Thank you to beachcomberlc, IpsitaC77, and ceceprincess1217 for their help with this story. Thank you for reading.

Chapter 1

Bella Swan always called my brother Junebug. For the longest time, I didn't know why.

I first remember hearing about Bella as a topic of conversation at the dinner table. Both my brothers were much older, so I didn't usually pay much attention to what they said. They were boys and therefore yucky to an eleven-year-old girl. Plus, they liked to pick on me, so while I loved them, sometimes I didn't like them. But I remember hearing the name Isabella Swan and thinking how pretty it was, kind of exotic and fantastical in my mind, like a heroine from The Edge of Night or one of the other soap operas our moms watched. It was a much prettier name than Alice Cullen.

It was late in the school year, March, I think; that part of the season when everything is grey and mushy outside with dead, slimy leaves stuck to the ground. The sky is almost always grey, the trees lose most of their vibrancy and hoarfrost spreads over the ground. The time when, as a child, you have to spend twice as long getting dressed to go outside to play as you get to spend playing. It was never really cold enough to warrant all the outdoor clothes our mothers made us wear. Itchy crocheted scarves and hats, or worse, the hat that doubled as both with the very long tail, and mitts that snow just stuck to instead of forming good throwing balls. Not that there was ever enough snow for a good snowball fight; wet and cold was all we ever really got. Our coats were just an inch or so longer than our dresses, ugly lined corduroy jackets in hideous shades of plaid with matching pants. I hated the zip-zopping noise they made when you walked. We had to wear heavy, awkward rubber boots that kept out the water but not the cold, and managed to eat your socks over the course of a block or two. It all just made us sweaty and grumpy. It was hard on me as the youngest and the only girl. My brothers didn't want to play with me unless it was to chase and scare me. Since they were both so much bigger than I was, it made me easy prey.

Emmett was six years older than me, Edward seven and a half. I was a bit of a surprise. Not an accident or unwanted, but a shock. After two kids of the same sex, Mom and Dad were well trained in maleness. Sports paraphernalia, Hot Wheels, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, Lincoln Logs; those were the toys in the house. I was never a really girly-girl, which helped in the family dynamic, but I was still different and needed additional consideration. I played with my Easy-Bake Oven and my Chatty Cathy dolls. Thankfully, by the mid-sixties things were changing and as I got older, society became more progressive. Mom made sure I had a Nurse and an Astronaut Barbie, even though I was only three when they were first sold. Mom told me I could be anything I wanted to be, that all of my grandmothers had fought so she and I could have the right to do what we wanted with our lives. By 1974, when I first met Bella, I felt like there were big things in store and nothing I couldn't do if I put my mind to it. Bella encouraged those feelings.

The summer after she arrived, Mom hired her to look after me while she worked. One of the nurses at the hospital needed a few months off and Mom was bored. She dusted off her crepe-soled shoes and put on her old nurse's outfit three days a week. She later told me how stifling she found being home all the time. At first, when we kids were young, it made her happy to be with us at home, but it wasn't fulfilling long-term. Mom needed the stimulation nursing brought, the chance to use her skills and education. I didn't need a babysitter, but I did need supervision. Bella became that.

Emmett was too irresponsible to look after me. Edward had a job, so he was out, but Bella was available and willing. She taught me so much that summer; how to roller skate, how to feather my bangs, and how to macrame bracelets. She was everything I wanted to be. She never got short-tempered with me, even when I asked a lot of questions. Bella entertained me with lots of stories about living in the middle of the country. She took me to her house and let me listen to her records while teaching me how to dance. Sometimes she'd bring a small stack over to our house when my parents were away. Bella preferred Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell, but she'd break out some ABBA if we were feeling silly and we'd sing into our hairbrushes. Edward and Emmett liked to listen to Deep Purple and Jethro Tull and sometimes we'd have a battle of the bands by turning our stereos up really loud trying to drown out the other. We'd watch the news together and she explained everything I needed to know about Nixon resigning, the war in Vietnam and what was going on in the rest of the world. But best of all, she listened to me and spoke to me like I was her age. I really loved her for that.

Bella Swan. If my birth was a shock to my parents, hers was a bolt of lightning striking three times in the same place. Charlie Swan was born in 1915 in Rochester, New York. He met Renee, born in 1918 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at a dance on December first, 1941. In the tumult of the attack on Pearl Harbour and the resulting war fervour, Charlie and Renee married two days before Charlie shipped out for basic training. He survived the war, coming home to his wife with a few shrapnel scars and a bad case of tinnitus that would last the rest of his life. They made a home for themselves in the Ohio River Valley area. Charlie joined the local police force while Renee kept the house. They wanted children, but when none came to them, briefly considering adoption before giving up.

Mrs. Renee's house was always a safe haven and a gathering place for neighbourhood children. Not only was she always a volunteer block parent, but if a mother had an appointment, Renee would look after her children. If a child ran away from home, nine times out of ten, they ended up at Renee's door. She was mother to everyone. Her cookie jar was always full and she had a plate of sandwiches at the ready just in case, devilled ham being her go-to speciality. Charlie pretended to grumble about all the kids being in his house but secretly, he loved it. Then, at the advanced age of 38, Renee found herself with child. She was five months along before she was diagnosed. She and Charlie were over the moon.

Never was there a child who was more adored than Isabella Marie Swan, at least according to her family. By the time I knew her, that adoration had turned more than a bit smothering. Her mother doted on her, dressed her in frilly, lacey Holly Hobbie dresses and pretty bonnets. Her father worshipped the very ground she walked on. They made up for all the years they'd wanted a child by piling all that love on her.

There were many rules in the Swan household; most of them in place to protect Bella. Charlie's work as a police officer showed him the worst in people as well as some of the best, but his concentration was centered on what could happen to his little girl. Therefore, Bella was accompanied to school every day until she was thirteen, in an era when children were allowed to roam free. She wasn't allowed to wear trousers or dungarees until she was fifteen. She was forbidden to cut her hair short, perm, curl, iron or colour it. She was also refused when she wanted to pierce her ears or wear make-up. There were no dances, no sleepovers, no boys or dates.

For such a sheltered child, Bella was surprisingly normal. She didn't rebel or fight against the constraints, but worked within them. Surprisingly, her bonds were loosened by Renee, of all people. Raised in a time where your husband's word is law, Renee was deeply affected by the NOW conference of 1970, the burgeoning women's movement and the battle over Title IX. Charlie was a good husband who tried to treat his wife as an equal within the marriage, but still liked that he had the final say on every major decision. It didn't take much effort for things to change in the Swan household, just time. Starting with haircuts and earrings, within two years all the strange restrictions against Bella were scrapped and Bella was just as well-behaved in her freedom as she was under the boot.

Not that change was easy for any of them; it wasn't all smooth sailing. There were many fights, a few slammed doors and a week or two of Charlie having to make his own meals. But eventually, Bella and Renee made Charlie see things from their perspectives. Bella was better at getting her father to understand than Renee was

She laid her concerns out, point-by-point and swayed his opinion with concrete arguments and facts. Bella had a talent for convincing others to see things her way; she was very persuasive. Many people, teachers mostly, encouraged her to look into law school. Her parents mostly encouraged her to be a wife and mother. It was not that they didn't believe in their only child, it was just that as a girl, they felt her ambitions should be more domestic.

Bella wasn't really interested in either, the law or housewifery. She wanted to write, to tell stories to others. Her father did not see that as a career, and her mother didn't really understand. However, they loved her to distraction so they didn't quash her dreams.

Things improved greatly for Bella when they moved to Forks, Washington. She was given far more freedom in the smaller town than ever before. Charlie was offered the job as police chief, replacing an old army buddy in the job. Vietnam had taken a toll on the state's enrollment in the police academy. Young men just returning from war seemed to want little to do with policing in a small town. The Forks police force was in dire need of leadership and experience; Charlie had both. The family arrived in Forks in time for Charlie to start his duties on March 4, 1974. Bella settled into Forks High School as a sophomore, the same grade as Emmett. She was instantly the centre of attention at school. Her long, dark hair was always in a high ponytail and she dressed in simple, homemade blouses, shirts and sweaters. They may not have been the most fashionable or pretty, but they were clean, serviceable, well-kept clothes. Bella always said she didn't care if what she wore wasn't the height of fashion, she and her mother made most of her clothes at home. She said she went to school for the education, not the parade. It was hard enough for her to be taken seriously by the teachers without having to worry about being the best-dressed or most popular girl. Her attitude was adopted by a few of her friends, so in her own way, Bella helped bring Women's Lib to Forks. She certainly changed my perspective and the way I saw my own education. She helped me become the woman I am today; successful journalist and writer, happy wife and mother, partner and educator.

I wasn't the only Cullen to fall in love with Bella Swan that summer. I think, in fact, every member of my family fell for her in their own way. She had something about her, something intangible that made you love her as soon as you knew her. Perhaps the whole town of Forks felt the same way, because the town all but fell apart when she went missing.

No one fell for her harder than my brother Edward.

Sibling rivalry wasn't an issue in our family until Bella came along. Emmett and Edward were the best of friends. They were so close in age that quite often they were mistaken for twins. When Edward started school without Emmett, both of them spent the day crying for the other. Dad had to sit them down and have a serious man-to-man chat with them. They didn't like it, but eventually learned to be apart for the hours Edward had to go to school. Every afternoon when he got home, Emmett was waiting for him at the door. Edward would tell Emmett everything he'd learned that day and then they'd run off to play. It didn't matter what they played, Edward was always the one in charge. If they played cowboys, like on Bonanza, then Edward was Ben Cartwright and Emmett was Hoss. If they played superheroes, then Edward was Batman, Emmett was Robin. They shot each other, hanged each other and rescued each other every day. There was the same melancholy when Edward left Emmett behind to go to junior high and then high school.

When Emmett was assigned Bella Swan as a study partner for a History class project, Edward was furiously jealous. He didn't say anything at the time, but afterward he told me how angry he was that Emmett got to spend so much time with her. He thought Emmett would make a play for Bella and he would have to watch his brother with the girl of his dreams.

Emmett never saw Bella as anyone more than a friend. His first female friend, but just a friend.

My mother was taken with the way Bella both watched over me and taught me over that first summer. The first time Bella and I cooked dinner for the family, my mother was almost moved to tears. She'd had a very tough day at work and cooking dinner for five was the last thing she wanted to do. Halfway through her day, she called home to ask us to take something out of the deep-freeze for dinner because she'd forgotten to do it herself. Bella decided to surprise her. She took me to the Thriftway, doubling me on her bike and we planned everything. I was nervous riding on the back of her bike, I usually doubled with Emmett and he was much more solid and broad than Bella. It seemed more dangerous, somehow. There was nothing fancy about the meatloaf we made, other than a few different spices than my mother normally included, but it was a huge hit. Mom explained, years later, how she felt when she walked in the door to the smell of dinner already prepared. She was so relieved and touched she wanted to curl up in a ball on the floor and cry. Whomsoever my mother loved, my father did as well. In my father's eyes, the sun rose and set with my mom and if Bella was important to Mom, my dad treated her like one of his own.

Bella was both the best thing to ever happen to our family and the worst. The loss of her nearly tore us apart for good. It took the most unlikely of us to bring the family back together.

Me.