Dear Edward,

There was one of your kind near last night. Jake told me it's eyes were red, but he wouldn't tell me if he had them or not. All he would say was that it wasn't one of your family. I was so scared when he left to help the others . . . I thought maybe he wouldn't come back. The thought of her (that I find out from Seth) hurting him was terrifying. I thought maybe he would be bitten, or badly injured that he would be unable to heal himself. Luckily he wasn't.

I don't think I could handle being alone again. I couldn't live without my sun.

As Always, Love Bella

The rest of my night was filled with nothing other than my muttering about asshats and what creepy ass things they would be doing next. Edward had not returned since I had gone all banshee on him and verbally thrown him out of my room. To be honest I thought he could have possibly even left the house, and I certainly wouldn't be upset if he had.

What did have me confused was where his family was. Surely they didn't think that his hobby of watching people (I assumed it wasn't just me) was okay? It was nine o' clock before I finally mustered up the energy to get out of bed and chance seeing the asshat again, the light in the room having forced me to the come to the realization that I had to leave my room sometime. The house was still silent when I reached the kitchen, and I wondered if Edward really had left or if he was hiding from me.

If I was him, well, then I would hide from me too. After all, no one would react well to a creep watching them sleep.

My dad told me horror stories of the evil teenage boy that had snuck into the poor innocent girl's window at night as she slept, listening to her mumbled fragments of dreams. Though my mother's novel had shown her opinion in the matter and portrayed the scene as romantic and an act of love, I had always stuck to my dad's opinion. It wasn't romantic in anyway shape or form to watch someone at their most vulnerable, at least not without their knowing and consent.

It felt weird to me, the thought of someone watching me while I was helpless, the only time that I would not be able to protect myself. Though, when I thought about it, I really was helpless all the time I spent around the Cullens. Shivering slightly at the thought of how weak I was compared to them, I shook off the thought of it. It wasn't something I wanted to focus in on while still in their home.

I seemed to be alone in the house, and though I wondered where they had all gone, my stomach was making its demands well known to me. It's loud grumble echoing throughout the rather large kitchen. What a family that no longer needed to eat had such a large sized kitchen for was a mystery to me. It was nice, that I could never debate, but it was quite a problem when I began searching for cereal. Each and every cupboard (as it always seemed to be) was searched before I finally found some form of bran, extra fibre, fortified vitamins – yeah I was just going to stick with "Cereal". Once it fed me I didn't particularly care what brand or type of cereal it was.

After my second bowl of cereal (yeah, I had pigged out a little, but I was entitled to every once in a while, right?) I heard the front door slamming open and jumped slightly. My hand settled back down right over my heart, and I glared at Emmett as he strolled happily into the kitchen. Though his demeanour was cheerful, I thought I could see an uneasy look in his eye. To me, he appeared as though he was unhappy or annoyed about something.

My guess was it was to do with the asshat.

"Hey Black! Whatacha doing?"

Despite the uneasy look his eyes held, I couldn't help but smile at the giant of a vampire standing in front of me. Even when there was a hint of insincerity to his cheerful demeanour it was infectious, and I could feel the irritation I felt at the asshat slipping away.

Who was I kidding? I was still irritated at him. I could, however force it back from the forefront of my mind, and concentrate on having a conversation instead.

"Raiding your kitchen. Took some fortified bran, healthy thing. Don't ask me what brand. Where did you all go? I know the asshat was here – for a while anyway, but where'd the rest of you go off to? And don't try to say yoga, because you are just not that flexible, man."

Emmett closed his mouth at my words, and I grinned as I realized that my guess at what his reply would have been had either been accurate or scarily close. I seemed to have shocked Emmett into silence, which I took advantage of to place my bowl and spoon in the sink. I felt like a pig, but I felt like I needed something else to eat.

It wasn't as if they would know how much a human was supposed to eat, anyway. After all, none of them had eaten in over half a century – longer, I would guess.

"You mind if I throw on a bagel for myself? I'm still feeling kind of hungry."

As I had hoped he didn't seem to notice that I was making a pig out of myself, and didn't seem to blink an eye at my request.

"Sure, go ahead. Not like any of us are going to eat it. We normally just donate it to shelters once a week, saves it from going to waste."

"Thanks."

I grabbed the brown bread once I found the bread bin, throwing three slices into the toaster. Then I turned to Emmett again, raising an eyebrow. He still hadn't answered my question.

"What? Oh! We, um, we went hunting."

I was confused. Hunting? What did he mean? Surely they hadn't been running around the woods shooting – oh. The moment I realized that he meant they had been hunting to drink I immediately felt like a complete and utter idiot. I didn't even have the excuse of not knowing that they hunted animals – I had just been completely obtuse.

The fact that I didn't feel fear around Emmett even after he had just admitted drinking an animal's blood shocked me. Perhaps it was the fact that I knew that they had made the decision not to feed off of humans - though it could possibly just be that I had become desensitized to things I should be shocked me. Finding out that your father and the majority of your family could change into giant wolves and that your mother had dated a vampire could (in my opinion) do that to a person. Maybe that was just me though?

Hmm . . . possibly.

"Oh right, that explains it."

We were both silent for a few seconds, during which I wondered what the rest of his family was doing. I could hear some of them upstairs, but I wasn't sure which they were. I safely assumed that Rosalie wasn't among those upstairs when she strolled into the kitchen, her expression irritated. She seemed to make an effort to school her expression into a more relaxed one when she spoke to me.

"Hey, Lizzie. The others just need to talk, they'll be down soon. Just some family stuff, you know? Emmett's already done with it so maybe you could talk to him about the thing on your mom's list? I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

With that Rosalie's relaxed expression seemed to fall, and she left again to return to the rest of her family. I remained silent for several seconds after her absence, as did Emmett. I could feel Emmett's confusion at his wife's words. He obviously didn't know that my mom had written about him on her list. Silently I wondered if the other members of his family believed I would be angry if they spoke about my mom's list without me being present. It wasn't as if it was a huge secret that I only let certain people in on either – I had no problems with them all knowing what my mom had included on her bucket list. There was no reason for only some of them to know everything while the others only knew that the list existed. It wasn't exactly fair, either.

"On the list, um, Rosalie's talking about the fact that my mom kind of, well, mentioned you."

I felt awkward, knowing what I was about to ask of him. He didn't even know me – he only knew the bare minimum about me at the moment – and here I was, about to ask him to give me a bear hug! If I was honest I felt slightly nervous too, which I thought was understandable. Surely anyone would feel that way? Emmett was a big guy by human standards (hell, with the size of the lads on the rez for me to consider him big meant he was big) and that paired with his supernatural strength was intimidating. What if he hurt me by accident? I was nowhere even close to being a masochist – I hated pain.

"I mean, she wanted to ask you for something, but she obviously didn't get to so that's why I am asking. You don't have to if you don't want to . . . "

Emmett still appeared confused, so I clarified for him, hoping that he would agree. I really did want to finish my mom's list for her. I had let her down so many times in my life – this was the only way that I could even attempt to make up for it now.

"She wanted to ask you for one of your bear hugs. I kind of got the impression that she enjoyed them a lot. At least – Emmett!"

The screech that exited my throat was one so shrill that it hurt my own ears. It did not seem to have any effect on Emmett, as he continued to grin widely as he engulfed me in his arms and swung me around. Despite the fact that I was being hugged by a vampire, I felt safe, and protected – like nothing could go wrong. I could see why my mom had wanted another one of them. It was nice, feeling like everything was okay for once, like nothing could cause me pain or panic.

When he let me go he was still grinning, and I grinned back at him as I thanked him.

"Thanks, Emmett. Not only did I cross something off mom's list, I got an awesome hug out of it too."

I could visibly see him preening at the compliment, and couldn't hold in the laugh that I felt the need to release at the sight.

"Now, could you do me another favour? Could you tell me why your family's been acting so weird since you came back? I've only seen you and Rosalie, but I've heard . . . some of them."

At my words Emmett looked slightly embarrassed, but he still answered me.

"They've been . . . dealing with Edward. He wasn't supposed to leave you on your own, and Alice saw glimpses of him watching you sleep – can't believe he still does that – so they're been telling them exactly what they think of his behaviour. Don't get me wrong, Edward's my brother and we all love him – don't tell him I said that! – but he's a bit of a jackass at times. "

My eyebrows rose at his last words, and so Emmett amended them.

"Okay, all of the time, but still . . . "

"You were sent to delay me weren't you?"

"Yeah, sorry I just –"

Shaking my head I reassured him it was fine, and then asked whether or not it was okay to go upstairs to my room. I wanted to cross off hugging Emmett off the list, and maybe have another read of one of my mom's letters. Edward sure as hell wouldn't be reading them anytime soon, the creepy pervert. Emmett assured me that everyone had pretty much calmed down by now, so I told him what I was doing before ascending the stairs. As I took out the list I skimmed through it, smiling lightly as I placed an "X" beside number thirteen. It looked to me as thought thirteen was not unlucky. My eyes drifted through them again after I crossed it out, considering each of them.

1. Track down Edward Cullen and tell him I'm okay.

2. Write a novel on mythical creatures. X

3. Get Alice Cullen's real email address. X

4. Watch Marley and Me and not cry. X

5. Tell Jake how my feelings have changed. X

6. Have a family with him. X

7. Tell those kids how Jake and I got together (minus the V + W's). X

8. Buy another bike, and ride it to Charlie's house. X

9. Find Jasper Hale and tell him it wasn't his fault.X

10. Slap Paul again, just to see if his control will hold. X

a book published. X

12. Go skydiving. X

13. Give Emmett Cullen a bear hug again. X

14. Get my degree in creative writing. X

15. Tell Elizabeth who she's named for.

16. Find Rosalie Hale and taunt her about the fact that I still have my truck.

17. Tell Edward that I love him (even though I love Jake just as much).

18. Give Edward my letters.

19. Learn how to fly a plane.X

20. Go cliff-diving again, but with the whole pack this time.X

21. Talk baby-talk to Leah just to check her temper control. X

The one that I was worried I would be unable to complete still bothered me, but I decided to be positive. I could do this, I would finish the list.