News flash, vampires can sleep. They can perform most bodily functions required of humans, actually, because reanimated means they were dead before. Well… now they're not, so why shouldn't they be able to sleep? They can run and whatnot. Wouldn't you get tired if you had super speed and strength and had to spend a whole day maxing that out to fit in with some friends? Well Emmett Cullen doesn't recommend you try that. You'll flop as soon as you get home. One thing vampires can't do, among all of their attributes, is have children. But Carlisle and Esme figured out why a long time ago. Women change, see, and while vampires can eat and drink in small amounts, it doesn't convert to nutrition for them. No, that'd be blood. Only blood. Because that doesn't run through their veins. Because reanimated. So all that exposition was to explain why a vampire was panting as he raced through the forest, straining his super eyesight as he searched for a companion he hadn't seen in almost a century.
"Okay, fuck this. I know you're around here somewhere, but I'm tired. I'm going home. Find me when you're done messing with my head." He snapped before turning in half a circle and racing back for his house at moderate speed.
The pair of them sprinted into the clearing, both smacking Esme's hands one nanoseconds after the other. The newcomer crashed into Edward, while Carlisle stopped himself short and swept Esme into a hug.
"Look who found me, love!" He chirped. The remaining vampires stood frozen as the newcomer extracted herself from their so-called youngest. Or tried.
See, Edward had frozen when she crashed into him and let himself be bowled over. But it shouldn't have been possible. Unless…
"Tell me you didn't do what I think you did." His voice rang out quietly, but apparently it was the loudest thing in the world, because the newcomer winced.
"It… seemed like a good idea at the time?" She offered weakly.
Why weren't they getting up? How did this girl even know Edward? The redhead never really mentioned anyone from his past, so to see this girl be so cavalier with him was… strange, to say the least. Especially since anyone from Edward's past should either be dead or far, far older than she looked.
"What are you?" Alice blurted out.
"She smells like no metal I've ever put my nose to." Jasper added. "But it's nothing obvious… so it must be subcutaneous. But that makes no goddamned sense!"
"Exactly." Edward sneered, hopping to his feet and dragging the newcomer to hers as well. "Because there was no guarantee it'd go where it was supposed to! Was there, Isabella?"
"You gave up a shit ton of rights when you fucked off and died, jackass. Don't go getting a swelled head just because I made an appearance."
"You've lost some brain cells if think I'm trying to get you to do anything you weren't already going to. I'm wondering what possessed you to go to Stryker when you're the one who told me to-."
"Hold the fuck up, you told me Stryker was batshit!" Carlisle exclaimed. "And I know you didn't have those blades during the war, so when'd you get 'em?"
"And why?" Edward tacked on, heartbroken.
"This is definitely not how I expected my day to go." Bella groaned, rubbing her temples with an aggravated sigh. "I'll answer your questions when I'm good and ready, but the short of it is that I got sick of running in the early 70's."
"That'll have to be enough for now." Carlisle muttered darkly.
Edward just stared at the girl.
"How long do you plan on staying?" He asked, defeated.
"I'm not leaving you." His mate grumbled.
"Pardon me if I don't believe that." Edward scowled.
"You'll have to take my word for it."
Edward snorted and raced into the woods without another word.
The newcomer snickered and turned to stare at Carlisle.
"And just where does he think he's going?" She asked, voice teetering toward hysterics.
"See for yourself." The doctor scoffed.
The girl dipped her head to Carlisle and Esme in turn before bounding into the woods.
"Damn near half a century of this could have been avoided if I'd just asked a few more questions." Carlisle snorted darkly. "Who the fuck Tony was, for instance. Good God, I never even thought of it."
"Which is not your fault." Esme insisted. "And not something you could have rectified even if you did know. Edward was lost to us then, and there was no guarantee Bella wouldn't have claimed you a liar and left either way."
"Would have been nice to find out for myself." The blond patriarch sneered. "But your word shall suffice enough."
Carlisle stormed into the house and up the stairs. The click of the lock to his study told the remaining vampires that he was to be left alone.
"I think some explanation would be in order." Jasper murmured politely. Esme nodded.
"It's the least I can do." She groused before heading for the kitchen.
"As you may have figured out sometime in the last century or so, Edward's been… rather despondent. Probably not helped by the fact that everyone ended up in pairs, but that can't exactly be helped… he never talked about Bella. Carlisle and I never found out who he was missing, just that they were previously a person of interest and rather crucial to him. The fact that it was Bella… well, Carlisle might blame himself for not seeing that right away-."
Something crashing against a wall upstairs made Esme pause in her chopping onions and glare at the ceiling.
"You're being ridiculous and you know it!" She snapped before she resumed chopping and talking.
"As I said, Carlisle can blame himself all he likes but holy shit, was that a long shot. Keep in mind, Edward's the telepath. And he's not the most forthcoming with information. So we never knew who he'd lost. Now, Carlisle met Bella in a field hospital in World War II. Considering Edward's timeline, I'd guess she was equally… saddened. God, that's nowhere near the right word."
"Unhinged, for starters." Carlisle scoffed from but the stairs. None of them had even heard the door open, let alone his footsteps.
"Walking on walls again?" Esme purred, irritatingly sweet.
"Can't let that girl get the best of me twice." Carlisle groused. "Anyway,Bella was a nurse at a pop-up hospital near one of the concentration camps. Oh boy, was I ridiculously lucky then. We spent most of the time attached to the unit I was in, but at some point I got myself captured by Nazis."
"Don't worry, they're all dead." Bella lilted from by the front door.
"You need to work on evening out your stance. I heard you both a mile back." Carlisle advised. Bella nodded and joined the group in the kitchen, Edward matching her every step.
"He spent a couple weeks in that hellhole, and that's only because I got distracted keeping the boys alive. Doc Cullen makes it look easy as hell, but it was all I could do not to just string them all up in a tree somewhere and finish the whole damned war myself."
"Bit of a task, even for you." Carlisle chuckled.
"And I'm not nearly so arrogant to dare. Still, those idiots were worth it, I guess. Anyway, I'm something of a roamer. It's in my family's history. We never stick to one place for too long unless something compels us. And we try not to let that happen too often. Emotions suck."
Edward scoffed.
"You don't get any say!" She hissed to her companion.
"Well, you did leave when you couldn't handle your own grief, so-."
"Fuck you!" She snapped.
"Didn't peg you as one for exhibition." Edward drawled sourly.
"You-." The woman, Bella, choked on her words. "I've taught you far too well." She groaned.
"And I'll not hear any of it,same as I ask the rest of them. I'd prefer at least the notion of privacy." Carlisle interjected. Bella shot him a look.
"You know better." She warned. "At any rate, I wasn't myself after supposedly losing my husband and as I said earlier, my family doesn't do emotions well. Never have, probably never will. But yeah, I fucked off to war, pretended to play nurse and kept that blond bastard over there from going insane himself. You'd think, being a vampire and all, that drinking fresh blood from newly dead men wouldn't be a problem but I had to run into the poor jackass with morals who was determined to never drink from a human. Lucky him, I'm not human. Lucky me, I heal fast and apparently vampire venom does this real nice thing where it goes into the bloodstream and numbs whatever part of my arm he drank from. Was hilarious to see his expression after I shoved my hand in his face for about the fiftieth time off him starving himself. Stubborn piece of shit just decided that if he couldn't find a deer then he'd not have anything."