AN: This chapter will explain a question you guys may have had for a while, then it presents another question for you to think about as well. This chapter also sets the stage for the major drama, which is coming up very, very soon! So I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 26

My grandfather and I went out to lunch as planned on Thursday afternoon. Grandfather payed for the bill, as always...and I didn't even bother to fight him on the issue.

We were getting ready to leave, and I was preparing to tell him goodbye, but he stopped me before I spoke.

"Brooke dear, would you like to stop by the house for a little while? I need to talk to you about something." He said.

I didn't know what he would want to talk to me about, but I certainly wasn't going to avoid it, whatever it was.

"Of course." I replied. He merely smiled and got into his car.

I followed him into the driveway of the house I had spent most of my childhood in. We both walked through the front door in silence.

"Go in the living room and sit down." He told me, before disappearing into the kitchen.

I wondered if something was wrong, since my grandfather didn't exactly act like what he had to tell me was going to be very good news. I sat down on the couch, smoothing out the wrinkles in my skirt.

I didn't have to wait long before my grandfather returned with two glasses of water. He handed one to me and set the other one on the end table beside his armchair. He sat down, sighed, and leaned forward to talk to me better.

"What did you want to tell me?" I asked him.

He smiled. "I'll get to that in a minute." He said, playing mind games with me, like he always did.

I shook my head and laughed at him.

"You really like that boyfriend of yours...don't you?"

I looked up at him. "Yeah, I do...a lot."

He chuckled to himself. "Never in a million years did I ever think that you would have a boyfriend before you turned forty. Not because you aren't beautiful...because of course you are...but because of how stubborn you were about boys all throughout high school."

I blushed. No matter how close I was to my grandfather...boys were the one topic of conversation that still seemed awkward around him.

Ok...maybe not the only topic.

"And I never...ever..ever thought that you would be dating someone twice your age with five adopted children."

I laughed nervously, not knowing what else to do.

He smiled though, indicating he was merely teasing. "He seems like a very wonderful young man."

"He really is." I said, a smile beginning to form on my face.

"He makes you very happy." He said.

I nodded in response.

"I'm very thankful for that." He said. "He really seems as though he cares about you."

"Yes, I think he does."

"Brooke you know...at first when you told me you were dating a thirty-seven year old man, I was sort of concerned."

"He's thirty-eight now." I randomly threw in.

He grinned. "I know." He said, before continuing on. "But now I realize that you are probably better off with him than you would be with a boy your own age."

I thought about the boys I had gone to high school with and decided that my grandfather was very right.

He laughed. "Well Brooke as nice as this talk is, this isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

I felt very relived that this topic of conversation was now going to die away.

"Brooke do you remember that dream you always had when you were little?"

I remembered it far too clearly...since I had been having it again. "Yes, quite vividly." I said, pausing for a moment.

"Actually grandfather, I don't think I told you yet, but I started having that same dream again."

"Hmph." He said, looking as though he was thinking. "You somehow must have known I was going to talk to you about it."

I wasn't sure how I would have ever known if my grandfather was going to bring up the nightmares I had as a child.

"Tell me about that dream again Brooke...just in case I forget some of the details. Besides...you were very hard to understand as a screaming little six-year-old."

Normally I would have laughed at my grandfather's joke, but since this particular dream scared me so much, laughing didn't seem appropriate.

"Well it's always raining...always. And it's not just rain...you know? It's like a full out thunderstorm. Lightning flashes all around me..and the thunder is really loud."

"Yes I remember you telling me about all that. Go on."

"And I know it's me in the dream...but it's a younger me. It's like I'm a baby...or a toddler or something." I said, closing my eyes, trying to pull out every last detail of the dream.

"I'm defiantly a toddler." I said. "I have way too much hair, and I'm way too tall to be a baby." I opened my eyes and looked over at my grandfather, who looked lost in thought.

"I'm in a car...in some sort of a car seat...and I'm starring out the window at the storm. Then all of a sudden there's like this..." I paused, trying to think of a word to describe it. "Jolt, almost, and then the dream quickly fades to black."

His facial expression still hadn't changed.

"Then that's where I usually wake up screaming, and then I can't sleep for the rest of the night."

He remained starring straight ahead. "And you just started having this dream again?"

I nodded, and he sighed in response.

"You are very perceptive." He said. "You've always been able to pick up on things."

I didn't know what this had to do with anything we had just been talking about, but I listened to him regardless.

"I never thought when you were little that this dream of yours had so much meaning...that it was...telling you something...almost."

I was completely lost now.

"You unconsciously know a lot more about things that have happened, and will happen to you than you could even begin to conciously know about right now." He said, turning his gaze to me.

"I guess I don't understand what you're saying." I replied.

He sighed. "Brooke, that dream you have...it's trying to tell you something."

"What is it trying to tell me?" I asked, and as soon as I asked my question, the heavy punch to my stomach told me I knew the answer.

"No." I said, shaking my head in disbelief. I felt the tears sting my eyes. My grandfather waited for a futher response from me.

"I was two...right?" I asked, referring to my age at the time of my parent's accident.

He nodded.

"The car...." I said, trying to form the words. "The road was wet...from the storm...dad...lost control...and...crashed."

He nodded again.

"They died." I said, trying to make myself say the words that were causing so much pain inside of me. "And...I...lived."

"Yes." He said simply.

"I was in...the car."

"You were."

I shook my head in total disbelief, feeling the tears roll gently down my face. I had no remembrance of this at all, but yet my dream had been telling me what I needed to know all along.

"And you didn't...tell me."

"You were so young." He said. "You had just lost your parents...and you weren't old enough to know why. We were planning on telling you much sooner than this."

"We?" I asked.

He sighed. "Your grandmother and I. After she died...I put off telling you because I didn't want to hurt you anymore."

I starred at the wall, trying to sort everything out.

"I figured now you were old enough to know."

I closed my eyes, shaking my head quickly. "What happened? I mean how did I...? Tell me."

A faint smile played across his lips. "The accident occurred the exact way you've been told. The roads were just too slippery, and your father..." He stuttered over the word father...and I could see the pain in his eyes over the death of his oldest son.

"Couldn't regain control. The car crashed right into the woods...both of your parents were dead on arrival."

I nodded slightly, remembering this part of the story.

"I was...called out there." He said. "From the hospital...and I just had this feeling...I just knew it was you three." He said.

This part of the story, I did not know. I knew my grandfather had been called to the wreck, but I didn't know he was called there as part of work.

"When I got there they told me that your parents were dead. And as deeply upset as I was by that...I was very worried about you." He looked at me, and I saw tears were forming in his eyes.

"The back part of the car was completely crushed, and I remember looking there and just knowing there was no way you could have surrived. You were so little, so fragile...and it tore me apart knowing that you were back there."

I looked down at the floor, trying to absorb everything he was telling me.

"Then I walked over to the car, to look at the wreck...just to see. I told myself not to get my hopes up."

I noticed a tear roll down his cheek and hit the arm of the chair.

"I looked through the broken glass of the backseat window, and there you sat...very much alive. You must of heard me or something, because you turned around real fast, and those little blond curls of your bounced when you saw me. And then you smiled such a sweet, innocent little smile, and I felt such an overwhelming sense of joy."

I found it difficult to breathe as I tried to digest all of this information.

"They handed you to me, and although you were a little scared of the thunder and didn't know what was going on...you were alright. Not a bruise on your body."

He smiled a little. "I'll never forget when your grandmother came driving to the crash site, and she jumped out of her car in her nightgown and curlers...with that hideous night cream...or whatever that stuff was...all over her face." He laughed at the memory, and I tried to imagine my grandmother like that.

"She had heard that your parents were dead, but she didn't hear anything about you. And before she could even say my name to ask me where you were, you turned around and saw her...and shouted "Grandma!" As loud as you could." He smiled. "Your grandmother burst into tears."

We were both quiet for a long time after he finished his story. I still couldn't believe everything he had told me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"Why me?" I asked again, looking at him. "Why did mom and dad die...but I didn't?"

He sighed. "You must have a very important purpose here on Earth. Perhaps that's why you've never wanted to be anything more than a doctor."

I tried to think about that, but it was still hard to handle. "They both had so much life left to live." I said.

He leaned closer and rubbed my hand. "But you my dear had even more."

Another tear fell down my cheek.

"I know it doesn't seem right, and believe me...I was very upset over the death of both your father and your mother...but I was probably even more excited about the life of you."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"You obviously have something to give to the world in the time you spend here. Rather it be four hours, four days, four months...or forever." He smiled and gently patted my leg. "I figured you should know."

I nodded, and tried to wipe the tears away.

"It's alright...I'm glad I know." I said, hugging him tightly. "I love you grandfather."

He gently rubbed my back in an effort to comfort me. "I love you too Brooke."

I spent the rest of the day in shock, and I was unable to remember anything I did. I was so exhausted, I went to bed at eight o'clock. I fell asleep quickly, and at first my sleep was dreamless. No dreams about vampires, no dreams about thunderstorms, not even a dream about Dr. Cullen.

But after what may have been a few hours, that changed. My old childhood dream began again, the same way it always did. However, instead of stopping abruptly like it usually did, my toddler self faded, and suddenly I saw my adult self in the driver's seat of a different car..a black one. There was rain pouring all around me, lightning flashed, thunder roared. But the car wasn't moving...yet. Then I took a deep breath, and turned the key to start the ignition, and I quickly speed forward.

The last thing I saw was a forest full of trees...and then something that appeared to be flames, and after that I woke up screaming like I always had done before.

I'll tell you something, this chapter and then the chapter before this one were two totally different chapters to write.

Well this chapter at least now answers the questions you guys had about her thunderstorm dream. When I first wrote this story I hadn't intended on making Brooke be in the car with her parents when the accident occurred. That changed recently however, because of a plot change somewhere else. I'll tell you guys about that later as to not spoil further chapters. ;)

Thanks for reading...please shoot me a review with what you think so far!

~Hazl~