Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to the brilliant Stephenie Meyer.

"Neal?" I asked.

"Yes. He's back in town." Masen sounded excited. "Do you want to come meet him?"

"What? Now?" I asked, frowning.

"Yeah."

"But it's like." I checked my watch. "Four in the morning."

"Neal doesn't care about the time. He's an astronomer, early mornings is his mid-day. Do you want to come up to the observatory? You can look through the big telescope." Masen sounded really excited.

"Why not." I said without thinking. "I've always wondered what it was like up there."

"Great! Come on! Let's go." He said bouncing to his feet. He seemed like a kid at Christmas.

I laughed slightly then rose to my feet.

"Ok, just let me get dressed first." I said, pointing out that I was still in my pyjamas.

He nodded his head and I returned to his room to grab my bag and took it into his en suite where I changed into a T-shirt and some dark leggings. I'd packed these because I'd figured that after the party I'd probably want to spend Sunday relaxing. I pulled the brush through my hair, it was funny really it didn't want to behave as much anymore, and pulled it up into a loose ponytail.

I pulled on my sneakers and went back out into Masen's bedroom. He'd pulled on a pair of jeans and a hoody, but I could still see the collar of his pyjama top peeking out from under the neckline of the hoody.

"Are you ready to go then?" I asked, grabbing my keys from the nightstand where I'd dumped them.

"Don't you want a coat or something? It can get chilly up on the hill, especially this time of the morning." He said, looking concerned.

"I didn't bring a coat. I didn't really plan on any early morning excursions." I said flatly.

"You can borrow one of my sweaters." He offered.

I was about to turn him down, that sounded too much like couple territory, but then I felt the chill of the morning. Why should I cut off my nose to spite my face?

"Sure, sure." I sighed and he went to get me one of his dark sweaters from his closet.

I put it on and was glad that it wasn't too big on me, although I did have to push the sleeves up a little to free my hands.

"Can we go now?" I demanded rather sharply.

"Only if you lose the attitude." He said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes.

"Just come on." I said, and left his room before he could say anything else.

It was only a short ride up the hill to the observatory, but it was quite steep and I was sure it would have exhausted me. Masen told me to just pull up on the grass, as there was no real parking lot.

I followed Masen up to the door and he rang the bell. A woman of about thirty who had beautiful dark skin and braids in her hair answered it. She looked a little annoyed at first, but then her face broke into a friendly smile.

"Hey Masen." She said. "What're you doing up here kid?"

"Hi Michelle. A little birdie tells me that Neal's back in town."

"He sure is." Michelle said as she opened the door wider to admit us. "So who's your friend?" She asked once she'd closed and bolted the door.

"This is Ronnie, she's new to the area." Masen explained. "Ronnie this is Michelle, the head astronomer here."

"Pleased to meet you." I said, holding out my hand.

"Pleased to meet you too." She said, shaking my hand with a warm smile on her face.

My god! I thought. She's only thirty and she's the head astronomer, she must be a genius in her field.

"I wouldn't exactly say a genius." She said with a shrug as she dropped my hand. "But compliments are always welcome." And she winked at me.

I was shocked for a moment; I had defiantly not said that out loud. I was used to Masen answering my thoughts without me speaking them, but could it be possible that mind reading was more common than we thought?

Masen was looking at her too; to him she had probably just appeared to say something random, unless he too had heard my unspoken question. I looked to him, wondering if he would say something, but he seemed to communicate that we would talk about it later.

"So anyway, he's up in the control room." Michelle said, indicating a ladder.

"Thanks Mich, catch you later." Masen said, heading toward the ladder.

"See you later." I said as I followed.

As I neared the top of the ladder a pleasant scent caught my nose. It was a strange perfume that was extraordinarily alluring and it also seemed familiar, despite the fact that I couldn't exactly place it. My heart, always fast seemed to accelerate as I poked my head over the top of the hole and entered into a world of beeps and lights.

Masen helped me up and led me through a maze of wires to where a man sat at a computer array with his back to us. I don't really know what I was expecting; the name Neal had conjured up the image of the traditional nerd in my head.

What I wasn't expecting was the thick black braid down the centre of his back. Neal turned around and my heart stuttered at his impossible beauty. He had the features of the South American Indians, the type you saw on documentaries who still lived their traditional lifestyles in the Amazonian rainforest. His skin was a rich brown that seemed to glow from within and his eyes were the colour of warm teak.

He had a wide, bright smile on his face that showed off his super white teeth.

"Hello Masen." He said in a rich slightly accented voice. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, you've been away awhile." Masen observed.

"I have had business elsewhere." Neal said with a shrug.

God, even his voice is divine.

Then I realised that once again my mysterious man was in the way. I could appreciate the utter beauty of this god-like man, but he stirred no other feelings within me. It was almost as if I couldn't see anyone else with my shadow warrior standing in the way.

"And I've been making new friends." Masen said, calling Neal's attention to me. "This is Ronnie."

Neal's eyes flashed over me briefly and I was sure I saw his nostrils quiver. A look of recognition crossed his face and his smile changed. His smile became conspiratorial.

"Well hello, Ronnie." And there was a slight inflection in the way he said my name, as if it wasn't my real name and he knew it.

"H…hello N…Neal." I stammered.

He looked at me curiously for a moment, shrugged, and then turned his attention back to Masen.

"So how about a nice catch up?" Neal asked, clasping his hands together.

This catch up including everything they'd done over the last six months to new advances in telescopes and star discoveries. I felt slightly bored and probably could have gone back to sleep, but that would have been rude. Besides, Neal kept shooting odd glances at me every now and again, as if he were trying to communicate something.

Dawn broke and finally the conversation died down because Michelle came in and turned off all the equipment.

"I'm leaving now Neal. Lock up after you've gone, but don't be too long, ok." She said and left.

It was about quarter of an hour after that when Neal said, "Perhaps we should continue this elsewhere. We should really lock up the observatory now."

"Yeah, sure. But can I use the bathroom first? I've been desperate for the last hour now and I don't think I'll make it to anywhere else." Masen said, squirming slightly.

Neal made, 'be my guest' motions with his hands.

Masen got to his feet. "You'll be ok for a few?" He asked me.

I looked at him blankly.

"Of course she will. What am I going to do, bite her?" Neal said with a chuckle.

But the way he said it sounded as if he were making fun of Masen slightly. As if it were some joke that I was in on but Masen wasn't. I really didn't want to be alone with this guy, I was starting to feel uneasy, but he was a good friend of Masen's. Masen didn't have many friends and it would be wrong to alienate him from the ones he did have.

I watched him walk toward the hatch; all the while I could feel Neal's eyes burning into the back of my head. I had the feeling he wanted to say something, but I was scared to death of what it might be.

I watched Masen for as long as was politely possible before Neal would suspect I was trying to avoid him. Finally I had no choice but to turn back to him.

The friendly smile he'd worn when he'd first greeted us was back.

"Ah. Now that the human is out of the room we can have our own little catch up, Renesmee."

Guessed who Neal is yet?

I just thought that last sentence would make a good cliffhanger.

Don't forget to review.

Thanks for reading,

Gemma x