Chapter 20

It was a very quiet night. Normally this wouldn't be strange, but tonight Emmett sat with Edward in the tree nearest Bella Swan's bedroom. The silence was only broken by occasional punctuations - Emmett saying, "Wow" every ten minutes or so.

Edward sighed after the fifty-eighth time he heard him say it. Not that the exclamations were anywhere near as annoying as what Emmett could have been saying or even thinking, but it was still not silence. Normally it was very quiet as he sat and waited. But tonight he was slightly concerned that there would be more fallout from his decision to fix Bella's truck.

His thoughts were interrupted by Emmett giving out a new exclamation. But, no, he was saying something new, this time.

"Not even as a human?"

"I died before the twenties," he said in a voice that just missed being snide. This was, he again had to remind himself, better than Emmett's talking about sex had been. "People were still being rather prudish, and I wasn't even eighteen when I died."

"None of your friends were doing it, either?" His voice dripped with incredulity.

Edward had to think about that. "Benjy was engaged and his fiancee let him go pretty far, but till he was married, no intercourse. But most dates were still chaperoned."

"I guess I was older - and it was later. It wasn't real common for either sex to stay virgins where I grew up," said Emmett in a conciliatory tone. "And then I died in Rose's arms, so that was it for me."

"Is it really so hard to think that I'd like something similar?" asked Edward, exasperated. Any time anyone found out that he was a virgin, the same thing always happened. At least, it had in the past fifty years. Before it wasn't ever really spoken of, but now, apparently, everyone's morals were free to be discussed. At least Emmett got this part.

"But, see, I actually have Rose. You don't have anyone."

"I still want to sleep with someone I'm in love with," he said quietly.

"I just think - I mean, what if you never find a mate?"

He turned to face Emmett. "When you were human, did you care about any of the girls you slept with?"

He shrugged. "They were fun chicadees, but I didn't have strong feelings one way or the other."

"And Rosalie hadn't slept with anyone besides you, right? Voluntarily," he added hastily.

"Course not, she has your mindset."

"And do you bother her about all the men she didn't sleep with?"

"Hell no," he frowned. "But things are different today, if you meet your mate, she probably won't be a virgin."

Edward shrugged. "I think at worst, my mate would still have only given herself in love. Not to simply - satisfy a craving." He rolled his eyes.

Every time Edward rolled his eyes, Emmett had to stifle laughter. "Simply satisfying cravings is what living's all about. Hell, you're one to talk about simply satisfying cravings, ol' Red-Eyes."

"My eyes are currently butterscotch, but I understand what you mean. I suppose one could say that my feeding on humans, even with my stringent qualifiers, was indeed, simply to satisfy a craving. However, there were not two people involved, desecrating a wonderful physical act. I was the only one involved, and therefore no woman was sullied."

Emmett had to laugh then. "No, just a damn dead human. That's all."

"You do realize that the humans I killed barely qualified for the term?"

"I guess morally, you're right. But technically, they were human beings. Capable of moral reasoning. Maybe if you hadn't killed them, they would have changed their ways." He grinned maniacally. "Ok, ok, that's a stretch. But even you say you won't kill innocents."

Edward shook his head. "I have the capability of choosing whom I feed on, and I think I make the world a better place when I choose - the types I choose."

"But isn't that just an excuse to drink human blood? I mean, if you were a human, you'd be fuckin' Dexter Morgan."

Edward didn't understand the reference, so he dug into Emmett's brain to understand: there was a popular television show about a serial killer who only preyed on evildoers himself. He called his urge to kill his "monster." Edward was taken aback, and resolved to watch the show at the first opportunity. "So, because I kill humans, I'm just as bad as one of those men I kill?"

"That's the basic argument," Emmett replied calmly.

"I think there's a few reasons why this isn't the same thing. First, despite Carlisle's pretense, we aren't human," he began. "I know he enjoys his work, but -" Edward stopped suddenly as Emmett jumped from the tree. He followed him. "Wolf?

"I think so. Do you still smell it?"

Edward shook his head. "Don't sense him either," he said as he tapped his forehead. "I suppose we scared him off."

"Awwww." He grinned again, then straightened up and became sober. "This is really out of their bounds..."

Looking at the map in Emmett's head, Edward nodded. "Were they - was he - after us?"

"Must have been." He recalled the scent he'd caught - his sense of smell was a bit better than Edward's - to see if Edward could confirm that it was Jacob Black.

"It was Black all right," he snarled. "If he wasn't Ephraim's descendent, we'd -"

"But he is," cut off Emmett. "We'll still tell Carlisle, but..."

Edward nodded and started the run back home. He slowed on purpose so he and Emmett could talk; he could tell Emmett wanted to ask him some non-sex questions, so he'd allow it.

"So seriously, what got you to fix her truck? It couldn't have escaped your notice last month, that it was crap."

"No, you're quite right. But yesterday it was raining and I heard her skid." He hesitated, then said, "She skidded because she saw my car missing in front of Jasper's place, and Alice coming outside."

"And she's friends with Alice?"

He sighed. "She knows Alice is a vampire."

Emmett's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Knows about all of us, apparently."

He shook his head. "The Blacks told her?" He knew that Bella was close to the twins, and Edward was tempted to let him think that, but they were almost home now, and he decided to call a family meeting.

So everyone was present as first Emmett told about nearly scenting Jacob Black, and then Edward repeated the strange tale Alice had told him: Bella Swan meeting a vampire in Croatia at age twelve.