Chapter 7: Who We Are
Henry thought back to the mural in Renesmee's room. The wolf he had seen there had been the same wolf he now saw chase Renesmee into the woods. His eyes widened in wonder.
"I knew it," he said breaking the uncomfortable silence that had begun to take place. "That story in Renesmee's book, it was real. And you're the cold ones!" he said to Edward and Bella.
Edward looked to his wife. He shook his head, "Bella-," he whispered.
She looked at him. "What's the harm anymore Edward, Jacob all ready let the dog lose after we told him not to."
"You know what this means," he said to her. "We've never had this problem before. Ever."
"We've never had a pet in the family either," she said to him.
Edward sighed but said nothing more.
Bella tuned to Henry and smiled, "Renesmee was right about you, you are different. You're a lot smarter than we thought to."
"So it's true," said Henry though knowing full well that it was.
Edward sighed again but he turned to Henry's parents and grandparents who had been standing since Jacob's transformation. "We know your stories are too," he said to them.
"How do you know they're not just that," asked Emma, "Stories?"
"My husband's very adept at reading people," said Bella.
Henry looked at Edward and Bella curiously like he often did with new people he met. "So what exactly are you?"
"Henry!" said Mary Margaret. "That's probably a little inappropriate."
Bella just smiled, "Let's just stick with the cold ones. It's safer that way."
"What do you mean safer," asked David.
Edward took the question, "Our kind has rules, a kind of monarchy of sorts."
"So if you found us," said Emma feeling threatened, "Then so could anyone else, those people that rule over you."
"I don't know," said Edward. "Maybe. We're very sorry about this, we had no intention of this happening. We only wanted Renesmee to be happy, to live a normal life."
Bella hung her head, "That's never gonna be possible for her though is it," she asked him. Edward placed an arm around her.
"How did you find us," Mary Margaret asked. "This place isn't listed on any maps unless you're looking for it."
"Like Greg Mendell," Edward asked. "Sorry," he said when he registered the look on their faces, wondering how he knew that name. "Your thoughts are kind of loud. That's what you're afraid of isn't it, that we would somehow come in and expose this place?"
"Um, yeah," said Emma, "Wait so you can read minds?"
"Some of our kind has special gifts," Edward said not elaborating. "Look we had no intention of coming here. We didn't know this place existed until we got here. We thought it would be safe. Out of the way, no direct contact. Other than with Renesmee being in school we thought we could live here without complication. We didn't mean to disrupt that for you so we'll leave. I don't think this situation needs to be harder on anyone than it's all ready become. We just ask that you keep our secret, we keep yours and we all go about our lives."
"But you can't leave," Henry said.
"Henry," said Emma. "Edward's right, it would be best for everyone."
"But don't Renesmee and I matter?"
"Of course you guys matter," said Emma.
"Then why can't she stay?" Henry asked. "She's the first person I could talk to, the first friend I've ever had." He looked at Edward, "Please Mr. Cullen, you can't take her away."
"Henry," said Neal, "You could always write each other, e-mail."
"It's not the same," he said looking at his parents, "You two were used to being alone when you grew up and I have gotten used to it too but I finally found someone my own age that I can talk to and that doesn't think I'm crazy. It's like that for Renesmee too."
Before Bella or Edward could comment on Henry's pain Edward looked to the woods.
"They're coming back," he said.
Sure enough Jacob emerged dressed only in a pair of cut jeans with Renesmee's hand in his.
"No one's going anywhere, right guys," Jacob said with that big grin of his.
Edward walked off the deck and toward them. "Renesmee go to your room, I need to talk to Jacob for a minute."
"Why can't I stay with him," Renesmee asked.
"Now Renesmee," Edward said.
"Renesmee listen to your dad," said Bella. "And you might want to take Henry with you."
Renesmee walked to the deck and toward the door. "No kids allowed," Renesmee gripped, "I'm gonna hear it all anyways," she said with a sigh.
Henry looked at his mom who only nodded to him so he followed Renesmee inside.
"You don't have to look so pissed you know," Jacob said to Edward.
"Oh I think I do."
"You really want to do this now, Edward we have company."
"The secrets are out," said Edward, "You made sure of that didn't you?"
Jacob took a step back and crossed his arms, "Ness likes it here, I was just-,"
"Giving her what she wanted like always," Edward said raising his voice. "Do you have any idea how much that stupid wolf thing of yours can costs us? What if Renesmee had liked some other town, something less private would you have done the same thing then?"
"You know my answer."
"Did you not learn anything last year! They'll come for us if we can't keep ourselves hidden and that includes you and your muzzled mutts."
"Hey, we don't answer to them and I don't answer to you. Look we're safe here. They know our secret, we know there's. We can co-exist. It'll be just like it is with your family and the packs in Forks only on the east coast instead of the west."
"That's not the point here Jacob."
"Okay guys," David said getting in between the two, "Maybe we should all take a minute and cool off for a second.
Bella was quick to stand near David and begin pulling at his arm. "You probably shouldn't stand to close," she said to him, "Trust me," she said as she moved David back a few feet.
"Hey," said Jacob, "I'm not the one flipping out here. It's your marble slab that looks about ready to toss me into the nearest tree."
"Well can you blame him Jake," said Bella. "You can't keep doing rash things like that. We agreed when we left remember?"
"So you're willing to let Renesmee be unhappy the rest of her life?"
"No of course not!" said Bella.
"Really because that's what you and Edward would be doing if we moved. She's happy here. She has a friend her own age that she can talk to like a normal kid. She's got a life outside of us, outside of me. It's what she wants right now and you're willing to just take that all away from her?"
"She's our daughter," said Bella, "We want the same things you do but this isn't just about us. This is about them too," she said motioning to Emma and her family. "They have their own secrets to protect and us being here won't make that any better."
"Would you stop being so hypocritical Bella?" Jacob shot at her. "You can co-exist with the packs, even your own father, so why can't you do that here? What makes this place so different?"
Bella looked at Edward. She didn't have any answers and neither did he. Edward took a step forward.
"The only reason you're even standing right now is because hurting you would hurt Renesmee and I won't be the one to cause my daughter pain."
Mary Margaret looked at Bella, "What does he mean by that? How does hurting Jacob hurt Ness?"
Bella and David walked back to the others. Bella sighed as she placed a hand on the wooden fence. "It's complicated. Jacob isn't like Ruby."
"Yeah," said Emma, "Figured that by his size."
Bella just nodded and continued, "It's a wolf thing. Basically he and Renesmee are linked. She moves, he moves kind of like Edward and me with a slight difference. Theirs is more a spiritual connection. Edward once described it like there being a steel cord holding Jacob to the earth instead of gravity. If Jacob got hurt Renesmee would be devastated. She's pretty possessive of him," she said her mind thinking back to when she had attacked Jacob after finding out he had imprinted. Renesmee had been glad that Seth had been the one to get hurt. "And Jacob pretty much gives her anything she wants as long as it makes her happy and is slightly more overprotective than we are since he doesn't want her hurt either."
"So that means staying here," Emma said as a statement.
"We don't want to cause trouble for you than we all ready have," Edward said walking toward Bella and taking her free hand.
"You're the one causing the trouble," Jacob said.
Edward rolled his eyes, "Just shut up."
"You ever consider building a large dog house," Neal shot with a sly smile. Bella stifled a laugh, "Just a suggestion."
Emma sighed, "Maybe there is some way we could come to some sort of agreement."
"You're serious? A few seconds ago you were okay with us leaving." Bella asked. She had been weary of Emma Swan the second they had met but Bella never let on.
"Yeah well," said Emma. "We all have our secrets which I guess really aren't secrets anymore but maybe something could be worked out. Truth is I haven't seen Henry this happy in a long time. Sure he's happy but he hasn't been this happy before, not like this."
Emma walked over and took a seat on one of the chairs. The others slowly followed. Jacob took a seat and leaned against the fence, glancing upward every few seconds. Edward and Bella took a seat at the table as well.
"You see Henry hasn't had the easiest lifestyle," said Emma. "None of us have really but living in this town he had to live his days in a kind of repeat. That was his curse for being brought to live in a cursed town."
Edward nodded, feeling some sympathy for the boy. His life had essentially been similar when he would spend years on end pretending to be a high school student, the main difference being that even though he was all ready smart for his own good and would move onto the next levels like everyone else he was stuck at the same age and would often have to do a repeat in a different place.
The adults continued on talking while Renesmee and Henry waited upstairs.
"Do you really think they'll make you move," Henry asked.
Renesmee sighed, "I hope not."
"I hope not either. I'm sorry Ness."
"Sorry for what?"
"If I hadn't shown you my book then none of this would have happened."
"To be fair I showed you mine too and then it didn't exactly help that Jacob phased."
Henry laughed, "Yeah that did make things complicated."
"I think he just needed the extra speed. He's not as fast when he runs human."
"And he can just do that, morph without a full moon or anything? That's what Ruby needs, a full moon."
Renesmee nodded. "Jacob's different. His wolf magic isn't like traditional werewolves. You saw him, he's massive."
"That's very cool."
"So let me get this straight," said Renesmee, "Snow White and Prince Charming are your grandparents and your mom is their daughter."
Henry nodded with pride.
"What about your dad?"
"He's from the Enchanted Forest too. He's the son of Rumpelstiltskin."
"Who?"
"Right, you're still getting familiar with fairytales." Henry went over to his book and brought it to the bed. He flipped through some of the pages and then stopped. "He's basically a guy who spins straw into gold and then he acquired evil powers."
"Wait, gold, as in Mr. Gold, the man who owns that pawn shop on Main Street?"
"That's the one. He's my other grandpa." Henry then flipped through more pages and came to the Snow White story. He stopped when the page focused on a woman in black. "This is Regina the Evil Queen. She's my adoptive mom."
Renesmee shook her head, "And I thought my family was complicated."
"What's yours like?"
"Well not that bad," she said. "My family is vegetarian so that makes us different than others of our kind. From what I know though there have been times when my grandma and my dad used to pretend to be siblings. None of them are blood related but it's their venom that connects some of them. I'm blood related to my parents though. And then there's Jacob. Sometimes he pretends to be my uncle or other times he acts like an older brother. Which basically makes all of his family my aunts and uncles or cousins. I don't understand how that part works exactly."
"So the packs used to be enemies with the cold ones but they're not anymore, how come?"
"Because of me," Renesmee said with a smile. "It's a wolf thing on Jacob's part. I don't understand it fully but Jacob and I were somehow connected before I was even born. The packs consider that kind of bond sacred so they can't hurt me or my family because that would hurt Jacob and they couldn't hurt a brother like that." Renesmee leaned back on her bed. "It's nice talking to someone about this kind of stuff."
"For me too," said Henry. "I love my family but sometimes-,"
"It's not enough."
"Yeah."
Renesmee got up from her bed having heard her mom call out to her. "Come on," she said to Henry. "They've decided on something."
"That can't be good," he said.
Renesmee smiled, "Actually it is. We get to stay."
"How do you know that?"
Renesmee just shrugged as if it were no big deal, "It's a cold one thing." She took Henry's hand, "Come on," she said leading him down the stairs.
