Disclaimer: I own nothing – but Aspen, she's mine, as are Max and Fang's offspring. ^_^

Aspen

Seth shoved his hands in his pockets as we walked by the river that flowed through the edge of the forest on the backside of the Cullen's property.

"What drew you here?" he asked suddenly, not pausing from his slow, easy-going gait.

I thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, to be honest," I told him. "Why?"

"Do you believe in destiny?" he asked. "In the possibility that people are led to each other?" His eyes, such a dark brown they nearly favored black, found mine and I felt a hot blush burn in my cheeks.

"I… I don't know if I believe in destiny…" I said slowly, "but I do believe that certain things happen for a reason."

"Serendipity," he said, his lips quirking into a smile so goofy I couldn't help but laugh.

"Why did they send us out here? I barely know you!" I said, then felt the blush blaze in my face as I realized that could be taken in a couple different ways. "I didn't mean any offense," I said quickly, trying to cover it up.

He laughed and my world seemed to lighten up around me, the clouds not seem so pressing.

"They want me to tell you more about this thing called imprinting," he said with a sheepish grin and his dark eyes held mine for a while before he could even speak. It appeared that I left him as speechless as he did to me.

What's going on here? A small voice in the back of my head asked. What's happening to me? It was like everything that tied me to the sky, to traveling around was slowly dissolving.

"Let me ask you something before we get too far and I want honest answers," he continued. "When you arrived, did you have any intention on staying here?"

I shook my head 'no' and tilted my head, questioning. Until I'd come here and ran into Seth and the flock, I'd been doing my own tour of America thing.

"Now what are you thinking? Do you intend to leave soon?" The way his eyes sparked when he said leave suggested like the thought was painful. I realized in that moment that I did not want to leave.

"Aspen," he took my hands in his large, warm ones and continued to study eyes like his life depended on them. "You're my imprint. I promise to be whatever you need, a brother, a friend, or more. I promise not to push you or guilt you into anything you don't want to do."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to understand everything. I was strangely comforted by the woodsy, natural smell that came from him.

"I don't think I understand yet," I said softly, "but I know that for some reason, I trust you." His beaming smile made me grin and somehow, I knew I'd never have to be alone again.

Max

Fang looked me square in the eyes. "What do you mean, ours?"

"What do you think it means, Fang?" I said with a huff, crossing my arms in front of my chest to keep them from shaking.

"I don't care what I think it means, I want to you what you mean."

I stared into his eyes, seeing their depth and warmth and longing for his arms to be around me, telling me that we'd be okay and figure this out together. I felt the desperation of my thoughts prickle in my eyes as Fang blinked, and stepped closer.

"Max," he said, his voice a whisper. He rubbed my arms with his hands and I closed my eyes as his arms slowly wrapped themselves around me. "Max? Is this really happening?"

I tried to blink back the tears as I nodded against his shoulder. "I'm scared," I confessed as my breath came in gasps. "I never thought it would happen, Fang." Afraid of what I'd see there yet needing the connection, I shuffled around to look in his eyes.

I was taken back, his eyes, his dark beautiful abysmal eyes, held so much of what I wanted to feel, and everything I did feel. The light of joy and hopefulness was showing alongside the darker glint of fear, apprehension and protectiveness. His arms tightened around me as he gave me one of the biggest grins I've ever seen this silent emotionless rock of a birdboy ever produce.

"You're not upset?" I asked in an uncharacteristically timid voice that sounded small and not at all like it belonged to me.

"Maximum Ride," he said, his voice thick of emotion. "Give me one reason why I should be upset."

"Because…" I started, utterly bewildered by his expression. "Because we've never even talked about children. We don't know what would happen, what could happen, what will happen. Because we are who we are, because we're always being watched – at least it feels like that. Because we've always been surrounded by danger."

"Max," he said softly, wiping tears away from my face. I looked away from him. "Maximum," he tried again, turning my face so he could look into my eyes this time.

"What makes you think our child won't be protected?" he asked in all seriousness, his penetrating eyes daring the world to attack us. I blinked, suddenly feeling a bit more like myself.

"One correction, though," I said, sniffling. "There's a reason I said kids and not kid."

His eyes widened while I braced myself. I saw him mouth the word and I nodded, repeating it after him. "Twins."

"Carlisle?" he asked.

"Knows. Edward, Angel, Iggy, and Alice too." I told him.

He gathered me closer to him and his warm lips met mine with such an elated passion that made me believe anything was possible.

Iggy

Alice squealed, a squeal of pure delight that only she could pull off because of her vampire-pixie-ness. I rolled my eyes, knowing she'd spill before too long.

"I'm so excited that you guys will be around for a while!" Ness said, clapping her hands. I smiled at the young girl. She reached up and I felt a hand on my cheek, then grinned as she showed me an image of all of us playing around. She paused on her huge grin and I was pleased.

Nessie was a sweet kid, she'd shown me those images so I could see everyone. She touched my arm and another picture filled my mind, this one had an image of Nudge and Angel and I realized that they'd both grown more. This was one of the worst parts of becoming blind as opposed to being born blind, I supposed: only memories of what people looked like, not being able to see what they currently did. Unless, you know, they stood in front of an iceberg.

I felt the pressure leave my arm after a final gentle squeeze.

"Thanks, Nessie," I said gratefully. "It means a lot."

"You're welcome, Iggy," she said then gave me a hug.

"Quick question though, how long have you been able to show pictures via arms instead of heads?"

She giggled. "I've been practicing," she said with a hint of pride that made her sound like Bella.

Max

"So, obviously, I want to stay here with Carlisle since he and mom are the only people I trust," I told him as we reclined in the open little meadow.

"We should see if Dr. M would be able to come up here in case we need her too," Fang said.

"Also because she might possibly kill me if I didn't let her be here for the birth of her grandchildren."

"That too," he added with a light chuckle. "We don't know what things will be like for the coming months, but as long as we have each other, we will conquer anything."

"Speaking of conquering anything…"

"Alice," he said. "Yeah, I noticed."

"She's hiding something and that doesn't happen. When does Alice hide anything?"

"Since she has a secret that needs to be kept," said the vampixie in question, leaping from tree limb to tree limb around the meadow before spinning head over heels to land on the balls of her feet in front of us. "A secret I've held for too long, and I realize that, but too spill it now would be dangerous for everyone. Especially for you."

"Alice," I said. "You can see our future."

"You can't see the wolves', or Renesmee's," Fang added.

"I'm getting there," Alice said rolling her eyes. "I'm only telling you because of two reasons: a. you can keep Edward from reading your mind; b. we share the same past." She took off her jacket and wiggled her shoulders.

AN:

And bum-bum-be-dum-dum, hope you enjoyed that chapter. Don't know why I was suddenly in a lovey-dovey mood today, but hey, I'm not complaining. :D

Next time on When Mutants Collide: Who is Alice, really? Could there really be more to this story than just the expectation of the first Ride Children? Stay tuned to find out!

Review and tell me your thoughts please!

Until next time,

~Jezabel Raewin