Chapter Twenty Five: Strange New World

For a nanosecond I had to think where I was. I had woken on the sofa bed in Carlisle's office, at the top of the house. Downstairs, I could hear a Rosemary Clooney song on the radio and the sound of Grandma singing along to it.

It hadn't been the best night's sleep. I'd had a nightmare; but when it had gotten to the part where I was supposed to wake up screaming, it wasn't me who'd been the one screaming. It was someone else's distress that pulled me out of my nightmare – Jess's.

The sound of my friend in such emotional turmoil was upsetting. Dad had come in to check on me while Mom went to be with Jess. He told me that Jess had been doing this every night since Randall left and from the floor below I could hear her sobbing. Dad encouraged me to try and go back to sleep, rubbing my back for a while as I finally drifted off.

Jess hadn't been in the house when I arrived home and I hadn't yet seen her, having gone to bed before she arrived back. She had gone to spend the evening at Grampa's. Mom had been the only one here; the others having decided that it would be best for one set of people to arrive at a time, rather than all of them descend on me at once.

So, for the first couple of hours after my return, it had been mostly Mom and I; Dad having made himself scarce to give us the opportunity to talk. We sat together on the couch and I spent a lot of my time with my hand against her cheek, giving her the full picture of what had been going on in my life over the past few months. Keeping my hand to her cheek meant that I didn't editorialise; I gave her the whole, unexpurgated truth.

Mom was angry that Leah had upset me so much and she was absolutely insistent that I talk to Jake about it, to corroborate what she had said. With the topic finally on the table, it seemed the natural point to ask about Dad leaving.

"I spoke to Dad about him leaving; he said it caused you both a lot of pain."

She nodded and closed her eyes. I knew she was working to alter the shield that covered her mind.

"I hope he can't hear your head now, but I'll ask him whether he heard this, later. I think it's time for me to admit to him what I've been holding back." She looked at me with freshly-hunted golden eyes. "I've never admitted to him exactly how bad things were for me back then; I didn't want to upset him. He's got some idea, Jake filled him in once; but I have never admitted to him the true extent of it. Having Jess go through this has brought a lot of things back to the surface, for both of us.

"There was no way I was ever going to rush into the arms of Jake, as Leah likes to think I did. Yes, I was utterly devastated that your Dad had left and no, I didn't cope well, I was a mess and virtually catatonic for a time; but I have never loved Jake in the way I love your Dad.

"I remember Charlie at one point saying that I'd reacted like someone had died. That's precisely how I felt - like your Dad had died.

"Thankfully, it's different for Jess, we know where Randall is. Jasper, Alice and Emmett have gone to encourage him to come back and we're not going to abandon Jess. When it happened to me, it was very different. One minute, I had your Dad and everyone else and the next; they all upped and vanished completely out of my life. Every scrap of evidence that they had ever been around was gone. I didn't see or hear anything from them for months and I was a wreck because of it.

"I sometimes wish that I had your talent to be able to pass on thoughts, because I'm not sure that I can find the right words to express how I felt back then. It's still all in my head, I made sure I remembered it; I just don't allow your Dad to see it. But maybe it's time I did. It's the only bit of our lives together that we haven't shared."

"Mom, I don't know if I'll be able to keep what you've said out of my head. He'll find out from me." I did not have the luxury of being able to keep my thoughts to myself.

"Then it's time I talked to him." She smiled and picked up a lock of my curls. "Leah was right in one respect. Secrets in any relationship are not good."

"I'm glad you and Dad have sorted things out."

"So am I. It wasn't the easiest thing being on my own. I've not been away from him much since you were born, the occasional shopping trip with Alice, Rose and Esmé. But having done it, I'm not keen to repeat the experience.

"I'm not at all surprised in what turned out to be troubling him." Mom smiled. "He does regard himself as incredibly fortunate. Sometimes, I catch an expression on his face, that, to use a human analogy; I think he's expecting to wake up, find that you and I we're only a dream he had and that he's on his own again. He was alone for over eighty years and he's still getting used to sharing his life with us. He's only just got used to being a Dad, is it any wonder that he doesn't want it to end so soon? I don't want it to end so soon either." A lovely warm smile spread over her face. "I love being a Mom!" I hugged her.

Grandma, Carlisle and Rose had arrived later, leaving me with serious doubts, as to whether Grandma would ever let me out of her sight again. Rose was fulsome in her apologies for what she'd said, while Carlisle was Carlisle. Quiet and seemingly understated, until you looked into his eyes and saw the depth of emotion there. He was the bedrock of our family and his embrace conveyed that to me. There was reassurance, steadfastness and so much love. He wouldn't hear a word of apology from me, only my assurance that I would not bottle things up in future.

Carlisle also reassured me that, physically, Jess was in very good shape and they were optimistic that she could get through the pregnancy. However, the baby was already starting to make its strength known and had added to her compliment of cracked ribs. She was in a great deal of pain from those as well as the emotional pain from Randall's departure.

I got up off the sofa bed, ran my fingers through my hair to get the worst of the snags out and plodded downstairs in my pyjamas. The perpetual tiredness was still very much in evidence.

I could hear and smell bacon frying in the pan and there was the scrape of a spoon in a cereal bowl; Jess must be having breakfast. There was another scent too. Along with her cereal and bacon, Jess needed to consume human blood and the aroma of that was wafting through the house and making my throat ache.

"Morning, Prius."

I stopped dead at the sound of the unexpected voice, head snapping round to see Dan in the living room. He was sat on the sofa with Jane snuggled up by his side; his arm was around her shoulder.

"Good morning Ness." She said, beaming. "It's good to have you back."

I looked at Dan, shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for my breakfast."

"No, I mean what are you doing here, in this house?"

"Waiting for my breakfast." He repeated, enjoying the look of confusion on my face. "Although, the service is a bit slow this morning." A wide grin spread across his face. "Oh don't worry, I know all about this." He flicked his hand in air to indicate everything. "About your family, about Jane, about Jess and about you – hence the Prius comment."

"Prius?" asked Jane.

"Yeah, Prius, after the Toyota Prius. It's a hybrid car. She's a hybrid vampire." His subtlety was lost on Jane, who wasn't overly familiar with twenty first century internal combustion engines. Her confusion made him laugh and wrap his other arm around her. He looked back at me, a familiar amused look on his face. "I must admit, for a vampire, you're a bit unconvincing; I never would have guessed. Whereas Jane…" He pulled Jane tighter and she giggled, "is the real McCoy." His twinkly-eyed smile showed that he bore me neither malice nor any apparent concern with who and what he was cosying up to. What was it with these Taylor twins and their ability to take relationships with dangerous predators in their stride? Was there a strange genetic quirk in the UK?

"Aren't you supposed to be in England?" That wasn't what I really wanted to respond to, but it was the question that suddenly fell out of my mouth.

He shook his head. "Slight change of plan; Mum and Dad went on their own. I'm here to keep an eye on Jess; although I'm slightly redundant, what with the personal doctor and the entire battalion of nurses at her beck and call."

"Good morning Ness." Grandma appeared from the kitchen and she embraced me. "I'm cooking some bacon, would you like some?" I shook my head; I wanted the blood and wondered if there was any left over and where it was being stored. I looked back at Dan and Jane. "Things have changed around here." She acknowledged.

"I'll say." I replied, looking into her eyes for answers to the questions I had.

"Carlisle is OK with it," she said, quickly and quietly below Dan's hearing level, but not Jane's.

"I can be trusted." Said Jane equally rapidly and quietly. "He means everything to me. I'm working my hardest not to mess this chance up."

"What was that?" Dan was aware we were saying things he couldn't hear. It was my turn for the twinkly eyed stare.

"She said your feet smell and you snore like a hippopotamus."

"I did not!" Jane snapped indignantly.

Dan chuckled. "She's jesting Jane."

But Jane wasn't quite as used to our gentle sassing of one another. "I didn't," she reassured Dan, "I was saying that I was working hard not to mess this up."

"I know. Ness is just pulling your leg." Jane's face told me that the concept of leg-pulling was as equally alien to her as sass. Dan moved to reassure her, bending his head to kiss her.

"Come and see Jess." Said Grandma; taking my elbow and gently pulling me towards the kitchen. I couldn't hear anyone else around.

"Where is everyone?"

"Jasper, Alice and Emmett are not back yet. Carlisle's out getting more blood and Rose has gone out to hunt with your parents and Daniel."

Daniel, he'd come back with Jake, Seth and Jane. "How is he?" I asked as we walked slowly to the kitchen.

"It's early days, too early to say whether he'll make the change permanently, but your father says there is the desire to, which is always encouraging. He's quite handsome now he's all spruced up." she smiled. "Your Dad has found out a little more about him. He's quite a talented web designer it would appear. I might get him to take a look at my website; it could do with a little freshening up." Esmé worked as a consultant in property restoration and furnishing; a business that was taking her increasingly further away, as her good reputation spread.

I paused in the doorway of the kitchen. Esmé flitted over to the stove to check on the bacon, flipping it over to finish off. Over in the corner, sat on her own at the big, white, kitchen table, was Jess. She was chasing the last bits of cereal around her bowl. In front of her were two glasses; a small one full of orange juice and a large empty glass beside it, the inside coated with a familiar red tinge – blood. I tried not to fixate on it.

Jess finished and dropped her spoon into the bowl with a clatter. She looked up and our eyes met. Hers radiated intense sadness - the pain of Randall's disappearance was clear - but she smiled hesitantly.

"You're back." She said, wiping a bit of milk from the corner of her mouth.

I nodded. "Yes."

"I'm glad."

"So am I."

"I do, however, have a gigantic bone to pick with you." This was to be expected, I had kept so much hidden from her. Esmé walked out of the kitchen with Dan's bacon roll, discreetly leaving us alone, although she would not fail to hear what was said. I walked towards the table trying to concentrate on Jess and not on the glass. "We've got an awful lot to talk about, you and I." I couldn't disagree with her and I nodded. "And you've got an awful lot of explaining to do." Her expression was resolute.

"I know."

"But you can start by explaining one very important thing." She unleashed her hypnotic blue-eyed stare that tried to suck the answer directly out of me.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Why the hell does this place look like a branch of IKEA?" There was a raise of an eyebrow, a turn at the corner of her mouth and an impish grin appeared on her face. Jess started to chuckle and I couldn't help but join in, as I understood that all her preconceptions of how vampires might live, had sailed straight out the window on her arrival here. "Come here you!" She said, standing up. My eyes flew to the large bump that now filled her abdomen. She saw me staring. "Oh yeah, I'm very pregnant now." She smoothed her pink pyjama down over her bump and stepped out from behind the table. She walked over and threw her arms around me. I returned the hug, finding it odd that a bit of her was now in the way.

We hugged silently for a clear minute, before Jess broke away. She looked down at my hands as she held them, rubbing her thumbs over my palms.

"I can't believe what you are. You feel so human. A little different, yes, now that I know what to look for, but…" She looked at me. She looked tired; there were dark circles around her eyes and her skin was even paler than normal. "I would never have guessed what you are. You are so… what is it they call you? Well camouflaged?"

Yes, I was well camouflaged. "How do I feel different?"

She pressed her thumb into my palms. "There's no 'give' in you. To touch you feel really normal, but if you press..." She did just that. "You're solid." She kept pressing, moving her fingers up my arms before returning back to the blue veins at my wrists. She traced the veins in my left wrist with her index finger. "And you have blood."

"An approximation of blood, it doesn't register as normal." It felt good to finally be explaining myself to her.

She suddenly looked up at me, grabbing hold of my hands again. "I need to say sorry. I'm sorry if what I said made you run away."

I shook my head. "It was lots of stuff."

"I didn't know that things had got to you so much, you never said; I don't suppose you could, really. But I didn't even know about…" She inclined her head in the direction of the living room. "Dan and Jane? That was a shock. Both of us ending up with vampires. You must have been going spare."

"It wasn't easy." I admitted. "I didn't know about you. My head was full of nonsense and I was working too hard, to keep Jane from Dan to pay close attention to your strangely hidden boyfriend."

"Yes. But obviously you know why I could talk about it."

"Better than most. It's not something you can easily slip into the conversation."

"No, even with your best friend." The phrase startled me and I was momentarily unsure of myself again. Jess seemed to register my shock. "Oh you are; by a very long way. You're so easy to get on with. You're not some self-obsessed drama queen who demands that we all experience every facet of her pain and trauma. If anything, you're slightly too much the other way. No offence."

"None taken."

"You could do with opening up a bit, Ness. Let people in."

"She gets it from her mother." My Dad was by the kitchen door. I smiled at him.

Jess looked at me, inclining her head towards him. "And he's your Dad?" She grinned. I nodded. "That was when things started to get odd. He looks younger than you!"

I laughed. "I know." Dad rolled his eyes.

"He told me how he met your Mum. Did you know they were in the same class as Mr Newton?"

"Yes."

Jess turned back to my Dad. "Next time he starts, I'm going to think of those pictures you showed me. I can't take him seriously after that."

Dad came over. "I never could take him seriously." He kissed me on the cheek and we hugged. "Good morning sweetheart, are you ok?" He didn't need to ask me, it was more for Jess's benefit.

"Good thanks. How is Daniel?" I could hear Daniel in the living room talking to Grandma. I could also hear my Mom and Rosalie making their way in from the forest. They had been discussing Jess's progress.

"He's doing OK. It's not easy to make the switch, but I'm encouraged by his willingness to try." I thought of Jess and Dan and their vulnerability in his presence. "He'll be OK today." He said, responding to my unspoken concerns, "but he'll need to hunt on a daily basis for the foreseeable future."

"Ah! You did that thing."
"The picking stuff out of your head?" I guessed, smiling.

"It's something you will have to get used to, Jess. It's important in your case that I know how you are feeling and how the baby is affecting you."

"Can you hear the baby yet?" I asked him, knowing there was a point where the baby's thoughts would be developed enough for him to hear them. That point had come with me, during my Mom's pregnancy.

"Not yet, I anticipate it will be another couple of days if the baby is developing along similar lines to you."

"That's just freaky." Said Jess. "But good freaky." She qualified.

"I have my uses." Dad smiled warmly at her. Mom came in to the kitchen and embraced Dad, kissing him in a way that really wasn't polite for company, which made Jess raise her eyebrows at me and giggle.

"Parents eh? They're always showing you up."

I snickered.

Mom turned around. "Good morning Jess, how are you today?"

"I'm ok." She rubbed her stomach and then pulled a face. "Well, sort of ok, I can't stop eating. I've eaten half a box of Cheerios and drunk four glasses of blood this morning. And it's not even nine o'clock yet."

Mom smiled. "You are doing very well. How are your ribs today?"

Jess moved her hand to her right side. "Not bad."

"Please say if they are hurting. Rose or I will tape you up some more if they're still causing you problems." Mom turned to me and pulled me in to a tight hug. "And you look tired. Why don't you go back to bed?"

"I'm ok." I said. "I'm always tired these days."

Mom held me at arms length away from her. "That's what concerns us. When Carlisle comes back we're going to talk to him about this. Have you had breakfast?" I shook my head, thinking of the drained glass of blood on the table and wanting that. It was swiftly removed, rinsed out and placed in the dishwasher. I let a low, good-natured but irritated growl escape. It was met by amused fatherly eyes.

"Oh no you don't. "He chuckled. "Go outside if you're thirsty."

"You growled. You actually growled! Do it again!" Jess's eyes were wide in shock. I felt self-conscious. "Do it again!" Jess implored. I growled gently at her, pulling my lips back a little from my teeth. I stopped, felt unsure and wrapped myself back in Mom's arms, burying my face in her hair. I didn't enjoy my friend seeing me like that. It put a distance between us; between what she was and what I was. But Jess remained undaunted. "That was so cool! Although why were you growling at your Dad?"

"She wanted what you're having." He replied.

"Oh sorry, I finished off the Cheerios."

"She didn't want the Cheerios." He snickered, I held Mom tighter.

"Edward, don't tease her." Mom reproved him.

Jess took a sharp intake of breath and her hand flew to her mouth. "Of course, it's what you eat! I mean drink. No, hang on a minute; you eat all sorts of crap. I've seen you eat Poptarts and Pizza for breakfast."

"It's a good job we arrived back when we did. Poptarts and Pizza?" Mom smiled at me.

"There was a lot left over and Grampa couldn't eat it all."

"Grampa?" Asked Jess "Oh you mean Chief Swan?" She laughed. "He's a good bloke; he's been so good with my parents this week, fielding no end of phone calls."

"So what's the story?" I asked. How had they managed to persuade Susie and Brian Taylor to go to Britain and leave Dan and Jess behind?

"Post-traumatic stress." Dad replied. "Jess had an apparent breakdown the day before they were due to fly out. Charlie happened to be stopping by and was able to recommend a good Doctor who specialised in this kind of thing."

"You?" I asked.

"No, I'm your cousin remember? I can't be two things at once. Jasper volunteered. It couldn't be Carlisle, he's too well known in the area."

"Dr Whitlock recommended a few weeks rest and counselling for me to talk about some of the issues."

"So where do they think you are?"

"In a clinic in Seattle. They were given numbers which get routed straight through to here."

"And Dan? How did he get out of the trip?"

"We had to get Jane to tell him who she really was." Dad replied.

I thought back to Seth's wedding. "I thought she'd done that already?"

"No," replied Dad. "She had turned up and was working up to it. We forced the issue somewhat and that got him to stay."

"I'd just like to reassure you that we're not playing some mad game of Taylor-twins one-upmanship." Jess insisted. "He did this completely independently of me."

"I know." I said.

"Come on, I know we're both still in pyjamas, but let's go and be sociable."

Jess and I followed Mom and Dad out of the kitchen and into the living room, where Rose, Daniel and Grandma had joined Jane and Dan. Dan was enthusiastically finishing up the bacon roll and once again I marvelled at the ease with which both he and Jess now mixed in our company.

It was usual for humans to feel unsettled in our presence; for some reason, that they couldn't understand, the human subconscious told them to stay away from us. But in the case of Jess and Dan, it was as if this mechanism had been deactivated, or was even working in reverse. They appeared to be functioning as a couple of vampire magnets.

Jane patted the sofa and Jess went and sat down next to her. Jane had almost the same colour blond hair as the Taylors. At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that she was their younger sister, as all three were blonde, slim and pale.

Rosalie came over, ran her fingers over the dark circles beneath my eyes and hugged me. "I see what Bella means about the tiredness. Yes she's right; Carlisle needs to take a look at you."

"Is there any word from Emmett?" I asked, quietly.

Rose put her back to Jess. "Yes, they're still trying to convince him to come back. He's distraught at what he's done and the potential scenarios it throws up. They are trying to persuade him that, regardless of what happens to Jess, that the baby will survive and he needs to come back and be a father to it. But he can't get past the fact that if Jess dies or gets changed in the process, he'll be ripping her away from her family."

"Is Jess likely to die?" That was the worst that could happen as far as I was concerned.

"It's not out of the realm of possibility. It depends how much damage the baby does to her internal organs when it moves around. But she's physically much stronger than your Mom was at this stage. We learned so much from her being pregnant with you. The blood for instance? If Jess gets a good quantity down before a meal, it seems to stabilize her digestive system enough for her to eat normally, so both mother and baby can be nourished. She's naturally strong, so I'm optimistic she'll make it to the birth no problem.

"But the weird part is her head. It's your Mom all over again, like the signals are switched off." I nodded; I knew precisely when she meant.

"So you're optimistic she'll make it through?"

"She'll get to the birth if the baby doesn't kick her about too much. We could do with Jasper to keep the baby calm, so I hope they get back soon, before it gets too much bigger or stronger." My uncle Jasper could influenced moods and could calm the baby to keep it happy and if necessary, sleepy. "Of course, the birth is the dangerous bit. Getting the baby out without killing Jess or changing her in the process, will be tricky. You can't do a standard caesarean with a hybrid baby, this we know."

"So will she have the baby normally?"

"Unlikely, the baby is the judge of when it's ready to emerge, not Jess's body, so we'd have to induce labour. But the baby may react badly to doing something it doesn't want to do. Hybrids can be strong-willed little so-and-so's." She flashed a grinned at me for a second, before her face reverted to a serious expression.

"While we're optimistic about her getting there, there is no guarantee that she will make it through the birth. Everything about this is dangerous for Jess."

Rose put her hands on my shoulders and dropped her voice even further; although she was already speaking below the level Jess could hear at. "You need to prepare yourself for the very real possibility that Jess will not make it, or that she will need to become a member of our family. You know that if the baby is a boy and its teeth get anywhere near Jess, then we stand little chance of being able to stop the conversion." I nodded.

"We have already started making plans for Jess and her baby to join our family. So I hope you two are good friends." We were, but my gaining of a 'sister' was at the expense of Dan losing his twin and Susie and Brian losing a daughter. My feelings of sadness must have been evident on my face, because Rose suddenly put her arms around me.

It was a little while later, after Jess and I had got washed and dressed, that I managed to have my first conversation with Daniel. He was sat out on the porch steps, gazing blankly into the forest straight ahead. Grandma was right; cleaned up; Daniel was a handsome guy; although the red eyes were an unsettling reminder of what he was.

I didn't know too many traditional vampires; they didn't exactly flock around us, viewing our lifestyle choice as deeply suspicious. Daniel was wearing some more of my Dad's clothes and also a watch of his. His blond hair had a slight wave to it and washed clean of the dirt, it was a rich golden colour – not unlike Jasper's.

I was returning from the garage where I'd been with Dan and Jane. Of everything that Dan could have remonstrated with me for keeping from him, it was my Aston Martin Vanquish which had elicited the rebuke.

"You are driving around in a VW Golf when you have that in the garage."

I shifted uneasily. The car had been left unused since I'd been given it at Christmas, forgotten about even. The breakdown in the relationship between my father and I, had put paid to any desire to drive a car so intimately associated with him. I lied as to why I hadn't driven it. "I never had the opportunity." I said breezily.

He went for it. "Yeah, it's been a busy year. I was admiring it earlier and Edward said it was yours. He gave it to you?" Dan eyed me like I was the luckiest girl on the planet.

I grinned "Yeah, it was his car, I'm his daughter, it's logical I'm going to get Daddy's hand-me-downs."

Dan's eyes flicked over to the Veyron, parked a couple of cars along. He exhaled a low whistle. "So that's what's coming next?"

The side door opened and an irritated face peered round the door jamb.

"I have only had that car five minutes, will you two stop thinking it's yours already!" I laughed at Dad's annoyance.

"Sorry Ed."

My father's eyes narrowed at Dan's shortening of his name, he didn't like it. He was never an Ed, he was always an Edward. "It depends how Nessie treats the Vanquish as to whether I deem her worthy of ever having the Veyron."

"Oh great! Thanks for your confidence in my ability to care for a car, Dad." I said in amused mock irritation.

"If you're going to leave it standing there unused for months, then what was the point of me giving it to you in the first place?"

"Yeah Ness, you need to use it" agreed Dan, "all the time. Get shot of the Golf."

"Hey, I like my Golf."

"It's boring, it's black and everybody has one. This is silver and gorgeous and… Let me drive it if you don't want to."

No way! "I've seen your driving and frankly, no." Dan already had several dents on his car.

"You're a girl, girls can't drive."

I squared up to him, placing my hands on my hips and unleashing a mock withering stare. "I'm a Cullen and you'll be a tiny speck in my rear view mirror, bulldog boy."

"Ooh scary eyes." He grinned. "Go on, let me drive it."

"No."

I'd left Dan admiring the rest of the Cullen cars and seeing Daniel sat on the porch steps, I took the opportunity to speak to him. Being here seemed to be far more alien to him, than Jess and Dan seemed to think it was.

Daniel's face was serious, but not downcast. He looked deep in thought as I sat down next to him. It was approaching lunchtime and inside the house I could hear Mom and Esmé in the kitchen, starting to pull together lunch for Dan and Jess. Rose was upstairs getting a pouch of blood from the refrigerator in Carlisle's office for Jess to have first. So that's where they were.

As I sat down I joined Daniel in staring into the forest. Unbidden, the eyes from the Aurora filled my mind once again and I thought too of the comment that Melanie had made at Seth and Anna's wedding.

"You'll fall in love with a blond stranger and the eyes in the aurora are his."

So was Daniel the blond stranger? Were he and I supposed to fall in love? I didn't have any romantic feelings towards him and as for his eyes, well, from what I'd seen of them so far they hadn't matched the eyes in the aurora. Perhaps I needed to look harder. I needed to get him to look at me.

"Are you settling in?" I asked. A somewhat trite question, but it was all I could think of as an opening gambit. But it did the trick, he looked at me.

"Yeah… I think." I stared hard into his eyes, taking in every detail and mentally comparing them with the aurora eyes. There was not the slightest degree of resemblance between them. His brow furrowed as he picked up on my intense stare. Satisfied that they were not the eyes I was looking for, I relaxed and looked at him normally. "You live very differently here, very humanly."

"It's not to everyone's taste, I know." For everyone who shared our values – such as our Denali family - there were others; Jasper's friends Peter and Charlotte for instance, who did not understand or approve of the way we lived here. Peter and Charlotte preferred to live a more nomadic and wilder existence and rarely stayed above a couple of days when they visited – which was not often. "Do you like it?"

Daniel nodded. "I do; although it's not the very human way you live here that is the most shocking thing. It's the love you have for one another that astonishes me. Carlisle does not keep anyone here by force, or by obligation. You are all here because you choose to be and want to be."

"Apart from me." I smirked. "I don't choose to be here, I have to be here, they're my family."

Daniel turned to face me. "The whole deal with you just blows my mind. You are possibly the next step in human evolution."

That made me laugh. "I hardly think so."

"Well I do. You have all the benefits of human life without all the drawbacks. I was talking to Jake on the drive up here and he was telling me all about you and what an amazing person you are. He was going through your developmental milestones. I can't believe that you were walking and talking within weeks and have only to watch a person do something once to be able to replicate it exactly. My daughter was a late walker and late developing her speech too, although once she got the hang of it she never shut up." He chuckled.

I knew that Daniel's daughter was eight. "What's her name?"

His face lit up. "Madison. Madison Mary Mitchell. I wasn't with her mother anymore, but I did everything I could to be a good father. Being separated from Madison just tears me apart." If he could have cried, Daniel would have.

"Is that your last name, Mitchell?"

Daniel nodded.

"Have you seen Madison since you've been a vampire?"

"Yes. Seen her, but not been with her. I've spent so many nights on the window ledge of her bedroom, watching her sleep. I know there's no way I can ever be a father to her again, be involved in her life or even tell her that I'm still around. But, perhaps this way, this life you lead might enable me to be in the same room as her again without wanting her blood. That would be an achievement. I'll take any crumb of fatherhood that is offered to me. I am so grateful to Edward and Bella for giving me this opportunity. Is it your bedroom I'm in?"

I nodded. "I'm supposed to be living at my Grampa's. Where's Jane gone?"

"Dan's."

"Oh, "I smiled. "Of course."

He smirked. "No, she didn't seem too bothered by that."

I had something to say. "Thank you again for doing what you could for me in San Francisco. I truly appreciate it."

"You're welcome, turns out I wasn't needed. You appear to have your own personal rescue force." I smiled, thinking suddenly of my guy in denim cut-offs. "I, in turn am truly grateful to your parents and to your wider family, for this opportunity.

"I have been a vampire for just over two years and all I've known is greed, selfishness and worse. Edward and Bella barely know me and yet they are willing to take me in and show me your way of life. They don't demand anything of me, they don't treat me any less than any member of their family and…" He tailed off, shaking his head. "You are so fortunate to have these people around you. That guy Jake?" A wry smile appeared on Daniel's face. "I think he's got a thing for you."

"I know he does."

"And…?"

I inhaled deeply. "He's a… good friend."

"I think he'd like to be more."

"Yeah…" I said noncommittally.

"You're not interested?"

I pulled a face. "It's… complicated."

"Ah… I'll butt out then." He chuckled.

"I need to say thank you to him though. He told me once that if I ever needed him, that he'd be my knight in shining armour and he was true to his word. When I really needed him, I called out, he came and he didn't let me down." Something struck me deep inside. "He and I have some talking to do."

Dad and Dan appeared from the direction of the garage.

"Jasper called," he said. "They have persuaded Randall to come back."

"Fantastic!" I enthused.

"They'll be here around six. Are you going to come have some lunch with Dan and Jess?"

I shook my head. "I'm not hungry." I never really was the day after I'd hunted and also, I was now kicking an idea around in my head.

"I think you should go." Dad could see what it was. "No time like the present if you're in a 'clearing the air' frame of mind. But be back for six; Charlie's coming over after work, he wants to see you and we need to sort out your sleeping arrangements."

"Ok, I don't think I'll need that long anyway." I stood up.

"Where are you off too?" Daniel asked.

"Down into Forks, I'm going to go talk to Jake. I'll see you all later."

I bounced down the steps, kissed Dad on the cheek and skipped off into the forest, picking up speed as I went.