AN: Hey guys! So I know this chapter is pretty short and not really that important, but after this, things will speed up age-wise, meaning another time lapse, most likely. I only plan on doing a couple more chapters where Delilah's this age, and then I'll move on. By the way, Merry Christmas! :)

Alice's mind was racing as she sped home, ignoring the speed limit. So the Volturi had somehow learned about Delilah and had discovered that she was not a normal human. The only question was, how had they found out? Had they been keeping a closer eye on the family than they'd originally assumed?

As she pulled into the drive, she heard them in the family room. They were not talking, or even breathing, but she heard them nonetheless. She walked at normal speed- that is to say, vampire speed- into the room, setting eyes on two vampires that did not belong there.

One was built, much like Emmett, but his eyes held none of the warmth that usually radiated brightly from Emmett. He looked imposing and cold as he stared her down, and Jasper moved to her side, a low growl building in his throat as he grasped her hand securely in his own.

The other, who was lean and red haired, looked as if he were trying to remain cordial, but when he stepped forward, there was something in his blood red eyes that slightly diturbed her.

"Delilah, honey, would you like more juice?"

Delilah nodded, watching as Mel stopped on her journey to the refrigerator to clean up the milk that Kyler and Alana had spilled while fighting over the toy from the cereal box. She took a small bite of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread that Mel had made her.

Alice had called Mel on the phone and asked if Delilah could stay for a few more days, but that had been a week ago, and Delilah was starting to worry that the Cullens just didn't want her anymore. If so, it must have been some fault of her own that had offended them, ergo the intensely thoughtful look on her face when Mel poured her the last bit of grape juice from the big white pitcher.

She was deep in contemplation wondering what she had done to upset them when Ambra, who was sitting beside her, began pulling on the sleeve of the shirt Mel had lent her from out of Azure's closet. The four-year-old had not minded, though she had found it incredibly amusing that a seven-year-old could fit into her clothes.

Mel had tried Alana's clothes first, asuming they would fit because the girls were almost the same age, but the shirt had gone down to Delilah's knees, and the pants had pooled at her feet. Azure's clothes fit just right, so Delilah thought it was a good thing she was okay with lending them to her, though Kyler had said "Momma woulda made her to, anyway, so don't worry 'bout it."

"Play," said Ambra when Delilah finally gave her attention to her.

Delilah obliged the three-year-old, sliding carefully out of her chair at the table and giving the rest of her sandwich to Kai, who scarfed it down immediately, grinning at her with a mouthful of peanut-butter-and-jelly-on-white-bread colored food. As she followed Ambra to the girls' bedroom to play, Delilah wondered at the fact that Kai was being much nicer to her than he had been. He had started playing games with the rest of them, and Delilah was glad he didn't sit out anymore.

She and Ambra sat down in the middle of the floor, where there was a mess of toys, and began playing blocks. Delilah was quite content with the simple game, but when Alana and Kara came to play, they didn't like it much.

"That's for babies," Alana said to Ambra, whose lower lip began to tremble.

"Let's play a game that's more fun," Kara, the mediator, said.

Alana's face brightened. "Let's play Dolls!" And she raced to her box to pull out several worn, half naked Barbies and one Ken whose head was duct taped onto his neck. Several minutes of digging found them six outfits and seven tiny shoes, none of which matched.

So the five of them sat and played Barbie dolls, fashioning houses out of the big wooden blocks that had previously been deemed 'for babies' and making up stories for the Barbies that would have been fit for a soap opera. Delilah mostly watched them, content to be witness, and occasionally giggling softly when someone thought up an extra funny story.

Ken and Barbie were engaged in a heated argument over the fact that he had cheated on her with her best friend ("You dirty cheater!"), when Delilah heard something outside the window.

She lifted herself up and went to it, putting her hands on the sill and stretching her head up to see who it was. Azure's face smiled up at her.

"Lila, come and look what we're doin'!"

Delilah obeyed, running through the hallway, then walking slowly through the kitchen where Mel was washing dishes because Mel didn't like it when they ran inside the house.

As she stopped to struggle with the door handle, a sudden thought came to her: maybe the Cullens didn't like her anymore because she broke the rules. Esme or Carlisle or Rosalie had never told her that she couldn't run inside the house, but maybe that was something everybody already knew. And if she had broken one rule, what others had she unknowingly undermined? There was no telling. What must they think of her?

She slowed as the shame weighed her down, and when she got to spot in the backyard where Azure and Kyler and Kai were, they were getting impatient.

"Lila, how come you run so slow?" whined Kai, but Kyler shushed him, and he settled down.

"Guess what we're doing!" Delilah shrugged wordlessly, looking at him questioningly.

Azure was bouncing with excitement as she showed Delilah a little pot filled with soil. "We're makin' hamburgers!"

Delilah looked inside the pot, which appeared to have sesame seeds in it.

Kyler snickered. "I tried to tell 'em it wouldn't work! They think that picking the little bitty seeds off hamburger buns and planting them will grow hamburgers!"

"Shut up, Kyler!" Kai's face was red as he defended what he'd thought was a novel idea.

"You shut up!"

"Will it work, Lila?" asked Azure hopefully.

Delilah began to shrug, but then changed her mind and nodded. After all, she was sure that stranger things must have happened.

It was three weeks before Alice came for her, and Delilah had already given up any hope she'd had of ever living with the Cullens again.

Which made it even more of a surprise than it already was when she spotted Alice's sleek car parked on the street in front of Mel's house when they were returning from the park one day.

Delilah stayed behind Mel after she saw it, walking beside Kai and Kara because she figured Alice might not want to see her, that maybe she wanted to see Mel, and also because she felt a little bitter that Alice had left her there for so long.

But when Alice opened the car door, she didn't greet Mel, as Delilah had assumed she would. The first thing that Alice did was call out "Delilah!"

Delilah poked her head out from behind Mel, and even though she knew Alice had seen her, she hoped she could just stay there and hide until Alice decided to leave, because she knew she must be in trouble- though for what she did not know.

But she was proven wrong when Alice got down to her level and held out her arms invitingly. "Delilah, come here!" Relieved, the little girl ran to Alice, throwing herself into her arms.

She hadn't realized how much she'd terribly missed Alice until that exact moment, when she felt two cold arms envelope her and hug her gently, softly, almost like a mother.

AN: Soooo...? Like I said, I know this chapter is very short and meaningless, but I wanted to give you guys another chapter today in the spirit of Christmas! :D And maybe you guys could give me the gift of some nice, long reviews! *wink, wink*