Emmett POV.

This is a more cute and fun extra chapter for you, after all the misery of Rosalie in hospital with the Jasper POV! This one is Emmett, and is just a brief look at the first time he saw Rosalie, and the way he and Alice and Edward found out they the two Hales were moving in.

I like writing scenes like this one, when two characters meet, from the other POV just to see how it works. I like writing about the way Emmett and Rosalie are each behaving and the reasons for it, and the way they're interpreting each other as well. Anyway, it was fun to write and I had it on the computer so here you go.


It's early evening in late summer, and I'm lying on the couch flipping through the cable channels and trying to ignore the rumbling of hunger in my belly. It's nearly dinner time, but Carlisle and Esme have been shut in the study for the last couple of hours and there's no sign of a meal.

"What's going on?" Edward asks, coming downstairs and flopping into an armchair. He makes a futile grab at the remote control, but I don't give it up. "Carlisle and Esme have been in the study all afternoon."

"Don't know." I look at him hopefully. "Are you going to start dinner?" I'm really hungry.

Edward snorts. "Not likely. Alice, do you know what's going on?"

"It's about the Hales," Alice says, pausing in whatever she's doing on the computer. Alice never seems to snoop or spy, but she always knows everything about everyone. She's unbelievable. "The twins."

Edward frowns. "What about them?"

We know who the Hale twins are, although we've never met them. Jack Hale was Carlisle's college roommate and Rosalie and Jasper are his children, twins a year older than Edward and Alice and two years younger than me. They live in Rochester, in New York, and Carlisle and Esme stay with them every year when he goes to some medical conference there. Edward and Alice and I have never been though.

"They might be going to come and live here with us," Alice says.

"What? Why?" I half sit up. It's not that I mind, exactly, but the situation seems kind of weird.

"Yes, why are they coming, Miss Marple?" Carlisle jokes, coming out of the study and ruffling Alice's hair.

Alice grins at him unabashedly. "I didn't hear that bit."

Carlisle shakes his head and Esme clicks her tongue a little disapprovingly. "Well Alice was right- Rosalie and Jasper are going to come and stay here for their senior year of high school."

"Why?" I want to know. It's weird enough to change schools for senior year, let alone go to the other side of the country and stay with a family you hardly know to do it. I'm not sure that I want two other high school seniors living here while I struggle my way through another year. "Did something happen to Mr Hale?"

"No," Carlisle hesitates. "Look, it's a bit of a delicate situation. Rosalie was…assaulted…a few weeks ago and was injured pretty badly. She was hospitalised for a little while and, although she's going to be fine, she's been finding things difficult to cope with. You know the twins' mother died when they were a lot younger and Jack works a lot…he's been discussing it with us and thought maybe she'd find it easier to go somewhere new and start over, get away from things. Esme and I offered to have her here- she's had a rough time and she might do well with more of a family around her. She didn't want to leave Jasper, so we said we'd welcome both of them."

"How cool!" Alice bounces in her seat. "I mean, that's awful about Rosalie, but I've always wanted a sister. But what happened? Who attacked her? How was she hurt?"

"I don't want you asking her about it," Esme warns. "I know you don't mean anything by your questions Alice, but it's not always appropriate to ask. If Rosalie wants to tell you about what happened she will. Until then, you just respect her privacy please. That goes for all of you."

I want to roll my eyes as Alice sits back in the armchair looking subdued. We're not all as nosy as Alice. Not that I don't want to know what happened, but as if I would ask!

We spend the next week getting the place ready for two more people to move in. At least, Alice and Esme do- they clear out the spare room and the upstairs study and redo them and Alice empties bucket loads of make-up and crap out of her bathroom so she can share it with Rosalie. I just move furniture when I'm told and cart out the trash and keep my mouth shut.

Alice can't wait- she thinks having Rosalie around is going to be like it would be if her best friend Bella moved in, and that they'll be having slumber parties every night. Edward is wary about the idea; he can be kind of uptight and not knowing the Hale's I think he's pretty anxious about how they're going to impact on his very ordered life. I'm curious to meet them and interested to see how it goes but I do have my reservations, although considering the way Carlisle and Esme took in Alice and I all those years ago I can't exactly complain about them giving someone else a helping hand and a place to stay.

Carlisle and Esme leave for the airport to pick them up before I wake up and they don't get back until the afternoon. Alice runs out right away to say hi, and a minute later I head out when I hear Carlisle shout for me. I let the door fall closed behind me and then I just about fall down the steps because sweet Jesus, look at her.

Rosalie Hale is beautiful. I didn't think I'd ever see any girl so gorgeous outside my imagination, but now she's standing right there in front of me with blonde hair falling halfway down her back and glinting in the sunlight, and the most perfect angel face in the world looking up at me. She's wearing jeans that cling in all the right places and a black tank top that doesn't show that much but makes you think it would be more than worthwhile to look if it did. The only thing that makes her look like a real person instead of an airbrushed magazine model is the pink cast that's covering her left arm from knuckles to elbow.

My heart falls a little when I approach her and she literally backs away from me like she doesn't want a thing to do with me. Her brother Jasper says hi but she doesn't even smile as I grab two purple suitcases that I'm betting are hers.

"Are these both yours? I'll take them upstairs?"

"Yes thanks Emmett," Carlisle says. "Come inside everyone. Rosalie and Jasper, if you want to go with Alice and Edward they'll show you to your rooms. You can unpack and settle in, or if you're hungry you can come downstairs to the kitchen and get a snack."

I take Rosalie's suitcases upstairs and right into the closet. I hear Alice dragging her upstairs, talking all the time about what she'd done to the room and how much she hopes Rosalie likes it.

"Give it a rest, Alice," I say, grinning affectionately at my little sister. I love her, but she doesn't know when to stop sometimes. "Give her a chance to even look at it!" I smile at Rosalie, trying to get her to respond. "I put your cases in the closet."

She doesn't look at me as she mutters a thank you, and as I move closer to the door she moves away, maintaining the distance between us until she bumps into the desk. "It's nice Alice, thank you."

So it's just me she doesn't want to talk to. Okay then.

I don't leave though. Instead I lounge against the doorframe, watching Rosalie as her eyes dart around the room, taking everything in. Alice shows her the bathroom, and it suddenly occurs to me that this beautiful girl is actually going to be living in this room, sleeping in that bed and showering in that bathroom, naked…fuck, don't think about that Emmett!

"I haven't shared a bathroom for a long time," Alice tells her, "So I'm not sure how we'll manage before school…we'll work it out."

"You'll just have to spend less time fussing over your hair, pipsqueak," I teased her.

"Oh, ha ha ha," Alice says dismissively, poking her tongue out at me. "Go away. Rosalie and I are going to unpack her things and we don't need you around."

I could watch her all day but I laugh and leave them alone. Maybe once she's settled in she'll relax a bit. I hear Edward talking to Jasper down in the room we've set up for him so I lope down the hall to join them. Maybe he'll be a bit more outgoing than his sister.

Rosalie hasn't relaxed any by the time we sit down for dinner, which is one of Esme's best. It's so good that I'm on my second helping before I look across the table at Rosalie and realise that she's barely eaten anything. I hope it's just that she's nervous and not that she's neurotic about her weight- I was distracted by her boobs and ass and that perfect face when I first saw her, but close up she's really a bit too skinny with the way her collarbones have shadows beneath them and her skin pulls tight over her elbows and wrist.

Esme notices at the same time and says quietly, "You're not eating much Rosalie. Don't you like it? You're not vegetarian are you? Is there something else you would prefer?"

"No, it's fine. I eat meat, it's just that…I can't…" her voice trails away to nothing and she kind of lifts her casted arm helplessly.

"Sorry, I didn't think," Jasper says quickly, and then no one says anything as he slides her plate over to him and he cuts her meat, because I guess she can't handle a knife with her broken hand.

Rosalie stares at the table and apart from two spots of colour burning in her cheeks her face is white with strain. She looks like she's barely holding it together and I think everyone is kind of uncomfortable with being confronted with the reality of her injuries. I can't help but wonder how it happened. Carlisle said she was assaulted, which implies someone did it deliberately but it's unfathomable to me that anyone could bring themselves to hurt her.

I don't go to bed when the others do. I love staying up late during the summer, watching tv until the early hours in the morning and then sleeping until lunchtime. So I'm in the living room, stretched out on the sofa half asleep at about 2am when I notice a light flip on in the kitchen. It has to be Jasper or Rosalie. Carlisle or Esme would have told me to go to bed, Edward would have come to see what I was watching and Alice sleeps like the dead. I pad quietly out into the kitchen and over to the pantry to see who it is.

It's Rosalie. She's examining the box of teabags with her back to me, wearing short, pink sleeveless pyjamas that show off her long legs.

"What are you looking for?"

As she spins to face me the box of tea falls with a clatter and I want to kick myself when I see the look of sheer terror on her face because I've surprised her.

"Oh shit, sorry…I didn't mean to scare you." Feeling flustered I crouch down and start gathering up the scattered teabags because I don't know what else to do. A moment later she kneels down beside me and starts helping. I wonder if she knows that I can see her hands trembling. Then I notice she's not wearing a bra and for a moment I can't think of much else but the shape of her breasts in her thin pyjamas and the way her nipples have gone hard in the cool pantry. For God's sake, get it together Emmett!

"I'm sorry," I repeat softly. "I thought you would have heard me coming. I just wanted to come and see what you were doing and if you needed anything."

She turns away from me, dropping all the teabags she's got in her hands and balanced on the cast on to the counter. "I just wanted a cup of tea," she says, adding accusingly, "What are you doing, sneaking around in the middle of the night?"

I laugh, delighted with this little bit of spit and fire. I've never had much use for girls who don't challenge me, at least a little bit, and I like this evidence that Rosalie has a spirit to match her looks. "I was just watching tv and I thought I heard someone in here," I tell her cheerfully. "You want something to eat with your tea?"

I look at the pantry shelves for a minute and then make a face. It's all that organic, healthy stuff that Esme's been pushing down our throats since we came here. It's actually pretty good and fills you up when you're hungry, but it's not what you want for a late night snack. "Well, you don't want anything that's in here…Esme hides the good stuff."

I go in the kitchen and reach up to the high cabinet that Esme sometimes hides the good snacks in so we don't demolish them on grocery day. Rosalie's in the doorway of the pantry, and I can feel her eyes on me. I know what it means when girls look at you like that. I hide my smile.

"When you've finished checking me out, I'll have my tea black with sugar," I say cheekily, and I'm rewarded when it catches her completely off guard. Her mouth drops open and then she turns back to the pantry in a hurry. I bite my lip so I don't laugh, and then my groping hands find what I'm looking for in the cabinet. "Hey, score! I think Carlisle must have been doing good deeds…we've got peanut brittle and the fancy kind of chocolates that he's always being given as gifts."

I put them on the counter and then take a seat on one of the barstools, crossing my fingers that Rosalie's going to join me. A moment later she comes out of the pantry carefully carrying a mug that she places in front of me, before she goes back for her own. She hesitates for a moment and then takes a seat. She's gone for the barstool at the furthest end of the counter away from me but at least she's willing to sit in the same room as me.

"Thanks," I say, sliding the candy boxes closer to her. "Peanut brittle? Chocolate?" I take a sip of the tea and then make a face. "Is this Esme's herbal stuff?"

"I guess. It was labelled 'Sleepytime tea'." Rosalie reaches towards the peanut brittle and then hesitates and goes for a chocolate.

She's so skittish! "Having trouble sleeping?" I ask. Instead of looking at her, I gaze out the window, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

"You're still awake too," she says defensively. Out of the corner of my eye I see her pick two chocolates and pop them both in her mouth.

"I like late-night tv," I say lightly. "And it's summer…may as well stay up late and then sleep late while I can. School starts next week."

"Don't remind me." For a moment her face closes off, and then she goes back to the chocolates, matching the ones left to the pictures on the box. I notice that she likes the strawberry flavoured ones, and the more she eats and drinks her tea the more relaxed she seems.

"You're a senior this year, right?" I ask

"Yes. You are too?"

"Yep. It'd be hard starting over at a new school for the last year." I say this a little hesitantly, not sure if this is going to be a sore spot for her.

"Better than staying where I was," she says flatly.

"Forks High isn't bad anyway," I says. "Our football team sucks, but there's some good kids."

Rosalie's face twists for a moment with some emotion that's gone too quickly for me to name it, but then she grimaces.

"Don't you like football?" I ask with a grin.

"No," she says quietly, "I don't really like it."

"Me either," I say, and then laugh at the incredulous look on her face. "You assumed I played, right? It's okay, everyone does. And I don't mind messing around a bit, but baseball's my sport." I swallow the last dregs of tea and add absently. "Oh, and I wrestle."

Rosalie spits her tea back into the mug.

"You think wrestling is funny?"

She looks at me with wide eyes. "I think it's…you really do wrestling? Like rolling around on the floor groping other guys? And you wear one of those…things?"

Oh hell, that stupid costume…"A singlet? Yes, I wear one…and I rock it out, I'll have you know."

For just a second she looks me full in the face, and then her eyes crinkle up and her mouth opens and she throws her head back so her hair swings and she laughs. And if there was ever any doubt, it's gone.

I'm in love with you, Rosalie Hale.

I take my mug and then reach across for hers when I see it's empty, putting them both in the sink before I walk back towards the living room. I want to end this on a good note and she's still going to be here in the morning. But I can't resist teasing her just a little bit, so I throw out, "Maybe you'll be lucky enough to see me in it one day." I pause in the doorway, and look back at her, feeling warmth in my belly as I take in her long legs hooked around the barstool and the smile on her angel face. "Hey Rosalie?"

"Yeah?"

"I like the way you laugh."