A/N: Thanks to everybody who's reviewed! (I use 'everybody' in the loosest sense of the word – thank you to those who HAVE reviewed...) It would be really nice to know what the rest of you think about my story too...?

Anyway, this is a fairly short chapter – sorry! I keep getting distracted at the moment with reading and drawing and exams...and I've just realized that if (ideally) I want to finish this story by the time Breaking Dawn comes out, I haven't got that long and I'm going away for a week sometime – aargh! With a friend, incidentally, who didn't like Twilight (I don't know why she's still my friend either). Although that was because she couldn't get over the fact that Edward's over a hundred...serious cold shoulder for weeks! Well, not quite, but you know what I mean.

Sorry for babbling...here's the chapter. Hope you like it, and please leave me more reviews! Writing in fear of Edward-stealing ninjas...xxx

Chapter 10

I felt the smile spread across my face. A truce between the Cullens and the werewolves! It took considerable strength of will, and I congratulated myself on it, not to leap up and do a little dance of joy. "That still doesn't solve the problem of where she's going to stay," Alice pointed out. My happiness wavered instantly.

Edward was the one who broke the pause, his voice quietly dangerous. "No," he growled. "She's not staying at Bella's house." It was clear from his tone that there would be no argument.

Another silence. Then – "I've had an idea." Sam glanced around the circle. "I don't know how it would work, but it's the only thing I can think of..."

Edward nodded slowly. "Somebody not directly involved but who knows what's going on," he murmured. "You'd be near all the time...Carlisle's been down as well. I think..."

Maybe I was missing something, but the other Cullens nodded. "That's probably the best bet," Carlisle admitted. "If he agrees."

"He will if I ask him to." I doubted that anyone would even think of possibly defying Sam, his massive muscles clearly outlined in his chest and arms.

"If you're sure..." Alice sounded dubious, but the others nodded, Rosalie in particular obviously relieved by the decision they'd apparently come to. I wondered if she was perhaps jealous of Callie, if it was as clear to her as it was to me that the girl was already gorgeous and bound to become a greater threat to Rosalie's uncontested beauty as she matured.

"It's the best option," Jasper soothed Alice. "Edward, how safe...?"

"She's not about to bite anyone else any time soon," Edward assured him. Perhaps I imagined the sudden relaxing of Sam's shoulders, but maybe I didn't, and I still wasn't certain who they were talking about. "She'd rather –" He glanced quickly at me, stopped talking, but I knew what he'd been about to say and couldn't suppress the shudder at the memory.

"He'll be fine." Sam sounded more certain after Edward's assurance. "We'll be there to keep watch, anyway."

"Who are you talking about?" I demanded. "Do you have to be so cryptic?"

"Billy Black," Emmett told me, eyes laughing at my ignorance. "Couldn't you guess?" My heart slid into my stomach.

"Billy?" I breathed. "But..." But I couldn't think of any objection. Except that he was Jacob's father. I knew that he would be safe, that they'd look after him, but still…I had to trust them. I had to believe in Callie. I jumped to my feet. "I'll go and get Callie," I offered.

Edward and Carlisle exchanged quick glances. "I'll come with you." Edward unfolded himself gracefully, took my hand in his as we began to walk towards the pale figure of the girl.

"I'm perfectly capable, Edward," I told him crossly as soon as I thought we were at a reasonably safe distance from his family.

"I know you are," he replied in a muted tone. "It's her I'm not entirely sure about."

I glanced up at him helplessly, saw the pain written across his face he had tried to hide before and stopped. "Edward," I breathed, stepped close to him so that his arms came up around me. I rested my cheek against his chest, marveling at the coolness that came through his clothes. He ran his hands up my cheeks to my hair, lowered his forehead to mine.

"So much pain," he whispered. "She tried to hide some of it, but it leaked through in every memory. She's just a child, Bella. So young."

I felt tears prick my eyes, for her but mostly for him and what he had done for me. "I love you, Edward."

He opened his mouth, but before any words came out he suddenly stiffened, head snapping up. "Edward, what –"

Just as quickly he relaxed, one arm drawing me into his side. "It's all right, Callie." He spoke softly, but I knew even that volume was for my benefit only. "Come on out."

She crept forward out of the shadows, the wind teasing her shirt so that it billowed around her slight form like a ghostly nimbus. Her skin was painted a shimmering gold and silver in the moonlight, eyes deep black pits; wells that had had so much pain poured into them they were like darks voids. She moved with an aching grace, but that could not veil the taut wariness in each single movement, as though she was preparing to turn and run at any moment.

None of us spoke for what seemed a very long time.

Callie was the first to move, breaking the stillness as she let her head hang down in hopelessness. "It's all right," I heard her say. "I'll go. I never really thought –"

"What do you mean?" I took an unconscious step towards her, my hand reaching out to hers. "Where are you going?"

The girl drew back, even as Edward's hand closed on mine from behind, tensed as though to pull me back to his side.

"Why would you think of leaving?" I pleaded of her. "We want you to stay, Callie."

Those deep, dark eyes lifted to mine, and I was sure I could detect a flicker of incredulity in them. "You...you want me to stay?" she asked disbelievingly. "You'd want...whatever I am to be here?"

I took hold of her unresisting hand, for now no warmer or colder than a normal human's, tried for a smile even though my heart was breaking at her absolute sudden vulnerability. "We want you here," I repeated firmly. "Please stay, Callie."

Her eyes flicked between us in indecision. I glanced up at Edward, my eyes pleading him to say something, anything, that would convince her to stay, but he remained silent for a very long time.

"Please stay," I begged her again, and this time Edward's words added to mine, the sweetness of his voice melting my heart.

"Stay, Callie," he murmured. "We do want you here." She hesitated only a moment longer before nodding, a shy smile breaking out across her lips at the cry of delight that escaped my lips.

"Thank you, Callie!"

She shook her head, sparkles of moonlight illuminating the trickles of tears which, to my horror, flowed freely down her cheeks. "No, don't. Please don't. Because sooner or later you're going to get fed up with me and want me to go away again –"

"Callie." Edward's voice was firm, no nonsense, but still held that unutterable gentleness so few people besides me knew existed within him. "Callie, that's not going to happen."

"Why would you think so?" I asked, upset.

Her black eyes lifted to meet mine. "Because it always has before," she whispered. "I'm a monster. I –"

"Don't you dare," and my voice shook with a rage that surprised me even as I said it, "Don't you dare ever call yourself a monster again. You're not, Callie. You're not a monster."

She looked up at me through her eyelashes in a childlike action that dispelled all of her former wariness and self-sufficiency.

"Callie," Edward began softly. "There is no way we're letting you wander off into the forest by yourself now. After taking you in, we're not going to turn you away again, Callie. You're safe here, I promise."

Callie's eyes flickered once more to mine, so that I saw the moment in which she made her decision. I still didn't anticipate the tears, though, that streamed down her cheeks in rivers as the little girl who nobody had ever cared for stumbled forward, face crumpling, into my surprised arms.

My eyes met Edward's over her head, and for a fraction of a second I thought I saw an unbearable sadness in them, a sorrow that had my heart constricting. But what sent a wave of anguish sweeping through me was that Edward wasn't looking at Callie; his gaze was fixed on me, that grief flaring in them for a moment before he turned his head aside.

And I think that my heart stopped as I thought of what this girl might mean for the Cullens and the pack, for all of us involved in this crazy situation.

A/N: Please review with any questions/comments/suggestions so I can make it better...I know what's going on but it might not be so obvious to anybody not writing it, I don't know! xxx