Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I don't happen to be her; therefore, I cannot possibly own it.

Rating: Rated 'T' for 'Teen'. May change later.

Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Fluff, Friendship, First Time, General, High School, Horror, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Supernatural, Vampires

Warnings: Adult Content, Blood, Discriminatory Language, Violence

Pairings: Jasper/Bella, Emmett/Rosalie, Carlisle/Esme, Peter/Charlotte

Summary: Your typical story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. A baby is quickly made. What happens when the boy's a vampire? What happens when said vampire is killed before the baby's born? Renée doesn't know what's going to happen to her baby, but Nahuel promises to keep it safe from his father. Jasper/ Bella

Author's Notes: Sorry about any major mistakes, I had to use a different computer and had to rush through checking over it. My keyboard's messed up and can't get another one for about a week. Eugh.

23. Banks

It took what seemed like forever to convince the Amazon sisters to go back to the rain forest, or at least back to take care of the hybrids and Huilen. If it weren't for Nahuel's behavior, I think they might have ditched them in favor of coming with me to my parents. However, it took me escorting them to Brazil to get them to return. Unsurprisingly, upon seeing one another, Senna and Maysun went into a frenzy to try to pin the other down to dominate one another in their typical sexual adventures. Once everyone was calmed down, I had to repeatedly assure each of them—even if Nahuel was only slightly more tolerable than when he had challenged me for leadership—that I would be fine in the company of the ex-Volturi Guard member. None of them trusted him, but my knowing told me I hadn't made a poor decision in acquiring him from Aro's greedy clutches. I didn't ask why; I had learned a long time ago to simply trust Peter's gift. It would never steer me wrong.

While I had been with my clan, during the time Demetri had been away on a feeding trip to Lima for a week, I had informed them of my mate. Although the Sisters had known of him and who he was due to my battle with Maria, they hadn't know any specific details like what was in the journal Nahuel read. Which I was still angry over and enjoyed informing the women about. At least they waited until I was gone to give him a thrashing over his invasion of my privacy. Huilen's anger and disappointment did more than my punishing him ever could.

Then there was the problem that was Demetri, as he was too curious for his own good. The moment he figured out that I was a seer, not through any mentioning of my clan's, he began asking questions concerning his future. At first, I humored him. It's always fun to think about it like getting your palm read, but he quickly found out I wasn't a fortune teller. They were questions like, whether he could eat the drug addict in the alleyway where we saw him or if he should move him to a more secure locale. Or whether or not the Tennessee woman in a bright yellow sundress would still have sexual relations with him while he was filthy from his latest meal. I was disgusted to know the answer to that was that it didn't take much convincing.

But, then it began to become a bit more complicated. I tried to explain to him that my visions were not definite, as they were based on decisions and it was nearly impossible not to make decisions, especially as a vampire. Getting ready for your day was a decision and driving a car was a decision. Picking your food was a decision, just like picking out your clothes. Each and every little thing people did was a choice, no matter how unimportant. The only saving grace was instinct. Instinct was nature's design, not a choice someone made.

I was thankful humans' futures only came to me if I truly focused, just like how their thoughts were on a different radio station that I had to screw around with the tuner to get it to come in clearly, otherwise it was a bunch of white noise in the background. The only time I typically received anything was if it effected an Immortal's life. Good gosh! I was certain I would have found a way to end my existence should I see the futures of the thousands of mortals I've come across, along with the Supernatural beings. I guess my shield knew all that information would be too much to process for any one person. Didn't stop me from seeing their personalities and emotions though.

Still, his questions became more and more difficult to answer. The most seemingly meaningless choice could completely change the next fifty years. And to someone as old as him, half a century didn't seem like much. Eventually we fell into a screaming match that resulted in me shoving possible futures into his psyche.

One was wonderful: he met his mate and her brother; they all got along swimmingly, no major conflicts. Their lives were fantastic, superb. Peace all around.

The other was disastrous: most of the more 'moral' vampires were destroyed; more than half of the Volturi was gone and their rule was more drastic than it already was. Most of North America was lain in ruins. I wasn't sure why this could come to be, but it was a very strong possibility.

After a long talk, mostly to get him to understand how easily the future changed and how some things were inevitable, such as meeting your mate, he stopped with his questions about the future. Unless it was about the weather. Apparently, he was terrified of thunder.

Yes, thunder. The guy was well over six hundred years young, and a little rain had him quaking in his boots. Well, Mama once broke the shower by busting through the glass door when a spider landed on her shoulder. And Daddy burned his boots after he through them outside when he found a rotting rattlesnake in them—courtesy of a prank gone wrong by Zafrina. I was done in when I saw visions of my family in ashes.

To each their own I guess.

It took us a couple months—time put to good use by me explaining to him about my clan, our history, and myself except for having a mate when he figured out that I was different by this big red flag called my need to sleep for a minimum of four hours a day unless I wanted to look like a skeleton—but we eventually made it to Banks Island, Northwest Territory, Canada. I bought a huge slap of land there a couple of decades ago, not knowing why I would need it, and I figured it could finally be used.

Most of the island was occupied by a national park and a bird sanctuary, but I had bought out what had been available. For the most part, it was secluded away from civilization as the place wasn't a tourist capital. Even as gorgeous as the land was, I knew a big turn off for my mother was all the rivers and creeks throughout the area. Plus, they had to use an industrial helicopter to move the majority of the supplies needed for building. The island next to it, Victoria Island, was more of the same, but was only slightly more popular. We were close enough to humans that Demetri could feed without bringing anything down upon us. And Mama enjoyed shopping, so I knew living there would mean going to the mainland once a month, possibly making a weekend trip out of it and flying to wherever it is they wanted to go. I knew my mother had already been hounding on Daddy to go to Vancouver for a week if I hadn't made an appearance soon.

Lucky for them I was pulling myself out of the river near a house. Sadly, I had scared all the fish away during my swimming. Perhaps the animals could find some squirrels or something to eat instead.

The place was large enough to be a home for a small family, only three or four people, but was too tiny to have enough room for more than one person, or a mated pair, if they were vampires as our kind was a territorial breed. Exceptionally so if they weren't a close knit coven like mine. Outside, it was very clean cut, probably Craftsman style. It had several large and tall windows on all but one side of the house, a section where all the electrical doohickeys and a rather compact bathroom was. I'll admit I didn't understand most of what went into building a house like my father did. Then there was the large shaded porch that occupied most of one side of the house. The walls were covered in the grey washed false stones that were popular about six years ago, around the time when they built this place. It was nice, very open and easy to see out of. If it had some curtains, I might feel more at ease about it.

Growling at Demetri to keep him in place beneath the water, I sniffed around, inspecting the area. My mind sensed no one near, but this was new land and would soon be my territory. Quickly, I began my run of a perimeter. I was thankful that my father knew to choose a location surrounded by trees, contrary to the open plains that my mother would have liked, such a place to build this house in. I was never comfortable in a place that had nowhere to hide. As I went, I marked my scent in the trees, slathering my bonding venom to begin breaking down the bark until my smell was ingrained into the wood. It would take a few weeks, but people would know this place was mine for years to come unless someone tried to mark where my fingers dug into the wood.

Coming back, I mentally urged the tracker to follow me inside, as I could smell no other threats in the area.

The inside was a lot of chocolate painted drywall, shining dark wood floors, and pink or bronze rustic decorations. It was all one room, minus the mechanical closet and bathroom, with a giant bed, a gigantic refrigerator and a long counter, most of a wall of shelves for books, a wardrobe that I already knew was stuffed full, and a few odds and ends that they bought over the years that they thought I would like.

The silence was ruined by the tracker opening up his big mouth. "Bella, if you wanted to get me in bed all yo-" I snarled at him, which effectively shut him up.

"Shower. I'll see if I have some clothes that will fit you. You're skinny enough to fit into my dresses."

He huffed, storming into the bathroom to get himself cleaned up while I rummaged around for some clothes. At the bottom of the wardrobe, under strategically placed knickknacks and books, was a few thousand dollars worth of money, all in different currencies. At least they were prepared to leave in case of emergencies, but this wasn't nearly enough. They had become complacent ever since my leading of our coven.

When Demetri finally left the shower, having used all the hot water of course, I threw some pants and a t-shirt at him before heading in myself. Quickly, I cleaned up, and donned similar attire. The clothes that we wore were threadbare and barely hanging on as it was. Hopefully my parents had already unpacked everything I sent up here with them when they moved up here.

Growling at him when he tried to make another comment about getting me into the bed, I took off for my parents house as this was only a little get away place for me when being near them became too much. It was on the northwest portion of Banks Island, and theirs was at the southeast. We ran, leaping over streams and rivers as we went. Part of the island was covered in rolling, flowering hills but most of it was high plateaus that were topped with snow. I could see herds of oxen and caribou, a few flocks of geese, and a handful of grizzly and polar bears. I hadn't even known polar bears lived here.

I did a few rounds around the place, watching them play around inside. Over the many years since New Jersey, my mother had become insatiable where my father was concerned. If I hadn't already known it was impossible due to my episodes viewing what Jasper did with other women, I would have tried to search for a way to block out my visions as I really didn't want to see my parents have sex. Demetri began to become restless, watching me watch them. He didn't understand why we were here, who these people were. I thought he would have put it together by now, I guess not.

Coming out from all the underbrush, I let loose a growl, catching their attention. Immediately, they fled the home to greet me. I pounced upon my father, knocking him to the ground as he wrapped his arms around me in his tightest hug yet. My mother joined us, delivering a hundred little kisses to my face and petting my hair gently as she snuggled up. It was good to be home, at least for now.

They sat there, still as they listened to me talk. When we lived in the bayou, they learned not to interrupt when I had something important to say. My father, he was trembling with anger. He had, of course, heard of The Bringer, but he had been all but praying that it wasn't me. It was delusional, but he had his hopes. My mother was quiet, her mind much more eloquent than her husband's. When it came time to tell them why, why I stopped Maria other than it being the right thing to do, they were shocked.

As was Demetri, but he didn't count, wouldn't count for a while. I was still kind of pissed that he continued to hit on me after I told him 'no' on countless occasions, even after I told him that his mate was out there, just too young to turn.

Daddy stood up, body tense. If he had any blood, I knew his face would been beet red. "You- all this time- he-"

"You have words, use them." Probably shouldn't have said that.

My mother went to her feet, madder than hell. "All this time, this time that we've been thinking that you were sick and dying, that gaining abilities were killing you… all this time it's just been your pride that was making you sick? You couldn't just go to him instead of worrying us to Hell and back that you might die from meeting new people?!"

"Oh be quiet, Mama. You might have worried, but you always left it up to Daddy to take care of me. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, but his. He cleaned me up, looked after me, cared for me, and soothed me. I love you dearly, and you've made great strides in changing, but you didn't do what he did." Her lips thinned, reminding me of Aro. She stormed out the room, expecting her husband to follow her. He didn't, still mulling over my having a mate as he slowly sank back down into the couch.

An hour later, I found myself forgiven. He was still upset, rightly of course, but he felt my mate held more of a right to it than he did. Daddy didn't know who my mate was, otherwise he'd castrate Jasper upon sight.

"I know I just came back but-"

"Go ahead. We all want out mate, eventually at least, and you should go get yours." Nodding, I went to pack my bags.

Ending Author's Notes: I won't have a set time for posts until I get a different keyboard. Hopefully that'll be soon.

I have a tumblr; there is a link to the blog for this story on my profile. It has pictures and links to stuff. Just look under the 'Navigation' tab on the sidebar. If I ever have outtakes, they'll be there.

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