned slyly at her.

"Awh don't gimmie that, you just wanna peek at the goods." I tried to waggle my eyebrows but I probably looked more like I was having a seizure from my lack of fine muscle control.

Rose laughed and shook her head.

"If that's what it takes to get you into the shower than sure, you gonna manage okay from here? I'm gonna change your sheets, so I'll be close by." I waved her away with a grin and clumsily got into the shower, giving myself the harsh wake up when I was assaulted with cold water before it heated up.

I clutched at my chest automatically but the pain felt disjointed thanks to the painkillers and I just did my best to get the grime off me without tripping, briefly musing that I'd had a ridiculous amount of showers since I woke up. Probably to make up for the two weeks that I didn't.

My time spent under the water was brief and I probably just rinsed the dirt of me instead of actually washed it but it would do for now. I bundled a towel around myself and walked out to Rose finishing making my bed for me.

"Fank'oo." I thanked her as I fell on top of the freshly made bed. Rose sighed at her ruined work but pulled out some PJ's from a drawer and dropped them on my head.

"Get dressed, then you can sleep." I groaned but rolled over and complied.

Cautiously, I found myself checking to see if the windows were closed, and the curtains drawn.

"Hey Rose...you'd know if Edward came back, wouldn't you? I mean, he can't get me from here, tonight...can he?" Rose smiled and took the damp towel from me and ran in through my hair.

"Are you worried he's going to try something again?" She asked gently, her fingers working through my matted red locks. I shrugged and looked over my shoulder at her.

"Yes and no, but I'm pretty sure he could kill me and I'd probably let him cause I'm far too tired to put up a fight." Rose chuckled and plaited my hair for me expertly.

"Would you like me to guard you then?" I gave her a surprised look.

"You'd do that?" Rose shrugged and smiled.

"I like you. I don't like many people and if it'd make you happy then I'll stay in your room until you wake up." I fell back against her chest and tilted my head up to look at her.

"Well hot-damn, I didn't think you'd be so caring, Cupcake. Thanks, I trust you guys could keep me safe from anywhere in the house though, I won't trap you in the dark with me all night." Rose gently tugged on my hair.

"I don't know where you got this image of me from but I'm not what you think." I grinned and clumsily booped her on the nose.

"You treated Bella like shit?" Rose rolled her eyes and huffed.

"I barely knew the girl, I'd met her a handful of times and Alice tells us she's going to be part of my family! I didn't choose this life but it's all she wants." She went back to plaiting my hair quickly, her pretty face creased with annoyance.

"Can you blame her? She meets a guy she thinks is perfect, who turns out to be immortal, super fast and strong and never ages, then he reveals he can give her the same. Plus side, she doesn't even have to hurt a single human, she can live off goats in a field. How can you not expect someone to go for that deal?" Rose finished my numerous plaits and I got comfortable in the bed.

She watched me carefully for a moment before replying.

"But she'd miss out on everything, she could never have children, everyone she loved will grow old and die, and she'd have to fake her death and force that loss on her family... There are a million reasons I wouldn't choose this life. It makes me angry that someone would throw away what they have for this." She angrily whispered glaring at her porcelain palms.

I reached and grabbed hold of her frosty hand.

"The grass is always greener Rose, that's coming from someone that's been a Vampire and a human...and a cat." Rose laughed and briefly squeezed my hand. "You can't fault others for wanting something that you have. There are girls that want the body of anorexic models, but those same models could hate themselves for living off air sandwich's. People want to be President but I imagine that it's a lot tougher once you're behind the seat...sadly, some people still take that role when they really, really shouldn't..."I briefly thanked that this world had yet to be infected with such an atrocity and shook my head. "Anyway, my point is that you can't hate someone for not wanting or valuing the same things as you, or for wanting what you have."

Rose pouted and rested her chin in her palm.

"Yeah, but she annoys me." I laughed and fell back against my pillows, my eyes struggling to stay open.

"Well, that's a different matter entirely, and I don't know if I've got the energy to get into that one..." I trailed off as my brain flat lined and I more or less crashed, clutching Rose's hand.

It was four days before we even entertained the idea of me leaving and that was only because I was starting to feel like I was taking advantage of the Cullen's kindness in some way. The sheer amount of effort they put into being sweet and helpful to me was making the burning guilt in my chest grow, and let's be honest; I had more than my share of chest pains.

Carlisle told me I was recovering at a very, very fast pace, he put it down to just how healthy I was before all of this started. He did keep me pumped full of drugs and every night he wanted to check my heart and the levels of nutrients in my body. During that time he discovered that not only was I healing fast but my body was immediately absorbing anything it needed, at a ridiculous rate.

I suggested doing some tests with my ability and whilst I had a few volunteers, Carlisle vetoed the idea the second I brought it up, he was afraid I'd damage myself again. Really, I should have been more cautious too, but I always was a reckless thing. Also testing the limits in a medical environment wasn't a bad idea either, in my opinion. Carlisle suggested a full recovery period before I was allowed to do it again but I managed to haggle him for letting me keep hold of my incense, I refused to be vulnerable regardless of how well I felt they could protect me.

Each of them had done their very best to keep me entertained and keep an eye on me simultaneously. I really appreciated not being stuck in bed with a book, but getting to know them better was as heart warming as it was heart wrenching. I felt awful for everything I'd put them through, taking Bella away from them and forcing them to cover my tracks. At the time it all seemed like fun, but as I recuperated, the damage I had done and could have done caught up with me. The Cullen's frequently caught me looking sad and would mother me in their own ways until they made me smile again.

However, in the end it only made it worse. I didn't deserve their affection and no matter how sneaky they were about it I could see they were mourning Bella in their own ways. Esme was by far the worst and though she stayed strong and her smile rarely slipped, I caught her studying me sometimes in a way that made me feel like I'd disappointed her. Every time I caught her staring her face would lift into a bright smile and she'd offer me treats or drinks and made sure I was feeling alright.

So the first chance I got I decided to spend some time with Esme.

The day after Edward left, everyone seemed a little blue but none more so than the matriarch or the Cullen family herself. Esme was clearly gloomy and mourning the loss of her slowly dissolving family,

After a slightly quieter breakfast than normal what with most of the household out or busy, I took my dishes to the sink and started washing them myself, Esme was distracted. Scanning the garden like she expected two of her most beloved children to show up at any moment. The noise of me propping a dish on the side to dry caught her attention and she rushed back over to me, ready to shoo me away from the sink.

"Sorry, you seemed a little distracted." I told her with a gentle smile. Her eyes softened and she looked a little guilty, offering me a towel as I finished cleaning.

"I'm sorry Kali, this isn't your fault." I sighed heavily as I dried my hands, I was starting to get fed up of hearing that.

"Yes it is. If I hadn't taken Bella's body then none of this would have happened. I'm sorry, I truly can't apologise enough for the amount of grief I've been. I know I'm a hellion at the best of times, but I don't usually go as far as I did. I guess without the consequences of my real body and my own life, I didn't care. And I should have cared, I'm so sorry Esme." I hung my head in shame as the tears gathered in my eyes. The emotional torrent bursting forth as I sniffled into my shirt.

Cool fingers gently tilted my chin and Esme's soft smile came into view.

"Oh Kali, you may have set in motion a chain of events but you didn't set out to do any of this. You were afraid, afraid of what would happen to you and no one can blame you for that. We all acted rashly, but everything was going haywire. No one is at fault for this. For now we all have to carry on and do our best to get it right this time." I nodded against her palm and sniffled.

Esme gently wiped away the tears that had fallen and I hastily rubbed at my eyes to remove the rest.

"Yeah, okay, sorry- I just feel so bad and you're all being so good to me, I've done nothing to deserve it." Esme gave me a playful smile.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. Rose, Emmett, and myself all argued for you to be treated better when you came to. You've grown on them in your own way and I couldn't bear the thought of you waking up to the same treatment as before, not after what happened." Her knuckles lightly rubbed across my heart, as if she were trying to stroke the fragile organ better. "We need to stick together, to get you back home and to make things right again."

Esme's quiet determination made me nod again, though more resolutely.

"Right... I'm not sure how to do that though...and there are some things I just can't tell you." Esme raised a curious eyebrow but gave me another smile.

"I understand, it has something to do with how you know Bella already, doesn't it?" My heart clenched at her correct assumption and I briefly winced making Esme look guilty as she fussed over me, easing me onto a bar stool. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry Kali! You don't have to answer, oh I am so careless sometime." She scolded herself as she made me a glass of water.

I grinned and took some steadying breaths.

"You? Careless? Perish the thought, I think you've remembered to feed me more than either of my parents ever did." I teased, making her stop her flustering and smile, she elegantly took the seat next to me and handed me the water as she brushed the hair out of my eyes. I grinned gratefully and took hearty gulps as I studied her.

Esme truly was beautiful, in the classic way that old early Hollywood movie starlets had perfected. Her warm smile lit up the room and made me feel welcome and wanted, it was an unusual experience for me.

I had already mentioned to the Cullen's that I was a foster child, the memories were old and hazy but I could still picture my birth Mother well. She was the polar opposite of Esme, she had ice blonde hair and she was pretty in a girl-next-door way, she also wasn't a good Mom. My brother and I weren't abused with ill intent, my Mother had given birth to my brother when she was barely 18 and I came along barely a year later, she was young, single and had very little support. I don't think she was an alcoholic, but she loved to go out and drink, far too much for a Mother. Sometimes a neighbour would watch us but mostly we were left on our own, my brother could work the can opener and we would eat anything tinned or packaged.

Back then the world had started changing and new standards had been put into place, it was the little old lady in the flat across from us that had discovered our poor living conditions and just how often we were left alone. Social services had been called and we were taken away from my Mother who screamed like a banshee that she had done nothing wrong and promised she'd get us back. I didn't see her again. Unlike some of the children, my brother and I were lucky and got snatched up by an eager family that wanted to take us away to America for a fresh start.

My new Mom and Dad were good people, they struggled to understand me sometimes but my Dad had instilled a love for mechanics in me after he discovered just how fast I picked it up and my brother had joined the marines when he came of age. They loved us both and were forever telling us how proud they were, I loved them too and I missed them so much. I found myself lamenting all the times I didn't call after I left home or blew off a visit because I was tired or busy.

Comparing them to Esme was nearly impossible. They knew me and had learned to love me, Esme seemed ready to accept me the moment I woke up. Her heart was so big I couldn't picture her being a killer and it seemed obscene to even put the word anywhere near her.

As she rested her arm on the breakfast counter, the afternoon sun that had leaked inside from the giant windows, lit her up like her skin was bejewelled. I couldn't help but stare in fascination as her skin twinkled in front of me. Esme caught me looking and smiled.

"It may sound vain, but I do enjoy seeing myself in the sun, even if no one else is supposed to." She told me conspiratorially making me chuckle and reach out to touch her dazzling arm, I half expected to feel the tell-tale bumps of set diamonds and was mildly surprised by the smoothness of her skin.

"It is so pretty, especially on girls." I told her with a cheeky wink, she giggled and hopped off the bar stool.

"Oh I don't know, I think Carlisle's very pretty in the sunlight." She told me fondly as she took the empty glass back to the sink. "So, is there anything you feel like doing today?" She asked over her shoulder as she rinsed the glass.

I was a little taken back by question and took a second to think about it.

"Oh, uh, I hadn't really given it any thought. What did you have planned for today?" I asked, not really wanting to be any more of a bother than I already was. Her eyes briefly darted to the garden and she hesitated. "Did you want to do some gardening?" I guessed.

Esme nodded and dried her hands,

"It is a rather nice day for October, and I wanted to ready some of the plants for winter." She explained, I jumped down from the stool and smiled.

"Then I'll help you." She looked ready to protest but I held up a hand to stop her before she started. "If you're going to tell me I shouldn't because I'm still recovering; don't. I feel a lot better today and I'd really like to get a bit of fresh air, if I can help you, than even better." I hesitantly added, "Unless you wanted some alone time, which I can totally understand." Esme's smile softened and she gently took my hand.

"Well in that case, I think I could find some less strenuous things for you to do, just promise not to lift anything heavy and to tell me if you're not feeling up to it anymore, alright?" She bargained. I raised 3 fingers and grinned.

"Girl guides honour, come on let's get protecting nature!" I told her as I gave her a light tug towards the back door. Esme rolled her eyes fondly and released me.

"Just a moment." She practically disappeared and returned with a coat, wellies, scarf and a hat, as quick as a flash. "It's nice out but it's still chilly, I wouldn't want you to catch a cold, least of all right now." I nodded and thanked her, pulling on all the garments.

"Alright, I am ready, Momma-bear! Let's do this!" I was surprisingly pumped to be gardening of all things, but whilst it was nice to be outside again, I really just wanted to help out in some way. Esme picked up a box of garden tools and opened the door for me, watching me walk like she expected me to drop dead at any second.

Whilst their property was vast, Esme had cornered herself off a nice square of land around the back of the house, that caught the most sun throughout the day, her little garden was fenced off by an array of flowering bushes that I didn't know the name of. Already I could smell the change as the slowly withering blossoms permeated the air, adding to Fork's naturally earthy scent.

It was dark when I had been out here last night and I didn't have time to really appreciate what she had done with her green thumb. Her garden was surrounded by low rose bushes and Hydrangea, inside she had dug up perfectly sized sections and filled them with beautiful flowers, most of which were surprisingly still in bloom. White's, pinks, plum, lilacs, blues, rosy reds and bright yellow lit up the ground, making the whole place just a touch more magical. At the entrance to her garden, she had built an arch and let roses climb up the sides, though they were starting to droop from the change in season. At the very end, the garden opened up into a modern wooden gazebo where Esme could sit and admire her hard work.

Esme stopped leading the way, catching me staring at the pretty bushes and sniffing them like a bloodhound.

"Do you like flowers, Kali?" I nodded as I straightened to continue following her.

"I love flowers, when I was young I used to wish I had a garden to grow flowers and food in. Though I was very insistent that there was a chocolate bar plant and when I was fostered I was very surprised to find out there was no such thing." I told her with a light chuckle. Esme gave me a hesitant smile and I poked her in the arm. "I'm not sad about being fostered, I'm 25, I learned to live with that a very long time ago." I explained much to Esme's abashment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't meant to-" She cut off, unsure exactly what she had done.

I giggled at her tense reactions and strolled passed her, further into her pretty sanctuary.

"Come on, want to introduce me? I've never been very good with plant names." Esme's smile softened and she caught up with me pointing to the neat rows of plants and the surrounding bushes and arches.

"Well those are rose of Sharon, perfect for round here where they bloom late and thrive off of wet soil. We have some Begonia's, I do love how bright they are. Oh, my Freesias are over here and Shirley Tulips, they are such an interesting plum colour." She gestured to the pretty pink bush flowers I had been inspecting earlier and continued pointing to each bush and flower as she continued.

"Never liked the name Sharon or Shirley, always reminds me of grumpy old cougars in soap operas for some reason." Esme laughed and covered her mouth delicately.

"Oh my, well I never quite thought of it like that!" I grinned and patted her on the shoulder fondly.

"I'll probably end up opening your eyes to many things." I nudged her with a wink making her giggle again and swat me away playfully.

"Honestly Kali, we'll never get any work done at this rate." I stood to attention and saluted her, awaiting her instructions.

"Apologies Ma'am, what are your orders?" She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.

"Well I need to get some Evergreen branches but in the meantime, could you till the soil around these?" She gestured to the white flowers with long thick petals. "The Dahlia's will be withering soon but the bulbs will keep until next year. I won't be far." I nodded and was handed a little trowel from the garden tool box she set down, as I set off to work.

My Mom wasn't big on gardening because she had Hayfever and would scorn the summer from the window with a tissue to her nose. My Dad however, grew up on a farm and when we moved to America we had quite a decent garden, so I had been taught basics and knew a little about why I was doing what I was doing. I briefly wondered if I should be watering them and turned to ask Esme before realising she had shot off to get her tree branches. I shrugged and chose not to bother, it had rained yesterday but she might have some special feed she wants to give them for all I know.

It didn't take long for me to stir up the soil to stop it from drying out before winter came, I was on my third row of plants when Esme got back with an insane amount of tree slung over her shoulder. My eyes bulged and I stumbled in my crouch at her sudden dishevelled appearance, her hair was a mess and her clothes were covered in mossy scratches from bark.

"Damn Esme, did you get into a fight with Groot?" I asked as I stood and pulled a stray twig out of her hair.

"The best branches are the ones towards the top." She explained plainly with a pleased smile. I grinned at her and together we started burying the more delicate flowers underneath a cosy layer of Evergreen branches.

Whilst we worked Esme was a little quiet except for telling me what to do next, at first I didn't think much of it but as the day dragged on and I caught her looking at me again over the dying tulips I was hiding under green needles.

"Something on your mind?" I finally asked her with a kind smile.

She hesitated and gently lowered the branch she had been positioning, wiping her hands on her work clothes.

"I was just...just thinking about everything. I'm a little lost, it's strange to be gardening like everything's normal." My smile slipped into a grimace and I straightened from my crouch.

"I see...is there anything I can do to help?" I offered, unsure. Esme gave me a watery smile and shook her head.

"Not to my knowledge, I just want everything back the way it was. I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound like I don't want you here." She quickly apologised making me smile wistfully at her.

"It's okay, I know what you mean. You're all great people, truly, but I want to be home and as safe as Bella is, I'm sure she wants the same." I explained amicably, the longer I stayed here the further away home really seemed and it was starting to weigh heavy on my heart.

"...Bella's in your body, isn't she?" The sudden accusation made my pulse speed up and I clutched at my chest weakly. Esme noticed and seemed torn between getting an answer and making sure I was alright. "I'm sorry, forget I said anything." She finally settled for and helped me to her gazebo to sit down.

I took a moment to study her face, shining with concern and that ethereal beauty. Even though they weren't stupid and may figure it out themselves, I couldn't tell them that they were characters from a story. I could probably prove it with my knowledge alone, though that wasn't top notch seeing as I wasn't a die-hard fan.

That wasn't the main issue though, the big problem was could I do that to them? Could anyone do that to someone else? How do you tell someone they don't exist when they have a century worth of feelings and thoughts and memories? You just can't; I just can't. No one deserved to hear that. Who knows, I might not be right at all, maybe a world is real once it's written but no one is aware, maybe they existed before the book was ever penned. There are a million theories I could postulate but nothing I could prove, so who was I to tell anyone they aren't real and offer up no explanation?

I had so many questions but all I knew was that my resolve must stay strong and I had to come up with something that sounded believable because they couldn't find Bella, I was sure of it. Taking the time difference into account, she couldn't be at my home the near thousand miles away, and I was scared to find out what really was there. Maybe this was some alternate reality where I had never been adopted and grew up in dozens of different homes until I got buried under the system.

With my mind more or less made up I tested out my new lie.

"When I said to Carlisle that I was a God from another realm or alternative world, I wasn't exactly lying." Esme eyes flew open and she gaped at me. "Wait, no, I'm not a God. Just from another world, or plane of existence if you like. My world is almost exactly the same as yours but we're about ten years ahead of you and..." I trailed off as I thought of how to explain how I knew Bella.

Esme took my hesitation as a sign of nerves and rubbed my back soothingly.

"It's okay Kali, just tell me what you can." She requested kindly, now over the shock of misunderstanding I was a God of Time. Though that would make an interesting backstory...

"Right...well, where I'm from these events have been recorded. Some very important things happened to your family and it became common knowledge in my future." Esme looked a little disbelieving and poked a hole in my story.

"So everyone knows about Vampires?" I winced and shook my head, adding in that lie could be disastrous.

"Not exactly, a lot of people don't believe what happened is true and a lot of the facts are embellished. You're like a legend passed around a campfire, and some people believe you exist and others don't." I tried to nudge the idea of a fantasy-romance book into more of a myth, so that it sounded like they weren't characters in a story.

Esme watched me carefully.

"So you know what happens to us ten years from now?" I shook my head again.

"It's more of an event from now to the next 4ish years, Bella is that event. I know how she met your family up to when she joined. However I've already mucked that up royally just by taking her place and rejecting Edward." Esme frowned as I stared into the distance, praying that she'd leave it at that.

"So, Edward was important to this?" I nodded glumly and pulled my arms around myself as a chill wind passed by.

"You could say that, though you all are and me chasing off Alice has probably wrecked things too."

Esme was silent for a moment and I turned to face her better, trying to decipher her thoughts by her stone-like face.

"This is all very hard to take in." She finally said, giving me a searching look almost hoping I'd jump out with an "only joking". I gave her a sad smile and patted her arm.

"I know, why'd you think I didn't want to tell you? I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be sharing the details of what does happen, so can we leave it at that?" I pleaded as a shudder ran over me, the temperature dropping as the afternoon sun began to set. Esme gave me a soft smile and stroked a stray hair out of my face.

"Thank you for being honest with me." I don't think I've ever felt like more of an asshole than I did at that moment. "Come on, let's get you in, you're starting to get cold and I think it's about time for your dinner." I plastered a smile on my face and let her drag me back inside, ignoring the ache in my chest that had nothing to do with my recent calamities.

So, on the first day I lied.

"You're from the future?!" Emmett burst in the kitchen to ask me as I was spooning a bowlful of porridge, packed full of berries.

"If 'oo like." I told him around a mouthful of my breakfast, Emmett looked thoroughly underwhelmed by my answer.

"Well, I gotta know what happens!" I raised an eyebrow and put down my spoon, swallowing I span in the barstool and turned to him.

"That's a very vague demand, wanna clarify?" Emmett looked stumped for a moment.

"What movies are coming out?" He finally asked, I snorted at his question but shook my head and dutifully answered.

"You're getting all the Avengers films and the Marvel cinematic universe goes insane, let's see, a new Willy Wonka, a new Evil Dead, a new Star Wars...a lot of remakes come to think of it. We're just getting into live action Disney film remakes, so far it's not amazing but I have high hopes." Emmett looked a little disbelieving but nodded along.

"Okay what games are we getting?" I helped myself to another spoon of porridge and blueberries before answering.

"New elder scrolls, new Fallout, some more Silent Hills and Resident Evil's...Goat Simulator..." Emmett burst out laughing.

"Now I know you're messing with me!" I snorted and continued to eat.

Emmett pulled up a seat next to me and watched me with fascination.

"Wha?" I asked as I ate, trying not to burn my tongue on my hot food.

"Does that taste good? It smells like hot garbage." I laughed and put a hand up to my mouth so I didn't make him wear my breakfast.

"Come on dude, I'm eating!" I grinned and elbowed his rock hard stomach. He mimicked my expression and lightly nudged me, though a little too lightly like he was unsure just how rough he could play with me. I rolled my eyes and finished up my food, taking my bowl to the wink to wash it.

"So what are you doing today?" He opened with, I looked up from the sink and smiled.

"Pretty sure you're gonna spend some time playing games with me, we did plan to after all." His face brightened and the eager beaver ran to the living room and came back with an armful of games that he deposited on the kitchen counter proudly.

"What do you fancy? Something fun?" He held up Destroy All Humans for the PS2. "Something adventurous?" He produced Elder Scrolls: Oblivion with a flourish as I dried my hands. "Something scary?" Digging into his pile he pulled out Condemned: Criminal origins. "Or just something that should have never been made." Finally he showed me 50 cent's: Bulletproof making me snort like a pig.

"Oh well damn that is some fine gameplay right there, lemme have a look." I threw the towel back on the side and spread out his games collection on the table so I could get a better idea of what was on offer. Almost immediately I spotted a game with an eerily family pair of twins in black and white with a single red thread tying them to one another.

Reverently, I lifted it in the air and let my mouth fall open as I gasped.

"The God's have spoken." Emmett studied my choice and a feral grin spread across his face.

"Oh damn, you go hard! Let's do this!"

He grabbed his games and I held onto my pick for the day as we made our way back to the living room, a square in the centre of the living room had been made into a perfect viewing area with an insanely huge TV and big corner sofa. As I took my seat the room started getting darker, Emmett was running around pulling curtains and blinds down over the gigantic open windows.

"Gotta cultivate the atmosphere." He reasoned as he took the game from me and put it in his well loved, chunky Xbox. I agreed and grabbed a pillow to snuggle up with and probably hide behind.

I saw a familiar red butterfly flutter across the screen.

"The lost village..." I felt a giddy joy that made my heartbeat speed up, forcing me to calm down lest the aching start.

"You seem really happy." Emmett told me with a pleased smile.

"This is nostalgic as fuck for me! Project Zero 2 was hell and I friggin' loved it!" I gushed excitedly as he hit start and cut off the opening cutscene. "I was watching that!" I exclaimed in mock annoyance, I probably already knew the opening by heart but it had been many years since I'd last even thought about this game.

"I've barely played this one, I wanna get it started." He reasoned with a grin, my response was to thwack him around the head with a pillow, but soon my attention was drawn back to the humongous screen as the familiar, chilling tale unfolded.

"What is wrong with you?! She's in the fucking wall, take her picture, take it like she's a cheap cam girl and she's desperate for the dollar!" I screamed at Emmett over his shoulder as he missed the ghost again.

"That is not helping, and she keeps vanishing!" Emmett yelled back as he raised the camera on the ghost and waited for the buzzing noise and the bright orange glow of a Fatal Frame.

"Pussy excuses- Now! Yes! Fuck you whore, get back in your box!" I whooped with joy as Emmett finally killed the bitch

"Why...?" The ghost whispered sadly as she faded into nothing.

"Cause you's a dumb Ho!" I taunted as Emmett fell back on the sofa laughing hard.

"Are you ever going to stop insulting them?" He managed to choke out between peels of laughter. I snorted and grabbed my cooling hot chocolate off the table that Esme had so kindly made me when she popped in to check up on us.

"Maybe when they stop trying to kill us I'll be nicer...Oh, grab the medicine, your bitch ass needs it." Emmett bumped my shoulder playfully but did as he was told and got a Herbal Medicine from a drawer in some creepy rundown Japanese mansion.

"You aren't much better than me." He retorted as he started playing again, hunting for some notebook or the other.

"Oh please, you made me do that shitty chapter where we lose the fucking camera and THE BOSS OF THE ENTIRE GAME WITH ONE HIT KILL ABILITIES WAS CHASING ME!" I yelled, expressing my anguish, I had panicked so badly my chest had started hurting during that loathsome scene and I'd had to pause. "I was stuck in a Goddamn cupboard and you were laughing your ass off!" Emmett thumped the sofa as he was overtaken by laughter, nodding in agreement.

"It's true! You were hilarious, how did yelling 'TITS!' at Sae over and over again help, exactly?" I folded my arms and pouted.

"It is an age old tradition, don't forget this game's like 12 years old for me, though it did get re-released again on the Wii...which I don't think you have yet and I dunno if you'll enjoy it just cause you're a Vampire..." I trailed off as I considered how frustrating it might be to play as a slow human because motion controls probably couldn't pick up Vampire speed.

Emmett shook his head absently as he focused back on the game.

"Wii? Sound's like a pretty pun-intensive console." I snorted as I remembered thinking the same thing years ago.

"At first, but it's been out so long now that no one makes fun of it anymore, they really should. It's a bad name.- Wait!" Emmett paused in making the girly looking Mayu walk down a curling staircase.

"What?"

"I recognise this scene...ohh, you're about to meet Falling Woman. Arm yourself!" I commanded and pointed at the screen like I was directing troupes.

"Woman in Box, Drowned Woman, Falling Woman, That Annoying Albino Bastard...do you know any of their names?" He mused.

"Yeah, Sae, The Kusabi, and Akane and Azami. They are literally the only ones that matter. You know these games were based around true legends right? One twin forced into killing the other to appease God's, a single woman taking a never-ending tattoo of holly and snakes for the sins of her village until they tattoo her eyeballs...I think that's why I liked these so much, there was an element of realness to a game that is completely unreal. Plus playing with friends is always a blast." I gushed fangirlishly.

Emmett gave me a sideways look and smiled.

"I like you Kali."

"Steady on, you have a wife." Emmett paused the game and shook his head.

"Not like that! I mean, you're funny and you know games and comics... I haven't met many people that aren't naturally intimidated by me because of my size or aren't just creepy teen girls asking for my number when Rose isn't with me... What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry we were shitty to you and I just want you to know that no matter what happens, if this gets sorted or not, I'll have your back. You make Rose happy and that would have been enough for me but spending time with you like this, it's been fun."

My smile turned watery and I clamped onto his gigantic arm in a tight hug,

"Awh! That's so friggin' sweet! Y'know the minute I realised where I was I wanted to hang out with you? I knew you'd be the most fun out of the lot, I'm surprised to say you've had some fierce competition!" I grinned up at him before shoving him away playfullly. "Enough mush, let us game!" He cackled madly along with me as we descended into our 5th hour of game time.

So on the second day, I made a new friend.

"That shirt is way too tight on you." I glanced down at the purple blouse that I looked ready to pop out of. I grinned at Rose and started squeezing my meagre cleavage together between my arms.

"Damn, you're right. Sorry Sugar Plum, but unless you're looking for a free show today, I think we're going to need to try another shirt." Rose hummed for a moment.

"Most of the clothes you've worn are out drying whilst the suns still out, none of us really like the noise of the drier. We're down to Alice's regular clothes, she didn't have much that was baggy but you've worn all of them. Want me to run to Charlie's and steal you some of Bella's things?" I groaned remembering that state of Bella's closet making Rose laugh. "Yeah I did that whenever I saw her walk up in those boring necked, long sleeved tops or flannel shirts...how about I throw something in the drier for you quickly for now and we can do some shopping?" My eyes flew open and my head swivelled around to Rose.

"Hot damn I love me a good shop! Oh, uh, but can I? I can't really go spending Bella's money and you guys really have spoiled me enough-" Rose cut me off with an eye roll as she thrust her hands on her hips.

"Ugh, don't you start. Bella was just as bad with accepting gifts, it's my money and I'll spend it on who I like, however I like." She justified and looked down at me in annoyance.

Grinning cheekily, I tugged on a long blonde curl.

"Oh hush, regular people don't ever let others spend that much on them. Heck, the most expense I go to is on birthdays. If you want to lavish me with expensive treats then I won't stop you, as long as you know it's not a necessity." Rose smiled smugly.

"Good, then it's settled. I'll get your clothes and then I'm taking you to the mall. Port Angeles doesn't have much but it'll have a few thing's I'm sure." I nodded along and let her make the plans as she zipped off downstairs, in that time I decided to begin my mourning routine if we were going out so I grabbed a quick shower and brushed my teeth and hair.

Once all that was done I opened the bedroom door to a pouty Rose.

"What's wrong, Snookums?" I asked as I secured the towel around my small chest.

"Carlisle said you're not ready to walk around for that long yet..." She grumbled kicking idly at the floor, looking like a grumpy child. I took a seat on the bed next to her and laid my sopping wet hair on her shoulder, much to her annoyance.

"Don't worry about it, we'll go soon, I won't be like this forever and we could go further than Forks if you like?" I offered amicably.

Rose gave a long sigh but nodded.

"Yeah okay, but you still need clothes today." She wasn't entirely wrong, before either of us could say anymore on the matter there was a knock on the door and I found myself underneath the quilt we had been sitting on, before I could think to react.

"Not now Emmy!" Rose called out into the hallway, probably being able to tell it was her Husband just by the sound of his heavy footsteps.

"I brought you my laptop, why not shop online?" He offered through the door. Rose jumped up and opened the door a creak, taking the computer from him and giving him a quick peck.

"You're so smart sometimes. Be a dear and bring up the clothes from the drier once it's done." She cooed as she shut the door in his face to protect my modesty.

"Well there we go, come on, we must shop!" I demanded with a grin and shop we did, Rose spent an inordinate amount on me on various websites and refused to let me thrift shop on eBay. We got some clingy skirts that I favoured, a few tight dresses, jeans and shorts that caught my fancy, and blouse's, shirts, crop tops, baggy sweaters, turtle neck and strap tops, galore! Rose wasn't as fond of my colour schemes but agreed with me that pinks were out of the question, not just with how badly it clashed with my hair.

"I can't stand pink." She grumbled as we scrolled past a row of flowery dresses in garish pinks. I giggled and ran my fingers through my damp hair.

"I used to have pink hair y'know? Bright neon pink and baby pastel pink too, I've done my hair most colours." Rose raised her eyebrow.

"Blue?" She questioned, studying me like she was debating what would suit me best.

"Navy, turquoise, grey-blue, green-blue, green, yellow...that one glowed in the dark too!" I listed off much to her amusement. "But red is just the default I go back to because most work places don't kick up much of a fuss about red heads." Rose snorted and shook her head.

"I can sort of see it really, sounds like exactly what you'd do with your hair." I grinned and nudged her, she was practically leaning against me as we both laid on our fronts, propped up on elbows with the laptop between the two of us. It felt nice to have girly time like this, Esme and Rose had been making sure I got that in spades recently and I couldn't say I wasn't loving it.

"Right, so what else do we need?" She asked me and hovered the mouse over the address bar as soon as she finished paying.

"Uh, let's see...we haven't done underwear or shoes? Oh, and jackets I guess...I could probably do with a bag too..." She nodded and began typing. As soon as she hit enter, I spotted about 8 things on the homepage that I loved. "Ooooh, everything's good!" I exclaimed quietly and bounced on the bed, annoying Rose and making the laptop bounce with me.

"Quit it, you're not a jumping bean!" She scolded and put a hand on my back to still me. I grinned and laid down on my front completely, resting my head in my arms.

"Ooh, gimmie a massage?" Rose sighed heavily but sat up on her knees. "I was only kidding, you don't have to." She shrugged and began gently kneading my mostly bare back, the towel was only just covering my ass but I was with Rose so I didn't really care.

"Well I had to do about 6 months worth of massage therapy when I did my Doctorate, might as well put it to use. You get shoe shopping." She demanded and briefly stopped to shove a pillow under my chin.

"Rose, you are a literal goddess I think this is the female equivalent of beer and a blow job. Shopping and a massage." She snorted loudly and covered her mouth.

"You do come out with some crap, but as long as you're happy." I made a noise of agreement and got back to shopping.

After my fifth pair of shoes and the third knot in my spine loosened, I looked over my shoulder up at Rose who seemed in her own little world.

"Hey Rose, we're friends, right?" She seemed a little startled at my sudden question and from being dragged back to reality, but she nodded easily and gave me a curious look.

"Sure, why'd you ask?" I gave her a beaming grin.

"Can you be my sister instead?" Rose stopped massaging my spine and raised an eyebrow, her expression tightened briefly.

"Are you asking me to change you into a Vampire?" She quietly confirmed. I blanched and rolled over to get a better look at her.

"Hell no! I mean spiritually, like lets practise Witchcraft together and get mani-pedi's, not go Dracula on my ass!"

Rose exhaled and relaxed.

"Thank god, I'm not having this discussion with you too." I shrugged and explained my thoughts to her.

"It's not that it wouldn't be cool, but if I find a willing person, I can already be a Vampire. Plus this is Bella's body, not mine, and I don't know if she still wants to be changed but I don't and I'm not doing her any harm by choosing to stay human." Rose smiled and started putting loose plaits in my hair, I was pleased she already knew the things I liked to do with my red tresses.

"Well, that's a good way to look at it, maybe when you're better you can borrow my body for a bit. See how much it sucks eating deer." She teased and I grimaced at her.

"Fuck that! That nearly happened when I borrowed Jasper, I had to jump into a Goddamn lake so I didn't leap at them! I don't get your Vampire instincts so the idea of wanting that in a human brain is so, so, so gross." I shuddered and made Rose laugh.

"You get used to it, but it's not pleasant. You done looking for shoes?" I nodded and nudged the laptop back towards her to show her the shopping cart. "Not bad, I like those heels. Let's hope Bella can walk in them, too." I groaned.

"Ugh she's like a newborn faun." I whined as I recalled her famous lack of coordination.

"In more ways than one." Rose muttered loud enough for me to hear, I snickered at her bitchiness. "You sure you only want five? You can get more?" I rolled my eyes at her over graciousness.

"I'm not gonna need more than five and if there is some sort of occasion I imagine you'll make me go shopping for that separately." Rose looked thoughtful for a moment but nodded.

"Yeah, you probably won't need anymore right now. Which first, jacket's, underwear or bags?" I hummed as she waited to type in the next site.

"Let's get underwear out of the way, I'm sure you're dying to know what my unmentionables look like." I was given another eye roll and handed back the laptop as Rose continued plaiting my hair.

"Oooh love me some lace... You think its frowned upon to want to own latex underwear? I've always wanted a latex dress..." I trailed off as I scrolled down pictures of semi-naked women modelling the fall line. Rose snickered.

"Depends if you want to look cheap or not." I raised an eyebrow and shot her a shocked look over my shoulder.

"Latex is more expensive than most clothes I've ever bought! You can't call it cheap! Besides, wouldn't it be cool to be the stereotypical Vampire in leather? But, y'know, with latex?

"That sounds more like a sexual fantasy, being a Vampire isn't all that romantic, hunting is pretty gross and everyone seems to gain a temper." I snorted into the pillow I had tucked underneath me.

"Well shit, I definitely shouldn't turn into one, my temper is foul as it is." Rose gave a little hum of laughter but seemed distracted. Thankfully she was one of the more blunt members of her family and spoke her mind.

"Why would you want me as a sister?" I stopped shopping and turned to face her.

"Who wouldn't? You're kind of amazing Rose, and that's not including all the Vampire parts. Plus I've always wanted a sister, so it works out. Unless you wanna be my close Aunt or familiar Cousin?" She shook her head in bemusement.

"Let's stick with sister. I've always been relatively close with Alice even if we clashed on a lot of things, but she chose the family I came with." She seemed a little hesitant but continued on bravely. "It's unusual to be wanted just for me."

I grinned up at her from my propped up position on the bed, she had finished doing my plaits and was studying me with an expression I couldn't decipher. Reaching out, I grabbed hold of her hand.

"Rosalie Hale, you are by far the most sisterly Vampire I could ever hope to ask for, would you do me the honour of becoming my kin until the day Bella comes home?" I proposed to her theatrically, but she still laughed lightly.

"I will. Just try to stay alive until then, cause I almost like you enough to change you myself if I hear that heart stop again." She poked me in the chest gently as she stood up, I gaped at her.

"Well hot damn, I didn't know you liked me that much!" I exclaimed as she pre-emptively opened the door a creak and Emmett's gigantic arm handed her my clothes.

"Thanks Em, we'll be down soon." She turned back to me with a slow smile. "I think I've always wanted a sister like you, too. Now get dressed, we can go play with Edwards car, it's a shame he'll never notice the paint job we all did to the cars before we take it apart."

"Wait, what paint job?" Emmett called through the door, his voice laced with concern.

My delicate heart fluttered in my chest at the sincerity of her words and how well she already knew me.

So on the third day, I gained a sister.

"Kali, I warned you." Carlisle scolded me lightly as he held a stethoscope against my protesting chest.

"Ughhh...I feel like shit. Give it to me straight Doc, can you put me out of my misery?" Carlisle gave me a sympathetic smile and fixed the top two buttons of my PJ shirt before I could blink.

"You've been far too active since you woke up, it's painkillers and bed rest today. Only get up to go to the bathroom-"

"Or to escape certain death?" I chimed in making him sigh lightly.

"Yes, I suppose that would also be an adequate excuse. I want you to eat before I give you anything, so just hang in there a little longer." He told me kindly. I groaned in reply and turned onto my side in a vain attempt to escape the throb of my chest.

Apparently spending short periods of time gardening, a day playing horror games in the dark, an afternoon mutating Edward's car, and half an hour as a Vampire was apparently not recommended for recent heart attack patients. Go figure. I woke up this morning to the concerned faces of half the family hovering over me like I was on my death bed. I realised as I woke that my mouth was moving slightly and I was making sounds, apparently I had been making pained noises in my sleep loud enough to get everyone's attention. As soon as I woke Carlisle sent them out to give himself some space to inspect me. Even now I couldn't help but repeatedly groan as if it would somehow alleviate the hurt.

I felt fragile and Carlisle's cold hand to my forehead almost hurt even though he was as delicate as could be.

"You have a fever." He told me, seemingly unsurprised.

"Whoops?" I croaked out and coughed lightly to clear my throat. The small cough sent a shockwave of agony throughout my chest. "Fuuu-huh-uuuck..." I groaned as the tears gathered in my eyes and I began to feel frustrated. I was sleepy and definitely hadn't gotten much rest, it felt early and all I wanted to do was die in a ditch.

"That's one way to put it, I'll get you something to bring it down." He left giving me a sympathetic smile.

As soon as the door shut behind him I sat up and clumsily made my way to the bathroom, nearly headbutting the door frame as I entered. The moment I sat on the toilet, I tilted and ending up leaning most of my body against the cold marble wall. I groaned in relief at the sensation of something other than uncomfortable heat and agony. I'm not sure how long I stayed there but it was long enough to cause someone concern, as a knock on the door woke me out of my hazy state.

"Kali, sweetheart, are you alright?" The ever loving voice of Esme drifted through the door and I tried to get my words out.

"Yeah, m'good, just sleepy." Having finished my business I flushed and washed my hands, leaning my forearms on the sink to steady myself. I splashed my face but the sudden shock of cold water made my chest clench and the pain afterwards left me spasming on my knees.

I was on the floor with my palms barely supporting me from kissing the tiles, when cool arms wrapped around me and gently lifted me, it hurt but I knew I'd get back to bed quicker and I just wanted to lay down. Esme quickly got me situated and produced a bowl of steaming hot porridge in front of me.

"Please eat Kali, it'll help and you need something in your system before Carlisle can give you any more painkillers." I accepted her reasoning but I really didn't want to eat. I felt queasy and crummy and ready to die.

"Can't" I panted out, my breathing had become laboured since my tumble in the bathroom. I turned away from the bowl, even the smell of what I usually considered delicious was making me nauseas.

Esme frowned sadly and took my temperature with her hand like her husband had done, putting the food far away from me, thankfully.

"Do you think you could try some toast for me?" She bargained, I thought about it and nodded weakly.

"Alright, but no butter, please...my stomach is rolling." Nodding she hurried out and took my breakfast with her. I was almost sad to see it leave, I don't know what Esme did but her cooking was perfect and wasting any of it was slightly heartbreaking.

I was sweating and groaning again as I tried to get comfortable in the constricting sheets when the door opened and the last person I expected to see walked in and took a seat next to the bed.

Jasper looked a little lost and was watching me like I would kick the bucket any second.

"Howdy, stranger." I greeted weakly with a smile that more likely resembled a grimace. "What brings you to these here parts?" He snorted softly at my bad imitation of his accent.

"I came to help." He told me with an almost unsure smile.

"Yeah?" I panted out as the ache started growing again from lying in the wrong position.

"Yeah. I can distract you from your pain, though not much but maybe long enough for Esme to get some food down you." I rolled over again and got a better look at him.

"You've been avoiding me again, why the sudden change of heart?" He looked away guiltily, I'd hit the nail on the head.

Jasper had been avoiding me since Edward left, that much was obvious. I have no idea how much time he spends with the family on an everyday basis, but everytime I was there he suddenly wasn't. The last time I pulled him up on this he had said that he was staying away cause we seemed to work each other up, he wasn't entirely wrong. We definitely did clash in a way that led us to having an epic game of hide and seek across Forks, but to both our credit, we were pretty worked up anyway. He was clearly upset about Alice if the conversations I had overheard as Scruff were any indication, and I was being a hellish brat because I'd just woken up in a new body and all of a sudden I'm being interrogated by Vampire's. Can anyone blame us for acting like idiots?

Regardless, I'd like to think we were moving on from that and I wasn't going to flip my shit just from having a conversation with him. There was just something about him that made me want to talk with him even if the only thing we had in common was our love of literature and even that was vastly different.

"I'm sorry." He finally said after a drawn out pause. I reached out for him and almost nervously he extended his arm, it was plain to see I couldn't make the stretch to him and I was happy he had given me his hand. Even if I had taken it off last time.

Weakly I pulled him closer and rested his cool palm on my forehead, I sighed with relief and closed my eyes.

"Don't ignore me, okay?" I asked quietly, suddenly feeling a little exposed in my pleading. I half expected Jasper to snatch his hand back and make fun of me, instead he relaxed his hand on top of my head and gave me a rare smile.

"Alright." He agreed gently, I briefly opened my eyes and caught the soft look he gave me, I leaned into his palm with a smile just as waves of calm started to wash over me.

"Thank you." I told him sincerely, I was enjoying looking at him for a moment without any lingering hostility sadly that was ruined when I started seeing little tendrils in the corner of my eyes and Jasper started changing colours. "Uh, am I hallucinating? You're turning green." I asked, unsure, but the welcoming forced calm was stopping me from freaking out about it.

"I imagine you might be." He looked a little worried and glanced anxiously at the door, as if hoping someone would come in with a complete cure for me any second.

"Ah, that sucks. Can you use your gift to make the little fingers go away?" The tendrils that were dancing at the edge of my vision, vanished whenever I tried to look at them but had grown from threads into pudgy fingers. I closed my eyes and groaned, swiping lightly at the air to make them leave.

"I don't think so Darlin, hallucinations aren't emotions, they're out of my control." He told me softly, making my stomach wiggle even in my dying state. "But let's see if I can't do anything about that pain. No fighting me, now." He teased and I gave him a weak smirk.

"No orgasms, please." Jasper faltered for a second but his face broke out into a grin when he saw my amusement.

"No promises?" He said playfully just as I felt luxuriating feelings of comfort and peace wash over me.

I wiggled my toes and snuggled further into the covers as I settled into my little cocoon of contentment. The pain was still flaring in my chest but my reaction had changed from "oh god why?" to "yeah, and?" it was a little similar to the effects of morphine. Though only in the way it made me ignore my pain, it was hard to describe really, but it helped.

Jasper kept his cool hand on my forehead and I sighed deeply in happiness, ignoring the straining ache a deep breath took. Sitting like this with him was super nice, but I breathed the covers and smelled my sweat, instantly killing the mood.

"Oh ew, I stink, I'm sorry." I apologised, I was pretty sure anything as strenuous as a shower was out of the question for the moment. Jasper chuckled lightly.

"I wouldn't know, I don't breathe around you." He told me simply with a smile. I raised an eyebrow that disappeared underneath his palm.

"You don't?" I asked Jasper, who's colouring was now starting to resemble Papa Smurf's, but the relaxing feeling spreading within me was making it easy to ignore.

"No Ma'am, I'm not so good with humans, and Bella's blood is particularly appetising." I grinned up at him.

"Tell me I'm tasty?" I jokingly pleaded like a desperate girlfriend. Jasper's shoulders bounced as he quietly chuckled.

"I'm sure you're delicious." He played along combing his cool thumb through my bangs.

"Awh, I bet you say that to all the deer." Jasper laughed louder this time, thoroughly amused by my nonsense. "You're so lovely when you're smiling at me, and not, y'know, trying to break my arm." I gave him a lazy wink and he shook his head fondly.

"I'm sorry about that." He offered sincerely, his expression sobering slightly. I gave him a kind smile in return.

"I'm sorry too, wanna start over?" He gave me a hesitant nod and I gently pried his hand off my forehead and weakly shook it. "My name's Kali, it's nice to meet you, Cowboy." Jasper chuckled and turned my palm over, bringing the back of my hand to his mouth.

"It's a pleasure Darlin, I'm Jasper Hale, formally Whitlock." He kissed my hand gently and laid it back across my chest, putting his frosty hand back to my forehead. I was positive I was blushing but I was more pleased than anything.

"See, we've managed a whole conversation where I haven't tried to verbally abuse you. So no more hiding in your room." I scolded playfully and rolled to my side to get a better look at him. He smirked down at me and said,

"I dunno, my room's pretty nice...and you look like you're about to drop, so I'm not surprised you're low on insults today." I giggled airily.

"Hey, I'm usually quite nice I'll have you know." Jasper looked up at the ceiling and tapped his chin in mock thought.

"That is strange then...were you not aware you're supposed to shake hands not take mine off?" He teased making me laugh and automatically clutch at my chest.

"You threatened to break my arm! Fair's fair Cowboy, besides mine would have taken months to heal, you probably put it back on the second you found it."

Jasper's face fell slightly and he seemed caught in a memory.

"Actually, I forgot all about it, I was more worried about you." I let my smile drop and watched him curiously for a long moment before I voiced a question that had been bugging me.

"Why didn't you let me die?" I quietly asked as we stared at each other. Jasper broke the gaze first and closed his eyes.

"Did you want to die?" He finally asked.

"No, but you wanted to kill me." I interrogated, brushing off his attempt at dodging. "I want to know what changed." Jasper rubbed his temple with his spare hand and furrowed his brow.

"When I woke up, my anger had drained out of me and I was more mystified about how you took off my hand. In a way I knew I deserved it, hell all you had to do is set my arm on fire and you could have killed me, but you didn't. Then finding you on the floor, barely breathing, sort of brought everything to a halt. It was like we'd been playing some dangerous game with your life all day but when it came down to it, I didn't want that victory, especially not in that way." He tried to explain, his voice low. He had clearly given this a lot of thought, more than I had at least. He looked back up at me slowly. "So I left my hand and carried you back here as fast as I could."

I took a moment to think about his words. Thinking about it, I could have killed him with my lighter just by setting that venom soaked shirt on fire. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind though, I wanted vengeance so I took his hand because he threatened to break mine. Killing him outright wasn't something I even considered, I know I had entertained the thought of taking at least one of them down with me, but that was before I knew them better. Still I never wanted Jasper to die.

I was a firm believer in tit for tat. What you did to me I will do to you, perhaps that makes me spiteful but it's how I had learned to respond to negativity. I'm also the type of person that doesn't enjoy lingering threats and sometimes I'll make the first move, but it's mostly a deterrent, which is what I had done with Jasper.

He compared our chase to a game with my life, and I completely agreed, I had used my life and this body as poker chips and bet them without a second thought. Especially when I discovered I had my own little bit of magical luck. Just like him though, I didn't want the game to end either. I couldn't see a happy ending coming from me making the call to end his life when he was helpless and I certainly didn't want to die, who knows, without repercussions I may have continued the chase for the past two weeks.

"I'm glad you changed your mind then." I finally settled for, giving him an easy smile. It was an odd turn of events, to be sure, but I felt like they had made us closer in some way. There's a saying that you truly never know someone until you fight them, and maybe that's what we did, sure we didn't trade physical blows but I fought him for my life in my own way.

Before Jasper could say anything else there was a hesitant knock on the door, he removed his hand from my forehead and straightened in the chair. Esme came in and looked around nervously as if she was worried she had disturbed us.

"I'm sorry Kali, do you think you can try your toast whilst it's still warm?"

Both Jasper and I realised that she had probably heard everything whilst waiting to feed me. Jasper seemed a little embarrassed but stood and took the toast from her.

"I'll make sure she eats it." He promised and Esme closed the door with a sunny smile, seemingly happy that we were finally talking.

I tried to push myself up but it took some effort and my chest started to ache again as the strength of Jasper's Pathokinesis diminished when he moved away from me. His head whipped back round to me as he felt my growing discomfort and I found his palm on my forehead again in milliseconds.

"Sorry, you're a little tough to manipulate." I gave him a teasing grin.

"Probably why I was single throughout most of my school years." Jasper snorted and put the toast in my lap.

"Think you're up to a nibble?" I sniffed the dry toast and didn't feel immediately nauseas so I nodded and gingerly picked up a piece. Jasper helped me sit up better and I took a small taste.

My hungry, hungry hippo-esque appetite kicked in and I finished off both rounds in a few bites.

"You eat like an animal." Jasper stated but there was something amused about his look that I couldn't understand.

"Mm thorry." I apologised carelessly around a mouthful of bread making Jasper roll his eyes.

"Pretty sure I have more table manners than you, and I don't even eat at a table." I swallowed and laughed lightly as Jasper took the plate from my lap.

"Yeah I'm atrocious, I kind of have a one track mind with food though. When I was very young, my brother and I had to more or less forage for anything edible. Sometimes he'd be so hungry that he would eat my share if I wasn't fast enough, I learned to just choke down anything in front of me before it was taken away. Guess I never really grew out of it, pretty embarrassing on dates." I mused with a grin.

Something I know I did, but didn't always intend to, was test someone with a tidbit. I would impart one of my sad little memories to them and I would judge them upon their reaction. In a way I learned to do this so I didn't get hurt, usually the more of an overreaction to whatever I imparted was met with distrustful gossipers and people that I didn't get on with.

So as I scolded myself for testing him, I watched his face carefully, my good humour never fading.

Jasper looked thoughtful for a moment but took it without much outwards reaction.

"I'll try not to take you on any dates then." My grin broadened and I wiggled closer to him.

"Good plan." He had removed his hand from my forehead whilst I ate but instead his hand had been lazily holding my elbow, so he could still feed me those peaceful emotions.

As his hand made its way back to my head I gave him a sleepy smile just as his ability intensified and I was smothered in blissful feelings. The bed was so incredibly soft, the sheets felt like silk and Jasper's hand was like a cool drink in the desert. I sighed happily and felt my eyes drifting closed of their own accord.

I must have fallen asleep, when I opened my eyes next Carlisle was hovering above me, gently rousing me.

"Kali, I'd like to give you some medicine, you can go back to sleep afterwards." He offered sweetly. Instantly, my eyes shot over to where Jasper had been sitting and found the seat empty. I tried not to feel upset about it, but I couldn't help the sad little pang of disappointment that he wasn't there when I woke up.

"Yeah, alright." I complied as I slowly pushed myself up hissing at the fresh pain movement caused. Carlisle hadn't missed where my gaze had shot to when I opened my eyes and smiled at me.

"Jasper will be back soon I imagine, he went to fetch something." I tried not to let the blood rise to my face but I probably blushed in embarrassment at being so obvious.

"Oh. Where's everyone else?" I asked, trying to change the topic. I saw Carlisle's smile widen and knew he had caught me but I kept my expression neutral even if my face was a dead giveaway.

"Well, Esme is finishing off her garden before winter sets in. Emmett made Rose go and hunt, she's been worried about you all day but didn't want to disturb you. Emmett went with her to make sure she has a proper meal." That covered the immediate household and I nodded to let him know I was listening even if my thoughts were elsewhere.

With a smile, Carlisle gave me a handful of pills that I was starting to recognise as my vitamins and the two painkillers I was taking. Morphine for the actual hurt and aspirin to keep my blood thin whilst the cells normalised from my deficiency. I grimaced but took them and the glass of water he offered, necking the lot with a shudder.

"I'm worried at how well you can do that." He mused quietly as I swallowed 4 tablets in one gulp. I grinned over my glass of water as I drained it.

"It's the 20 years of hard drug abuse I've endured." Carlisle's eyebrows flew up but he rolled his eyes as he caught my grin.

"I almost fell for that." He said as he took the empty glass from me. I giggled as I snuggled back into the covers.

"You're too easy, Doc." I teased and let my eyes drift closed again, barely feeling rested.

"Get some sleep, Kali." He said kindly as he stood, brushing the hair back from my face.

"Will do." I yawned and let myself nod off.

The next time I opened my eyes I felt something cool on my forehead and around my neck, my face was buried into something solid and my arm was slung around something big. It didn't take me long to realise I was cuddled around someone and their hand was resting on my forehead. I turned my head slightly and opened a bleary eye.

"You awake now?" Jasper asked as he turned the page of a very large book he was reading. I tensed for a moment because I didn't remember him getting into bed with me. But technically he wasn't.

Jasper had wriggled his arm underneath my neck so he could still put his hand on my head, and he had carefully tucked me in so I wasn't draped all over him.

"Before you ask, you kept tugging me, this was the best compromise." I grinned into his sweater, knowing that it's exactly what I'd do, I was a serial snuggler.

I said nothing but turned my head to look at his book. It looked old and the script was so small I couldn't read it from the distance it was from my eyes, but I could smell the mustiness and it looked like it had seen better days. I gave up trying to read it and instead closed my eyes again and luxuriated in his frosty embrace. I felt less awful than before but still pretty fragile, I was glad to see that a little sleep and medicine did me some good.

Jasper put his book down in his lap and reached next to him on the dresser, offering me a glass of water.

"Thanks." I croaked out and lifted my head just enough to drink it and rested back on Jasper's surprisingly comfortable chest. As he put the glass back he stretched to the floor and grabbed something else. A familiar red and yellow logo danced before my eyes and I sat back up to slowly take it from him.

"Is that...?" Jasper grinned down at me as he handed it to me.

"Uncanny X-men, Emmett said this was one of his favourites." I made a little squee noise and examined the front cover with interest. Storm, Jean Grey, Archangel, Iceman, Colossus...

"Oooh! It's the Gold Team, too! Thank you so much." I told him and leaned up to give him a gentle peck on the cheek. Jasper seemed a little unsure of my way of showing my gratitude but shrugged it off and smiled at me as I began eagerly devouring some of the classics.

That's how we stayed for a long while. Jasper curled around me to help keep me under the influence of his power and to help with my fever, all the while reading his ancient book with a small smile, whilst I snuggled into his side and read my comics.

Out of the four days I had spent getting to know the Cullens a little better, this one ended up being my favourite.


And there we have it folks! Chapter 7, all nicely wrapped up, as per there are a few things I'd like to touch on.

Let's start with Edward. So during the two weeks Kali was unconscious, he's been slowly losing the plot. By all accounts his mate has been stolen from him and replaced with Kali, he's bound to be furious and if we include the whole supernatural thing, he'd probably be a little feral. He's angry at his family for not prioritising someone who isn't here anymore. Once he learns that Kali spoke with Bella he feels almost compelled to meet with her and try to have her do it again. Carlisle kicking him out was used by him as a temporary measure until he believes Edward is more capable of handling himself around Kali, that isn't him choosing a stranger over his son. It's more prioritising the sick over the healthy, if you get what I'm saying.

Okay, so whilst researching this I discovered something interesting. Peter doesn't have a power. Like at all. The amount of fics I've read where he has the same "knowing stuff" power honestly made me assume it was cannon. By the time I realised, I'd already used it in previous chapters so it'd be a headache to change now, so it's sticking. I'm just going to go ahead and explain the whole 8 minutes thing here, my thought process was that if Jasper had gotten there sooner than he did, Kali's secret wouldn't have been out and any later and she probably would have ran away. The timing was the key point because Jasper had to see it happen but not be able to interfere. In my head the alternative to him not finding out was that it wouldn't have drawn them closer together. Because Peter cares deeply for Jasper, he could feel how important this would be to him.

So the Cullens attitude switch was briefly touched on last time, and I wanted to expand a little bit more so I decided to do the four days segments. There is a lot more hanging out and chill time between and after those days but I felt it would take a long time to show it all and it might get boring.

Kali also decided to reveal a little of her world to Esme as told through some rose tinted glasses. It's more of a half-truth the way I see it, but she doesn't intend to outright tell them that they are fictional characters anytime soon.

And finally a little bit of a nice Kali/Jasper scene at the end to show them starting again, so he'll now be more of a friend to her in later chapters.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you have any questions my A/N didn't answer, than by all means drop me a line. Please review, follow and favourite for more updates, they really spur me on!

Next time a mysterious disappearance leads to a disastrous outcome and Kali discovers the unintentional ripples she has made.