Kim POV

Almost six years ago, at seventeen, everything in my life changed. Well maybe not everything, but things became different. I was imprinted on by Jared, and I gained a family none could compare to. It had also been nearly six years since Lulu and I had put out an advertisement for a French tutor, and Bella Swan answered.

Now she was Bella Cullen, and we hadn't seen her in three and a half years. We heard from the Cullen's of course, all the time. It wasn't the same though. Nothing had truly been the same. We all felt the absence, even knowing it was for the best.

There had been so many changes. Graduations, engagements, jobs, marriages and children.

The September after the Cullen's left, and the year Rory turned one, Jared and I got engaged. We had been married that June, and not having them there felt unbearably wrong. Alice still helped make arrangements, and all of them sent congratulations. There were video chats, and phone calls, but still; it wasn't the same. Now I was pregnant, and all I wanted to do was have them here. Especially Bella.

Emily was heavily pregnant as well, and understood the motions as I did, but both of us craved having someone else to talk to about it. Bella was the only other one of us who had gone through it, though hers had been different. Us telling her over the phone felt bittersweet. We were fortunate enough that we hadn't had to stop contact, but it wasn't enough some times. It wasn't the same.

Hell, everything was different. Everyone was. We were still young, but so old. Everything we had gone through had changed us. We didn't trust outside of our circle. We didn't even venture outside of it as much as in the past. I think we were all waiting for the bottom to fall through again.

It always did.

Maybe that had been what I was most afraid of lately. What more could be taken away? I understood now more than ever the type of stress Bella had gone through during her pregnancy. All I could think about was what our baby was being born into, and how I would teach him or her about all of this. All of us.

"Kimber Thail, earth to Kimber Analese Graystone Thail." Morgan waved her hands in front of me to snap me out of it. We were sitting at a table at Clearwater's, waiting for the boys to show up. "Did you just lapse into a pregnant coma?"

"Yes, because they exist." I wiped my hands over my face. "Sorry, I was just thinking."

"Me too." She reached over to grip my hands, and winked. "They're always on my mind. I heard from Rosie the other day. She yelled at me."

"Why?"

"I stole her red boots four years ago. She just found out. Bella had convinced her Ripley had done it."

I laughed and shook my head. "God I miss them. I video chatted and saw Rory last week and I couldn't believe how big she was." I absently rubbed my hand over my belly. "As much as I love that little hybrid, I'm glad mine won't grow that quick. She looked fifteen or sixteen, I hate it."

"Imagine how Edward feels. Soon boys will be knocking on their door, wherever it is now." Morgan froze as she realized what she said. "Jesus that could have been an insert foot in mouth moment."

"Uh, it actually is." I looked behind Morgan grimly. Jared had just walked in with Embry and Jake, who had paled.

"I wish I was a bird so I could fly far, far far away from here." Morgan mumbled as Embry and Jared walked over to sit. Jake patted Morgan's shoulder but passed us both. "Jake, I'm sorry you know what I meant." She started to stand but Jared shook his head.

"He's more out of it today than usual. He broke up with Tiffy."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he's been dating and trying to act…."

"Normal." Embry supplied.

"Right," Morgan nodded, "But Tiffy was wacked anyways. She wanted him to keep stuff at her place after three dates."

"Do we know if they…." I clapped my hands together twice quickly.

"My sources indicate a negative on that." Jared said. "To quote my wife he's only," He also clapped. "with the one girl."

"I miss her. What was her name?" Morgan wondered.

"It's a close and personal kind of missing I see." Embry rubbed the back of her shoulders. "Annemarie. She was a sweet girl but a little too observant. Started asking about us."

I sighed. Jake had waited a long while after the Cullen's had left to seek out a distraction. None of us expected he or Quil to wait for their imprints to mature while they lived as monks. Especially when neither had a guarantee that their imprints would turn to something more than a recognition of souls. Quil had taken to dating much quicker than Jake. Perhaps because he would have to wait much longer until Claire may show signs of being more to him, and he to her. Based on how Rory aged, Jake wouldn't have that wait, but a future with them together seemed bleak at this point. Short of a year after they left, he met Annemarie, and found a way to live rather than simply exist anymore. They found comfort in each other for two years, and it seemed Jake was finally having the young life he hadn't before.

But of course, it couldn't last. She couldn't be told, and he held a part of himself back. After losing his best friend, I wasn't sure he would ever truly let anyone in again. It made for a worry from us.

"Anyway, I called Jasper today. Sam told him about that newborn vampire coven starting downstate. He said unless they come to our territory he doesn't see why we should get involved." Jared said, nodding as Embry swore. "I know, I'm itching for a fight too, but we can't pick em all. No need to cause trouble, they'll see to it."

"They can't juggle everything." Morgan leaned back in her chair, waving Leah over.

"Who can't juggle what?" She asked, taking a seat for a break and grinning at my bulging belly.

"The Cullen's."

"Sure they can, they don't have to sleep after all." She took a bite of my sandwich. "Mmmm, which reminds me. I got a call from my favorite stepfather."

"Charlie makes you think of sleeping?" I leaned my head on Jared's shoulder as his hands found the baby's kicks.

"He woke me and Athan up at the time. Anyway, he said that he got a call from Bella's favorite stepfather. Phil says Renee left him a while back."

"What? Bella would have mentioned that." I was confused.

"I'm guessing she didn't know. I texted her, and she said she's rereading the letters they've been sending back and forth and she can't find anything off about them."

"Don't they call each other?" Morgan asked.

"Not much since a video chat soon after Bella had changed. Remember Renee said she looked and sounded different?" Leah shook her head. "Frankly, I'm not a fan of Renee but Charlie seemed concerned. He hasn't been able to reach her on phone either, only a letter here and there and none mentioned her leaving Phil."

"Why can't our family be normal?" I felt heated. "Letters aren't even a suitable way to communicate, family should be together."

"Here here." Jake said as he lowered to a chair, and then held up a hand. "Please save the apology, I was just agreeing with you. And now I'm changing the subject. When is the double baby shower hmm?"

As we always managed to, we lapsed into normal chatter. And as always, the others migrated to the table eventually. Ripley and Paul made us laugh, as Emily and Sam looked at us all like protective parents. We caught up on each other's lives, despite seeing each other daily. We were still a family, and as my baby stirred I remembered our werewolf side would continue to flourish and grow.

But as both Jacob and I's eyes wandered to three empty seats at the table next to us, I knew an absence would always be felt.

Bella POV

"Aurora Renesmee Carlie Cullen I will throw you three hundred yards if you do not turn that down."

Edward paced our small living room as Rory's music seemed to fill our entire ranch style house. I watched him become what would have been a blur to humans, but I could see every movement.

"Edward come on, music is best when loud when you're that age."

"It's not even music." He pointed in the direction of her room.

"Oh please, don't get all old world on her. She's not going to understand that view and it just makes you look ancient." I smirked at him, knowing it would stop the pacing. "It's a phase she's not going to like that stuff forever." Or at least I severely hoped not since I liked the same classic music as Edward, and not this heavy metal.

He plopped on the couch next to me. "Are we to assume listening to music that has lyrics such as "let the bodies hit the floor" means she's going to become a serial killer?"

"Like father like daughter?" I laughed as he swiped at me. "Oh honey, you were the good kind. You took out the bad guys. Like Dexter."

He laughed and looked up as Rory's music faded away, and soon after she walked in. "Well if it isn't the psycho."

She rolled her eyes and crossed her legs on the floor. I found myself, as I often did, staring at her. When you have a child who changes so rapidly, you have to take the time to memorize.

Aurora was technically about to turn four years old, but she looked about to turn sixteen. Her eyes were the color of mine, but more cat shaped. She always seemed to be all seeing and studying everything as her curiosity changed to intelligence over the years. She was taller than me now at five seven, and leaner. We didn't home school her, she went to school, changing them as we moved. She called it her luxury, even though Edward made sure he taught or worked in each one she went to, making sure she was safe. Then last year her taste for blood had developed, but still, Rory only had hunted animals with us, and not as much as we had to. It only seemed to make her stronger.

It was unsettling sometimes to look at her and still vividly remember how it felt to hold her as she slept. It was hard for her too at times. While her mind developed as fast as her body, it still left her feeling as though she had been deprived of certain things. Not only was she different by being part vampire, but she aged so quickly that if she continued to she would look and feel one hundred by her twenty fifth birthday.

It terrified us all. We had still yet to find any evidence that would suggest her being truly immortal. The fact that she continued to age stipulated that she wasn't an immortal creature, just an advanced one.

Though I was happy to push that aside and take the years with her we had, and the difficulty it would still take for anyone to hurt her. There had already been close calls with Volturi scouts and other vampires stalking us. Word had eventually trickled out that hybrid children were a possibility. Still, no vampires attempted to make one without a certainty for what Rory's future held. Plus no one dared to defy the Volturi as we had.

Even with all the moving, training, and losses; we didn't regret what we had done. Nor did Rory resent us for it. Especially in the last few years, we knew we did the right thing. The pack and their parents with mine got to live seemingly unthreatening lives, and while we never quite felt comfortable; we were ready. Rory and I crafted our gifts, and while sometimes Rory would use hers lazily, it had grown to something quite formidable. It had come in handy the few times the Volturi would make an advance. The first time being a year or so ago, and rather than fear it, Rory stared them in the face and bared her teeth, her feisty strength reminding me of mine. It made my worries diminish ever so slightly, and lately I began to believe we could win if we just found enough people to stand with us. Though even after years of trying, the numbers weren't exactly in our favor.

"Mom stop staring at my face, what time are they coming."

I snapped out of it and sighed. "Aurora, I told you they'll get here when they get here. I swear you're more eager than your father."

"Oh because you haven't been bursting. You even took off work from the hospital all the nights this week." Edward cocked his head and grinned crookedly, Rory's matched his.

"He hears them. They're here!" She sprang up to a blur as she dashed full speed for the door, her usual restraint and hesitance gone. Her laugh was infectious as she threw herself from the house.

Edward and I followed at a more human pace, watching our daughter launch herself into Esme's open arms as Carlisle enveloped them both. Behind them, our siblings suddenly came into focus.

A scream erupted from my mouth as I sprinted to the nearest of them, picking Rosalie up as we both shrieked, Alice then lifting the pair of us.

Oh if the humans could see us now…

The boys tackled us all and Edward joined in. It was as if we had all returned home from college or something. Siblings punching and hugging each other, as the parents sat aside watching. Soon Rory jumped into the mesh, Jasper laughing as he held her face in his hands.

There were "look at you's" matched with "I love you's" as everyone seemed to speak at once. It had been eight months since we had seen any of them in person, everyone had been traveling and recruiting, and we hadn't had a full family reunion as this in close to two years.

Eventually we managed to be more civilized and make it inside. We talked, we laughed, and for a couple of hours everything was right and as it should be.

But that never lasted.

"Bella I spoke to Charlie today." Carlisle said sounding different suddenly.

"I talked to him a few days ago, is everything ok?" I felt my back go rigid.

"He's fine of course, but he's concerned about Renee."

"Why?" As I asked, Edward reached for my hand, and I could tell he had begun scanning his father's thoughts for his conversation with mine.

"He spoke with Phil, who said Renee left him around a year after we left Forks."

I shook my head. "What? But I've talked to her a bunch of times sense then, both Charlie and I have. She would have said something."

"That's part of the concern." He looked at Rory. "Honey, you ok?"

"Is that your special way of asking me to leave so you guys can have grown up talk? No thanks." She poked him in the arm and leaned back against Emmett.

Carlisle smiled, but faded when he looked back at me. "Bella I don't want to alarm you but after Charlie said he heard this from Phil, and I thought about it….I developed a worry about what this could mean."

"Rip the band aid off, Carlisle." Edward said, his hand squeezing mine reassuringly.

He nodded and leaned over to put his hand on my knee. "Are you sure the person you've been writing has been Renee?"

I felt my gut sink. "Of course. I mean I found it strange that she's been traveling so much and taken to writing letters, but the way she sounds in them and the handwriting, it's hers. I spent seventeen years of my life with her I know who I'm talking to. Those things can't be mimicked."

"Ok." Esme nodded and smiled at me. "We just have to ask these things Bella, it doesn't mean something's happened. Maybe she's just going through one of those phases where she doesn't reach out to anyone."

"If she's not with Phil it's the opposite. The only time she's ever been really zealous about being in my life is when she doesn't have a man." I looked to Alice. "Have you seen anything?"

"No, but in the interest of full disclosure, and part of the reason I wanted us all to meet up…" She nodded at Edward, recognizing he now already knew. "I could just be too stressed to see things clearly but I feel like there's a block on my visions. I don't know how else to describe it. I still have them, but I feel like there is something not getting through."

"I think it might be Alec's gift." Jasper said. "He's had centuries to refine it now, and his sister's injury is good motivation."

"Well. Excellent." I stood up and walked to where my cell phone was, and then slipped into Rory's room.

I dialed Renee, suddenly realizing just how long it had been since I heard her voice. I hadn't thought of it until then. She seemed happy in her letters, and it wasn't anything new for her not to insist on being involved more fully. There had been so much else going on that I didn't entertain the thought that something could slip by my notice.

When the voicemail beeped I left a hurried message for her to call when she got a chance. I didn't want to sound too insistent or else her slight motherly instincts might have her wanting to see me. I swore as I clicked the phone off and looked around Rory's room. Usually being around something even just simply involving her could calm me, but not now. It just revved me up more to see a room that should have been decorated with posters and pictures of friends; was instead bare. Not because she didn't bother to make any, she always tried. But she never bothered to become invested in one spot. She hadn't found her home, just like I hadn't at that stage in my life.

How was I doing any better than Renee?

"Stop it." Rory's voice came from behind me. "Oh look I was able to sneak up on a vampire. You must be deep in daydream." She grinned at me as she bounced to her bed. "I could smell your over analyzing and worrying from the living room."

"If I recall it smells like strawberry yogurt." I grinned back and sat on the floor in front of her bed. "I'm sorry if I ruined the reunion mood baby."

"You didn't. Our general life structure did." As my face fell so did hers. "Hey, I didn't mean that in a bad way. We have 99 troubles and the Volturi caused em all."

"I know, I just wish…" I sighed. "Oh I had so many wishes for you. For what I wanted your life to be, and what we would give you. You deserved a much better life than this."

"I would have had better than this if it wasn't for them. I won't lie about that. What I very dimly remember of our life before…" She smiled as she did whenever she brought it up. "It was everything wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"But I still have you. I have Dad. I still have the others too Mom, I'll know them again one day. Isn't that the good part about immortality?" She slid down so she was level with me, her eyes seeming so much older than they were, and I realized that how they looked like mine. "Mom I'm here because you fought for me to be. I may not have a regular life, but I have a pretty good one. I don't blame you or Dad for the bad parts because you guys have shown me how to turn them into things that make me a stronger and better person."

I pinched her chin and smiled. "Damn right they do. And there is no one stronger than you."

"Learned from the best." She mimicked my sigh and rested her head on my lap.

I heard the vampire side of our family laughing and someone wrestle another to the ground. I was going to guess Edward and Emmett. While we couldn't be with the whole of our family, I was at least thankful to have what I did. The worries of the rest could wait for tomorrow.

Aro POV

In the great room Marcus Caius and I sat, testing our weapon numerous times. Years of stripping away, then training, and now testing were just now starting to seem well worth it. I had never before put more effort into the taking and creating stages, but so much was left riding on it now.

"Again." Caius commanded. While his tone echoed impatience, I could sense the satisfaction underneath.

"I will seek them out. I will use the hybrid child to lure them, and reveal what I am."

"And." I urged.

"And then I will destroy the abomination they have created, as well as the one my own has become."

"Ha ha. Marvelous." Caius practically clapped. "I can't imagine anything knocking them down quicker than this. It will shatter their spirits."

"As planned." I grinned as I stared into the bleak madness of those blood red eyes, belonging to the vampire that was once known as Isabella Swan's mother.

"When do you want me to leave, master?" Her toneless voice croaked.

My lips spread as I nodded. "Go now."

Authors Note: I know, I did another fast forward, but they have to happen to keep the story from dragging/ getting too repetitive. Probably only two more will occur in the rest of the story. And I know the years/ages are different than they were in past stories. In I'm His Lobster Kim had her first child at 20 not 22, and Emily was younger as well. But while I did incorporate characters and their history from other stories of mine, I can't keep it the same. I know that may seem confusing, and while at first that made me not want to include o/c's like Ripley, Morgan, Elan, and Athan; I still thought it would be interesting to bring them back for my last project. No their story lines are not the same as the stories they were first seen in though. I wish I had been brilliant and found a way to tie every story of mine together like that. But this is a cool second. It also felt extremely cool to write "Kim POV" again. That's how this started nearly three years ago after all.

Damn this is the longest author's note I've done in a while.

Also, while I haven't received any complaints about it yet, don't fret…the sad elements of the last few chapters will not be the tone for the rest of the story. It's merely build up to where the story is going. I won't kill all the characters and leave misery behind, I just don't go for the sunshine and rainbows type of stories.

As for this chapters dedication, is for my two sides of family as a group. I haven't always had friends that can understand what my writing means, but both sides of my family have not only been there for it, but get genuinely excited over it. I'm a lucky typer.