A/N: Getting into the "Sharing Feelings" part of it.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 12

EDWARD

Deeply upsetting, that's how I would describe it. Not only was she doing suspiciously fine for a newborn, but she had nobody there capable of restraining her without using claws and or jaws if she suddenly turned out to be as good a trickster as the red-head was. Carlisle spent many minutes on the phone with Billy Black, Jacob's father, asking him questions about how she…seemed. We weren't allowed on their land for the sole purpose of one of us accidentally having a snack. Letting the newborn Isabella Swan 'hang out' with Jacob for the night was highly, highly, risky. It showed that there are loopholes in the treaty — sure Isabella was as much of a daughter to Billy as Jacob was a son to Charlie, but letting her remain there for more than a few hours was insane.

Carlisle agreed on the condition that all their wolves were ready should Isabella snap.

Emmett found it comical. He and I sparred for a bit to get my frustration out of my system, but I couldn't, for the life of me, ignore the huge risk she posed. Not only to us, but to our whole peaceful coexistence with the tribe. What if she bit Jacob? Would she drain him? Would he die? Get sick? Would she go on a rampage through their community?

They'd have to kill her.

Even Jacob's relationship to her couldn't fix that.

The more Carlisle agreed with Billy that keeping Isabella in a comfortable environment would do her well, to keep her emotional state somewhat steady, the more I questioned where his allegiances lie — and where his fucking brain was. How could he put so many people in jeopardy?

I contemplated staying out all night, sitting at the big rock that marked the treaty boundary. Jasper had more experience with newborns than the rest of us, he too was irritated. He'd come with me, I know he would.

We needed to study Isabella. See if she really is as different as she seems to be.

All of us couldn't ignore the fact that her transformation mirrored Carlisle's. Her self-control especially.

Perhaps thats why he was treating the situation with far less concern than we expected him to.

Then Isabella herself called.

"Dr. Cullen?" She said.

"Hello, Isabella."

"Can you arrange for me to be picked up in the morning?"

"Of course."

"Thank you."

"Isabella?"

"Yes?"

"Do you understand the gravity of the situation? How dangerous it was that you left on your own? I must impress on you the seriousness of it. It was very, very reckless."

"I didn't mean to— I mean I think I meant to… I felt like I had to. Leave I mean. Knowing I was being chased was…a whole new feeling. I am sorry."

"Have you eaten?"

"Yes. Moose."

"That's all?"

"Yes."

"How do you feel?"

"Well, to be honest, being with Jacob makes it easier. He…is unappetizing. With the wolves all around it's fairly difficult to smell anything else."

"I do agree," he chuckled. "We will talk more tomorrow. Please be rational…this moment in time should be very trying for you. For all of us. Please respect that. There are laws."

"Laws?"

"There is so much for you to know, Isabella."

"I know."

"As long as you do."

"Okay."

"One more thing…" He said. "We do not sleep."

I move to face Carlisle, we all do. Though we can hear Isabella's end very well, it's another thing entirely to see Carlisle's reaction. He's smiling, on the verge of laughing.

"Ever?"

"Yes. Ever."

"That explains it, then."

"What do you mean?"

"The purple eye bags. You all have them. I don't…yet I guess."

Silence.

"Okay Isabella. I will let you go now."

"Have a…good night Dr. Cullen."

"Be careful, Please."

"Of course."

The line drops, and Carlisle hangs up the phone.

I launch at him — vocally anyway. "Are you crazy, Carlisle? How can you be so calm about it?"

He held his hands up defensively. "She has to feel like we trust her."

"Like? Of course we don't trust her! She's a fucking newborn! Can you imagine the damage she can do? Who she can hurt? Do you recall what happens should one of us, now including Isabella, step a toe out of line?" I questioned. "All of us — gone! Ripped to shreds!"

"You're underestimating the wolves, Edward. Jacob can handle her."

I raised a finger at him, then faltered. "Right. Jacob. He's the least capable of hurting her Carlisle."

"We will get her back in the morning. She will be fine, she's eaten already, anyway."

Incredible. Simply incredible.

Carlisle shrugged. He and Esme, who wholeheartedly agreed with me, at least in thought, opened the back door and set off into the night, hunting.

After a while of sitting in front of the TV with the others, watching a sitcom I stood up, very much irritated. We don't keep alcohol in the house. Not anymore, at least.

"I'm going out. Driving — Rose can I have your car keys?"

"Sure, they're upstairs."

She and I climbed the steps at a human's pace in silence and entered her and Em's shared bedroom.

Rose has been a vampire the longest out of all my 'siblings' and understands me more than anyone else does. Years ago, she and I tried having a romantic relationship, but since meeting Emmett, all of it turned into very strong friendship. She is my advisor, my confidant. The strongest woman I know. She fixes her extremely long blonde hair into a bun while she digs through a purse for her lanyard. Before she hands them off, she pats the space next to her on the bed. She places the keys in my hands when I sit, then offers a small smile.

"You okay?" She asked.

"No, not really."

"Where you off to?"

"I'd like to get a drink."

"You can't anywhere here — Port Angeles?"

"Yeah. I need to decompress. Carlisle's being fucking nuts. I don't get it. I never understood his feelings towards this girl."

"Ah, vampire," she corrected.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Do you like her?"

"Sort of…not really. It's more or less questionable at this point. If I let myself go with the curiosity I feel I'll likely find something to hang onto. Mate or not I'd still like to have a decision about how I feel. She'd probably like the same. I never liked the idea of the universe deciding my entire life for me. Especially when it means I'd have to be bonded with someone else…for eternity. That's a long time with one person. What if the universe gets it wrong? Or they're only right for a certain period of time?"

"I agree. It was very much love at first sight for all of us. I'd like to think that maybe one of us has a chance to explore a little bit before settling down. It's stupid, mating. I think. Especially now when relationships are so difficult to stretch for the long term. Not like when we were growing up. It went from interest straight through to marriage. So maybe it's all in our heads, in the decisions we let ourselves make. I think it can sometimes be like that. Like a compulsion to be with that person…all the time. A compulsion to hear them speak, watch them do absolutely anything… It's all so crazy except when you realize that both of you feel the same way.

So I don't know. I mean I do love Em, the same way Alice loves Jas and Dad loves Esme… But Esme did't love dad right off the bat she hated him, and Emmett was terrified of me the same was Jas was of Ali."

"I don't get it," I confessed.

"What I'm trying to get at is that you only fall in love if you let yourself do it. Denial's a very strong feeling. People do it all the time when someone they want is unattainable — they just stop letting themselves have feelings for the other person. It's hard if you've already let yourself go headfirst into it, so be glad that nothing exists between you and Isabella right now. If you let yourself love her now, and she chooses Jacob…you're going to get hurt.

She has him right now. And chances are, she's going to want to be with him, mate or no mate. They've already been together. You can either convince yourself that because she's your mate you have to love her with all your mind, body and soul immediately, or you can just stop. Think about something else. Find someone else. Anybody else. Anything else. Otherwise, you're going to be in for a world of pain. How often did you have Carlisle's mind open to you while Esme was with her previous husband? How much pain did you see in her mind when Carlisle told her she was a vampire and that they couldn't have children?"

I sighed and rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hand.

"I definitely don't want anything to do with her right now, nor do I want anything to do with the mess Carlisle has created by letting her be so close to humans. It's so stupid. And so, so dangerous."

"But she's safe with the wolves, right? Nothing else was built to destroy us. Except fire, maybe. But everything can be destroyed by fire," she laughed slightly.

"Yeah… I thought it would be different once I spent time with her. But all I felt was pity. It really was my fault she turned. I should have been looking at where I was going."

"Not really. She was being tracked by that red-head."

"I almost forgot about her… anyway."

"Yeah, so…keep what I said in mind."

"Hard not to."

"Have a good time… talk to people. Find someone to talk to besides us… it's… healthy."

"That is very true," I said, smiling a little.

And I sped off into the night.

So! What did you think?

Here's something to help you for the upcoming chapters...

My vampires are different. A lot more based in how actual human anatomy and physiology works (with aid from fantasy/imagination of course!). For instance, venom contains an enzyme that super-charges the changing process. It helps the original amount of venom injected in the bite multiply by taking over/changing a human's original red blood cells.

Each cell in the body is then able to regenerate perfectly an infinite number of times because of the venom, making things like DNA mutation due to chance or environmental causes and telomere-shortening (this causes aging) impossible. The vampire cell is quite different from normal human cells, think "super cells" that help all human abilities become "super" expressed.

That's it in a nut shell. I'll be sure to make a little 'anatomy and physiology' pamphlet-type-thing in the future to make sure everything make sense.

That's pretty much it for now!