The house was surprisingly quiet for a Friday night, it was almost alien for Xander. By this time of night, his parents would be getting to their angry stage, gearing up for another long shouting match. Instead Charlie was downstairs watching T.V, catching up on his paperwork and cleaning his guns, while Bella was in her room doing homework.

Xander shifted on his bed, wincing as his legs ached a little from sitting in one position for too long. His eyes left the page of his book to scan the world outside his window. Despite the assurances from Giles that the assassins had been called off after Drusilla's creepy spell, he still couldn't shake the feeling of eyes watching him. It didn't help he was nervous about the looming vision quest.

His week seemed to be getting worse. Despite his initial feeling that Rosalie might have been a possible new friend, since he walked out of school on his first day, she hadn't even acknowledged his existence. The little pixie that had seem so warm and genuinely nice hadn't so much as uttered a word to him, and other than Edward, the Cullen siblings seemed more than happy to remain ignorant of his existence.

If he were honest with himself, while Bella was ok, he wasn't to keen on her friends. He'd had bad dealings with jocks his whole life, cheerleaders coming a close second. Jessica and Mike fit into those categories like clones, the rest of their group not far behind. Plus, he didn't want to impose too much on his cousin. They where her friends, he knew how much being displaced for the new person hurt, after all Willow had done the same when Buffy moved to the dale, even without meaning too.

Reluctantly, Xander set his book aside, turning off his lamp as he got comfortable. As he got into a comfortable sleeping position he couldn't help but curse his cast. First thing in the morning, it was coming off.

Bright and early the next morning, after Charlie had left to do what ever it was he did on a weekend, Xander hobbled into the freezing cold basement where Charlie kept what tools he had, he didn't know what time Jacob would be coming to get him, or what the plan was exactly so he needed to work quickly.

Shivering in the cold dark room, Xander searched his uncles tools, looking for anything he could use to remove his cast. There was a jigsaw, but there was no way he was using that, he knew he'd end up right back in the hospital. Eventually he settled for a hammer and chisel. It would take longer, but there was less of a chance that he'd slip and cut his own leg off.

With the tools of his 'escape' firmly in hand, Xander retreated to his room, he had no doubt Bella would blow the horn on him if she caught him, she cared for people. It was nice but the cast had to go. Once safely back in his room he got to work.

Hammering the chisel into his cast was surprisingly therapeutic As he cracked large chunks onto a carefully place sheet, he found himself relaxing, like always having something to physically do allowed him to make sense of his thoughts and start working on the large mysteries in Forks.

Xander had one of his answers to the large mystery he was sure involved not only the shifter pack in Forks, but the Cullen's. The more he'd observed the near distant Cullen's, the more he knew he needed to find out more about them. He was hoping the creepy wolf guy would be able to help him, or rather answer a few more of his questions. There also had to be a reason why both sets where here in Forks, what ever it was.

He couldn't say for certain that either party where truly good, but the same applied to the opposite end of the scale. In fact if he were a betting man he'd say they weren't evil at all, there was no odd deaths any where near Forks, no strange missing persons reports nothing truly out of the ordinary going back to a few years before the Cullen's moved to town. Maybe he'd borrow Bella's laptop and do a search on the internet. With Willows help he should be able to find out where they moved from at least.

Another large chunk of his cast hit the floor exposing his knee, making him momentarily pause. While his healing had apparently sped up significantly, it seemed it wasn't as good as Wolverines healing factor. Now his knee was exposed, he could see the harsh scar along the inside of the joint. It was large and raised, at least four inches long. He winced just looking at it. He hoped with everything in him he'd be able to walk without a cane. It wasn't just that he hated the idea of being hindered in anyway, but it was the face he felt to young to have to be looking forward to a future of using a cane everyday.

'If I have to use a cane, maybe I could get one like Daredevil's, Matt Murdock knew how to accessorize.' he thought to himself, a grim smile twitching at his lips.

Tentivly, and with his lower leg still encased in the thick cast, Xander slowly bent his knee. He couldn't help the low groan of pain as he slowly moved his knee, but at the same time it felt immensely good to move his stiff joint again. Slowly and carefully, he slowly bent and straightened his leg several times, relaxing as the pain gradually lessoned.

When he was satisfied with that, he drew his leg up to begin removing the rest of his cast. The lower half of the cast proved much easier to remove, being able to bend his leg helped immensely.

With a huge sigh of relief Xander examined his now freed leg, before tentivaly standing. He had to hold onto his desk as he got to his feet, while his leg felt so much better than just last week, and even more so for being able to move, it still ached. Proving he wasn't one hundred percent better yet as it refused to hold all of his weight. However, he still had his crutches, and he could still use one until his leg could hold his weight again.

Slowly, using the wall to hold himself up he made his way to the bathroom to clean up and get ready for the day ahead, he had a lot to do, his vision quest was looming closer with every passing minute.

-o-

Jacob knocked on the Swan's front door, Leah at his side as they waited for someone to answer. Shifting he looked at his companion.

"What do you think of him?" he asked, leaning against the side of the wall. Leah regarded him with a board look a moment.

"He's strange." She shrugged.

Jacob barely suppressed an eye roll, she'd been watching Xander since the night he'd spoken to Jack after being escorted from the middle of the wood. While Jacob wasn't yet privy to everything in the pack, he knew enough to know Xander wasn't normal, that the Californian knew something. He also knew that so far Xander appeared to be one of the good guys. It also just happened to be that the pack weren't telling anyone everything, it was annoying Jacob, and not for the first time he wished he'd hurry up and start to shift so he could stop wondering about every little detail they weren't telling him.

Jacob was broken from his musings as the door swung open, he couldn't help the smile as he saw his girlfriend stood in the door way. She beamed at him the second she saw him.

"I didn't know you were coming over this morning." Bella stepped back, letting them in. Jacob followed after his girlfriend.

"Yeah well, dad promised to swap spooky stories with Xander, so I thought I'd take you out after we drop him off." Jacob smiled at her. She bounced a little on the balls of her feet before nodding bouncing to the stairs to call Xander.

"It's really good you like him, dad was worried that he might not be making any friends." Bella moved back to him a moment later. Jacob pulled her into a hug as she came closer, he had to admit he was relieved. He hadn't wanted to fight over taking Xander to the Res.

After a minute or so Xander appeared, dressed and ready to go. A bag over his shoulder. Jacob felt his eyebrows hike as he noticed the lack of cast on the other teen, he didn't say anything as Xander hopped down the stairs of his good leg.

"I'm all set for spooky stories." Xander smiled as he hit the bottom of the stairs. The smile didn't quite reach his eyes though.

"Good, Billy and Jack are looking forward to it." Leah moved forward and took Xander's arm, offering him her help. He looked a little surprised but let her help him.

"Err. We did meet right?" Xander frowned at Leah. "And please tell me Jack is the old guy I was talking to?" He added hopefully.

"I'm Leah Clearwater, and yeah that's Jack." Leah rolled her eyes tugging Xander with her.

"Shall we?" Jacob smiled at Bella, sweeping his arm out grandly. Bella giggled, but quickly grabbed her coat.

-o-

Edward frowned as he watched Xander climb into Jacob's truck with his cousin and two wolves, he was barely able to contain his snarl as he regarded them. There was no way he was going to loose what was his to a mangy gang of mutts, unfortunately he couldn't exactly go over and take what was his without a whole list of problems. His eyes tracked the truck as it left. Turning from his spot in the trees around the Swan home, he quickly left. He wouldn't be able to follow them onto the Reservation.

It didn't take him long to reach his home, he slipped in through his bedroom window, relaxing when he saw his door still shut.

Carlisle had warned them away from Xander, he had good reason to warn them away too. Xander healed abnormally fast for a human, and according to Carlisle some of the flippant remarks Xander made, Xander believed. As vampires they where able to detect when a human was lying to them, and Xander lied about some of the strangest things. Carlisle was justified in his warning about Xander, Edward understood that Xander could be a threat to their coven, their family. Even so, he just couldn't stop watching Xander at night, listening to the boy's thought's when he could or even stop the urge he had to manipulate situations so he could keep bumping into Xander.

He looked up as he detected Carlisle approaching, 'think of the devil.' Edward mused dryly as he moved swiftly, it was time to face the music apparently. Edward opened his door and stood back, allowing Carlisle to enter his room, closing the door softly behind his father.

"We need to talk." Carlisle sat on the divan, motioning for Edward to joining. Nodding, Edward crosses the room taking the seat next to Carlisle. He looked at the older vampire, waiting for him to begin. "Rosalie tells me you've been watching Xander." Carlisle began, looking straight at him.

Edward just nodded in agreement, he wouldn't hide anything from Carlisle, he couldn't. Carlisle was his friend and his father, they had been together for almost a century. He trusted Carlisle implicitly, more so than anyone else in their family. He knew what was coming next and waited for it, already formulating his answer.

"Can I ask why?" Carlisle probed.

"I can't explain it Carlisle…he smells better than any other human I've ever met, even Bella, I want to bite him, drink him, but not kill him…when I'm around him, I just know…that he's mine." Edward took a cleansing breath, he'd been over the same lines of thought so many times since meeting Xander a few days ago. He ran a hand through his hair agitatedly, in all honestly the more he was around Xander, even when Xander didn't know he was there, made him want to be around Xander more, and the more he was around Xander, the more he began to hate the idea of not having him around.

"Edward, are you attracted to Xander?" Carlisle asked, his tone surprised but not condemning.

Edward thought about the question, was he attracted to Xander. It was obvious even to himself that he was attracted to Xander's blood, he was a vampire, he was attracted to anything with a pulse, but was he attracted to Xander in the sense Carlisle was asking? Abruptly the image of Xander stripping in his room as he got ready for bed came to his mind. As a vampire he had exceptional sight, he'd been able to see the strong muscles under soft tanned skin, the slim odd scars that littered his powerfully built torso. He remembered how Xander had looked, head down cast as he worked on his belt just before Edward had left, plump lower lip caught between his teeth, eyes heavy lidded slightly obscuring his dark chocolate eyes. Oh yes he was definitely attracted to Xander. He felt shock flood his system.

"Yes." he answered simply, not meeting Carlisle's eyes. He relaxed as he heard Carlisle's thoughts on his admission, Carlisle was happy for him.

"Xander's not normal, he looks human, but he heals far to fast to be human." Carlisle began, surprisingly completely at odds with what he was thinking. Edward felt his heart sink, looking at his father sideways. "Be careful son." Carlisle put a hand on his shoulder. "We don't know anything about him, so be careful." he ordered standing. Edward looked up in shock.

"Your serious." Edward looked at Carlisle, it wasn't a question, but he needed verbal confirmation. Thinking something and saying something where to different things.

"I'm serious, just be careful." Carlisle nodded before leaving.

Edward flopped back onto his bed, shock flooding his system, Carlisle had just basically given him permission to go after what was his. Xander wouldn't know what hit him.