Renesmee's POV

Some days I thought I was no longer in love with him and those were good days, especially while things were so confusing in general. Mom's methodical, obsessive need to find Falstaff overshadowed everything else. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. He was obviously a being that should be ended but I did not know if that meant we should be the ones to do it. I felt like a very lame superhero team.

We had jumped coasts abruptly, not yet halfway across the states. We were in Salt Lake City and had been for a week. Mom insisted she "had a feeling" but nothing came of it. Then we saw a news bulletin that there was a nationwide hunt on for a serial rapist and the last reported victims were in Baltimore, Maryland. We were on a plane that night. We'd driven most of the way and I was personally exhausted from being in a car. I had started to loathe highways and those big green, reflectorized signs that counted down the miles between us and our next city.

We had never flown first class before because Mom had forced us to live frugally for the most part so I was grateful that Aro was spoiled and we ended up up front in blessedly uncramped seats with enough legroom that I could stretch my short legs out almost all the way.

We hadn't had time to book tickets online and were given the last seats available. Mom made that slightly irritated face she couldn't quite hide when I was seated next to Aro. We could have of course switched seats easily but it would have meant her saying something and verbalizing her silent disapproval of our friendship. She moved up front with Grandpa without looking at us again but her rigid posture was telling enough.

Aro smiled at me and kept his arms in his lap and away from the arm rest between us. He was always careful never to touch my bare skin although I kind of liked the idea that we could have had secret, silent conversations that way. I didn't, however, want him knowing about Jacob. I felt embarrassed feeling that way about a person who didn't share my feelings. I knew it was something everyone had experienced at some point but being smarter and quicker than nearly everyone I met had turned me into a person that expected myself to also me better at controlling emotion, being wise about relationships. But it wasn't like language or chemistry or even music. Interacting with people wasn't something you could memorize. I knew how to charm people, I think Aro and I had that in common and along with our abilities to communicate with people's minds, it made me feel a kinship with him that I had with on one else. I did not have any peers and even though I had never had a chance to settle down and make friends, I felt that I would have had a hard time doing so even if we had.

He was sitting by the window and I leaned over a little ways so I could watch the city fall away under us. He was fiddling with his boarding pass, running his fingers over the letters in the name of our destination city like they were in braille rather than just slightly thick black ink.

"Have you ever been to Baltimore, Renesmee?"

I had tried to get him to call me "Nessie" or "Ness" but I think he was afraid Mom would try to find a way to shave his head if she saw him being too familiar with me.

"Nope. You?"

He made an odd face like he was trying to remember something from a long time ago and then shook his head.

"I don't think so but it sounds so familiar . . ."

I knew mom would be able to hear our conversation even though they were two rows ahead and I hated having to censor myself to spare her feelings.

"I'm glad grandpa has you. He's really happy."

"It's still very odd to hear him referred to as someone's grandfather."

"Because you think he's hot."

I heard Mom make a small huffing sound I and enjoyed it thoroughly.

"He's nice looking."

"You can say it, we're related, so really, you're just complimenting me anyway because I definitely got my looks passed down through Grandpa Swan."

"If I say it he'll use it to tease me later."

"Aw. You guys are so cute it's almost annoying."

He smiled in a way that looked sort of shy and then dropped his voice into the lowest audible whisper possible.

"You mother doesn't think so."

"She can still hear you," I whispered back.

"I know but now she'll feel like she's eavesdropping if she keeps listening . . ."

I didn't stifle my laugh and knew I'd pay for it later with a load of frostiness. I switched back to a normal voice and kind of hoped Aro's comment would compel her to tune us out.

"Do you really think we'll be able to stop Falstaff?"

"No."

"Then why are we doing this?"

"I go where he goes."

"Why don't you think we'll win? He's one guy, we have three of you and Jacob. I know I'm pretty useless unless we're going to talk him to death but you guys are pretty awesome."

"If we were to gain an advantage, it wouldn't be our strength or speed that would assist us. He hasn't survived this long by letting himself be physically vulnerable. Recall that that was why he was reluctant to become like us. He feels we're too weak. So he was looking for something stronger and it seems likely he's found it. I daresay your abilities might be more useful. You have the kind of intelligence that absorbs and comprehends information quickly and makes intuitive connections the rest of us can't. I feel it will be quick-thinking and not muscle which will be our greatest weapon if we're unfortunate enough to get close to him."

"Are you afraid of him?"

"Yes."

"Are you afraid of anything else?"

He didn't speak out loud. He pulled the magazine out of the seat pocket in front of him and made a gesture for a pen. I dug one out of my bag. It had hot pink ink. He looked at it and smiled. He flipped the pages until he reach one with a lot of white space and wrote:

Losing him.

I took the pen and wrote back:

He's not going anywhere, he loves you.

We can die. The first year of a new vampire's life is the most dangerous, only a third of vampires survive it and your mother is making it more dangerous. F almost killed him once already, it feels foolish to give him another chance.

Why haven't you told her any of this?

He smirked a little.

I hope you won't think I'm being judgmental but, have you ever attempted to change her mind with reason?

I covered my mouth to keep from laughing even though she wouldn't know we were talking about her now.

Our conversation shifted to less serious topics and we got several annoyed looks from our neighboring passengers for our frequent laughter and constant talking. I eventually got tired and fell asleep in a cramped position across his lap with about six of those paper-fabric covered airline pillows. He smoothed my hair when I first lay down and said, "Thank you," quietly.

"For what?"

"Not hating me."

"You're easy to love."

He didn't answer. He squeezed my arm gently.

"Wake me up before we start to descend. The pressure messes with my ears if I sleep through it."

"I will not fail you, I promise."

And he didn't. He woke me by shaking my shoulder and saying my name quietly to me. I sat up but moved so I could still lean on him until my sleepiness wore off. We watched silently while our plane descended through the clouds and the black landscape of Maryland appeared below us, first bleak mountain ranges and then lights and roads and the vast, clustering network of our target city rising quickly.

The plane shifted smoothly back and forth as the pilot corrected our trajectory for landing. Just as it came level again after the biggest tilt, I saw it. A quick, black shape swooped by and it was so fast that I didn't really register it until it happened again and was lit up by one of the lights on our wing.

"Aro . . ."

"I saw it."

"Is it?"

"Yes. No regular bird could . . ."

I put my face close to his ear so I didn't start a panic and asked if he thought Falstaff could crash our plane.

"I don't know but I think he just wants us to know he's out there. It's likely he lured us here."

"Mom, Grandpa, look out your window."

"We saw him," she said in a low voice that drifted back to us, inaudible to the humans between.

"What do we do?"

"Nothing," Aro said. "We can't do anything until we know what he's planning . . ."

END NOTES: I accidentally typed "feels" instead of "feelings" in here at one point and I really wanted to leave it. Also I've realized how many blatant Aspie behaviors I've given my characters without realizing it. Sort of hilarious in a really sad way. Also, Baltimore. Heh. I couldn't help myself.