Chapter Twenty Eight: Aurora

"Maddie! Come and see!"

Sophie Taylor Cullen exploded through the door, followed by her sister Anyu and Izzy Cullen Black. Zozie the wolf cub trotted in after her tiny mistress.

Maddie put her book down and looked at the posse of little girls before her. "This had better be good. I don't think Carlisle will let me out of bed for anything less than completely amazing."

"It is amazing, it's the single best sight in the whole world!" Said Anyu, jumping up and down, causing Sophie and Izzy to start jumping too.

Maddie grinned. "OK, OK!"

Around the door came Carlisle. "Let me help you up." He smiled and lifted Maddie from the bed, setting her on her feet. "Not too sore?"

Maddie shook her head. "No. Although can I have your arm, please? I'm not great at walking, yet."

"Sure."

Maddie descended the stairs slowly on Carlisle's arm. It had been an eventful journey north for Christmas. Maddie had been seized by the most unbelievable abdominal pain in the car, which turned out to be a burst appendix. She'd had emergency surgery in Anchorage, before being released into Carlisle's care as soon as the surgeon was happy with her progress. Her stomach muscles were sore and walking wasn't something she was doing at speed right now - or stairs for that matter. She also wasn't great at bending, coughing, laughing or moving in general, come to think of it.

It was Christmas Eve and the Cullen family were gathered together in Ness and Jake's new home, in the northern part of Denali National Park. To the south, in what had previously been the home of Tanya and her family were Jane and Dan and their girls; along with Jess, Will and Ben. Tanya's family had swapped Denali for Forks, having bought a house that had apparently once belonged to the Cullens. Ben's residence with his parents was in name only, as he mostly lived much further south at Daniel and Stephanie's house on the outskirts of Juneau. That was because things were developing well between him and Maddie.

Carlisle and Maddie walked into the living room, where Esmé, Heather and Charlie were babysitting the younger children while everyone else was out hunting. For Charlie it was kick back time. He'd just retired and he and Heather were taking advantage of Heather's sabbatical to do some travelling in the New Year. But first there was a small matter of Christmas with the family, and by the looks of it Billy Junior was destroying his Great-Grandpa at chess again. Heather was nursing Elliott, the baby boy that Emmett had plucked from the ruins of a building when the earthquake struck. He and Rose couldn't bear to give him up to the proper authorities for adoption. They figured San Francisco wouldn't miss one little baby, who would be cherished by two people who'd wanted nothing else for a century. Elliott McCarty Cullen would be a loved little boy indeed.

"She's had a lot of practice, now it's time for Rosalie to do the real thing." Bella had said.

Esmé came over to Maddie. "I know you're tired and sore, but the Aurora is the most spectacular thing. It would be a shame to miss it when the sky is so clear tonight. I'll help you get dressed."

Esmé led Maddie out into the hallway, where the little girls were already pulling on boots, coats, gloves and hats. Soon enough, Maddie was bundled up like an Inuit and stepped out gingerly into the bitter Alaskan night.

But she needn't have worried about her footing, the freshly-fallen snow had been cleared and was piled up, adding to the seven foot high snow bank, which Jory had jokingly named "The Black Fortress" when they'd pulled up outside the house.

Esmé, dressed only in a light layer of clothes and sneakers walked with Maddie across to the to the lookout point, which gave an unbroken view of the northern sky and the valley in which the house was situated. Maddie could already see the green bands of light in the sky.

"Give your eyes time to adjust and they'll get clearer, but here's as good a place as any to watch them from. Let me clear a place for you to sit." Esmé briskly cleared the snow from a bench and the next second was back with a cushion. She put it on the bench and helped Maddie to sit down.

The girls had finished dressing and piled out of the house, running down the steps in front of her and jumping with loud shrieks into chest-deep snow. Zozie yipped at Izzy, before deciding that she might as well join in. The wolf cub launched herself into the snow and sank without trace, much to Izzy's amusement. The little girl laughed and pulled the snow-covered grey wolf cub out of the hole she'd made for herself.

"Just say my name when you want to come back in." Said Esmé. "I'll come and get you."

"OK, thanks." Said Maddie.

Esmé smiled at the little girls and walked back inside.

Getting the children anywhere near a sufficiently sleepy state so that Santa Claus might pay them a visit had been long abandoned; the policy now was about wearing them out. That was easier said than done in Izzy's case. Maddie hadn't known them very long but was already aware that their reputation as a handful was justified. None of Jake and Ness's kids ever stopped, from the moment their eyes were open in the morning, until the time they crashed out at the end of the day. They were unlike any children that Maddie had ever experienced. To see them together was alarming enough, with their pack-like behaviour. But even apart they were intimidating, with even the tiny Izzy radiating supreme confidence. The older children, Sarah and EJ, were out running with their parents. But Billy and Izzy were a little young to keep up; plus Izzy liked to hang out with the girls. The relationship between Izzy and Zozie was sweet to watch and they were joined as if by an umbilical cord, neither one straying far from the other. Maddie couldn't help wondering what would happen when Zozie was fully-grown. She'd asked Ben.

"You mean when Zozie's a standard-sized adult wolf?" He said.

"Yes."

"I'd wait until you see Jake in his wolf form before you wonder about Zozie being too big for the house."

Maddie hadn't seen Jake as a wolf yet.

As the girls played happily in the snow and the gorgeous Aurora danced in the sky above her, Maddie sat back and let her mind drift back over the last two months. She was doing a lot of that lately, trying to process what had happened and working through the grief.

San Francisco, her beloved city, was in ruins. The largest earthquake in recorded history had struck the city at 10.57pm; registering 9.8 on the Richter scale and displacing the San Andreas Fault by a colossal fourteen feet. The fires deliberately started by the Cullens were not unusual amongst the hundreds of other fires in the city that night. In the aftermath of her Mom's death, Stephanie had led her and Kate out of the rubble to safety, but also away from their father, as he faced the now blind vampire who had caused him nothing but pain. Vengeance was his to claim and Daniel wanted no witnesses.

Later, a shocked and tearful Maddie had clung to her Dad's back as the family picked their way through the devastated city, back to the Presidio. It took hours and they did what they could to help along the way. Rescuing little Elliott was almost the first thing they did. The Mark Hopkins, where she'd been only a few hours ago, had buckled and collapsed; not able to withstand the intensity of this earthquake. A fresh wave of grief washed over her, as she mourned her grandparents, buried somewhere under it. She also cried for Angel, who didn't know yet that her own parents were more than likely dead. They'd paused there for a while and Stephanie comforted her husband as best she could. They were his parents, after all, and Michael Williams had been a good friend. It wasn't just Maddie who had lost people tonight.

As dawn broke, shedding light on the cities' almost biblical destruction, they returned at last to Presidio Terrace and one look at her house told Maddie that she wouldn't be going inside any time soon. Liquefaction had pulled the entire left side of it deep into the earth and it was cloven almost in two from top to bottom. The rented house across the street had fared better. It was badly shaken, but the first floor was mostly intact and so gradually the family congregated there, taking stock of a night that hadn't gone the way they planned.

Pulling Demetri out of San Francisco Bay and reassembling him hadn't been on the to-do list and Maddie was still struggling with that one; especially as Demetri seemed remarkably unconcerned about it.

Dionne had gone after and fought Stephanie for Daniel. But the feral vampire could not prevail against Stephanie, who had been well trained by Jasper. Dionne had been offered a chance to start over and become one of them, but she'd declined. Dionne's only desire was for Daniel, he was all that she wanted. Realising that she couldn't have him, she'd asked to be released from her life. Someone had obliged and Stephanie wouldn't tell Maddie who had done it. They didn't know where Aro was right now but Carlisle was unconcerned. He'd show up again in time and when he did, they'd be ready.

The rest of the Volturi were scattered to the four winds, leaving the hapless humans to face the criminal investigations that were now underway in London, Sofia and Rome. The vampires may have gotten away, but not before they had razed almost the entire town of Volterra to the ground. They'd watched footage of it days later on TV, as fire had swept through the small Italian town in the early hours of November 1st. It begged even more questions as the world reeled from what it thought humanity was trying to do to itself.

The Mitchell-Cullens had returned to Juneau, taking a larger house this time to the north of the city. Maddie and Kate had enrolled in school, Ben got himself a job on a local paper, but Jory opted out of pretty much everything. It was understandable.

Jory and Angel came out of the trees and walked toward where Madison was sitting on the bench. They'd been hand in hand, but Jory put his arm around her as they circumvented the playing girls and Angel put her head on his shoulder They came up the steps and Jory smiled at his sister. Angel looked less confident, this was still very new to her.

"You're finally up." Said Angel.

Maddie nodded. "The girls insisted that I saw the Aurora. It's amazing."

Angel turned to look at it. "Yes, it's gorgeous, but so is this whole place. Perhaps it'll make an outdoor lover of me yet." She kissed Jory, and Maddie realised fairly quickly that they weren't going to stop if she didn't jump back in.

"How was tonight?" She asked.

Angel pulled a face. "It's been eight weeks; you'd think I'd have gotten the hang of it by now, but…" She pulled open what Maddie now realised was Jory's shirt, to reveal a shredded top. "The damn cat got me."

Jory kissed her forehead. "You're getting better every time and cats rarely go down without a fight."

Angel was the Cullen's newest vampire and seeing as Jory had been the one to create her, he felt that it was his responsibility to show Angel her new life. He'd agonised over changing her, telling Maddie later the real reason why she hadn't been his type. Jory hadn't wanted to fall in love with a human woman and have her go through the transformation process to become a vampire. He'd accidentally walked in on his own Mom during her conversion and the agony she'd been in had stayed with him. But injured further in the earthquake, Angel's life had been ebbing quickly away and so he'd acted from pure selfishness to save her. The fact that they'd fallen in love was a nice bonus. Angel and Maddie hadn't been able to have much time together since, but that wouldn't necessarily be the case forever.

Maddie fingered the crystal pendant that she wore all the time now. She knew that it held the potential for her to join the family in a more permanent way. Not that her Dad was entirely happy about it. He'd asked her to hand it over when Edward had told him that she was thinking about pouring the contents into a wound.

"Please don't do it because you feel like you're the odd one out and please, whatever you do, don't do it on your own. You will need one of us there. It's not a case of feeling a little sick for three days. You also might not want it to be my venom." He added. Maddie felt a little uncomfortable at that comment; it almost felt like a too late father-daughter birds and the bees talk. But Stephanie supported it later.

"He's right, it's a very personal thing," she said. "Once I'd made the decision, I wouldn't have wanted anyone other than Daniel to do it. I guess it's how we've come to look at our relationships. It makes us different from other vampires. We take our creating duties slightly more seriously. Also, for you; if you do it now, it cuts down a lot of options if things with Ben don't work out."

The rest of the family were drifting back from the hunt, appearing out of the forest as if they'd been doing nothing more unusual than shopping at the mall. Emmett and Rosalie were next back, calling out a brief 'hi there' before hurtling inside to see Elliott. Edward and Bella came in from the west with Jasper and Alice. The howl of a wolf filled the valley and Zozie responded to it. Maddie had no clue what it had been about, but Izzy did and she was not happy. Her little face was like thunder.

"Daddy says five more minutes." She grumbled to her playmates. "It's not even ten thirty yet." Izzy ran to Bella. "Nana will you talk to Daddy? Get him to let us stay out longer, please?"

Bella picked Izzy up. "Are you not tired yet?"

"No."

"Not even so that Santa Claus can deliver those presents?"

"No." Said Izzy in a tone that suggested Bella was an imbecile. "Santa Claus doesn't deliver presents, the UPS guy does and they're in the basement."

Edward, Jasper and Alice laughed and Bella shook her head with incredulity at her granddaughter.

"You can't fault the girl's logic." Said Alice, tapping Izzy on the nose. Izzy snapped a playful bite in return, but Alice was too fast for the little girl to catch.

"How about I make you all some hot chocolate?" Said Bella, keen to at least get the girls inside.

"Yes!" They chorused.

"Count me in on that, Mom!" From nowhere, Ness vaulted in, landing perfectly beside her Mom and youngest daughter. Izzy went instantly to Ness.

"Is Sarah on her way back?" Asked Izzy.

"Yes, she's right behind, with Daddy."

"Good." The little girl said in a clipped tone. Ness waited for something more but nothing came.

"And?" She enquired.

"Nothin'." Said Izzy, looking like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

Ness looked to Edward. "Dad?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm sworn to secrecy on this one." He grinned.

Ness looked at him. "How did you go from Mr Over-Protective-Parent to Mr Putty-In-The-Hands-Of-My-Grandkids? You could back me up once in a while, Dad!"

Edward darted forward and kissed his daughter on her forehead. "I could, but where's the fun in that? We'd better get Maddie here inside before she freezes solid."

Edward helped Maddie inside and they were followed in by a trail of chattering children and at intervals, returning vampires; including her Dad and Stephanie. The hallway was a jumble of boots, jackets and winter accessories. Maddie had just settled down with her hot chocolate when in came Jess, Ben, Will and the most terrifyingly enormous wolf, tailed by two slightly more normal-sized ones. Now she understood what Ben meant by not worrying about Zozie. The wolves phased back into regular naked humans and Maddie tried not to stare, both at both Jake's impressive physique and the fact that he was happy to walk around butt-naked in front of his family.

Ben sat down next to Maddie and she rested against him, watching everyone slowing taking seats, or climbing on their parents on the horseshoe-shaped sofa.

The next year would be difficult one. There was the question of what exactly she was going to do with Elba, now that she was the major shareholder. Michael Williams had been the only person from the executive in the Mark Hopkins when it collapsed and she'd been able to suggest someone to Tony, Norah and Rob that they might approach to replace him. She'd told them that Esther Weisberger had been someone her Mom was impressed by, but it had been her Dad who'd helped her do the homework. She felt she wanted to do something to help, even if it was only suggesting a name. She'd handed over day to day control to them while she ostensibly finished High School. Not that that wasn't true, she did have to finish school and she'd be doing that in Alaska. She also needed time to work out where her life was going to be.

This wasn't about living in 'the real world' because the world in this room was just as real as the one she'd had before; more so if you counted the greater sense of family that she now had. This family was much bigger, much noisier, more caring, more loving and more inclined to leave its stuff all over the floor. She'd led such an isolated existence before; but here, she almost felt part of a tribe; like the Quileutes she'd met briefly on the move up to Alaska. Jake and Ness had come down and met them in La Push, taking the opportunity to call in on Jake's Dad while his wife was away for a couple of days. Later, from the windows of a blacked out van, her Dad and Stephanie had showed her the places in Forks that had been part of their early lives together.

Living so far north as she did now, she'd tasted the rain many times and had spent hours roaming the southern Alaskan forests on Ben's back. She wasn't quite the outdoor lover yet, she still missed the city sometimes; but only sometimes and she was beginning to like the colour green.

But there were choices to be made. If she got more involved with Elba, she wouldn't be able to live with the Cullens, or have a public relationship with Ben. Even in the short time since the earthquake, Maddie understood that being at Elba in any public capacity wasn't going to be easy. Rich, unattached young women seemed to be a major topic of conversation in the gossip columns and she was already the #1 topic, when it was 'revealed' that the reason she hadn't been in the Mark Hopkins when it collapsed, was that she'd been meeting up with a boyfriend. In the city clearance, Maddie's car had been found abandoned by Pier 36. Maddie had been confronted by a reporter - at school of all places - and had refused to say who it was. But that hadn't stopped the speculation and the smart money was linking her to the hot guy she was seen dancing with her at her birthday party only a few weeks previously. When Maddie had read that in the reporter's column yesterday she'd nearly died with embarrassment. Emmett and Jasper had nearly combusted with laughter.

"They think you're dating your own granddaughter Edward. You couldn't make this shit up!" Laughed Emmett.

"I prefer to dwell on the fact that the reporter thinks I'm a hot guy. I've still got it at one hundred and twenty." Edward shook his ass at his brothers.

"Edward, you doing that is not attractive." Said Rosalie, nursing her son. You'll curdle Elliott's milk."

"Well I think it is." Said Bella, moving over to her husband.

"Oh Jeez…" Ness griped. "Mom, Dad, please go to your room. It gives me flashbacks."

Perhaps it would be easier just to cut loose, sell her shares and let herself be gently consumed into the cradle of the Cullen family. She could fade from people's view and right now, that was sounding a very attractive option.

Maddie eased herself into bed later that night. She was very tired, sore and wished Ben could be here to warm the bed up. She couldn't explain why she was feeling this way, but she felt lonely, cold and a little sad. Apart from the children, everyone else had somebody with them tonight and she'd like to be with someone too. She wanted Ben. She didn't want to do anything with him, she was too sore from surgery and Jess would eat her alive if she did; but right now she could use some warmth and arms that were beginning to feel very familiar. He'd be the perfect Christmas gift. She settled down, closed her eyes and thought of him instead.

"Budge up." Said a voice.

"Wha?" Maddie's eyes flow open, it was Ben.

"Edward sent me."

"Edward sent you?"

"Yes, and he said to tell you that the wrapping stays on."

Maddie gave a snort of laughter and wriggled back, letting Ben into her bed. She pressed herself up against him and winced as the cut muscles in her abdomen protested. He was so gloriously warm!

Yet again Edward had come through for her. He'd reunited her with her Dad, smoothed her entrance into this incredible family, danced with her and had now organised for her and Ben to spend the night together. What a great guy to have as a grandfather; even if he was a vampire and yes, did have crap taste in music.

She nestled in close to her boyfriend, buried her head in his chest and enjoyed the smell, the touch and the warmth of him. She sighed with deep contentment. Just before she dozed off she finally remembered her manners.

"Thanks Edward." She murmured. "Thank you for everything."

The End

Author's Note:
And that's it, there is no more! If you've read all five of my stories, thank you! I hope you've enjoyed them as much as I've enjoyed writing them. It's been two years of glorious fun, playing around with the Cullen family and thank you to Stephenie Meyer for creating them. I always wanted to use these stories to test myself as a storyteller and I hope that you think that I've acquitted myself adequately.If you could spare a minute to post a comment, that would be wonderful. I'm a new writer and feedback is so valuable to help me improve. Thank you once again for reading. There are so many wonderful stories on this site and the fact that you chose to read mine is humbling.

With grateful thanks

Rachel x